Marvel Super Heroes: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book

Know a Marvel fan? Want something unusual to impress them? Marvel Super Heroes: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book is exactly what you need.

There are six spreads, one each for Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and cosmic characters, and two for the Avengers. They are full of information boxes and “interactive elements”, as the promo has it. That means doors with character profiles or mini-pop-ups with changes. Just about any character you know from the movies has a short background given, with more from the comics mentioned as well.

I took this down to comic club, and everyone wanted to play with it and pour over the information inside. Here’s a sample spread.

As you can see, you’ll need lots of room to read this, as these are really large pop-ups. I’m astounded by the craft here. The credits are:

• Paper engineering by Matthew Reinhart
• Pencils and inks by Aaron Lopresti, Paul Pelletier, Stacey Lee Phillips
• Cover art by John Tyler Christopher

It’s a cliche to say at this time of year, but this would make an excellent gift for the Marvel superhero fan in your life. (The publisher provided a review copy.)