Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Wonderful reference, marred by serious typographical errors

Customer Rating:

I got this book for my birthday and I'm really, really glad that I got it. Want to get that out of the way first. As a basic reference source it's excellent as a geeky coffee table book it's pretty much without peer. It's on my desk at work and at least once a day I get into a vigorous debate or pleasant conversation about Marvel and Marveldom. On a personal level, as the only guy in my neighbourhood who collect all of OHOTMUDE (seriously, the comic guy got one copy of each issue and kept it behind the counter for me), it's just a fun read. Unfortunately, while it could have been much more than that, it's really just a fun read. There are numerous typographical errors, about one every two pages or so. Either the origin issue is wrong, a word is badly misspelled or, as is the case with the entry for the Soviet Super Soldiers, the majority of the illustrated heroes are labelled as "Undefined" when even this casual comic book fan can remember most of the names. It just didn't go through a final editing spit-and-polish and it shows. Definitely a book that belongs in the collection of your average comic book geek, but it could have been quite a bit better.

Marvel Encyclopedia a 'must-have'

Customer Rating:

The Marvel Encyclopedia is a fantastic compilation of the characters inhabiting the Marvel universe. It was interesting reading the backgrounds on the wide array of characters as well as where they first appeared (what issue, year, etc.). The more popular characters (Wolverine, Venom, Spiderman, etc.) are usually given one to two pages for their own history and rightly so. There's more of a following and interest in someone like Venom's history as opposed to a lesser known villain that lasted 3 issues in 1974 (and thus is given a postage stamp-sized blurb). Also, I would have to say the deal on Amazon was great. It was $26 here versus a $40 price tag I saw at a local chain book store.

awesome	Customer Rating:
this book is full of cool things and i really like it and i just love this book . it is so fun to read.

The Marvel Encyclopedia

Customer Rating:

My son Jarett is 8 yrs old and very much into marvel super heros and especially the villians!!! This book is so detailed and so wonderfully illustrated. We can't believe you can learn so much about one charater in a paragraph or just one page. You will find out things you did not know. For example, what happened to Mary Jane Watsons mother!!!! But the best part is my son carries this huge book around wherever he goes. He reads in the car back and forth to karate practice and even sits on the couch and reads instead of TV or nintendo DS all the time!!!! He has not put it down since he recieved it. In fact, he put on his Christmas wish list the DC encylopedia next!!!! Thank you marvel for making such a wonderful and interesting book even a mom can enjoy with her son!!!!

Keeps the kids entertained	Customer Rating:
My kids are young (girl-3 and boy-5) but they love going through the pictures and asking me to read about each superhero's powers. Really feeds their imagination. My daughter favorite super power is strength (like in the Incredible Hulk) and my son's is producing fire. Mine is flying. Wooooosh!