Marvel by Alex Ross

Marvel Reviews

• 
  Paul

  Alex Ross' original concept for the now-legendary Marvels book was an anthology title with his favourite creators working on each section. For various reasons, that didn't happen, and Marvels became a book with one story written by Kurt Busiek and illustrated entirely by Ross.
  
  This book, confusingly titled just Marvel is Ross' original concept finally brough to life. Like most anthology books, the quality of each story varies but, with Ross cherry-picking the creators, the standard of work is mostly very high. There's some truly beautiful artwork on display here and most of the stories are pretty good, too.
  
  There's a couple of clunkers in here, so I can't give it the full 5 stars, but it's still a great book, particularly for those of us who are artistically inclined. Those of you who think any comicbook art that doesn't look like Jim Lee's is somehow 'wrong' might want to give this one a miss.
  
  My next book:
  Mr. Messy
• 
  Trike

  A couple of the stories are good — the Vision one, and Nick Fury — but mostly this is meh. The art is nice, but the writing isn’t much to talk about.
• 
  Guilherme Smee

  Durante as comemorações do aniversário de oitenta anos da editora Marvel, muitos especiais foram lançados, alguns deles capitaneados por Kurt Busiek e Alex Ross, responsáveis por um dos melhor quadrinhos-homenagens dos anos 1990 que foi Marvels. Busiek ficou responsável por Marvels, uma série comdiversos heróis da Marvel e também Retratos, que trazia pedaços da cronologia da Marvel contada por olhares de pessoas comuns. Este Marvel foi a homenagem que ficou a cargo de Alex Ross, com diversas pequenas histórias com desenhos incríveis feitas por diversos grandes nomes dos quadrinhos estadunidenses. As histórias são amarradas e intercaladas por um diálogo entre Pesadelo e o Doutor Estranho escrito e desenhado por Alex Ross. Contudo, todas as histórias não tem uma razão de ser nesse encadernado, não possuem um elemento em comum e muitas delas são de causar uma sensação de vergonha nos leitores. Infelizmente, apesar das belas artes, não recomendo a leitura desse encadernado pela falta de unidade entre as histórias-homenagens.
• 
  Timothy Boyd

  Overall I was not impressed with this mini-series. The Alex Ross Dr Strange frame work story was of course the amazing thing he always does. However the other stories in each issue suffered from very poor art most of the time and marginal writing. There were a couple of gems but overall I was unhappy with them. Not recommended
• 
  Connie

  I read this book via Kindle Unlimited.
  
  Okay, hear me out.
  
  This book, beautiful.
  
  The artwork throughout this book is continuously great. This is basically an anthology of stories concerning Marvel characters I have experience with such as Spiderman, Vision, Nick Fury etc and some others that my knowledge is limited on, such as The Thing and Namor. The overarching tale in this anthology that connects each story together is that Dr Strange is being held in the Dream Realm by Nightmare who is essentially showing the reader these stories as dreams as he controls them. It's definitely an interesting concept, but I feel like it could have just held my attention a bit better. I found some of the stories to be duds compared to others and I would have liked to see some of the stories connecting a bit better to get a better understanding of these characters and the sides of their relationships we maybe don't see in the typical canon. Overall, I enjoyed it enough but I don't know if the story is worth some of the art.
• 
  Scott Rhee

  Alex Ross’s 2020 graphic novel series “Marvel” (not to be confused with his 1994 “Marvels”) is a brilliant example of comic book making. Indeed, it manages to be a clever bit of self-referential Pop Art, succeeding in doing what the Hernandez Brothers were doing in the ‘80s with “Love and Rockets”. Essentially, “Marvel” is a meta-project that examines what makes comic books such a unique, popular, and powerful artistic medium.
  
  Some of the best comic book artists and writers were tasked with writing stories involving popular Marvel characters and telling a different type of superhero story. So, don’t read this expecting the stories to follow any particular “timeline” or past narrative arcs. Some of the stories aren’t even really meant to be understood in a logical sense.
  
