All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told

by Douglas Wolk

Winner of the 2022 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book

The first-ever full reckoning with Marvel Comics’ interconnected, half-million-page story, a revelatory guide to the “epic of epics”—and to the past sixty years of American culture—from a beloved authority on the subject who read all 27,000+ Marvel superhero comics and lived to tell the tale

“Brilliant, eccentric, moving and wholly wonderful. . . . Wolk proves to be the perfect guide for this type of nimble, learned, funny and sincere. . . . All of the Marvels is magnificently marvelous. Wolk’s work will invite many more alliterative superlatives. It deserves them all.” —Junot Díaz, New York Times Book Review

The superhero comic books that Marvel Comics has published since 1961 are, as Douglas Wolk notes, the longest continuous, self-contained work of fiction ever over half a million pages to date, and still growing. The Marvel story is a gigantic mountain smack in the middle of contemporary culture. Thousands of writers and artists have contributed to it. Everyone recognizes its Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men. Eighteen of the hundred highest-grossing movies of all time are based on parts of it. Yet not even the people telling the story have read the whole thing—nobody’s supposed to. So, of course, that’s what Wolk he read all 27,000+ comics that make up the Marvel Universe thus far, from Alpha Flight to Omega the Unknown .
 
And then he made sense of it—seeing into the ever-expanding story, in its parts and as a whole, and seeing through it, as a prism through which to view the landscape of American culture. In Wolk’s hands, the mammoth Marvel narrative becomes a fun-house-mirror history of the past sixty years, from the atomic night terrors of the Cold War to the technocracy and political division of the present day—a boisterous, tragicomic, magnificently filigreed epic about power and ethics, set in a world transformed by wonders.
 
As a work of cultural exegesis, this is sneakily significant, even a landmark; it’s also ludicrously fun. Wolk sees fascinating patterns—the rise and fall of particular cultural aspirations, and of the storytelling modes that conveyed them. He observes the Marvel story’s progressive visions and its painful stereotypes, its patches of woeful hackwork and stretches of luminous creativity, and the way it all feeds into a potent cosmology that echoes our deepest hopes and fears. This is a huge treat for Marvel fans, but it’s also a revelation for readers who don’t know Doctor Strange from Doctor Doom. Here, truly, are all of the marvels.

Genres: Nonfiction, Comics, History, Marvel, Pop Culture, Superheroes, Audiobook

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 2021

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Spending time in [the Marvel universe] can make you better equipped to live in the 'real' one: more curious about how its systems fit together; more willing to explore what you don't yet understand, and accept that you can't know everything; more open to hope in the face of catastrophe; more aware that no matter how overwhelming your own life may seem, it's only part of a much bigger picture." -- page 16

Author Wolk had a pretty good yet also daunting idea for a book - he decided to read the 27,000+ various issues of Marvel comics published from 1961 - which was the debut of The Fantastic Four, the superhero family credited with kick-starting the company - up to the present day of 2016. Yes, that's 55 years worth of stories (!). Madness, you say? Well, I think it made for a very entertaining, informative and thoughtful work. He discusses the development / growth / changes of the long-running flagship teams (the aforementioned Four, the Avengers, the X-Men) or characters (Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, etc.) as well as the legendary behind-the-scenes scripting or artist personnel such as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Chris Claremont, and John Byrne. Obviously Wolk cannot cover EVERYTHING in an in-depth manner in a mere 350 pages, but his observations and analysis - other than his odd distaste for The Punisher, mentioned more than once - on this epic fictional universe were often both humorous and nicely detailed, and the final chapter - in which he introduces his astute young son to Marvel - was a wonderfully earnest and perfect conclusion.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

“All of the Marvels” is Douglas Wolk’s extended love letter to Marvel Comics, all 27,000 of them ranging from the 1960’s to the present. He read them all and wants to share his delight with the rest of us. As he explains in his extended introduction, one of the magical things about Marvel Comics is that all the superheros inhabit an extended universe (although there are a few alternate universes out there) and there is in some ways a giant story of which each comic line is but a piece of. This has allowed such things as cross-over stories and hints in one comic line of something going on in another. Wolk also points out that the Marvel superhero story extends over sixty years of comics from 1960 or so to the present day, but in comic-time, its only about 15 years compressed. Otherwise, all our heroes would be tottering grandparents still wielding the might hammer or the shield. Some of this dues ex machina, meaning the storytellers made it fit.

Wolk does not purport to trace the entire history of any line of comics or even the depth or breadth of a comic line. He argues that Marvel’s heart and soul has always been the Fantastic Four and talks about that line in general and then points out specific issues that matter. Wolk does the same for Thor, for the Black Panther, and for X-Men, talking as much about modern day manifestations of these heroes than the classic stories.

His devotion to his comic collection and the handing it down to his son are fascinating, particularly for those of us who gave up our comic books as teenagers, selling off our small meager collections for gas money and a new set of absolutely-necessary tires. Of course, some drawbacks are that Wolk made no attempt to talk about all of the major lines of Marvel. For some of us who view the center of the Marvel Universe as Captain America and the Avengers, that means our favorite comic lines are not discussed. Moreover, for those of us who stopped following any series in the late seventies or the early eighties, it means that there is quite a bit of discussion about new stuff we just are not familiar with and individual issues that we just skim by. Luckily, Wolk does point out that much of Marvel is now accessible online through subscription services.

[Vovka · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author read all 500,000+ pages of Marvel comics, and this is the product of that.

I'm disappointed. Of all the things he could have done with the project, he chose summarizing plots (60% of this book) over actual critical analysis (10%). He chose providing a guide to the trailheads into the mountain of work over rating the trails or advancing knowledge of what makes a good trail for future story creators.

I don't regret reading the book, but I do wish that it had provided me with greater value per minute of reading.

I wish that:
- there had been greater discussion of cross-media interactions (movies, books, comics, games)
- more interesting questions were attempted (for example, what does this a piece of work say about American readers' secularization and changing nature of spiritual questing? how is this work in step with or out of step with or driving culture? what significance does this medium have today -- was there a "peak comic" moment or two?)
- art analysis had gone deeper; loved the section on Shang-Chi's skin color evolution -- wanted equivalent discussions of sexualization of poses, on choices such as dialog profanity, and on other issues having to do with artistic choice, especially around the boundaries of cultural acceptance

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Douglas Wolk decided he was going to read over 27,000 Marvel Comics, starting in the early 60s and going up to the present time. He then wrote a book detailing his experiences and observations on the comics he loved as a kid and as an adult.

The tone for this book is conversational and at times humorous. He is a big fan of Marvel, but doesn't shy away from the problematic things in their past, such as their treatment of race and gender. I liked that his passion for comics really came through in the writing and that he gave his insights into where to start reading comics and reading them together with his son. I also liked that in the appendix he gave us a quick run down of the 6 main timelines in the Marvel Comics Universe. No matter if you're new to comics, like me, or a long time reader, you will enjoy this book!

Thank you to Penguin Press, author Douglas Wolk, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[britt_brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not so much focused on the company’s and creators’ histories, but rather on the actual characters, canon, arcs, shifts, trends, and how the universe connects. Inspired by his son, Wolk read over 27,000 Marvel stories resulting in this phenomenal rundown. I’ve read only a few of the comics, but like many, I love the MCU films. The cultural impact is fascinating! Perfect companion to Marvel Comics: The Untold Story and A Marvelous Life.

