Whither the Marvel graphic novel?

A year ago I wondered where the comics anthology had gone. Specifically, the ones from Marvel and DC. They seemed to have picked up the slack a bit in that area (although without a drop in price, which I think would help a great deal, as well as maybe get people to buy their other books at full price, but that's neither here nor there, and I don't want to get into it), so now I'm going to turn my attention to another dinosaur: the graphic novel from Marvel.

What the hell happened to them? DC still puts them out every once in a while, and other companies publish them quite often. Why not Marvel? If, as we all assume, the future of comics lies in trade paperbacks, why on earth is Marvel unwilling to publish full-length, original graphic novels? They used to. I know, I own a few. I'm sure you do too.

The Captain Marvel one is probably the best-known, but I don't own that. However, it's supposed to be good. Or at least interesting. Starlin writes good space opera, so I imagine it's good. I also don't own the New Mutants GN, but I have read it. Also pretty good. I do own a few, and I want to wax nostalgic about them, with an eye toward making my ultimate point that these suckers would sell, damn it!

I only own four GNs published by Marvel, but three of them, at least, are excellent. The first is:

Daredevil by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.
This book is so painfully beautiful I could just stare at it for hours. Miller, who around this time was doing "Born Again," The Dark Knight Returns, "Year One," and Elektra: Assassin, was really on a roll. Sienkiewicz, meanwhile, was producing gorgeous and highly stylized work on everything he touched, and he was getting better with each project. This isn't even really a Daredevil story - it's a Kingpin story, as Wilson tries to reach his comatose wife the only way he can: he has the wife of a prominent psychiatrist kidnapped and then tells the doctor he will release his wife when Vanessa is cured. Daredevil rescues the wife, but the doctor reaches out to Vanessa and turns her against Fisk, whose heart is broken in the process. This rift is actually exploited in Chichester's dismemberment of the Kingpin in Daredevil #297-300. It's nice to see this graphic novel having an impact on the regular title.

Sienkiewicz, given the time and the palette to cut loose, really shines. His art is a stunning collage of paint and pencils, and he shifts tone throughout the book. Early on, we see a full page of Daredevil leaping off a bus in the middle of town. The streaking head- and taillights is contrasted with the streak of Matt Murdock, rising above the murk, dolphin-like. Plus, there's a nice shout-out to Ralph Macchio.


Sienkiewicz, however, is not just good at the action and gritty scenes, but the quieter ones, as well. There's a beautiful page where the doctor contemplates what he needs to do in order to save himself. Vanessa is in bed, dwarfed by it, like she is dwarfed by the alpha male to whom she is married. Miller's writing is particularly sharp here, too: "And this poor woman ... is my only weapon ..." But she must be used.


One thing Sienkiewicz does well is turn the normal grotesque in order to make a point about the characters. Fisk, large at the beginning of the book, appears to grow larger as his wife slips further away. He is all-encompassing, but he can't possess the one thing he truly wants.

This is the last page of the book, and Fisk is narrating: "I have everything I desired ..." which ends the book. It's a chilling portrait of a man who has lost what little was left of his soul. Note how small Fisk looks, despite what you initially see. This is all Sienkiewicz.

Another graphic novel I own is Jon J. Muth's adaptation of Dracula.

This is certainly not as good as either the original book (obviously) nor the Daredevil OGN, but it's a beautiful comic nevertheless. Muth is best known, maybe, for Moonshadow, his collaboration with J.M. DeMatteis, and his art style is perfect for a gothic horror book like Dracula.

If anyone has read the novel, the tone of this book is similar - arguably difficult to get through, meandering in some places, but full of creepy images and terrifying moments. Muth depicts it with deliberately hazy watercolors, lending a sheen of vagueness and dreaminess to the proceedings. The book skips the Transylvanian part of Stoker's novel and brings us right to England, and the stars of the comic are Mina and Lucy more than anyone else, even Van Helsing. As with the book, the sexual longing on the part of the two females is brought out, but, as it's a pictorial adaptation, it's a but more graphic. We have also come to expect to see Dracula as a grand seducer, thanks to Anne Rice, but in the comic, although Dracula is certainly a powerful presence, Lucy is the true hero, even though she may have lost her soul to destroy the vampire.
It's a disturbing book, one that demands that you stop and gaze at the gorgeous artwork and read it carefully. It's the kind of book that we just can't imagine Marvel putting out today, and that's a shame.

Another book I want to mention briefly is Steven Grant, Mike Zeck, and John Beatty's OGN about the Punisher, Return To Big Nothing. I have mentioned that I'm not a fan of Frank Castle, but that doesn't necessarily preclude me from reading about him. I just happen to think he's a character with such limited story possibilities that it would be difficult to keep him fresh. I could be wrong, but his "war on crime" thing just annoys me, even though I love Garth Ennis, for instance, and hear that his Punisher series is pretty decent.

