I'm guessing the trades were just that--reprints. The monthlies were the originals, so your guess that the updates changed characters no longer matching their 1982-83 form is correct.

That was such a great series. For me, it was the best thing coming out of Marvel in the 1980s by far (even more than the first Hobgoblin arc in Amazing Spider-Man). As the company's character roster and stories grew to crazy levels, such a resource was just what was needed by fans.

If you are talking the multi-volume color tpb reprint, then, yes, that was taken from the update, not the original series.  There is an Essential Official handbook of the Marvel Universe, from the black & white Essential line.  That reprints the original entries, in black & white.  It was then followed by the same, with the updated version.

Quite frankly, I always preferred the original.  The bulk of the artwork was done on a larger scale and it felt a bit livelier.  It left a ton of stuff out, though.  I still prefer the original Who's Who of the DC Universe to OHotMU.  It was more engaging and wider reaching.  Also, when both started a loose-leaf format, the Marvel one was dull as dishwater, with the same standard figure poses, like a book of police mugshots, while DC used it to create full pin-ups, with the info on the back.  Fairly reflective of the state of the two companies, editorially, at the time.

That's what I thought, I have the 10 volume color, but looks like different art. it's not a big deal I was curious. I agree completely with your opinion of the loose leaf edition from I think the early 90's? Thanks for the input!

It was (is) such a great resource, even with all the changes that have happened, the Marvel depicted in those volumes were MY Marvel!

I never owned an issue of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (or Who's Who in the DC Universe, for that matter), but some friends of mine had a full set of both. I thought they were interesting and I often perused them whenever I was round my friends' house, but I never had any interest in spending my own money on them. Like, I always thought that it was a waste of funds that could otherwise be spent on actual comics.

I did own the Marvel Super-Heroes Roleplaying Game though and loved reading all the character stats in the handbooks for that. So, I guess that was my version of the OHOTMU.

Hahaha, I was in the same boat. Any reference material I inhaled.

I originally picked up the first series to use the poses for creating my own characters.  It gave you a nice selection across the issues.

I also used to read encyclopedias.  We had a World Book set that had nicely formatted articles, especially about the various wars, presidents, the space program, aviation history and similar things.  We were a family of 5, with one bathroom.  I got up early to beat the rush and would have time on my hands while I waited for the rest to catch up, before we went to school.  I used to pick out a volume and thumb through it until an article caught my eye and started reading.  i still recall stumbling across a cutaway diagram of some of the sections of the Maginot Line, thinking it put the Navarone fortress to shame, in the Guns of Navarone.  Then I read the article about how the Germans were able to bypass it, by going through Belgium and Holland.  Still looked cool, though.

I still prefer a World Book over Wikipedia or any other on-line source.  The material is less questionable and the search required more ingenuity.  My history teacher used to assign a set of 100 questions, which you had to find answers and cite the references you used to find them.  I was able to find 80% with that home encyclopedia set.  Now if I googled it, it would take less time; but, I'd probably have a higher percentage of errors.  And possibly some links to porn sites.