  What Ross et al have done with “Marvel” is demonstrate that, at the very least, comic books are still relevant. At most, “Marvel” is a comic book that would beautifully grace any art-lovers bookshelf.
• 
  John Hartford

  It was a good read with some stellar art.
• 
  Blindzider

  Going into this, I didn't realize it was actually an anthology series, multiple stories by different artists and writers. Each is a story unto itself, plucking any Marvel characters from the universe and telling a tale. Every issue has a small bit of an overarching story that ties (very loosely) all of them together and that is what is painted by Alex Ross (who also does the covers.)
  
  The rest are done by the varied artists chosen for the project. Some big names, some well-known indie names and some people I wasn't aware of. Like most anthologies though, you get varying degrees of entertainment, but overall I'd say these are better than most.
  
  Issue 1:
  Didn't care for "Spider-Man: Make my Day". There was just something about the dialogue that threw me off.
  
  "The Boy...and the Brute" was a throwback to early Avengers story and has the same feeling as if it was written back then, which Busiek excels at. Knowing him it probably fits snugly between a couple issues. Enjoyed seeing Steve Rude's art again though.
  
  Issue 2:
  For some reason, Brereton's art has always been gratifying to me and seeing it here, with my favorite X-Team was a thrill. The story was pretty darn good too.
  
  "Leave the Demon, Take the Cannoli" by The Goon's Eric Powell was a near-perfect Marvel Team-Up between the Thing and Spider-Man. The humor between the two was excellent.
  
  I'm a lover of Paolo Rivera and his art. I feel he's very under-appreciated and recommend his Instagram account where he generously shows his art process. "The Vision: Unphased" is beautiful to look at and is a pretty good story too, his first published writing I believe.
  
  Issue 3:
  "Beginning" by Sienkiewicz was the most unique piece. A biography and an examination/history of art/comics all in one. Appearing in issue 3, I felt that the rest of the issue had some of the weakest entries of the entire series.
  
  Issue 4:
  While I appreciate Acuna's art, it just never felt like it fit in the Marvel Universe. This alternate universe story didn't really grab me either. "Where Monsters Smell!" was a fun homage to all of the early monster stories Marvel used to publish before superheroes. "I am a revoltin' development" was a chance for Alex Ross to write a story. A history/biography of Ben Grimm. It's average. Another relatively weak issue.
  
  Issue 5:
  More of an art showcase this issue, "A Day in the Mystical Life" features Wong and drawn by a favorite of mine Gene Ha. Doesn't quite give you the peek into Wong's life you might expect but a decent tale. Adam Hughes' "The Best of Us" featuring Nick Fury is another story that looks back at some history. "Wolverine" demonstrates Parrillo's painting which overshadows the Mark Waid story.
  
  Issue 6:
  Smallwood's "The One-Eyed Gambit" is a an homage to the 70's psychodelic/Steranko error of Nick Fury and SHIELD. The use of colors and panel layouts make this very eye-catching. Lastly, the series goes out on a high-note with a story written and drawn by Lee Bermejo featuring the Silver Surfer in a future/alternate universe. It is truly stunning to look at with a story that's just itching to tell you more.
  
  Issue 6 wraps up the over-arching story by Ross, but unfortunately the last few panels are not painted by him. Not sure if that was by design or there was a deadline problem but it's very jarring and disappointing.
  
  I'd put this closer to 3.5 stars, but a few ineffective stories keep it from 4 stars.
• 
  Scott

  I really wanted to like this because I so enjoyed Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek's original. I do understand from learning more about Ross's original vision that this is the kind of book he wanted to make. An anthology with the best talents of the day working on their own individual stories and art.
  
  While the artwork runs the spectrum in style and substance and is overall the most interesting thing of the book, the actual story and interlocking narrative is completely uninteresting to me. Which is not a problem the original Marvels had in my opinion.
  
  This is definitely a project made with love and some individual vignettes are pretty great on their own, however this feels like a solo record made with amazing collaborators from one half of a great band.
• 
  Abhinav Vuppalapati

  I have no clue what I read. It’s an anthology but I couldn’t process a thing as to what was going on, what the stories were about, I just enjoyed the art and turned the pages cause after a couple stories of not comprehending what’s going on with the story and with the pictures you just wanna give up
• 
  Scott

