Marvel 1985 #1 Review

MARVEL 1985 #1
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Tommy Lee Edwards

This series is going to be hard to judge off of one issue. It has the makings of something special - beautiful artwork, imaginative narrative from the point of view of a child obsessed with comic books and the discovery that those very characters he worships are real.

However, Millar is strattling a fine line here and, like I said, it is very difficult to judge this story on a single issue. To some, that may be a death knell for this series - another victim of not enough bang for your buck in the opening issues. For others, who are willing to invest some time and money, this series could have a wonderful payoff, granted that Millar can deliver on some of the boasting and promises he has made in several interviews.

For me, personally? I enjoyed this issue. I grew up in the 80's and have read many of these series and know of the events and time period being referenced. This makes it very easy to put myself in the protagonists shoes and I believe this immediate kinship most will feel after reading this is exactly what Millar is counting on to lure longtime comic fans in. For many new readers, relatively speaking, you may not appreciate the same things I do with this issue. Comics were a different sort of animal altogether back in the 80's and little references like the Master of the Universe t-shirt or even the complete lack of knowledge by the young boy in the pre-internet / Wizard days and the smoke the comic shop owner is blowing up his backside about rarity of some comics and prices all are fond memories for me. Your mileage may vary depending on how well you associate with this time period and the characters involved.

That said, Millar has a very slow burn of a first issue here. The art is beautiful and draws me in, but I can sum the contents of the issue up in a matter of a few sentences (and I'm not exactly known for my brevity).

We start with a young boy with divorced parents who turns to comic books as a form of escapism. He, like many of us, lives out these fantastic adventures in 22 page format every month and, by issues' end, he comes to the realization, after several eye witness accounts and some of his own mysterious sightings, which he chaulked up to an overzealous fan dressed up like a comic villain instead of an actual villain, he is nearly caught by Dr Doom and several other villains. As he makes his way through the woods, shocked at the startling discovery of real life super villains, he runs smack dab into the Hulk, ending our issue with a stunning splash page.

Verdict - Check It. This was a Must Read for me and probably any child of the 80's. For newer readers, I'd suspect a much different take on the book to the point you could take it or leave it at a glance. I do believe it's a worthwhile book and has the makings of something special, provided we don't rely entirely on nostolgia, and, as such, I'm leaving it as Check It for now.

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