Well, this is a first. Every review since the start of this blog nearly a year ago has been DC Comics and the reason for that is because nearly everything I read is from DC. That being said, I do sometimes like to change things up and read something a little different now and then. The competition (or war as it sort of became in the 1990s and 2000s) between Marvel and DC has been going on for six decades and because both companies are extremely popular, they both have a tendency to, maybe not steal, but be influenced by each-others stories. In other words, they steal story ideas and concepts and make it work as their own. This is a normal thing in the word of literature, comics and films because the more the years go by, the harder it becomes for original ideas to be realised. However, in 1994, Marvel came up with an ingenious idea, one that would only work with a huge backlog of history. How would a normal person view and experience a superhero world over the space of a few years or even a few decades. This takes us to Marvels, a four-issue miniseries by Kurt Busiek and painted by a new artist aged only in his early-twenties at the time, Alex Ross. Here we see the main character of the story, Phil Sheldon, witness the rise of the superheroes, like Captain America, The Human Torch and the X-Men. Of course, the idea wouldn’t remain original forever, since DC did a similar thing by publishing DC Universe: Legacies, a ten-issue maxiseries written by Len Wein with a wide selection of artists.
Marvels 1-4 was published monthly from January to April 1994, including an issue 0, which was a short story that takes place before issue 1, but was published afterwards in August… weirdly. The series was written by Kurt Busiek and featured painted art
by Alex Ross. Lastly, I have read the all five issues of the series in the Marvels trade paperback.
THE STORY
In the 1930s, a great scientist named Phineas Horton created an android, which unexpectedly caught fire when in contact with air. Horton presented his new flaming creation to the public, who were scared of it and thought it to be dangerous as the android had no control over its flames. The android was put into a metal container and buried in concrete, ensuring that it never came into contact with air again. In his tomb, Horton made it possible for his creation to learn about humanity and its importance. Over time, a crack appears in the concrete and the andwas roid breaks free and ignites. The flaming android heads out onto the streets, where the public witness the first superbeing.
In 1939, a young photographer named Phil Sheldon discusses with his colleagues that he is thinking of moving to Europe in order to cover the war. Instead, he has to go to a science exhibition hosted by Phineas Horton. Although Phil is dreaming about a career in Europe during the presentation by Horton, he and members of the public are surprised when Horton introduces his new android to them, named the Human Torch. Taking photographs, Phil notices that the android moves. However, the other reporters and the public call the Human Torch a menace and that it must be destroyed. Horton ends up burying his creation in concrete. Afterwards, Phil meets with his fiancé, Doris, but they both hear a scream nearby. Phil goes to investigate and finds the Human Torch in the street, scaring citizens. However, when the Human Torch runs away, people believe he is simply a trick. Some time later, Doris witnesses police shooting at a strange naked man, but the bullets didn’t do anything to him. Although Phil believes her story, others believe it to be a trick. In the coming days, incidents occur around Manhattan such as flooding and fires. Then, when Phil sits with somebody in a café who believes the superbeings should be put into prison, a nearby person reveals himself as the Human Torch, before leaving in anger. Surprising his boss, Phil decides not to go to Europe as he wants to stay home and investigate the superbeings. Some months later in 1940, Phil and reporters are shocked when they find the Human Torch fighting the naked man, named Namor. When the two heroes leave the scene, policewoman Betty Dean defends Namor, saying that he is simply defending his people. However, people don’t believe her, and the reporters leave when they hear that a tunnel full of cars has been flooded by Namor. The battle between the two heroes goes on for some time, ending when Betty Dean gets the two heroes to sort out their differences. Afterwards, Phil speaks with Doris about postponing their marriage until he can make sure their eventual family will be safe. Doris gives Phil back his ring, telling him he knows where to find her if he wants to give it back. Months later in 1941, a new hero arrives on the scene named Captain America. He is loved by children and treated as a great hero by newspapers, defeating spies and Nazis. Phil goes to a theatre, where he finds Doris with another man (named Bill Lumpkin), worrying him. Nevertheless, Phil enjoys the movie about the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner (Namor) teaming up together to fight in the war. After the film, Doris forgives Phil and gives him another chance. Some time into their relationship, reports come in that the Sub-Mariner is attacking British and Italian forces in Spain. Despite not believing that he will attack America, the Submariner does. Phil tells Doris to get into a shelter while he heads out to take photographs. Phil reaches the roof of a building and witnesses a huge tidal wave flooding Manhattan. He then notices the Human Torch arrive, who attacks Namor. During the fight, Phil is hit in the face by some debris and wakes up in hospital with bandages on his face as he lost his left eye. However, he doesn’t hold it against the heroes. Some months later, with an eyepatch, Phil marries Doris and goes to Europe to be a war photographer, where he witnesses Captain America and a group of heroes fight the Nazis.
