Marvels Snapshots

Marvels Snapshots #1-8

by Mark Waid, Gerry Ordwary (Illustrator), Marvel Various (Writer)

Celebrate the history of the House of Ideas! Curator Kurt Busiek and an awesome assemblage of talent present a series of tales featuring some of Marvel's greatest heroes - as seen through the wide eyes of ordinary residents of the Marvel Universe! From the Sub-Mariner fighting in World War II to the dawn of the Marvel Age to the very different conflict of the superhuman Civil War, witness the lives, loves and losses of the everyday people caught up in the adventures of Spider-Man, Captain America, the Avengers, Captain Marvel and more! These unique perspectives include those of henchmen, first responders, old flames and even a teenage pre-Cyclops Scott Summers! Collecting SUB-MARINER: MARVELS SNAPSHOTS, FANTASTIC FOUR: MARVELS SNAPSHOTS, CAPTAIN AMERICA: MARVELS SNAPSHOTS, X-MEN: MARVELS SNAPSHOTS, AVENGERS: MARVELS SNAPSHOTS, SPIDER-MAN: MARVELS SNAPSHOTS, CIVIL WAR: MARVELS SNAPSHOTS and CAPTAIN MARVEL: MARVELS SNAPSHOTS.

Genres: Marvel, Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

264 pages, Paperback

Published February 21, 2023

About the author

Mark Waid is an American comic book writer widely known for shaping modern superhero storytelling through influential runs on major characters at both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Raised in Alabama, he developed an early fascination with comic books, particularly classic stories featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes, whose imaginative scope and sense of legacy would later inform his own writing. He first entered the comics industry during the mid 1980s as an editor and writer for the fan magazine Amazing Heroes, before publishing his first professional comic story in Action Comics. Soon afterward he joined DC Comics as an editor, contributing to numerous titles and helping shape projects across the company. After leaving editorial work to focus on writing, Waid gained widespread recognition with his long run on The Flash, where he expanded the mythology of the character and co-created the youthful speedster Impulse. His reputation grew further with the celebrated graphic novel Kingdom Come, created with artist Alex Ross, which imagined a future DC Universe shaped by generational conflict among superheroes. Over the years he has written many prominent series, including Captain America, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Superman: Birthright, bringing a balance of optimism, character depth, and respect for comic book history to each project. Waid has also collaborated with notable artists and writers on major ensemble titles such as Justice League and Avengers, while contributing ideas that helped clarify complex continuity within shared superhero universes. Beyond mainstream superhero work, he has supported creator owned projects and experimental publishing models, including the acclaimed series Irredeemable and Incorruptible, which explored moral ambiguity within the superhero genre. He later took on editorial leadership roles at Boom Studios, guiding creative direction while continuing to write extensively. In subsequent years he expanded his involvement in publishing and digital storytelling, helping launch online comics initiatives and advocating for new distribution methods for creators. His work has earned numerous industry awards, including Eisner and Harvey honors, reflecting both critical acclaim and enduring popularity among readers. Throughout his career Waid has remained a passionate student of comic book history, drawing on decades of storytelling tradition while continually encouraging innovation within the medium. His influence extends across generations of readers and creators, and his stories continue to shape the evolving language of superhero comics around the world today through enduring characters imaginative narratives and thoughtful reinventions of familiar myths within popular culture and modern graphic storytelling traditions.

Reviews

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vamos lá, apesar de o quadrinho estar aqui creditado a Kurt Busiek ele não se envolveu diretamente com Marvels: Retratos, ele organizou as equipes criativas e as histórias mas não se envolveu com os roteiros como de costume. A ideia aqui é resgatar alguns sentidos da produção da cultuada HQ Marvels em seus 30 anos de publicação. Marvels: Retratos traz o olhar das pessoas comuns sobre os super-heróis, assim como Busiek fez na sua obra ao lado de Alex Ross. O resultado é misto. As duas primeiras histórias, de Namor, com desenhos do veterano Jerry Ordway e do Tocha Humana são muito boas, mostrando o impacto dos heróis na vida de suas ex-namoradas. As duas outras histórias enfocam no Capitão América e no Ciclope e não são tão boas quanto as duas primeiras. Essa última fica um tanto distante da proposta do compilado porque enfoca em Ciclope como a tal pessoa comum das histórias de Busiek e, como sabemos, ele é um super-herói. Outro ponto fraco é que a Panini deveria ter trazido essas histórias em um só volume, como na edição americana original, até porque foi publicada em capa dura, faria mais sentido na minha mera e reles opinião.

