Andy E. Nystrom wrote:

Andy E. Nystrom wrote:

Normally reliable CBR writer Brian Cronin did a somewhat disparaging article on the Handbooks. I've tried to comment with a plug for this site but my post doesn't seem to be talking for some reason. Will try again in the morning.
Feel free to post thoughts here and hope we can work in a plug to the site in the CBR article comments.
https://www.cbr.com/official-handbook-marvel-universe-false-promise/

I wasn't able to post to the comments despite multiple tries. If anyone wants to try to post this to the above article on my behalf, please do so with my thanks.

As the Administrator for Who Watches the Watchers, the primary resource on the Internet for Marvel Handbooks (whowatchesthewatchers.boardhost.com). I should chime in here. I disagree that with the, yes, many inconsistencies in the Marvel Universe, the OHOTMUs aren’t official handbooks. For off, the obvious is that being guides published by Marvel directly makes them official. But in the larger sense, the books aren’t meant to reflect the Marvel Universe forever, but rather to the time they are printed. Think of the Marvel Universe as a giant amusement park. Things are always being added to it and in the process, occasionally things get altered or removed entirely. Do changes to the park render an old map to the park unofficial? No, because the map was valid at the point where it was printed. Same with the Handbooks. They will always be a work in progress because things are always changing, but they are still an official account of how things are at the time they are printed. I think the Handbook writers, from Gruenwald to the modern writers have done an excellent job of mapping things out to the point of publication. And the older Handbooks remain a great resource on what our understanding of the Marvel Universe used to be.
 

Tried to post it, but the comment section doesn't work for me when trying to load it. It may be best to use the email lin

Hello all! Captain Britain(Brian Braddock), where does his power actually come from? Is it magic or the interdimensional energies that he can channel being a interdimensional energy conduit?

Well done on the new handbook guys, been waiting on this for a long time!

I was wondering if some things were left out for the Captain Britain(Brian Braddock) entries due to space issues or other mitigating circumstances. His strength and durability increase/decrease with his confidence, but that wasn't represent in the power grid. He can also teleport now and has been seen to do this from not only Earth to Otherworld, but also from the Braddock Academy, UK to Stockholm, Sweden which also wasn't represented in the grid.
I guess what I'm asking is are these things considered cannon? Or was simply a case of not enough space/time to included all the stuff since CB:MI13?

On another note, was there going to be an update to the Otherworld entry? I'd imagine there would be a lot of work to do there.

Sorry if this came off a bit fanboyish

I thought of another question, probably quite an easy one on the face of it. Is the Power Grid still a thing? Also how much faith should anyone put in the numbers listed for characters?

Loki wrote:

Nexus wrote:

The blonde man between Betsy and Magik is Cypher, the blindfolded swordsman is Gorgon, the blonde woman to the right of Captain Britain is his wife Glorianna and the brunette woman to the right of Wolverine is Moira X I believe, though I could be wrong on that one.

Except for it being one n in Gloriana, yes, you've correctly identified them all.

Just so we're talking about the same person. The blonde lady next to Brian isn't his wife Meggan a.k.a Gloriana?

Loki wrote:

Nexus wrote:

I don't know if this is the right place for a question, so forgive me if it's in the wrong section. When putting together a handbook, how are character updates handled. How is it decided what makes it in to an update and what doesn't?

Perfectly reasonable place to ask, so no worries. 

In terms of updates, it's mostly space that ultimately determines what gets left out. Using this book as an example, and without naming specific characters, it started with editorial at Marvel picking the theme and identifying a few characters who HAD to be included, then sending that remit to our head writer Mike O'Sullivan. Mike then looked at the remit (X-Men, and this specific event), figured out how many pages the already chosen characters needed to give them proper coverage, then looked at who else might go into the book - so he considered who was involved in this event, weighing up those who might not have had a modern era (early 2000s on) handbook entry, how much those who did have a prior entry had appeared between this event and their last handbook profile (no point covering someone who has so few appearances between the two that the update would be entry), and then tried to juggle page counts based on how many appearances have happened between times (and how significant those were. Once Mike had a basic list of people he wanted to include, but before he worked out page counts, he ran the list by the rest of the team for feedback, so we could suggest people we might think he had overlooked or raise any other concerns we might foresee with his list. Once we've got that list hashed out, it's taken back to editorial for approval or revision. Once all that's done, page counts are finalized, and writers are assigned entries. 

Every writer reads every appearance their characters have had since the last time they got a profile (or every single appearance for someone without a prior profile), making notes. A fair few appearances can be utterly ins

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