Other Profiles Sources: (or check these for profiles on your wanted characters. If you can't find it, then check with me)
What you'll see in these pages are the lesser known or even unknown characters, who most would think of as lost, losers, or morts. If you like those guys, then welcome aboard!
For more "mainstream", popular, current, or just better known characters there are plenty of places to look. In addition, there are many other websites that feature characters of a specific group.
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (OHotMU). Starting in 1982, this ran 15 issues and detailed the major characters and groups, alien races, as well as the dead (at least at that time), and technology. It also contained an appendix of characters, which is from where I took the name of this site. You'll find a few characters in here that you won't find anywhere else (ie. Belladonna, the Spider-foe).
OHotMU Deluxe Edition. Starting in 1985, this ran 20 issues and expanded on the original. It contained updates, new and more characters, alien races, and the dead, as well as glossaries, appendixes to other dimensions, etc. Again, you'll find a few "one-hit wonders" in here.
Official Handbook of the Conan Universe-1986. 1 issue. covered some of the major characters, locations, artifacts, etc. of the era of swords and sorcery.
OHotMU Update'89. This ran 8 issues, and instead of recovering old ground, it featured mostly new characters (or previously unfeatured), and only redid characters who had undergone major changes. Chock full of small time characters.
OHotMU Master Edition. This started in 1990, and ran for 36 issues. It featured a loose-leaf format, enabling you to add in any changes, etc. in alphabetical order over time. However, it was very dry, containing mostly raw data, and wasn't exciting to read. It also contained bibliographies. If they could have somehow combined the previous formats into this looseleaf pattern, it would have been nearly perfect. However, after this was discontinued, there hasn't been another published handbook since. There have been books for some of the more popular individual characters, though.
The current genre Official Handbooks (2004-2005), as well as the 'pedias (Spider-Man, Marvel Knights, Fantastic Four, etc.)...written by your truly, a select group of the Masters of the Obscure, and others.
INDEXES
The first series was The Marvel Comics Index, which started in January 1976, and was magazine sized. It ran @ 13 issues (there were a few 7A+7B, etc. going on in there). It indexed the major series, but also included the majority of those that had been written at the time. It also featured some descriptions for clarification, and covered a few Golden Age or Fifties series, such as Marvel Boy and the Yellow Claw.
Since then, there've been a few version for Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, etc. These versions also make an effort to chronologically place the characters' appearances.
WEBSITE PROFILES
GENERAL CHARACTERS SITES
The above Google Co-op search box searches some (but not all) of the larger Marvel biography sources listed here. The "Only in Appendix" link (once you've done a search) will let you search just the Appendix pages.
Marvel.com
This has the potential to re-develop into an online, official handbook.
The closest to the OHotMU is the our companion site, the Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe (UOHotMU). This covers all major characters, providing updates where needed. It also features a number of obscure characters, and takes submissions and input from the public. It links to the Appendix profiles to provide a thorough database. (We have removed to the link to this site, as its founder, Danny Wall, has closed it down for the time being.)
The Marvel Guide has short synopses on tons and tons of characters. The author, Kim Henckel, aka the Beetle, and I have collaborated on some of those, and Kim has begun to post some files to this site. Kim has been very helpful in providing guidance to me along the way. This site has brief entries on thousands of characters, and could eventually cover every single one in a relatively short time. It's also nicely divided into easy to find sections
MARVEL CHRONOLOGY and ATLAS SITES
Unofficial Chronology to the Marvel Universe. Not actually profiles, but contains good, detailed and informative history.
And for bibliographies/chronologies on nearly all of the characters of Marvel, you've got to check out The Marvel Chronology Project.
Marvel Atlas Project-maps of the Marvel earth
PRE-MARVEL UNIVERSE
(ie. before Fantastic Four #1)
Guide to Marvel's Pre-FF#1 Heroes. Lots of good informative profiles, bibliographies, and some pictures of the heroes (includes both 1950s characters, as well as the ret-conned heroes).
Guide to Marvel's Golden Age Characters. pretty much ever golden age hero /heroine, and every thing you want to know about them, including bibliographies.
Monster Blog!. is a fantastic site that covers the pre-Marvel monsters, including covers, write-ups on the monsters and stories, and other odds-and-ends.
OTHER BROAD-SPANNING SITES
The Leader's Lair. Not only does this have lots of cool Hulk foes, but it also has links to a bunch of other sites, featuring characters of the Defenders, Thor, Thunderbolts, Captain Marvel, Namor, and the Pantheon.