[Blindzider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of "Marvels" and the whole "man on the street" perspective of it all (Astro City is similar and excellent as well.) While at first I was disappointed at Busiek not writing it, I did warm up to the idea of letting other writers take the same idea and see what they could do.

In short, the first four are outstanding. The other four go from terrible to average.

Sub-Mariner: The art matches the time period and seeing how Namor acts around "normal" people was curious but as expected.

Fantastic Four: Similarly, this gives readers a peek into Johnny Storm's life and how things are not always as they seem.

Captain America: I like when the stories are tied to a specific event and this was tied to the MadBomb plot. It has pathos and I really felt for the main character.

X-Men: Cyclops centric, who I always felt had an outstanding origin. It examines his attitude and motivations during the early years that he was in an orphanage.

Spider-Man: Being one of my favorite characters, I thought this was going to be my most-liked. Instead, he's only in about 4 panels and doesn't speak. The rest is about these two guys who dabble in being criminals. Who cares?!? I didn't feel for them in any way. It's also drawn by Chaykin and I've never cared for his art style.

Avengers: It's not bad, just feels run-of-the-mill.

Civil War: Reexamines the idea behind the original conflict but also about treatment of prisoners. Ultimately it's a good morality tale about standing up to do what is right. Probably my favorite out of the second half of the book.

Captain Marvel: meh. Written more for teens who are searching for their identity and self-worth, the reader also gets the origin stories behind Captain Marvel (Danvers) as well as Ms. Marvel (Kahn).

If this was only the first four issues, I'd probably give it 4 stars, but since the second half wasn't the same level of quality (in writing or art), I'm dropping it to 3 stars.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

With it being the 25th Anniversary of the Marvels, the House of Ideas did a revisit to the evergreen book with an epilogue book, a Busiek-curated project, a Ross-curated project and a bridge book between Marvels and Earth X.

This is the Busiek-project curated. Snapshots is less art focused and more intimate glimpses of some overlooked characters or points in history. It's more easter egg and ebb then spectacle It's the parts that the camera would probably miss.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great variety of stories told from the ground level of the MU, in a bunch of eras by a spectrum of creators. Check it out, it’s a delight.

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Hassan Hamdan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,0

[Alex Sarll]

Kurt Busiek curates* a project marking 25 years since Marvels, the series he wrote which gave Marvel a shot in the arm by showing us how its world of gods and monsters looked to the man in the street. Where that book had a unified creative team and a single protagonist, photographer Phil Sheldon, this time around we get a different team and a different lead each issue. That decision makes perfect sense, but what felt a little like cheating is that at least for the first couple of issues, the stories are told from the point of view of people who were already established, if forgotten, supporting characters. Sheldon had been at most a face in the crowd of the original comics we saw retold from his street-level viewpoint; here, though, we're revisiting Namor's wartime squeeze, or the town where Johnny Storm made quixotic attempts to play the regular high school student. This is somewhat redressed in the third issue, told in the margins of Madbomb, and all about the areas of the city that the superheroes tend to forget – though if writer Mark Russell's social conscience is no surprise, he normally uses a lot more savage wit as a delivery mechanism. Similarly, you'd be hard-pressed to guess that the Human Torch issue had come from the same creators as Beasts Of Burden, and an uninitiated reader could take at face value Busiek's introductory claim that "Evan's Eltingville Club shows a great love of deep-dive comics history". And so it continues, back and forth, from stories which feel like they'd have fit better in another project altogether (a prequel in which a character who will soon become a familiar superhero longs to be a superhero like the characters who already are superheroes) to ones which, while not slavishly following the Marvels template, feel absolutely in accord with its shifts in perspective: Chaykin doing the sort of idiot chancer Chaykin does so well, but really using them more to show us what an absolute faff it would be living in Marvel New York, with superhuman battles forever mucking up the traffic and blowing up the attractions; Barbara Kesel and Staz Johnson doing something similar, but considerably more wholesome, a romance in the face of superhuman craziness which recalls the best of the very much Marvels-adjacent Astro City.

*And, in his introduction, is entertainingly self-deprecating about what that term entails.

