History of the Marvel Universe #3 Review

After two issues of set-up, History of the Marvel Universe has finally jumped into the Modern Age. The first issue dealt with the events of the distant past, from the birth of the universe to James Howlett running away from home, and the second dealt with the 20th century, from World War I through the Cold War. Now, it finally jumps into the 21st century, starting with the First Family.

The issue shows the first adventures of the Fantastic Four, leading up to the birth of Franklin Richards (the series’ secondary protagonist), as well as the origins and early adventures of other major heroes of Marvel, including the Avengers, Spider-Man, Daredevil, and X-Men. It spans the history of Marvel from 1961 to 1977, and ends with a tease for the famous Dark Phoenix Saga. 

Just like the previous issues, this issue does a wonderful job of presenting the most important events and stories in Marvel history in a linear way. While reading the comics themselves is a daunting task (just look at the dozens of issues listed in the Annotations at the end of the issue), the issue sums up everything necessary to get the broad story of Marvel. Some of those story points include the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, the founding of the second Avengers team (comprising of Captain America, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver), the first Coming of Galactus, and more.

Speaking of Galactus, I love that the framing story is being kept up; they’re sticking to the idea of Galactus retelling the history of the universe to Franklin Richards just before the birth of the next, so the Fantastic Four are referred to as “your parents”, Galactus is referred to as “me”, and Franklin Richards is referred to as “you”. It also really makes sense that the FF had such a big focus in the issue; not only were they the most important part of early Marvel, but of course Franklin would be more interested in hearing about his parents over other heroes. 

Overall, I’m absolutely loving this series. The art by Javier Rodríguez and Álvaro Lópex is stellar; they’re great at presenting the dense amount of information, and their style is perfect for showing the classic costumes in a modern art style. I can’t wait to see how Mark Waid tells some of the more recent stories in this series.