Eric J. Moreels

Nov 28, 2008, 10:20 am

Coming from Marvel in January...

OFFICIAL INDEX TO THE MARVEL UNIVERSE #1
Written by VARIOUS

Follow the history of the Marvel Universe as it unfolds month by month with the All-New Official Index to the Marvel Universe. Each issue provides synopses for dozens of individual comics, including back-up strips, introducing you to the characters, teams, places and equipment that appeared within, providing vital information about first appearances, where they last showed up and where they appeared next! Join us as we chronicle the Marvel Universe, starting with Spider-Man (from Amazing Fantasy #15 on), Iron Man (from Tales of Suspense #39 on) and the X-Men (from 1963's X-Men #1 on).

64 PGS./Rated A …$3.99




ultrabasurero

Dec 19, 2008, 01:20 am

Are you guys going to be allowed to show a preview just like you did with the OHOTMU Hardover Volume 2? I really curious as to how this is going to be formatted.




Sidney Osinga

Jan 7, 2009, 07:29 pm


Out today, and I got my copy. While different in style from the previous indexes, especially with the story synopsizes being more summarized, but it still has a lot of interesting information. I especially like how the non-super hero stories from Amazing Fantasy #15 and Tales of Suspense #'s 39-58 were covered.

Speak of what's covered, here's a list:
Amazing Fantasy #15
Amazing Spider-Man #'s 1-52
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #'s 1-4
Tales of Suspense #'s 39-73
X-Men #'s 1-50




Stuart V

Jan 7, 2009, 09:18 pm

Sidney Osinga wrote:

Out today, and I got my copy. While different in style from the previous indexes, especially with the story synopsizes being more summarized, but it still has a lot of interesting information. I especially like how the non-super hero stories from Amazing Fantasy #15 and Tales of Suspense #'s 39-58 were covered.

Speak of what's covered, here's a list:
Amazing Fantasy #15
Amazing Spider-Man #'s 1-52
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #'s 1-4
Tales of Suspense #'s 39-73
X-Men #'s 1-50

Glad you liked it. The space restrictions do mean the synopses are shorter, but in this day of reprints and digital copies, we feel that's not such a terrible thing - it's relatively easy to read the story if you find the synopses catches your interest. On the other hand, it's good to get an idea of how individual character's timelines work out, and other similar notes that might not be obvious just from a quick read of the comic. And including the other stories from titles with multiple stories was something we felt strongly about - it's not a proper index of the issue if you don't cover them. Luckily our editorial team felt the same way, so everyone was on the same page for that. And I have to admit, some of the one-off backups make for very interesting reading, especially as many of them could easily fit into the overall tapestry of the regular Marvel universe (616).




Sidney Osinga

Jan 8, 2009, 03:04 am

Stuart V wrote:

Glad you liked it. The space restrictions do mean the synopses are shorter, but in this day of reprints and digital copies, we feel that's not such a terrible thing - it's relatively easy to read the story if you find the synopses catches your interest. On the other hand, it's good to get an idea of how individual character's timelines work out, and other similar notes that might not be obvious just from a quick read of the comic. And including the other stories from titles with multiple stories was something we felt strongly about - it's not a proper index of the issue if you don't cover them. Luckily our editorial team felt the same way, so everyone was on the same page for that. And I have to admit, some of the one-off backups make for very interesting reading, especially as many of them could easily fit into the overall tapestry of the regular Marvel universe (616).

Personally, the shorter synopses don't bother me. It's better to have them this way then trying to jam them into a certain page length, like the two Avengers and X-Men indexes. And you're right, all the stories in the index have been reprinted, sometimes several times, what with the Masterworks, Essentials, Omnibuses, and what have you. And when the series reaches the newer issues (from within the last 30 years), many of those books that haven't been collected are available for reasonable prices. (I'm assuming you're going to keep the entries going up to the closest you can get to the current issue).

I totally agree with you about including the back up stories. The summaries for them are just as interesting as the main stories. I glad to see that their included in this index. The Spider-Man Index from the mid-80's didn't even mention the back up stories.

When you do finally get caught up with at least one of the titles later in the year, I'm hoping for a slight format change. Instead of covering 3 long running series, I'd like to suggest running one or two and using the remaining space to cover shorter run series. I personally would like to see Golden Age comics and pre-super hero Marvel series covered (perhaps Tales of Suspense #'s 1-38?)

I enjoy the index series as much as I enjoy the Handbooks. I have the Spider-Man and X-Men Olshevsky indexes as well as almost all the the 80's and 90's indexes. The only one I'm missing is #6 from the 90's Avengers series.(anyone out there can help a brother out?)




