Marvel Absolutely Everything You Need To Know (A Madman Re-Read)

I've been re-cataloging my comic book collection into a new, hopefully more dependable database. It's been a lengthy, often times tedious, process. Going into my second year of working on this project, I've begun focusing on my graphic novels. That's how I came across this book for a re-read. (And yes, I know that this book is NOT a graphic novel.)

My first read was back in 2017. So a lot of the factoids I previously glossed over, had been essentially forgotten. Especially a lot of the more recent stuff. The more established lore of the heart and soul of the Marvel Universe, I pretty much know like the back of my hand. So I felt I'd benefit from a second glance at Absolutely Everything You Need To Know. True, this book is almost a decade old, published in 2016. That means there's a lot of material that's not even covered here like the coming of America Chavez, Spider-Gwen and Gwenpool. You will not learn about 'The Reckoning War', 'Extreme Carnage' or 'The Death of Doctor Strange.' Readers shouldn't even expect recent anthropomorphic fan favorites Alligator Loki and Jeff, the Land Shark here. 

DK did release an update. But that was in 2019! There's just too much newer stuff that won't be found in this book. If you're a newer reader of comics, you'll learn a lot about the foundation of Marvel Comics. If you're a more established reader looking to get caught up on what you've been missing in recent years, you are out of luck. And I would say that it's not just 2016-present that you will miss out of of you read this edition. I feel like the years 1995-2010 were just glossed over. Deadpool is barely even mentioned. Same goes for Blade, Ghost Rider and even your favorite team of mutants. Yes, the X-Men, arguably Marvel's most popular franchise, only get 4 pages out of over 250+ focused on their exploits. It really feels like the Avengers are the Star attractions of this book.

Avengers heavy exploits such as 'the Civil War,' 'the Age of Ultron' and 'Secret Invasion' are given a prominent place inside. Be glad the authors and editors included those episodes here. Without them, I don't think Wolverine or She-Hulk would even be mentioned in this book. I've not read the reissue of this book. But I'm hoping that instead of trying to revise the information in the first print, DK would have made the 2nd edition more of a compendium of overlooked characters and recent Marvel events. 

Also, despite this book focusing on alternate Earth's and timelines, you will not find anything on Marvel's impressive backlog of comics based on licensed franchises such as Star Wars, GI Joe or Transformers. 

Once again, my biggest peeve with this book was the format. I appreciate that they tried really hard to jam pack as much information and factoids into every 2-page feature. But I hated how they formatted it. Some paragraphs would be printed sideways. The data flow had no set pathway. Everything was so random, I'm pretty sure I missed something. 

Some 2-page spreads were entirely flipped on a 90 degree axis. Instead of reading about the history of Thor and Loki like you would hold a traditional book, their article was formatted in such a way that you had to read it like you were looking at a Playboy Playmate centerfold. I'm so very glad when I got to those segments of the book that my wife didn't assume that I was looking at some dirty pictures of the Invisible Woman or something. 

I enjoyed the read. Lots of knowledge to be gleaned. An amazing assortment of thrilling artwork from over 80 years of Marvel Comics history. Though trying to navigate it was like walking through a labyrinth without a map, a torch and assurance that the Minotaur isn't secretly about to pounce on you. I think it's time to pass this on to another reader. I just hope that the used bookstore that I am gonna trade this in at doesn't think that it's a reference book that is too out of date for readers.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Cryptid Club

I really enjoyed Sarah Andersen's Fangs; a modern day werewolf/vampire romance with a Sex and the City vibe added to the mix. So I was really excited when I found this book just recently at my local library. 

Like Fangs, Cryptid Club is a collection of hilarious vignettes done as a newspaper comic strip. Unlike Fangs, this book doesn't have a linear plot to it. Though a couple of vignettes, like a budding relationship between two characters, do reoccur showing how things are progressing. 

Most of the cryptid characters are based on long-established legends such as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. You've got some more modern monsters too like Mothman. I'll grant that characters such as Slender Man and Alarm Man, which were created by artists, have taken on a bit of mythical status. But I take umbrage at ghosts being considered cryptids. Things that go bump in the night? Surely. But they should be in a totally different category other than cryptid. I don't care how funny their exploits were.