[Rob Schamberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of moments of pure beauty in this collection. Everyone involved swung for the fences and it showed.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology that is nominally set in the same reality as Marvels, or is at least inspired by Marvels. There are a couple of stories I really liked, and the rest are mostly fine. The Namor story is surprisingly good, and deals with combat trauma in a way that makes sense for the character. This isn't the first time I've seen a story that positions Namor as deeply traumatized by his World War II experience. The Fantastic Four story focuses on Johnny, which isn't exactly a selling point for me. Still, it has a fun ending and it makes him more human and rounded than a lot of his stories do. The Avengers story is another really good one, and probably the one that most felt like it fit the spirit of Marvels. The X-Men story, on the other hand, was a bit of a disappointment. It's entirely from the point of view of a young Scott Summers, which feels entirely contrary to the point, and it's much more about how great Reed Richards is than anything to do with the X-Men. The Spider-Man story is basically a dull slog about a couple of low rent crooks, so nothing to recommend there. The Civil War story is another surprisingly good one, because I think it does a fine job of explaining the different points of view that formed the event. And finally, the Captain Marvel story. Another disappointment, because this one also spends too much time concentrating on established heroes and their backstories. Overall, a handful of good stories, but nothing that really lives up to the original.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Kurk Busiek/Alex Ross "Marvels" looked at what the MU would feel like to the ordinary people who live there. This Busiek-edited anthology includes a variety of creators taking the same approach. A rom-com set in the middle of the Bronze Age Avengers' battle with Red Ronin. Two small time hoods feeling increasingly out of their depth in a superhuman world. Johnny Storm attends his high-school reunion. A kid in a black neighborhood wonders if the post-epic battle rebuilding will ever reach his neighborhood.
Excellent.

[Robert Noll · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story with Namor the Submariner is an excellent take on possible PTSD associated with combat veterans. I would read the Hell out of a series where Captain America suffers from PTSD and other mental problems stemming from combat. The Fantastic Four story about Johnny Storm maintaining a false persona as a barrier was interesting as well. The S.H.I.E.L.D. story seems to hit too close to home with the recent events in Minneapolis.

Overall entertaining stories from the point of view of civilians.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so disappointed by this. Seeing regular folks around the Marvel Universe deal with superheroes and their shenanigans is a fine idea but this was extremely boring. I assumed the heroes would be apart of this collection and they were so unimportant here. The eight different stories had nothing in common and almost every one felt like a complete waste of time. I enjoyed the art in almost every story (Howard Chaykin's is terrible). Overall, this is a complete snooze fest.

[Dan Seitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read comics long enough, you're stuck wondering how the average person feels about them. This collection, inspired by Kurt Busiek's classic series, tackles that with delight, care, and even a little grace. The Captain Marvel story, in particular, stands out for calling out cruelty without being cartoonish.

[Chris Robertson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is painful. Marvels was a stunning accomplishment, one of my all-time favorites. So, like a moth to the flame, I was drawn to this. Rather than expand upon the greatness that came before, Marvel —-fully embracing wokeism—-feels the need to deconstruct and correct. Alex Ross’s art, so central to the original, is reduced to primitive clickbait. And once in, what do we get? You guessed it: wobbly scribbles that muddle the human form, especially any hints of sexuality and backdrops that look like thumb smudges. Why? Because we are supposed to focus on the text, which spews THE MESSAGE (any Critical Drinker fans?) all woke disciples preach.

Namor must be turned into a PTSD wreck so his love interest can have her feminist epiphany. Captain America and Iron Man get another Falcon/Winter Soldier lecture on “doing better”, since saving an entire city now also requires one to be a warrior for social justice. Human Torch’s cockiness, central to his character for over 50 years, is now toxic masculinity, so it becomes an elaborate act he stages. And both Marvel females (at least I think they are) make sure to inspire a confused young girl that she must challenge authority, not better herself through education or have a dialogue with the opposing side. So disappointing. Shame on you, Marvel. Go woke, go broke.

[Andres Pasten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agradable lectura del lado humano vinculado a los superhéroes. Recomendado para leer con tiempo.

[Kurt Lorenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sub-Mariner, ☆☆☆
Fantastic Four, ☆☆☆☆
Captain America, ☆☆☆☆☆
X-Men, ☆☆☆☆☆
Spider-Man, ☆☆☆☆
Avengers, ☆☆☆☆
Civil War, ☆☆☆☆
Captain Marvel, ☆☆☆☆

[John Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some standalone anthology stories that tell well-tread themes in a (minutely) different way.

[Shannon McShortall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant look into the human experience of living in a world as insane as the Marvel Universe. Bar maybe one story, all of these stories are brilliant short tales that tap into the concepts that make us human

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tries to be 'Marvels'
...
..
.
Look! It even has the name.
It. Is. Not.

would work better as a digital miniseries or as a marketing experience (i.e. a 99 cent comic)

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an interesting enough premise, how do 'regular people' feel in a world with superheroes? Some of these are better than others, but that's to be expected in a collection.

[Olivia Ambrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Focusing on several different heroes, a lot of these take a "man on the street" perspective of superheroes, which is really fun. I really liked the Iron Man and Captain Marvel ones.