Pick of the Week

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POTW Archive:

• August 28, 2013 - Batman / Superman #3
• August 21, 2013 - Wonder Woman #23
• August 14, 2013 - Thor: God of Thunder #11
• August 7, 2013 - Quantum and Woody #2
• July 31, 2013 - Indestructible Hulk #11

Complete Archive

Story by Neil Gaiman
Art by Andy Kubert
Digital Painting by Richard Isanove
Letters by Todd Klein
Cover Art by Scott McKowen

Published by Marvel Comics | $3.50

Whew. Tough week this week.

That little glitch in the Northeast power grid really put a wrench in the majority of my plans, including getting this Pick of the Week done. Luckily, things have settled down and seem to be back to normal and I can finally sit down and go through my books and make my Pick.

If I had to summarize this week’s batch of comics for me, I would do it with one word — mediocre. Sure I bought a lot of books and there were some good ones and some not so good ones, but no book really stuck out to me as the MUST READ of the week. Yet one of them must rise to the top.

So in the spirit of hyping the event book of the month, I chose Marvel’s latest must have — 1602 #1.

I chose 1602 #1 for really one reason, Neil Gaiman, who as you know is a pretty big name in comics. Sandman, Miracleman, and a bunch of novels have made Gaiman one of the heavy hitters in our generation of comics. Somehow though, I have missed the Gaiman boat. I’ve never read Sandman, I’ve read a few issue of Miracleman and the issue of Spawn he wrote. That’s it. Yeah I know, I should go buy the Sandman trades. Oh, I will, right after I buy the 72 DVDs that are on my “must have” list. So until I get those DVDs and make my way to the Vertigo rack at my comic book store, 1602 #1 is going to have to do.

Luckily, I’m a sucker for out of continuity stories like this. 1602 is almost like the anti-Kingdom Come or Earth X, which explored the future of the comic universe in DC and Marvel respectively. Now, we are taken back to what appears to be the 1600’s in England as Gaiman lays down the groundwork for the storylines for this mini-series. We have several roles of characters with recognizable names from our present day Marvel Universe. The cast includes the Queen’s doctor Stephen Strange, the Queen’s head of intelligence Sir Nicholas Fury and his assistant the young Peter Parquagh (who is seen playing with a spider). And the list goes on and on. We also see the appearance of people with powers that are similar to those of today’s X-Men, who free a boy with wings from the Spanish Inquisition as well as a blind rogue without fear.

The point of this first issue for the reader is to get his or her bearings straight as small details are thrown their way without a whole lot of context. Needless to say the anticipation of something coming that would affect all of these characters was established, thus making the next issue eagerly waited for.

Unfortunately, the art is where this fell short. Like Origin, Marvel turned to the team of Andy Kubert for pencils and Richard Isanove for “digital painting.” I wholeheartedly embrace technology and the future of comics. But there is something about the end product this team produces that turns me off. I would have hoped that Marvel would have gone in a different direction for this exciting mini-series than back to a look/team that we already saw and tolerated for Origin.

As I said, it’s been a rough week but in the end, 1602 #1 is the book that took me away for a few minutes into another world and allowed me to enjoy myself. And that’s really all I ask of a comic book, so job well done, Mr. Gaiman.

Ron Richards
Missed Sandman.
ron@ifanboy.com

Did you read 1602 #1? Add a comment and tell everyone what you think about this week’s comics!