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Post by Duragizer on Aug 8, 2019 23:14:55 GMT -5
Nice thread. I collected and enjoyed both. Aside from rare and random character pages in comics scattered across the decades before it, WW and TOHOTMU were the first time the Big Two published a thorough guide to their then-overflowing character roster. For a longtime reader, this was comic book gold, with barely a stone not overturned in profiling every character. Instead of just stopping there, Marvel also covered:  I could not believe they dedicated any part of the series to...frankly, dead characters (at a time when the dead were not revived every other week), and like the rest of the series, it was a wealth of information. Virtually every one of them (with the glaring exception of Captain Marvel) returned... Diminished returns, I'd wager. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2019 6:43:21 GMT -5
I love this forum!
How did I not know there'd been a Star Trek version of Who's Who. Wow. I am so glad I now know.
But as William Shatner's character in Airplane II said, "Why the hell aren't I notified about these things?!"
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Post by zaku on Aug 9, 2019 6:50:30 GMT -5
Virtually every one of them (with the glaring exception of Captain Marvel) returned... Diminished returns, I'd wager. Oh, yes, absolutely. Even in-universe characters joke about this. Comic books fans used to say "No one in comics stays dead except Bucky, Jason Todd, and Uncle Ben", but then...   |
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 9, 2019 14:38:10 GMT -5
They're both great, but I guess I preferred the detail of OHOTMU.
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 9, 2019 14:39:14 GMT -5
I love this forum! How did I not know there'd been a Star Trek version of Who's Who. Wow. I am so glad I now know. But as William Shatner's character in Airplane II said, "Why the hell aren't I notified about these things?!" The Legion of Super-Heroes had their own Who's Who, also. Maybe you already knew that, though. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Aug 9, 2019 15:18:41 GMT -5
Who's Who for me.
I appreciated the logos, the more dynamic art, and most importantly, the efforts to pair entries with the most appropriate artist available (and usually finding good solutions to conflicts over the "most appropriate", like having Murphy Anderson do the Golden Age Hawkman and Joe Kubert the Silver Age Hawkman). And on the characters with no obvious artist to go to, we still got some great picks that hadn't done much if any DC art, like Gilbert Hernandez and Steve Rude. Aesthetically, it's no contest. Marvel, on the other hand, didn't have Kirby drawing his creations, or Ditko, and I don't even recall Don Heck showing up there. The art that was there was so generic that it tended to strip away the individual qualities of the artist, especially in the later "style guide" format, where the artists were basically drawing a costume over a template.
As for the text content, I found Marvel's entries overkill, especially in later editions where they allowed multiple page entries (or at least, so I recall). These tended to highlight the unlikelihood of characters going through as much history as they had in the short time the Marvel Universe had supposedly been in existence.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 9, 2019 22:37:53 GMT -5
The original OHOTMU also left a ton of characters to the back interior cover, while Who's Who tried to get everybody (they did miss a few; but added them to the updates.)
I also used to cringe at military related stuff in OHOTMU, as it was usually way out of whack. The average person probably wouldn't notice. For instance, the Nick Fury entry said he was trained in "green beret" and "black beret" special forces. There's only one Special Forces: The Green Berets. Now, they might have meant his original Ranger training, in WW2, as the modern Rangers, in the 1980s, wore black berets. However, the Rangers aren't considered part of Special Forces and didn't wear the SF tab. The Punisher also had mistakes about the Marines; but.....civilians! Liek I saw, the average Marvelite wouldn't notice.
Anybody know if they debuted the SHIELD single uniform, with different color shoulder holster in OHOTMU or had that already made an appearance? Because, everything I ever saw had Fury in his own uniform, Dum-Dum always in blue, and Gabe in yellow. Clay Quartermain was always in the Golden Orange. Orange was usually the grunts, yellow the lower rank officers and blue the higher ranking and that seemed to carry over to the color-coded accessories, on the uniforms shown in OHOTMU.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 9, 2019 22:50:51 GMT -5
 The OHOTMU entry...  Steranko  Mike Zeck showing the active duty SHIELD Howlers and the retired ones, reunited. That configuration was also used in Micronauts and some other SHIELD appearances, in the late 70s. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2019 5:29:52 GMT -5
When I discovered these in the early 90s, I was always hoping Dark Horse, Image and so many others would do the same.
I'd love a 2000 AD version of Who's Who.
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Post by tarkintino on Aug 10, 2019 8:14:12 GMT -5
Marvel also covered: I could not believe they dedicated any part of the series to...frankly, dead characters (at a time when the dead were not revived every other week), and like the rest of the series, it was a wealth of information. You can see they distinguish dead from inactive in the cover art by the deceased having their arms crossed in front and the inactive with their arms at their side; pretty neat. I remember a fanzine called Omniverse with a cover similar to those. The #13 & 14 Marvels connected to show a full skull motif in the background like the regular #1-12 issues all connected. I never really saw the DC Who's Who but might have preferred them.  Thanks for posting this--I never knew about this fanzine cover. About DC's Who's Who, I would recommend getting the series. Its a perfect companion to DC at (arguably) the zenith of its creative output. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2019 8:51:53 GMT -5
I preferred DC Who's Who over Marvel Handbook
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Post by tarkintino on Aug 10, 2019 9:58:26 GMT -5
I preferred DC Who's Who over Marvel Handbook One thing the OHOTMU had over WW were the schematics / explanations of weapons and other devices; at long last, Marvel provided answers to fans' "How does that work" questions, that were rarely dealt with, or not given much more than a couple of panel's worth of attention. Sure, most of it was technobabble, but it played as plausible, more often than not and gave Marvel's fantasy world a sense of being complete. |
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