Stuart V

Jan 8, 2009, 07:39 am

Sidney Osinga wrote:

Personally, the shorter synopses don't bother me. It's better to have them this way then trying to jam them into a certain page length, like the two Avengers and X-Men indexes. And you're right, all the stories in the index have been reprinted, sometimes several times, what with the Masterworks, Essentials, Omnibuses, and what have you. And when the series reaches the newer issues (from within the last 30 years), many of those books that haven't been collected are available for reasonable prices. (I'm assuming you're going to keep the entries going up to the closest you can get to the current issue).

Yes, the aim is to get as close as possible to the current issues.

Sidney Osinga wrote:

I totally agree with you about including the back up stories. The summaries for them are just as interesting as the main stories. I glad to see that their included in this index. The Spider-Man Index from the mid-80's didn't even mention the back up stories.

That's one of the advantages we have by covering three series at once - we aren't indexing the characters, we are indexing the comic itself, and that includes back-up strips.

Sidney Osinga wrote:

When you do finally get caught up with at least one of the titles later in the year, I'm hoping for a slight format change. Instead of covering 3 long running series, I'd like to suggest running one or two and using the remaining space to cover shorter run series. I personally would like to see Golden Age comics and pre-super hero Marvel series covered (perhaps Tales of Suspense #'s 1-38?)

Nothing is set in stone, and naturally it is all dependent on sales (plans become moot if we don't sell and get cancelled, so tell your friends to buy copies!), but yes, as and when we finish off our current titles, we do hope to cover shorter run series as well. As for Golden Age and pre-superhero, they are definitely in the running, though the problem there becomes finding an index writer who actually owns or has access to the requisite issues.




TMFGC

Jan 9, 2009, 02:05 pm

I was slightly apprehensive about picking this up, as I've never read any of the index series, but after doing so, I'm fully on board for however long this goes (hopefully long enough to cover somewhere in the way of 32,000 issues). The level of thoroughness as far as issue details is astonishing, and it's a lot of fun to see the creative progress of series--Spider-man's smooth flow, the X-Men's awkwardness and lack of direction, the shifting of TOS's superhero/sci-fi shorts mix to a double feature with Cap. I wish the covers were a little larger, but if that's the cost of packing in this much info, I can live with it.

I'm in agreement with the poster that suggested some shorter running series take over once one of the current running ones is wrapped up. I wish I had a suggestion for it, but there's so much to choose from. Golden Age would work for me, as would pre-superhero TOS and Amazing Fantasy, with the specials and continuations from the 90's being included. This leads me to wonder: how are mini-series and one-shots going to be addressed? Annuals and Giant Sizes are a shoe-in, but what about, say, Amazing Spider-man: Friends and Enemies? It does share the title. Spider-man's would take issues to cover and he has secondary ongoings that would take priority were his coverage to continue past Amazing. I don't even want to think about what to do with all the extra X-Men stuff. Once Iron Man's own series closes, though, all of his 616 specials and mini's could probably be covered in an issue.




Stuart V

Jan 9, 2009, 05:56 pm

TMFGC wrote:

I was slightly apprehensive about picking this up, as I've never read any of the index series, but after doing so, I'm fully on board for however long this goes (hopefully long enough to cover somewhere in the way of 32,000 issues).

Even that figure is only a very rough estimate - it's probably a fair bit higher. Glad to hear that you are on board for the run, and like you, I have my fingers crossed we manage to have a sustained run and make a dent in that figure.

TMFGC wrote:

The level of thoroughness as far as issue details is astonishing, and it's a lot of fun to see the creative progress of series--Spider-man's smooth flow, the X-Men's awkwardness and lack of direction, the shifting of TOS's superhero/sci-fi shorts mix to a double feature with Cap. I wish the covers were a little larger, but if that's the cost of packing in this much info, I can live with it.

We've tried to pack in as much information as we can, and I'm glad that thus far people seem to feel we've done a decent job of it.

TMFGC wrote:

I'm in agreement with the poster that suggested some shorter running series take over once one of the current running ones is wrapped up. I wish I had a suggestion for it, but there's so much to choose from. Golden Age would work for me, as would pre-superhero TOS and Amazing Fantasy, with the specials and continuations from the 90's being included. This leads me to wonder: how are mini-series and one-shots going to be addressed? Annuals and Giant Sizes are a shoe-in, but what about, say, Amazing Spider-man: Friends and Enemies? It does share the title. Spider-man's would take issues to cover and he has secondary ongoings that would take priority were his coverage to continue past Amazing. I don't even want to think about what to do with all the extra X-Men stuff. Once Iron Man's own series closes, though, all of his 616 specials and mini's could probably be covered in an issue.

