The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe trade paperbacks reprint the deluxe editions of the comic book from the mid '80s.

Out-dated now, these guides were mandatory reading for those interested in the machinations and sub-plots of the pre-90's Marvel universe. For scholars of the modern Marvel universe, you must be aware of the plots of the last 10 years or so to be able to understand how characters could go from the bios listed here to where they are today.

Each character is highlighted by a full-body portrait by some of comicdom's then-brightest artists. (Unless, as in the case of the Midgard Serpent, the character was too large for a full rendition.) Quite a few up-and-coming artists started work in those pages, too.
Each character, in addition to a full portrait, is treated to a page or more of concise biography, and if the character's history is long and varied, action shots representing various stages of their career are shown.

Unfortunately, several characters were lost in the reprinting process- a check between the original issues and the trade paperbacks reveals several characters that Marvel felt they should suppress (such as the androgynistic Cloud). Also, several characters' biographies were shortened, while typographical and typesetting errors were left intact... adding up to a less than accurate reference work.

For comic historians and amateur artists wanting quick reference to characters, these guides are valuable- but to a casual reader or someone puzzling over a storyline in a back issue, it leaves much to be desired.

This book is a good introduction into the world of Spider-Man. It tells a tale of one of his first battle against the tentacled Doc. Ock. It is well written and illustrated. Kids will love this new book about the tales of The Amazing Spider-Man. This book will also bring new kids into reading about super heroes. It is very good and tells the origins of Doc. Ock. It tells how his arms were fused to his body and how he blames the entire world for this incredible freak accident that caused his very disturbing abilities with controls over his arms with his mind.

I really liked this book. It contains Wolverine issues 24 through 47 and a lot of heart. Like the first Essential Wolverine, it really showcases Wolverine's personality. This book made me laugh and got my blood flowing. No Wolverine fan should be without it.

Being a young man (27) this series of books took me back to the days I used read comics with my friends instead of doing homework. The action that just would not allow you to put the book down is present in these Riftworld books, and it doesn't take forever to develop either. The plot thickens and turns just like the story lines in the Marvel universe, only now there's the imagery that only a novel can bring. This exactly what I've been waiting for, being an adult who loved the comic book art and plot twists, I yearned for more 'story', Riftworld delivers, as do many of the new Marvel novels. Can't wait for the movie :-)

This tradepaperback reprints the first apperarances of all the original Thunderbolts. For those of you unfamiliar with the Thunderbolts, they are Marvel's newest and greatest superhero group. What makes them so interesting is that they are all former villians! A half dozen of Marvel's villians known as THE MASTERS OF EVIL changed thier identities to a new group of "good" guys in order to gain the public's trust and then strike! A true Troyjan horse. The only flaw was that most of them

found the public's audulation and addmiration too much and could not follow through with their "master plan". Now they struggle to stay on the right side of the law and are trying to atone for previous indiscresions. That's where this book comes in. It is a compilation of all the characters first comic book appearances in their former villianous identities. This book reprints the entire stories the characters were originally in. Featuring such heros as the Hulk, Captain America, the Avengers and more. You get classic Marvel stories from the 60's and 70's. Highly recommended

This 'Essential' really doesn't have any exciting material, really. It's all just pointless, meandering filler. The characterization is nonexistent and the plots are very run of the mill. It's only worth seeing and reading as a sort of time capsule. It's not very good, but it's one example of how comics were like in the sixties.

Easily the best volume of the three Avengers Essentials to date, we now see Rascally Roy Thomas at the scripting helm, along with Awesome John Buscema doing most of the art chores. Say no more! This duo is one of the greatest in comics lore... and even demi-gods Barry [Windsor] Smith and Gene Colan show up to help out on art.

This collection contains the spectacular introduction of the Vision, the Avengers vs. the (old) X-Men, several battles with arch-foe Ultron, and the classic Avengers vs. Avengers thanks to the machinations of the time-spanning Scarlet Centurion. I'd give this compilation five stars, but the several issues featuring Hercules and the battles in god-ville are just plain dull. (Avengers #50 featured this crap? YEESH.) But don't let these few pages spoil the rest of the great fun.

This third volume collecting the earlier issues of the Avengers sees the title emerging from the somewhat listless period on the last volume. Roy Thomas is now the writer, and is plainly undertaking the work with enthusiasm and a desire to create something very much worth reading.

This volume sees the membership of the team in flux, with characters being added and removed, and some not even officially joining the team. The stories themselves see members departing for personal reasons, and older members, who are technically off the team, dropping by.

It also sees the introduction of some elements that continue to have impact today: the first two conflicts with Ultron, the introduction of the Vision, Hank Pym taking up the identity of Yellowjacket, the Scarlet Centurion, the conflicts of loyalty that beset the Scarlet Witch and, in particular, Quicksilver...

