Reviewer background and biases: I have been a lifelong reader of comic books and have a particular taste for 70’s and 80’s Marvel comics. I do enjoy many non-superhero and underground comics as well. I have been playing and running role-playing games off and on almost as long as I have been reading comics. I am more of a roleplayer rather than a “roll-player”, meaning I’m more interested in character and story over game rules.
Product History ESSENTIAL OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE VOL. 1 Wow, that is a mouthful so lets get some background on what the title means before I review it’s content.
“Essential” is an imprint of Marvel Comics that collects old comic book stories into trade paperbacks. They are inexpensively produced being printed on newsprint (much like comics used be) and have no color other than the cover. What they lose in quality and printing they gain in quantity and pricing. Essential guides can have anywhere from around 450 to 550 pages and are currently priced at $16.99. They resemble those phone book sized Japanese Manga magazines you might have seen somewhere and Marvel’s Essential imprint was probably inspired by them. They always refer to a certain comic book title, character, or team like Spiderman, Fantastic Four etc. They’re nice if you want to read a long extended series of comics without shelling out the bucks for back issues or higher quality trades paperbacks like Marvel Masterworks. When the Essential books first came out they where reprints of 1960’s comics but in the last few years Marvel has been putting out Essential titles from comics published in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
“The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe” is a comic book maxi-series from 1983 to 1984. It was originally supposed to be 12 issues but they had so much information that they extended it to 15 issues. The “Handbook” is basically an encyclopedia of characters, groups and places in Marvel comic books, similar to DC’s “Who’s Who”. Why they needed the word official in the title, who knows.
So, the “Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol.1” is the whole series collected in one book published in January 2006. The" Vol. 1" part of the title is pointless as all the issues are in this one book but it is a naming convention used by the “Essential” imprint so they had to stick it on this one. The same thing happened to the Essential Killraven.
Layout This “Handbook” (there are many other later additions) is Marvel’s first to attempt to codify and systemize the Marvel universe for its readers; of course it’s organized in alphabetical order. It has 15 sections (chapters) that are the original 15 reprinted comic books. Most characters/topics get one-page descriptions with less important characters/topics receiving a half-page. A few big superheroes like Spiderman get more. Character entries are divided up into three sections: Stats (real name, known relatives, group affiliation, first appearance etc.), Origin, which tells the history of the character, and Powers, which describes in detail the character’s abilities. The Origin and Powers sections can be quite long or short depending on the character. A picture accompanies each entry with the character in a heroic stance. The Handbook’s original comic book covers separate each section and help define where each reprinted comic starts and stops. The first 12 sections cover topics from A to Z. They also contain short entries on alien races and have an appendix, which gives entries to characters/places not given full descriptions elsewhere. Sections 13 and 14 are of characters that have died or are inactive (retired) but deemed important enough to get their own descriptions. Finally section 15 is about superhero equipment and gives descriptions and schematics of items like Doctor Octopus’s arms, Iron Man’s armor and Thor’s hammer. Is important to note that although this is about Marvel’s comic book characters, it is not truly a comic book, meaning, it doesn’t use words and art together to tell a story. It is prose with pictures, as you would expect from an encyclopedia. The Monster Manual would be a good comparison.
Impressions This is Marvel at its height. The 1980’s are often referred to as Marvels New Golden Age as it was the industry leader. Here we see what the Marvel Universe looked like before the grim and gritty comics took over (Watchmen, Dark Night), but after a start of the new all different X-men (Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm etc.). Its the time before convoluted storytelling, There is no Spiderman clone saga, no multiple covers, no super huge crossover events, no retcons, or re-imaginings. This is also the time when most of the first generation superhero role-playing games had been published. It was getting a little complicated to keep track of Marvel’s twenty plus years of continuity, so that’s why the “Handbook” was created.
When looking through this book it is amazing to see the how huge the Marvel Universe is. It is jam-packed with ideas, and shows how Marvel pulls from various genres, from magic to cyborgs. The “Handbook” goes billons years back with the birth of demons and Galactic entities, while covering star spanning alien empires, like the Skrull and Kree, along with pantheons of various gods. And these aren’t even the main characters in the Marvel Universe (Spiderman, Hulk etc. are). With this book, it’s easy to see where many of M&M and SAS got much of their inspiration.
There is some corny stuff. Many of the character’s concepts seem dated Like Mysterio with the bowl on his head or the hippy Angar the screamer. Some characters are just bad ideas like the luck powered Shamrock from Ireland. It’s strange too, to see Kirby style costumes from the 60’s drawn to 1980’s tastes but, good or bad, its still interesting to realize that they are part of the same world as Spiderman.
Pros It’s a great overview of the Marvel Universe and can introduce the basics about most superheroes and super-villains. It’s written in a very readable fashion and has good illustrations. The drawings are from different artists and its fun to compare styles. The schematics are very detailed and really add to the book while giving the illusion that this equipment could really work. The “Handbook” collects many issues into one handy tome. It is cheap for its page count, and is a nice pop culture resource. It is also lightweight so it’s easy to carry around. One of the best things about is, is its treatment of cosmic characters and concepts. The sections on the alien races are really fascinating and the pseudo history of the intergalactic empires gives a huge tapestry for the Marvel characters to adventure in. Some sections include details on how various aliens have genetically manipulated humans to create superpowers and strange offshoots of humanity like the Inhumans, or the Deviants.
Cons It’s out of date for what’s currently going on in Marvel Comics. Most of the people in the “dead and inactive” sections are not dead or inactive anymore and many characters have been reworked since the 1980’s. Essential guides are not published in color, which some may not like and it creates a few problems. The section on S.H.E.I.L.D. uniforms had originally shown its ranks by color but since there isn’t any in this reprint you can’t tell the difference between them. Also some of the details in the schematics were easier to see in color (I’ve also got original the comic books). No page numbers.
Who would find it useful? Comic books fans, people interested in comic book history, people interested in pre-grim and gritty but post silver age comics (early 1980’s), those looking for ideas for their superhero role-playing campaigns, those who like massive detail about fictional universes. And folks who don’t like reading comics but what to know more about superheroes (yes there are people like this out there).
Conclusion If you like superheroes and want to read about them then the “Handbook” is for you. If you loved 1980s Marvel you’ll like this. It’s well organized and complete in one book. It is also a good reference for superhero concepts; plus, since its not collectible, its not going to be bagged and tagged and hidden away. The handbook should be sitting there waiting to be discovered.
NOTE: Marvel is currently publishing a new monthly issues of the “Handbook” and has recently published one-shot issues dealing with particular characters or groups. Also, Marvel will be putting out ESSENTIAL OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE - DELUXE EDITION Vol. 1-3. It is a revised expanded version of the “Handbook” published in the late 1980’s. It was so big it couldn’t fit into one book.
