A twenty-five year gap may be longer than usual for a spiritual follow-up, but the kaleidoscopic ride through MARVEL, the new anthology series delivered by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, feels well worth the wait. Loaded with creative flourish, the first issue delivers three bold stories from diverse and talented creative teams. When blended together, it’s a result greater than the sum of its parts in a psychedelic spin echoing Gaiman’s Sandman.
Billing itself as an “anything-goes” playground of storytelling, Busiek and Ross are teaming up following last year’s MARVELS: EPILOGUE. This time it’s Alex Ross at the MARVEL series helm, curating a time-skipping rocket-ride that straddles the line between fantastical and mundane in the lives of Marvel’s biggest characters, continuing the spirit of the 1994 MARVELS that launched both of their careers to new levels. This time they’ve brought a few friends along for the ride, with a stable including Nexus artist and retro-specialist Steve “The Dude” Rude, and MIT Scientist Sajan Saini, writing his first foray into mainstream superhero comics alongside Frank Espinosa in a lavishly painted Spider-Man tale.
The series promises to be “a cornucopia of tales spread across the whole of the Marvel Universe as visualized by some of the best artists and creators in the field” by Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort when speaking with Marvel.com. The series, “curated” by Ross, “is very much an artist’s showcase, with Alex bringing his discerning eye to the choice of collaborators, recruiting his favorite practitioners of the art to go to town on some of their mutual favorite characters,” he continued. “It’s going to be a blast for the eyes!"
The anthology kicks off with some of the most imaginative art Ross has produced in years in service of a Doctor Strange-style framing story, and keeps the foot heavy on the gas as the reader is catapulted through two wild vignettes focused on Spidey and The Avengers, set in the early days of Peter’s marriage to Mary Jane and the early Silver Age respectively. Busiek and Saini’s writing in particular seem to verge on the psychological edge, which, when combined with the talents of Rude and Espinosa respectively burns with a warped delirium that simply oozes with the passion these creators have for the material.
While calling MARVEL a follow-up to MARVELS might seem tenuous on paper, as MARVEL features more of a throw-back feel to the old “House of Mystery” horror anthologies of yesteryear, the title still carries with it some of the “man-on-the-street” feel Busiek and Ross made famous so long ago with their journalist protagonist Phil Sheldon in the pages of MARVELS. MARVEL #1 also features the return of Steve “The Dude” Rude to the pages of Marvel Comics for the first time since 2003’s Captain America: What Price Glory? Future issues promise more wild tales of suspense, with artists the likes of Bill Sienkiewicz (New Mutants) and Dan Brereton scheduled to contribute in future issues.
Looks like it’s going to be a ride. MARVEL #1 is available now from your local comic book shop.
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Source: Marvel
