I’ll admit, Marvel’s new line of Season One original graphic novels just leaves me feeling peculiarly ambivalent. On the one hand, it’s good to see Marvel finally doing some OGNs that aren’t licensed material – I guess they finally got over that “It’s not financially viable” idea they’ve been concentrating on, having looked at the success that DC had with Superman: Earth One and Joker – but on the other… I can’t help but feel that this line is a weird half-assed attempt at the same mainstream, non-comic-buying audience that Earth One was courting that seems almost doomed already.
Firstly, the lack of big name creative teams is simultaneously refreshing – “Hey, no Marvel Architects on this at all!” – and underwhelming – “Hey, Marvel isn’t putting its top talent on these books! Who are these guys?” – but leads to one of those weird Catch-22 situations that will both likely result in low orders in the direct market and absolutely nothing in the bookstore market, where Marvel is already traditionally weak (Earth One, by comparison, has the dual hook of big name character relaunch and J. Michael Straczynski’s name recognition within and outside of the direct market, as well as DC’s strength in bookstore sales).
Secondly, the content: These are stories that retell origins in Marvel continuity as we know it, which seems… honestly, just weird. Keeping them in continuity seems like an odd decision from everything other than a brand extention viewpoint (“Did you like Fantastic Four: Season One? Jump ahead to all the other FF collections already available – They’re the same characters!”), because it makes the Season One (and, presumably, seasons two onwards) line a creative dead-end: You can have the greatest creative talents on the world working on retelling a story, but in the end, if they’re saddled with having to retell that story, then… what’s the point?
I keep coming back to that question. What’s the point of saying that this line is all official Marvel U canon? What does it actually really gain Marvel? Why not just start over, a la Earth One (or even the Ultimate line)? Bookstore audiences presumably wouldn’t care, new readers wouldn’t care, and it would give the line some narrative purpose and urgency. Or, better yet, why not do all-new stories featuring these characters altogether? After all, it’s not like there aren’t already multiple versions of these characters’ beginnings in book format already (including Paul Jenkins’ Mythos, which updates them in the manner Season One is supposed to).
(Also, wasn’t Point One supposed to be this, only in single issues, with more material, and by the writers tasked with taking care of the characters already?)
Part of me feels that, if Marvel really wanted to do something interesting with these characters and the OGN format, then the latest Ultimate relaunch should have been OGN format, with the same creators attached: It would have allowed for Spider-Man, X-Men and Avengers OGNs, big-name creators to satisfy the DM readers and retailers, and the narrative demands of having a “new” story that readers don’t already know the end of, and will therefore be looking forward to the next volume expectantly. Season One as is may end up being entertaining and enjoyable enough, but it’s a nervous, safe and essentially weak entry into a format that’s already been proven to be sustainable when done right. When did Marvel become the gutless publisher?
July 20th, 2011 at 10:14 am
Marvel was so eager to have Damon Lindelof take 5 years to complete a 6 issue mini-series. Why don’t they look for other well-known creators in other forms of media to provide their take on these classic stories? Something like a reinterpretation of the stories that mattered to them when they were younger and first got into comics.
July 20th, 2011 at 10:37 am
Yeah, that sounds like my reaction, too. I’m still scratching my head over how DC has been all over the place regarding Earth-One (and Superman in general), then this comes along and feels like Earth-One without any actual goal.
July 20th, 2011 at 10:41 am
These books just scream “half-price bin”. Second-rate in every way.
July 20th, 2011 at 11:29 am
Guys like Bunn, McKelvie, and Johnston might not be big names, but they’re certainly solid talents, and if this is a supposed to be an entry into the entire Marvel catalog (and not just a line in its own) then it probably makes more sense to sell it on the characters rather than “name” writers.
(And is JMS really that much more of a draw for mainstream audiences? What do they know him from these days?)
One of the things that manga got right that Marvel and DC have struggled with is the lack of a clear “start with volume 1, then read volume 2 and so on” progression. The Lee/Kirby Thor might be great, but I don’t think it’s what the movie watchers are looking for.
DC’s Earth One approach gets the starting point right, but if you read that book and want to read more — well, you either have to wait for Straczynski to finish the sequel, or dive into the pile of other Superman books that aren’t in continuity with the one you just read.
Marvel’s Season One is, I assume, an attempt to give them a clear, modern starting point while keeping the rest of their backlist open to new readers rather than trying to shut them out of it — but of course, navigating all that is still bound to be a mess. If they’re smart, they’ll have some good suggestions for what to read next in the back of the Season One books (and not just “here’s a list of all our TPBs, some of which are out of print”).
July 20th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
waste of Jamie McKelvie. Put him on something I might read.
July 20th, 2011 at 5:45 pm
When I was a kid reading the Kirby/Sinnott FFs as they came out, I’d have regarded that painted cover with the utmost contempt. I think I’d have been right.
July 20th, 2011 at 8:20 pm
I totally agree that this is a superfluous concept. An entire GN to tell stories that originally took up 10 – 12 pages? Sounds like a recipe for more tedious decompression.
As a Fantastic Four collector, I was disappointed in the choice of Aguirre-Sacasa. Nothing against him, but he’s already had a crack at the FF. Why not give it to someone whose got a fresh outlook on the characters? Or, if the purpose is really to serve as a gateway to current continuity, put Hickman in charge.
July 21st, 2011 at 4:43 am
There’s an online preview of some interior pages, mostly from the FF, and no exaggeration, they’re awful.