Marvel Studios Character Encyclopedia

**SPOILER ALERT** This book spoils some of the movies by saying who turns out to be bad and who dies. My review contains some of that information.

I purchased the hardcover version of this Marvel Studios Character Encyclopedia because I'm a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Unlike other Marvel books, this one follows the MCU exclusively, from Iron Man 1 to Captain Marvel (no Endgame). Each movie series has a brief overview of the character, their powers, and the supporting cast around them. For example, Captain America has a page for each of his fellow Howling Commandos. Each has pretty standard information which was a good refresher but nothing new most of the time. I did find out that the scavengers in the Thor Movie where he has to fight the big, green gladiator actually use armpit hair as headdresses. I also didn't know that the guy who runs the gladiatorial competition is the brother of the Collector, and they are among the oldest living beings in the universe. So it was worth a read to learn new information like that.

The one flaw I found with this book was my favorite movie of the MCU: Captain Marvel. Every other movie has pages of content with supporting characters and even spoilers for who turns out to be a bad guy and who dies. Captain Marvel has two (yes, 2) pages, one with Carol Danvers and one with the main green guy, whom they call a terrorist. I read through it and got the feeling that the writers of this book didn't actually watch the movie because they refer to him as the bad guy when he turns out not to be. The main supporting characters of the movie, including the enemy AI, and the woman who was Kree and working on the lightspeed engine with Carol, are not featured. That's why I think that even though the book was released one month after the movie came out, it was put together and published before it was released and the publisher only got a brief glimpse at a preview for it.

Other than that issue, it was a fun read that took under two hours to get through. I do recommend it, though I would recommend it more if it contained the entire Infinity Stone saga and included Captain Marvel and Endgame. 4/5 stars

Does not include all Marvel movie characters like Fantastic Four or TV characters. Hope they will do better next edition

Bought this for my son's tenth birthday. We are Marvel fans and I think he will enjoy this one. It is not very big but I think it will hold his attention and has a lot of good pictures and interesting info. For the price I paid I am pleased with this purchase.

This is a great book that focuses strictly on the MCU. You can go through the book to review whatever you need to when watching the MCU.
Pros: This has pictures to identify the characters you're looking for.
Has good information on what the character is doing in the MCU.
Book is very well put together.

Here on some cons.
There are missing sections and characters I was hoping to see in here. A major one is the section on the Captain Marvel movie side. It only lists Captain Marvel and Talos (the green shape shifting guy) and no one else. All the characters in the book are correctly identifies except Talow, in which it describes him as the villain, in which we learn he isn't.
They also don't have a section for the Hulk characters. I was also sad to see none of the Spider Man characters listed, which may be a result of copyright between Marvel and Sony. Hulk and spider man are listed in the Avengers section.
This is something minor, but this doesn't cover endgame.

This book does contain spoilers, so if you are seeing the movies for the first time just be aware this book will spoil stuff for you.

Overall, this is a great book to have.

My 8 year old son absolutely loves this. He has pretty much memorized every page.
The book covers all the major marvel characters and a surprising amount of the various supporting characters as well, which is nice. For each character there is at least a full paragraph description and a few pictures of relevant scenes they are in.

My only warning is that if your child gets this book he/she will end up knowing some major plot points and what happens to some major characters, before they see the movie. In my son's case it did not affect his enthusiasm for these movies one bit. He always has his book by his side when he watches a marvel movie and has the book turned to the appropriate pages.

My 6 year old loves this book. I personally would have liked more info: actors name, maybe actors who passed on the role, ect but it's more about the character. Regardless, it made my kiddo very happy and he's a fan who pays attention to the details.

Thought this would be a detailed book about the characters and actors. Nope, written for a 10year old with highlights like, “fur boots are for fighting in cold.”

Almost No Powers Information Don't Waste Your Money.

This is a great source of information on all the characters in the Marvel Studios series. Explains a lot about the role each character played in their films.

I LIKE THE BOOK UNTIL IT COMES TO CAPTAIN MARVEL COME ON NOW TWO CHARACTERS ALL THE REST HAVE 10 TO 15 VERY UPSET WITH WHO EVER PUT IT TOGETHER LOVE MOST CHARACTER ENCYCLOPEDIAS BUT NOT THIS ONE