I'm not sure how much I can say at this juncture, and like I said nothing is set in stone yet. Plus, all plans could be moot if people don't pick the series up (so tell your friends to go out and buy copies!). But we have some ideas about what to do as and when the currently covered titles reach the modern day, and yes, secondary series, mini-series and short run series are all part of that - we want to cover them too. Everyone involved loves the older Index series, and we desperately want to not just repeat their work, but expand on it, covering areas and titles they didn't get the chance to.




Andy E. Nystrom

Jan 9, 2009, 11:13 pm


I just got my copy today and am quite enjoying it. I don't mind short synopses and some of the synopses are probably longer than the 1990s series anyway. Mind you, I do hope the Essentials reprint the 1980s titles eventually because George Olshevsky put a lot of work into them, and the more detailed synopses as well as his connecting stories to a timeline based on Peter Parker's school years makes the old material, if a bit dated in terms of retcons, still worth a read.

Since Cap's Tales of Suspense run is pretty well covered anyway under Iron Man, will his titles start with Captain America#100? That would eliminate needless duplication.

And will Spectacular Spider-Man etc issues be filed chronologically along with Amazing or covered separately? I can see Marvel Team-Up being covered separately because it's s shared title that on rare occasions didn't have Spidey, but stories in Spectacular et al at times weaved in and out of Amazing.

Regardless though I've always enjoyed the Index titles and I'm glad to see it back.




Stuart V

Jan 9, 2009, 11:32 pm

Andy E. Nystrom wrote:

I just got my copy today and am quite enjoying it. I don't mind short synopses and some of the synopses are probably longer than the 1990s series anyway. Mind you, I do hope the Essentials reprint the 1980s titles eventually because George Olshevsky put a lot of work into them, and the more detailed synopses as well as his connecting stories to a timeline based on Peter Parker's school years makes the old material, if a bit dated in terms of retcons, still worth a read.

I concur. And if you don't have them, you should hunt down his Indicies from the late 1970s.

Andy E. Nystrom wrote:

Since Cap's Tales of Suspense run is pretty well covered anyway under Iron Man, will his titles start with Captain America#100? That would eliminate needless duplication.

We won't be covering the issues twice, have no fear. As and when we cover Cap, his TOS appearances will be covered with a note to check back to Index #1 and 2.

Andy E. Nystrom wrote:

And will Spectacular Spider-Man etc issues be filed chronologically along with Amazing or covered separately? I can see Marvel Team-Up being covered separately because it's s shared title that on rare occasions didn't have Spidey, but stories in Spectacular et al at times weaved in and out of Amazing.

Separately. Yes, there are stories that crossover and run from one title the next, so we considered interwieving the books. Then we realized that there would be other occasions where this would interrupt a storyline in ASM, and that if we did it for one of his other titles, where do you draw the line? We'd potentially be intermixing all the different mini-series and one-shots, and does Spider-Man/X-Men get covered with the ASM issues or the X-Men issues, and is the original X-Factor series to be covered at the same time as the X-Men series, and what about New Mutants and ...

So, with a couple of exceptions (which you will see as and when we come to them), we aren't intermixing different titles.




frenchfan

Jan 11, 2009, 05:58 am


Hi

I'm reading Official Index to the Marvel Universe #1

Congratulation for your great job

but i've a question
I don't find for x-men's index no link with x-men First Class
These excellent stories are not in the 616 world?

and you indicate " a more comprehensive list can be found at http://www.marvel.com/universe/index but the link is dead.

Thx




Andy E. Nystrom

Jan 11, 2009, 01:32 pm

frenchfan wrote:

I don't find for x-men's index no link with x-men First Class
These excellent stories are not in the 616 world?

and you indicate " a more comprehensive list can be found at http://www.marvel.com/universe/index but the link is dead.

Having read First Class myself I can see why they would have omitted it. Regardless of the quality of the series it contradicts 616 history in a lot of ways and would be hard to shoehorn into the 616 timeline.

The link seems to work for me. Maybe it was temporarily down when you tried it.




Michael Regan

Jan 11, 2009, 01:38 pm


How solid are the contridictions, or can they be explained in some way?




Andy E. Nystrom

Jan 11, 2009, 01:42 pm


Oh, and I have to say I find the abbreviation AI:RIM quite amusing. It gives me the mental picture of a robot performing a rather rude sexual act.




Andy E. Nystrom

Jan 11, 2009, 01:45 pm

Michael Regan wrote:

How solid are the contridictions, or can they be explained in some way?

