Marvel 1985

AUTHOR: Millar, Mark

ARTIST: Tommy Lee Edwards (illustrator); John Workman (letterer)

PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 2008

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2009

Publication History

Originally released as a limited series of six monthly issues, Marvel 1985 was published by Marvel Comics from July to December of 2008. Mark Millar originally wrote Marvel 1985 in 2005, but the graphic novel was not released until 2008, delayed by decisions pertaining to the style of art that would best fit the project.

Millar originally wanted the project to be illustrated with digital photography. In this style, actors were hired to play the parts of each character, and aspects of the comic such as narration and word balloons were inserted as drawn elements. However, after viewing samples of this style of artwork created for Marvel 1985, Marvel Comics became hesitant, believing that the portrayal of the superheroes in the story would not translate well in this graphic form because of limitations in technology at the time.

As a result, Marvel Comics and Millar decided that a more traditional superhero comic book illustration would best fit the narrative. Marvel Comics then approached Tommy Lee Edwards, who had a reputation as an artist with a photorealistic style, to create all of the art for Marvel 1985. Although Millar finished the work prior to Edwards being assigned as artist, Edwards’s artwork brings to life the Marvel Comics of the 1985 era through comic book allusions and art styles that evoke the nostalgia and broken barriers between what Millar calls the “real world” and the Marvel Universe. Thus, the work became a collaborative effort between author Millar and Edwards.

Plot

Marvel 1985 begins by depicting Jack Kirby and Stan Lee creating the Marvel Comics Universe and is followed by a scene from the climax of Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars (1984-1985). The novel then introduces the protagonist Toby as he discusses comic books at his local comics shop. Toby walks home; the story introduces his parents’ divorce and the negative impact it has had on him.

Toby meets his father, Jerry, and the two come across an old mansion, revealed to be the former home of Clyde, Jerry’s childhood friend, who has brain damage. A man who purchased the home approaches Toby and Jerry. He offers Toby a collection of comic books he found in the house that he does not want, but Toby and his father refuse to take them, as they recognize the value of the collection.

Toby spots Red Skull in the window of the house. Later, a newscast reveals that a man whom Toby recognizes to be Vulture has also appeared in the city. Toby investigates Clyde’s former home and finds Dr. Doom and Mole Man arguing. Dr. Doom spots Toby; Toby runs away, only to find the Hulk battling the Juggernaut. Some sort of force has dragged them both against their will from the Marvel Universe into reality.

Across the city, a couple is murdered by Sandman and Electro. Toby and Jerry soon encounter a group of people compelled by Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing (MODOK) to drown themselves in a lake by near Clyde’s former home. They flee, but the Lizard attacks them. The two escape with military aid. Jerry leaves Toby with the military, as he goes to save Julie, Toby’s mother, from harm.

Toby returns to Clyde’s former home and discovers the portal that has been transporting villains into reality. He enters the portal and lands in the Marvel Universe. After failed attempts to contact other superheroes for help, Toby convinces Spider-Man to come to his aid. Jerry finds Julie, and the two are attacked by a crew of villains. They are saved by Toby and a group of Marvel superheroes. The superheroes battle the villains.

A flashback reveals that Clyde was reality’s first mutant and that he had been drawing the Marvel villains into his universe after becoming upset that his comics were being split up by the villains who had taken over his childhood home. Jerry, Julie, and Toby confront Clyde, but Red Skull shoots Jerry to death. Clyde then sends the villains back to the Marvel Universe and is taken by the Marvel superheroes to their reality. At the novel’s end, the reader finds that Toby is writing the story; he shows that Jerry had also been taken to the Marvel Universe, where Toby has used his power as an author to bring his father back to life and to reunite him with his father and mother in the parallel universe.

Characters

•Toby Goodman, the protagonist, is a young, meek teenage boy obsessed with Marvel Comics. As a result of his parents’ divorce, he becomes detached from his own reality and withdraws into the world of superheroes. Toby is the catalyst for bringing the Marvel heroes into his reality and serves as the narrator of the graphic novel.

•Marvel Villains, the primary antagonists, are a broad variety of villains from the Marvel Universe. They are all connected, as they are drawn into reality from the Marvel Universe by Clyde. At his request, they begin a path of destruction.

•Marvel Heroes, the secondary protagonists, are a collection of Marvel Comics superheroes. They serve to keep the Marvel villains at bay during the climax of the graphic novel, while Toby, Jerry, and Julie confront Clyde.

•Jerry Goodman is Toby’s father and Julie’s former husband. A large, unemployed man, he proves heroic in the end because of his knowledge of the Marvel Universe and his love for his son and his former wife.

•Clyde Wyncham, the secondary antagonist, is Jerry’s childhood friend and the first mutant. After being struck by his mother as a child, he has brain damage and lives in a nursing home. Unable to speak, he uses his mental powers to put the plot of the graphic novel into action, as he draws the Marvel villains into reality after becoming upset that his comic book collection has been sold and disassembled.

•Julie Hart is Toby’s mother and Jerry’s former wife. As Toby’s mother, she voices concern over his obsession with comic books and makes attempts to lower his interest in them and ground his mind in reality.