And no, I didn't confuse ghosts with the creatures on the cover. Those glowing-in-the-dark things that look like strolling molars are NOT ghosts! They're a fairly new cryptid called a Fresno Nightcrawler. They're kinda strange in the book. But from what I can tell, they're kinda creepy in real too! 

Cryptid Club was very fun. I probably should have waited until Halloween to read this. There are several Halloween themed laughs inside! But considering that this book was from 2022 and this was the first time I ever saw it on the shelves after countless visits to my local library over the years. I didn't want to risk getting to October and having someone beat me to the punch. 

It's also a super fast read. So give yourself a good half hour during a dark and stormy night. It'll make you into a believer. Even if spirits are misclassified as cryptids...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.cryp

Marvel

Many comic book collectors and fans consider Kingdom Come to be Alex Ross' best work. I like that possible future of the DC Universe. But it's not my favorite of his. I absolutely adore the Alex Ross/Kurt Busiek collaboration from 1994 known simply as Marvels. It follows the span of the Marvel Universe through the eyes of a human newspaper photographer trying to make sense of a world full of superheroes and villains.

So how in the world did I miss Ross' 2020-21 follow up, Marvel? 

Well, for one thing, I'm sure it had something to do with the pandemic. As much 'free time' as I supposedly had as a teacher having to go virtual, I did very little reading. I did even much less comic book shopping. During the pandemic, I had to attend so many useless Zoom meetings that should have been emails because the high ups in my district were terrified of being accused of not doing anything by political detractors. Plus, my anxiety was at such an all-time high, I had trouble focusing on reading. 

But once the pandemic was over and we all started exiting our homes like Punxsutawney Phil looking for his shadow, how did it still take me 4 years to discover this book? A very recent chance trip to Ollie's helped me to find this trade paperback for a very good deal. (If you're in the Durham NC area, there's still a couple dozen volumes of this book if you like to save money like I do.)

Marvel is what Alex Ross originally envisioned Marvels to be. It's an anthology unencumbered by the scope of current Marvel canon. An assortment of creators were to craft stories of their favorite characters in situations as realistic or far fetched as the imagination could reach. No timeline was off limits. Past, present, future or even alternate timeline was a possibility for the tales to be contained. Ultimately, Marvel Comics passed on this project, citing it to be an idea just too lofty for a relative newcomer in the comic book industry to tackle. So Ross put the idea back on the shelf, teamed up with Kurt Busiek and Marvel Comics history was made! (Made ironically by exploring Marvel Comics history.)

Jump forward to the approach of the 25th anniversary of Marvels. The House of Ideas approached Ross for a follow-up to the ground breaking mini. A couple of sequels, including a dark timeline 2-parter had already been done. Ross didn't really want to go back to that storyline. So he pulled deep into his portfolio and dusted off his original plans for Marvels. This time the editors whole-heartedly agreed to the miniseries.

The various stories that make up Marvel is framed with a Doctor Strange epic throughout the 6 issues of the mini. The demon Nightmare has placed the entire Marvel Universe into a deep sleep. His plan is to become the most powerful entity in the universe by drawing upon the hopes, fears and dreams of the heroes, villains and deities of the 616 Universe!

There's a ton of adventures in this book. Too many to give proper attention to. So I'll focus on just a trio of my favs. 

Alan Weiss explores an early adventure of Prince Namor set in the early days of the second World War. He's asked to infiltrate a new underwater mega-structure to determine if its a refuge for the wealthy hoping to avoid the coming global holocaust or is secretly an Axis underwater base. It's a story that shows a much more swashbuckling Sub-Mariner as opposed to the snobbish ruler of Atlantis that we know of today. Very thrilling and completely unexpected.

Speaking of unexpected, in a futuristic story set after 'The War of the Worlds', we see the apocalyptic gladiator games that Killraven was forced to compete in would be like if they were populated by super-heroic survivors of the alien invasion of Earth. I won't spoil the surprise of who makes it to the games. But it's an idea that if Marvel ever decided to expand on, I would making it a part of my pull list in a heartbeat. Featuring dynamic story and artwork by Daniel Acuna.

My choice for third is a tie. That's because we get a pair of stories starring my favorite non-superhero member of the Marvel Universe: Nick Fury. Adam Hughes crafts a Sgt. Fury story set at the very tail end of WW2. Greg Smallwood designed a whirlwind look at the Steranko era of Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD. Both were bookend looks at a fantastic character that to choose one over the other would be like a father picking a favorite child. 

