1602 by Neil Gaiman

Whoops. I made a mistake.

I read 1602 without even a fundamental understanding of Marvel characters. I know it was a mistake, but the fact is that someone lent me this book and I couldn't bloody well hold on to the thing for a year while I immersed myself in the Universe de Marvel. I just had to plow through it in less than a week and hope that I got something out of it.

And I did. I'm not sure what it was, though. The plot was confusing, because so much of the action was character-based and I understood so little of the characters. The premise is quite brilliant, though, and many times I felt I was giving the book a disservice by reading it (unfamiliar with the characters as I was).

There is definitely the feeling that something good is going on, though. The artwork is just beautiful - the drawings of Queen Elizabeth in particular. The visual components alone are worth picking the book up. The writing, when it wasn't knee-deep in something I couldn't understand, was fluid and realistic.

What I was familiar with was joyful. The Fantastic Four's origin story was wonderful, Peter Parker was a bit of a tease but still fun, the Phoenix story retelling was intriguing, and the reincarnation of Captain America as a Native American is nothing short of inspired.

I'm still finding my feet when it comes to any sort of graphic novel. I probably made a mistake by starting with Watchmen, which I'm only going to have so long to adore before it's cut to pieces in a movie. It was so excellent that I don't want to see it in a movie, the format perfectly fit the material. But this isn't a post about Watchmen.

If I owned 1602 I would lend it to someone who is more familiar with Marvel than I am, and I am sure they would enjoy it, if they have any love for innovation or alternate history. I would recommend it to my father, if his knowledge of comic book characters is what I think it is.

Sorry, what I have to say about these comics isn't very insightful. I'm just more comfortable and familiar with the standard fiction genre, the one with paragraphs instead of panels. Not to say I'm abandoning graphic novels; in fact, I enjoy them very much. I just, in good conscience, pretend to be an expert on them the way I can with general fiction.

I am, however, an expert on what I like, and I liked the parts of 1602 that I could understand, which leads me to believe that the other parts are just as, if not more, likable. At least to someone who can appreciate them.