By: Kurt Busiek Publisher: Marvel Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Marvel Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 216 Publication Date: October 01, 2003
Product Description: Marvel Comics brings back Busiek and Ross's fully painted retelling of key moments in the birth of the Marvel Universe, as seen through the eyes of an innocent bystander.
Absolutely Marvelous Marvels is a comic book classic and rightly so. Combining the excellent writing of Kurt Busiek and the breathtaking painted visuals of Alex Ross, the story takes a look at the Marvel Universe from the common man's perspective. Following the life of a New York City reporter, this graphic novel shows humanity's reaction to the mighty superheroes that walk Marvel Earth.
The story is wonderful for several reasons. The most obvious is Alex Ross' artwork, which gives a very realistic look to a fantasy world. There is also Kurt Busiek's encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel continuity, which enables him to weave a tale that uses events ranging from the battle between the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, the marriage of Reed Richards and Sue Storm followed quickly by the first appearance of the Sentinels, and the coming of Galactus, all without making the history seem unwieldy or unnatural. The most important piece of Marvels, though, is the human characters and their reactions as generations of super-powered individuals act as saviors, villains, and much more. In a world that is rescued from annihilation on an almost daily basis, we see the street-level reactions to superheroes that often make common men and women seem irrelevant. At the same time, we see the moral ambiguity of the Marvel Universe in action, watching individuals like Namor go from hero to villain and back again.
Marvels is an intensely human story in a genre that is often about anything but humans. Even if you don't regularly read Marvel comics, it is well worth picking up this graphic novel. Generations from now, it will be looked upon not only as an excellent comic book story, but as a work of art in its own right.
Something different and amazing There isnt much new that I can say about this graphic novel. For me it turned into a history lesson about comic book heroes from the golden age. The artwork was stunning and realistic. The premise was completely different and gave a new insight into the marvel universe. The way that the story was told was believable and thought-provoking.
I am no expert, I only own about 20 graphic novels, but I honestly thought that this was even better than The Watchmen. Highly recommended for anyone who likes the medium.
My Favorite Book I cannot believe anyone giving this book a bad review. Some people complain they don't know anything about Marvel, well, I'm not a Fantastic Four fan and have no knowledge of its story history and I was able to enjoy the saga of Galactus which is supposed to be one of the greatest Marvel stories ever told. There are four stories in this book, and each one starts with an intro from the author/artist/notable Marvel celeb just in case you are not familiar with Marvel Universe. This book would probably be best enjoyed by someone familiar with the Universe but not really required.
The book starts off with a very strong intro on how the Human Torch came about. This is story-telling at its finest and I actually wish I could read more like this in the book.
The book then switches gears and every account is then looked through the eyes of the main character who is a everyday citizen employed as a photographer. The first story deals with the sudden appearance of superheroes, or as the book refers to them, marvels. The genius of the books lies in looking at the marvels from a different persepective, that of a everyday person which is not really done in any comic book story.
The second story continues with the mutants, notably the emergence of the X-Men as outcasts in society.
The third story is the legendary story of Galactus and Fantastic Four.
The final story is another historic one: the death of Gwen Stacey with the most famous Marvel character of all, Spider-Man!
Although I feel the story is somewhat lacking since it basically just traces some of the history of Marvel Universe, just the concept of looking at these marvels thru the eyes of an ordinary person is very revolutionary by itself. Still, I feel there is so much potential for an even better story. If there are any complaints it would be the story, but the writing is absolutely terrific and a joy to read. Now for the art. I kind of regret not getting the hardcover book because this is a book that I would like to keep and treasure for a long time and getting it as a hardcover would be a better investment. The art is just revolutionary. It took the artist, Alex Ross about a year just to finish the artwork for one of four stories in the book and almost 3 years in total. This is not cartoon pop art, this is fine art. The illustrations in the book are actual paintings, mostly derived from water colors. And they are not in abstract or impressionist style, but in portrait-like detail. It is absolutely the highest level a book can reach in terms of illustrations short of actual photographs which would be a quite a task in the making. So if anything, do yourself a favor and get this book for the artwork. You will not be disappointed.
The History of the Marvel Univers Through the Eyes of the Common Man I know I'm kind of late to the party, but this is easily on of the on of the best stories I've ever read from the Marvel universe. I can't say I'd recommend this to everyone though. As you probably know already the superheroes take a back seat to an 'average Joe' photographer in this one. I for one found it fascinating reliving some great moments in the history of Marvel from the point of view of the general public. One of my favorite moments was seeing the Fantastic Four's first clash with Galactus. It was funny to me to realize how odd the whole thing would have seemed from the out side. Mr. Fantastic just holds a little thing up to Galactus and he leaves. I mean what does one think after seeing such things?
I imagine that this read would be fun for a lot of long time fans. Going through and remembering different points in Marvel history. Though I think this is a great graphic novel I can also see this being some what boring looking for some of the more typical clash-of-titans type of comic book stories. Also, special note I really enjoy the art work of Alex Ross and in particular I enjoyed one panel where he worked in a homage to the painting Nighthawks, which while appearing in popular culture lots of other times before it fits in so well into Ross's style you almost wouldn't even notice it's there
Interesting. Kurt Busiek, Marvels (Marvel, 2003)
So while all those big superhero battles were going on, what was the rest of the population thinking? Kurt Busiek gives us one answer to that question in Marvels, a story that touches on a large number of the stories battles in the Marvel universe, giving them to us from the perspective of a newspaper photographer-- not a superhero himself, just one of the guys on the street. We get to see the ambivalence of the common folks towards superheroes, which is pretty unusual for the genre (at least in the pre-Watchmen days); that is, of course, the point. If you ever wondered what happened to all the people inside when a big superhero battle took out an office building, this is definitely one to check out. ****
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