History ComicBook / OfficialHandbookOfTheMarvelUniverse

Several series from Creator/MarvelComics describing its characters in encyclopedia format. The project was instigated by PromotedFanboy and popular writer and editor Mark Gruenwald; another prominent OHOTMU creator is diagram artist Eliot R. Brown. The first OHOTMU-style pages came as back-ups in the three-issue miniseries ''Comicbook/ContestOfChampions1982'' (also written by Gruenwald) and proved popular enough for Marvel to go with a full-sized series containing nothing but encyclopedic entries.

** A recent entry basically confirmed the events of the ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'' crossover as being canonical to the MarvelUniverse (without mentioning DC's characters.)

** {{Wolverine}}'s claws were shown as bionic implants. Later stories ignored this and had them be natural.

Several series from Creator/MarvelComics describing its characters in encyclopedia format. The project was instigated by PromotedFanboy and popular writer and editor Mark Gruenwald; another prominent OHOTMU creator is diagram artist Eliot R. Brown. The first OHOTMU-style pages came as back-ups in the three-issue miniseries ''Comicbook/ContestOfChampions'' (also written by Gruenwald) and proved popular enough for Marvel to go with a full-sized series containing nothing but encyclopedic entries.

* Associated titles include the Marvel Atlas two-part series and character or team-specific handbooks, usually one a month, such as the [[Comicbook/IronMan Iron Manuals Mk. 2 and Mk. 3]], [[ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} Deadpool: Rank and Foul]], and Encyclopedia Mythologica (mainly covering characters introduced in Comicbook/TheMightyThor and Comicbook/IncredibleHercules.

* {{Trope Maker|s}}: For the whole concept of doing superhero encyclopedias in comic book format, soon imitated by DC and other companies.
----
<<|ComicBooks|>>

* Associated titles include the Marvel Atlas two-part series and character or team-specific handbooks, usually one a month, such as the [[Comicbook/IronMan Iron Manuals Mk. 2 and Mk. 3]], [[SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}} Deadpool: Rank and Foul]], and Encyclopedia Mythologica (mainly covering characters introduced in Comicbook/TheMightyThor and Comicbook/IncredibleHercules.

** The new version is collected in ''fourteen'' hardcovers. These have been republished as softcovers with even more profiles.

** The [[BreakingTheFourthWall wackier stories]] in ComicBook/SheHulk were explained as having occurred, just [[UnreliableNarrator not quite the way the comics showed]].

* ''Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Deluxe Edition'' (abbreviated to OHOTMUDE), cover dates December 1985-February 1988; 20 issues at 64 pages each without ads. The last five issues were the ''Book of the Dead'', devoted to dead characters. [[BackFromTheDead Certain traits]] of comic books made this a somewhat unwise decision. A 1989 update ran for nine more issues. This is often considered the best of the early series, though the first OHOTMU did include the occasional entry not found in the Deluxe Edition. Marvel also released one for the licensed series ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian''.

* The original ''Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe'' (abbreviated to OHOTMU) started coming out in 1982 (cover dates January 1983 to April 1984), about two years before the similar ''Who's Who'' at DCComics, describing characters in alphabetical order over 15 issues. The series tried to be as scientifically accurate as possible, which may cause unintentional amusement as entries repeatedly explained away the same violations of physics (typically ShapeshifterBaggage, [[SquareCubeLaw Square/Cube Law]], or some RequiredSecondaryPowers). It also made {{Continuity Snarl}}s very obvious when a character's history was laid out all at once.

* ''Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe''. In 2004-2005, Marvel began releasing handbooks with various themes, such as Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}} or UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks. This was followed by an alphabetical series made up mostly of other characters, and several updates. See Marvel's [[http://www.marvel.com/universe/OHOTMU OHOTMU web page here]].

* A side project, ''The Official Index to the Marvel Universe'', goes issue-by-issue through the various titles. Two versions were published in the 70s and 80s, and a new version has been published since 2009. These are initially published with each issue covering multiple titles. For instance, the original set of modern indices were for ''[[SpiderMan Amazing Spider-Man]]'', ''IronMan'' and ''Uncanny ComicBook/{{X-Men}}''. These are later collected in digest-sized editions.

** SquirrelGirl has [[ParodySue maximum level in all stats]], but this is an [[RunningGag in-joke]]; she has never shown such levels of power in the comics. Most of her victories against powerful villains have been [[InformedAbility off-panel]], and the on-panel ones tend toward [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks silly]] [[AffectionateParody contrivances]] rather than PowerLevels.

Several series from Creator/MarvelComics describing its characters in encyclopedia format. The project was instigated by PromotedFanboy and popular writer and editor MarkGruenwald; another prominent OHOTMU creator is diagram artist Eliot R. Brown. The first OHOTMU-style pages came as back-ups in the three-issue miniseries ''Comicbook/ContestOfChampions'' (also written by Gruenwald) and proved popular enough for Marvel to go with a full-sized series containing nothing but encyclopedic entries.

** SquirrelGirl has [[ParodySue maximum level in all stats]], but this is an [[RunningGag in-joke]]; she has never shown such levels of power in the comics. Most of her victories against powerful villains have been [[InformedAbility off-panel]], and the on-panel ones tend toward [[SilverAge silly]] [[AffectionateParody contrivances]] rather than PowerLevels.

** The [[BreakingTheFourthWall wackier stories]] in SheHulk were explained as having occurred, just [[UnreliableNarrator not quite the way the comics showed]].

*** Similarly, despite Joe Quesada's word otherwise, events and characters from ''{{Nextwave}}'' have been incorporated into the Handbooks.

** A recent entry basically confirmed the events of the {{JLA-Avengers}} crossover as being canonical to the MarvelUniverse (without mentioning DC's characters.)

* ''Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe''. In 2004-2005, Marvel began releasing handbooks with various themes, such as Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}} or TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks. This was followed by an alphabetical series made up mostly of other characters, and several updates. See Marvel's [[http://www.marvel.com/universe/OHOTMU OHOTMU web page here]].

* Associated titles include the Marvel Atlas two-part series and character or team-specific handbooks, usually one a month, such as the [[IronMan Iron Manuals Mk. 2 and Mk. 3]], [[{{Deadpool}} Deadpool: Rank and Foul]], and [[TheMightyThor Encyclopedia]] [[IncredibleHercules Mythologica]].

* ExiledFromContinuity: RomSpaceKnight got an entry once, despite Marvel not owning the rights to the character.
** They get around this and other formerly-owned properties by simply not showing the character. For instance, the ''ShogunWarriors'' entry doesn't show the robots--just the pilots.
** Surprisingly averted with ''TheTransformers''. DeathsHead's entry mentions them in relation to their own side universe.

* PromotedFanboy: Besides Gruenwald, the contributors to the website ''The Unofficial Appendix To The Handbook Of The Marvel Universe'' [[http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/]] did such a good job covering characters not listed in the official comics that Marvel actually ''hired some of them'' to produce the latest issues!