A guide to all the most sought after alien getaway spots, and where you really need to avoid! You wouldn't want to end up on Chitauri Prime or Muspelheim by accident, but Starlin's Bar in Knowhere sounds like a great hangout.
Any fan of the Marvel universe will love reading this. There's plenty of information about all the places and their history, as well as the best sights and places to stay. The Guardians of the Galaxy chip in throughout the book with their advice and fun comments.

First of all, a disclaimer for anyone reading this who doesn't know; I am a HUGE Marvel fangirl. I honed my writing skills writing Marvel fanfiction, I own every Marvel movie on Blu-Ray and I'm even a big Marvel's Agents of SHIELD fan. So I'm already pretty knowledgeable about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The problem with this guide is that it can't seem to make up its mind which Marvel 'verse it's part of. Is it the Cinematic Universe? The commentary by the Guardians characters certainly reads like it is... there's a particularly hilarious reference in the Savage Land section to the fact that Chris Pratt plays both Star-Lord and Owen Grady from Jurassic World.

Except... the Savage Land doesn't exist in the MCU, and neither do a lot of the other places referenced here. The Fantastic Four and the X-Men are mentioned multiple times, and they CAN'T exist in the MCU because of contract issues. So we have to assume that this is in fact set in the main comic Marvel 616 'verse.

And that's a problem. Because MCU fans outnumber comic fans by large numbers these days, and I think this book could actually have huge appeal to MCU fans. It's funny, it's informative, it could really help keep things straight and explain other things which are only mentioned in passing on screen.

Instead, it's just going to confuse readers because of all the non-MCU things in it - which will never be MCU.

This is funny, it's beautifully illustrated, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't give it five stars, though, because I think it's going to miss its target audience. Which is a pity.

Hidden Universe Travel Guides: The Complete Marvel Cosmos: With Notes by the Guardians of the Galaxy Paperback – October 25, 2016
by Marc Sumerak 
I received a free kindle copy in exchange for an honest review.

A fun, fantastic skim of the Marvel Universe from the eyes of the fabulous Gaurdians of the Galaxy themselves.

The entries are short and sweet, not quite like the coffee table books that came out with the original X-Men movies. While the 'quotes' from the Gaurdians are funny and at times side clutchingly hysterical, the constantly changing type-fast used to ID the speaker does give the feeling of a ransom note.

The histories of the planets are short and complete enough for the newest of Marvel Fans but may not be filled out enough for the Hardcore Marvel True Believers.

It is a nice piece of merchandising to go with the upcoming Vol. 2 Gaurdians movie coming out but not really helpful to the rest of the universe, for instance the X-Men don't appear in many of the histories that they had hands in as they don't belong to Disney.

4 out of 5
https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Universe-Travel-Guides-Guardians/dp/1608878546

Overall the Hidden Universe Travel Guide: The Complete Marvel Cosmos is more of an encyclopaedia of information than comic relief. If you get confused over the huge number of planets, or what to learn more about Kree history, then this book is for you. I wouldn’t say it is an essential read though.

A great 'travel' guide for the marvel universe with witty commentary from the Guardians of the Galaxy themselves! A great insight into some of the planets, civilisations and galaxies far, far away that pop up in a multitude of comics in the Marvel world. Great fun and a perfect gift for any Marvel lover.

I absolutely adored the <em>Star Trek</em> edition of the <em>Hidden Universe Travel Guide </em>(see review <a href="http://lookingforagoodbook.com/2016/08/27/hidden-universe-star-trek-a-travel-guide-to-vulcan-dayton-ward/" target="_blank">here</a>), and being a long-time fan of Marvel comics (and renewed fan thanks to the movies) I was really looking forward to this next edition in the series. But what felt like a real travel guide in our make-believe world of the Star Trek universe, feels much more like a comic book atlas than a take-off on the Fodor's or Frommer's that sit in the travel sections of book stores.

The book is nicely researched and there's a whole lot of information in here that will really appeal to the Marvel fan. Not being a Marvel historian, I can't really say how much might be created just for this book and how much has existed through the decades of comic book creation.

On every other page (or thereabouts) members of the Guardians of the Galaxy have made additional 'hand-written' notes commenting (usually irreverently) on something. These notes are often fun and editor/author Sumerak manages to not get too carried away with it such that it gets annoying or distracting.

For the history and humor, this book is a lot of fun.

But this is part of a fake Travel Guide series and it kind of doesn't quite live up to the expectation. Unlike the other Hidden Universe guide I read, this one didn't make anything sound like a place to visit with sights to see, instead, it seemed more like a history tour guide - places where battles occurred or where famous villains reside(d).

While I understand including the Guardians of the Galaxy as note-makers given their recent film and appeal, it does strike me (especially after looking at the opening few pages of the book) that Silver Surfer might have made a better guide through the universe.

One of the last things that I didn't care too much for, but again - completely understand - is the art. As a mock travel guide, I would like to see images that are much more like photographs of the places I'm considering visiting. What we get here is very traditional comic book art which, for this reader at least, serves to remind us that this is not much more than a novelty comic book. If that's what you are hoping for then, this is a great addition to your collection. If you are wanting something more, or a Hidden Universe series that is strikingly similar from book to book, then this is a disappointment.

For me, it was the latter.

Looking for a good book? <em>Hidden Universe Travel Guides: The Complete Marvel Cosmos: With Notes by the Guardians of the Galaxy</em> by Marc Sumerak is sort of a comic book atlas that has a lot of interesting and fun information, but departs from the appeal that the <em>Star Trek Hidden Universe</em> book held.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.