Remember when you were a kid playing with your action figures? You didn't set limits on who could join in with who, or who could go on certain adventures. Your imagination drive your story forward, and for me at least, that was always very freeing. Could a new ongoing series from Marvel Comics be trying to do something similar?
The Marvels is that series, set to debut in May, and with a pretty impressive creative team. Writer Kurt Busiek returns to Marvel, and he's bringing along superstar artist Yildary Cinar and covers by THE Alex Ross. The story is described as expansive, and as Busiek put it in an interview with Marvel.com, "Anyone. Anywhere. Anytime." That means, well, quite literally anything. New characters meeting old characters, settings presented out of their own timelines and those are just a couple of things that popped into my head right away. It's like sitting the creative team in a room with every action figure imaginable and just letting them play without limits or worry.
There is, however, going to be some direction. Here is the initial synopsis: "Kurt Busiek (MARVELS, Astro City) is back, with the biggest, wildest, most sprawling series ever to hit the Marvel Universe, telling stories that span the decades and range from cosmic adventure to intense human drama, from the street-level to the cosmic, starring literally anyone from Marvel’s very first heroes to the superstars of tomorrow. This first issue includes an invasion from orbit, a picnic in Prospect Park, super hero sightseeing in Manhattan, the All-Winners Squad in 1947, Reed Richards during his time in military intelligence, cosmic beings beyond space and time— and that’s only for starters. Featuring Captain America, Spider-Man, the Punisher, the Human Torch, Storm, the Black Cat, the Golden Age Vision, Aero, Iron Man and Thor, and introducing two brand-new characters, all beautifully drawn by Yildiray Cinar (X-MEN, Legion of Super-Heroes, IRON MAN) in the opening act of a thriller that’ll take us across the Marvel Universe…and beyond. Plus: Who (or what) is KSHOOM? It all starts here. And it goes...everywhere."
That's a lot to process for just one issue! Vast and expansive or not, this will still boil down to how interested you are in these stories. If you're just a big Marvel fan in general, this harkens back to the era of "What If?" but leaving that question even more wide open. It's hard not to have high expectations for something like that. My hope is that this book is half as fun as it sound like it could be. The one guarantee that we seem to have is that the art, both on the cover and interior, will be can't miss.
Keep checking back for updates on an exact release date.
Photo Credit: Marvel Comics