The Marvel Encyclopedia

by Peter Sanderson

book data

72 ratings, 3.83 average rating, 13 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		36%
4		26%
3		25%
2		9%
1		2%

edit

published

October 16th 2006 by DK ADULT

binding

Hardcover, 352 pages

isbn

0756623588 (isbn13: 9780756623586)

description

Marvel Comics' character roster boasts some of the best known and most popular characters ever conceived-heroes that are international household names...more

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Barnes & Noble | Abebooks | compare prices…

new topic
discuss this book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

friend reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

lists with this book

This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists. Add this book to your favorite list »

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 101)

sort: default (?) | date
filters: all | text-only

02/28/09

Cat Springer rated it:

Ah, mercy, yes, here it is! My lifelong addiction, the ebullient and highly successful Marvel Universe. Everyone who's anyone (and then some -- Spider-Man 2099, must we?) is here, in brightly colored layout and informative text. Writer/editor/publisher/adjective-abuser Stan Lee's (and Jack Kirby's and Steve Ditko's, let us not forget!) toybox is in full view here, with A-Z of characters, super groups, organizations, and a quickie breakdown of Marvel Comics over the decades. Although I prefer DeF...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

02/05/09

Randy Lander rated it:

bookshelves: art-books, swanky-hardcovers

Back at my previous site (*cough*don’t mind the link, fellas!*cough*), I had written a glowing review of DK Publishing’s DC Comics Encylopedia. Then, a couple months back, I wrote another glowing review of their Guide to Conan. I had every reason to expect greatness from their new Marvel Encyclopedia. Maybe those heightened expectations help explain my disappointment. Maybe it’s the involvement of current Marvel editorial in this edition, as contrasted with DC’s freelancer-driven version...more Back at my previous site (*cough*don’t mind the link, fellas!*cough*), I had written a glowing review of DK Publishing’s DC Comics Encylopedia. Then, a couple months back, I wrote another glowing review of their Guide to Conan. I had every reason to expect greatness from their new Marvel Encyclopedia. Maybe those heightened expectations help explain my disappointment. Maybe it’s the involvement of current Marvel editorial in this edition, as contrasted with DC’s freelancer-driven version. Maybe it’s that there are major glaring character omissions, as opposed to the minor ones that first struck me with the DC Encyclopedia. Whatever the case, though, while the Marvel Encyclopedia is hardly a disaster, it’s certainly a big letdown after seeing what DK Publishing is capable of previously.

I should start by saying that, aside from the Essential Official Handbooks Marvel has produced, this is still the best game in town. It’s got gorgeous production values, is obviously the product of a lot of hard work and features more characters than your average fan will encounter in their comic-book reading lifetime. The basics of the Marvel Encyclopedia are exactly the same as the DC Encyclopedia. An alphabetical listing of characters, as comprehensive as possible, with art selected from throughout Marvel’s history. And in terms of basic structure, the book is still a treasure, especially for those with only a mild knowledge of the Marvel Universe. If you’ve never put your hands on an Official Handbook, if you’ve only been reading for a few years, if you’re a young reader who just wants to read about a ton of characters, the Encyclopedia will do you just fine. But if you’re one of those longtime fans who just loves these character and universe guides, who grew up on the Official Handbooks and were hoping this would be a long-overdue update… well, get ready for some disappointment.

The mistakes in this Encyclopedia are relatively minor, but they’re systemic. You can’t flip more than a page or two without hitting something that seems wrong. Maybe Marvel just had more of a flood of bad art in the ’90s and the ’00s than DC, but it seems like some really weird artistic decisions were made here. The Encyclopedia is more the place for definitive looks, rather than experimental takes. Why use Joe Madeureira’s version of Magneto, or the godawful ’90s version of the West Coast Avengers or the Clayton Henry version of Alpha Flight, when a Jim Lee Magneto, John Byrne West Coast Avengers and Alpha Flight are all easily available and far more definitive? I’m not saying that only old art should be used, as the Encyclopedia makes good use of modern work by Adi Granov (for Iron Man) and Tim Sale (for Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane), but for God’s sake, why is Elektra done by Mike Deodato (from the forgettable ’90s series) instead of Frank Miller? Yes, it’s nitpicking, but this kind of project deserves that kind of scrutiny. Especially when the DC Volume placed the bar so high.