Art-wise, we are generally in the safe and capable hands of John Buscema, although there are a couple of issues illustrated by Barry (Windsor) Smith, who will soon go on to greater things... Also present are Don Heck, Gene Colan and Sal Buscema.

The stories still show the elements of a relatively new writer working out what works and what doesn't in this format. However, they become increasingly self-assured towards the end, and Volume 4, when it is released, will show a far more mature writer...

After presenting "Origin of Marvel Comics" and "Son of Origin of Marvel Comics," Stan Lee decided to forgo "The Return of the Son of Origin of Marvel Comics" and go instead with "Bring on the Bad Guys: Origins of the Marvel Comics Villains." This is actually something of a problematic effort because where as you can simply go to issue #1 of "The Fantastic Four" for the origin of the Fantastic Four, or "Amazing Fantasy" #15 for the story of how Spider-Man came to be, the origin of a super villain is usually tossed off in a couple of flashback panels. That means the results are going to be a bit uneven in this collection.

The goal was to try and focus on the key super villain for each Marvel superhero, which means Doctor Doom for the Fantastic Four, the Green Goblin for Spider-Man, the Red Skull for Captain America, and so on and so forth. For those who want to know specifically what Marvel comics are reprinted in "Bring on the Bad Guys" here is the list of what you will find inside: (1) "Prisoners of Doctor Doom" from issue #5 of "The Fantastic Four" and "Origin of Doctor Doom" from the 1964 FF Annual, both by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; (2) the first fateful meeting of Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, and the Dread Dormammu from issues #126 and #127 of "Strange Tales" by Lee and artist Steve Ditko; (3) three installments of the "Tales of Asgard" from issues #112, #113 and #115 of "Journey into Mystery" telling the story of how Loki became the bad boy of Norse mythology and a full fledged fight between him and the Mighty Thor from #115, all from Lee and Kirby; (4) the Captain America halves of three issues of "Tales to Astonish" by Lee and Kirby telling the origin of the Red Skull; (5) issue #40 of "The Amazing Spider-Man" with the famous confrontation between the unmasked Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, courtesy of Lee and John Romita (Sr.); (6) two Hulk stories from "Tales of Suspense" featuring ol' Greenskin against the Abomination from Lee and Gil Kane; and (7) a confrontation between the Silver Surfer and Mephisto, with artwork by John Buscema (you have figured out by now that Stan Lee wrote all of the stories contained within this book).

As you would imagine the Doctor Doom stories and pretty good, the Spider-Man tale is a classic, and the rest are a matter of choice. The Red Skull trilogy would be my personal choice as the best of the rest. As much as my appreciation for the way Ditko drew Spider-Man has grown over the years I have just never really liked his work on Dr. Strange. In the end, it is Jack Kirby's artwork that dominates the book more than anything else and the thing that stops this from being a truly great collection of Marvel reprints is the fact that the focus on origins effectively prevents Lee from providing some of the greatest stories facing these seminal villains.

Some people here have called the artwork in this book clunky & not very good when compared to the Artwork in Comics today. These people don't know what they are talking about. How do I come to that conclusion? Because I once said the same thing to the owner of a comic book store. Not just any comic book store, but one which dealt specificaly with buying and selling vintage comic books. I remember saying that the Steve Ditko artwork on the first 38 Original Spiderman issues was terrible. I'll never forget..the owner had this incredulous look on his face, and told me that this was "Comic book Art" and not "Let's draw something as realisticaly as possible Art!" With that in mind, I went home and looked at the Steve Ditko Spiderman issues again and came to slowly realize......"I must have been crazy!....He's absolutely right!" For myself, this is part of the genious of "Bring on the Bad Guys!". And this is especaily true of my personal favorites in this book.....the origins of Doctor Doom, Loki, and of course.....Thee Red Skull! What fun they must have had in creating these classics!

I'd argue, "sure." Here in Bring BACK the Bad Guys we witness the origins/first appearances of famous baddies Galactus, The Mandarin, Kingpin, Kang/Rama Tut and others. We are treated to a reprinting of GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #2, which alone may be worth this book's price since it is virtually impossible to find anywhere. The other reprints are enjoyable (except for Fin Fang Foom's -- what the heck is HE doing in here?), especially a Professor X-Magneto flashback tale.

