Marvel Comics: The Untold Story Author: Sean Howe Format: Hardcover, 485 pages Price: $26.99 US     Everybody has been talking about how great this book is and being a comic history buff I decided to buy it myself. Sean Howe goes through Marvel's history using a variety of sources, including interviews with a large number of ex-Marvel staffers. The book goes through a chronological history of Marvel, from the company's origin to roughly the late 2000's. The book is pretty standard reading from the company origins to about 1960's. I get the impression that the majority of people from that period are no longer around (with the exception of Stan Lee). Then we start getting the inside stories, like how people at Marvel's magazine department were jealous of all the press Stan was getting and one person tried to talk Denny O'Neil into spiking Stan's coffee with sugar-cube sized LSD. It's during the 70's is where the stories from staffers really start going. A lot of it is focused on the EIC position and how/why that got filled by different people and why they left and the reactions to that. The 80s focus on Jim Shooter and Tom DeFalco. I was a little surprised there wasn't more stories here as Shooter was very unpopular even by his own definition. There are more stories from the 90s and 2000, including a pretty detailed telling of the rise of Joe Quesada to the EIC position. I found myself being surprised how much of this book I already knew. Many of the stories in here have been told already in interviews, which defeats the whole "untold story" title. I know several stories I've either read or seen told (and recorded) at conventions that could have been in the book. I suspect Howe was limited by both the people who were willing to talk and maybe fears of possible libel suits? Anyway the book didn't quite live up to the hype, but then I'm pretty well versed in Marvel history. I'm sure the majority of people buying the book won't know a lot of the information in here. One of the nice side effects of this book is all the online reaction to it. Several people like Roy Thomas and Tony Isabella have wrote their reactions online, adding more details to their part of the company's history. A new, much expanded book could come out from this. I hope one does. Despite being a bit let down by the expectation of a lot of new behind the scene stories, I do recommend the book to anybody who has an interest in Marvel Comics history. I give 4.5 out of 5.   Regards, Jamie Coville TheComicBooks.com [Back to Collector Times] [Prev.] [Return to Comics] [Disclaimer] [Next] Text Copyright © 2013 Jamie Coville About the Author E-mail: jcoville@kingston.net