The History of the Marvel Universe Treasury Edition was released on March 11, 2020. — **The History of the Marvel Universe Treasury Edition** was released on March 11, 2020.

By Zack Quaintance — The History of the Marvel Universe Treasury Edition is a stylish book. It is in effect the collected edition of a six-part miniseries Marvel released last year. Written by Mark Waid with art by the top-tier team of Javier Rodríguez (who does the pencils and colors) and Álvaro López (who does the inks), the book’s frame is a conversation between Franklin Richards and Galactus at the end of time. Through this frame, it details as its name implies, all the major happenings in The History of the Marvel Universe.

That’s the basics, but The History of the Marvel Universe Treasury Edition is a bit more than all of that, and a bit more nonconventional than the usual superhero comic book collected edition (but we’ll get to that). First, it’s important to note that this is an oversized format book — which is something that I personally absolutely love and buy at every turn — and it’s a big floppy book. This oversized floppy combination is not a common one for comics. These sort of collected editions are typically either doled out in paperbacks or hardcovers, the latter of which have potential to be larger. This floppy style, however, is something I’d only previously encountered with another nonconventional Marvel series, Ed Piskor’s X-Men: Grand Design (which rules).

If there’s one thing about superhero comic books, it’s that the nonconventional is uniformly met with bristling by the faithful, and I imagine this format will be no exception, with folks wishing it had picked one of the lanes with which they are more familiar. I, however, think this big size and lighter print serves this particular book exceedingly well. It’s not (too) uncomfortable hold, and the art within still manages to feel outsized, grandiose, and brighter than usual. The massive two-page spreads that comprise most of this story (with action so kinetic it refuses to be confined to individual panels) look so good they gave me goosebumps at times.

One spread — the one that has Kurt Buskiek and Mark Bagley’s Thunderbolts on one page; and Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s New X-Men on the other — actually brought a tear to my eye, so thoroughly did it rip me back to a specific time from my past. This is as good of a place as any to mention the artistic feats that the team of Rodríguez and López achieve with this book. All their art looks wholly modern and of this moment, while at the same time evoking the all-time great artists who originally drew the events that make-up this story. It’s a tricky balancing act and they pull it off well, creating so much truly stunning imagery.

And of those events, this is the part where I get back to describing what this book really is. It is, essentially, somewhere between a reference book and a story. It very much has a job to do; disseminating the long and chaotic history of a shared superhero universe owned and managed by a corporation. As a result, some parts feel especially didactic, especially at the start of things when the history predates the 1960s Stan Lee/Jack Kirby era Marvel explosion.

At those points, the book feels like a Wikipedia entry in places, albeit the most gorgeous of all the Wikipedia entires. But those parts are short-lived, and more often than not the book feels more like a joyful revisiting of all the Marvel stories we’ve known and loved, like a band with a huge stage show recreating all of its greatest hits, and that’s really when this book is at its best, when it’s playing on the readers familiarity with these stories, reminding them of good times they had reading these silly books and drawing throughlines that go right through the hobby today. There’s a framing device, sure, and it’s totally fine, if a bit cursory, but this book is most enjoyable when it’s tickling your nostalgia (ew, and I’m sorry).

As a reference, I expect to keep this book on my shelf for some time. Once the six issues of usual comic book storytelling come to a close, it falls into a more familiar reference mode, using prose mixed with artwork from the past, a bit like a Marvel Encyclopedia. It does, however, have an advantage over that kind of book, in that it’s written very much as a progression, not as a document of here’s how things stand right now, which should allow it to stay fresh for the indefinite future. If editors wanted, they could even bring the creative team back in a few years to continue adding on supplemental material, or they could make an annual tradition of having them craft a new two-page spread to sum up the past 12 months. I know I’d be game for some or any of that.

Overall, I highly recommend adding this big beautiful book to your collection. It’s a great experience the first time through, and now that I’m done, I’m looking forward to pulling it down as a reference, or using it to illustrate answers to questions about Marvel source material my non-reader friends sometimes ask, as they are wont to do. 9.8/10

History of the Marvel Universe
Writer: Mark Waid
Penciler/Color: Javier Rodríguez
Inker: Álvaro López
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Publisher: Marvel Comics
It's the greatest tale ever told - and you've never seen it like this! Writer Mark Waid and artist Javier Rodriguez weave together a sprawling, interconnected web of stories into one seamless narrative that takes you from the dawn of the Marvel Universe all the way to its end! Far more than a collection of moments you may already know, this is a new tale featuring previously unknown secrets and shocking revelations, connecting dozens of threads from Marvel's past and present! From the Big Bang to the twilight of existence, this sweeping saga covers every significant Marvel event, providing fresh looks at characters of all eras!
Release Date: March 11, 2020

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.