[Peter Baran · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Of The Marvels seems initially to fit into the “man does a ridiculous project” genre of books, like the Babel Message or even Around Ireland With A Fridge. But the method in the madness moves beyond “someone does something so they can then writer about it” into, “this is the culture – isn’t it?”. Certainly what Douglas Wolk has done here – read every single Marvel comic (with caveats so minor they don’t matter) – is a gargantuan task. There is a reason why there are at least three preamble chapters telling you not to do it, and if you even vaguely try to do it, don’t do it, but if you really, really want to do it – do it your way. Because the artistic value of the project, reading the largest piece of shared Universe fiction where everything happened and everything matters (that week), also involves reading quite a few badly written stories, a fair few terribly drawn comics and plenty of stories who exist to unpick or contradict previous stories. By all means follow your favourite characters over sixty years, aging perhaps ten at best, but be prepared for their personalities, back story and even in some cases powers and parentage to change. It might be the largest piece of shared universe fiction out there, but no-one every promised it would be good or make a whole lot of sense.

Wolk can say this, and say this in some cases with glee, because he has read them all. In his generous fashion finds the upside of the project (the good stuff, the great art, the surprising or satisfying stories) outweighs the bad stuff and the bad stuff, well its often interestingly bad. A continuous piece of fiction written and released in multiple books monthly rides the zeitgeist, though it also often rides the coat-tails of the zeitgeist if not the second wave coat-tails (Oh Dazzler – disco was dead and buried before you put your glittery roller skates on). So you can watch US society change, deep buried politic ideas shift. It helps that the carnival barker of Marvel - Stan Lee (whose input Wolk muses upon in many places) talked a good equality talk. But even in some of the most heinously racist portrayals – and Wolk spends a chapter on Shang-Chi and the Fu Manchu connections – you can see things change and arguments happen in the letter pages (again a forerunner of our own hyper-mediated feedback culture).

What is great about All Of The Marvels – and it is great – is the sense of sitting with someone telling you how great, and silly, and infuriating, and addictive their hobby is, and it never gets old or boring. Wolk has read all of these comics SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO, and spends much of the book doing deep dives on favourite bits. Most of these coincide with characters who have greater media attention through the films now, they are the big characters, so no-one gets to go in cold. But every time Wolk tells you not to do what he has done, the urge grows greater in the reader. This engaging, funny and warm writer did it, and it didn’t break him (it might have broken him a bit). One of those books that could have been twice as long and still as much fun, I read it in a day – cancelling my plans because it was that much fun. I know Marvel comics pretty well so wasn’t surprised by many of the revelations here, but it was like spending a day chatting about this nonsense. If along the way he makes the case for cultural significance (probably already a given), and artistic value then his job is also done. Treat yourself if you are even vaguely interested in the topic, and perhaps, even if you aren’t.

[Ajeje Brazov · Rating 4 out of 5]

La mia personale avventura con le storie di supereroi, che esse fossero film o telefilm/serie TV, è stata sempre molto altalenante, ma in quanto a fumetti ero proprio a digiuno completo.
Non sono mai stato molto vicino alla retorica dei supereoi, forse perchè il messaggio che mi davano i film, più che altro, mi risultava posticcio e poco coinvolgente. Superman degli anni '70 invece mi è sempre piaciuto, non da riguardarlo all'infinito, però ci stava.
Negli anni 2000 poi sono esplosi, letteralmente, i film tratti dai fumetti Marvel e DC ed allora mi ci sono rimesso ed il risultato era sempre, magari gradevole, ma mai appassionante. Fino ad arrivare alla serie dei film Avengers, soprattutto gli ultimi due, ma soprattutto con Deadpool & Wolverine e Thunderbolts. Due film che mi hanno instillato una voglia di conoscere l'universo creato in 60 anni nei fumetti.
Così mi metto a navigare qua e là in vari siti e video, per carpirne l'essenza della cronologia della storia, ma il tutto mi risulta confusionario e disorientante. Alla fine torno ai miei amati libri di carta e scovo per caso questo libro, questo che ho appena finito di leggere.
Non mi sarei mai aspettato di leggere una cronostoria dettagliata della storia Marvel, alla fine l'autore si è spupazzato 27.000 albi da 24 pagine, con un totale di più di 600.000 pagine di fumetti. Un pazzo? Io penso più ad un appassionato perso, come lo può essere solo un vero appassionato, quindi ben vengano i pazzi!! XD
Alla fine da questo libro avrei voluto avere una infarinatura della varie storie, che s'intrecciano e dei personaggi, almeno delineati e soprattutto che mi fomentasse alla ricerca ed alla lettura di quell'universo multisfaccettato che è l'universo Marvel. Risultato: il suo "sporco" lavoro l'ha fatto alla grande. Ora devo recuperare tutto e come faccio?! :O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPMY2...

[Johnny Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

All of the Marvels promises to give readers a tour of the Marvel Universe based on the stories told in the 20,000+ comics published during the existence of Marvel Comics. Douglas Wolk indicates early on that he could not touch on all of the Marvel Comics storylines due to time and space constraints, which seems reasonable.

However, upon reading the book, Wolk focuses almost exclusively on the books published in the 1960s, and those published in the 2000s, ignoring or poo-pooing all of the comics published in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s as derivative and unimportant to the Marvel Comics narrative. He even glosses over the first Secret Wars series as something that had minimal impact at the time, and little impact to the over-arching narrative (This sereis is actually a Marvel Milestone for a variety of reasons, including the first appearance of Venom and proof that event books could thrive outside of the established Annual format that was used up to this time). There are exceptions, such as Claremont and Byrne's X-Men, and he does a nice piece on Master of Kung Fu (which actually feels forced when taken in context with the rest of the "story" he attempts to tell).

This leaves the reader wondering about the premise of the book, and whether Wolk is actually living up to it. How can 30 years of comics be completely unimportant to the overall narrative? Were the stories told really as bad and/or derivative as he purports them to be? Why are stories that contain such important milestones as the first mortals to set foot in Asgard, the first appearance of Deadpool, the 1970s horror boom, the first solo comic book series starring an African American super hero, the introduction of Scott Lang as the new Ant Man, the fantastic work of George Perez, Roy Thomas, John Romita, jr., John Byrne, Peter David, and others, (I could go on) deemed to be unimportant to the ongoing Marvel Comics narrative?

These are questions that occur to the reader as s/he makes his/her way through the book. And then, in the final chapter, we learn the reason for this statement. As it turns out. Wolk introduced comics to his young son, who read the comics of the 1960s, then skipped ahead to the the comics of the 2000s, choosing to move to the more modern books. This preference from his son echoes the focus of the book so closely, it could not be coincidence.

Because of this blatant admission and the bias the author shows throughout the volume, this book would better be titled "All of the Marvels That My Son Likes."

Pick it up as a curiosity, but don't look to this book as any kind of authoritative explanation of the Marvel Saga.

