World, according to Marvel

[DušMan]

Which brings us to this week's Marvel Atlas #1 (64 pages - $3.99), a Marvel publication that takes the details of Marvel's shared setting as seriously as possible. It makes for something between an obsessive compulsive Marvel fan resource, an artifact from a high school library in the Marvel Universe that somehow made it into ours, and a book that tells a huge meta-fictive story by chameleoning a non-fiction book (Honestly, I kept recalling Alan Moore's weird prose flights of fancy presented as imitations of other publications in the recent League of Extraordinary Gentleman: Black Dossier while reading this; which is both a compliment to the Marvel Atlas and a dis of Moore's Black Dossier).

It's a 64-page pamphlet that looks like a comic book in its dimensions and hero and monument filled cover by Staz Johnson, but inside imitates a school text book about the nations of the world.

The first page introduction talks about the geography of Marvel's earth a bit in real-world terms, but after that it's all straight-faced fact-mongering. Each page or two features a different country from Europe or Asia, listing in bullet point fashion the country's capital, population, major resources and so on, complete with mini histories, maps and flags (All that's missing is their GNPs and national anthems).

What's interesting is that real countries and fictional countries are treated exactly the same, with the only real difference between the pages on, say, Belgium and Belgriun being that the latter has a "First Appearance" category in its profile. So the result is fictional history couched in the real history, and Marvel characters given similar weight to real figures (Johann "Doctor Faustus" Fennhoff is mentioned in the same sentence as Sigmund Freud under Austria's "Prominent Citizens," for example)

At times, this can be a bit jarring (I didn't realize that The Human Torch killed Hitler at the end of World War II, for example), but it's also what makes reading the entries on even the real-world countries engaging.

Marvel-only countries in this volume include Carnelia, Carpasia, Morvania, Rumekistan, Slorenia, Symkaria, Transia, Madripoor, Sin-Cong, Providence and Lemuria, and, of course, Latveria, home of Dr. Doom.

Ever wondered what sights to see while in Latveria? Now you know to check out Doom Falls, Doomwood Forest, Doomsburg, Doomsdale, Doomsvale or Doomton.

Ever wonder what the human to robot ration is in the Latverian military? Now you know it's 4-to-1.

Want to have the Latverian flag tattooed on your chest, but not sure what it looks like? The Atlas contains a nice picture—same colors as France, only with the iron fist of Doom clutching a fistful of lighting bolts in the middle.

Certainly a book like this isn't for everyone, or even every Marvel fan, and certainly the audience is going to end up being a lot more narrow than even the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe volumes, but there is something enormously appealing in such well-faked facts.

A second volume is forthcoming, although I kind of wish they would have released them both in a single trade paperback, and with a less comic book-y looking cover. I like to imagine junior high kids taking such a book home from the library to write a report on a European country and turning in something on Symkaria to their teachers.

[Man Of Steel]

Voleo bih ovo da vidim!
Marvel je ipak prevazisao i samog sebe po ko zna koji put...

[Axle Munshine]

Marvel-only countries in this volume include Carnelia, Carpasia, Morvania, Rumekistan, Slorenia, Symkaria, Transia, Madripoor, Sin-Cong, Providence and Lemuria, and, of course, Latveria, home of Dr. Doom.

Mi smo valjda ova Symkaria...

[jaki Thor]

Carpasia?=Dalmacija
Carpasijanac saaam,Tu sam rođen jaaa
A i ima neka Morvania?u BIH ili CG?

[Meho Krljic]

 Meni je ovo prilično kul. Ne da bih dao 50 dolara za to (argh... možda i bih) ali ću svući sken.

[Man Of Steel]

 Meni je ovo prilično kul. Ne da bih dao 50 dolara za to (argh... možda i bih) ali ću svući sken.

Nebi ti dao...
Novci sami iskacu iz dzepa... Tako bese?!