The Marvel Encyclopedia Makes a Great Reference for Fans of the Marvel Universe
Written: May 29 '08 (Updated Oct 08 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Information on more than 1,000 characters. Great illustrations.
Cons: Very little information about most characters. Few minor organization issues.
The Bottom Line: The Marvel Encyclopedia had a few minor issues, but it is still a wonderful book that makes a great companion for fans of Marvel characters.
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| dragonfire88's Full Review: DK Publishing, Inc. et al - The Marvel Comics Ency... |
Over the last several years I have been learning more about some superheroes from the several new live action movies as well as some books. All of the books related to superheroes that I have were published by Dorling Kindersley and I have really enjoyed them. There are more books connected to superheroes that I don’t have yet, but I’ll probably eventually pick them up as well. Last year I decided to pick up The Marvel Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the Marvel Universe.
The Marvel Encyclopedia - I will be using this shorter version of the title for the rest of the review - is an oversize hardback book. It is the same shape, though much thicker, than the other guides from DK that I own. Six different writers contributed to this book. At the end of each entry in the book, the initials of the writer responsible for that particular entry was provided. A few of the entries did look like they had been pulled from one of the other superhero guides from DK that I own. The book was published in 2006, so it is newer than some of the other guides I have and it does have a few bits of newer information as well.
There was no plot to The Marvel Encyclopedia. There really weren’t any plot summaries for any of the comic books either. The book didn’t focus on the comic books and actually didn’t even mention the actual comic books. Instead, the book just shared information about more than 1,000 characters who have turned up in the numerous Marvel comic books over the years. There really wasn’t that much information about any of the characters, so anyone wanting some in depth information on a particular character won’t find it in this book. There is only a brief amount of information shared for many of the characters, and most pages included information about several characters. More information was shared about some of the more popular characters, but even then the information only scratched the surface. It would have been nice if there had been more detailed information provided for more of the characters, but that would have made the book even larger and probably more expensive as well.
The book was organized very well for the most part, with the characters being discussed arranged in alphabetical order. In addition to the superheroes and villains, some regular people who had some kind of connection to a character with powers were also included. Those characters were alphabetized by their last names. Most of the characters mentioned in the book had some other name that they used in addition to their given names. Most of the time, the other name was the one the entry would be under. For those, even the names that had two names in them - like Doctor Strange - were alphabetized by the first name instead of the second one. There were a few times when a character who also used another superhero or villain name was listed under their given name instead. Obadiah Stane was listed under that name instead of Iron Monger. That seemed just a little odd to me based on how the majority of the entries were listed and there didn’t seem to be any reason for the few times when that method was changed. I think the organization would have been stronger overall if everyone with a superhero or villain name was listed under that name instead of a few of them being listed under their given names. People who aren’t as familiar with the characters could have a little more trouble finding certain characters because of that. It would have been helpful if there was some kind of list that shared the given name and then the superhero or villain name of everyone featured in the book.
The book wasn’t really divided into any sections or chapters. It began with a forward by Stan Lee. He mentioned several of the different characters that he had created over the years and how much he liked this book. There was a table of contents that listed out the page ranges for certain letters with no mention of any characters. The last several pages of the book made up the index that listed every character mentioned in the book and which pages they were mentioned on, even the times when it was just a brief mention in someone else’s entry. The page number for the main listing was bolded to make it easier to find. I found the index to be very helpful when I was wanted to look up a specific character. Every so often throughout the book, there would be pages that shared a little bit of information about Marvel comics in general for each decade since 1960. Covers from different comic books from each decade were also included on those pages. It was interesting to see how the looks of different characters have changed over the years.
The different groups of superheroes and villains who have worked together were included under the group names. Some of those groups received more attention than others. For each group, the main members were identified. Some of the members ended up with their own entries and others did not for some reason. There was a lot of information for The Avengers, Fantastic Four and X-Men with most of the members of those groups also having their own individual entries. The other groups, some that I hadn’t heard of before, tended to have smaller entries even when the group had popular members. I noticed that there were some characters mentioned in one entry who didn’t have their own main entry for some reason. I think most of those characters were considered to be minor characters, but even that doesn’t make sense since some other characters that seemed to be minor characters had their own entries.
Every entry, even the short ones, contained the same basic information about the characters. Each entry contained the given name if known, occupation, base, powers or abilities, height, weight, hair and eye color, and which comic book they had their first appearance in. For many characters, only a tiny amount of information was shared, in just a few short sentences. More information was shared about some of the more important or popular characters. There was still a lot of stuff left out, including some very important events for those characters. For the characters who did have more information shared, the entries were longer, sometimes covering one or two whole pages. With those characters, the way they got their powers or how they became a superhero or villain was usually included. I was surprised that some characters didn’t have larger entries. There is a whole guide for Ghost Rider, but his entry in this book didn’t even cover half of a page. The longer entries usually also included a short list of the character’s main allies and enemies as well as a short list of what were identified as essential storylines.
There was at least one illustration of every character who was featured in an entry in The Marvel Encyclopedia, even the short entries. For the characters that had larger entries, there were a few different illustrations that sometimes also included other characters. Occasionally, there were captions to the illustrations that would point out something special about the character or their outfit. The illustrations looked like they had been pulled from comic books. A few of them were the same illustrations that I have seen in some of the other superhero guides released by DK that I own. The illustrations did fit in well with the text and were well done. I didn’t see any mentions of an illustration being involved in this book, so I don’t think any of the illustrations were created specifically for this book. I could be wrong about that though.
Several of the characters from the Marvel universe have been featured in cartoons or live action movies. There have also been a lot of action figures and other merchandise that was somehow connected to different Marvel characters. None of those things were mentioned, even briefly, in the book. It was strictly focused on sharing information about the characters as they were depicted in the comic books. Any other versions, which may have some differences, were ignored by the book. I wasn’t expecting in depth discussions of the different movies and cartoons that have been made. I just thought it would have been nice to have some sort of indication on which characters have ended up in movies or cartoons. Of course, that is something else that would have made the book longer. That sort of information has mostly been missing from the other superhero guides by DK that I own, so it wasn’t exactly surprising that it was missing.
There are many people who prefer the Marvel characters and just as many who prefer the DC characters. There are characters who share some similarities between the two groups, but also differences. The biggest difference that I have noticed is that the Marvel characters have seemed to have had to deal with more real world problems than the DC characters. Many of the characters end up wanted by the police and hated by the very people they are trying to help. It almost seemed like they were more human than many of the DC characters. I think that is the biggest difference between the two groups of characters, and it really wasn’t addressed. I think that is the big attraction for many fans to these characters, so it would have been nice if that had been brought up, even if just in the foreword from Stan Lee.
I did really enjoy The Marvel Encyclopedia. I was able to read about many characters that I don’t know much about and even some that I hadn’t heard of before. It would have been nice if there was more detailed information, especially for certain characters. The organization was done well except for a few inconsistencies, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for people to look up specific characters. This book is a wonderful reference to the Marvel universe. I think that people who are still learning about the characters as well as those who are already familiar with them can enjoy this book. I am very happy with this book and I’m sure I’ll pick up the DC version at some point as well.
This review is part of elvisdo’s 2008 Funny Pages Write-Off.
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Recommended:
Yes
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