Episode 1111 - The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe

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How tall is Wolverine? How many tons can Spider-Man lift? Can The Blob survive a nuclear blast? If you were reading Marvel comic books in the mid-1980s, there was only one place to get all these answers and more: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition. And, not to be outdone, DC Comics had their handy encyclopedia of stats, histories, and oddball characters: Who's Who in the DC Universe. Today, Dan and Mike dive into these tomes to discuss the preserved-in-amber nature of these wonderful guidebooks. Follow Mike on Twitter @earth_2, @MikeReadsComics, and @ChronologicalFF. [ 1:33:28 || 48.8 MB ]

 

[Donomark]

So I wasn't around when these were, but FWIW my first interaction with a Superhero Guide Sheet were the bio pages at the end of each issue from DC versus Marvel.

[S-T]

What I find interesting is how many characters in the "book of the dead" are alive again. I remember when Marvel had a rule that dead characters don't come back. This discouraged killing characters willy-nilly and meant that a death in a story actually had real stakes. Death is meaningless any more.

[S-T]

One of the things I really liked about Marvel Handbook is how they tried to ground it in the real world with pseudo-scientific explanations of how things worked. Dan and Mike gushed about how cool it was, but it also makes the Marvel characters seem "real" in a way the DC characters did not.

Plus, it inspired who knows how many people to want to get into comics.

The Silver Centurion armor is what Stark was wearing when I really got into Iron Man, so that one will always be special for me.