Ugh. That’s about all I
can say. Marvelman is a rip-off of Captain Marvel. That statement is not libel,
it is actually fact. After DC’s lawsuit forced Fawcett to stop publication of
Captain Marvel and his long line of family members, a British publisher of its
reprints found themselves in a bind. The answer was to create a new Marvel-
Marvelman. He’s a little boy who becomes a powerful god-like superhero when he
utters a magic word. He’s got a legion of sidekick’s with whom have his same
powers. There’s even a mad scientist and a black-clad polar opposite to
Marvelman called Nastyman.
It’s essentially Captain
Marvel without Mary Marvel. And it’s a huge rip-off.
Leading to the confusion
and frustration is that this book starts with Marvelman’s first appearance in
Marvelman #25!? Wait, what happened in issues 1-24? Well, those issues were
devoted to Capt. Marvel. You just don’t realize all this until you get to the
historically fascinating articles in the back of the book.
Those appendixes are the
best thing about this book. They are chock full of a history of comics that I
never knew existed. They also explain British comic books, reprint procedures,
even how a Brit book is published. Plus for a nation that’s more frank than the
US, they sure are prudish when it comes to comics for kids.
The history lessons are
fantastic. The reprints are just awful. I will not be searching out further
issues anytime soon. Thank goodness, I found this at the library and I didn’t
shell out any cash for it.
Not Worth Consuming.
Rating 4 out of 10 stars.
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