In the 1960s, Phil, now a father and a freelance photographer, is told about some supervillains trashing the streets. While thinking about all the new superheroes that have suddenly appeared or re-appeared, like the Fantastic Four, Thor, Giant-Man and the Sub-Mariner, he and all the members of the public witness Captain America (continues after image)
jumping over the crowds. Phil takes photos of not only Captain America, but of Iron Man, who is flying above. Phil’s job as a photographer takes him to numerous events, such as the Avengers battling the Masters of Evil. Phil shows his photographs to an editor and thinks about publishing them all in a book. On the way home, thinking about how to start his book, Phil follows a crowd of people running, speaking about mutants. Phil and the crowd find the X-Men. People throw bricks and rocks at the heroes, calling them mutants. Phil does the same and throws a brick at Iceman, who becomes furious with Phil, before the X-Men disappear. Phil thinks about what he did and arrives home to find his children, Beth and Jenny, playing as superheroes. Phil tells Doris that he has sold his book idea. The next day, Phil manages to take a picture of Thor flying, before getting to work. Phil attends an opening of Alicia Master’s superhero sculptures, where numerous celebrity hero figures attend, such as Reed Richards and Susan Storm, who attract a big crowd. After taking the pictures of the sculptures, Phil heads home and enjoys some rare time with Doris and his children. Some time later, Fantastic Four members Reed Richards and Susan Storm announce their engagement. Although crowds appear in support for the couple, Sue is abducted just after the Avengers take a leave of absence. Then, at night, Phil notices an angry mob with weapons heading out to kill some mutants. He heads home and Doris, along with the children, reveal that in the basement, they have a child mutant who Beth and Jenny have been sneaking in food for. Phil thinks about what might happen if the whole neighborhood knew about the mutant and how it could result in their home being burnt down. However, Phil decides that the girl must stay because she is just a child. This makes Phil worried as holding onto the girl could put his family at risk if they are discovered. Some time later, he goes to the wedding of Reed and Sue, which has numerous heroes attending, like Iron Man, Captain America, Daredevil (and quite possibly all the members of the Beatles). Afterwards in the bar, Phil watches a debate between Dr Bolivar Trask and Charles Xavier (who is Professor X of the X-Men). Trask releases his new weapon live on TV, named the Sentinels, which have the purpose of destroying all mutants. This causes riots on the streets as people look to hunt the mutants. Phil takes pictures of the carnage and after saving a girl trapped under a car, he realises that he and his family hold a mutant. He runs home to find his children crying as Doris gives Phil a note from the girl, named Maggie, who thanks the family for looking after her. Later on, the news reports that the Sentinels have mysteriously vanished, but after Jenny asks if Maggie was alright, Phil doesn’t know. He tells Jenny that he hopes she is.
Nearly two months after the wedding of Reed and Sue, Phil is working on a piece for the Daily Bugle about Tony Stark and his connections with Iron Man. However, Phil attends a conference made to apologize to the Avengers after they were forced to disband due to their enemies framing them for crimes. But this doesn’t stop the media from attacking Stark. Soon after, Phil and his family visit the zoo when suddenly, it is flooded with a foot of water. A man screams about how this is a sign of the apocalypse, which scares both Jenny and Beth. The water then disappears as the Avengers defeat the villain who caused the flood to occur, Attuma. Around this time, new hero Spiderman is accused of attacking J. Jonah Jameson and the FF defeat a large creature destroying buildings. Some days later, as Phil becomes closer to concluding his feature piece about Tony Stark, the sky turns to fire, causing huge panics around the world. Then the fire turns to meteors and a mysterious character named the Silver Surfer flies down to the surface, followed by the mighty Galactus, who plans to drain all the life out of Earth. While the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer fight the villain, Phil heads home to his family for what might be the end of the world. Phil holds onto his family, preparing for the end when the news reports that the Galactus has been defeated by the FF. However, Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson believes that the Galactus was a hoax and after walking past a crowd speaking of the heroes who saved the Earth should be locked up, Phil rages at them, telling them that they should be grateful for the heroes. Phil leaves them by telling the crowd to look up for once in their lives.
Now in the 1970s, Phil is signing copies of his superhero photography book, Marvels. At the same time, the Avengers are in another galaxy fighting in the Kree-Skrull War.
