Marvel 1985 [Hardcover]

Mark Millar (Author), Tommy Lee Edwards (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 2009

Before Secret Invasion... before World War Hulk... before Civil War... the most powerful super-villains in the Marvel Universe gather their might to wreak havoc on the one place they've never before set foot - YOUR WORLD! As mankind's enemies cut a swath of destruction with unprecedented ferocity and ruthlessness, the fate of the planet rests in the hands of one person: Toby, a 13-year-old boy who holds the key to uniting his comic-book idols, the Marvel Heroes! Superstars Mark Millar (Civil War, Fantastic Four) and Tommy Lee Edwards (Bullet Points, The Question) deliver a Marvel Event the likes of which you've never seen! Collects Marvel 1985 #1-6.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Marvel (February 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785121587
• ISBN-13: 978-0785121589
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,268,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Along with Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar has been one of the key writers for Marvel Comics in the 21st century. After proving himself in the '90s as a talent to watch while writing for DC Comics and the UK comic 2000AD, his arrival to Marvel came at a time when Ultimate Spider-Man had just shot up the sales charts. It was in this environment that Millar made his first major contribution to Marvel with Ultimate X-Men, as Millar integrated forty years' worth of X-Men history, characters and lore into a solid two-year run, making the companion title to Ultimate Spider-Man every bit the creative and commercial success. Next up was The Ultimates, a new rendering of the Avengers that was to continue building on the success of the Ultimate line. He and artist Bryan Hitch pulled it all off in spades: The Ultimates and its sequel, Ultimates 2, were ensconced at the top of the sales charts every month; what's more, they were critical successes, as well. Meanwhile, Millar was invited to enter the regular Marvel Universe to take a stab at two of its most iconic characters: Spider-Man and Wolverine. Paired with industry heavyweights to draw his stories -- Terry Dodson on Marvel Knights Spider-Man and John Romita Jr. on Wolverine -- Millar brought the same fast-paced and cleverly constructed plots with which his Ultimate fans were already familiar. Amid building a small library of Millarworld indie comic books -- including the titles Chosen and Wanted, the latter of which was turned into a Hollywood blockbuster starring Angelina Jolie -- he managed to write Civil War, the epic seven-issue miniseries that definitively reshaped the landscape of Marvel's heroes. Kick-A**, a Marvel Icon project done in tandem with John Romita Jr., made an impressive impact on the sales chart before also being adapted for a major motion picture. In addition, Millar has reunited with Civil War artist Steve McNiven in both the pages of Wolverine and their creator-owned book Nemesis.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Quite The Classic That The Hype Would Have You Believe,, July 24, 2009

By 

darklordzden "darklordzden" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marvel 1985 (Paperback)

Small Town America, 1985: Toby Goodman is a thirteen year old boy who weathers the storm of his parent's seperation, his mother's choice of new boyfriend and his father's indolence by immersing himself in the minituae of the Marvel comics universe. Fast becoming kind of kid who can tell you in which issue 'The Hulk' first encountered 'The Leader', Toby's humdrum existence takes a turn for the bizarre when he spots a creature that resembles 'Captain America's' arch-nemesis, 'The Red Skull', gazing out from an upper storey window of the local nexus of suburban folklore, the abandoned Wyncham house. Before long, more characters from the pages of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's fictional universe begin showing up in the flesh. Who or what is responsible? What is the connection with the Wyncham house's notorious past? and what can an isolated teenage boy really do when confronted with the likes of 'Modok', 'The Lizard' and 'Fin Fang Foom'?

Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edward's "Marvel 1985" was a comic book that I wanted to like a lot because of the intriguing premise - but after reading it, I found myself strangely underwhelmed.

Drawing heavily from the concept of films like The Last Action Hero and playing fast and loose with the concept of fictional versus real violence should have been a lot more effective in the hands of a writer like Mark Millar. Sadly, in the case of this book, it wasn't. I couldn't engage with the characters as anything other than cyphers and cliches and whilst TLE's artwork was suitably lurid and vaguely reminiscent of the artwork of comics like Creepy Archives, it didn't really convince me that I was witnessing a period setting; Sure there were references to Commodore 64 games, 'Masters Of The Universe' and Secret Wars (Marvel Super Heroes), but these felt affectational rather than intrinsic to the time and place. The use of the Wyncham house also felt like a direct lift of the Marsten house from Stephen King's Salem's Lot and, as Damon Lindelof rather cheekily points out in his introduction, the central conceit at the heart of the plot is really nothing more than an outright rip-off of the concept at the heart of Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone" episode, "It's A Good Life".

