History of the Marvel Universe

Comics Marvel Comics
#1

Has anyone else been enjoying Mark Waid and Rodriguez/Lopez’s History of the Marvel Universe as much as me?

I know it started back in September so I’m probably late to the party. I wanted to wait until I had all 6 issues before I started reading it so I could ingest it all in one chunk. Little did I know that there is so much material in the Annotations at the back of each book that it’s taking me longer than I thought it would to get through it.

As a kid, I loved comics but I jumped around between titles a lot and never spent enough time with any series or story arcs to get much of an appreciation for the Marvel Universe as a whole or it’s history. I took 25 years off of comics until I fell back in love a few years ago. Needless to say, I missed quite a bit.

This has been a perfectly concise, yet comprehensive explanation of a vast, and very convoluted, universe.

It’s a perfect primer for new comic readers, people like me who never bothereed to tie everything together, or well versed geeks who want to test, or refresh, their Marvel knowledge.

Either Mark Waid is a savant, able to absorb and regurgitate massive amounts of information at will or, there were a team of researchers and super computers helping him write this. He seamlessly blends mythos from the very beginnings of Timely/Marvel all the way up to modern day. Ret-cons and all.

Plus, I’m loving the artwork. It smells pretty good too.

Am I off base on this? Did Waid butcher or make a mockery the Marvel legacy? Or, do you like it as much as I?

1 Like
#2

I have bought all 6 issues as they came out, but have not read past issue #1. Like you @TheCrackpot, I wanted to sit down and read it consecutively. The experienced guys in my silver/gold group (on another platform) have been raving about the series. It originally piqued my interest as books I could possibly use for speculating on some of the bronze/silver books.

#3

I’m trying to decide the best way of reading it.

For the first couple issues, I read it straight through, front to back. However, I’m wondering if I should read the rest of the story part of the issues, skipping the Annotations for now. Then, re-read the whole thing but this time flipping to the back and reading the Annotations in the order that they relate to the story.

I kinda wish there was some sort of indicator to alert the reader that a peticular story panel is annotated and maybe what page it’s on. Although, I wouldn’t want it to interfere with the great art and spectacular layouts.

This is going to make a great collected edition.