Marvels - C&C Classic Comic Retrospective
Icons from a New Perspective
By Steven Carter
I have been wanting to do a review on this for quite some time. There is a fantasy I have that one day, we would eventually see all of the movie rights to all Superheroes and Mutants come back home to Marvel Studios. If this day should ever arrive, there are several graphic novels that I would dearly love to see on the big screen. The storylines are: Dark Reign, House of M, Old Man Logan, Secret Invasion, World War Hulk, and most of all, Marvels.
These are all novels that span the whole of the marvel 616 comic universe. One at least, is rumoured to be the inspiration for the upcoming Wolverine film but sadly won't reach it's full potential due to those pesky movie rights! We’ll get back on track now and focus on Marvels. This is a 4 part series released back in 1994, written by Kurt Busiek and illustrated by the artistic wizard, Alex Ross. The beginning of the book is set in the 1940’s, right when the comics were gaining popularity and the 2nd World War was raging.
The Prelude kicks off as a monologue detailing the first moments of the original Human Torch (seen briefly in the first Captain America movie). This sets the mood of the whole series really well. You read about the first experience the Torch has with the general public and how they react when they see him catch fire the very moment he comes into contact with oxygen.
The main body of the story covers some major events throughout the gold and silver age of comics, seen through the eyes of one journalist, Phil Sheldon. During the first few pages you see the events mentioned in the prologue, only from Sheldon’s point of view. You also learn about his ambitions to be a war journalist in Europe, covering the events of WW2. Sheldon loses his desire to go some what when all of these stories start to surface of flying men on fire, a naked man who possessed great strength and was able to swim underwater without coming up for air (Namor). There's a great line when all this was happening:
“But we had gotten smaller. I could see it in those same faces. Faces that had once been so confident, so brash. We weren't the players any more. We were Spectators. We were waiting for something, without knowing what it was.”
The realisation that the human race wasn't the most powerful species any more. Fights were breaking out in cities that the authorities had no power to stop. That must feel pretty scary for the average Joe, but fantastic for a journalist.
When Captain America appeared, public opinion changed. He was just as powerful as Namor and the Torch, yet he was perceived as a true American hero. Taking the fight to those who had it coming. You even get to see a young Nick Fury (pre eye patch) express his desire to enlist in the army thanks to Cap.
Chapter 2, titled “Monsters Among Us” sees many more appearances of a wider variety of heroes. The public are captivated every time they get a sighting and Sheldon is busy trying to document it all. “It was life or death. It was a grand opera. It was the greatest show on earth. And we, every single one of us, we had the best seat in the house.”A nice 4th wall reference I noticed was that a lot of the photographs Sheldon takes end up being the front covers of comic books in real life.
Further into the chapter you realise why the book received it's title. It's the introduction to the X-Men. Fuelled by rumour and here say, they were vilified from the start. Marvel’s take on racial hatred against mutants was handled really well. The derogatory term “Mutie” gets used a lot in gossip and stories often start with “well I heard…” And “this guy said…”
It gets to the point where groups of men are running around with guns and pitchforks towards the last sighting of a mutant. “We don't want your kind here!” “We saw one out by the trash cans, a face like a skull, who knows what it was up to?!” “We gotta get ‘em Phil, before they get us!” Phil was caught up in the hysteria until he found out the mutant they were hunting was a little girl who was hiding in his basement. The look in her eyes reminded him of the look in the prisoners eyes when they were liberated from Auschwitz. The riots against Mutants were getting out of control and weren't helped when the sentinels were created to hunt the Mutants. It's quite clear that the “Monsters” the title refers to is about the humans rather than the mutants.
The third chapter “Judgement Day” covers potentially the biggest event to happen in the silver age of comics, the day Galactus arrived to devour Earth. Public opinion had once again changed regarding superheroes. Magazines were desperate to find scandals and vilify certain characters, notably Spiderman. Phil Sheldon was losing motivation to do his job. The world seemed to want to put a downer on every good deed that a hero performed.
The main event followed the Fantastic 4’s fight against Galactus. Once again, New York was helpless and were certain they were witnessing the apocalypse. After the events reach their conclusions, there was much confusion and the media spun a story claiming the whole thing was a hoax. This left a sour taste in Phil’s mouth. On the way to covering a fight between the X-Men and Count Nefaria, he confronts some anti-mutant group blasting out “YOU PEOPLE! WHAT DO YOU NEED, THE WORLD TO ACTUALLY END?! Are you so busy digging for garbage you can't even admit to yourselves that you're grateful?!” The book promptly ends there and brings us to the final chapter called “The Day She Died".
Phil Sheldon is close to retirement. The newspapers are still intent on putting Superheroes in a bad light. Sheldon pleads to an editor about how they save us again and again, yet we insult and belittle them in return. The truth it seems is getting distorted in a major way. The plea falls on deaf ears and Sheldon takes it upon himself to clear Spidey’s name from the murder of George Stacey. He follows many leads from eye witnesses, including Octavious himself but gets no-where, until he meets up with Gwen Stacey herself. The time he spends with her just highlights what an amazing individual she was. It also brings up the anguish and sorrow all over again as Sheldon bares witness to her kidnapping by the Green Goblin. He gives chase and sees the fateful fight unfold between Spiderman and Green Goblin on the Brooklyn Bridge. That event proves to be the final straw for Sheldon who slips into depression and promptly retires. The book eventually ends on an optimistic note with Sheldon looking forward to leading an ordinary life, posing for a photo with a young Danny Ketch (the third Ghost Rider) on his paper round.
If the story doesn't keep you captivated then the sheer class of the artwork certainly will. Alex Ross simply is one of the greatest comic book artists there is. If you purchase the novel version of this collection, you are treated to behind the scenes pages of how Ross manages to bring life to his characters. This was his first major project that thrust him into the limelight and establishing himself as one of the most sought after cover artists. His watercolour imagery stands out from other artists’ work and creates a very realistic picture, from the facial expressions, right down to the folds in clothing. This is an important book to add to any comic book fan’s collection.
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