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Is it Good? Marvel Now! Point One #1 Review

Comic Books

Is it Good? Marvel Now! Point One #1 Review

Marvel Comics is kickstarting their new Marvel Now! line with Marvel Now! Point One #1: A small collection of stories complete with different artists and characters. At $5.99 I suspect a lot of folks are going to be wary of purchasing this issue — so what better book to review and answer the age-old question, Is It Good?


Marvel Now! Point One #1 (Marvel Comics)


Is it Good? Marvel Now! Point One #1 Review

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Love it or hate it, when a comic book publisher decides to make a wide sweeping change across their books you have to at least admire the audacity. They’re taking a chance and at the very least we’ll be getting something new.

If you loved the status-quo before then you have every reason to be upset, but after reading this book — I’m hopeful; hopeful that Marvel can start churning out better comics across the board. This issue contains 5 stories, one of which cuts back and forth between and intermingles with the other four. That story involves a mysterious stranger who wants to talk to Nick Fury and tell him a terrible future is coming. Yeah like the Phoenix Five wasn’t enough.

Is it Good? Marvel Now! Point One #1 Review
And also the nature of the overly complicated Marvel Universe. Zingah!

The cool thing about this mysterious man is that Nick Spencer (the guy who wrote this section of the book) ties him in rather well with the other stories. For instance, before we enter the kid Nova story he says:

Is it Good? Marvel Now! Point One #1 Review

Which serves as a compelling introduction. Really, it’s this mechanism that makes this comic worth reading from cover to cover. Usually these intro anthology books aren’t so great at tying it all together and usually I’ll find myself skipping chunks to get to the stories I’d rather read. Here though, the reader gets the impression that everything matters and each story may be connected, however unlikely that is.

Is it Good? Marvel Now! Point One #1 Review
Smells like a good cooking show.

I can safely say I’ve never heard of Miss America and her story in this book appears to be the introduction many readers like myself need. It doesn’t delve too deeply into who she is, although you do get a taste of her personality. I am astounded this character even exists however, I mean, could you be any more a rip off of Wonder Woman? It appears Loki is pulling a “bring the Avengers together” scheme he used in the movie. Once again his tactic of pissing folks off to get what he wants works.

Is it Good? Marvel Now! Point One #1 Review
Love those crazy panels.

Aside from a well written conversation the Miss America story serves more as an interesting introduction to a flyer. I won’t spoil it, but it’s a clever idea and it appears to be a promotion to look out for at stores in January.

Is it Good? Marvel Now! Point One #1 Review
Forge!

The story about Forge, written by Dennis Hopeless, is clever and due to the surprising twist is worth a read. Essentially it’s an introduction to where Forge was and his teaming up with a character. I won’t spoil it, but I have to say, as a fan of Forge I’m excited.

Is it Good? Marvel Now! Point One #1 Review
Looks like it’s time for this pink-haired girl to switch to a new shampoo.

Mike Allred teams up with Matt Fraction for a short reintroduction of Ant-Man that captures the weirdness of the character in a fun way. Once again Allred spruces up a story that couldn’t work without his ability to draw the tongue and cheek stuff so well.

Is it Good? Marvel Now! Point One #1 Review
Steve McNiven’s work reminds me of Gary Frank’s work so much.

Brian Michael Bendis writes the final story that I’ve yet to mention which focuses Peter Quill a.k.a. Star-Lord. It’s a good thing they got a strong artist to draw this, as there isn’t much dialogue — and a lot of action that needs to speak for itself. That’s no slam on Ed McGuinness, who draws the Kid Nova story that’s written by Jeff Loeb; it’s just the nature of the story.

Is it Good? Marvel Now! Point One #1 Review
Love the changing locations per panel.

Considering this book is more of a preview to get readers interested in multiple stories I’m a bit surprised at the price tag. Sure, the reader is getting 49 pages of comic book, but it’s not one complete story — just many smaller pieces. The probability of each story satisfying every reader is reduced and really none of these are completely satisfying as they aren’t quite substantial enough to warrant the price.

That said, it’s still an entertaining read, surprisingly so, and I’d recommend people give it a shot if they have the cash (or the wherewithal to sneak a read in the comic shop). The price is going to make it very tough to crack our 10 dollar budget in the ComiX Weekly review column, but we shall we see.

Is It Good?

Yes.

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