A few notes on the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, A-Z, v. 1

I’m slowly working my way through the first volume of the new, hardcover The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, A to Z, and even though I’m barely into the B’s, there are a few things I can tell you about it as opposed to the previous edition:

1) The entries seem to have a greater level of detail than the original, which frequently had only a paragraph or two about the history of minor characters while concentrating on powers and vital stats. I don’t know if my perception here is correct; maybe I’m wrong, or maybe there has been so much history over the past 20 years that the entries had to grow.

2) That level of detail does expose some truly idiotic character twists over the past quarter century or so. Every character who has more than a one-page entry has a history that advances in two or three different ways, then gets reset before the next avenue of development can be explored. I applaud the Handbook for unflinchingly laying this stupidity in front of his, and I know the purpose of a reference book isn’t to make excuses or justify the material it’s recording, but there are times when I just want the book to try to give an overriding reason for all these stupid directions. I do appreciate the occasional moments when the writer gives up trying to make sense of what’s going on, adding phrases like “for unknown reasons” or “strangely” to the histories.

3) There are too many entries that make me groan at the thought of reading. Do I want to read three pages about the Annunaki, the Babylonian pantheon, or the 2020 A.D. timeline? (That’s one page more than the 2099 timeline, which supported multiple titles.) No. No, I do not want three pages about either topic. I don’t want to read one page about them, really. And sometimes these drier entries go on too long; the original Handbook had two pages on Atlantis and two on Atlanteans, while the new edition combines the entries into five pages on Atlantis.

4) And there are questionable choices. There’s no entry on Attilan, but minor Goliath / Iron Man villain Atom Smasher and Infinity Abyss plot device Atleza get their own pages? I suppose Attilan could be in the Inhumans entry, though, and I do enjoy minor villains getting their due.

5) Speaking of getting their due: all pictures are credited to the artists on the same page as the illustration. Even the smaller and inset drawings are credited … to the correct penciler, at least.

6) The original Handbook had large pictures of the characters accompanying each entry. The new version scales down the size of these pictures while still keeping them a useful size.

7) There are other areas of design that have been improved. The paper is better, the text is larger, the margins and spacing have been adjusted to add more white space. The headings for each entry’s sections are in red print, setting them apart from the mass of black text.

8) That being said, these advances come at a price. The original, definitive Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Deluxe Edition (OHotMUDE) came in 20 issues, each retailing for $1.50, and I was able to find them for less than that today online. Each volume of the new Handbook retails for $24.99, and there are twelve volumes. (Each set had their additions afterwards, but we’ll leave those aside for the moment.) So the original goes for about $25 or $30; the new Handbook set retails for about ten times that, although if you can get a discount, you might be able to knock it down to $180 or $200. That’s pretty steep. But it does look pretty, I have to admit.

Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, v. 1

Collects: Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe (v. 1) #1-15 (1983-4)

Released: January 2006 (Marvel)

Have you ever wondered what were the names of Peter Parker’s parents? (Richard and Mary Parker.) Or what Mystique’s real name is? (Raven Darkholme.) How about why Elektra is running around, alive, after Bullseye made her imitate a shish kebab? (Ninjas with magic powers, which are possibly the coolest things in the world.) Or what an Avengers ID card looks like? (It looks easily forged, is what it looks like.)

The answer to these questions (and many others) can be found in The Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. A black-and-white reprint of the original OHotMU, which was published in the early ’80s, this Essential is packed, crammed, and stuffed with information on Marvel heroes and villains who were active at the time of publication. You can’t really grasp the level of detail compiled by Mark Gruenwald and his team until you page through it; the book is saturated with histories and descriptions of the powers of the denizens of the Marvel Universe. And not only the heroes and villains: each issue had a section on the aliens that have been seen, and most issues had an appendix which listed cross references and a sentence or two report on the truly minor characters.

Yes, if you’re interested in what happened after 1984, this book is not for you. The Deluxe Edition of the Handbook (abbreviated OHotMUDE) came out a few years later, and to be truthful, is a better organized version of the same information. And the OHotMUDE will be released in black-and-white Essentials in a few months — in three volumes. For a quick reference, this is much nicer. For the fanatical devotee in you, the Essential OHotMUDE v. 1-3 might be better, but for the casual fan, this is better.

The entries contained several sections, most of which were of the brief, fill-in-the-blank variety: Name, occupation, identity (secret or not), legal status (alien, criminal records, etc.), aliases, place of birth, marital status, known relatives, group affilations, base of operations, height / weight / hair / eyes, and first appearance in comics. Two major sections are history and powers. Early descriptions get bogged down on the minutiae of the characters’ powers, straining to make the pseudoscience involved relatively plausible. (The best ones often admit there is no explanation of how the power works.) As the series went along, however, the history section of each entry grows, especially for characters that have no or few superpowers. Depending on your engineering interests, the diagrams of equipment (Spider-Man’s webshooters, Sentinels, Iron Man’s armor, etc.) might also be fascinating. I tended to skip these, but then again, I’m not a technical kind of guy.

The comics inside are more than 20 years out of date, but on the other hand, this is Marvel — there haven’t been any Crises or Zero Hours to worry about, so while it may be out of date, none of the information has been erased from continuity. The text layouts of the original weren’t as professional as the reader might like, with many entries crammed into 6-point type so it will all fit on one page. Lines are occasionally repeated or dropped entirely, leaving the reader bewildered trying to make sense of it all. The black and white illustrations obviously can’t convey skin or costume colors, although with certain skin tones, that’s probably for the best. There are a very few pages where the lack of color makes the illustration useless; the examples of SHIELD’s uniforms for different ranks is useless because all that differentiate the uniforms are the color schemes. These are rare, however.

There is a special treat for those who remember the original issues. The OHotMU (and the OHotMUDE, for that matter) featured wraparound covers with many / most of the characters within the issues rushing off toward the right. (I have no idea why.) These are reprinted on facing pages so you can see the full image at once. But the fun thing was that you could see certain features continued on the previous / next issues, like Mr. Fantastic’s stretched limbs. In the back of the Essential OHotMU, the first 12 covers are laid out as they were originally drawn, in rows of three stacked upon each other. (For instance, parts of Galactus appear on #4 and #7.) For the first time, you can see how it all fits together without getting all the issues and laying them out on the floor; characters are fill every available space that isn’t needed for the masthead. It’s remarkable. And the covers for #13 and #14, which covers the dead and inactive characters, fit together to form another image, with all the characters floating above a giant death’s head. (An additional neat touch is the dead characters all have their hands folded over their chests on the cover, and inactive / retired characters have their hands at their sides.) The cover for #15 is the also used as the book’s cover.

Overall, this Essential is an excellent buy. For the obsessive, wait for the Essential OHotMUDE. For the rest, this is a remarkable accomplishment.

Grade: B+