The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe – an introduction

As we’ll see as we go through the various Essential volumes, a number of them include as page filler material various entries from various editions of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. In an era before the internet developed to the point where there are endless fansites and encyclopaedias, series like the Official Handbook and DC’s Who’s Who were the main way that fans could refresh their memory or find out the key information about heroes they’d only heard about. Each of the major characters, along many minor heroes, alien races, hardware and more, would receive a dedicated entry in a standard form – a full picture of the character and text detailing their origins, powers and weapons, plus quick pro forma stats such as real names, places of birth, relatives, first appearances, heights and so forth. Click on the image of Captain America’s original entry for a full-sized example of the standard format. Spider-Man’s entry was atypical, running to two pages and including a section on his webshooters.

(The scans are from MARVEL™-Retro, specifically Captain America (The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe V1-V2) & Spider-Man (The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe V1).)

The first series came out between 1982 & 1984. Originally planned as twelve issues on current characters, the success of the series led to three extra issues. Two covered inactive and deceased characters, and the other weapons, hardware and paraphernalia. There have since been at least three further volumes – the “Deluxe Edition” which ran for twenty issues between 1985 & 1988 plus an eight issue “Update” series in 1989; the “Master Edition” which ran for thirty-six issues between 1990 & 1993 (and came in a partwork form to be completed in a binder); and the “All-New” edition of twelve issues in 2006 with a 4 issue update in 2007. The 2000s also saw various updates, collected editions that combined reprints with updated and new entries, and some series specific one shots but it all gets a bit confusing.

The Official Handbook is in a slightly grey area of continuity. Not only had a number of details (particularly the pro forma stats) not been explicitly set down in the actual Marvel comics but there was also a desire to tidy and clarify the origins – for instance Spider-Man’s entry tells us the demonstration was arranged by the General Techtronics Corporation, it was to demonstrate how nuclear laboratory waste could be safely handled, and used a particle accelerator. It also incorporates a number of details that were added to the origin in subsequent retellings in the likes of Spectacular Spider-Man magazine #1, Amazing Spider-Man #94, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #60, whereas nowadays it's more common to take a single telling of an origin as the definitive version, at least until someone explicitly retells it. Because some of the information had not been established in actual comic stories, not all writers felt bound to follow it. And in a few cases writers felt the Handbook had either ignored or misinterpreted a particular scene and went with what was “correct”, leading to quite a bit of confusion even in the internet years when many of the same questions came up time and again. (The precise metal that Captain America’s shield is made of proved to be a particularly confusing affair for many years, even after an Avengers annual devoted a back-up story to restating various facts in an attempt to clear up the most repetitive confusions.)

Despite such ambiguities, the Official Handbooks serve as a good guide to many characters, and the older series are especially helpful for summarising what had been revealed about a particular character up to that point – Jack-of-Hearts is a good example as shortly after his entry in the original series he had a limited series with some major new revelations about his history.

Perhaps because of this, the first three editions of the Official Handbook have all been released in the Essential series, although their front covers dispense with the actual Essential trappings. The original version is collected in a single volume; then the original Deluxe Edition comes in three volumes with the 1989 update a stand alone volume; then finally the Master Edition is in a further three volumes. The original and Deluxe volumes maintain the original series order but the Master volumes go alphabetical (reflecting how it was intended that fans would arrange their folders). In addition a number of Essential volumes, not just Spider-Man, reprint some individual entries.

Marvel's Essential series – an introduction

If you're already familiar with Marvel's Essential reprint trade paperbacks then this post is probably best skipped. However if not, here's the low-down on the main points about the series in so far as they apply to the Spider-Man titles I'll be reviewing. For those who want even more information about the series in general I'd advise reading the Wikipedia article: Essential Marvel.

The books reprint a large number of classic comics, nearly always in the original order, in black and white on cheap paper. (I believe the format originated in Japan for manga.) With about five hundred pages in each volume they represent some of the best value for classic comics – providing you don't mind black & white which in my opinion doesn't affect readability. The series began in 1996 and Marvel have since published about eighty different volumes, ranging from mainstream series such as the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to obscure ones such as Killraven and Tales of the Zombie. (DC have since followed the lead and produced an equivalent series entitled Showcase Presents.)

In general each volume reprints some twenty or so issues (the precise number depends on the original page counts) from a Marvel comic series, including relevant annuals and some of the short-lived companion series (such as the Giant-Size series that briefly ran in the mid-1970s). In order to maintain story cohesion the volumes sometimes include additional material such as the issues of other comics that set-up a character and/or team before they got their own title. Furthermore over the years there have been many crossovers between different Marvel titles and sometimes you need to read issues of two titles to understand what's going on. Often the direct crossover issues are included in both titles' Essential volumes.