I was very disappointed in this book.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well researched and laid out book covering this massive storyline. Recommended

[Alex Sarll]

I've read more Marvel comics than most people, but I still find the work behind this book a little terrifying: with a few small exceptions, Douglas Wolk read every Marvel comic from 1961 to 2017 (and plenty of the other ones too). All 27,000 of them. So on one level, it's impressive enough that the book isn't just page after page of 'All work and no play makes Doug a dull boy.' Excluding DC on account of its reboots, and its coming later to full engagement with the shared universe idea, Wolk makes the case that the Marvel Universe, if not if the greatest story ever told, is certainly the biggest, in more ways than one. He uses the metaphor of a vast mountain in the middle of pop culture; even before it spawned 18 of the hundred highest grossing films, and influenced plenty of the others, many of its characters and tropes (bitten by a radioactive spider; 'You wouldn't like me when I'm angry') had entered the culture. Yet when this inspires people to attempt their own ascent of the mountain, many of the apparently easy routes prove fruitless and frustrating. Yet people keep emerging gasping about the wonders inside. What to do? Well, Wolk wants to provide a guidebook, a celebration of how a handful of creators, and the hundreds who came after them, folded all the other comics genres like romance and monsters and humour into the superheroes whose rebirth they kicked off, in the process beginning "a funhouse-mirror history of the past sixty years of American life". "In some of its deeper caverns, it's the most forbidding, baffling, overwhelming work of art in existence. At its fringes, it's so easy to understand and enjoy that you can read a five-year-old an issue of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and she'll get it right away. And not even the people telling the story have read the whole thing.
That's fine. Nobody is supposed to read the whole thing. That's not how it's meant to be experienced.
So, of course, that's what I did. I read all 540,000-plus pages of the story published to date, from Alpha Flight to Omega The Unknown. Do I recommend anyone else do the same? God, no. Am I glad I did it? Absolutely."

The real beauty of it is that while formatted as a handbook for the curious novice, perhaps someone coming from the films, All Of The Marvels is also written with sufficient verve and insight that any Marvel veteran will find plenty to enjoy too. Sometimes it skirts the mythic awe with which Grant Morrison's Supergods approached the history of the superhero; other times it's spectacularly salty. Some of my favourite bits came when it managed to be both at once: "Readers can either buy into this stuff or roll their eyes at it hard, but it's more fun to do both. It's very easy to mock Claremont by quoting him out of context; all his biggest fans do it." The longer chapters suggest thematic overviews and interesting starting points for individual characters or teams, singling out illustrative issues; shorter interludes take in wider yet also more niche angles like space, or music in the Marvel Universe (which was where I got very excited to learn that someone whose video I was in has appeared as himself in a band with Rick Jones, meaning I'm only a couple of degrees from having teamed up with the Hulk). Along the way certain motifs recur, such as the attitude of subsequent creators to the legacy with which they're working. Here Wolk draws a sound yet never firm dichotomy between two competing urges – the creators like Claremont, who want to push forward the same way Stan and Jack (and Steve) did in the early days, and those like John Byrne, who see themselves more as reverential custodians. At times it can get a little sad to realise how much of the recent past has become a matter of rearranging existing elements; obviously I was aware that legacy titles dominated the line, but I hadn't entirely clicked that the last entirely new title (as against new characters in an old role, like Ms Marvel) to be a hit was Runaways, 15 years ago; the last Marvel comic even to attempt it was Mosaic, in 2016.

Still, when you have that many pieces in play, and can always make new ones so long as they fit supporting roles, or pick up a legacy, there are still an awful lot of options. I love that from all those thousands of comics, the first and last Marvel lines quoted in the book are both by Al Ewing, someone whose journey at Marvel I've watched from the beginning, and who has now shown himself an absolute master at using and reworking the available components into mad, brilliant investigations of whatever takes his fancy. Which has always been one of the options, of course, most famously with Kirby and to a lesser extent Ditko (whose post- and non-Marvel work would showcase more of his idiosyncratic philosophy). But as Wolk points out, even for a later generation of creators such as Jim Starlin, characters like Thanos were part of a very personal and somewhat eccentric cosmology – meaning the mad Titan's modern ubiquity is a lot like William Blake's Urizen suddenly becoming a fixture of cereal boxes and Hallowe'en costumes.

Wolk states early on that he firmly believes every popular success, in any medium, has something remarkable about it. Once I would have agreed; there have been few times I've felt quite so close to the infinite as I used to at Popular, the club which only played Number Ones. But just as algorithmically endorsed beige has spoiled that argument when it comes to pop, so a similar suspension of the old rules seems to have happened at Marvel, where even absolute stinkers of old flop books like the Eternals are soon to be all-but-guaranteed multiplex hits on the big screen. At times you can tell these changes have overtaken Wolk in production; he admits in his chapter on Shang-Chi that he needed to rewrite its opening, because the initial version had confidently asserted that due to the original comics being as problematic as they were pioneering, this was a character who was never going to make it to our screens. Elsewhere, he didn't even have time to do that, as when he explains the TVA in a footnote, clearly lacking his own time travel tech to let him know that the Loki series would have brought them to casual viewers before the book came out. Still, within the limitations of causality, he does a good job of talking about the films too, the way they draw on the comics but then in turn reshape them. Once or twice he even digs up a titbit of which I was wholly unaware, like how Christine Palmer, seen as a colleague of Stephen's in the Doctor Strange film, was a character from Marvel's old romance comics who was actually being published before Strange was. Set against this survey of an unprecedented triumph, though, there is one detail which feels like the slave who would whisper to victorious Roman leaders that they were mortal: the CyberComics which Marvel produced for AOL from 1996 to 2000, a prior multimedia gambit, now seem to be entirely lost, with neither company, nor their creators, seeming to have copies. And I thought the missing bits of Doctor Who and Fraggle Rock ran ridiculously close to the present day!

(Netgalley ARC)

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Douglas Wolk’s journey through almost 60 years of Marvel Comics (which amounts to over 27,000 separate comic books) is quite an achievement. I used to work with Wolk when I edited and designed the publications for San Diego Comic-Con. He wrote articles on various topics for Comic-Con Magazine and the yearly Souvenir Book. I remember contacting him in 2018 or so and asking him if he was up for writing something for that year’s Souvenir Book and he told me then that he was working on this book and couldn’t commit to anything else. Even then, it sounded like an immense job, and my biggest question was “But, why?” While there are a lot of great Marvel comics, there are also a lot of not-so-great ones and some just plain awful ones. And honestly, I couldn’t figure out how such a book could be written. Chronologically? By title? By character? (The answer is kind of all three.)

When I first started reading this book, I almost gave up on it. Wolk gives a long-winded opening chapter on his methodology for the book, and then a second chapter devoted to the various chronologies and then an additional chapter on how you, too, can read Marvel comics. I was pretty much at the end of my rope then, but with the fourth chapter he dove into his actual reading of these books, and it became apparent that this was less than an authoritative index of Marvel Comics, 1961-2018 (or so), and more a kind of travelogue through stacks and stacks of comics. I think he really hooked me with his chapter on Doug Moench’s Master of Kung Fu, a criminally-overlooked series that ran for well over 100 issues through the 1970s and 1980s and had stellar art by the likes of Paul Gulacy, Mike Zeck, and Gene Day. It’s one of my favorite Marvel series of all time and it was great to see someone else agree with that assessment.

Wolk’s chapters are based around characters and titles (like MoKF), including Fantastic Four, Thor, Spider-Man, and even such later-day creations as Ms. Marvel and the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. These are not comprehensive synopses of each title, but rather touch on key issues and how they fit into the greater Marvel story (and yes, even though no one intended it, there is one greater Marvel story; they don’t call it a Universe for nothing). Between each chapter is an interlude, delving into other aspects of Marvel, including one on Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko; one on the fateful month of March 1965, when a lot of that month’s books started to reference other books and the outlines of the Marvel Universe started to form; even an interlude that puts forth the interesting theory that Linda Carter, Student Nurse, is the starting point of the Marvel Age of Comics, coming out a few months before Fantastic Four #1 in 1961. He ties everything together in the end with an Appendix that offers a chronological plot summary of Marvel. All-in-all, it’s an incredibly well-written exploration of a comics phenomenon, one that quite frankly, probably saved the industry from dying in the 1970s or 1980s. I honestly didn’t know how he could pull this off when I first heard of it, and I was doubtful when I first started reading it, but All of the Marvels is a really stunning—and enjoyable—achievement.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rounding up from 4.5 stars

Of course, I'm predisposed to like a well-written book about comics, but I love how this was put together. Wolk is able to take a macro-view of the Marvel Universe, while also not afraid to get micro. It's smart, it's fun, and it's realistic. Ultimately, it makes me want to read more comics. I spent my formative comics years reading only DC; I wonder what would have happened if I had managed to read both Marvel and DC at the time. The good news is that I can go back via Unlimited and collections and discover new old comics. Man, this book was so much fun to read.

