Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: N/A
Written by: Various
Art by: Various
Colored by: Various
Lettered by: N/A
Editor: Jess Youngquist
Publisher: Marvel Comics
I am so very weak. So, so very weak.
A few years back, when DC started to do Secret Files and Origins one-shots, I developed something of an addiction. I dug the character bios because they often tapped an artist not usually associated with the character for a pin-up and at least once an issue there was a piece on a fairly obscure character that I had never heard. I enjoyed the knowledge acquisition part of it immensely.
So much so that it got so I was considering buying the Secret Files and Origins of books that I did not read and characters I was not following. I do not recall giving in to these urges, but I do admit, with some chagrin, picking them up, flipping through them and giving their purchase serious thought.
However, thankfully, it became apparent to me that they were not a very good investment. They cost more than a regular comic, had less story (and usually what was there was less quality than the book’s typical output), and 4 + dollars was a bit stiff to toss out for a book that I really only wanted for a couple of bios and a pin-up piece or two. So, I kicked the habit and stopped buying them. Yay me!
Then this baby came along. And I had a bit of a relapse.
I do not feel as bad about this one though. For one thing, it is chock-a-block full of obscure villains (Zzzax? Dr. Demonicus? Razor Fist?). Where else were you going to read about some of these cats without purposely seeking them out online? For another, the bios are very detailed, giving the history of the character basically start to finish and (near as I can tell) touching on every appearance between these two moments. I dig that.
Of course, this is not a casual read like a Secret Files book is. This is more a research tool/guide than a comic. If you are a nerd like me you’ll dig it, but do not try to read it all in one sitting. The straight prose style is not written with any flair and can often full very repetitive, as if the author ran out of transition words in the first few paragraphs. Again, however, taken in small doses by the types of folks who like to read about mostly obscure villains, it is good for what it is.
From time to time, the Files are quite capable of eliciting a giggle, albeit an unintentional one, from the reader. Some of the (temporary) fates of the villains or how they escaped their deaths are rather amusing in a “hindsight is 20/20″ sort of way. My personal favorite is a villain who was tossed into space not once, not twice, but three times and still returned to Earth to tell the tale. Funny stuff.
It is also neat (again, for people like me) to track certain ages in Marvel by the characters’ bios. You can definitely detected the “Dark” Age (any mention of Ghost Rider, for instance), but you also pick up on things like movements to make B-level villains into good guys or the explosion of psychological disorders to explain a villain’s poor behavior.
The only real rap I can come up with about this book is that it would have been a lot more useful and better timed if it came out during the Breakout story in New Avengers. A Who’s Who of escapees is a good idea, but when it comes some 7 months and two storylines after the arc that inspired it, it seems less…necessary. Especially when you notice that some of the bios are already outdated because of events in New Avengers.
