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Perhaps out of some sense of masochism, I’ve decided to keep following this series. It wasn’t something I intended to do, not immediately. I was curious, but also rather annoyed by the series. Especially considering just how poorly thought out a lot of it was, by comparison to some of the other things in the universe. I am a fan, on the whole of the 1602 universe, however there are quickly becoming more and more issues within the continuity of it all that are difficult to both grasp, and figure out they could be made. It’s almost as though people simply aren’t keeping the original idea of it all. In New World the prequel to this book and the follow-up to the original, we’re greeted with a new instance that is something not entirely the same book, but attempts to keep the spirit alive. People involved are strictly Silver Age and so forth. I didn’t agree with some of the changes to the characters, or the inclusions of various characters (such as Tony Stark as “Lord Irons”, a kind of Steampunk’d man in a big metal suit charged by lightening). However, they made an attempt.

I am fairly certain, from reading #3, that the person involved with this storyline has never actually read Marvel 1602, and has no idea what he’s doing. I mean that with respect, of course. I say this because Henri Le Pym, the Hank Pym analogue for this story who works for “Baron Octavius” the obvious Doc Ock analogue (who seems to have tentacles, or at least his hands bear suction cups similar in nature to an octopus) has a man in his captivity named “McCoy” who looks not unlike some kind of feral, beast like animal. McCoy describes himself as one of the greatest minds of the era, and a number of other things. However, there’s an issue here.

There was already a Beast analogue– Hal McCoy of the Witchbreeds led by Carlos Javier– and this man was not any kind of philosopher or anything of the sort. He was also Beast without any kind of major mutations. Simply the original form. This new McCoy lacks the large hands and feet and stature, and instead just looks like a rather hairy individual. So, either we’re to believe that Hal was kidnapped and believes himself to be something else entirely, or this is an instance of someone wanting to bring in a character, and couldn’t find some way to shoehorn the guy in there. It’s disappointing, really, that the person couldn’t be bothered to remember that McCoy already existed, and wanted to bring in Wasp, Ant Man and a bunch of other people who weren’t entirely Spider-Man oriented.

They’ve also brought in the Watsons– here “Watsonnes”– with Marion Jane as an actress. I understand that sometimes names need to be changed for the sake of the literature, however, “Marion”? The name “Mary” existed then, and if anything, why not call her “Miriam” or something like that? Are we channeling Maid Marion here? And furthermore, why bring in any kind of analogue to Mary Jane, but not bring in Gwen Stacey? Who was, really, a much more significant character in Parker’s life. Unless Virginia Dare, in this instance, was taking her place.

Perhaps the only thing worth looking at in this comic is the use of Kingpin and Bullseye. Specifically, these two are now pirates– The King’s Pin (I am not entirely sure what that means. I would have simply used his real name.), and Bull’s Eye– and they are probably the best translated to the new universe. Specifically Bullseye. This new incarnation is a tattooed pirate, with a white bullseye on his forehead. He keeps his knife throwings and everything, and seems to be rather focused on killing Peter Parker. Which is interesting, because he’s a Daredevil villain and Murdoch doesn’t exist in this book (though he could easily fit).

I don’t know what’s going on with this story to be perfectly honest. I’ve tried, several times, to read through these first three issues in an attempt to make sure I follow it, and I can’t. It’s just not good. There’s too many things that don’t fit the universe, and too many instances of the writer simply leading me to believe that he doesn’t care about the story. I won’t keep reading this so don’t expect anything more detailed than this in the future.

It’s just disappointing that 1602 has been reduced to this. It was rather promising.