[GN] 1602
1602 by Neil Gaiman (script) and Andy Kubert (pencils). (Mostly) first reading.
I was really excited about 1602 when it was first announced: Neil Gaiman's return to comics, first major project in that medium since Sandman (there had been some Sandman-related things since the main series ended, but not much else), etc. etc. etc. I discovered Neil's work well after the point when Sandman was still a new, groundbreaking work; I read it entirely in trade paperback, second or third editions, from the library. So the idea of being able to read one of his comics as it was coming out made me a little giddy. There was also the premise: a new look at the Marvel lineup of heroes, set in 1602. I grew up on the X-Men titles, and while I haven't collected any Marvel titles in years, I still have a lot of fondness for them.
The release date came, and I read the first issue, and it . . . didn't do all that much for me. Same with the second issue. I may have bought the third, but at some point in there I reminded myself that it would be cheaper to wait for the trade paperback edition to come out and read it all at once, since I wasn't being swept off my feet. So I waited, and it came out, and then the library delivered it into my hands.
It's incredible the difference it makes, being able to actually read a whole story at once. Some stories handle episodic treatment well, and I have quite a bit of patience for it (a good thing for a manga/anime geek to have); there's the give-and-take of anticipcation vs. immediate gratification in there, of course. But 1602 definitely wanted to be all in one piece, at least for me. It's not one of my favorites of Neil's works, but it was really very good. I don't know how it would read to someone who isn't familiar with the Marvel lineup, since almost all of the characters were reinterpretations of Marvel icons, but it worked for me. Some of the characters weren't people I recognized right off--one man who shows up almost immediately passed under my radar until he was explicitly identified well into the story--but most of them rang bells. The original X-Men and Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Fantastic Four. Spider-Man. Daredevil. The Black Widow. Captain America. Thor. Doctor Doom. Doctor Strange. Nick Fury. The Hulk. I'm probably missing a few, but there they were, living under the rule of Elizabeth I in some very dangerous times. Virginia Dare, firstborn child of the American colonies, travels to London with her protector. The Inquisition is hunting. And the weather whispers of the end of the world.
A time for heroes, sure enough, and heroes rise.
1602 is somewhat character-driven, but it also rides the wave of its own mythos. The emotional moments that meant the most to me were those that involved characters I've loved in their usual forms (mostly the original X-Men team). But watching the political web expose itself as it unravels was very interesting. The echoes of people who are and are not what I expected kept me paying close attention to what they said.
I don't know yet whether I'll be picking up my own copy of this book. Oddly, the question it leaves me with is: would I have enjoyed Sandman as much as I did if I'd been reading it as it came out? I think the pleasure might have still been there, but the scope of it, and its genuine brilliance might not have hit me right away (well, that's a hard thing to say. Years before I read it, I was still aware of the swarms of people saying it was the most brilliant thing ever).
Neil may always be living in Sandman's shadow, in some ways. His name is so tied to it, and I don't think I'm the only person who thinks it remains his greatest work. That is certainly not a slight to his later work; if true brilliance only possesses a writer once, it sometimes means that they have nothing left. That's not true in Neil's case: he remains an incredibly intelligent, subtle writer who produces wonderful work in several forms. That's more than most writers can ever say. And 1602 is certainly up to that level.
I was really excited about 1602 when it was first announced: Neil Gaiman's return to comics, first major project in that medium since Sandman (there had been some Sandman-related things since the main series ended, but not much else), etc. etc. etc. I discovered Neil's work well after the point when Sandman was still a new, groundbreaking work; I read it entirely in trade paperback, second or third editions, from the library. So the idea of being able to read one of his comics as it was coming out made me a little giddy. There was also the premise: a new look at the Marvel lineup of heroes, set in 1602. I grew up on the X-Men titles, and while I haven't collected any Marvel titles in years, I still have a lot of fondness for them.
The release date came, and I read the first issue, and it . . . didn't do all that much for me. Same with the second issue. I may have bought the third, but at some point in there I reminded myself that it would be cheaper to wait for the trade paperback edition to come out and read it all at once, since I wasn't being swept off my feet. So I waited, and it came out, and then the library delivered it into my hands.
It's incredible the difference it makes, being able to actually read a whole story at once. Some stories handle episodic treatment well, and I have quite a bit of patience for it (a good thing for a manga/anime geek to have); there's the give-and-take of anticipcation vs. immediate gratification in there, of course. But 1602 definitely wanted to be all in one piece, at least for me. It's not one of my favorites of Neil's works, but it was really very good. I don't know how it would read to someone who isn't familiar with the Marvel lineup, since almost all of the characters were reinterpretations of Marvel icons, but it worked for me. Some of the characters weren't people I recognized right off--one man who shows up almost immediately passed under my radar until he was explicitly identified well into the story--but most of them rang bells. The original X-Men and Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Fantastic Four. Spider-Man. Daredevil. The Black Widow. Captain America. Thor. Doctor Doom. Doctor Strange. Nick Fury. The Hulk. I'm probably missing a few, but there they were, living under the rule of Elizabeth I in some very dangerous times. Virginia Dare, firstborn child of the American colonies, travels to London with her protector. The Inquisition is hunting. And the weather whispers of the end of the world.
A time for heroes, sure enough, and heroes rise.
1602 is somewhat character-driven, but it also rides the wave of its own mythos. The emotional moments that meant the most to me were those that involved characters I've loved in their usual forms (mostly the original X-Men team). But watching the political web expose itself as it unravels was very interesting. The echoes of people who are and are not what I expected kept me paying close attention to what they said.
I don't know yet whether I'll be picking up my own copy of this book. Oddly, the question it leaves me with is: would I have enjoyed Sandman as much as I did if I'd been reading it as it came out? I think the pleasure might have still been there, but the scope of it, and its genuine brilliance might not have hit me right away (well, that's a hard thing to say. Years before I read it, I was still aware of the swarms of people saying it was the most brilliant thing ever).
Neil may always be living in Sandman's shadow, in some ways. His name is so tied to it, and I don't think I'm the only person who thinks it remains his greatest work. That is certainly not a slight to his later work; if true brilliance only possesses a writer once, it sometimes means that they have nothing left. That's not true in Neil's case: he remains an incredibly intelligent, subtle writer who produces wonderful work in several forms. That's more than most writers can ever say. And 1602 is certainly up to that level.