Title: Marvel 1602
Author: Neil Gaiman
Artist: Andy Kubert
Publisher: Marvel
Release Date: 2009
Price: $24.99 (CDN)
1602 is a must have book for any serious Marvel comics enthusiast. The hardcover trade volume contains all eight of the original Marvel 1602 stories, in addition to a foreword by Peter Sanderson (pop culture critic and comic historian). It also treats readers to an afterword by Neil Gaiman himself, and a copy of some of the original script pages accompanied by some Andy Kubert sketches. The total package is a great addition to any comic library.
Gaiman takes the iconic spandex clad superheroes of the “Silver Age” (1960s) and strategically places them in 17th century Europe. Everyone from the original X-Men to Daredevil can be found somewhere within Gaiman’s tale. At first glance this idea might come across as being rather stupid. I mean, what chance does the Spanish Inquisition have against people who can shoot lasers out of their eyes? The weird thing is, it works very well. Gone are the origin stories involving radioactive spiders and cosmic space accidents. Instead, these origin stories are replaced with well placed and historically accurate tales of magic and science. There is no question Gaiman did his homework for this series. It could be used to teach 17th century history in school!
Despite comic readers sharing a common history with many of these characters and being familiar with the time period, there are many twists and turns to be had in this well crafted story. Gaiman carefully places all of our favorite heroes in different, historically significant situations. Queen Elizabeth I’s court, for instance, is headed up by none other than Sir Nicholas Fury himself. Fury is assisted by a young boy named Peter Parquagh, and so on. And while there are many opportunities for the whole story to come across as cliché, Gaiman skilfully pulls it all together so that it is not just entertaining, but is authentic and original. Throw in a classic villain like Count Otto von Doom “The Handsome,” and you have yourself a regular comic book event!
The art matches the script well, which says a lot coming from me, as I am not a real huge fan of Andy Kubert. The extra sketches provided in the back are almost worth the cover price themselves.
Forget the fact that I am probably starting to sound like a broken record. This is a must have for any comic collection. The Steve Rogers surprise is worth it alone.
Capekiller
This book is awesome! Definitely one of my favorites in my collection!
I remember reading this. It was surprisingly awesome. Wish I had a copy.
The Fantastic Four thing they made after, though…blegh.
Yeah, the follow-up was a little weak!