To be fair, the Encyclopedia really does cover the obscure, and in some cases the best left forgotten. You’ll find all sorts of relics of the ’90s here, from Sugar Man to Terror, as well as recent questionable characters like Chuck Austen’s Azazel. The focus in a lot of ways seems to be on obscure characters who have premiered since the last Official Handbook, which is probably wise on the surface, except that so many of those characters are so bad, and they get full write-ups where more interesting obscura from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s are lightly touched upon. One also can’t help but notice that co-writer Tom DeFalco’s Spider-Girl universe and Clone Saga stories are unusually well-represented, disproportionate to their popularity. The character write-ups are inconsistent, sometimes featuring up-to-date continuity but oftentimes out of date or just plain wrong. Emma Frost leaves off with Generation X, with no mention of her New or Astonishing X-Men doings. Bucky’s entry mentions that he is the Winter Soldier, but there’s no indication of what that means, and no entry for the Winter Soldier. Meanwhile, the Runaways are nowhere to be found, except for a mention in Swarm’s entry. Given that they’re probably the most enduring new characters created for Marvel in the past few years, this seems like a pretty notable error. Sadly, it’s but one of many.

If you’re a fan who bought the DC Encyclopedia to read with your kids, then the Marvel Encyclopedia will not disappoint. There are thousands of colorful characters and write-ups, complete with power listings, height, weight, all that good stuff. It’s all very well organized, with a spiffy index in the back, and while a lot of the art seems miscast, there are certainly some good choices in there as well. The book looks terrific at a casual glance. But it seems like it was put together with the same care for continuity with which Marvel puts together all of its books these days, which is to say that it’s sloppy and inconsistent.

Where the DC Encyclopedia surprised me with its loving tribute to all characters, the Marvel Encyclopedia seems to show favoritism towards pet characters of the writers and the characters in modern use, with the others given a bare minimum of attention. What impressed me about the DC Encyclopedia was its all-encompassing, something-for-everyone approach, and that approach is not to be found here. If someone puts this under your Christmas tree, thank them, because any comics fan will probably get a kick out of the book… but I can’t quite give the “rush out and buy this” recommendation I gave the DC Encyclopedia two years ago.(less)

Like this review? yes

add a comment

05/05/09

bluetyson added it (review of isbn 1405313153)

The Marvel Encyclopedia: a Complete Guide to the Characters of the Marvel Universe by Peter Sanderson (2006)

Like this review? yes

add a comment

01/03/07

Ivan rated it:

Not a bad book - useful as a reference, *but* being a Marvel fan, I have to say that DK did a much better job with the DC Encyclopedia. The Marvel Encyclopedia is lacking in detail and content such that die-hards (such as myself) must refer to the Official Handbook, begging the question: Why did they bother printing the Encyclopedia if they weren't going to one-up the Official Handbook? Furthermore, I just don't like the cover art, but that's just me. It's a lot of negativity, I know, but I mu...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

02/08/09

Astrocuff rated it:

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in December, 2008

if full of realy good background info and stuff that i never knew.

Like this review? yes

add a comment

12/06/08

Ben rated it:

Good for ANY Marvel fan and better for any starting into it.

Like this review? yes

add a comment

05/11/08

Ronya rated it:

Read in November, 2006

Handy as a reference, not well-written, typos abound & there are a coupla mismatched characters (look closely). If you are looking for comprehensive character histories & storylines consult your local comic-book keeper. I suppose if Marvel published all the histories of every character, they wouldn't need to keep creating comic books. ALas, I'd like something a little more comprehensive than this.

Like this review? yes

add a comment

09/30/08

Emily rated it:

bookshelves: movie-information-books

Read in October, 2008

Whoa. This is the geek book to end all geek books. More information that I could ever process all on my own. I bought it as part of an enrollment package for a book club where the signup options were very limited. This was definitely preferable to the other offerings...still might sell it though. Don't know if I'm enough of a geek to keep it around.

Like this review? yes

add a comment

08/02/07

Sixlet rated it:

Read in May, 2007

recommends it for: comic lovers

I'm not sure who approved the final copy, but well they need to get fired. A lot of fun info, and for non fan boys it's a good read, but who other than fan boys are gonna buy a comic encyclopedia? Alot of errors, and omissions, shadowcat gets the same size entry as the living planet? whatever, still fun and looks good on the shelf.

Like this review? yes

add a comment

12/25/07

Sean rated it:

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: Any Nerd, such as myself

This book is sweet for any fan of comics. The history of all the well known and relatively unknown comic characters of the Marvel Franchise. It has great illustrations, bios, stats, etc. Very in depth research was done for this.

Like this review? yes

add a comment