The Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe – Update ‘89 (third series) 1989
Number of
Issues: 8 (48 pages plus covers)
Covers: Front
and back covers in a single image again; select characters only, facing
forward; colour background.
Formatting: The
inside front covers for all list the contents and credits, plus a humour
cartoon. #1-14 have an editorial section called From the Doghouse in #1-3 and
In the Doghouse in #4.
Non-cover pages are the main
entries, all 1-4 pages. A single-entry Deceased section appears at the end of
#8; the final non-cover page of #8 has the start of the Data Corrections
section (this series; continues in inside back cover).
Inside back covers: Data
Corrections: #1-6, Data Updates #6-7 (all for the Deluxe Edition), Data
Corrections: #8 (this series); #2 also has Marvel Assistant Editor Awards for
1988 and Comics Buyer’s Guide Fan Awards for 1988 forms. #3 also has an amended
Chameleon entry (instead of illos of the Chameleon, there’s a cartoon Peter
Sanderson figure explaining what happened). #4 also has a discussion on the
Atlanteans. #5 also has another cartoon. #8 also has a poster merging the
covers of first series #1-12 with some modifications as per an actual poster
sold at the time, being the art to the then-present day.
Interior
Art: Main illos: new art. Considerable use of secondary illos including
action shots, all also new art, making this the only series to be entirely
composed of new art. If team members head an entry elsewhere they’re usual
depicted with a headshot; if not, they are drawn full body in their ¼-page
sub-entry. Some entries had a full-page
colour background, some had a colour square background, some had a white
background.
Text Categories
(*= not for all entries; categories only used once or twice not noted):
Once again, text in this series
used cross-references, many to a non-existent but planned at the time Appendix;
this was the final volume to make use of cross-references. Roman numerals according to in universe
chronology were common.
Main
Entries
As per Deluxe Edition with two key
exceptions: All entries now have a Known superhuman powers category (often the
answer is “None”) and pre-Fantastic Four #1 characters now have both a First
appearance category and a First modern appearance category, the modern covering
their true first appearance and the latter covering their first post-Fantastic
Four#1 appearance. Starting here the
“modern” appearances would fall more and more out of favour, probably due to a
combination of more Golden Age stories being seen as in continuity and due to
the 1960s becoming too far into the past to be considered modern. Indeed, Fantastic Four#1 is now further in
the past in the present than Motion Picture Funnies Weekly#1 was at the time of
the first Handbook.
Main Entries
(Teams/Groups)
Again, this follows a pattern
similar to Deluxe. However, entries with no sub-entries are more likely to
depict full body shots rather than headshots, with or without First
appearance. This is the final series to
use ¼-page sub-entries.
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