A few years ago, Neil Gaiman got together with the people in Marvel, and retold the Silver Age that Lee, Kirby, and Ditko turned into the immortal mythology that is modern comic books. What made Neil’s incarnation special was that this wasn’t a modernization of the story, that’s what the Ultimate Universe was for. Instead, this was a historical retelling of the universe.
To use the Marvel phrase “What if the heroes all first came about in 1602?” And it was a marvelous little piece of work, if you were into it. I loved seeing just how everyone had been manipulated, forced into a situation that was wholly unnatural, even for Marvel. Nick Fury as military man under Queen Elizabeth, and so on. It was a fantastic little thing that made the universe seem very real.
As it’s been known to happen, following Neil’s work, a number of spin-offs came about. One of which was like “1602: New World” and the other was “1602: Fantastick Four”. Each of them introduced a few new characters such as Namor, and Iron Man (though the 1602 incarnation of Iron Man seemed significantly more implausible than his mainstream counterpart, simply because of Marvel’s tendency to develop absurdly advanced science even in the 1960s.) as well as others that I’ve likely forgotten because the stories themselves were wholly forgettable.
However, this year, someone apparently decided to revive the franchise of 1602 by creating a Spider-Man mini series in the universe. So, the first issue is out, and I’m curious as to if it’s got any promise in this issue. I have my doubts, but it’s mostly because New World and Fantastick Four were, essentially cash-in books (I mean that as nicely as that kind of thing can be said).
And, truth be told, with the first issue down, so far that’s really all it feels like. There seems to be something lost in the transition between the writers. The writers of New World and Fantastick Four lacked the kind of whimsy that made Gaiman’s 1602 so appealing. Everything now seems to be a cross between attempting to shoehorn in various people from the Marvel universe, sometimes in unsavory ways, while other instances just seem to not make sense.
The biggest issue I’ve found so far is with costumes. Parker wears basically his regular clothes and a Spider-Man mask. There’s no attempt to make it even appear to be fitting into the era, it’s simply the same Spider-Man mask that he always wears. The covers to the comics give the impression that he has an outfit that vaguely resembles the Spider-Man costume were it placed in 1602, but he doesn’t wear that.
Ultimately, I feel like this comic is gearing up to be a disappointment. 1602 is really awkward kind of setting, since if you don’t do it right, you’re going to end up annoying everyone because you just have established something in an already decent continuity, but it’s somewhere so far removed from the original vision that you might as well make something else entirely.
However, a few of the interesting things established in this are the introduction of who I believe to be Doctor Octopus, as well as The Wasp. The Wasp being a victim of an experiment gone wrong, and in a jar. I’m curious enough about these characters, and if Spider-Man actually gets a new costume, to keep reading this series. Once it’s finished I’ll give a full write up, but at the moment it’s not something I’m really looking forward to finishing.