Every so often a comic comes along that lifts the human spirit and reminds us of the power of the medium. It breaks genre barriers and transcends comic books to become a literary gem, accessible to those both within and without the comics industry, destined to be mentioned in mainstream articles and showered with awards. Marville #1 is the exact opposite of those comics. It makes me wish my scale went lower than Not Recommended, perhaps to "Deeeeeeep Hurting!"
Readers may be familiar with the "U-Decide" stunt that gave rise to Marville, or the increasingly annoying "shock jock" tactics of Bill Jemas in his press releases, or the notion that Jemas seems to have some sort of real problem with Paul Levitz. Jemas's public antics look positively restrained, however, when compared to Marville. I'm given to understand that it's meant to be a parody of modern comics culture, except that it seems to be lacking in wit, trenchant observations and anything resembling a laugh.
Those of you who have seen the Cheers episode where Cliff Clavin decides to become a comedian or any episode of a science-fiction show where the alien or robot tries to understand humor will recognize something familiar about Marville. It honestly looks like Jemas has seen jokes told and read funny books, and he's trying to emulate that without actually understanding the nature of comedic timing, the proper use of sarcasm or what distinguishes biting satire from stupid ad hominem attacks. Specifically, Jemas seems to be trying to emulate the work of Christopher Priest, without the intelligence that characterizes Priest's books.
Some of the gems this issue include the hilarious gag of teens on the street turning their noses up at Paul Levitz's name, a dog named AOLStro (oh, my sides!) and mockery of brand new cutting edge trends like Ted Turner's ego or the politically correct reaction to the Atlanta Braves indian chop (stop, you're killing me!). And because it's a (theoretically) funny book, obviously there's no need to give the protagonist any sort of personality beyond a cliched, disaffected youth persona combined with some inane desire to be a super-hero that doesn't fit his upbringing.
The only thing that could possibly rescue the book is the artwork, but while Bright is good, he's not that good. Nobody's that good. The book could be done by Bryan Hitch or fully painted by Alex Ross and it still wouldn't be of much use as anything but a doorstop. Bright's artwork is crisp and clean, and served well by the inks of Paul Neary and by some terrific colors, but the comic timing he showed on Quantum & Woody is nowhere to be found here, largely because there's no comedy to be found in these pages beyond the laughs one might get from imagining that anyone might actually find any of this clever or funny.
I do not exaggerate when I say that I believe Marville to be the worst comic Marvel has published this year. In fact, it's vying for the worst comic published this year by anyone, without much competition in sight. It is self-gratifying, mean-spirited and stupid... all things which could be forgiven, if only it were funny.
