Customer Reviews

Marvel 1602

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I started reading this, not knowing what it was, I thought I had found a fictionalization of 17th century British history. It reads like that, anyway, at the beginning.

Then, the supernatural creatures start to appear, and the reader realizes, that she's in a different kind of story entirely.

Speaking as someone who doesn't usually read graphic novels, I didn't know that this was a "superhero" book. There are winged people, pterodactyls, and random e.t.'s throughout the book, seemingly for no reason at all. However, the words are so engrossing; the titles, and many of the bits of dialogue are the sort of Gaiman-esque-"wow, can I put that on a poster" sorts of sayings that are one of the main reason anyone reads Gaiman.

This is very weird, but very worth reading.

In one of Neil Gaiman's more unique entries in the Marvel Universe, we find Marvel's superheroes in 17th century Europe, just before the death of Queen Elizabeth I. As the god-fearing James I seizes power, the heroes escape to America on a mission to save pretty much everything there is. It's Marvel like you've never seen it before, as Gaiman and artist Andy Kubert reinvent Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, legendary American figure Virginia Dare, and the list goes on. Fortunately it was a list that was nicely incorporated into a multilayered storyline from which many ideas about the superhero mythos can be derived. Included with the comic is a boatload of extras including an introduction and afterward by Gaiman, sketch galleries, and some pages from the original comic script.

This comic is unrated: Violence, Adult Language.

OMG!, NEIL GAIMAN and ANDY KUBERT, the story is superb, the art is top of the game, a must have for fans of marvel's universe, for fans of Andy Kubert, for fans of NEIL GAIMAN, loved the story, the twists, everything, a work of art, a must have.

I have to admit that I picked this up from my local library more because I am a Neil Gaiman complet-est than because of any interest I have in the Marvel universe. The fact that I had a second though about whether or not to capitalize that last phrase should tell you where I stand w.r.t. comic culture. The book it an interesting take on the characters and the history that the book covers.

My limited knowledge of the bulk of the characters comes from the movies put out by Hollywood and I could smile at the re-figuration of the myths surrounding the characters and Gaiman handled the melding of the actual historical fact of the comics with the created history in an interesting manner.

A small problem in basic understanding might arise if you have little familiarity with English history of the period or the history of the Church in Europe and Asia, but the acts of the plot are not entirely dependent on this knowledge. Overall, a fine way to pass an evening.

I am a fan of Neil Gaiman and I used to follow the Marvel universe a long time ago, and I bought this more for Neil than Marvel. The story was impressive and I found it to be complex and for those of you out there that wonder how it fits in well know that he makes it work without affecting the storyline from other books. The art is beautiful and the story wonderful, read it and enjoy your favorite characters in a way you have never seen them before!!!

I remember hearing about when 'Marvel 1602' initially came out and pretty much dismissed it; then I saw that Neil Gaiman had written it and - being a pretty big fan of his - decided that it might be worth a shot (or at the very least, it wouldn't cost me much more than time in that I got it from the library).

I will say that the story was well told if a little confusing, and the confusion mostly stemmed from my attempting to figure out which Marvel hero was being referred to at a given point in time. There were some choices of characters that I thought questionable to put in the forefront (and would have liked to see one in particular that was sort-of-included), but on the whole the story managed to be at the same time a reasonable facsimile of works past as well as something wholly new.

A word of caution - should you be looking for something that is action packed, this isn't it.

I'm going to start by telling you that I was going to stop reviewing the items that I bought, because I thought that my reviews weren't really helpful, but after reading the other review of this book, I feel like I have to,
Well, since I read about 1602 on wikipedia, the idea of having the marvel characters on a different time line intrigued me, and after reading the actual graphic novel,I can tell you that I didn't disappoint me, It really was as good as I expected it to be, or even better, I don't want to spoil this book for you, so I won't tell you what it is about, I'm just going to tell you that as you can see in the title it takes place in the year 1602, and for some reason all of our heroes were born 400 years before they were supposed to,the ending is really unexpected, but again I don't want to spoil it for you.
1602 is a great book, and is definitely on the best in my short collection.

The title of my review says it all. I am growing profoundly tired of graphic novels, even gaudy Gaiman novels. I may take to rereading Victorian novels.