To be completely Fair and Balanced, I have to say that I read the first issue of Neil Gaiman's new comic, 1602, last night, and I didn't like it. I thought it read exactly like a DC Elseworlds title--the characters weren't just archetypes, they were the actual Marvel characters, just transplanted into a different time and slightly different situation. Mutants become "witchbreed", but the same mutants are persecuted the same way and team up under the tutelage of the same guy. Nick Fury has a "Sir" to go along with his eyepatch. Daredevil is Irish-Irish, not Irish-American, but he's still blind, still absurdly acrobatic.
My pal Marc Singer (not that one) is more sanguine about the title's chances, because he's anticipating the plot to be more than is usual in an Elseworlds. To be Fair and Balanced, I think I disagree. Many Elseworlds have quite strong plots--often, because they're reiterating the strongest stories of the characters they aren't bothering to change beyond the cosmetic. I get no more sense from the first issue that 1602 is going to have exceptionally more.
Now, it's been said that this isn't an Elseworlds, implying that it's somehow going to hook back up to the modern-day Marvel Universe. If so, if it works, then it'll be a real achievement. But now, it just looks like an Elseworlds.
Posted by Greg at August 15, 2003 10:00 AM
I agree, but since I agree pretty much 100%, I don't have anything to add.
Oh, wait, the blond Indian was dorky.
It can hook back up to the modern-day Marvel Universe in the same way the ol' Kulan Gath issue of X-Men did. Just have it be some sort of magical rewriting effect that gets undone at the end. Or something. I dunno. I don't know if I care enough to find out.
--Kynn