[Carlex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent essay, better than I expected. It's not a "Super Size Me" type exercise, but rather a rigorous analysis of the Marvel universe "from the inside," and at the same time a good guide for all interested readers.

[Danielle Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had this book 10 years ago when I was first starting to get into the Marvel Universe (both on screen and in print). Unlike other “history of comics” books, Douglas Wolk embarked on the impossible before writing All of the Marvels: *Reading* all of the marvels. Literally.
But reading all 27,000 issues in the central Marvel canon isn’t the most impressive part here (although it is pretty astounding). The way Wolk makes sense of, finds beauty in, and connects all the different stories and details is masterful. Whether you’re a dedicated comics reader, huge Marvel comics fan who has learned about the universe via Wikipedia rabbit holes (like me), or are brand new to the comics side of things, there’s something here for everyone to enjoy.

This book does several things all at once, including breaking down some of the biggest throughlines in the Marvel Universe and providing a fascinating history behind the stories that make up the ongoing epic. I especially appreciate the way Wolk picks and chooses which issues to highlight, as he doesn’t necessarily choose the “best” or “most important,” but rather the ones with fascinating connective tissue. I’ve added so many individual issues and arcs to my to-read list that I’d never heard of, and I couldn’t be more excited.

I will say, however, that while the beginning of this book is strong and really interesting in the way it makes connections and speaks to the storytelling, the latter half is less interesting as it delves into specific characters and makes it clear that there are going to be a lot of characters that will get only the briefest of mentions (the ones I personally care about). Again, it would be impossible for him to focus on everything in this book, but with that in mind I think focusing on broader themes or stories throughout would’ve been better than hand picking some characters to dive into.

A must-read for all Marvel fans, from devotees to newbies, All of the Marvels is a colorful and heartfelt journey through the Marvel Universe, and highlights just what makes this epic feat of storytelling so special.

[Chris Dietzel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great premise that was poorly executed and ultimately frustrating. Wolk is at his best when he highlights trends and themes throughout the decades. Maybe the single biggest highlight is where he gives examples of a recent comic paying tribute to an earlier comic, and the only way you would realize it is if you happened to have read both comics, which were published decades apart. That stuff is great. Instead, though, Wolk falls into a series of poor choices and preferences that take up the majority of the book.

- Devotes one page to the original Secret Wars series, mostly discounting its importance, while spending 24 pages talking about the recent Dark Reign series.
- Devotes one page to the original Infinity Gauntlet series, which should have been a key point in the book, while spending another 24 pages on yet another recent crossover series.
- Devotes a lot of time talking about the style of art created by recent artists while not noting the importance of the art that Lee, Portacio, or Liefeld created in the 90's.
- Devotes 10 pages to the new Ms Marvel comics and not a single page to Cable (who was the biggest new character in the 90s) or Deadpool (who has become one of the most valuable characters in recent decades).
-Doesn't even discuss the variety of Marvel-DC crossover events that have occurred.
- Doesn't even mention Liefeld a single time even though he created two of the biggest characters in modern Marvel, created the biggest new title during his time, and, along with McFarlane, is credited with changing the landscape of art in comics.

The entire book is like that. Wolk focuses on a couple things that he liked but that the average comic book reader doesn't care about, while neglecting things that were noteworthy in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.

[Peter Tillman]

Junot Diaz gave this a 5-star review at the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/12/bo...
Excerpt:
He Read All 27,000 Marvel Comic Books and Lived to Tell the Tale!
"If Western popular culture has a common idiom, a force that binds us all, the stories contained in Marvel comics are probably it. In a few short decades, the Marvel Universe (in all its corporate manifestations) has rewired how millions, perhaps even billions, of people imagine what is possible, what is heroic, what is good. Once confined to dime store spinner racks, Marvel’s creations have burst free of their humble roots, hulking out into one of the most successful transmedia empires on the planet. ..."
You get a few free looks @NYT/mo, so read it for yourself. Junot Diaz is *definitely* a fan. Well, so was I, as a kid -- especially of Jack Kirby (et al)'s great panels. "If you grew up on Marvel comics like I did, “All of the Marvels” will be a gift," writes Diaz. I'm in.....

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Di sicuro, meritava un punticino in meno.
Eppure, non sono riuscito a non premiare la lettura - anche psicologia - di certi passaggi, che hanno dato una rilettura in un'altra chiave. Per esempio, il capitolo dedicato all'Uomo Ragno, dove ne descrive l'eterno problema che lo rende un eterno ragazzino, come (per esempio) la ricerca di una figura paterna per sublimare all'assenza di Zio Ben. A volte siamo talmente dentro ai personaggi - e rivediamo talmente tanto di noi, in quei personaggi - da dimenticarci gli elementi fondanti degli stessi; ci dimentichiamo di essere come dei droni: dentro la situazione, ma contemporaneamente sopra di essa, per vederla dall'alto e con una diversa e più ampia visuale, restituendo un senso che si era perso. Ed è in quei momenti che il sottotitolo del libro prende forma e acquista valore.

I capitoli più riusciti, indubbiamente, quello sugli X-Men, le Secret Wars di Hickman e quello che conclude tutto il libro: "Passare il testimone". Capitolo che non solo racconta la genesi del libro, come è nata la folle (ma eroica) idea di leggersi tutti-tutti-tutti i fumetti dei supers della Marvel, ma anche il perché si leggono i fumetti. Ammetto che lì ha giocato sul personale. Essendo un educatore, che utilizza anche il fumetto come strumento terapeutico e come strumento per rivedere i propri vissuti, non ha potuto che colpirmi al cuore.

Consigliato

[Jukka Särkijärvi · Rating 5 out of 5]

That’s quite a flex. Not many people can brag they’ve read the entirety of the Marvel Universe, all 540,000 pages of it, or thereabouts. The numbers are staggering and illustrate how easily large numbers exit the sphere of easy comprehension. I figured I was well-read, but even with a generous estimate, I cannot claim to have put away more than maybe 2,000 of the over 27,000 issues that Wolk reads into the story of Marvel.

And he discusses it as a single story, from a perspective that is quite likely unique. And while it’s possible there’s someone else out there who has achieved this same feat, they didn’t write a book. Wolk did. He also hastens to note that it is not something you should be trying at home. It is not meant to be consumed in that fashion. You can pick up more or less any issue and though you will have missed things, you will get on board pretty quickly. That’s how they’re written. You will not know everything, and all those of us who grew up with these people who wear their underpants on top of their tights learned to deal with it.

The book’s chapters, after the introductory pleasantries are done, alternate between deep overviews of specific characters or groups, and interludes laying down historical context. In the overviews, Wolk explains things like Spider-Man’s confusing story from that first spider bite to present day, focusing on key issues and using them as springboards to expound upon overarching themes. The text is lively, with a wry humour. Even banal observations, such as Spider-Man’s early rogues’ gallery being populated with faulty father figures, are lent weight by Wolk’s perspective. And let’s face it, there are a lot of banal observations to be had here. While there is such a thing as a subtle superhero comic, it has never been a hallmark of the genre and especially so in the early days. Nevertheless, it’s entertaining to read and sometimes it’s comforting to be told what you knew already by an authority.

