The Marvel Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the Marvel Universe by Dorling Kindersley Books

This is a encyclopedia of all the heroes, villains and important people in the Marvel universe. It comtains an entry on everyone from the Abomination to ZZaxx, and any character who has interacted in a significant way with any of the heroes of the Marvel Universe.

This means not only characters like The Hulk, Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America, Hercules, Ant Man, Storm, Professor X and Thor, but Villains like the Mandarin, Abomination, Magneto, Mystique, Sandman, Vulture and Mephisto. It includes peripheral characters and sidekicks like Jarvis, Willy Lumpkin (Whose superpower is to be able to wiggle his ears. No joke) and Rick Jones.

Each character is given either a short bio and information on their powers for minor characters or villains, and a much longer writeup for fan favorites or more important characters who have been around for a while. Some of these can run several pages, and each entry is graced with one or more pictures of that character. The longer-lived characters are depicted with different entries showing changes in costume and hairstyle along with their writeup.

The real reason for this updated book is the character information. So much has gone on since the last volume was printed, including the Secret Invasion, World War Hulk, the Aftermath of that, Xavier's attempted assassination, the House of M, and so on, that much of the information on characters has changed. Not only is World War Hulk covered in the entry on the Hulk, but the appearance of the Red Hulk and the changing of Rick Jones into A-Bomb is discussed as well.

Several entries discuss the Ultimates Universe, as well as the Marvel Zombies Universe, and how they differ. Splash pages show important comics of different decades from the 1950's to today, and the back has a discussion of the Various "What If" comics as scenarios observed by Uatu the Watcher from his position in the Multiverse. But only one character from those stories rates her own entry among the others- Bloodstorm, aka Storm as a vampire.

This is a great encyclopedia of Marvel's characters and storylines- because there are so many of them, you'd have to read nothing but comics to keep up with them all, and even then, you wouldn't be able to remember it all. Here, all the characters and storylines- even those in which the character is only known to appear because his or her costume is spotted, is mentioned in the section on that character.

I was constantly surprised at how large the Marvel Universe has become, and how many characters it now holds. I was also pleased to see still represented Mandrill and Nekra, who I remembered from my first comic overview of the Marvel Universe, published by Marvel itself in the late 70's. Back then, you could fit all the characters in 12 30-page issues. But this isn't the case any more- this is a huge book that was almost a struggle to carry, and not quite comfortable to read except lying down on my stomach.

This is an excellent book, filled with art from some of Marvel's best artists and colorists. The information on each character is precise and well-realized, and it's a wonderful value for the money. Well worth the investment.