The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #2

History

Written by Mark Gruenwald and Peter Sanderson, with research by Sanderson and technical diagrams by Eliot Brown, the Deluxe Edition was conceived as a thorough overhaul of the 1983 original, which had drawn enormous fan response — including data-correction letters — prompting Marvel to expand the scope significantly. Gruenwald, appointed editor of the project by then-editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, brought in Josef Rubinstein as the series' sole inker specifically because Rubinstein could subordinate his own style to each penciller's voice, ensuring visual consistency across dozens of contributors. Sanderson later recalled that after the first Handbook Gruenwald felt some power explanations had become too technical and asked him to simplify the prose for the Deluxe run, reflecting Gruenwald's core philosophy of grounding Marvel's powers in accessible, if still pseudo-scientific, language. Issue #2's art roster — Kerry Gammill, John Byrne, Walt Simonson, Dave Cockrum, Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz, Mike Zeck, Paul Smith, Bob Layton, and Steve Ditko — reads like a who's-who of mid-1980s Marvel illustration talent.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Issue #2 of the Deluxe Edition (cover-dated January 1986) covers the alphabetical range Beast to Clea, making it the entry point for several major mutant, cosmic, and Canadian characters in this updated reference format.
• The Beast (Hank McCoy) entry illustrates him in his blue, furry form; editor Gruenwald intentionally withheld knowledge of McCoy's pending de-mutation in X-Factor #1 (1986), and when the issue was later collected in trade paperback, the image was altered to reflect the character's changed appearance.
• Gruenwald publicly addressed his Beast editorial decision in the letters column of Deluxe Edition #6, offering one of the series' most candid glimpses into how real-time continuity changes complicated the Handbook's production.
• Blackout (Marcus Daniels) receives his Deluxe Edition entry here; his first appearance is recorded in Nova Vol. 1 #19 (Marvel, 1976), tying him to the Nova corner of the Marvel Universe.
• Box (Roger Bochs) of Alpha Flight is profiled in this issue; while Bochs and Sasquatch (Walter Langkowski) appeared as part of the team entry in Deluxe Edition #1, this section of the alphabet allows for individual treatment of characters whose surnames begin with B.
• Art contributions to this issue include work by Frank Miller (Black Widow), Bill Sienkiewicz, John Byrne, Walt Simonson, Mike Zeck, Dave Cockrum, Kerry Gammill, Paul Smith, Bob Layton, and Steve Ditko — among the most celebrated artists working at Marvel in 1986.
• The Deluxe Edition upgraded every character to at least one full page, with significant characters receiving up to five pages — a major expansion over the original 1983 series, where minor characters sometimes shared a single page.
• The issue's content was reprinted in black and white in Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe – Deluxe Edition #1 (Marvel, 2006) and is also collected in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition Omnibus (Marvel, 2021).

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