More insightful is Wolk’s unpacking of the metafictional dimensions and storytelling sleight-of-hand in Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers and New Avengers runs, or the Trump-before-Trump of The Dark Reign. The book truly shines where he tracks the callbacks and the connections between issues and runs, from decades apart, noting things like Riri Williams belting out a few bars of a song from a 30-year-old issue of Dazzler. The chapters describing the origins of the Marvel story were genuinely moving to me, such as an interlude about March 1965, when for the first time, stories in different Marvel comic books affected one another in permanent ways. It is a description of the birth of something new, a beginning that from five issues of comics printed on cheap paper led, more or less directly, to someone 50 years down the line being able to make a movie that spends its entire three-hour runtime running laps in honour of itself, and not only does it work, it is the cinema event of the year.

And that’s what makes this important. We are not used to analytic discussions of storytelling at such sheer scale. Sure, there’s been books about superhero comics before, but nothing that I know that has taken the view that it, all of it, is one, single story. Nothing else comes close, though there are several other media properties big enough to be nigh-unapproachable. DC’s comics are an obvious one, and several role-playing game properties, especially ones that were around in the heady years of the 1990s, are in the same weight class. I would argue we need more of this, more work by people who can take a look at a reading list spanning a thousand interrelated titles, fearlessly hit the stacks, and come back to tell the tale.

Though a work of this magnitude can only be a labour of love, Wolk is not uncritical of his subject. He rightly notes when the treatment of women or minorities has been lacking, both on the page and in the bullpen. There is an entire chapter on Shang-Chi, which notes the many things it did right, without shirking from the fact that there’s a big old racist caricature Fu Manchu right there in the middle of things. A voice is also given to Bill Wu, an Asian-American fan – and in later times, the SF author William F. Wu – who was a constant presence on Master of Kung Fu’s letters page, expressing his affection for the series while constantly criticising its racist caricatures.

Reading all of the Marvels is a flex, but clearly, you cannot read that many Spider-Man comics without internalizing that with great power comes great responsibility. Wolk throws the gates wide open, with the message that superhero comics are, and should be, for everyone. While the obvious starting point for the Marvel story is Fantastic Four #1, and another the aforementioned March 1965, Wolk also presents an alternative preceding them, the deep cut of Linda Carter, Student Nurse, whose run had zero to do with superheroes, until much, much later, she did. Here, too, were Marvel’s first crossovers, with the characters of these career girl comics appearing in one another’s titles – including one Patsy Walker. This is, at least to Wolk, the true beginning. (Also worthy of note, of course, is Captain America #1, because it should not be forgotten that before Avengers, before Fantastic Four, and before X-Men, there was the lone soldier Captain America, and his first appearance was punching Hitler in the face.)

As he keeps hammering home, however, nobody can read it all and the book is not “1001 Marvel Comics You Must Read Before You Die”. He suggests strategies, starting points, ways to find out what you like and how to find more of it. The throughline in all his advice is clear: read what you want.

It’s not as though you’re going to run out.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

When my high school son lent me this as a book I might be interested in, I took his advice, because he knows me pretty well. But I was still skeptical, because, you know, it’s a book about comic books. Although I had superhero comic books as a kid (Superman, Spiderman, the Flash) back in the early 70s (which I used to buy, down at the corner drug store!), I was more a “Tales from the Crypt” kid.

If you like Marvel Comics or movies, you should appreciate this. If you do not have any previous exposure to Marvel, you may still find interesting the way in which the writers and artists influenced the stories, and how they work for a few years, leave, then return for another term of years.

Douglas Wolk is an excellent writer for this type of subject. Very enthusiastic and evocative, holding your attention while summarizing plots and characters, connecting stories lines, linking them to current events, and spotting interesting graphic art. He also points out distinctive styles and themes of selected writers and artists.

Thankfully, Wolk does not attempt to describe the entire story arc of Marvel over the years, although, if you are looking for a guide, he does include one in the appendix.

What is most interesting for me is how Marvel can see, and predict, the growth of authoritarianism in America. I guess it should not be a surprise, considering that (what I consider) the start of Marvel’s superhero stories was Captain America punching Hitler on the cover of the first issue.

Here is Wolk (writing in 2020) on Marvel’s story line “Dark Reign” which started in January 2009:

“Dark Reign” is the story of what happens after a genuinely malign individual ascends to political power and empowers his cronies to do what they will. … More broadly, “Dark Reign” is about the way totalitarian regimes gain and keep power. They focus attention on a crisis, real or invented; they present a charismatic leader’s harsh solutions as the only effective answer. As soon as they’ve attained power, they consolidate state forces under their control, undermine trust in the institutions that would ordinarily act as checks on them, and form covert alliances to defang or destroy resistance—all of which Osborn does.”

In case you have not been paying attention, America is now in that very timeline.

Life imitates art, indeed.

Time to fight back, Citizens.

Cap out.

[Olivia Law]

I really enjoyed reading this book! I am not super familiar with Marvel Comics, just the MCU, so this gave a lot of really cool context for the characters I have come to love. I found it particularly interesting to see how Marvel Comics directly responded to what was going on in the world at any given time.

One great thing I took away from this book is that you do not have to read every comic to be a fan!

[Zandt McCue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have hundreds - realistically, thousands - of books to read which keep getting interrupted by other books that make their way into the peripheral of my universe. Time will punctuate how far I get. Knowing this, and knowing how the inability to read everything in existence bothers me, I still went off the beaten path when this book appeared in my feed.

It took a lot of dedication for someone to read decades of Marvel Comics. It's not something I could do. I've tried. At various points in my life, I tried to embrace comics by doing what the author tells you not to do: starting at the beginning. Earlier entries are dated, campy, and unlike the modern characters that we know and love.

This book is written for fans of the Marvel characters who need a good entryway into the abundance of the comics, for fans of DC or other publishers who want to branch out into Marvel, or for people like me who like trivia of subjects that don't necessarily define us. I feel the same way about comics as I do video games. I like learning about the backstories, the histories, and the creators but I'm not a time and tested member of those communities. There used to be a column on CBR which is a big comic website where someone would post history/trivia facts from various comic books. I'm not sure if the column is still running as I'm posting this, but it's largely what I expected to find in this book.

Now that I'm finished, I'm disappointed. I don't think what is presented here is bad. I think it's being advertised as way more than it actually is. Out of all the Marvel Characters who have their own lines whether individually or in groups, he covers only a handful of series. I understand it would take forever to cover each and every person... but, for example, he talks about Thors comics at length but only Captain America or Iron Man when they pertain to something else. Two of Marvel's biggest staples, and we don't get a history of those characters or a guide of who their best writers were, their storylines, etc. I'm pretty sure She-Hulk is mentioned more than the Hulk. A way too large amount of time is spent covering a storyline where Norman Osbourne becomes the Iron Patriot.

Another thing I found off-putting was that it seemed like the idea was to highlight a few comics or storylines that made the characters what they were, the few characters the author decided to talk about. The Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Shang Chi, Thor, etc. but many times after listing the title and creators of a comic, instead of writing what would be in that comic we are instead told about the creators themselves. I have no problem with learning about the guys that made the content but if that's all a section is about then why did you list a specific comic? Because it's good? Why? What happens in it? Exactly. Sometimes I get both, with a little more about the creators and I don't mind that. But there are sections where it's simply "these people took over because this happened and their drawing style is like this" which means nothing to me.