This collection was tons of fun. The unexpected ending was both bizarre and yet perfectly fitting. Marvel might have supposed to have been a celebration of 1994's Marvels but by story's end, it wound up being a love story to Timely, Atlas and Marvel Comics and the influence it has made on American pop culture history!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Giant! (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Deedrick is an alchemist. Though from the looks of the current predicament Deedrick is in, he's not a very good one. When his latest experiment results in embarrassment for the leader of his township, Deedrick is assigned to detail duty for the castle protectors. 

In other words, he's been made to clean pigeon poop off the the community's gargoyles.

Deedrick's day is about to get much worse however when he accidentally turns one of the stone grotesques into flesh and bone. The shock causes the boy to drop his cleaning brush which sets off a Rube Goldberg-like series of events throughout the town until the cleaning tool knocks over a seemingly innocent looking tablet containing various runes. Oh, and the damage to the runes awakens a giant menace who's been slumbering under the town for hundreds of years. 

Chris Warton's Giant! began as a 2013 Kickstarter campaign. Successfully funded, Warton's book was self-published under the banner of Salamander Studio. Only about 500 copies of Giant! were published. I became aware of this book years later when I found a used copy with an original sketch of the gargoyle in the inside front cover. It must have been an incentive for one of the backers. Nowadays, interested readers either have to get lucky hunting for one of the few existing print copies or they can obtain an ebook copy on Amazon as well as at Warton's personal website. A few other digital works are also available from the artist. In 2020, Warton saw another successful campaign funded, the fantasy heavy Venture Cats. 

Original sketch from my copy.

Perhaps Chris Warton's biggest claim to fame are his YouTube videos. Warton's channel features dozens of how to draw mini classes as well as time-lapsed detailings of his latest works of art. 

As for the continuing adventures of Deedrick and the living gargoyle, there's not currently any announced plans. 

Completing this review completes Task #29 (A Book Involving Gargoyles) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Remain in Love: Talking Heads * Tom Tom Club * Tina by Chris Frantz

Chris Frantz is the drummer and co-founding member of Talking Heads; one of my favorite bands of all-time. He's also the husband of my favorite member of the band, Tina Weymouth. From reading this book, I also have learned that he's either an amazing storyteller or someone who incredibly happened to have amazing timing being involved in the formation of so many important bands and creation of pieces of music during the late 1970s through the early 1990s.

Frantz gives a nearly day by day account of how he met and wooed Tina during the early days of Talking Heads. Every stop on the band's inaugural tour of Europe opening for the Ramones is covered in depth. Chris's Kentucky wedding to Tina practically covers the entire guest list. And the married couple's origination of the Caribbean/pop/dancehall project, Tom Tom Club, due more to financial necessity than the ultimate achievement of a lifelong dream, goes through more twists and turns than a week's of soap opera. But when it comes to the demise of the band, Chris Frantz barely spends more than a dozen pages on the topic.

In 1984, while performing in New Zealand, frontman David Byrne stormed off stage and had to be prompted back to finish off the set by Frantz. That event which basically signalled the end of Talking Heads in concert as well as the beginning of the end of the band, isn't even mentioned in this book. One might argue that Byrne is the villain of the book. But I feel that despite as contrarian David Byrne was, not to mention devious and backstabbing he allegedly was, Frantz does a heck of a job giving the self-diagnosed autistic musician a heaping benefit of the doubt. 

One reason the end of the band isn't covered as in-depth as their origins is because how Frantz tries so very hard to focus on the happy times. The name of the book is 'Remain in Love'. However, it could also have something to do with the author's raging cocaine habit that developed right along with the end of Talking Heads. Maybe it's that period of time is too hard for Chris Frantz to document. Maybe his binges were so destructive, Chris just doesn't have very much memory of those times. 

I've gained an enormous amount of respect for Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth thanks to this book; though my level was already high before. I've also grown to appreciate the forgotten Head, Jerry Harrison, a lot more. I'm also listening to more Tom Tom Club than just 'Genius of Love'. An account of the career of the Ramones is definitely on my to-read list thanks to this biography. Though I doubt it's anywhere as rosy a read as this book was. But above all, I want to read David Byrne's side of the story. I think he deserves that chance before I finalize my opinion of him.

