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Sunday, March 05, 2006

cover of Marvel 1602: New World

Greg Pak picks up where Neil Gaiman left off, with Marvel superheroes in an earlier age. Where the first Marvel 1602 seemed to include almost too many Marvel characters (including X-men, the fantastic four, and many others), this one limits it almost too much. From the former book, we only carry over the characters of Peter Parquagh, David Bruce Banner, and the fascinating Virginia Dare. Of course, there are new characters, too, including Sir Iron (Iron Man), and a insidious Norman Osborne, trying to instigate trouble between the Indians and the settlers of Roanoke, and looking for the "treasure" of the rift in time that gave Banner his powers (and which was resolved in the last book).

Generally the art and the writing were fine. At times, I found the written dialects a bit annoying. I didn't enjoy the cover art (by Sergio Toppi) quite as well as the previous set, although I have to admit that the style is appropriate to the new world in contrast to the earlier, more Elizabethen covers. I have to say, I did enjoy the "period costumes" for Spiderman and the Hulk.

This installment was a little bit disappointing. It is pretty short, collecting only issues 1-5; but the first one was only 8 issues, and seemed much more substantial than three issues would account for. And there are so many characters in the first one, it might be disappointing no matter who the focus was on. Maybe the real reason this one doesn't live up to the first is that there is no major catastrophe or problem that requires all of the heroes to come together and resolve. G. commented that, after this, we might be "marvel sixteen-oh-done".

Title:Marvel 1602: New World
Author:Greg Pak, artwork by Greg Tocchini
Date published:2006
Genre:Graphic Novel
Series:Marvel 1602
Number of pages:120

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