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Sunday, July 17, 2005
Bright and Old
by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert, and Richard Isanove
At first, the idea seemed a good one. What if the Marvel Universe superheroes came into being in the 17th century, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth?
We're introduced to Sir Nicholas Fury, the Queen's spymaster; Peter Parquagh, his assistant; Doctor Stephen Strange, master of the Queen's medicines; Carlos Javier, mentor of the Witchbreed; not to mention analogs of the Fantastic Four and many others. The story is, essentially, that the Good Guys only know of their current time, and when they find out they have been displaced in time, they have to figure out why.
1602, while well-written, suffers from the simple problem that This Has Been Done Before. The mediocre Gotham by Gaslight and A Nation Divided come to mind, as does the excellent Red Son.
At times, the story seems too clever for its own good, but that's not necessarily a flaw in a Marvel Universe story. The pencilled art by Andy Kubert is excellent, moody and vague. Richard Isanove's digital coloring, while very pretty, tends to detract from the story in that it is too garish at times.
Overall, 1602 is good but not great. It's too typical of most Marvel comics in that it's a good yarn, but there's no substance beyond that.
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