Review: History of the Marvel Universe #1

Wow! What an impressive title! The History of the Marvel Universe, that’s a tall order, fortunately Marvel chose the perfect writer for the job. Mark Waid possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of both Marvel and DC continuity, mythology and history. That is a well known fact in the comic book community, but it becomes obvious just a few pages into the debut issue of this six issue limited series.

Told through from the perspective of one of the Marvel Universe’s most powerful residents,Galactus this is an all encompassing tour of the events that built the House of Ideas. Waid presents the complex workings as told to an elder Franklin Richards, Galactus recounts some of the headier moments from just about every early Marvel concept, however as daunting a task as it is to structure such an epic information dump into, not only a coherent narrative, but an entertaining read, Waid succeeds in spectacular fashion.

This first issue deals mainly with the cosmic elements of the Marvel Universe. Focusing first on the earliest beings such as the Acanti moving on to more esoteric beings such as the Phoenix Force, the M’Kraan Crystal, the formation of Attilan, delving into the Terrigen mists and how these elements led to the birth or creation of the pre-eminent races that would become the basis of all life in the Marvel Universe. Waid’s exhaustive rundown of the diverse Marvel population would make Ancestry.com envious; the Kree, Skrull, Eternals, Deviants and Inhumans are just a handful of the many varied beings Waid introduces to us in rapid fire succession as the narrative unfolds. Waid manages to keep all these plates spinning while taking us deeper still into the labyrinthine roots of the Marvel Family tree. Going beyond the concept of polytheism, the Marvel Universe is home to several divine races and their realms, Asgard is home to the Norse mythology as seen through the eyes of the mighty Marvel creators, then there are the Annunaki, Egyptian and Olympian each playing a part in Waid’s complex and engrossing epic. While much of the opening chapter is concerned with concepts and characters that are not as recognizable to the casual comic book reader, fear not new readers, not only does this issue present the origin of the Infinity Stones, but the birth of the Avengers, albeit the 1,000,000 B.C. version, is also revealed through our narrator Galactus, in case you haven’t been reading Jason Aaron’s genius run on the eponymous Avengers series.

Certainly this is a lot to digest, but Waid gives it to us in such an entertaining fashion that we are very quickly pulled into the story despite its meticulously detailed nature. Even using Galactus as narrator has a story element to it as he enlightens Franklin Richards with all this history, we learn that through a dramatic turnabout Galactus is now the herald of Franklin Richards. This could have easily gone down a more textbook-like path, bereft of any narrative quality hence a very flat, bland read, fortunately for us Waid veers as far away from that path as possible. Although necessity dictates there be a substantial amount of exposition, Waid very astutely adds some 13 pages of detailed annotations. Accompanied by a veritable treasure trove of artwork by many of theÂ most groundbreaking of Marvel creators, these annotations go light years in explaining the events Waid presents in the issue itself. While each of these sections could stand on their own merits the optimum effect is achieved when one informs and illuminates the other.

Visually, artist Javier Rodriguez is at the top of his considerable game here doing double duty on both pencils and colors. His ability to cover some many eras of iconic Marvel images is absolutely mind-blowing. There is an organic progression to his page layouts here that serves Waid’s narrative so well and enhances the lively pace of the story. Rodriguez pays homage to the many Marvel artists who have made this book possible through their brilliant creations, but he doesn’t beat us over the head with it. There is no aping of Kirby’s style or blatantly drawing like Ditko, instead Rodriguez is much more subtle in his homage to these innovators. For instance, Kirby’s presence can be felt from start to finish, but via Javier Rodriguez. The colors are vibrant and bring the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe screaming to life. There is an electricity to the coloring that goes beyond the intensity of the hues, its an ethereal quality that is a perfect fit for the tone as well as the subject of this book. Inker, Alvaro Lopez is a fantastic match for Rodriguez and his dynamic line work. Lopez’s inks enhance the depth and dimension of Rodriguez’s clean lines. Overall, the inventive use of splash pages, organically shaped panels of varied size and imaginative character design make The History of the Marvel Universe not only a must read, but a once in a generation event.

Mark Waid did an extremely impressive job of researching the material, laying it out and then fitting so much into a single issue without grinding the pace down to a crawl. In a single issue, Waid and Rodriguez cover the birth of the Marvel Universe to the birth of Wolverine, or at least James Howlett anyway. Marvel has approached their legendary history several times before from several perspectives with differing results. This time around I think all thrusters are firing and the planets have aligned for this creative team to bring us an exciting, dynamic and detailed re-telling of Marvel History. If you truly love comic books, Marvel or otherwise and knowing what is in store for us in the coming issues, I find it impossible not to say, ‘Make Mine Marvel” 5/5

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer-Mark Waid
Pencils/Colors- Javier Rodriguez
Inks- Alvaro Lopez
Letterer-VC’s- Joe Caramagna