Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

Enjoyed this, more so when it got to the 80's or so and more creators I was familiar with started turning up. Would've like a little more mention about women/POC (all I remember is a discussion of adding new characters in the 60's to appeal to those markets), but overall interesting.

It's amazing that Marvel was able to stay in business until Disney saved them. There's a long history of screwing over writers and artists and insane contracts that give away the farm. Stan Lee comes across as opportunistic and out of touch. Ditko and Kirby are portrayed as hapless victims. Liefield and Macfarlane as total douchebags (which I already suspected). Creators Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Frank Miller, Kurt Busiek, Jim Lee, receptionist Flo Steinberg, and sales director Carol Kalish seemed to be among the few likable people in the Marvel story.

It's amazing Marvel ever got anything worthwhile published. This book paints a reverential picture of Jack Kirby, a disconnected picture of Stan Lee, and incompetent pictures of just about every editor who came through. It could have been three times as long, as it felt like it was hurtling through stories spending just a paragraph on what wanted more. There was some discussion on individual series and runs, but this seemed to come at the expense of describing overall what the output was like at the time. If you're at all interested in art colliding with (poorly-managed) business, you will enjoy the read.