I bought this book for one reason only: Zeck's art. I didn't know much about Grant, so that wasn't a draw, but Zeck's art is always good to see, and he delivers, with nice clean lines and beautifully drawn mayhem. The story is fine for what it is: Castle kills bad guys. It zips along, gives us a bit of character development, and lots of people die and many things are blown up. I haven't read too much by Grant, but I find it interesting that he can be so erudite and clever on his weekly columns for Comic Book Resources yet so pedestrian in his comic-book writing. That's not to say it's bad, it just doesn't often rise above the pack.


One of the gold standards of Marvel graphic novels, of course, is Claremont and Anderson's X-Men book, God Loves, Man Kills.

Some people might suspect this is overrated. Well, maybe - if people compare it to Shakespeare. As a comic book, you're rarely going to see a finer example of what the medium is capable of. Claremont is at the top of his form here, bringing in elements from the regular series but not getting bogged down in it, telling a brutally graphic story but still offering plenty of reasons to hope, creating a villain that could have easily been a stereotype (and often is) but making sure William Stryker had enough depth for us to understand him and be truly horrified by what he's doing rather than simply saying, "Oh, he's a villain - that's what they do." Because this isn't the regular series, and the children might not read it because of its price, Claremont can be a little more "true-to-life," as at the beginning, when two mutant children are killed:

Some might say this is horribly cynical and shouldn't be shown in comics and "why can't comics just be about fun?" Well, read Archie if you want that. This is certainly a different kind of comic book, and, unlike what Brian was talking about with the consequences of Sue Dibny's rape, the consequences here are shown, as Claremont follows through on what Stryker's plans are and how Magneto and Professor Xavier plan to stop him. He wants to examine the racist motivation of people who want to herd mutants up simply because of who they are, and why mutants need to stand up for themselves. In one of the most memorable scenes in the book, Kitty Pryde lashes out at Stevie Hunter (remember her?) when Stevie tells her that words can't hurt:

Can anyone even conceive of Marvel letting someone write that today? Of course not - it might offend someone, and God forbid we offend anyone these days!

Of course, the X-Men confront Stryker, on national television, and he reveals his true colors when his assistant, Anna, is shown to be a mutant. In another gripping scene, Stryker kills Anna in front of millions of viewers:

This final scene is famous for several reasons: Stryker pointing at Kurt and asking how anyone can call him human, Kitty pointing out that Kurt is more decent and caring than Stryker could ever imagine, Stryker unable to see past his prejudices to embrace the person who has helped in on his crusade more than anyone, Charles and Magneto unable to reconcile. It's a wonderful conclusion in that it offers both hope and trepidation about the future. Claremont used to be very good at this sort of thing, and here it's on display magnificently. Anderson's art is perfect, as well - I won't say he's never been better, but he does achieve marvelous synergy with Claremont, and they produce a masterpiece. The second X-Men movie did a noble job at trying to recreate it, but the source material remains the must-read. It's probably still in print, although I can't say the same for the others (I honestly don't know).

So why doesn't Marvel publish them anymore? Other companies do - I just bought two today. Even DC puts a few out occasionally. Are they really such a loser? I would think they'd be the kind of thing that would recoup losses in the long run, because you can keep them in print or reprint them as the market demands. I don't know, but it's a shame, because these books allow writers to loosen up a bit and expand a story and explore things a bit more, and because they aren't on a monthly schedule, they allow the artist to really work at it and make the art perfect. In the past few years, DC has given us that absolutely gorgeous J.G. Jones Wonder Woman GN, Christopher Moeller's Justice League (really Wonder Woman, but technically JL) book, and Morrison and Quitely's JLA: Earth Two, plus a bunch of others I'm sure I'm forgetting. I honestly don't know why Marvel seems to have given up the practice. But I'm here to help, and I'm sure you all will be too, with my own suggestions.

An Avengers OGN by Morrison and Quitely. It could bookend the JLA one they did.

A Nick Fury book by Miller and Sienkiewicz. They've already "done" Fury in the tremendously overwrought Elektra: Assassin, and this would be a hoot.

Kurt Busiek and Tom Mandrake on a Silver Surfer book. Mandrake might not be the obvious choice for this, but if you check out The Spectre, you see he can handle big space opera.

Peter David and Kevin Maguire doing a Spider-Man GN. Who wouldn't want to see Maguire draw Spider-Man?

Steve Niles and Kelley Jones - Doctor Strange. That's gold!

Brian K. Vaughan and Gary Frank on an X-Men book. Vaughan has proven he can handle a big cast, and Frank's clean pencils make his characters easily recognizable.

Ellis and Templesmith, taking a break from Fell, to do Moon Knight. I'd buy that. It might depress me, but I'd buy it.

Anyway, give me some suggestions. Also, tell me why Marvel doesn't do this. I crave answers!

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