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MARVEL MANGAVERSE: ETERNITY TWILIGHT #1
Neutral (4/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer/Artist: Ben Dunn
Colors/Letters: Guru eFX
Editor: Brian Smith
Price: $3.50 US/$5.25 CAN |
What Dunn and
his various co-creators have delivered is a fun one-off take on an alternate
version of Marvel continuity, but the jokes are already starting to wear a bit
thin, and the story is looking like every other giant menace vs. assembled
super-heroes tale we've seen. To make matters worse, Dunn has introduced so many
characters, and fleshed out so few of them, that this story is a bit of a mess,
as motivations, goals and characterization is hard to figure out in many places.
There are some neat ideas in this issue, and I do enjoy Dunn's visual style, but
the story feels a bit cramped with all these characters, and ultimately the
conflict is unclear. Perhaps with the ongoing series, Dunn will be able to slow
the pace down a bit and explore this "Mangaverse" with a pace that is more
suited to it.
In all honesty, this is a
case of too many good ideas thrown into one place, where they conflict with one
another. While the Avengers made perfect sense in conflict with the Hulk, the
inclusion of Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four all seemed forced,
trying to show off the neat ideas that had already had their chance to shine in
individual one-shots. Making matters worse, some of the characters didn't really
jibe with the versions we saw in the one-shots, notably the far more boring
version of the Fantastic Four that shows up in this issue, looking and acting
all-too-similar to their mainstream counterparts.
Conflict between the ideas is a bad thing, but a conflict that needed to be resolved would have been a boon for the book. The basic plot, that the Hulk is attacking and needs to be defeated, is muddied by the arising of an ancient evil, some strange and incomprehensible love story between Bruce Banner and Toni Stark and a poorly explained rivalry between Dr. Strange and Baron Strucker. Perhaps Dunn was simply trying to evoke once again the feeling of manga and anime, playing off such confusing and nonsensical endings as the one found in the film version of Akira. More than likely, it's another symptom of too
many characters, not enough linear plot.
Really, the neat thing about
this one-shot, and indeed the whole event, is seeing the various different
versions of the characters. I greatly enjoyed seeing Baron Strucker as a
mystical villain rather than an espionage-based one, and the rock and roll tone
of Hank Pym's powers was a lot of fun as well. In fact, the strongest sequence
in the book was the face-off, complete with named magical moves, of Strucker and
Strange, and a close second was Pym summoning ants with his electrical guitar. I
also enjoyed all the visuals, from the Avengers assembling and battling the Hulk
to the army of Iron Men and War Machines.
While I enjoyed the ideas and designs behind this event, however, the story just didn't make much sense. Too many characters, none of whom got any screen time, clash against a multi-layered plot that is introduced in various places and then dropped in just as many and the result is a confusing mishmash. Marvel Mangaverse: Eternal Twilight is good for a laugh or two, but don't go in expecting much
in the way of coherence.
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