The story touches on events in the Marvel universe — the Sub-Mariner and Human Torch as the first super-heroes; the rise of the Avengers and X-Men; Galactus; the Fantastic Four; the death of Gwen Stacy, etc. I've read enough to be able to keep up with a lot of this, but the point was Phil's reaction to it all. And this is where it pretty much lost me. I didn't particularly like or care for the character. He was just around as an excuse for Busiek to give his opinion on how people would react to super-heroes. A fictional view of a fictional guy.