It reminds me in a good way of the early ‘00s superhero comics (many of which were also penned by this book’s writer, Kurt Busiek) that I read coming up. The pages in this comic are packed and substantive, and even throwaway characters like a tourist couple taking a Manhattan superhero tour get interesting traits and plenty of lines. And it does all this with fantastic visual storytelling from the team of artist Yildiray Cinar and colorist Richard Isanove. It’s just a tad more realistic (just a tad…there’s still a scene here where Captain America jumps from space), and regardless of how grandiose the superhero action gets, there’s still thought paid to the little people - to us, essentially - as witness.Īt the same time, The Marvels #1 is a dense and patient comic, one that shuns the decompressed, film storyboard friendly writing for the trade trends that have all but defined superhero comics of the past 10 years (maybe even 15). First and foremost, it deploys the more grounded approach to the Marvel Universe that has been the sensibility of Marvels since that landmark book hit in the mid ‘90s (though in spite of the title, it’s unclear if this book is connected to that series in anything outside of sensability). By Zack Quaintance - The Marvels #1 is an interesting comic that feels like it was culled from the past in multiple ways.

Marvels by Kurt Busiek