Surely somebody's mentioned this somewhere around here! I just recently had a chance to read it. It's an interesting concept--a collection of four short handbooks, each representing Marvel in a different decade. While there are articles on some of the "big guns" like the Fantastic Four, most of the entries are on secondary characters. There are even lots of C and D-listers. I have no idea what the criteria for inclusion were. The different sections do give a feel for what Marvel was like in the different decades.

The 1960s entries have relatively few of the dramatic stories for which Marvel is mainly remembered. Mostly the character origins and biographies are full of Silver-Age goofiness. Mainly they keep reusing the same few B-grade sci-fi elements. Most of them involve either exposure to radiation (radioactive cobalt was big around 1966) or alien technology. For variety there are a couple of magic users and several gimmicky thieves of the sort that plagued most DC heroes during the period. You can tell that most of the stories must have been done-in-one or maybe two issues. Many of the characters are so obscure they never appeared again. It's interesting to learn so much old Marvel history!

The 1970s were really the age of grand Marvel melodrama, as this broke out of titles like the FF and Spider-Man and went everywhere. Origins and histories become more complex (Some might say convoluted). Tragedy and death become much more common. Horror comics like "Tomb of Dracula" had some downright nasty stories and characters. It's clear that there are lots more multiple appearances and multi-issue arcs. But you still have one-shots like Tagak the Leopard Lord.

In the 1980s the trends evident in the 1970s continued. There is far more violence and death. Stories get more brutal. The nasty stuff found in the horror comics has begun to spread. There are fewer goofy one-shots.

Then we come to the 1990s, and everything just goes off the deep end. The changes are so dramatic as to represent more of a break with what went on before than a continuation of it. Stories are so full of Byzantine plotting, violence, and gratuitous death and sadism that the character biographies become well-nigh unreadable, and incomprehensible to boot. The art is as ugly as the stories. You've got all the one-word character names that are obviously trying so hard to be kewl--especially the ones with the variant spellings ("y" in place of an "i" and the like). One-shots seem to be gone. Only occasionally are there throwbacks to earlier types of stories, such as the Spider-Man family character Bluebird--and even she dies what sounds like a pointless and needless death. The Marvel Universe of the 1990s had become a totally different place from what went before. And not a place I'd care to visit.

It's a terrible irony that this dark age was the period when Marvel's and the Direct Market's popularity both peaked. No wonder I remember it as a period when the shelves were crammed with dozens of titles that all looked pretty much alike! It looked like they were hiring anybody who could hold a pencil or type on a keyboard to grind out as much junk as they possibly could.

Here 'tis:

Product Description
Writer: Ronald Byrd, Jacob Rougemont, Jeff Christiansen
Penciller (cover): Sal Buscema
Orig. Published: November 07, 2007
Imprint: MARVEL UNIVERSE
Rating: RATED T+
ISBN #: 978-0-7851-2082-7
Format: Trade Paperback
UPC: 5960612082-00111

The Story: Here it is, True Believers! You knew we'd do it sooner or later! From the Venerable Vaults of Marveldom, it's the Mighty Marvel Handbook -- in the style of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s! Just what is a Legacy Handbook, you ask? Imagine a Handbook written during each of those decades. The profiles within each chapter cover everything published by the hallowed House of Ideas up until that point. So if it's from a comic that has a December 1969 cover date or earlier, you'll find it in the magnificent 1960s chapter! Featuring Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and more across the ages -- as well as hundreds of other era-specific entries! Collecting MARVEL LEGACY: 1960s HANDBOOK, MARVEL LEGACY: 1970s HANDBOOK, MARVEL LEGACY: 1980s HANDBOOK and MARVEL LEGACY: 1990s HANDBOOK.

Amazon USA:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0785120823/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon Canada:
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0785120823/?tag=imwanca-20

Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0785120823/?tag=imwan-21

Imagine what they'd say about the 2000's?

'60's was simply EPIC. I wonder about the ages of the writers. Guys under 40 or 50 who had to look back at the '60's or older writers who were there at the start. Because being there as a kid cracking open FF one and seeing something that new and startling and then taking the ride through the '60's and living the Marvel age of comics would give a much better appreciation of the era as opposed to looking back, i'd think.