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The fans of the Marvel world are starting to show signs of slowing down: over the course of 14 years the Marvel Cinematic Universe has produced thirty films not to mention countless TV series for an approximate total of about 70 hours of viewing. With recent announcements, an even more substantial expansion is expected in the coming years and the Marvel fatigue it is something we see on the horizon. But still nothing to do with the counterpart cartoonist, that is what everything originated from. In fact, it is estimated that well over 27,000 comics have been published since the beginning, with new issues coming out every week. Obviously it is in the very nature of comics do not provide for a full reading of any publication, nor is it always necessary to know what was told years ago. Yet there are those who have accepted the challenge.
The comic book historian Douglas Wolkin fact, he has embarked on the titanic undertaking of reading everything that the House of Wonders has sent to print since 1961, the year in which Stan Lee’s Fantastic 4 were launched and the Marvel brand consolidated and took over its predecessors Timely Comics and Atlas Comics. The path of Wolk, as he tells it Screen Crushit starts from there and culminates in its turn in the publication of a book entitled All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told. As a scholar who had already published several volumes on the subject, he knew somehow what he was going to encounter but, at the level of a fan of those same stories, this intensive reading was both educational and somewhat revealing.
His very book, in fact, serves as both a very rich one Marvel macro history overview, an editorial and cultural enterprise which, through various phases of splendor and crisis, has in some way contributed to shaping the pop imaginary and not only worldwide; but it is also a microanalysis of more unusual antics of this ever-expanding narrative universe, often even taking rather incongruent bribes. What Wok understood from this titanic undertaking, however, is that it is not necessary to read everything in a predetermined order: “When you come across three dull Ant-Man stories one after the other, or a not-so-compelling story of the Human Torch, you may get bogged down by making you want to continue.“, He warns:”But the point of reading comics is the pleasure, the fun and the joy. It is not homework, it is not a set regime“.
Better to search the characters, the veins or the sagas that we are most passionate about and follow them. However, he understood it at his expense, after having read everything in chronological order from 1961 to Marvel Legacy # 1, somewhat considered the tipping point. Among other things, there remains the theme of how to recover all the numbers released in the course of history, aa time-consuming and resource-intensive undertaking. Fortunately, today there are tools such as Marvel Unlimited that allow you to access any comic thanks to an immense digital archive. Wolk warns, however, that these virtual versions often lack the apparatuses, such as columns or editorials, which made those publications unique, and in some issues some of those were digitally adapted moving away from the intentions of the original authors: “But even if you read the story on a screen and the apparatuses are missing, you still get the story in the end“, He says:”Having access to the heart of it all, the stories, really outweighs any other limitations or losses“.
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Speaking of leaks, there are even comics that are gone practically lost forever, despite the many attempts at digitization. Often, explains Wolk, these were out of series, limited edition or created specifically for certain companies (such as gods Fantastic 4 created specifically for Target supermarkets or a Iron-Man designed for a drone company). But the publications did not change only for commercial reasons, but also for influences of various kinds: Wolk, for example, noted how until the end of the seventies Marvel also published romantic series like Millie the Model And Patsy Walker, then naturally exhausted but somehow absorbed, in themes and style, by superhero titles. The proof is Peter Parker’s transformation in those years into Amazing Spider-Man who from a nerd scientist becomes a handsome boy.
In this potentially endless journey, Wolk has discovered other interesting things: that no comic is completely useless, not even titles like NFL SuperPro, dedicated to a former football champion who transforms into a superhero; or that there are characters considered minor, such as Linda Carter aka Night Nurse (the superhero nurse who also inspired Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple in the series Dare devil & co.), which are instead a much stronger glue than many famous names. For the historian, then, the full immersion Marvel was an opportunity to discover many other things, such as the influence that the various historical moments they had some comic stories about the writing itself: “One of the things I liked the most to discover is how science and knowledge were fundamental engines for Marvel stories. They often led to dark places but the idea of exploring the unknown says a lot about how culture and the world have changed over the past 60 years.“.
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