Review: Stan Lee’s Amazing Marvel Universe
originally written for and posted on Comicsnob.com [Dec ’06 – May ’08]
Stan Lee’s Amazing Marvel Universe
Published by: Sterling
Writer: Roy Thomas, with audio commentary by Stan Lee
Artist: reproductions of covers and panels by Kirby, Ditko, Romita, and the rest of the Marvel bullpen
200 (189) pages, hardcover.
Vintage: 2006
Rating: 3 out of 5
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Premise: Excelsior! via 50 “Marvel Moments” (seminal issues, and a few multi-part series) this book captures Stan “in action” over his many decades at Marvel (’41-’97 are covered in the book), though with an obvious emphasis on his work from the 60s.
Synopsis:
The book features a nifty electronic gadget, affixed to one side of the over-long back cover so it is always there to the right of whichever pages you happen to be reading. The gadget allows the selection and playback of any one of 68 audio clips, where Stan the Man can tell you himself what they were thinking when first writing and drawing the comics in question.
The book isn’t so much a history of Marvel itself, but more a series of Stan’s career highlights: starting with his first writing credit (Captain America #3) to his own early co-creations (with Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko) the Fantastic Four and Spider-man, and covering how both the Marvel cast and Universe continued to grow under Stan’s tenure as editor-in-chief and occasional writer.
Included are descriptions of the origins of FF and Spidey, along with the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the Avengers, Sgt. Fury (later Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D), the X-men (both in ‘63 and the re-launch in ‘75), Dr. Strange, Daredevil, the return of Cap (as he joins the Avengers in ‘64) and even the origin of some villians, noteably Dr. Doom & the Sub-Mariner (a Golden Age character re-introduced as a foil for the Fantastic Four).
Oh, and the last time Captain America died, back in ‘69. What, you thought the recent Civil War was the first time they pulled stuff like this?
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Review:
One of the best features of the book is the audio commentary.
One of the worst features of the book is the audio commentary.
…if you didn’t happen to like Stan Lee as a speaker, or perhaps got a little sick of the Stan-central focus of the book. Also, there isn’t a headphone jack (mercifully, there is volume control) so if you’re listening to Stan talk about why the Avengers line-up continually changes, so is everyone else in the room.
Stan deserves a lot of credit, obviously, but since his commentary reflects the memories and experience of just one of many Silver Age comic creators, (especially if you’ve looked into comics history of this era) it often seems one sided. A complete noob might read this book, and come away thinking that Stan was entirely responsible for anything innovative or dramatic about a whole decade of comics.
He probably was… but no other viewpoint is given. The author, Roy Thomas, does a good job with the text though, so there is a fair amount of background presented (usually 2-3 pages) to go along with one of Stan’s 20-30 second sound bites. Also, the panels and pages included are great. Some are chosen for the dialog bubbles more than the artwork, but seeing classic Marvel 4-color action, even in small snips and bits, is almost worth the cover price by itself.
About that price… Originally, this book listed for $50; and even a full-color 200 page book, with gizmo, was a bit over-valued at that price — at least for me. Quite a few other folks agreed with me, I suspect, because now 6 months after it first appeared on shelves, you can find it here and there for $15 or $20, which seems a bit more reasonable.
One for the fans, or for folks looking to pick up a little history, or perhaps for someone who has enjoyed the recent onslaught of Hollywood adaptations from Marvel’s back catalog, and wanted more insight on where these iconic heroes got their start.
And, thankfully, you don’t have to listen to Stan if you don’t want to — the book holds up pretty well on it’s own without the electronic add-on. 3 marks out of 5.