The book was a dissapointment for me. I am a big Dr Doom fan and expected a lot better. I thought about returning it, but i usually keep the comics i buy, just to add to my collection. The highlight of the entire book seems to be the fight between the thing and the doc in the battle of the baxter building. Other than that it was a let-down. The writing in some of the stories did dissapoint me at times and devaluated my image of the charater of Dr Doom. In one story, when Doom refered to two bombs he had set, he replied: "my subjects!!----I forgot!!" It may seem my complaint is over the top, but the Doom we all know would never admit to a fault. This is but one example of one the times i felt let down by the writers. Additionally, since the book featured more footage of the fantastic four than Dr Doom, it probably should be called Doom V the FF, at the least!Overall, I wasn't too impressed with the book but I guess if you are a true Dr Doom fan, you probably better see for yourself, afterall, you can always return it. As a final note, i will say to any Dr Doom fan who has not read Triumph and Torment, you must read this book to see Doom at his finest...

JACK KIRBY IS STILL THE KING OF COMIC BOOKS!!! Yes, I hate to admit it, but I agree with most of the other reviewers that the writing in this graphic novel reprint of some old FANTASTIC FOUR stories is not Kirby's best work--or even the best Dr. Doom appearances, because those were issues 57-60!!!--but even a Kirby collection at 80% is still better than 90% of other comic books, and so I rate this graphic novel 4 stars.

But Kirby's artwork--inked by INKER SUPREME JOE SINNOTT, THE MOST UNDERRATED MAN IN THE HISTORY OF COMIC BOOKS JUST FOR HIS INKING OF JACK KIRBY'S WORK!!!--in reprinted issues 84 through 87 is...FANTASTIC!!! And that's not just the way they drew Dr. Doom, but also Mr. Fantastic, The Torch, The Thing, the supporting characters, the scenery, and of course, the women!!!

I've bought a lot of graphic novels over the years--including the first ever printed, THE ORIGINS OF MARVEL HEROES--but I'd probably rank THE VILLAINY OF DR. DOOM #2 after that, because...

JACK KIRBY IS STILL THE KING OF COMIC BOOKS!!!

Chari Krishnan RESEARCHKING

This includes some of the greatest Doom-FF battles of all time. The Lee-Kirby classic where the FF take on Doom without their powers is one of the most exciting stories in their history (a complaint is that the pages in this volume were switched around). However, some complaints. They could have used the story where Doom steals the Silver Surfer's powers or FF #200 (Reed vs Doom). The stories also appear to have some panels cut out. This volume has great stories and artwork by Lee, Kirby, and Byrne but this volume could have been so much better.

At last, comic book fans get the opportunity to explore the life of comicdom's greatest creator and promotor, Stan Lee. Stan, along with his writing side kick George Mair gives us an "inside" glimpse of his life and the world of Marvel Comics. His wit, spicy sarcasm and brilliant style comes through the pages except for one thing; you get to know little about Lee and a lot about the comic book industry and even at that the book falls short on providing the reader with the intrigues of the comic mongols.

For those looking for a definitive biography or autobiography of one of comic's greatests masters, Excelsior comes as a big let down. Sure Stan gives us the tidbits of his life and hard times but there is very few lines of introspection about his work and the impact it had on his life. Side kick George isn't any better in providing the reader with a historical context and interpretation of the forces which shaped Stan.

Okay is the book all that bad? No. If you know nothing about Lee, Marvel Comics or the evolution of the comic industry, Excelsior is a fair book for initiation into the realms of comicdom. Younger readers would certainly appreciate its style that will immediately captivate their attention. Collectors of comics and its assortment of memorabilia certainly need this book as part of their collection.

For those who want a detailed and historical analysis of the life of Stan and the world he created, forget it. Excelsior won't feed your need. Yet in spite of that it is better than nothing so by all means give it a reading.

"Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee" has a cover with Lee surrounded by some of his famous Marvel comics creations (or co-creations depending on where you stand on the whole Lee/Kirby debate), but you may be surprised and/or dismayed to find that only six of the twenty-one chapters are devoted to the glory years at Marvel. Much of what is contained within Lee has talked about before, which means that by now the stories of how the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-Men and the rest came to be born have been refined and polished to the point you really wish he would provide more of the details. "Excelsior!" starts from Lee's childhood in Manhattan to those early days when he stumbled into writing comic books, his work as a "playwright" in World War II, and then through the rise of the Marvel empire and beyond.

The focus of the book is on the narrative recollections of Lee and if you have ever had an opportunity to hear Stan "The Man" Lee do a lecture or speak at a convention, then you are familiar with his conversational style (I liked it when Stan would pretend to be Clark Kent, take off his glasses and have people wondering where Clark went--plus, the man's autograph is always legible). One thing that struck me was how much Lee was affected by the Great Depression, especially since he often laments over the value of the comic books he created but never bothered to collect. Yet it is also clear that Lee is not driven by money but more by love of family and work, two subjects he talks about with equal passion. He does take pains to try and address the issues of his infamous rifts with artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, and whether you believe his side of the story or not he certainly bears no animosity towards either man. There is no denying that Lee was a self-promoter of the first order, but he certainly tried to take along everybody else in the Marvel Bullpen and it is equally clear that Kirby and Ditko were not especially outgoing types.

