The breakout book for Alex Ross this is more his book than Kurt Busieks. There's a story here but the art is so good that it overshadows the narrative. That's really what is missing from the book. I know there is a story here. But I just don't care, because the art is so good. This is still Alex Ross best work in my opinion. Later on he bought into his own publicity and became egomaniacal. This still has a freshness about it that he didn't water down by doing the same pictures over and over again like his later works. ( )

Summary: News photographer Phil Sheldon lives in an amazing world: the Marvel Universe. He was there when the Human Torch was first unveiled, he was there watching Captain America fight the Nazis, he lived through the era of the Fantastic Four and the mutant panic that came with the rise of the X-Men. Many of us are familiar with the exploits of superheroes from their perspectives, but what about from the perspective of an everyday person? What about the people who have to live with the flaming cars and demolished buildings after every battle to save the Earth from destruction by evil forces? What does living in a world full of Marvels do them, and to their sense of what it means to be human?

Review: As I have admitted before, I am only vaguely acquainted with the Marvel Universe, and most of that is via various movie adaptations than it is through any of the comics (and *certainly* through not any of the original comics.) So while I really liked the concept of this book - what's it like to live in a world where you are one of the shrieking masses fleeing from the Hulk throwing train cars around Manhattan? - I didn't have the background to get really invested in the story. In some of the vast amounts of supplemental material in the back of the edition I read, Busiek states that his original intent was to write several new stories, but instead was urged to place Phil as a bystander to some of the early foundational effects of the Marvel Universe. Because Phil is, like I was, an outsider, the broad strokes of the plot are easy enough to follow. But I constantly felt like there were huge areas of detail and backstory and meaning and subtlety that I was missing out on... because of course, there were. Still, it was an interesting spin on the typical superhero comic, and I thought it asked a lot of really interesting questions, even if I didn't always agree with the way it answered them. The art was lovely; primarily paintings done from real-life models (some of the photo comparisons in the section at the back were equal parts amazing and hilarious), it was both realistic and yet slightly more luminous than real life. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: While this was understandable and enjoyable for someone like me, I think it would be best appreciated by someone who was raised on a steadier diet of superhero comics, and Marvel comics in particular. ( )

The story is amazing - and so is the art - but it isn't put together well - as the inside edges are too far into the crease that reading them is a frustrating challenge and repetitively caused me to lose the flow of the story as had to juxtapose the book and hold it at different angles forcing the book open a bit more so I could read and see artwork that was disappearing into a crevice. ( )

Artwork is beautiful, classic marvel moments humanized. Much like Astro City. I don't remember a lot of the hero bashing except for Spiderman. Wanted more X-men stuff. Last story was kind of lame. ( )