Customer Reviews
Very good but it is a little fragile - By: presterjohn, 23 Apr 2008 
This book reallly is a joy. Every Marvelite who gets one will love it. It contains lots of stuff that old time fans will possibly already know about but this is the first time I have seem so many photos of Marvel & Timely staff members in one book. This book is as much about the company as it is the characters & is alll the better for that. I love alll the reproduction pencil sketches, stamps & cards etc they are very realistic replicas. As a Brit we never reallly got chance to see any of those things in real life so to actuallly hold them in my hand is a bit of a thrill. I feel this book will mostly appeal to older comic fans between the ages of 30 & 50 looking for a bit of nostalgia rather than smalll boys or young fans of superhero films & cartoons. I would go so far as to say that this book is actuallly due to the ring binding to fragile to handle for any child under 10 (it needs to be handled with a lot of care & only opened on a flat surface. Because of this I almost dropped a star in my rating & I would have given this book four stars. Since it has been discounted so heavily by Amazon though (at the time of writing this) It now has to in my opinion have the full five.
Excellent gift for a Marvel Fan - By: C. POSTIN, 11 Jan 2008 I bought this for my husband as a gift & he loves it. I am not reallly into the whole Marvel thing myself, but found myself interested enough to read it from cover to cover. Excellent & a great price on Amazon.
Marvel Vault - Fantastic but flawed - By: David J. Smith, 02 Nov 2007 
I agree in what has already been written about how good the book is. However, there is a major flaw in the book that needs pointing out. The pages are held in place by a metal ring binding. Even with careful use the pages are going to pull againt this binding & are going to tear & falll out. I could already see slight wear after looking through the book once - Be warned especallly considering the price.
Like opening a Marvel time capsule - By: I. R. Kerr, 26 Sep 2007 Roy Thomas & Peter Sanderson have gathered together in this book not only a history of Marvel from Marvel Comics # 1 (1939) up to 2006, which is impressive enough but a whole host of extras from Marvel's past make it a superb collector's item.
From reproductions of sketches of Marvel's WW2 heroes, especiallly the Sub-Mariner, Marvel's longest lasting continual character, the original Torch being an android. There's a reproduction MMMS membership card (I was a member of FOOM in the 1970's), the no-prize book, Marvel value stamps & many more items, it's a nostalgics dream. There are also truly personal items like Bill Everett's postcards.
Marvel fans are an intrinsic part of the Marvel extended family & although like most families, there are the odd breakdowns by & large Marvel has kept a large & loyal fan-base. It does not gloss over the collapse of Marvel & the comic industry in the 1990's due to corporate over-reach (greed) & the eventual rebirth, through to Heroes Reborn, & the recent spate of blockbuster movies.
Reading through it the names of the people who made Marvel great, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Roy Thomas himself, John Buscema, John Romita & countless others appear & invoke great memories. I was a Marvelite in the 1970's & 1980's & am now catching up on both the stories I read first time round & many I missed out on. This book is full of absolutely wonderful art reproductions that cover almost 70 years & I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone, 'nuff said.
comic nerd heaven! - By: Mr. R. Mcghee, 20 Sep 2007 This is an amazing piece of kit collecting over sixty years of marvel history. Even die hard 'marvelites' (i know it's not a real word) will find a wealth of info & facts unknown to them. The amount of care & attention that Thomas & Sanderson have put into this book is breath taking. Everything is faultless from the autographs printed on the inside cover to the reproductions of early sketches of the submarnier right through to the traiding cards included in slip cases. In the words of smiling Stan the man: Excelsior!