  Fun mixed-bag anthology by different artist-writers framed by an Alex Ross story of Dr. Strange vs. Nightmare. It ends with bright, casrtoony artwork by Mitch O'Connell that is very appealing but doesn't match the established tone of the story at all. It's a reqally good showcase for artists whose work I was mostly unfamiliar. The tone of these stories varies from the wildyly silly (The Thing and Spider-Man fighting over a canolli, the Golden Age Black Widow abducting the Red Skull and making him her husband at the end of World War II, to the poignant (the Golden Age Human Torch fighting the Silver Surfer to save a dead Earth from Galactus because it's his home--although I'm not sure that the android was ever established as being able to grow a beard). There is a lot of reflection on World War II in this volume. Some stories are pure parody, such as that with Dr. Droom and the Atlas Era monsters, while one has Nick Fury talking to a German little boy after V-E day while getting drunk in a tavern. Another Nick Fury story goes for psychedilc and then has an ending one can never see coming that seems to be an homage to how certain old comic sotries were written--Fury makes reference to repeated use of the number 202 drawing him back to Washington, DC, but none of those 202 mentions were visible to the reader. One of te best stories is Bill Sinkiwewicz's reflections on becoming a comics creator, as told by Uatu the Watcher. Another good story by Frank Espinosa and Sajan Saini is set early on during Peter and Mary Jane's marriage where she thinks he is spending too much money on web fluid components only to realize that she has made a huge mistake. Paolo Rivera's story of the Vision's reflections as he rescues a child from a collapsed building is also powerful. The mixture of spoofs, starightforward alternate reality stories, and pognant character studies doesn't always work, and the ending is about as "WTF just happened" as Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory, but overall, it's worth checking out.
• 
  Alex Sarll

  25 years after Busiek and Ross' Marvels, Marvel celebrated with the Busiek-led anthology Marvel Snapshots, and this Ross-led anthology, Marvel, containing short stories one could easily consider...snapshots? Indeed, the stories here could be argued to be more snapshot-y, given they're shorter. Oh, and one of them's written by Busiek. So that's all perfectly clear, right? And to think they say superhero comics are off-putting for new readers!
  
  There's a framing story here, with Ross on art; I suppose that's another difference. The downside is, it's about cut-price dream-lord Nightmare, surely one of the shitter antagonists of Marvel's early years, though doubtless he'll still be gracing multiplex screens sooner or later. As for the stories proper...well, the first one is framed around Mary Jane nagging Spider-Man over how much he spends on web fluid, and even 25 years ago that would have been prone to coming across embarrassing and retrograde in a stand-up set, let alone an actual comic. And in general, there's a sense that many of the contributions are retro less in a charming way than in an 'even bad modern Marvel comics are better than this now' fashion, just really primitive and clunky without the oddball energy that sometimes justifies this sort of anthology. There are exceptions, thank heavens, in particular Bill Sienkiewicz presenting an artistic autobiography in the format of a TED talk by the Watcher – exactly the sort of thing you'd never find anywhere except this sort of collection. Greg Smallwood does a gorgeously pop Nick Fury, and Gene Ha and Zander Cannon turn in a deeply satisfying encounter between Wong and a tech bro intent on disrupting magic. But I'm not convinced there are enough of these little delights to make up for the overall lack of focus or oomph.
• 
  Rex Hurst

  Nightmare has taken over the world, all of its inhabitants drift in dreams, and Stephen Strange is trapped, trying behind the scenes to stop him. This is the framing device for a series of non-canonical short stories set in the Marvel universe. All the big players are here, The Watcher, the X-Men, Captain America, Nick Fury, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four; plus a few obscure pop-ups - Doctor Droom (the original name for Dr. Druid, a host of monsters from the venerable When Monsters Attack title, the original cowboy Ghost Rider, the original Black Widow from the 1940s, among others.
  
  Some people seem to have a problem with the inconsistency of the tales. While none of them are bad and I certainly enjoyed them all, the tone does shift rapidly. It goes from the deadly serious to the silly with the turn of a page. But that is the nature of anthologies. I certainly loved the art and the tales. It was exactly what I expected with a few fun surprises added in.
• 
  Timothy Boyer

  "PUT ENOUGH IDEAS TOGETHER AT ONCE... AND YOU CAN BUILD A UNIVERSE. YOU CAN CHANGE LIVES THROUGH INSPIRATION.
  
