Lies, deceit, grandstanding, backroom deals, backstabbing, and the creation of some of the most iconic characters and story-lines in modern history. This is the history of Marvel Comics. Author Sean Howe takes us through over a century, from the very beginning in a dingy office all the way to present day with Marvel owned by the monster corporation Disney. The strength of this book is that its interest is in the artists and the writers rather than exhausting us with the history of the characters, which any good comic fan already knows anyway, and Howe presents this refreshingly devoid of sentimentality. The artists and the writers come, they leave, and come back. They quit in grand gestures, as stances against exploitation of the creative staff, sometimes solitary and sometimes in groups, usually returning because there are just not that many paying gigs for that trade. Their professional lives parallel the comics they write. The superheroes that die and come back and are stuck in stasis are really the creators who keep telling their stories. On the surface there is no permanence in their world, but really it’s only the illusion of change. - Danny
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