Artistic Style

In Marvel 1985, Edwards uses a combination of photographic realism, angular abstraction, and hints of Bronze Age action illustrations to create the world of the comic, which moves between reality and comic book fantasy and the intersections of the two. Edwards’s photographic realism is portrayed through his attention to accurate anatomy, physical balance, and effect of movement and highly detailed backgrounds in the scenes taking place in reality. For example, in a scene in which Dr. Doom sets fire to numerous objects from Clyde’s former home, flames engulf objects and cast red and orange light upon them in a realistic manner, as Toby watches from the corner of the page, his arm visible as bushes and other debris sway from both his movement and the fire.

Edwards counters this photographic realism designed to evoke the harshness of reality by projecting a sense of impressionism on much of these scenes. When Toby is in a comic book shop, the characters are presented in detail; however, through watercolors, the comics in the shop are depicted with enough detail to convey what they are but lack enough definition to be presented as completely real.

Additionally, Edwards uses a combination of highly defined angles with a fluid rounding of objects to convey a simultaneous sense of reality and suspension of disbelief. Edwards also creates a contrast between reality and the Marvel Universe by depicting reality as dark, liberally using blacks, and portraying the Marvel Universe as bright and inherently more hopeful through loosely defined edges, highly reflective contrast, and a lack of dark colors, evocative of a soft-focus lens. The Bronze Age influence is also evident: Action sequences represent a middle ground between reality and the Marvel Universe, combining elements of darkly shaded reality and the more fluid and less defined Marvel Universe images.

Themes

Among Marvel 1985’s central themes is the often self-reflexive and artificial nature of superhero comic books. Characters often allude to everything from seminal works in Marvel’s history to the divide between mainstream and underground comics, and Edwards packs the work with visual references to Marvel Comics’ history. By filling the comic with references to the history of Marvel and more general comics’ fandom and debates within the community, Millar and Edwards use a derivative knowledge of the genre to draw upon and critique the separation of reality from fantasy for comic book fans. At the same time, this work pays homage to the comics on which it builds.

The work is self-reflexive, as Clyde’s mutant powers and intense fanaticism challenge the distinction between the two realities, allowing him to draw the Marvel Universe into his own. Toby, as narrator, writes his father and mother an ending that fulfills his dream for their reconciliation, which is a comment on the artificiality of comic books. This metanarrative technique not only critiques but also heightens this artificiality by presenting a situation in which fantasy can help aid and overcome the often stark nature of reality.

Other central themes in Marvel 1985 are divorce and adolescence. Millar’s narrative depicts Toby’s depression, engrossment in the world of comic books, and strained relationships with other characters as the results of his parents’ divorce. Millar and Edwards evoke this confusion in the narrative by providing a premise in which the harshness of Toby’s reality is juxtaposed with his escapism in comic books; his increased inability to separate the two becomes a coping mechanism for his parents’ separation. Visually, this is conveyed through the darker shades of Toby’s depressive reality in comparison to the white filtered world of the Marvel Universe.

Impact

Marvel 1985 is a convergence between the Bronze Age definition of superheroes and the Modern Age sensitivity to considering the implications of relying on these Bronze Age types. As such, it is a conscious effort by Millar to shift superhero comic books back toward a more optimistic tone while maintaining the literary elements and visual complexity of the Modern Age and its dark themes.

The impact of the work can be seen in his return to more traditional heroic character types in works such as Kick-Ass (2008-2010), in which antiheroism is dissected and the boundaries between reality and comic book worlds are further considered. Marvel 1985 also impacted the Marvel Universe and Millar’s other works such as Kick-Ass (which uses Clyde Wyncham as a central character), Millar’s run on Fantastic Four from 2008-2009, and Wolverine: Old Man Logan (2009).

Marvel 1985 earned a generally positive critical reception. Many critics argued that it was a visually stunning work and thoughtful depiction of divorce and the fragility of early adolescence. Some critics commented on the nostalgia evoked by the visual aspects of the work and considered it a well-layered tribute to the comics of the Bronze Age. However, negative criticism focused on the work’s stilted dialogue and problematic plot development. Nonetheless, critics who lauded the work focused on its mixing of action and emotion and its well-balanced central elements.

Further Reading

Millar, Mark, and Bryan Hitch. The Ultimates (2002-2004).

Millar, Mark, and Steve McNiven. Civil War (2006-2007).

Millar, Mark, and John Romita, Jr. Kick-Ass (2008-2010).

Shooter, Jim, Mike Zeck, and Bob Layton. Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars (1984-1985).

Straczynski, J. Michael, and Tommy Lee Edwards. Bullet Points (2007).

Bibliography

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Lange, Jeffrey S., and Patrick Trimble. “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? An Examination of the American Monomyth and the Comic Book Superhero.” The Journal of Popular Culture 22, no. 3 (Winter, 1988): 157-173.

Millar, Mark. “Across the Universe: Mark Millar.” Interview by Tim Stevens. Marvel Comics Online, May 9, 2008. http://marvel.com/news/story/3552/across‗the‗marvel‗universe‗mark‗millar.

Pustz, Matthew. “EC Fan Addicts and Marvel Zombies: Historical Comic Book Reading Communities.” In Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999.

Wright, Bradford W. “Direct to the Fans: The Comic Book Industry Since 1980.” In Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.