Actually come to think of it, I was confusing First Class with Children of the Atom. That being the case I might not have read First Class after all.




Michael Regan

Jan 11, 2009, 01:49 pm


I have not read very much of First Class, other than the initial mini and the special and the only contridictions I remember are technological in nature, easily explained with the 10 year moving window of history withing the Marvel universe.




Stuart V

Jan 12, 2009, 05:55 pm

frenchfan wrote:

Hi

I'm reading Official Index to the Marvel Universe #1

Congratulation for your great job

Thanks.

frenchfan wrote:

but i've a question
I don't find for x-men's index no link with x-men First Class
These excellent stories are not in the 616 world?

There is nothing in First Class which rules it out as potentially being in 616 continuity. However, at the moment there is no definitive evidence to say it definitely is 616 continuity either. As such, the decision has been taken not to reference FC for the time being.

frenchfan wrote:

and you indicate " a more comprehensive list can be found at http://www.marvel.com/universe/index but the link is dead.

The link is working now. Thanks for the reminder!




bigvis497

Jan 13, 2009, 10:38 am


So wait, now First Class in not in 616 continuity? I'd prefer it that way, however the stories have been referenced in the Official Handbook hardcovers, so which is true?




Michael Regan

Jan 13, 2009, 01:16 pm


I've noticed that the FlashBack issues (-1) have not been included. Are they not considered canon?

bigvis497 wrote:

So wait, now First Class in not in 616 continuity? I'd prefer it that way, however the stories have been referenced in the Official Handbook hardcovers, so which is true?

It is not that they are not continuity, they have simply not been included in the Official Index to the Marvel Universe. As to if they are continuity or not is still undecided.




Michael Hoskin

Jan 13, 2009, 05:00 pm

Michael Regan wrote:

I've noticed that the FlashBack issues (-1) have not been included. Are they not considered canon?

We're going in publication order, not necessarily in numerical order.




Michael Regan

Jan 13, 2009, 05:10 pm

Michael Hoskin wrote:

We're going in publication order, not necessarily in numerical order.

But with 'last seen / next seen' there are references according to chronology. Unless I'm missing the entry I would think the Peter Parker last seen would include Amazing Spider-Man -1. Am I missunderstanding?




Eric J. Moreels

Jan 14, 2009, 02:13 am

Michael Regan wrote:

But with 'last seen / next seen' there are references according to chronology. Unless I'm missing the entry I would think the Peter Parker last seen would include Amazing Spider-Man -1. Am I missunderstanding?

If you mean his listing in Amazing Fantasy #15 not having a "last in ASM #-1" entry, that's because there's quite a few appearances after the Flashback stories prior to AF #15, and we tend to only list the most immediate prior appearance.

It's likely a full chronology of Spidey's pre-AF #15 appearances will be published in the Index at some point.




Michael Regan

Jan 14, 2009, 10:26 am

That is what I mean, thanks Eric.




ToddCam

Jan 18, 2009, 11:15 pm


I picked it up this week. I have also never picked up an Index before (though I have always been curious), so I didn't know what to expect. Beautiful. I loved it from beginning to end. I'm in it for the long haul, and I think I convinced a friend of mine to get them too.

One thing I noticed: I think that the "Supporting Characters" for X-Men #34 was deleted. Ralph and Ted Roberts are both mentioned in the synopsis, and in #31 it says that their next appearances are in #34.




Stuart V

Jan 19, 2009, 12:14 am

ToddCam wrote:

I picked it up this week. I have also never picked up an Index before (though I have always been curious), so I didn't know what to expect. Beautiful. I loved it from beginning to end. I'm in it for the long haul, and I think I convinced a friend of mine to get them too.

One thing I noticed: I think that the "Supporting Characters" for X-Men #34 was deleted. Ralph and Ted Roberts are both mentioned in the synopsis, and in #31 it says that their next appearances are in #34.

Blast. Yes, you are right, it looks that somewhere between writing and going to print that section got accidentally deleted. It should be

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS: Ted Roberts, Ralph Roberts (both also in fb, both next in Hulk #173, ‘74, Ralph chr next in Hulk #174, ’74 fb)




slevin87

Mar 20, 2009, 11:08 pm


I haven't started reading #3 yet, but this and the second issue are both excellent. One question about #1, though: Red Raven's last chronological appearance is listed as in an issue of Invaders, but wasn't he one of the heroes invading Berlin in 1945 in The Twelve #1?




gorby

Dec 18, 2009, 05:35 am


I remark an error under the Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 entry. The robots X-Men used by Mysterio are listed Angel, Cyclops and Iceman. It should be Angel, Cyclops and Beast.