1602

June 30, 2003 6:41 AM

"[T]he whole Marvel Universe is starting to occur 500 years early ...

Sir Nicholas Fury is head of the Queen's Intelligence, Dr Stephen Strange is her court physician (and magician), the Inquisition is torturing "witchbreed" ... and now a mysterious treasure -- which may be a weapon of some kind -- is being sent from Jerusalem to England by the last of the Templars. Something that may save the world, or destroy it, which has already attracted the attention of such people as Count Otto Von Doom (known as "The Handsome")... [so] Nicholas Fury sends his top agent, a blind Irish ballad singer named Matthew Murdock, off to bring it back safely."

What does it all mean? Just that Neil Gaiman is taking Marvel back to 1602.
posted by grabbingsand (16 comments total)

I'd complain about this being an ad, but...Gaiman's awesome. Sandman is one of the best graphic novels ever written, and American Gods was cool too. It's worth reading everything he writes.
posted by graventy at 6:48 AM on June 30, 2003

This... this is the best comic news I've heard in months. But what's all this about a Miracleman lawsuit?
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:50 AM on June 30, 2003

it seems like i always come into lit-related threads and whine.

anyway:
i like neil gaiman's writing style. what bothers me is his sense of endings, particularly in sandman where he used the "...but it's all a dream!" resolution more than i would have liked. it's not that i want a tidy ending with all threads wrapped up in a pretty bow -- it's that some of the exclusions of stories just didn't make sense. (the best example of this that i can think of is rose's sudden disappearance at the end of sandman.)
posted by pxe2000 at 6:54 AM on June 30, 2003

Sounds interesting. I hope the rest of the names aren't as ludicrous as "Count Otto Von Doom".
posted by cx at 6:59 AM on June 30, 2003

Sounds interesting. I hope the rest of the names aren't as ludicrous as "Count Otto Von Doom".

Welllllll, one of the things you always have to deal with are the goofy names that are holdovers from the har-har hucksterism of Silver Age Marvel. Which is awesome in its way, but yeah, it sometimes clashes with the more serious tone they front now...
posted by COBRA! at 7:56 AM on June 30, 2003

Oh merciful heavens. My brain has exploded in a blast of comic book geekery unlike no other.

Well, unless Grant Morrison decided to do a New X-Men/Invisibles crossover that involved Jean Grey, King Mob, Ragged Robin, and tantric sex of some sort
posted by Katemonkey at 8:15 AM on June 30, 2003

Cool. How long until they turn it into a crappy movie?
posted by MrBaliHai at 8:20 AM on June 30, 2003

Thanks for posting, grabbingsand, this is very cool!
posted by jonson at 8:26 AM on June 30, 2003

I don't know. Gaiman has already probed the Elizabethan era through Sandman. I think that giving him free reign to write in his favorite time period could turn into a self-indulgent literary wankfest in much the same way that Alan Moore's Promethia and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have turned out to be disappointing. (Compared to Moore's Swamp Thing runs or is classic V for Vendetta). Gaiman's success with Black Orchid and the early Sandman stories came because he was breathing new life into some of the forgotten obscure characters of the D.C. Universe. There just seems to be a high probability that this project could suck.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:42 AM on June 30, 2003

Gaiman's success with Black Orchid and the early Sandman stories came because he was breathing new life into some of the forgotten obscure characters of the D.C. Universe.

Oh, come on. Sandman thrived in spite of the obscure DC characters which Gaiman (thank God) dropped after the sixth issue (w/a few exceptions, yes, I know). Sandman was a success on its own terms, certainly not due to DC character tie-ins.

As for 1602, I'm looking forward to it. But Endless Nights is the Gaiman offering I'm deliriously awaiting. Another Death miniseries wouldn't be bad either.
posted by widdershins at 10:10 AM on June 30, 2003

Sandman is one of the best graphic novels ever written, and American Gods was cool too.

American Gods was okay, but Neverwhere was amazing. Check it out, if you haven't already.
posted by gd779 at 11:58 AM on June 30, 2003

Katemonkey: I like the way you think :)

Incidentally, Neverwhere was superb, as was American Gods. But as far as I'm concerned, after Sandman you can't beat Good Omens. Where else can you have the four horsemen of the Apocalypse meeting up in a motorway cafe? :)
posted by kaemaril at 12:12 PM on June 30, 2003

kaemaril: something that I've always wondered (and if I'm not mistaken, someone here in Metafilter mentioned it also) was how much of Good Omens was Gaiman's and how much was Pratchett? There are some pretty funny stuff in there that I don't know exactly who has written, maybe because I've never read anything else by Pratchett.

For instance, the chattering nuns or the tapes that turned into Queen albums...
posted by rexgregbr at 12:46 PM on June 30, 2003

Joey Michaels: regarding the Miracleman lawsuit, I've read a long article about the last trial. What I understood was: Gaiman and McFarlane had worked together (Spawn 9, I guess - but I think Spawn (and McFarlane) sucks), where Angela first appeared.

Gaiman claims that he co-created her or something. He also claims that McFarlane made a lot of money with the character (toys, comics,...). And he claims that he was not paid the rights due to the creator. I think that he claims that he was co-creator of Medieval Spawn, also (tough I wouldn't brag much about it).

Also, it seems that McFarlane at one point had the rights to all the classic Miracleman comics (I'm not sure, but I think that Gaiman had a stint on the book also). And that at some point they've reached an agreement that McFarlane would give him the rights to Miracleman instead of paying him his share of money for Angela in cash.

Later on, it seems that their relationship deteriorated (How could that happen, I wonder?) and that instead of going medieval, they've gone legal.

There are some links in the original post of this thread about this legal battle, if you want more info.
posted by rexgregbr at 1:02 PM on June 30, 2003

Personally, I would love to be able to buy comics regularly, but, gawd-damn, it's an expensive habit. So, after I finished Sandman and Watchmen, I stopped. I might give this series a try, though, but I hope it'll work for people who aren't familiar with the the Marvel universe..
posted by slipperywhenwet at 8:32 PM on July 1, 2003

pxe2000: I don't recall any of the Sandman stories ending with "It's all just a dream". Even his shorter storylines had real endings, except for the son of the man who captured him (Burgess?). It could be my reading of them, however.

In regards to 1602, I can't wait. Might be the first comic series I start reading since the Sandman, and an ill advised jaunt into 'Darkhawk' several years ago.

Now if I can only get some evidence that Gaiman referenced the house from Danielewski's 'House of Leaves' in 'American Gods'.
posted by Be'lal at 6:50 AM on July 2, 2003