Whilst this is a decent enough and fairly enjoyable six issue series in it's own right, sadly, I personally didn't experience "the widescreen summer blockbuster in comic book form" that Jonathan Ross promised me on the cover.

Its a book that could've run a lot further and reached a lot higher with it's intriguing premise.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgic, scary miniseries from one of Marvel's hottest writers, February 23, 2009

By 

J. Shurin "carnivore" (London) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marvel 1985 (Paperback)

Like Wanted or The Ultimates, Mark Millar's 1985 takes place at the meta-intersection of comic books and reality. However, whereas the previous two take place in the Marvel, comic book universe, 1985 takes place in our own.

Happily, Millar never gives in to the temptation to explain anything. There's a big portally thing (a glowing plothole, essentially) and a bunch of Marvel villains dive through it. Ostensibly there to 'take over', the villains immediately devote themselves to acts of senseless and horrifying destruction.

Our hero is a kid who, alongside his deadbeat dad, realize that there's something very wrong going on (First hint: Ultron blowing up the mall). Thanks to their geeky knowledge of the Marvel universe (plus some courage + purity of heart stuff), they save the day.

1985 probably isn't the best juxtaposition of comics and reality - but there aren't many better. By setting aside his need for 'big sweeping plot arcs' and world-building and focusing on the minutiae of life, Millar has written a solid piece of horror fiction. Not only does he use many of the genre tropes (little kid, estranged family, nobody who believes, creepy house in the woods), but he also successfully channels the fanboy wantonness of Wanted to create some fairly terrifying bad guys.

As Millar says in an interview with Comics Bulletin:

"In the Marvel Universe a guy like Stilt Man is a joke, but here in the real world he would be terrifying. He could take on an entire police precinct. Somebody like Sandman could take on the US Army. We all kind of forget how scary these guys could be in the real world. That's the origin of the series: the real world vs. the Marvel Universe."

In other words, in real life, the Lizard would be pretty scary and, to his credit, Millar gets that point across in a hurry.

Millar also compares his work to Stephen King, and the comparison is probably more apt than he intended. The young protagonist goes through a test - a travel into his own mind and that of his childhood fantasy - a conflict that's familiar through Stephen King's work. Similarly, Millar ends the series with a King-like reliance on cosmic goodity. However realistic the world - and overwhelming the evil - there's always some sort of supernatural rabbit-in-a-hat in the closing pages.

Tommy Lee Edwards does a very good job with the art - giving it an eerie and nostalgic feel. The covers, by the phenomenal Olivier Coipel, are worthy of framing.

Overall, a nice, surprisingly experimental miniseries from one of the biggest horses in the Marvel stable.

2.0 out of 5 stars `Cos he's still preoccupied - with 1985!, October 5, 2011

By 

Sam Quixote - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marvel 1985 (Paperback)

A young boy and his divorced father bond over their mutual love of Marvel comics only for - gasp! Marvel villains to show up in their sleepy, backwater town and begin to wreak havoc! Suddenly it's up to the boy to save the town somehow while we discover the dark past of his father - is he the loser his mother told him about or is he something more?

I've read enough Mark Millar to know this guy knows how to write a damn fine superhero comic so ordering this was a no-brainer - weird year to pick but then I trust this writer to tell an entertaining story.

Eep - seems I was wrong! While he is generally awesome, "1985" is by no means a flawless, or even half good, book.

The story is too slight to be stretched over 6 issues. We see the same thing repeated over and over - boy struggles with reconciling his divorced father's situation of no money compared to his mother and step father who do have cash, he retreats into comics, then witnesses a Marvel character appear in real life. After a while it becomes predictable, and frankly the boy and his father's story just wasn't strong enough to sustain a full 6 issues.

Also, the build-up about his father's "dark past" and "that one day" is such a cop out in the end, revealed in a couple of pages in an offhand way as to seem like nothing in the overall story.

Then the superheroes - the villains seep over to the real world until the final issue and then the heroes show up and save the day. All the characters are bland and do the usual superhero things, minus any dialogue, and the whole book is tied up neatly with an admittedly kind of cool ending.

Overall it's quite a bland and unexciting read with some, at times fantastic art, other times too inky and scratchy as to be annoying. The superhero storyline is never really pulled off and the real world story not nearly interesting enough to hold up the book - "1985" is far from Millar's best and by no means an essential read for comics fans.