As the series has been around for sixteen years there have been a number of modifications over the years. The cover design has changed at least twice, with many earlier volumes reprinted with the new designs. Also some original editions of earlier volumes either omitted material (such as the short-lived Spectacular Spider-Man magazine from 1968) or placed annuals and specials in an awkward place in the run. Later editions of these volumes have sought to correct the earlier mistakes by adding and re-ordering; however sometimes this means particular issues are moved from one volume to another. In general I'll be reviewing from the original volumes but will point out where modifications have subsequently been made. A more minor point of confusion can be the volume titles. The series initially titled "Essential Spider-Man" reprints Amazing Spider-Man, not the series launched in 1990 with just "Spider-Man" as the title (until #75). The later volumes and subsequent editions have modified this a little by using the full series name. (And this is far less confusing than the names used for the various X-Men volumes but fortunately that’s beyond the scope of this post.)

The Essential volumes don't come out at a strict frequency and sometimes readers have had to wait a few years before the next volume for a particular title. Spider-Man has been quite lucky in this regard with on average at least one volume from any of his titles coming out each year. A minor problem with the multiple titles is that sometimes the volumes covering one title can get ahead of others. At the time of writing the Amazing volumes (including the next scheduled to be out soon) are up to issue #248. However Marvel Team-Up is lagging behind, having only reached #75 which came out the same month as Amazing #186. Spectacular Spider-Man has reached #114, parallel to Amazing #276. Web of Spider-Man (which actually replaced Marvel Team-Up after 150 issues) is up to #32, the contemporary of Amazing #294 & Spectacular #132.

Marvel doesn't always own the rights to reprint absolutely all of its old comics. Over the years it has licensed many characters from novels, television, toys and other media, with time limits on how long it can print comics featuring them for. Once the contracts expire it is no longer possible to reprint their appearances without fresh negotiations (which can be too expensive for a series like this) and sometimes the characters are now licensed to other comic companies and so completely off limits. This only affects a handful of Spider-Man comics, mainly odd issues of Marvel Team-Up and Giant-Size Spider-Man. However where possible I may take a brief side-step to look at omitted material.

Finally there have been problems with the source material. Marvel has unfortunately not retained all the original film separations for all its comics. Back in the early 1990s many classic 1960s stories had separations recreated for the more expensive Masterworks series of reprints and these often mean good quality black & white prints are available. However there are many issues that have neither original separations not later recreations on file, and some others where the only available separations are from reprints that edited out pages, and consequently the missing material has had to be reproduced from the finished comics themselves, including the colour overlays now rendered as intrusive greys. Fortunately nearly all the Spider-Man issues reprinted so far have been lucky to have either original or recreation separations available and it's not as noticeable as in some other Essential runs.

Despite all the above factors, the Essential series are one of the best & most affordable ways to enjoy many Marvel series. Which is why I like them so much.

Introduction

It’s been fifty years.

Fifty years since a new character took the comics world by storm. And he didn’t stop there, going on to feature in novels and newspaper strips, star in many cartoons, a live action TV series and of course three blockbuster movies.

And he’s still going strong today. In about a month’s time a new movie will hit the cinema screens whilst his first series is now into the 680s.

Spider-Man (and not forgetting his alter ego, Peter Parker) is an amazing character, pun intended, who has been put into numerous different scenarios and yet always manages to retain his basic everyman appeal. And he’s had so many adventures - SpiderFan.org: Spider-Man Core Titles lists over twenty different titles (ignoring multiple volumes), and that’s just for his own headline series.

I first discovered Spider-Man via the cartoon Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends but later discovered the comics. And above all else there’s one series that delivers so much all at once - the Essential series of reprints that present all the issues of a series in order from the start. It allows one to see a character being built up and developed, and the arrivals (and departures) of the various members of their supporting cast and Rogues’ Gallery. Over the years I’ve enjoyed reading the successive Essential volumes and decided to finally take the plunge and present my thoughts on each volume.

So over the coming days and weeks I’ll be working my way through the various Spider-Man volumes in the Essential series, working through in approximate order, and offering my extended thoughts on each volume. There’ll also be a few diversions along the way to cover other matters of interest and questions. I’ll also put up a few background information posts.

(Be warned that this blog will be full of spoilers. I’m discussing comics that came out at least twenty-five years ago, and usually much more, and details of these adventures are widespread so I won’t hold back too much on discussing what were at the time revelations.)

Why “The Essential Exploits of Spider-Man”? Well The Exploits of Spider-Man was a Marvel UK reprint title back in the early 1990s which followed on from The Complete Spider-Man (which was presumably changed because the explosion of Spider-Man material made the title inaccurate) and preceded The Astonishing Spider-Man (which is now in its 17th year, albeit with at least two resets of the numbering en route). Exploits is one of the few Spider-Man titles that doesn’t seem to have been reused endlessly and feels an appropriate title to use for a consideration of such a lengthy run.

So stick around for the ride. Excelsior!