And finally, based on the description of the book, I expected a lot more about the major crossover events Marvel consists of. Some are covered but not to the extent that I expected. The Infinity ...Saga...as I'll call it since that's how the movies aptly refer to it, takes a handful of pages, and doesn't deep dive into it.

Some of this is amended in the appendix.

It wasn't a terrible or bad book. I was expecting a giant encyclopedic epic about the major storylines for at least all of the main characters in the Marvel Universe and I got some of that. I would summarize this book as "A guy read all the Marvel Comics and he's also able to bond with his son. Here are some comics he thinks are cool."

[Chris Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

This could easily have been a sort of wacky sub Dave Gorman romp through 27,000 or so comics and sixty years of Marvel publishing. And that would have been fun but ultimately a little daft and ultimately very shallow. Instead Wolk manages something quite magnificent: a celebration of Marvel, whilst also casting a critical eye on some of the weirder and less great comics they’ve published while shining a light on some neglected corners. He avoids some of the big names, preferring to talk about comics he feels passionate about and as such the book is far more interesting than if he tried to list off the big icons and do a staid history. Instead we get a whole chapter on Master of Kung Fu as a microcosm of what makes Marvel both good AND bad

This chapter is also fascinating because it shows that Wolk’s real fascination is with comics not the book collections. It’s his focus on the letter pages that’s especially fascinating, correctly recognising them as an important contemporaneous record of how these comics were being consumed by fans (some of whom would later become creators in their own right). This is important contextual history, but also a really nice reminder that comics are essentially ephemeral and of the moment, especially in the decades where grand designs were the exception rather than the rule and whole sagas were seemingly written on the fly (Wolk is also very good on auteurist creators and how they function as comic creators, both as writers and artists, again an important celebration of both vital elements of the genre)

The best thing about the book, I think, is how he builds to a huge crescendo with a chapter on Jonathan Hickman’s storytelling (kind of new to me, I must confess, although I’m a big fan of his Image stories) and then - like all epics - ends on two, equally important and quieter chapters. One celebrates the massive sea change in Marvel presented by Squirrel Girl and the newest Ms Marvel (and although not mentioned here, I would also argue Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur). These have been embraced by the wider comic community, probably enraging the comicsgate end of the readership (which is a very good thing), as demonstrated by the amount of cosplay I have seen for both characters at shows over the years. It’s a more playful, thoughtful and warmer form of storytelling and an important strand for Marvel to keep up with. It basically opens the world up to as many new readers as, say, the films do. It’s a joyous celebration of a chapter and I roared with laughter at being reminded of Squirrel Girl’s bond with Galactus (whilst also being introduced to the joys of Mole Man’s crush on her, which again will have angered a great deal of comicsgate types. Again, a good thing)

And then the final chapter is a celebration of the actual act of reading these comics and particularly the act of reading them with Wolk’s young son. In a world where comic readers have wildly, wildly changed in demographic (as can be seen by the fact this 45 year old spent most of Christmas reading this), it’s important to be reminded that at heard comics are for kids. They should be universal and open to everyone, and kids are the new readers every publisher desperately wants. It’s nice to be reminded of this, before the final nerdy deep dive of Wolk’s valiant attempt to bash the history of an art form, which for at least 2/3 of its history was literally made up on the fly, into one cohesive whole. A wonderful book

[Sineala · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted to give this book five stars, but I couldn't.

Wolk writes beautifully about comics and contextualizes the decades and decades of Marvel Comics and draws out the themes of the stories over time to give an overview of the entire massive story. It's an astonishing feat. The introductory chapters talk a lot about how to start reading comics, and it's clear from their tone that he sees the book's intended audience as curious MCU fans who want to start reading comics but don't know where to start, and in that sense he does an amazing job making the material accessible and I desperately want to rec this to new fans.

However, the choices Wolk has made about what to focus on aren't things new fans are likely to enjoy. I would have expected him to write about everyone's favorite MCU characters (e.g., the original Avengers) and some of the more famous storylines that have been adapted into movies (e.g., Civil War). Instead, he just writes about his favorite things, giving a sampling of the sort of themes that comics have treated over the years. Which, I guess, is fair, but it also makes this book really bad for new fans.

Coincidentally, he happens to write about Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Shang-Chi, but I think that's mostly it for "characters newbies will like," and I think he just picked them because he wanted to talk about runs he liked. I guess there's a bit about Thor. There's a whole lot about the Fantastic Four. There's a whole chapter about the Night Nurse. There's a lovely chapter about Squirrel Girl and the new Ms. Marvel. They're great, and I certainly want to check out some of the runs he raves about that I have missed, but-- you kind of already have to be into comics to be into them, except the book is in large part supposed to be for people who aren't already into comics.

He doesn't talk that much about events, and when he does he picks the weirdest and most continuity-heavy choices -- and not even the ones a casual fan might know. Civil War? Oh, no, no. Dark Reign, buddy! An event that doesn't even have a mainline event book and requires you to be conversant with the two previous events (ironically, Civil War, and also Secret Invasion) to actually understand what's going on. Does he discuss the Avengers at all, you, the casual fan, might ask? He does! But only one run in depth! He spends a lot of time explaining the themes of Jonathan Hickman's Avengers run, which is a run where you have to read approximately 100 issues of multiple titles in an extremely precise order and God help you if you've never heard of the Beyonders -- unlike basically every event where you don't actually have to read the tie-ins.

So, yes, this is a superbly-written introduction to comics for new readers that takes as its exemplars storylines that new readers will probably never have heard of and characters that they for the most part have almost certainly never heard of. Would jaded comics fans like it? Sure! I liked it a lot! But I feel like he wanted this book to be for people who weren't like me, except people who aren't like me probably won't care about most of the things he's decided to talk about. It's a really bizarre combination of choices.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolk completed the daunting task of literally reading every single Marvel came out with ( minus toy tie-ins and certain other series ) from 1961 - 2017 so about 27,000 comic books and trying to connect dots here and there which make up the main chapters of his book.
This herculean effort should get Wolk a medal, but he chose to write about the journey and has a nice bit near the end about reading comics out loud with his 10 year old son.
There is no way he can cover every single hero, series, and title, but Wolk does a very solid job touching upon the main ones and all the connections with the single hero or group.

[Murphy C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, delirious, effervescent!

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This well-written volume is a monument to a Herculean task of sifting through the entire corpus of Marvel Comics and attempting to distill themes and relationships between literature which was originally designed to be ephemeral and disposable (despite the tendency to become treasure chests in attics and collectibles in specialty stores as we know them today). It was not the book I expected. Douglas Wolk disabused me of the notion that this would fit all the pieces of the puzzle together in his introductory remarks where he both confessed that he found something to enjoy in every book (p. 13) and also that one should not start at the beginning nor stick to the path (pp. 18, 21). He rationalizes this by observing: “…the edict of the comic book business was that ‘every issue is somebody’s first ,…” (p. 17).

What All of the Marvels does well is to present possible narrative structures via plot summaries (and erudite comments) aggregated from the full archives of the comics and reorganized to form Wolk’s preferred narrative(s). Fortunately, Wolk is enough of a solid literary critic to offer insights based on the idea: “Comics dramatize the cultural conflicts and fears of their time, and that subtext is often clearer in dull or hacky comics than in aesthetically satisfying ones.” (p. 14) He cites Robert Christgau’s insistence that every hit comic (indeed, every hit piece of media) has something exceptional about it and that it is the critic’s job to find it (p. 15). Of course, he further admits that many of his selections are on the basis of his taste (particularly noticeable in that he gravitates toward later issues than the seminal early issues). He clearly does not follow the metric that a comic is noteworthy depending on how often later comics allude to it (p. 18). However, Wolk is quite brilliant at connecting homages, echoes, and parodies from earlier comics with those of later ones.

