AP / Paramount Pictures

Robert Downey Jr. stars as billionaire industrialist Tony Stark aka Iron Man in "Iron Man."

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Mount Olympus never had such a potent gang as Marvel Comics, whose vast pantheon ranges from Hollywood A-lister Spider-Man to the murky shape-shifting process server Ditto.

Now producing its own film adaptations for all but a few previously licensed superheroes, Marvel Studios unveils The Incredible Hulk on the heels of blockbuster Iron Man, whose 2010 sequel will be followed by an ambitious Marvel lineup.

Headlining their own upcoming movies are Norse thunder god Thor, supersoldier Captain America and bug impersonator Ant-Man, those adventures culminating in 2011's Marvel all-star tale The Avengers .

With an estimated 5,000 characters and a wealth of stories dating back nearly 70 years, Marvel could spin an endless web of big-screen yarns.

"It's inexhaustible," said Gale Anne Hurd, a producer on The Incredible Hulk and Ang Lee's critically drubbed 2003 take on the character, Hulk. "What I love is, Marvel is now controlling Marvel's destiny. They are the greatest caretakers of the characters and the stories."

Until Iron Man, the company watched big movie studios count their millions on superpowered comic adaptations of Spidey, X-Men, Fantastic Four and other Marvel properties. Marvel made some cash by licensing the characters for films, but it was a pittance compared with what studios hauled in on such billion-dollar franchises.

Marvel Enterprise

A scene from the movie "The Incredible Hulk."

Following George Lucas' Star Wars formula, Marvel now finances movies itself and hires studios to release them for a fee, Paramount distributing Iron Man, Universal releasing The Incredible Hulk .

Marvel keeps all of the profits and retains lucrative rights for merchandise based on the films.

"The financial upside on a movie like Iron Man or Incredible Hulk is multiples of multiples of what we had in the old arrangement," said David Maisel, chairman of Marvel Studios, a division of Marvel Entertainment Inc. "We have the power to greenlight our movies. We set our schedule. We're not reliant on a third party."

A few elite franchises – among them Sony's Spider-Man and 20th Century Fox's Fantastic Four and X-Men with its upcoming Wolverine spinoff – remain under those studios' control.

That still leaves legions of superheroes for Marvel to put on-screen.

There is no argument that Marvel's move to finance its own movies has paid off, at least so far. A month after Iron Man opened, Marvel Entertainment's stock was trading at an all-time high of about $36 a share.

Analysts take a wait-and-see attitude about whether the strategy will work over the long haul. While Marvel plans to make two movies a year, there is a two-year lag before its next releases, Iron Man 2 and Thor.

"That's a big hiccup, to have no movies next year," said Mike Hickey, an analyst who follows Marvel for Janco Partners. "They did a phenomenal job with Iron Man. I think the jury's still out, but the initial read is positive."

The Marvel logo will be in front of audiences with next year's Wolverine from Fox and this fall's vigilante thriller Punisher: War Zone from Lionsgate, which retains the rights to that Marvel franchise.

A clear benefit Marvel has gained by making its own movies is creative control. Comic-book fans are perpetually wary that Hollywood will mess up their favorite characters. With Marvel calling the shots, fans can rest a little easier that the movies will remain true to their origins.