THE MARVELS PROJECT: BIRTH OF THE SUPER HEROES (Marvel, 2010; Hardcover)
Collects The Marvels Project Nos. 1-8 and The Daily Bugle 1939 one-shot (cover dates October, 2009- July, 2010)
Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross was a completely unique and groundbreaking experience in comic book storytelling. The Marvels Project is a sequel of sorts, or a continuation of that idea at the least. It's good but not great like Marvels was and still is.
Writer Ed Brubaker and Artist Steve Epting pull out all the stops, inserting things into continuity retroactively and filling in gaps to make those hokey old Timely Comics from the late '30s and early '40s that I love so much make sense. I am not sure how much sense the footnote characters from way back then make to a modern day reader who hasn't shelled out the bread for the Masterworks.
This was a pretty good read, and if you missed out on one of three hardcover versions (dustjackets) available, then a softcover was recently released for the more budget conscious consumer. I would be interested in hearing what someone who hasn't read the Golden Age comics but read this series thinks of the also-rans featured here, like the (original) Angel, Electro the Marvel of the Age, and Ferret. I wonder if this made any sense to those readers, or if this was just self-referencing continuity overkill.
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