Marvels

Marvels is a four-issue miniseries comic book written by Kurt Busiek, painted by Alex Ross and edited by Marcus McLaurin. It was published by Marvel Comics in 1994¹. Taking place between 1939 and 1974, the series examines the Marvel Universe, the collective setting of most of Marvel's superhero series, from the perspective of an everyman character, news photographer Phil Sheldon . The street-level series portrays ordinary life in a world full of costumed superhumans, with each issue featuring major events in the Marvel Universe as observed by Sheldon. Marvels won multiple awards and established the careers of Busiek and Ross, who would both return to the "everyday life in a superhero universe" theme in the Image Comics (later Homage Comics and currently DC Comics) series, Astro City.

Marvels is a four-issue miniseries comic book written by Kurt Busiek, painted by Alex Ross and edited by Marcus McLaurin. It was published by Marvel Comics in 1994. Taking place between 1939 and 1974, the series examines the Marvel Universe, the collective setting of most of Marvel's superhero series, from the perspective of an everyman character, news photographer Phil Sheldon . The street-level series portrays ordinary life in a world full of costumed superhumans, with each issue featuring major events in the Marvel Universe as observed by Sheldon. Marvels won multiple awards and established the careers of Busiek and Ross, who would both return to the "everyday life in a superhero universe" theme in the Image Comics (later Homage Comics and currently DC Comics) series, Astro City.

Publication history

Marvels was a four-issue miniseries (cover dated January–April 1994) by writer Kurt Busiek, with painted art by Alex Ross and editing by Marcus McLaurin. It was followed by issue #0 (August 1994) containing a 12-page story of the original 1940s Human Torch by Busiek and Ross, two text articles, and 18 pages of Ross superhero pinups. The series was later collected into a trade-paperback edition.

Collected editions

In 1995, Marvels was compiled into a trade paperback that featured the Human Torch short story (2003 re-release ). For the tenth anniversary in 2004 Marvel released a 400-page hardcover ( ). In 2008 the original was reprinted as a hardcover ( ) and softcover volume (by Panini Comics, ) and in 2012 as issue 15 of The Official Marvel Graphic Novel Collection as number 13.

Awards

Awards won

1994 Eisner Award for Best Finite/Limited Series 1994 Eisner Award for Best Painter - awarded to Alex Ross 1994 Eisner Award for Best Publication Design - awarded Comicraft

Nominations

1994 Eisner Award for Best Cover Artist - awarded to Alex Ross 1994 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue - for Marvels #2 "Monsters"

Sequels

Marvel later published similar limited series under the "Marvels" header, with other writers and painters, though none of these titles were as successful as the original. They were collected in the paperback Marvels Companion. In 1995, Marvel released the darker Ruins by writer Warren Ellis and painters Cliff and Terese Nielsen, which was a two-issue parallel world series in which Phil Sheldon explored a Marvel universe that had gone terribly wrong. The 1997 miniseries Code of Honor, written by Chuck Dixon and painted by Tristan Shane and Brad Parker, had a similar approach to Marvels, following a police officer whose job is affected by the superheroes and villains. Busiek declared he and Ross debated on doing a Marvels sequel, only for Ross to bail out not wanting to draw Wolverine and the Punisher, and once the writer himself left the project, Busiek refitted the intended plot on "The Dark Age" arc of his title Astro City. In 2008, the long-planned direct sequel, the six-part limited series Marvels: Eye of the Camera, began. It returns to Sheldon's perspective, after his retirement. While Ross did not return for this sequel, Busiek returned as writer, with Roger Stern as co-writer for issues #3–6, with artwork by Jay Anacleto. A new series titled The Marvels by Busiek debuted in April 2021.

Related works

Phil Sheldon makes cameo appearances in the DC Comics miniseries Kingdom Come.

In other media

Television

Phil Sheldon makes a cameo appearance in The Super Hero Squad Show episode "This Al Dente Earth!", voiced by Charlie Adler. Maggie makes a cameo appearance in the X-Men '97 episode "A Force to Be Reckoned With".

Podcast

In late 2019, a radio drama podcast adaptation of Marvels was released, with the first season focusing on the aftermath of the Fantastic Four's battle with Galactus in New York City, New York, starring Clifford "Method Man" Smith as Ben Urich, AnnaSophia Robb as Marcia Hardesty, Ethan Peck as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic, Seth Barrish as Phil Sheldon, Louisa Krause as Susan Storm / Invisible Woman, Jake Hart as Ben Grimm / The Thing, Ehad Berisha as Johnny Storm / Human Torch, Teo Rapp-Olsson as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, and Gabriela Ortega as Charlie Martinez. The adaptation was written by Lauren Shippen, directed by Paul Bae, with music by Evan Cunningham, and sound design by Mischa Stanton. Stanton was nominated for two 2020 Audio Verse Awards for their work on the podcast.

Video games

Phil Sheldon appears in Avengers (2020), voiced by Walt Gray. This version is a journalist.

References

External links

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1378058284 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.