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fajrdrakoI read 1602, Part Seven. This is the comic Neil Gaiman is writing that sets the Marvel superheroes in the early 17th century. Annotations can be found here. The cover art can be found here.
I keep expecting to see Shakespeare take a role.
Though I've been a little underwhelmed by some issues of this series, this one was great. To see Neil Gaiman's take on Magneto is wonderful. And Peter Parquah is fun, too - as he should be. One page has the best Phoenix effect I have ever seen - Andy Kubert's art doesn't generally thrill me, but that was an exception.
The best part is a speech by Reed Richards - and this is not a spoiler. If anyone is reading this is who unfamiliar with the Marvel universe or with the Fantastic Four: Reed is a brilliant scientist; Ben Grimm, his best friend, is a fighter pilot who was transformed into a strong and monstrous creature. (This is true in the regular comics a well as this story where they are living in 1602.) Reed says he has been contemplating fundamental particles, though not atoms.
Ben Grimm: So, what are these fundamental principles, if they are not atoms?
Reed Richards: Stories. And they give me hope. We are a boatful of monsters and miracles, hoping that, somehow, we can survive a world in which all hands are against us. A world which, by all evidence, will end extremely soon.
Yet I posit we are in a universe which favours stories.
A universe in which no story can ever truly end; in which there can be only continuances.
This speech is particularly fun because you can posit different meanings for "world". Is Reed talking about his own reality? Or his situation is this particular issue of 1602? Is Neil Gaiman talking about his writing of this story, through Reed, or his attitude to writing in general - is it the world in Neil Gaiman's head we're talking about? Or the world of Marvel Comics? Or comics in general? Or stories in general - all of literature, pop culture, and television?
Or is it the whole of the real world around us?
I think Neil Gaiman has here revived my love of Reed Richards. Or maybe just of Neil Gaiman's writing.
The above passage is followed immediately by a bit of dialogue just as good:
Ben Grimm: Reed -- you spoke of transutations. Can you restore to me my humanity? I have been a monster too long.
Reed Richards: In truth, I do now know, my friend.
The natural sciences say yes, a cure is possible. But the laws of story would suggest that no cure can last for very long, Benjamin. For in the end, alas, you are so much more interesting and satisfying as you are.
Neil Gaiman. For lines like that, I love him.
