Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Teams 2005 #[nn]
Released on May 18, 2005, this oversized one-shot is the dedicated team-centric volume in Marvel's ambitious 2004–2005 run of themed OHOTMU supplements — the first time the handbook format gathered profiles for more than thirty Marvel super-teams under a single cover rather than scattering them across alphabetical volumes. It serves as a comprehensive snapshot of Earth-616's group landscape at a pivotal editorial moment just before Civil War reshaped team allegiances, canonizing rosters for squads as diverse as the Runaways, Big Hero Six, Power Pack, the Serpent Society, and the New Thunderbolts. The sheer breadth of the character index — spanning World War II-era assemblages like the All-Winners Squad through still-active 2005 line-ups — makes it an unusually wide-angle reference document for the period. Its coverage of teams that had rarely (or never) received handbook treatment, such as the Knights of Pendragon, Euroforce, and Mys-Tech, gives it particular research value for readers tracking the full scope of Marvel's international and cosmic corners.
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The Teams 2005 one-shot was coordinated by head writer Jeff Christiansen — who also served in the same role on the Avengers 2004, Hulk 2004, Daredevil 2004, and Book of the Dead 2004 volumes — with contributions from a large ensemble of researcher-writers including Stuart Vandal, Sean McQuaid, Michael Hoskin, Mark O'English, Anthony Flamini, Ronald Byrd, Bill Lentz, Al Sjoerdsma, Barry Reese, Eric J. Moreels, and Richard Green, all under editor Jeff Youngquist and editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. The cover was painted by Tom Grummett with colors by Morry Hollowell, a pairing used consistently across the 2005 slate of themed one-shots. The issue sits thirteenth in the informal Vol. 4 sequence of themed supplements that Marvel published roughly one per month throughout 2004–2005 as supplements to the Marvel Encyclopedia line, a strategy conceived to provide thorough, up-to-date reference material across every corner of the publisher's line before the All-New OHOTMU A-to-Z monthly series launched in 2006.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published May 18, 2005 (cover-dated May 2005) as a single one-shot issue — the thirteenth entry in the 2004–2005 themed OHOTMU supplement series.
- Head writer/coordinator: Jeff Christiansen; contributing writers include Stuart Vandal, Sean McQuaid, Michael Hoskin, Mark O'English, Anthony Flamini, Ronald Byrd, Bill Lentz, Al Sjoerdsma, Barry Reese, Eric J. Moreels, and Richard Green; editor: Jeff Youngquist.
- Cover art by Tom Grummett, digitally painted by Morry Hollowell — the same creative pairing used on companion 2005 one-shots (Avengers 2005, Fantastic Four 2005, Alternate Universes 2005).
- Profiles more than 30 teams, including the All-Winners Squad, Alpha Flight, Avengers, Big Hero Six, Brotherhood of Mutants, Champions, Champions of Xandar, Defenders, Euroforce, Excalibur, Exiles, Fantastic Force, First Line, Force Works, Frightful Four, Heroes for Hire, Imperial Guard, Infinity Watch, Knights of Pendragon, Lethal Legion, Masters of Evil, Midnight Sons, Mys-Tech, New Mutants/New X-Men, New Warriors, Power Pack, Runaways, and Serpent Society, among others.
- Provides the first dedicated handbook treatment for several then-recently-active or obscure teams, including Euroforce, Mys-Tech, and Knights of Pendragon, as well as an up-to-date entry for the New Thunderbolts in their 2005 configuration.
- The issue's character index (verified via Marvel Database) encompasses members and associates across all profiled teams — running to several hundred individual entries — making it one of the most character-dense single-issue handbooks of the 2004–2005 run.
- Part of the broader 2004–2005 OHOTMU themed one-shot program that Marvel described as supplementing the Marvel Encyclopedia and targeting specific families of characters, beginning with X-Men 2004 and running approximately one title per month through the end of 2005.
- The profiles and data gathered across the 2004–2005 one-shots, including this issue, were later reorganized and partially reprinted in the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z twelve-volume hardcover set (2008–2009), which collected entries from 2004 through 2007 in alphabetical order.