It’s been what seems like years in the making, but Mark Millar’s fumetti-turned-regular comic has finally hit the shelves, and it’s really, gloriously off the mainstream beaten track, with a kind of Kickass-meets-Marvels feel to it.

It’s immediately obvious why this was originally envisioned as a photo-comic - it takes place in the “real world” of, ostensibly, 1985, where kids read Marvel comics and there aren’t any superheroes or supervillains. Instead, the story follows Toby, a child of divorced parents who’s turned to comics to help him deal.

The plot, which sees Toby discovering that the Marvel supervillains might have arrived in “our” world has an interesting undercurrent that suggests it might just all be in his head. After all, he’s suffering from depression and stress, and turned to the comics to escape reality for a while - perhaps that’s actually what’s happening to him? How much that theme gets played with in future issues will certainly be of great interest.

There’s something remarkably refreshing about reading this kind of street-level, emotionally-driven comic from someone like Millar, who has been shoving out action-blockbusters of a ridiculous scale for years now. In fact, confining this story to four issues shows remarkable restraint, and I’m going to be interested to see how Millar actually pulls it off.

Tommy Lee Edwards’ art is infinitely more expressive than a Fumetti would’ve been, with a muted pallette and and incredible attention to detail. There’s a lot going on in the background of this comic and you could examine some panels for hours. The one time it doesn’t really work is a splash towards the end where it’s not entirely clear what’s going on - I get the sense of it, but not the details.

There are a few anachronistic-feeling elements - Millar’s vision of a 1985 comic shop seems designed to critique the current state of the industry rather than reflect the genuine attitudes at the time. And hey, Cerebus and Love and Rockets references! It makes things feel a little like “That 80s Comic,” which is a bit distracting. There are a lot of timeless elements to the narrative, though, and one wonders why 1985 was chosen as a specific start point. Is it merely for nostalgic purposes or is there something more to it, somehow? It’s the only element of the book that didn’t immediately win me over, which is a bit of a concern when it’s the, er, title…

Even so, in reading the book to review it, I’ve gone from being largely disinterested to oddly curious. It’s certainly a preferable follow-up to Millar’s Ultimates than his “more of the same” run on Fantastic Four is, demonstrating increased range and unique vision. It’ll be worth watching to see whether it stumbles with the second issue as Kick-Ass did to some degree, but as an first issue, it’s really got my attention.

Tags: 1985, Mark Millar, Tommy Lee Edwards
Publisher: Marvel