Marville (comics)

Marville is a 2002 comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Bill Jemas, and the stories involve satirical comments on comic book industry conventions and trends.[1] The book is regularly considered one of the worst comics of all time due to its confusing and rapidly-changing plots as well as its blatantly promotional nature.

Marville
Cover of Marville #1
Art by Mark D. Bright
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
FormatLimited series
Publication date2002–2003
No. of issues7
Creative team
Written byBill Jemas

Overview

The main character is Kal-AOL Turner, the son of Ted Turner and Jane Fonda from 5002. Kal-AOL is sent back in time via a time machine made out of video game systems. Despite having no superpowers, he tries to be a superhero. After some adventures as a superhero, he and his friends decide to use their time machine to travel back to the origin of time and talk to God. Jack (who is never definitively stated to be God) takes Al and his friend through the times of the dinosaurs and neanderthals, explaining the origins of life and bestowing the secret of world peace to Al in the process. Al tries to have his story published as a series of comic books to share the secret of world peace, but is rejected because his story is not about superheroes or action.

The title is a reference to the TV series Smallville; the cover of issue #1 features the main character tied up as a scarecrow with a red 'M' painted on his chest, much as Tom Welling is in the first episode of Smallville and in related publicity material.

The series revisits several existing points of Marvel continuity in a completely irreverent and contradictory manner. For example, the issue titled "Originville" (referencing Origin) visits a prehistoric setting in which Wolverine is a mutant Neanderthal. Despite this, the series' main character, Kal-AOL Turner made a cameo appearance in the Marvel Universe series GLA and received a profile in The All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z.

Issue #3 consists entirely of art with the separations, with the script superimposed over it.

The final issue of Marville, issue #7, does not actually contain a story; instead, it contains the submissions guidelines to Marvel's new Epic Comics imprint.[2]

U-Decide

Marville was created as part of Marvel's U-Decide promotional campaign, in which fans would decide which of three books would survive. The event involved one existing book (Peter David's Captain Marvel, whose numbering was restarted at issue #1) and two new books (Marville and Ron Zimmerman's Ultimate Adventures), and was based around a bet between David and Jemas, of which Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada later became a part. Jemas changed the stakes of the bet a few issues into Marville, stating that the loser would take a pie in the face for charity. Despite this, both Marville and Ultimate Adventures ended fairly quickly, while the rebooted Captain Marvel would last 25 more issues, for a total of 60 issues when combined with the first run.

Reception

For its confusing plot, wanton sexuality, and thinly-veiled promotional nature, Marville was universally panned by critics, and is regularly referred to as one of the worst comics of all time.[3][4][5]

Comics Alliance included Marville in their list of the 15 Worst Comics of the Decade, calling it little more than a "publicity stunt,[6] and Rob Bricken of io9 likened the work to "shooting heroin directly into your adrenal gland."[7]

Screen Rant ranked Kal-AOL (and the rest of the Marville cast) as one of the superheroes that Marvel wants you to forget.[8]

The A.V. Club called it "abominable", "nearly unpublishable", and — despite its professional-quality production values — "fundamentally amateurish", condemning Jemas for using the Marvel corporation as "a vanity press for himself".[9]

gollark: Switch to fusion and blow up all your reactors.
gollark: Maybe just a bag item which passively reduces radiation from inventory stuff?
gollark: Can you make one entirely out of californium RTGs?
gollark: It's probably limited to 64-bit ints.
gollark: I prefer the computer mods.

References
  1. Marvel Graphic Novels and Related Publications: An Annotated Guide to Comics ... - Robert G. Weiner - Google Books. Books.google.com. 2008-03-17. Retrieved 2015-05-20.
  2. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story - Sean Howe - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2015-05-20.
  3. "The 15 Worst Comics Ever Published". TheThings. 2017-07-09. Retrieved 2018-06-17.
  4. "Machinima on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-06-17.
  5. "Marville: The Worst Comic Book EVER". CGC Comic Book Collectors Chat Boards. Retrieved 2018-06-17.
  6. Hudson, Laura (December 17, 2009). "The 15 Worst Comics of the Decade" Archived 2014-09-24 at the Wayback Machine. Comics Alliance
  7. Bricken, Rob. "10 Comics Marvel Would Desperately Like to Forget They Published". io9. Retrieved 2018-06-17.
  8. Byrd, Matthew (29 August 2017). "15 Superheroes Marvel Wants You To Forget". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  9. With great power comes a bizarre lack of responsibility case file #44: Marville, by Nathan Rabin, at The A.V. Club; published September 10, 2015; retrieved July 15, 2018
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