Review: 1602

I read a superb comic book, excuse me, graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert. First things first: Mr. Kubert is a true artist. The book is beautiful to look at.

The good news is that the script by Mr. Gaiman provoked both charm and terror in just the right places, and had both an original take and slightly macabre overtone that is Mr. Gaiman’s signature hallmark. The bad news is that the ending is weak, which is another signature hallmark of Mr. Gaiman.

The conceit is brilliant, and, like all brilliant conceits in storytelling, simple: the Marvel Superheroes are here shown as their 1602 counterparts. Nick Fury is the Walsingham of Queen Elizabeth’s court, the daring master of intrigue who keeps Her Majesty’s Catholic assassins at bay. Dr. Strange is her John Dee, the royal physician and mage. Charles Xavier runs a school for the ‘Witchbreed’. Magneto is Torquemada of the Spanish Inquisition. Von Doom is unchanged: a tyrannous Medieval Monarch of a Germanic kingdom, practiced in alchemy. And Captain America … well, the idea for who Captain America is, the idea is simply brilliant, and I will not spoil the surprise.

Here is what Gaiman does right: the mood of the times was authentic. Fury was a particularly well crafted character, who took seriously his loyalty to King James upon his ascention to the throne. The religious wars of the period were presented as serious, as they were to the men of the period, with no one uttering William-of-Orange type calls for moderation, which would have been anachronistic.

Ben Grimm as the salty sea captain was particularly well done. As for what goes wrong? Not much, but I want to complain.

SPOILER WARNINGS and bellyaching Below the cut!

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.