1985 #1 by Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards(2008).
© Marvel

Mania Grade: A+
Comic Series: 1985
Issue: 1
Authors: Mark Millar, Tommy Lee Edwards
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $3.99

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Comic Review:1985 #1

Marvel’s newest foray into loving superhero deconstruction—think Marvels, Earth X, and DC’s Kingdom Come—takes place not in the Marvel Universe, but our own. Young Toby loves comic books, and he uses them to escape from his unstable life at home and school. His ne’er-do-well father can’t afford his car payments, and his mother lives with a richer coworker that tells Toby to give up comics. More than anything, the boy wants to stay in his room, ensconced in the Marvel Universe, which is in the last days of its Secret War. One day, Toby and his father visit an old house in the woods. His father knew the son of the owner as a child, and the two introduce themselves to the new owners. With plans to turn the building into a hotel or a nursing home, the squat, wrinkled new owner offers the pair a box of old comic books. Toby’s father examines them, and finds a Silver Age treasure trove. He suggests that they be taken to a comic shop, instead. As Toby and his father turn to leave, the young man notices a familiar face leering at him from the window—a hateful red visage that he has seen before in the pages of his comic collection. Though no one believes him, he suspects that the lines between his own world and the Marvel Universe may have disappeared. When the news reports sightings of a green, winged man flying over rooftops, Toby decides to investigate the old house alone. What he finds there confirms his darkest suspicions. 

1985 has been a long time coming. Originally planned as a comic book told in still photographs, it has been recast in Tommy Lee Edwards’s moody art. Not knowing quite how it would turn out as a photo comic, the artist provides the series with the realism it deserves. Writer Mark Millar provides a rich nostalgia trip for those readers that grew up on Marvel in the 1980s. Toby stresses about missing issue of Secret War, and wishes, above all, that the worlds he reads about were as real as his own. Little does he know that sometimes imaginary worlds can break out into the real one. In that way, Millar provides a bit of fanboy childhood wish-fulfillment for those of us that remember 1980s Marvel fondly. Those readers that remember genre movies like Goonies and tribute films like Monster House will appreciate 1985. More than anything, it revels in the childhood awe many comic readers remember. This is an experience rarely duplicated through adult eyes. However, comics like 1985 come closest to delivering it—not by recreating the experience, but by telling a story about the way comic readers felt as children.

1985 is a superior, off-the-beaten-path work of deconstruction by Mark Millar. It reminds readers why they loved comics as children. And, though many desperately seek that sense of wonder into adulthood, they will only find it in works that explore the feeling directly. 1985 is one such work, and should be purchased by anyone that loves comics at all costs. This is brilliant.

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at comicscape@mania.com.