Oh... And before I forget! David, Chris, Jerry and Tina: can we please get 1 final tour before I die, please!!!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Avengers: Disassembled

The Original Avengers come to an end in this collection by Brian Michael Bendis. 

Bendis in my opinion is a fantastic writer and a thrilling plotter. He crafts situations that are so shocking and unexpected that I can understand why he's such a controversial character in his craft. But I like him. There's a really good interview with Bendis added to the director's commentary section. It gives some amazing insight into his thought process. Many fans feel like Bendis hates the characters he writes by putting them through the wringer like he does. However, in that interview, Bendis explains that if he made the lives of each character that he was fan of without their trials, it would get pretty boring, pretty quick.

Avengers: Disassembled recounts the worst day in Avengers history. The story is 20 years old and yet I do do not want to spoil it for readers who might not have read it yet. However, I can say that you don't have to read 5 'Disassembled' storylines that take place with Thor, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Spider-Man and Captain America. Those books 'weave a complete tapestry' of the 'Disassembled' epic but you won't miss anything if you stick to the Avengers who are the main focus of this period in Marvel history.

I believe that I can also reveal without ruining anything by saying that if you are a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and you wish to learn more about the comic book influences of WandaVision, Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness and Agatha All Along, then you will want this volume!

The artwork of the main story is by David Finch. I thought it was dynamic. In his sketchbook at the end of this book, he gets really in-depth into a particularly shocking segment. Finch is really hard on himself, pointing out all of the imperfections in his work. I totally relate. As a chef, I constantly find ways I could have made the dish better while all those who eat my creations think it's amazing. Finch as an artist sees how he could have improved while I am looking at every panel thinking it's sheer perfection. 

Also included in this volume is a one-shot finale where dozens of Avengers artists from the past 500 issues join together to recount some of Earth's Mightiest Heroes favorite moments as an Avenger while saying goodbye to the Avengers Mansion which is to be turned into a monument to the heroes who fell in the onslaught. 

A great addition to my Avengers collection of works.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Joker's Asylum

I've read some but not all of the second salvo of one-shots under the 'Joker's Asylum' lineup. They're like what you would have encountered if EC Comics had crafted a Batman villains themed anthology. The Joker is your host, leading through a captivating story about a member of the Dark Knight's rogues gallery, climaxing with a twist ending on par with Johnny Craig, Al Feldstein or Harvey Kurtzman. 

I loved the 3 I've read so far. So finding the first collection for an amazingly good price was a no-brainer.

The Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, the Scarecrow and the Joker himself are the stars of the 5 one-shots that comprised the first series. Penguin's tale of true love ruined by his vicious streak brought about by the slightest bruise to his delicate ego was the best story. Amazing tale by Jason Aaron that I could read again and again. Joe Harris's story involving the psychological monster, the Scarecrow, was a frightening yet fun homage to the teen horror flicks of the 80s and 90s with a cerebral ending. J.T. Krul's look at Poison Ivy was a classic Batman mystery tale. There's just not enough of those type of Batman stories these days if you ask me.

The Two-Face one-shot by David Hine was a morality play about human nature and whether man is inherently good or bad. So can a good man be turned into a villain while the most retched of all is redeemed as a saint? Add in Harvey Dent's very literal interpretations of the id and ego and it's definitely not a story for casual comic book readers. This is college level stuff. Plus the level of unease is at least doubled with the ending that the reader determines thanks to a simple flip of a coin. 

My least favorite story was the Joker's tale. Ironic, eh? The Joker rigs a game show in a farce by Arvid Nelson that fell short in my eyes. However, the artwork of the Joker by Alex Sanchez that reflects the many actors who have portrayed the Clown Prince of Crime over the years was exceptional. It's just a bit of a let down when the Joker tries to prove that he's not the biggest, baddest monster in Gotham. This isn't The Walking Dead. I know that the worst monster of them all is man. I don't need the Joker to remind me.

A fantastic read. Why DC will stop of only 2 runs Joker's Asylum one-shots. but put out a dozen sequel volumes of Dark Nights: Metal or DC Undead is beyond me!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 20 stars.