"Marvel 1602" by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert and Others (2013)

 

It's been a while since I reviewed any comic books here, hasn't it?  For what it's worth I'm in the States at the moment, and this gave me a chance to visit the local library and check out some of the stuff I missed.

Neil Gaiman's Marvel 1602 is, as you might expect, a re-imagining of the Marvel Universe.  Instead of the comic book characters we know and love springing into life sometime after WWII, this story places them further back in time, into an era when America was an undiscovered country, when the Holy Inquisition was still underway, and when Britain and Spain vied for mastery of the seas.

The story begins in England, where Stephen Strange and Nicholas Fury meet in the presence of Queen Mary.  From there it moves on to Spain, where one of the "witchbreeds" (mutants) faces death at the stake, and from that moment it moves to Roanoke Colony, Virginia, where a young girl and her protector are sailing toward Britain in hope of gaining audience with the Queen.

And of course Stephen Strange lives in the village of Greenwich, which will eventually host an observatory, which will eventually give rise to the term Greenwich Mean Time.  And of course Robert Drake is somehow related to Sir Francis Drake.  Coincidences?  Don't bother counting them, they're all part of the fun.

This is probably where I should say that I'm not a big fan of Neil Gaiman the author of novels, but where I also say that I am a fan of Neil Gaiman the author of comic books.  I feel that the medium really suits him, and that his novels are more like setups for graphic novels that are likely to be better than the source material.  His occasional corniness aside (in this instance manifested in the X-Men suiting up, and Reed Richard's supernatural understanding of future technology), he's a good writer when working from the right set of preconditions.

Just don't ask yourself why the future people only sent ONE person back in time, seemingly without testing the time travel technology they were using to punish that person with.  Pondering such uncertainties will give you a headache, and will also impair your enjoyment of this inventive comic book series.

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"Marvel Greatest Comics: 100 Comics That Build a Universe" by Melanie Scott and Stephen Wiacek (2020)

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Two Books I Read During Winter Break

I don't think either of these books deserve their own, individual posts.  One because it's so short, and the other because it's so insubstantial.

(I'll let you guess which is which)

1. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

Is this book really that deep?  Or is it just deliberately obscure?  Your guess is as good as mine - although I did enjoy The Prophet.  

I read it during one of the more difficult moments in my life, and parts of it did help me through that particular crisis.  But again, I have a nagging doubt that the author wasn't so much spreading wisdom as reveling in obscurity.  Want to sound wise?  Confounding categories and avoiding definitions will get you there every time.

2. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Come on Neil, isn't this a bit easy and/or lazy?  I get that you added some of your own "touches" to these stories of gods and monsters, but this is Young Adult fare at best, and involved VERY little effort on your part.  

I'll agree that these stories are entertaining, but they were entertaining before you offered your own spin on them, and they'll be entertaining long after your version is forgotten.  And besides all that, those looking for a clearer understanding of Norse mythology would do better to seek out any number of more academic treatments.

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"Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman (2005)

"Soon the bedroom contained only injured or dead flamingos: the ones who had broken the windows, the ones who had crashed into the walls, the ones who had been crushed beneath other flamingos.  Those of the birds who were still alive watched the bedroom door open, apparently by itself, and close again, but, being flamingos, they thought very little of it."

Neil Gaiman is a British writer who now lives in America.  He began his career in comic books, and as a novelist he's best known for his book American Gods.  This novel, Anansi Boys, was also made into a TV series.

In the book, the son of the spider god Anansi discovers a brother he never knew about.  The brothers then meet in London, and the rivalry that develops between them gives shape to the story.  It is a book full of gods, ghosts, and magic, and will be familiar to anyone who's come across Gaiman's work before.

I liked it well enough (it's funny), but I'd have to say that it's pretty forgettable.  Despite the inclusion of mythological themes and other elements, nothing about this book feels especially universal, and after finishing it I could only remember a few of the funnier moments.  From a dramatic perspective, all of the major plot points can be reduced to "magic," and an entirely unexplained sort of magic at that.  The result is a book that's somewhat unsatisfying, and entirely arbitrary.

Which is not to say it's bad.  It isn't.  It's only forgettable, and I can think of worse things to say about other books.