After ordering The Marvel Phase 1 DVD set, Amazon popped up “The Art of Avengers” as a recommendation. I don’t usually buy art books, but I truly loved the film and wanted more of the Marvel experience. I loved it. It was a gorgeous, well-done book with brilliant photos and artwork, and a good bit of background information. So, I decided to look for other Marvel art books. Thankfully, this was available for pre-order, so I didn’t have to worry about missing out on the now out-of-print Iron Man books. This set includes: The Art of Iron Man, the Art of Iron Man 2, The Art of Thor and the Art of Captain America. All four hardcover books come in a slipcase, without dust jackets. It also includes a limited edition poster of the slipcase cover art.

THE ART OF IRON MAN. I think this is easily the best book of the set (though none are as good as the Avengers book). It goes seriously in depth into the design of the suit, including CGI modeling, testing the physics of how it would work, and more. There is also a lot of attention spent on Tony’s mansion and workshop. The best part is how the book clearly shows the evolution of the film from the artists’ renderings/designs, to models, to fully realized props. There is a lot of concept design, but also many photos & screen shots to act as counterpoint to them. The forward and background information on the character is brilliant, and Jon Favreau’s enthusiasm for the character is noticeable. My only minor criticism is that sometimes the text got too close to the spine and was difficult to read. 4.5 Stars.

THE ART OF IRON MAN 2. Despite a feeling of redundancy (the previous book already spent a huge amount of time on suit design), this book was also very good. A good deal of it concerns the suits, of course, but the suitcase suit and War Machine provide enough new material that it doesn’t feel like a retread. The text was more important here as the editor made an effort to tie into the comics, and what was pulled from them in the development of the film. I found the bits about Justin Hammer particularly interesting, since I didn’t feel the character added much to the film. This book spent more time on other character designs, since we have new ones like Black Widow and Nick Fury. Overall, this was nearly as good as the art book for IM. 4 stars.

THE ART OF THOR. Out of the set, I was most excited to see this art book because of the cosmic setting and myth-inspired characters. Unfortunately, I was hugely disappointed. This was the weakest book in the set - by far. Odd as it sounds, I think what was crucially missing from this art book was more text. There wasn't enough context for the artwork, and how and why it was used. The first part of the book, the design of Thor himself, was fine. There is a lot of concept art for how his costume could look, pictures of Chris Hemsworth through the creation phase, information on the design of Mjolnir, and more. Still, there wasn't enough contrast vis-à-vis the comics. Why did they go with that look? Was it based more on the Ultimates design, or the classic look? These questions are never addressed (as they are in the other art books). And, much less time is spent on Loki - who has THREE different costumes to Thor's one - and why they made the choices they did for him. There are many renderings of possible looks for him, but not why they chose some over others, or what they were inspired by. And, they never explain the need for three.

The other characters get uneven and much less than deserved coverage of their costume designs in favor of having pages, and pages, and pages and still MORE PAGES of over-enlarged, near-abstract landscapes for Jotunheim. Yes, the ice planet that they spent maybe 10 minutes of the film on. How many ways can you depict ice? The book spent almost as much time on Jotunheim as on Asgard. And few of the paintings had much detail. More time is spent on the frost giants than the Warriors 3 who have actual costumes and more screen time! Readers get a few pages on the armory, which would have been very interesting with more information on the various weapons/artifacts within it (like the Infinity Gauntlet!). With the film taking place literally on another world, this art book should have been the best of the set. I loved the film, but the editor seriously dropped the ball on this art book. A real shame. 2.5 stars.

THE ART OF CAPTAIN AMERICA. This book is actually better than The Art of Iron Man because it doesn’t have the issue with the text creeping into the spine. Otherwise, the two books each display a perfect balance of context, imagery and design. Unlike Thor, this includes plenty of context and background information for the character, the design and how they drew inspiration from the comics. Just about every character design is covered, from Cap and Red Skull, to Peggy, the Hydra soldiers, and the Howling Commandos. The layout of the book is also exceptional. Concept art is showcased against actual film shots, and the resolution is reflected in appropriately sized images. Like in Iron Man, there are also a lot of weapon and vehicle designs included. 5 stars.

All four books conclude with a section on storyboards, and a section on how they marketed each film, with emphasis on one-shot posters. I would love to see a book devoted solely to the marketing for all the Marvel films, as these short chapters were very interesting and a great way to conclude each book. Overall, this set is definitely worth the purchase, and the price is reasonable considering each individual book had a retail of $50 without a slipcase. For those reluctant to spend so much, a paperback set will be coming. Highly recommended. ( )