The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe

I know there are alot of things that could be complained about if you want to get picky, there's bound to be SOMEONE who doesn't have a full entry, or their own entry, and it's true, there ARE a few...but SERIOUSLY! The most comprehensive encyclopedia of the Marvel character universe ever undertaken! No longer is your favorite hero or villian reduced to a maximum of one page, now whatever it takes to flesh out the bio, the more that's in there. Rich, imaginative diagrams and spec sheets of just about everything non-living that has an importance in Marvel. Iron Man's armor, the Avengers Mansion, too many to list. Read the whole first edition in a sit down, I remember my brother buying the original series, simply overwhelming, and a MUST OWN for any more than casual Marvel fan. Just got notified that Edition2 is on it's way, I can't wait!!!

...in three installments. I did not have the privilege of owning the original run of the Deluxe Edition of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, but I do have the trade paperback of ten volumes, which unfortunately when read by volume will fall apart on the spine (the 1st 4 volumes were carelessly bound). For the first time I read the entries for such obscure Marvel characters as Cloud, Arnim Zola, Blackout (which has another entry of the Deluxe Edition's Book(s) of the Dead), and for the first time I see the original feature illustrations for Angel, Cyclops, and Hawkeye which were replaced in the trade paperback edition. For a Marvel fan who has lived throughout the seventies and eighties this is the book for u, the era before the so-called "Dark Ages" of comicbook. Here are the Marvel characters who ante-dates the overexposure of the X-Men and the antihero and the big gun types. This is the expansion of the original run of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (1983-1984), which explains why most feature illustrations of characters are exactly the same as in the first run. The only handicap of this series was that it failed to materialize its own Appendix, unlike in the first series, which published them on the back of the backcover.