Later on, Phil introduces Marcia Hardesty, his new assistant, to his colleagues as he is getting old and is slower than he once was. With Marcia, he attends the trial of heroine Black Widow, which he believes is a complete farce. Phil is also angry that Jameson has been attacking Spiderman, framing him and accusing him of murdering Captain George Stacy. It is then that Galactus invades once again, but luckily, Reed Richards (who is being threatened by his landlord) and the FF saves the day. Angered by Jameson and his accusations against Spiderman, Phil wants to clear Spiderman’s name. Phil is told to visit Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, who has been becoming more recognisable for defeating drug dealers. However, after taking some photographs, Phil leaves quite quickly and speaks with numerous people who witnessed the death of George Stacy, one of whom is part of the police, he doesn’t believe that Spiderman was the killer, but, Doctor Octopus did it. At home, Phil, Doris and his children play a board game when the news reports that strange organised objects coming from the sun are heading towards Earth. Although Doris is worried, Phil knows that the heroes will take care of it. Afterwards, Phil speaks with more witnesses and ends up meeting J. Jonah Jameson himself, who has been the person who started the hate against Spiderman. He believes that the heroes which Phil names Marvels are hated by some people due to jealousy and the insecurity that regular humans can’t be as good as a superhero. Phil then notices in the newspaper that Doctor Octopus has been captured and due to that, Phil wants to speak with the villain himself. When he meets the villain in prison, Phil asks Doctor Octopus why he doesn’t reveal himself as the killer of Stacy. The villain tells Phil that it is just so much fun to see Spiderman squirming, before Phil leaves. He just had one last person to speak with, which was Gwen Stacy, daughter of George Stacy. For hours, the two spoke about her father and Spiderman, who she once thought was his killer, but now isn’t so sure. When going to meet Gwen again, Phil finds that she isn’t in, but to his horror, he finds that she has been kidnapped by the Green Goblin. Phil follows him in a taxi to the Brooklyn Bridge and watches a fight between Spiderman and the villain take place. Although Phil believes in the hero, the Green Goblin drops Gwen and although Spiderman saves her from falling into the sea, she breaks her neck and dies. Phil doesn’t believe this, and he is disappointed when her death doesn’t even get onto the front page of the Daily Globe. In the end, Phil believes that all the heroes failed Gwen and he ends up becoming frustrated with the heroes. He decides to retire, giving his camera to Marcia. The paperboy delivers the newspaper to the house about how Ant-Man and the Wasp are both still alive, but Phil doesn’t care anymore. Instead, he tells Marcia to take a photograph of himself, Doris and the ordinary paperboy, named Danny Ketch (who in the future becomes Ghost-Rider).
MY THOUGHTS
Now, usually I would start off detailing what I think of the plot and how it works over the five issues, but here, it has to be different. The whole story of Marvels and how it is told is very unique and it still sort of is. As previously mentioned, DC did their version of it about a decade ago and apart from that, I don’t think (or care) if Image Comics has done one. This is because to do something on a large scale like Marvels, you need so much history to go off. Throughout all the issues, events that occurred in the Marvel Universe continuity from the late 1930s to the early 1970s are recreated or told faithful. This includes the rise of Captain America, the Galactus Invasion, the framing of Spiderman and so on. But, all of these events are witnessed in the eye of a normal human being who has an interest in the heroes, which is Phil. This brings me to what I believe is the greatest aspect of the story, depicted so normally, yet fascinatingly by Kurt Busiek, which is the life of Phil, Doris and his family. Throughout all four issues, we see Phil go through the early steps of his career, ending with his retirement. This is great as we see so much development in his character and as we follow what happens to him, we experience his thoughts and stresses with him. There are numerous examples of this, like when his relationship with Doris seems to be over in issue one, creating a sense of sadness, which is resolved when he marries her at the end of the issue. A notable example of the stress felt by Phil has to be in issue two, where he finds that a mutant girl named Maggie is living in their basement. This is at a time in the world when the humans hate freaks like the X-Men and although Phil did throw a brick at the hero Iceman, he learns his lesson when he decides not to give Maggie over to the angry mob. He puts his family at risk, while caring for them tremendously, in order to do the right thing. We see him care for his family in issue 3 during the Galactus Invasion. He believes that the world could in fact end, so he decides to spend what could be his last moments with his family, creating a sense of (continues after image)
relief and happiness when the heroes defeat Galactus. Finally, issue 4 shows Phil as a tired old man, but he is still the same character, at least until the end of the issue. Phil is the hero of Marvels and that isn’t just because of some of the brave acts that he commits, but because he is a good guy and respects the Marvels. I’ll come back to this in a second, but concluding on normal life, Busiek tells the story of this ordinary, yet charming and interesting characters flawlessly. The feelings we have for the main characters, whether they do something good or bad, are real. Marvels is a prime example of character writing done well. The downfall of Phil’s respect and love of the heroes comes when Gwen Stacy dies and his reaction feels so human, like ours. We want Spiderman to save Gwen and defeat the Green Goblin, but it doesn’t go this way. Gwen dies and Phil begins to notice the world of the superheroes turn darker and darker, becoming something that he no longer recognises. This causes him to retire and