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Marvel MCP Server using Azure Functions

Features • Tools • Setup • Configuring an MCP Host

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MCP Server for the Marvel Developer API, enabling interaction with characters and comics data. The main goal of the project is to show how an MCP server hosted using Azure Functions can be used to interact with APIs.

Note: All data used by this MCP server is fetched from the official Marvel API and owned by Marvel. This project is not affiliated with Marvel in any way.

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🔧 Features

• List Marvel Characters: Supports filters like nameStartsWith, limit, comics, series, etc.
• Fetch a Marvel Character by ID: Get detailed info on any character using their characterId.
• Fetch Comics for a Character: Get a list of comics featuring a specific character, with various filters like format, dateRange, etc.
• Tool-based MCP integration: Register this server with Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools (VS Code, Claude, etc.).
• Environment Configuration: Use .env file to manage environment variables like MARVEL_PUBLIC_KEY, MARVEL_PRIVATE_KEY and MARVEL_API_BASE.

<a name="tools"></a>

🧰 Tools

1. get_characters 🔍🦸‍♂️

• Description: Fetch Marvel characters with optional filters.
• Inputs:
  • name (optional string): Full character name.
  • nameStartsWith (optional string): Characters whose names start with the specified string.
  • modifiedSince (optional string): ISO 8601 date string to filter characters modified since this date.
  • comics, series, events, stories (optional string): Comma-separated list of IDs to filter by related entities.
  • orderBy (optional string): Fields to order the results by, such as name or -modified.
  • limit (optional number): Maximum number of results to return (1–100).
  • offset (optional number): Number of results to skip for pagination.
• Returns: JSON response with matching characters. See CharacterDataWrapperSchema in src/schemas.ts for details.

2. get_character_by_id 🆔🧑‍🎤

• Description: Fetch a Marvel character by their unique ID.
• Input:
  • characterId (number): The unique ID of the character.
• Returns: JSON response with the character's details. See CharacterDataWrapperSchema in src/schemas.ts for details.

3. get_comics_for_character 📚🎭

• Description: Fetch comics featuring a specific character, with optional filters.
• Inputs:
  • characterId (number): The unique ID of the character.
  • Optional filters:
    • format, formatType (string): Filter by comic format (e.g., comic, hardcover).
    • noVariants, hasDigitalIssue (boolean): Flags to exclude variants or include only digital issues.
    • dateDescriptor (string): Predefined date ranges like thisWeek, nextWeek.
    • dateRange (string): Custom date range in the format YYYY-MM-DD,YYYY-MM-DD.
    • title, titleStartsWith (string): Filter by title or title prefix.
    • startYear, issueNumber, digitalId (number): Numeric filters.
    • diamondCode, upc, isbn, ean, issn (string): Identifier filters.
    • creators, series, events, stories, sharedAppearances, collaborators (string): Comma-separated list of related entity IDs.
    • orderBy (string): Fields to order the results by, such as title or -modified.
    • limit, offset (number): Pagination options.
• Returns: JSON response with comics featuring the specified character. See ComicDataWrapperSchema in src/schemas.ts for details.

4. get_comics 📖🕵️‍♂️

• Description: Fetch lists of Marvel comics with optional filters.
• Inputs:
  • format (optional string): Filter by the issue format (e.g., comic, digital comic, hardcover).
  • formatType (optional string): Filter by the issue format type (comic or collection).
  • noVariants (optional boolean): Exclude variants (alternate covers, secondary printings, director's cuts, etc.) from the result set.
  • dateDescriptor (optional string): Return comics within a predefined date range (lastWeek, thisWeek, nextWeek, thisMonth).
  • dateRange (optional string): Return comics within a custom date range. Dates must be specified as YYYY-MM-DD,YYYY-MM-DD.
  • title (optional string): Return only issues in series whose title matches the input.
  • titleStartsWith (optional string): Return only issues in series whose title starts with the input.
  • startYear (optional number): Return only issues in series whose start year matches the input.
  • issueNumber (optional number): Return only issues in series whose issue number matches the input.
  • diamondCode, digitalId, upc, isbn, ean, issn (optional string): Filter by various identifiers.
  • hasDigitalIssue (optional boolean): Include only results which are available digitally.
  • modifiedSince (optional string): Return only comics which have been modified since the specified date (ISO 8601 format).
  • creators, characters, series, events, stories, sharedAppearances, collaborators (optional string): Comma-separated list of IDs to filter by related entities.
  • orderBy (optional string): Order the result set by a field or fields. Add a "-" to the value to sort in descending order (e.g., title, -modified).
  • limit (optional number): Limit the result set to the specified number of resources (default: 20, max: 100).
  • offset (optional number): Skip the specified number of resources in the result set.
• Returns: JSON response with matching comics. See ComicDataWrapperSchema in src/schemas.ts for details.

