ALL OF THE MARVELS

A deep dive into the overarching, decadeslong narrative of Marvel superhero comics.

Wolk, author of the Eisner Award–winning Reading Comics, writes effusively about “the longest continuous, self-contained work of fiction ever created: over half a million pages to date, and growing,” and he delivers an interpretive guide to the thousands of comics that Marvel has published since 1961. The author moves between this multilayered comic-world narrative and the behind-the-scenes timeline of the once-marginal company and its pop-culture DNA, forged by brilliant eccentrics Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Mike Ditko. Kirby and Ditko eventually parted acrimoniously from wordsmith and showman Lee, though not before establishing bold visual and textual templates that later artists acknowledged. “Stan Lee’s words,” writes Wolk, “from early Marvel comics became the toys of the writers who followed in his path.” In most chapters, the author focuses on prominent tentpoles like the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the Avengers. He assembles a critical narrative by linking contemporary issues to earlier decades and tracking the shuffles of artists and writers, recently emphasizing diverse younger talents. As one writer noted about collaboration on X-Men as it gained prominence, “such sparks as there were came about largely from us banging into each other.” In the 1970s, writes Wolk, “Marvel’s second-tier titles were subject to constant creative shuffling,” a process that produced complex crossovers between series amid larger patterns of “retroactive continuity.” But crossovers aren’t always welcome: “There’s a popular conception among irritable mainstream comics readers that crossovers wreck the flow of ongoing series.” Wolk breaks up his narrative analysis with “Interlude” chapters regarding business and cultural issues, noting how comics have pinballed among a variety of audiences: adolescents, comic collectors, film buffs, and more. The author’s exhaustive and mostly uncritical approach will appeal to those who share his passion for this self-sustaining superhero culture, understanding that “in a story as big as Marvel’s, everythingcan be a reference to the past.”

A simultaneously wide-ranging and engagingly specific guide to the sprawling realm of comics culture.