The first 11 pages trace the origins of Human Torch (Jim Hammond future) as appeared in Marvel Comics 1 (1939), accompanied by the character's thoughts flow. This is a prologue originally appeared as an episode 0.
The actual story begins with a handful of journalists waiting outside a building, to cover the press conference of Professor Phineas T. Horton who will unveil to the press its synthetic creature: Human Torch. Among the journalists are Phil Sheldon and a young J. Jonah Jameson. The conference is a disaster. Shortly after, Doris (the bride of Phil Sheldon) tells him that she attended the first appearance of a man almost naked pretending to live in water: Namor. This first episode tells the clashes between his two superhuman creatures, seen and perceived by Phil Sheldon. The last part is devoted to the emergence of Captain America and the Invaders training.
The next part takes place in the 1960s where superheroes are still new, but already more numerous. They are the darling of the media and the wedding of Reed Richards Susan Storm promises to be a major media event. But at the same time, another race of superhuman beings stir up fear and hatred of normal people: the mutants.
The third part takes place during the first coming of Galactus on Earth, and the last focuses on a tragic event, originally published in 1974.
Initially, Alex Ross has the ambition to recreate some striking scenes decades of existence of Marvel superheroes. He teamed with Kurt Busiek stuff that the project to turn it into something more sophisticated. In the end, the reader follows the life of Phil Sheldon, photojournalist specializing in superhero, over a period from 1939 to 1974. Sheldon has a special relationship with those individuals. It's not that he personally knows (even if it crosses one or two in their civil identity unknowingly), but rather that attends their first appearance (or almost) and that is aging at the same time that the phenomenon is growing. His actions and reports so bathe the evolution of the report that Sheldon has with these individuals endowed with super powers, he tricked the Wonders qualifier (Marvels).
This narrative device marked his time telling a superhero story from the point of view of a normal individual who is the occasional witness of their conflicts in his city. Kurt Busiek resume the same device for its Astro City series started in 1995 (beginning with Life in the Big City with Alex Ross provides the graphic design of the characters.
But Kurt Busiek has more ambition than this form of narration, he also wants to show the consistency of the structure of the universe Marvel shared, citing many adventures taken from the comics of the time. This edition includes a page that summarizes the corresponding references indicating for each event the name and number of the original episode (Fantastic Four 48-50 for the arrival of Galactus, for example). The trade of Phil Sheldon places close to the most spectacular actions of the superhero. His private life made him rub recurring characters from the Marvel universe as J. Jonah Jameson, Ben Urich, Peter Parker, a young newspaper boy named Danny Ketch, etc. The reader therefore has the feel of living in the same neighborhood as the characters that evolve in the same blocks.
This excellent story would probably not had the same impact if it had been shown by someone else Alex Ross. This is his first major work. Given the extraordinary result, the DC Comics to hire just after Kingdom Come (published in 1996) written by Mark Waid. What is special about this illustrator?
For starters, he made his boards paint by mixing several techniques (watercolor, gouache, acrylic, etc.). Then it has a manic obsession of some form of realism. He does not want to approach as nearly a photographic rendering, but it takes time to each installation and each expression approaching as close as it is possible. He works with live models he does ask to faithfully make their attitude. He worked with his mother who was a milliner to be faithful to the way of every age. It performs a very thorough work on light and lighting.
As he says himself, it took several pages to find the right mix in his illustrations. For all scenes of ordinary life, the reader walks in a slightly watered-American among the people represented as a light halo shrouded giving them a timelessness. Ross The preparatory work leading to the faces each time realistic and different. He uses his mastery to insert it, beyond celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor at the inauguration of the exhibition of paintings Alicia Masters, the Beatles during the wedding of Reed and Susan, etc.
This form of realism applied to superheroes and comics supercriminels eliminates the effect garish to draw closer to a world of our own. But that does not make them more plausible either. For example in the battle against Galactus in New York, it fits perfectly in the middle of skyscrapers like a giant human being wearing a strange costume. Galactus does not win no majesty or realism; he even loses a little in majesty and power of will. In contrast, the same treatment applied to the Silver Surfer actually be a really metallic alien. In fact this mode of representation particularly enhances the realism of Spiderman superhero Luke Cage type, and the strangeness of the already distant superhero human beings as Human Torch when ignited.
Alex Ross master a little less consistency of the sets and the consistency of their performance. As with human bodies, he conducted research to respect the historical accuracy. The reader therefore has the feeling of being in a popular residential area of New York in the 1930s at the beginning of the story, or in a well tidy residential suburb in the last scene. But sometimes the texture of building materials has a uniform appearance and too smooth, sometimes merely Ross roughly delineate the contours without many details which creates a gap in contrast to the much more elaborate characters.
Ultimately, illustrations carry the reader on a little distant vision of the visible world from his window, but slightly sweetened and fantasy. The use of paint also adds solemnity to the narrative form.
"Marvels" is unique. This is a story about the history of the development of the 1939 to 1974 superhero in the Marvel Universe seen by a man who is a photojournalist who shared his views with readers on these supermen and their place in the society. It is also a structured archiving the same period that bridges the fan specialist in this universe, and allows the novice to order the facts. The illustrations are an eyeful of a more nuanced than abruptly. These elements away "Marvels" traditional superhero story to a rather personal work in which copyright action and fights come second.
Kurt Busiek gave a sequel to the story by repeating the character of Phil Sheldon in Marvels - Eye of the Camera, illustrated by Jay Anacleto. And he tried to consolidate the continuity of Avengers in Avengers Forever with Carlos Pacheco, referencing their main adventures and restoring a sense sometimes mistreated.