5. get_comic_by_id 🆔📘

• Description: Fetch a single Marvel comic by its unique ID.
• Input:
  • comicId (number): The unique ID of the comic.
• Returns: JSON response with the comic details. See ComicDataWrapperSchema in src/schemas.ts for details.

6. get_characters_for_comic 🦸‍♀️📖

• Description: Fetch Marvel characters appearing in a specific comic.
• Inputs:
  • comicId (number): The unique ID of the comic.
  • Optional filters:
    • name (optional string): Filter characters by full name.
    • nameStartsWith (optional string): Filter characters whose names start with the specified string.
    • modifiedSince (optional string): ISO 8601 date string to filter characters modified since this date.
    • series, events, stories (optional string): Comma-separated list of related entity IDs to filter by.
    • orderBy (optional string): Fields to order the results by, such as name or -modified.
    • limit (optional number): Maximum number of results to return (1–100).
    • offset (optional number): Number of results to skip for pagination.
• Returns: JSON response with characters appearing in the specified comic. See CharacterDataWrapperSchema in src/schemas.ts for details.

<a name="setup"></a>

🛠️ Setup

Sign up for a Marvel Developer API account and get your public and private API keys.

If you want to the MCP server directly in an MCP host, jump to the Use with GitHub Copilot or Use with Claude Desktop sections.

Run the Server Locally

1. An Azure Storage Emulator is needed. There are two options:

   • Start Azurite in a Docker container:

     docker run -p 10000:10000 -p 10001:10001 -p 10002:10002 \
         mcr.microsoft.com/azure-storage/azurite
     

   • You can use the Azurite VS Code extension. Once the extension is installed, run Azurite: Start through the VS Code command palette.

2. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/DanWahlin/marvel-mcp-azure-functions
   

3. Rename .env.template to .env.

4. Add your Marvel API public and private keys to the .env file.

   MARVEL_PUBLIC_KEY=YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY
   MARVEL_PRIVATE_KEY=YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY
   MARVEL_API_BASE=https://gateway.marvel.com/v1/public
   

5. Install the required dependencies and build the project.

   npm install
   npm run build
   

6. Start the Azure Functions host locally:

   npm start
   

7. (Optional) To try out the MCP server using MCP Inspector, run the following command:

   # Start the MCP Inspector
   npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node build/index.js
   

   Visit the MCP Inspector URL shown in the console in your browser:

   • Change Transport Type to SSE.
   • Enter http://0.0.0.0:7071/runtime/webhooks/mcp/sse for the URL.
   • Select Connect the button.
   • Select List Tools.
   • Select a tool to try it out.

<a name="configuring-an-mcp-host"></a>

Configuring an MCP Host

Use with Claude Desktop

Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "marvel-mcp": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://0.0.0.0:7071/runtime/webhooks/mcp/sse"
    }
  }
}

Use with GitHub Copilot in VS Code

Note: If you already have the MCP server enabled with Claude Desktop, add chat.mcp.discovery.enabled: true in your VS Code settings and it will discover existing MCP server lists.

If you want to associate the MCP server with a specific repo, create a .vscode/mcp.json file with this content:

{
  "inputs": [],
  "servers": {
     "marvel-mcp": {
       "type": "sse",
       "url": "http://0.0.0.0:7071/runtime/webhooks/mcp/sse"
     }
  }
}

If you want to associate the MCP server with all repos, add the following to your VS Code User Settings JSON:

"mcp": {
 "servers": {
   "marvel-mcp": {
     "type": "sse",
     "url": "http://0.0.0.0:7071/runtime/webhooks/mcp/sse"
   }
 }
}

Deploy to Azure for Remote MCP

Run this azd command to provision the function app, with any required Azure resources, and deploy your code:

azd up

You can opt-in to a VNet being used in the sample. To do so, do this before azd up

azd env set VNET_ENABLED true

Additionally, API Management can be used for improved security and policies over your MCP Server, and App Service built-in authentication can be used to set up your favorite OAuth provider including Entra.

Using Tools in GitHub Copilot

1. Now that the mcp server is discoverable, open GitHub Copilot and select Agent mode (not Ask or Edit).

2. Select the "refresh" button in the Copilot chat text field to refresh the server list.

3. Select the "🛠️" button to see all the possible tools, including the ones from this repo.

4. Put a question in the chat that would naturally invoke one of the tools, for example:

   List 10 marvel characters. Include images.
   
   What comics is Wolverine in?
   
   Which characters appear in the Avengers comics?
   
   What characters are in the Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword (2007) comic?
   

   Note: If you see "Sorry, the response was filtered by the Responsible AI Service.", try running it again or rephrasing the prompt.