Status Updates From The Marvel Comics Guide to ...

Fun fact for rutiluphiles: In an obscure, forgotten Marvel story from 1979, absolute redhead crush Mary Jane Watson transformed into absolute redhead crush Red Sonja, after acquiring her legendary sword kept in the Met Museum, to fight an ancient sorcerer in New York City. And now I need to find and read this story.

The amount of NY public buildings designed in Gothic, Neo-Gothic, Gothic Revivalist and Renaissance & Neo-Renaissance styles, as well as the number of public buildings and spaces paid for or donated by 19th & early 20th century ultra-rich art patron moguls is astounding.

Covering both obscure one-issue stories from the 60-70s forward, with characters never again seen or heard and the multi-issue and multi-publication crossovers starring the most well-known and beloved heroes, the book weaves the elaborate tapestry that is the main Marvel continuity (up until the MCU's debut).

The fact that this book was published in 2007, before the MCU started, is its strength and I wil elaborate on that in my review.

What a little gem!

The introduction of the book is a very informative short essay about the reasons Stan Lee as editor & writer and Jack Kirby as lead artist, inevitably chose New York City as the location of most their heroes, instead of using fictional cities like DC had been doing since then, with the short answer being: familiarity, realism, potential.