Historical

Marvel’s 1602

As with all oversided Marvel hardcovers, the 1602 hardcover is nothing short of a great solid chunk of book. It comes with a black faux leather cover with gold writing on it, simply entitled MARVEL 1602. The book collects the 8 issue mini-series written by Neil Gaiman as a method to raise funds for his lawyers in his ongoing battle with Todd Mcfarlane. This battle is an ongoing one with various properties(MiracleMan, Angela, Cog and a few others I believe) at stake in one great big knot of a mess in recent comic book history. This was the first project Gaimen wrote for Marvel in exchange for the cash to help with the case. Gaiman has one more project to work on to fullfil his contract with Marvel in this respect, and if it’s anything as close the quality within these pages then we’ll all be in for another treat.

The story takes place (at least most of the story) in 1602 England. and follows the major players in the Marvel universe, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, Peter Parker, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X-men and many more, over 30 main characters are given some time to shine in this story. However Gaiman’s turned everything on it’s head. There’s a freshness to all these characters because he’s gone and dumped them in a completely different setting than what we’re used to. To keep everyone guessing he’s changed their names slightly and of course they’re not wearing their costumes, they’re wearing derivatives, sometimes the only link being the colours remain the same. By doing that he effectively gets to play around with the character’s origins and how they came to be the same people (or close to the same people) as those 400 years later. The book is scattered with great characterisation and dialogue as you would expect from Neil, and having not written any sequential work in 5 years the man seriously has not missed a beat.

One of my favourite moments is when Daredevil climbs into James’s chambers and gives him a stern warning. Another moment that I don’t know why it didn’t click earlier was the fact that Rohjah as actually Steve Rogers. I completely missed that association, mainly because I’ve never read a Captain America book and therefore care nothing for the character himself.

Kubert is in fine form in this series as well. In fact there isn’t much difference in quality between that series and this, the content matter of course is slightly similar, except with the massive array of cast assembled in this series it’s definitely more colourful. I feel however that the story and Gaiman’s story might have been even that more unique if a more organic artist was chosen. By that I mean someone like Michael Zulli. I only say that because I felt that a story such as this deserved something unique and quirky. It had the same qualities of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but like I said the art just wasn’t as unique in my mind as it could have been.

That being said the art is aided in no small way by the awesome powers of Richard Isanove. I have a great deal of admiration for Isanove, as I’ve seen him evolve into one of the premier men colouring comics at the moment, from humble beginnings on Top Cow books in the mid 90s. He has most definitely come into his own following his work on Origin.

The covers by Scott McKowen are truely unique and do wash the time period over you in a strange way. I’m very glad that Gaiman chose something different for the covers than what would have been traditional fare. This is actually what I would have expected on the inside covers as well. For all those thinking that the average Marvel Zombie wouldn’t have clicked, I’d disagree since Kevin O’Neill wouldn’t have been my first choice to declare him a fan favourite however he’s definitely the definitive image of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

It’s no coincidence that usually the best penned series in comics (ie those written by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman) are also lettered by the multi-Eisner award winning Todd Klien. The man knows how to letter a sequential page like nobody’s business, and I think both these guys understand just how much a good letterer brings to the table. It’s so subtle but easily one of the most important aspects of a comic book, after all that’s what you’re looking at 50% of the time.

In the end I highly recommended buying this book as either the hardover version or the trade paperback version.

Writer: Neil Gaiman
Penciller: Andy Kubert
Digital Painter: Richard Isanove
Letter: Todd Klein
Publisher: Marvel