they are a good place to start from, so long as you dont use the classifications marvel puts along with the stats
like, 6 str should mean less strong than those with unlimited/infinite strength, but there shouldn't be a range from like 75-100 tons, it just makes it too easy for them to be way off.
The strength and fighting skill ratings are the ones that seem to be off to me most often
I dont care for the 1-7 stats. To much room for error. I like the old RPG stats better than any Ive seen. They were accurate and the characters were well represented by the RPG I thought. Its an offical Marvel product as well but most people know little about it. Its not the same as a handbook but I actually like its system much better for putting a character on paper. Its much more accurate.
Handbook info is in many cases, faulty, and in some cases, contradict comics directly, and contradict the creators of characters. Comics should be (And in this forum, are) over handbooks all the time. In stuff like history, go for it, in stuff like powers and skills, they just ignore MANY things.
It's true that handbooks have same info most of the time...but in many cases, it is wrong info. You can see on many bios that its writers have done ridicolously little research...
Yes, that is my main reason, but have you SEEN some of the shit they try to pull off? Like the bio of Atlanteans?
Uhhhhh, WTF? Since the FIRST APPEARENCE of Namor, and every, I repeat E-VE-RY appearence after that, Atlanteans have shown the ability to talk underwater. For gods sake, Human Torch even pointed out this ability in FF comic...
I seriously would like to see how handbook defenders can trust in handbooks after stupid mistakes like that.
Jesus Christ, they are contradicting the creators of characters themselves...it will be a cold day in hell when I am taking the word of a guy named "Sean McQuaid" over BILL EVERETT, STAN LEE, JOHN BYRNE and ROY THOMAS.
I mean, seriously...anyone who follows something in handbooks with no basis in comics at all is smoking something baaddd.
The reason I asked is because they official Marvel handbook puts Thor's speed at a 7. A 7 in speed means that you can move and/or fly at warp speeds. With speed at that lv Superman would no longer be th one speedblitzing Thor, but the other way around?
Handbooks are an official source and as such they cant be simply ignored by deabters who dont like what a certain entry has to say about their fave character. Handbooks however do sometimes get things wrong, writers sometimes speculate on points which have not been clearly defined on panel, in cases such as those where you can prove a point in a handbook entry to be at odds with whats shown on panel, then that specific point can be argued against. (For example the famous Namor can only lift 85 tons entry.) Other than that Handbook entries are still valid references in debates and unless someone can show contradictory on panel evidence that conclusively shows a point in an entry to be wrong or to have just been speculated by a handbook writer, then handbook entries serve just fine.