Post by The Night Phantom on Mar 2, 2007 20:45:38 GMT -5
Not earth-shaking news, but it seems a new handbook focusing on the Avengers is in the works.
Some background: When The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe returned in 2004, it was as a series of monthly one-shots focusing on various areas of the MU, rather than the more comprehensive format of the ’80s and ’90s OHOTMU publications. Early installments of the revived OHOTMU, including OHOTMU: Avengers 2004, were often skimpy in biographical information, presumably to allow room for more entries. When a second Avengers volume was published in 2005, the format had evolved into permitting more space for characters with lengthier histories. However, OHOTMU: Avengers 2005 did not include entries on any characters covered in the previous installment, and so many key characters such as the Wasp and Yellowjacket still hadn’t gotten comprehensive coverage in this decade (though some did get meatier follow-up entries in non-Avengers-related volumes, such as the Black Panther in OHOTMU: Marvel Knights 2005, and some Avengers and Avengers-related characters were profiled in non-Avengers-focused handbooks, such as Spider-Man in handbooks dedicated to his own corner of the Marvel Universe). In 2006, the focused OHOTMU one-shots were replaced by the twelve-issue All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z; the new series, though appropriately “universal” in scope, tended to profile characters, groups, etc. who had not already been profiled in the one-shot installments (Quicksilver’s entry in #9, expanded and updated from his profile in OHOTMU: Avengers 2004, was one of the rare exceptions). This year, the monthly series has been succeeded by a quarterly All-New OHOTMU A to Z Update, which generally continues the trend set by the 2006 series. (Happily, its first issue has already provided another expanded entry for a character earlier profiled in the Avengers’ ’04 volume, in this case Quasar).
Along the way, Marvel has been putting out several additional handbook one-shots. The one-shots do not use the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe name, and they vary greatly in their adherence to its overall format. These non-OHOTMU one-shots all focus on some specific theme or another, often some sort of current Marvel event: an Annihilation handbook, a Civil War Files handbook, etc.—even a New Avengers edition focusing on “Breakout” villains. The Marvel Legacy handbooks, each focusing on the Marvel Universe during a particular decade (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s), form another type of non-OHOTMU handbook one-shot.
My source of information about the new Avengers handbook is a reference, in passing, within the recent 1990s Handbook. On the inside back cover, there’s a feature called “Where Are They Now?” that summarizes the directions the characters took after the 1990s. The entry for Iron Man (it’s actually the alternate-timeline teenage Tony Stark that this issue’s Iron Man profile focuses on) directs readers to the OHOTMU: Avengers 2004 volume plus “the upcoming Avengers Handbook”. What such a volume would entail is not yet revealed.
Some background: When The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe returned in 2004, it was as a series of monthly one-shots focusing on various areas of the MU, rather than the more comprehensive format of the ’80s and ’90s OHOTMU publications. Early installments of the revived OHOTMU, including OHOTMU: Avengers 2004, were often skimpy in biographical information, presumably to allow room for more entries. When a second Avengers volume was published in 2005, the format had evolved into permitting more space for characters with lengthier histories. However, OHOTMU: Avengers 2005 did not include entries on any characters covered in the previous installment, and so many key characters such as the Wasp and Yellowjacket still hadn’t gotten comprehensive coverage in this decade (though some did get meatier follow-up entries in non-Avengers-related volumes, such as the Black Panther in OHOTMU: Marvel Knights 2005, and some Avengers and Avengers-related characters were profiled in non-Avengers-focused handbooks, such as Spider-Man in handbooks dedicated to his own corner of the Marvel Universe). In 2006, the focused OHOTMU one-shots were replaced by the twelve-issue All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z; the new series, though appropriately “universal” in scope, tended to profile characters, groups, etc. who had not already been profiled in the one-shot installments (Quicksilver’s entry in #9, expanded and updated from his profile in OHOTMU: Avengers 2004, was one of the rare exceptions). This year, the monthly series has been succeeded by a quarterly All-New OHOTMU A to Z Update, which generally continues the trend set by the 2006 series. (Happily, its first issue has already provided another expanded entry for a character earlier profiled in the Avengers’ ’04 volume, in this case Quasar).
Along the way, Marvel has been putting out several additional handbook one-shots. The one-shots do not use the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe name, and they vary greatly in their adherence to its overall format. These non-OHOTMU one-shots all focus on some specific theme or another, often some sort of current Marvel event: an Annihilation handbook, a Civil War Files handbook, etc.—even a New Avengers edition focusing on “Breakout” villains. The Marvel Legacy handbooks, each focusing on the Marvel Universe during a particular decade (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s), form another type of non-OHOTMU handbook one-shot.
My source of information about the new Avengers handbook is a reference, in passing, within the recent 1990s Handbook. On the inside back cover, there’s a feature called “Where Are They Now?” that summarizes the directions the characters took after the 1990s. The entry for Iron Man (it’s actually the alternate-timeline teenage Tony Stark that this issue’s Iron Man profile focuses on) directs readers to the OHOTMU: Avengers 2004 volume plus “the upcoming Avengers Handbook”. What such a volume would entail is not yet revealed.
