Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Vol. 2, Deluxe Edition
Marvel's late-'80sEssential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Deluxe Edition)was a wildly ambitious attempt to collect definitive biographical information on every single Marvel character.  It's perfectly suited to Marvel's Essentials line: Since the series is intended more for reference than for reading cover to cover, the black-and-white lightweight-paper format isn't that much of a drawback, and the inexpensive price makes it affordable to collect all three 400+-page volumes.  (The earlier non-Deluxe version is short enough to fit in one volume.) Volume 2 covers issues 8-14, and characters from Magus to Wolverine, with stops along the way for Man-Thing, Moon Knight, Shanna the She-Devil, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Ultron, and the Valkyrie among others.  Yes, the information is dated, and these days you can probably find something similar on the Web somewhere, but this kind of nostalgia is exactly what the Essentials line is for.--David Horiuchi