Marvel: The Expanding Universe Wall Chart

by Michael Mallory

The Marvel universe—that amazing, multiplanar realm inhabited by Spider-Man, Captain America, the X-Men, and other legendary Marvel Comics characters—has until now existed solely in a metaphoric state. For the first time, the scope and breadth of the entire Marvel universe is visible in a one-of-a-kind graphic representation. Marvel: The Expanding Universe Wall Chart—part decorative poster, part insightful history, part reference work, and part interactive fun—is unlike anything else in the literary marketplace. With contributions from the finest comic book artists of the last two centuries, this unique book and chart creates a pictorial tapestry of more than 300 Marvel Comics characters. With an interior expanding to 12 feet by 3 1/2 feet and custom, three-dimensional art on the cover, Marvel: The Expanding Universe Wall Chart will not only be cherished for its content, but it will also be a visually stunning addition to any Marvel fan’s collection.

Genres: Comics

10 pages, Hardcover

First published September 29, 2009

About the author

Michael Mallory is an internationally-recognized authority on the subjects of film, animation and 20th century pop-culture, and the author of sixteen nonfiction books, which include The Art of Krampus, Essential Horror Movies, and Marvel: The Characters and their Universe. With the legendary American animation artist Iwao Takamoto he co-authored the memoirs Iwao Takamoto: My Life With a Thousand Characters, and has written more than 600 magazine and newspaper articles that have been published worldwide. A former newscaster, occasional actor, and frequent public speaker, Mike lives and works in the greater Los Angeles area.

Reviews

[Stewart Tame · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this for Christmas from my in-laws years ago, and finally decided to have a look after rediscovering it when straightening out a corner of the back room. It's an impressively large volume with a sort of plastic plaque attached to the front cover that gives a nice 3D effect. It's also a rare example of a book that opens fan fold style, rather than having a binding along one edge. Not only can the book be unfolded into a long, continuous chart, but the pages themselves can be unfolded, making the chart even wider than the book itself. It looks most impressive spread out on the living room floor. My cats thought so too.

That said, I find myself wondering just who this is for. In addition to the chart itself, there's text on the back giving capsule biographies of all of the characters depicted on it. There's also a bit of an overview of the history of the Marvel Universe. But it's certainly not comprehensive. I’d say that anyone who's been a Marvel fan for at least a few years could rattle off at least a dozen characters not on the chart. And the hardcore fans already know much more about the history and the characters than any book could hope to contain.

The chart is also poorly organized. Each character is marked with a letter/number combo so that their biographical data can be looked up. But the numbering scheme doesn’t appear to follow any logical sequence. I had a difficult time finding some people, because apparently having “A10” somewhere next to “A11” never occurred to the makers of the chart.

About the only comics fans I can see buying this are the ones who have to have *everything*. It looks pretty, but is unlikely to teach the serious fan anything they didn't already know. I suspect that a fair portion of sales of this book were purchased as gifts by non-fans and given to the fans in their lives. It's very much a gift book.

While I can't recommend it for its content, it's certainly an impressive object. And, goodness knows, there aren't many fanfold books floating around out there. Recommended as a curiosity, at least!