A developing list of hints for using the search engine. If you'd
like to add something, then please send me
e-mail.
- This is a search engine for Marvel
comics, so there's not much point searching for DC, Charlton, Dark
Horse, etc. characters. (Having said that, a few DC characters
'lurk' in the database, in a humorous fashion.)
- This is a Silver Age search engine,
which roughly means the 1960's (and a growing number
of 1950's titles). In other words, don't bother looking
for "Wolverine" or "Deadpool". (By the way, my examples include
"'s to make them clearer; you don't need to include "'s around
the text in the search engine.)
- Enter one keyword/phrase in
each box. For example, "Iron Man" in one box, "Mandarin"
in another. The search will return comics containing
the words "Iron Man" and "Mandarin".
- The search engine ignores upper and lower case, so for instance
it treats "Spider-man" and "sPiDeR-MaN" the same.
- No matches?
Avoid long sentences (e.g. "When did Spider-man fight the Kingpin?");
rephrase them as keywords (e.g. "Spider-man", "Kingpin").
- No matches?
Use less keywords (e.g. instead of searching
for "Spider-man" and "Mandarin", only search for "Mandarin".
- No matches?
Try a more general keyword or
phrase (e.g. "Hulk" instead of "Incredible Hulk",
"Dr. Octopus" instead of "Dr. Otto Octavius").
- No matches?
Try a partial word/phrase. For instance, instead of
"Dr. Otto Octavious" (wrong spelling), try "Dr. Otto Oct".
- No matches?
Abbreviated titles, such as "Dr.", "Sgt." are stored with a
".". So search for "Sgt. Fury", not "Sgt Fury".
- No matches?
Avoid "the"'s, "an"'s, etc. in your keyword phrases
(e.g. use "human torch" instead of "the human torch").
- No matches?
Don't leave spaces around keywords (e.g. "Daredevil "
is different from "Daredevil".
- No matches?
If the phrase might have a space or a dash inside it, then
try all the variants (e.g. search for "ant-man", then try a
separate search for "ant man"). Actually I hope I've fixed
phrases like this to be all spelt in one way. If you find a
mix of spellings, please send me
e-mail.
- Don't forget the title and date options for narrowing
a search.
The Marvel Silver Age search page.