The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe

Who’s Who and What’s What in the Marvel Universe during the early 80s.

This exciting collection of 15 consecutive comic book issues presents the complete first edition of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. Issued between 1982 and 1983, the set provides an incredible snapshot of Marvel’s success through the early 80s, as well as a solid foundation for the much larger franchise to come.

The group includes 12 ‘encyclopedic’ volumes, organized alphabetically and offering descriptions, origin stories, and other information on scores of heroes, supervillains, and alien races. There is a wealth of cartographic content interspersed throughout, including maps, floor plans, and cutaway diagrams. Canon locations of interest include Atlantis, the Daily Bugle, Wakanda, Project Pegasus, Doctor Doom’s castle, the X-Men mansion, Savage Land, and the Fantastic Four Headquarters. These are supplemented by visual references to real-world places like Manhattan, the Balkans (home of fictional Latveria), Titan (Saturn’s moon), and Cypress County, Florida (citing Man-Thing’s swamp).

The first dozen, covering characters from A-Z, is joined by three additional issues. Two offer similar details about the deceased or inactive figures in the Marvel Universe, from Air-Walker to Zuras. The final comic in the collection is titled “Book of Weapons, Hardware, and Paraphenalia’, which explains the function of various gadgets, vehicles, and fighting objects not otherwise covered.