I think that really adds something to his character. It is also great as we see his legacy continue in his assistant, Marcia (but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there should have been a sequel). Busiek tells the story from Phil’s perspective brilliantly, showing the heroes to be brave and victorious. However, this means that there is an opposite view. Due to the sh*t that J. Jonah Jameson spreads in his newspaper, the people begin to have a hatred of the heroes as there are seen as more superior than regular humans. A sort of opposite to this also occurs, with the people seeing “freaks” like the X-Men below humanity. Some heroes, like Reed Richards and Sue Storm, are adored by members of the public, while the X-Men and, later in the story, Spiderman, are disliked. This also applies to the content of the 1st issue, set in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Captain America becomes a loved hero due to his war efforts and proud patriotism, while the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch are seen as outsiders. While Phil’s book, Marvels, is an important part of how the heroes are depicted, I’ll speak about that when we get to the art, as they are both linked. But, I will say that Phil’s book and his reporting on the heroes certainly does influence on the public reception of how the heroes are viewed and honestly, that’s what Phil’s legacy should be, since he just a tiny part of a huge world of superheroes and villains. There is only one part of the story which isn’t taken from the eyes of Phil, which is issue 0. This is all from the viewpoint of the original Human Torch, which albeit, is very short, but it is a great character piece and honestly, it would have been nice if it could have been converted into a longer story. Apart from that, there was one thing about the story that was a pleasant surprise, which was that I could actually understand it! The reason I state this is because with stories that are like this, you need to have a good understanding of the history and the old adventures which are being covered here. I read the Len Wein DC Universe: Legacies series before Marvels and as I knew most of the events that happened in that story, I enjoyed the story very much and understood it. Here, I didn’t know much about the Marvel Universe, with the exception of the basics. But I was quite happy when I found that I could understand the plot and what was going on pretty easily. I would recommend this to people who may not have read a Marvel comic, but might know of the background information, since the story is very clear and enjoyable in that regard.
This is where I normally scathe or ramble the f*ck about the negatives of a story, but here, what is to hate? I only really have two criticisms of the story, one of which is a small knit pick. I’ll start with that one. In issue two, we see the X-Men being attacked for being freaks, but what is really different between them and let’s say, Iron Man or the Human Torch. It might just be their method of how they take out the villains, but really, I think the people overeact when coming into contact with the X-Men. Of course, their love of Captain America makes sense because of his patriotism, but why do the public prefer other heroes to the X-Men? I mean, The Thing from the FF looks strange, but they don't do anything to him. Why? Now, to the big problem I have with this story, which is main plot of issue 4. Overall, the last issue of the story may be the weakest, but it is still good due to the changes in Phil’s character and we see how his faith in the heroes is lost. However, my problem is that he just becomes too involved in the whole thing and it ends up coming across as quite far-fetched. We see him visit Doctor Octopus in prison and at that point, it feels like Phil is getting too involved and his influence is becoming much too great. We still need to have Phil lose his faith in Spiderman and the rest of the heroes when Gwen Stacy dies, but I think it needed to be done in a more subtle way. This is why I’m glad we never got a scene where Phil speaks directly to a hero and they all know him. This would lose the idea of the story that Phil is just an ordinary man, but I just think he becomes way too involved with helping out Spiderman towards the end of the story.
Marvels was the first time Alex Ross was recognised for his comics work and he ended up becoming one of the most popular artists in the medium, up there with other realists like Neal Adams. While the art in the story may be some of Ross’s earliest works, meaning that some panels can be quite static and lack motion, I think that the art is brilliant and still looks incredibly realistic. But wasn’t that the point? At the start of issue 4, we see Phil signing his new book, Marvels, a compilation of photographs he has taken over the years of the heroes. The book he is selling is the book we are
reading. Throughout the book, Ross paints not just the events of Phil’s life and what he is does, but of what the heroes are doing and who they are fighting. This is why the art by Ross had to be realistic to hit home that this book is not just the life of Phil Sheldon, but of his work and how it influenced the people in the Marvel Universe.
VERDICT
Overall, coming from somebody who hadn’t read a Marvel comic before this, Marvels is an excellent miniseries for so many reasons. Its more than a history of the rise of the superheroes and their villains, it’s a viewpoint. A viewpoint of Phil Sheldon, an ordinary family man who spent all of his life taking photographs of the superheroes, respecting them and what they do. While issue 4 is the weakest part of the story, it is still very good and the issues before it are excellent, bleeding with characters that you actually care about. The art by Alex Ross is fantastic and while it may not be as developed as it becomes later, it is still a masterpiece and makes the story so much better because of it.
Story: 9/10
Art: 9.5/10
Next Week: Batman: Deface the Face (Detective Comics (vol 1) 988-993). Written by James Robinson with art by Stephen Segovia and Carmine Di Giandomenico. Expected to be published by 19/01/2020.
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