Review: The Marvel Encyclopedia & The DC Comics Encyclopedia

Last Monday I promised to write a few posts about some of the great books out there that are great for kids who seen and loved Avengers Assemble. I managed to get a review of the stunning The Avengers - The Ultimate Guide To Earth's Mightiest Heroes! from Dorling Kindersley, before I was buried in final GCSE and A Level coursework marking, moderating and packing up to send off to the exam board. Now that I've finally got room to breathe I wanted to highlight a couple of other gems from Dorling Kindersley that superhero fans will adore: The DC Comics Encyclopedia and The Marvel Encyclopedia.

Both books are encyclopedias that I received last year for my birthday, each one focusing on the respective characters from Marvel and DC and both are simply stunning volumes. In both the characters are listed alphabteically, with major characters like Spiderman and Batman being given several double page spreads, whilst the much lesser known characters are given much briefer entries. Some of the major 'events' through the history of these comics, such as Infinite Crisis and Civil War are also afforded their own spreads, providing the reader with even more background information.

Just as with The Avengers - The Ultimate Guide To Earth's Mightiest Heroes! it is the artwork that immediately grabs your attention with these books, and I couldn't help but rifle through their pages, feasting my eyes on the stunning imagery. After this I was left with a dilemma - to start reading through alphabetically or to jump straight to my favourite characters' entries. I finally decided on starting from the beginning and working though page by page, but this didn't last long and I found myself jumping backwards and forwards, first of all reading about favourites such as Batman and Iron Man, and then jumping to other characters who were referenced in these larger entries.

Both of these books were published a few years ago, so naturally, being encyclopedias of comic characters that are still being written about, they are already somewhat out of date. However, this also means that you can currently purchase them for about £10 less than their £30 price tag and they are well worth every penny. Both are updated editions of books that had been first published some years earlier, and given the current massive popularity of DC and Marvel I would not be surprised to see these given another update some time in the future.

As I mentioned earlier, I think superhero fans of all ages, boys and girls, will love these books and spend hours and hours poring through them. We have both books in the school library and they are almost as popular as our copies of  Ripley's Believe It Or Not and The Guinness Book of Records.

Review: The Avengers - The Ultimate Guide To Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Discover everything about Earth's greatest super hero team in The Avengers: The Ultimate Guide. The story of every single member, from their powers and their allegiences to their enemies is explored in detail and every page is packed with enough comic-book art to satisfy the most avid fans.

Ask the average man in the street which companies publish great comic books and they will no doubt answer Marvel and DC. Ask anyone who loves comic books and you will probably get a longer list, and Dorling Kindersley will be in there, and in my opinion should be right near the top. DK publish the most stunning guides to some of Marvel's and DC's most loved creations and over the past couple of years I have slowly been adding these DK books to my collection. I will write another day about some of these books, but wanted to bring this one to your attention first as it is simply stunning, and could be a great way of getting a reluctant reader boy into books.

Published to tie in with the recent film release, The Avengers - The Ultimate guide To Earth's Mightiest Heroes! is the perfect book for anyone who has enjoyed the movie. Most young readers may think that The Avengers are made up of only Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow, but this book will show them that the history of The Avengers goes back a very long way (September 1963 to be precise), and that over the years more than one hundred characters have come and gone from its ranks. This guide gives details of every single one of them and I think boys will spend many a happy hour poring through this volume, memorising names and images so that they can impress their friends with their new found knowledge of The Avengers.

This volume is filled cover to cover with lavishly and lovingly produced pages that tell readers everything they need to know about their favourite superheroes, and introduce many characters that even some die-hard fans may have forgotten about. Big name characters like Iron Man and Captain America (and some of the key villains from the Avengers stories) are given the honour of double page spreads that give key data about the character and their powers, and this is generally accompanied by a lengthier column of text that gives even more background to their history as an Avenger. Readers are also treated to a beautifully rendered full page image of these main characters, as well as smaller images of them as they have appeared in marvel comics through the ages. Lesser know characters are not afforded as much page space, but we are introduced briefly to each and everyone one of them.

The Avengers - The Ultimate guide To Earth's Mightiest Heroes! is more than just a who's who though. It also includes page after page outlining the major storylines and events, organised decade by decade, and my Amazon wishlist has multiplied in length as I now realise just how many classic stories I need to read.

It is very obvious to me that The Avengers - The Ultimate guide To Earth's Mightiest Heroes! is written by people who love comics, and whether you are a long time fan of The Avengers, or a 9+ boy who has only just discovered them through the recent film I think you will love this book as much as I did. They thanks go to the wonderful people at DK for sending me a copy to review.