George Mair provides a more objective view of Lee's life with historical facts and critical insights in his portions of "Excelsior!" which frame the lengthier excerpts from Lee. Mair is especially good when he points out how some example from the early year's of Lee's career translated into a principle he applied while running Marvel. Ultimately, Mair makes the case that Lee "created a new mythology for the twentieth century" by putting "the human in the superhuman." I rather like this approach, which allows a subject to tell their story in their own words and also provides a way for biographical assessments by another party. The book is illustrated with mostly family photographs, although rather sparsely at times, especially during the Marvel days.

I do not know if readers of Marvel Comics who came to Spider-Man and the rest after Lee's tenure as writer/editor will be as interested in this as us old-timers, but I would think Lee's stories about how comics changed would be worth reading. His chapter on "Seduction of the Gullible," dealing with the efforts of Dr. Frederic Wertham that resulted in the creation of the Comics Code, provides a much different perspective on those times than you get from reading Bill Gaines's thoughts on it all. This is by no means a major look at the life and work of Stan Lee, but it does have its shares of worthwhile insights. 'Nuff Said.

Stan Lee is the biggest name in comic books. The founder of Marvel Comics, he created some of the world's best-known heroes and most infamous villains, writing stories that brought wit and subtlety to a field previously locked into stark portrayals of good vs. evil. With superheroes who did not always act nobly and bad guys with "dysfunctional" backgrounds, as Time magazine recently noted, "Lee put the human in superhuman." Lee tells the story of his life with the same off-beat spirit, moving from his childhood in the Bronx to his early days publishing comic books during World War II, through the rise of the Marvel empire to his recent foray into cyberspace with the creation of the first Internet superheroes. George Mair supplements the tale, providing insights into Lee's role as a cultural icon. The year 2002 marks Lee's sixty-second year in the business, celebrated with the release the long-awaited Spider Man film, based on the world's top selling comic, starring Tobey Maquire and directed by Sam Raimi. The millions of fans who attend comic book fairs in search of Stan Lee's much-prized comic books now have an irresistible opportunity to add this gem of an autobiography to their collections.

This volume reprints much of the early 60s Hulk. The 6 issues of his original title run start off the book. What starts as a promising run soon degenerates when the character is given shorter stories in Tales to Astonish. It's clear that Stan Lee at this stage had no idea of where he wanted to take the character. Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk at night...or when under stress... or just where the plot requires it. There is no set plan for the character. At one point, he even reverts to Bruce Banner when the Hulk is under stress. How stupid is this idea when the Hulk is under stress whenever he meets a villain. And the villains-aside from the early Leader stories and the brief 2 story Abomination origin, the villains are very lackluster. One expects the early Marvel stereotypical "Red Menace" villains, but an evil major league pitcher turned mercenary under the guise of Boomerang? As one of Marvel's conceptually weakest villains, he still gives the Hulk a run for his money. Of course, we get Betty Ross and Rick Jones thrown into constant peril. The Hulk's identity is revealed only to be forgotten so it can be revealed again several stories later. He goes from an intelligent Hulk to the ignorant Hulk time and again with no rhyme or reason. The original stories were published over the course of several years and read as a group in several sittings, they suffer immensely. The reprint quality on some of these stories is horrible to say the least. I'm sure the publishers used the best available archival copies, but several are very poor reproductions. For completists and rabid fans this book is a must, for anybody else it is a disappointing mess.

The epic saga of Marvel Comics' misunderstood monster starts here!

In this collection, you'll find the first 6-issue run, followed by some issues of the character's revival in Tales To Astonish - the early stories here are either great or just average, depending on who was available to illustrate in the understaffed Marvel Bullpen of the early '60's.

Interestingly enough, it's here that we get to see some of the first Marvel work of Big John Buscema and Gil Kane, who were two of the artists that Stan Lee was able to recruit after Martin Goodman increased the pay rates for artists.

All in all, it's a worthy addition to your comics library...so what are you waitin' for?

The seventies television version of the Hulk was my only experience with this character. What a surprise to find out how Banner originally changed into the Hulk and that the Hulk could talk. The stories are classic sixties era, and in my opinion a lot of fun. My only complaint is that Stan Lee and Marvel really had a thing for aliens. That gets old in a hurry. But if you want a fun read, you can't go wrong here. I also love the black and white format. It gives the art a crisp, clean look as well as allowing you over THIRTY issues for a great price. You can't go wrong here, even if you've never read the Hulk.