Marvel, NYC Doctors Team Up For Avengers-Themed Vaccine Mission

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Marvel Entertainment and New York City’s largest Latino physician-led network of doctors rallied on Wednesday in Times Square as part of a back-to-school event to educate families about the COVID-19 vaccines.

The Avengers superhero-themed collaboration between Marvel and SOMOS Community Care features the distribution of 20,000 limited edition comic books and 20,000 limited edition lithographs. The campaign will run through Hispanic Heritage Month and also includes in-person events that invites families to learn more about the vaccines.

The comic book, entitled “Avengers We Are Resilient” is centered around the Avengers, frontline healthcare workers and a Latino family as the work together to share vaccine information in under-served communities while increasing confidence in the coronavirus vaccines.

The campaign was created by Funny Or Die studio head and activist Henry Munoz III, who is the co-founder of SOMOS Community Care. At Wednesday’s rally, Munoz said that the road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic must run through minority communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

“Being able to unite Marvel Entertainment with the trusted voices from the community doctors of SOMOS Community Care in a public education campaign designed to drive awareness is a really big deal,” Munoz said in a news release announcing the campaign. “This campaign symbolizes where art meets purpose and shows that people nationwide can come together and build community and look together to the future.”

Dan Buckley, the president of Marvel Entertainment, said in a news release that the company has always been inspired to tell stories that not only entertain and inspire, but that reflect the world in which those stories are being told. He said the company felt that as the pandemic continues, Marvel officials want to help build confidence in the vaccines in New York City as the process of educating more residents continues.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the partnership between SOMOS and the city has been “instrumental” and said the vaccines remain a much-needed shield of protection from the COVID-19 pandemic, which the mayor called “the enemy” in a news release announcing the collaboration.

Since the pandemic’s start, SOMOS Community Care includes 2,500 Black, Latino, and Asian community doctors have operated over 70 trilingual testing sites nationwide and administered over 1.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to seniors, municipal workers, healthcare workers, and vulnerable communities of color across nearly 200 vaccine sites, according to the release. The network has set up vaccination sites in several high-profile locations such as Yankee Stadium and other venues.

The Marvel-themed campaign will run for three months, officials said, and also includes a video comic, which can be found at somosvaccinations.com along with information on in-person events, and other vaccination sites.

Officials said that the timing of the project could not be better.

“Our healthcare heroes are working to vaccinate New Yorkers and to give them the super power of defeating COVID,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave A. Chokshi said in the release. “The impacts of this pandemic have not been felt equitably—but clinicians and community-based organizations are valiantly fighting to reduce disparities.”