  I really like how the framing device is utilized, throughout. What I don't like—what damn-near ruined the whole book for me—is just how insubstantial so many of these stories feel. Plus, I really wanted more Alex Ross. He's why I picked up this book in the first place. Yeah, maybe I should've paid more attention to what this book actually was. Oops. But despite the book not working all too well as a whole piece, for me, there are parts that shine... brightly.
  
  The artwork in some of these is just stunning! Both X-Men stories are gorgeous, and I especially love how both focus on just how essential a member of the X-Men Wolverine really is. The art in that first Spidey story really embraces the whole dream motif in a creative, visually arresting manner. And that final Silver Surfer story?!? Wow!! Every single frame quite literally took my breath away.
  
  5.5/10
• 
  Ryan

  I love to read, but have never liked short stories as much as novels. That’s just a preference, not me saying any format is better than any other. The reason I favor a longer format is because a really good short story feels like it’s just getting started.
  
  This collection has some dream artists filling the pages. Many of which would be a welcome addition to any ongoing Marvel series. My favorites include Hilary Barta, Steve Rude, Frank Espinosa, Dan Brereton, Greg Smallwood, and Daniel Acuna.
• 
  catnipthief

  As an anthology, the quality of the stories are a bit unbalanced, some of them were good fun, but nothing more, and all in all, I wasn't drawn into it. For some level, this is a personal thing for me, as I'm not a big fan of Marvel-stuff in general, unless it's Deadpool or The Punisher. But this cavalcade of a lot of different artworks were amazing, each and every one of them were equally breath-taking, so if you're into comics for the visuals, if you're into vintage feel, a bit of campyness, this is for you.
• 
  Drake Zappa

  This is one of the most phenomenal collection of stories I've had the joy of reading through! This book encapsulates the Marvel Universe so unbelievably well. Its such a privilege to have so many amazing creators in one beautiful book! Massive thanks to Alex Ross for finally putting this book together after years of work pushing for it to be made!
  There is truly a story for every kind of person in here and its a true celebration of what Marvel Comics is.
• 
  Steve White

  Having read Marvels I was expecting more of the same but what this is is an anthology with various writes and authors (including those behind Marvels).
  
  There’s some great art, several fun styles. The stories are tidy little affairs. They’re pretty breezy, low stakes adventures.
  
  But if you want to see some top flights artists and writers have some fun, check it out.
• 
  Stefano Amadei

  Sinceramente pensavo che una cosa che si è atteso di poter er così tanto tempo fosse un po' più bellina... Insomma mi ha un po' deluso, soprattutto per il tipo di disegni vecchio stile a volte troppo confusionario. Alex ha voluto strafare e per me scimmiottare Kirby non ha dato i risultati separati! Peccato!
• 
  Cody Sheets

  Probably 3 1/2 stars. This has some amazing art in parts and a few fun stories but unfortunately more duds than hits. The Nick Fury story was my favorite with a few other good ones such as the short Wolverine part. Several of the stories are only a few pages and really function more as vignettes. Overall I think this worked better in theory than execution.
• 
  Mike

  A mixed collection of loosely connected tales, with some serious highlights provided by Alex Ross (who conceived of the collection and oversees its narrative) and Bill Sienkiewicz (who provides a tale of Uatu the Watcher that's a treatise on the genesis of artistic creativity at its essence).
  
  This book is a visual masterpiece, and while the stories vary in quality, it's an overall joy to read.
• 
  Doctor Doom

  I actually purchased this [as opposed to Prime Reading] thinking it would be like Marvels but this was a huge disappointment. There is very little Alex Ross artwork [again... Marvels] and the stories, like the artwork, are subpar. NOT recommended.
• 
  Zoidberg

  The connecting story with Nightmare and Dr Strange doesn’t really tie things together. The vision story was awesome. The spider-man/thing team up captured the essence of the old thing team up comic nicely.
• 
  Chris Miskimins

  Fun Romp
  
  This was a fun romp through a possible multi verse. Enjoyable and thought provoking. Nightmare has Always been a fun villain and this was a good use of him as the antagonist
• 
  Rubin Carpenter

  Marvel at It
  
  An Anthology of stories featuring the entire marvel universe unveiling against the conflict Between Dr Strange and Nightmare
  well told and illustrated tales this is the comic book book form at its finest
• 
  Mandy

  3.5 stars