Wolk does offer his take on the Fantastic Four nexus or portal to the Marvel Universe; his thesis on the cyclical fatherhood, insecurity, and betrayal issues in the Spiderman saga; his surprising detail on the Master of Kung Fu narrative in its actual runs and disparate one-shot appearances; his socio-psychological examination of the popularity of mutants in all of their “X” formats; his somewhat dismissive summary of the Norse god comics; his clear admiration for the Black Panther (aka Black Leopard for a brief time to avoid confusion with a certain activist group) legend; his love of crossovers; and his take on comics designed to appeal to diversity. Each of these form major chapters, but perversely, my favorite parts of the book were the so-called “Interludes,” short chapters that seemed like fascinating blogs that answered questions you’d always wondered about or posited associations you never would have imagined.

Wolk features “Interludes” on: monsters in both the pre-history and the main history of the Marvel story, the relationship of Lee, Kirby, and Ditko, the effect of the Vietnam conflict on comics, the relationship between the comics and musical performance, the false starts prior to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the appearances of actual or abstracted U.S. Presidents in various books, the importance of Marvel’s distribution gamble in March, 1965, and a fascinating speculation wrapping all of the teen girl titles which preceded the MU with later connections to the MU. These assemblages of anecdotes, facts, and speculation were fresher and more entertaining than what Wolk attempted to accomplish in the rest of the book.

A few especially intriguing features of the book follow in the next couple of paragraphs. I was blown away by a footnote on p. 125 where Wolk provided an amazing list of letter writers who went on to experience creative success in working for Marvel. Then, on the very next page was a marvelous photo of a title page where the images were shaped as letters spelling out “A CITY ASEA” that I thought was extremely clever (p. 126). I have to look up John Byrne’s X-Men: Elsewhen that he created as fan fiction for his personal site (p. 148 note).

I remembered the Saturday Night Live team-up with Rick Jones as special musical guest for Marvel Team-Up #74 and loved Wolk’s assurance that he was “…not making this up.” (p. 174) I loved his observation of how appropriate the initial Kirby design of Loki was with the jester’s collar suggesting his role as god of mischief but the serpentine scales and dragon helmet reflecting his role in seduction, manipulation and the deployment of chaos (p. 179). It was telling that Wolk commented on the resemblance of Thor’s storming of Hel in Thor # 362 to Christ’s Harrowing of Hell (p. 188). I appreciated his references to Hela’s anagram of “Heal” (p. 191) and “Leah” (p. 192) and how they fit into the Asgard mega-plot. I hadn’t realized that the Black Panther series (as Jungle Action) had been cancelled with an unresolved story (p. 215). Wolk also provided a fabulous footnote on p. 266 on the lack of color guides and the resulting inconsistency of coloring when doing reprints of the same story. I was also intrigued by his citation of a Wall Street Journal article about rosters for the Avengers. Apparently, someone did some research and found that only Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and the Vision appeared more than 300 times in the various Avengers titles (p. 270 note).

I wasn’t as on-board with his objection to the white supremacist villains in Avengers #32-#33 when the Communist Chinese General Chen was revealed and in Avengers #73 when the Black TV talk show host Montague Hale is revealed as behind the militia of bad guys (p. 210 note). As when Johnny Depp’s character reacts to the shocked look on his opponent’s face when he cheats in a sword duel (“Hello, Pirate!), I wanted to shout at the book, (“Hello, Racists and Cynical Opportunists”). Indeed, I rather liked the idea that evil is to be found among any race—humanity is humanity is humanity.

Another disagreement between Wolk and me came about when I read that he doesn’t believe event crossovers affect individual storylines negatively. He says that they not only do not but that they are bestsellers and spur additional sales (p. 239). Regarding the affecting of individual storylines, they bother me personally. And I presume that he is basing his bestseller comment on sales numbers which I haven’t investigated. However, anecdotally, I can tell you that my comics guy said that he dreaded them because many folks, like me, refused to buy the regular monthly issue if it was part of an event.

Two things in the book shook me up in positive ways. Wolk quotes Warren Ellis as stating: “Superhero comics are like bloody creeping fungus, and they smother everything else.” (p. 293) I think that is correct. That may be why I ended up collecting titles like Ed Brubaker’s The Fade Out, Garth Ennis’ War Stories, and Alan Moore’s Providence. The other positive was that Wolk’s explanation of Squirrel Girl cause me to “get” the character for the first time. I had only bought one copy and set it aside in disgust, but now I understand how its parody really works. I especially liked the reference on page 313 where she meets a superhero “truther” who tells her that all of these costumed figures are advanced audio-animatronics serving as a “false flag” operation for special interests. I’ll have to give that another try.

All of the Marvels was not everything I expected it to be, but nothing could be.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1961 the first issue of the Fantastic Four appeared. Quickly followed by Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men, the Avengers and many more. Very many more. And many of them totally unknown to me. I certainly had never before heard of the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl whose adventure in issue #50 of her own magazine from 2020 is told in this remarkable book.

The author has read indeed All of the Marvels. Well, nearly all of them. He left out Conan and Groo and the Westerns. Which means he read the superhero comics. 27000 issues. More than 500.000 pages.

Stan Lee once said that you do not become a genius by reading comics overnight. Sometimes it takes up to a fortnight. So Douglas Wolk definitely must be a genius. Or at least a very ambitious or more likely a crazy man. Because, lets face it, the bulk of these 27000 issues must be crap. Why would you read through all of it? It goes without saying: I admire the man immensely!

And he is a smart guy. Just reading the first couple of pages where he explains his projects makes it clear that he is not just a fan who has lost his nuts.

What he tries to do here, and largely succeeds, is to give us normal people (or half-hearted fans who have only read a few hundred Marvel comics) an idea of the vastness of the Marvel universe. And I really like that he is not a bit nostalgic (maybe a tiny bit). For him there is no real gap between the FF fighting against Galactus and the adventures of the new Ms. Marvel.

He picks out a few dozen issues that are, in one way or another, milestones in the whole story. He starts with Fantastic Four #51. An excellent choice: This Man… This Monster! Followed by the 3rd annual (with the marriage of Reed and Sue) FF #116 (Goodwin, Buscema), FF #271 (Byrne) then Power Pack #16 from 1985. To switch back to FF #1, #19 and Doctor Strange #53 and West Coast Avengers #22. You get the idea. There is obviously a well-laid plan for the whole endeavor.

After the FF he handles Spider-Man and Thor and the X-Men. But there is, for example nothing about the Hulk. And even in the story of Spider-Man for example there is nothing about the Marv Wolfman years (that are very dear to me). After all this book has only 350 pages.

Okay, Wolfman to me was the guy who gave me back my enthusiasm for Spider-Man that I had lost when they killed off Gwen, when Gil Kane drew. I remember the day when I read the first issue of The Spectacular Spider-Man. A second magazine? I was afraid that continuity would be lost. That Spider-Man would become a new Superman meaning we get just random adventures that could and should be read in no order. And this was what happened

The difference between Marvel and DC was exactly this, continuity. Or progress. What happened in this issue would have consequences later on.

