I remember the first time is stumbled on The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. In those pre-internet days I had no idea such a project was in the works, so I was delighted when I saw Issue #1 on sale at my local corner store. This was the kind of reference that I had always wanted to see. I devoured the issues and all the minutiae of the heroes and villains I loved. I especially liked Eliot R. Brown's contributions, where he would provide highly detailed diagrams of vehicles, buildings and weapons.
This isn't the first time the fate of the Marvel Universe was in Deadman's hand...
12 comments:
Ross - Such a genius idea and execution!! Really love this one!!
Thanks - took a while!
Personally I liked DC's "Who's Who" series better. But I was always more of a DC fan anyway.
@John Small. John, İ was a DC fan myself, and obvıously brought more Whos Who ıssues, but I honestly felt Marvels Handbook was more exhaustıve and detailed, and my schoolyard friends never failed to point this out (much to my chagrın!!). Everyone ın the 6th grade schoolyard agreed that Crisis on İnfinite Earths was the better thought out maxi-series, but the Marvel Handbook was a better encyclopedia.
Dude, you've outdone yourself!
I'm thinking of turning this into my desktop.
Ross, this cover is -- dare I say it? -- dead-on. It looks like a unit piece, and possibly a direct follow-up to the other story to which you linked.
Next time, though, maybe you can put the fate of the universe into someone a little less likely: Captain Klutz!
Official Handbooks and Who's Who books were always awesome, but i learned just as much about comics history reading supplements for the various role-playing games that were available in the 80's. Some of the Marvel companions were in depth summations of previous stories and character bios. Good work today, Ross. That's a nice cover.
I'll wildly guess that the one superhero he saved, in the last team-up, was actually a heroine. Namely; the Scarlet Witch! Once described--by Immortus, himself--as a crucial "nexus being." But, to undo the more recent damage done to the Marvel multiverse (by Marvel, itself)?
That's going to be a little trickier, to say the least!
P.S. (to Worldmusic): they obviously didn't think it out enough. I knew right from the last page of COIE #12, itself, that DC's ill-advised attempt at "streamlining" would come back to bite them on their corporate butt.
They should've just left the Silver Age multiverse, alone, and merely tweaked it, every now and them.
"That's my theory and I'm stickin' to it!"
You do some great work, but this one is the bomb-diggity! Do you kids still say that? Bomb-diggity?
This is just AWESOME. Love your site and all of your covers, but this one really blew me away...Fantastic job!
@Ross: Fine cover; shame it can't be a story.
@Anon @2:25 PM: I fully agree. I wish they had kept the Multiverse. Of course, I have a special grudge against the Post-Crisis DCU, as my favorite hero group is the Legion. Thanks a lot, Stimpy Byrne. ("Stimpy" because of "Don't touch it! It's the History Eraser Button, you fool!!") ^_^
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