Bring on the Bad Guys. Covers the majority of Marvel's "big-gun" villains. Slightly different approach, definitely very interesting reading. Nicely divided up into different classes of characters. You'll find a few obscure charcters here.
The Women of Marvel Comics. Same editor of BotBG, similar format. Covers the heroines and villainesses. Again, there are a few obscure characters in here.
The Second-Stringers of Marvel Comics. Also a site by Jeanne Burch of BotB and WMC. Lots of good obscure characters, like Lei-Kung the Thunderer, and the Ninja.
There's a few extremely thorough entries (including the Crusher and the Druid) at SHIELD Datacore
CHARACTER-SPECIFIC SITES
Alpha Flight: Alphaflight.net
Avengers: Lots of useful info on my favorite team. Avengers Assemble! and the Avengers Forever
Captain America: There are a few at The Star Spangled Site
Daredevil: Information, reviews, etc. about the Man Without Fear can be found at Daredevil Resource and Daredevil: The Man Without Fear.
Dr. Strange...Sorcerer Supreme. The Book of Vishanti covers a lot of old info.
Eternals: For ALL things Eternal, check out: Encyclopaedia
Olympianna (part of Sersi's loft)-They include everything, and
miss nothing! (There's also a few full profiles under the main page)
courtesy of our own Prime Eternal!
Fantastic Four: Things you have to know about them can be found at The Ultimate Fantastic Four Web Site.
Ghost Rider/Midnight Sons: a nice glossary index
GLA, a site about the Great Lake Avengers.
Hulk: lots of great profiles at The Incredible Hulk: Engine of Destruction
Iron Man: Great sites about the Golden Avenger are the Invincible Iron Man site and the oldest of them all the Iron Man Armory.
Marvel UK, and other UK characters, hosted by our own Loki!
Ms. Marvel: Good site about Carol Danvers (Binary/Warbird/Ms. Marverl).
New Warriors: New Warriors Continuity Conundrum and New Warriors Dot Com
Nova: There's a complete glossary and full profiles under Database: Dossier Files for major Nova related characters at: Nova Prime Page
Quasar: Interviews, issue summaries etc. can be found at the Quantum Zone.
Rom: Text profiles on just about everyone who ever bumped into Rom can be found at Rom, Spaceknight revisited
Spider-Man: while
there are a ton of sites, you can find the best profiles (along with a boatload
of other stuff) at:
Spider-Fan (in
fact, I've got a few characters there as well, the Sorcerer II, A'Sai, the
Spider-Squad). Thanks to they guys at that site for helping me figure out
how to get my own site together.
Spider-Man Gallery.
This site's profiles keep getting higher tech, and better looking. There
are usually profiles on new characters (both classic and Ultimate) within
minutes of a conclusion of a story arc.
Taskmaster, all his allies, enemies, facilities, etc.
Thanos: Among a wealth of info on Thanos, there's a great entry on the White Raven at http://www.corvusonline.net/thanos/
Thor: A great site about Marvel's Thor with reviews, character descriptions, glossary, etc. can be found at The Immortal Thor of Asgard
Thunderbolts: Visit great sites about the former villains!
Looks on their criminal careers and more at Thunderbolts: The Complete History
Many character information, reviews and more at Thunderbolts: Seduction of Good.
2099: There's a bunch here, and some music to accompany them here.
Wonder Man: Cooler than Superman! Check this site out!
X-Men/Mutants: There
are hundreds of sites, and since my computer's hardrive got erased, I lost
most of them. The ones with nice profiles include:
Mutatis Mutandis
The Savage Land
(currently offline?)
Matt's Champion
Page (also has a few others, such as MC2...lots of new characters)
Uncanny X-Men.net (profiles, issue summaries and much more)
...and others I've lost...let me know if you've got a bunch of good, original (especially obscure) profiles, and I'll add you
Still can't find your obscure-o character?
Let me know. Send mail to: snood999@bellsouth.net.
If for some reason you have trouble doing so, please check my entry
on the MotO listing. Thanks!
Other Links:
Our own Conan character-profile-doer, Greg O'Driscoll, does his own comics
under the title Cyborg
Caveman Comics.
Prime Eternal's own web page: mh_prime
Will U's own web page about ghosts and gods.
Check 'em out!