Marvel Comics has announced The Marvels, a new ongoing series to debut in May. Written by Kurt Busiek and illustrated by Yildiray Cinar, with covers by Alex Ross, The Marvels is billed as a series that will encompass the entirety of the Marvel Universe, with stories featuring characters both iconic and obscure (as well as a few new ones) and taking place in the past, present, and future of the Marvel U.
Busiek and Ross are no strangers to the history of the Marvel U, having created the iconic Marvels miniseries back in 1994. That series retold classic Marvel stories like the coming of Galactus and the death of Gwen Stacy through the eyes of photographer Phil Sheldon, giving a human perspective to those superhuman stories. The Marvels sounds like the opposite approach, as Busiek described in an interview with marvel.com:
THE MARVELS features the marvels—all the many and varied characters of the Marvel Universe. The heroes, the villains, the oddities—all of it. So where MARVELS (1994) was about an ordinary guy’s view of the marvels, THE MARVELS is about the marvels themselves. We’re focusing on the super-characters here, and big, sweeping adventure.
The idea of one series that encompasses all of the Marvel Universe and features all of its varied characters is an interesting one. With the series able to take place during any Marvel time period, and the fact that it’s using lesser-known characters alongside the A-listers, The Marvels sounds like it could become a flagship title for the publisher, appealing for longtime fans and accessible to new readers. Hopefully Busiek, Cinar, and Ross are able to execute on that without being hampered by whatever else might be going on in the Marvel U at the time.
Check out the solicitation text, as well as a few preview interiors by Cinar, below. The Marvels #1 is set to go on sale in comic shops in May.
THE MARVELS #1
Written by KURT BUSIEK
Art by YILDIRAY CINAR
Cover by ALEX ROSSALL-NEW, ONGOING SERIES!
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.
I reread 1994’s “Marvels” last week, and it’s still great.
The last scene remains touching. Phil Sheldon’s remark, “No more Marvels for me … time to retire” spoke for a lot of us veteran readers who eventually, finally abandoned Marvel’s pamphlets.
Looking forward to seeing how and where Phil’s kids – by birth and by informal adoption – might pick up that story…
My impression is that this is “Astro City” but with Marvel characters. Which isn’t at all bad! At this point, however, I like Astro City more. To be honest, the legacy of Marvel’s mistreatment of creators – not to mention Trump’s pal Ike Perlmutter – pushes me away, except for the odd comic here and there. Astro City doesn’t have that baggage – the creators own their work, and I can enjoy that work with any qualifications – moral, ethical, or otherwise. I don’t know who (or what) KSHOOM is… but I bet Marvel owns it, or him, or them.
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