But of course, this was possible only to some extent. After all, Spider-Man is now around for more than sixty years. And even in Marvel time that are at least 10 years. (Wolk says that 14 years have elapsed since FF #1.) But Spider-Man should still be regarded as a young man trying to find his way in life. And as Stan Lee had said: We don’t want progress, we want the illusion of progress. (Wolk says that this is attributed to him but I seem to remember that I have read the exact word in one of his soap boxes.)

Anyway the illusion of progress means that for all that is happening the characters stay the way they are. Or if they change, or circumstances change, they change back. Dead people are alive again. Over and over. When Marv Wolfman had finally killed Aunt May I was exhilarated. Finally, I thought. And when they brought her back that was the time when I stopped reading the books (with only occasional exceptions). So Jean Grey, the Phoenix, did not really die? Because the woman we thought was Jean Grey was not really Jean Grey? Even if you can accept that at one point it just becomes too ridiculous. The whole history of Marvel consists basically of variations of the Bobby-Ewing-steps-out-of-the-shower theme. Is there an alternative? Probably not.

As I said, I admire the man and the project. It was fun reading the book. I liked the interludes, I liked his stand in the Lee/Kirby controversy (Lee was a con-man who delivered.) I liked the Linda Carter hypotheses (The night nurse is the true character the whole enterprise is about.)

Of course I would have hoped that priorities would have been different. But the one thing that really annoyed me is the nearly total neglect of Roy Thomas. Wasn’t he the man who saved Marvel, when Stan Lee stopped writing comics? Is the introduction of Ultron not at least as important as say the introduction of Thanos?

There are many things I learned. About the Dark Reign, for example. I never read a line of Bendis, or Hickman and all the others who came in in the 90s and later on. I did not know that Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote Black Panther. Maybe I have missed something. But life is short. And I will probably reread the Romita-Spider-Man stories before I pick up an issue of Squirrel Girl.

[Jason]

i consider myself a connoiseur of low-brow content, a trash collector if you will. my superhero name would be The Garbage Man. As such, I secretly started reading comic books as an adult and I don't tell anyone out of fear that they will discover I am the worst kind of nerd: the dumb kind.

So I, uh, devoured this marvel phenomena explainer written by a pop music critic. It hits the nail right on the head about the wonder of Marvel Comics (the comics, not the movies, of which i hereby excuse myself from any and all related discourse), which is the longest-running single story ever told, longer than the Real Housewives, longer than The Grateful Dead, longer than the NBA, but either more omnipresent, more easily accessible, or with more continuity than each of these. It updates itself constantly to fit the times unlike, say, the Bible, but it also grows and nurtures its same cast unlike, say, SNL. Yes it is the product of a big corporation but you could make the argument that so are all of the above fandoms - so, too, did Joni Mitchell and Tracy Chapman and Bjork all had their work edited marketed and distributed by a single corporation. I'm not saying that the corporation needs to be worshipped, really the opposite: the idea that this is just, like, *all* conveyor belt randomly generated nonsense would be to diminish the thousands and thousands of writers and artists collaborating over the course of 37000 issues and 70-80 years to make a continuous story that is at its worst can be mind-numbing and profit driven but at its best can be shakespearean, transgressive, progressive, and simultaneously reflective and predictive of the times that it's in and the times that are to come.

there's also a unique dopamine hit in not just seeing a character you know from two hundred issues ago, but also recognizing a particular flourish or style from an artist that you read in a separate series, or identifying the tics of a writer across ten years, it's a bit like seeing joe alwyn and paul mescal do an interview together or like watching buccaneers tom brady play against bill belichek's patriots. Just millions of neurons (i assume millions?, again, I am a dumb nerd not a real one) firing off at once from this or that writer, artist, character, plot point, all this history and data collapsing in on itself and exploding repeatedly just from looking at a single panel.

Damn, these are just personal thoughts now. Anyway the book explores the weirdness of the fact that this glorious monstrous thing even exists and then dives into key stories that show just how weird and wonderful it can be, which makes it useful both as a way of understanding the appeal of this piece of popular culture that is somehow both subculture and monoculture, underrated and overrated, pure genius and unrestrained stupidity, while also being a handy roadmap of characters/issues to get started if you so happen to be curious enough to get onto this wild stupid ride.

[Ashanti · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this impressive exploration of the Marvel Comics’ half a million page story, Douglas Wolk’s breaks down the historical context and analyses key characters in the Marvel Franchise. I was extremely hyped to read this book after stumbling upon it randomly and reading the intriguing synopsis. Upon starting the book, I was ready to jump straight in the heart of the Marvel franchise, learning about connections that I have not had the time to explore over the year. My excitement waned at the author’s slow introduction instead of immediate jump into the plotline and analyses of the comics. I usually am able to get through books fairly quickly if they peak my interest, but the over 2 hour long contextualization of the Marvel universe made my mind wander to the other books I had on my shelf. Wolk does encourage readers to skip around throughout the book and even read the appendix first if they please to get the overarching summary of everything he has read. I appreciate his exploration of the extent of Marvel’s influence(it’s been used to create video games, theme park attractions, books and movies such as Avatar and the Matrix.

Starting off with the Fantastic Four comics of the 1960s, Wolk out lines the plot lines and gives examples of comics that contribute the most to the storyline. I learned a lot about some other popular writers who contributed to the series. I have recently read Ta Neishi Coates “Between the World and me” and was surprised that he had been one of the contributors to the Black Panther series.

The most memorable part of the book was the wholesome personal anecdote he included towards the end about spending time bonding with his son through their shared interest in comic books. After struggling to find common ground with his STEM oriented son, he introduced comics to him and he suggested they should read the comic books in order. recall specific issues at later dates after only one read.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in expanding their understanding of the Marvel franchise. I found myself zoning out at times due to the density of information in some of the chapters, so I would suggest spanning out your reading sessions over an extended period of time. Wolk is a talented writer. His passion and meticulous planning is evident throughout this entire book. I appreciated the reference to gender and race issues occurring at the time of the publication of several comics. He also mentions several presidents that have made a cameo in the comics.

[Robert Greenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Douglas Wolk did something I wish I had time for, to read every comic from the birth of the Marvel Age in 1961. I will admit to having read over 90% of them m ore or less, but still...this is quite the undertaking.

By sifting through them all, he produces a work that distills sweeping sagas and timelines into core concepts for the significant characters in the Marvel Universe. With copious use of footnotes for background and context, we have some interesting subjective thoughts on what the characters or themes have meant.

While there are chapters devoted to the Fantastic Four, Spider0Man, Thor, X-Men, and others. I frankly feel he gave short-shrift to other key players such as Captain America, Hulk, and Daredevil. Mark Gruenwald and Peter David each wrote a decade or more for the Cap and Hulk, but their contributions are total, and unjustly, ignored.

The crossovers and cosmic sagas get their due and thankfully, he can be dismissive of the bad ones and show us how the better ones reflect their eras.

He does sprinkle in some interesting background for those unfamiliar with the history of the company and creators. He also finds some interesting notions such as the inter-connectivity of the comics line began, not with the FF meeting Spidey but with the girls' romance comics such as Kathy and Patsy and Hedy. The MU proper fully realized its one-universe aspect in the titles released in March 1965 where almost every one of the eleven books released had some connection to at least one other. He also nicely closes the book looking at the eras that comprise the MU, showing growth, evolution, and reaction to the times.

There's no way it can be comprehensive but it shows affection for the comics and their characters, one strong enough to be passed on t his son. It's an easy, enjoyable read, but really, only if you like any of the comics. Ideally, this could be read asa companion to Sewan Howe's Marvel Comics: the Untold Story.