1602

After watching the latest X-Men movie, "Marvel 1602" seemed like a good follow-up to read - it's an Elizabethan re-imagining of the Marvel universe, with a lot of focus on the X-Men.I picked up the trade paperback, collecting all 8 issues of the comic written by the legendary Neil Gaiman - usually a DC comics writing, so it's nice to see him taking a spin at Marvel.The plot is exactly what it sounds like - as many Marvel heroes reimagined in Elizabethan style as possible. Sometimes the plot, a nice mystery with political intrigue and spy elements, gets pushed ahead in favour of cameos. This does weaken the story, but as long as you're a Marvel fan you'll still enjoy it - for the re-imaginings, the references and in-jokes, and the plot lines.The dialogue is strong for a comic book and it fits the period. The period setting is well done, if confusing at points (there are dinosaurs. I have no idea why. Google eventually told me this was a reference to the Marvel 'Savage Lands'). The time period could have been used more blatantly, but it has lots of brilliantly rendered old-fashioned ships so I'll forgive it. It also uses some unexpected plot twists - a few famous Marvel characters appear towards the end that I didn't expect to show up.The art style is relatively unique - pencils taken immediately into digital colouring, with a lot of the pencil lines still visible to give it a 'scratchboard look'. Skipping the inking stage definitely makes it stand out. But the penciller isn't always that great with faces - characters pull some really jarring, unnatural expressions. It gets less noticeable towards the end, maybe because I was more 'into' the story.One thing I wish the collection had would be character bios, so that relatively new Marvel fans like myself could keep up. Sly references to their modern superhero names help clear this up, and if you're already familiar with the Marvel universe, you'll be fine - and you should really enjoy this.

I like the concept, and the art is decent although a bit light when it comes to backgrounds and settings. The story feels a tad brisk, skimming through the plot with knowing winks to fit well-known characters and backstories into a medieval world. The characters are basically still themselves but in ye olde costume, which I think is a missed opportunity to shake up roles and allegiances. I would have liked to see more of the world, more characters, and more of the ways their powers and the period would react against each other. But the basic plot device is solid and resolves well. It could have been so much more, and while the character art and movement is fine, and the storytelling easy to follow, I wish we could have seen more of the world and the period, and perhaps more characters and cameos.

I’ve just finished reading this and I loved it! It really helped me learn a lot about Marvel characters I’m not really familiar with like Matt Murdoch, Dr Otto and Clea! Full of twists and turns you don’t always see coming, Gaiman really gave us a sense of what an alternate history full of superheroes would be like! Yes, in those days they would be considered witches by some and phenomenons by others, which also reflects well on the modern attitudes of a lot of characters within the X-Men universe. Genius! I’m especially glad that it was written by Gaiman because being British he knew exactly how to portray Elizabethan slash Jacobean England!

I’m not really a supers person, but I am a Gaiman fan and the idea of Elizabethan heroes intrigued me. I suspect my ignorance of the original characters and their stories probably meant that I missed a number of references, but nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed myself working out who was who and what was going on. Great artwork, fun ideas. A hit for me.

I bought this for my son, who's 13, and loves his graphic novels. He read it cover to back and loved the story, demanding more along this genre. He is a fan of Marvel, a fan of manga, and a fan of mystery, this story twists both together.

Loved the mix of it being 1602 and modern characters playing and speaking in a faux 1602 language. Great Fun.

It’s a very good storyline

Really enjoyed this new (old?) take on well known characters. Brilliantly conceived and written as always. Don’t expect a philosophical treatise from Gaiman on this with this one and you wont be disappointed.