Dark Ages #1

Dark Ages #1

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Tom Taylor

Illustrated by Iban Coello

Coloured by Brian Reber

Lettered by VC’s Joe Sabino

This is what the Watcher has been watching for! A danger older than the Earth threatens everything. For once, the heroes who have saved the planet so many times are almost powerless in the face of it. X-Men and Avengers assemble. Spider-People and Fantastic Four come together. Heroes for Hire fight alongside Champions. None of it will be enough. The lights are about to go out. The world outside our window...is about to end.

Just once, okay just for a year or two more specifically, I wish Marvel wouldn’t do an event. Let things rest up and settle down before doing something else that will shake things up because honestly I’m way tired of company crossovers. I did get this because of the blank cover, I'm a sucker for them. That being said, were this to be kept to the six issues in this run and it being set on an Earth that isn’t the main Marvel Earth and I am more than okay with this. The whole premise is great as technology is about to be turned off and the Earth is going to be sent back to a time before technology, hence the Dark Ages. I like how we see this coming about and honestly with the amount of science based heroes in the Marvel Universe it makes a lot of sense to tell this story.

I am enjoying the way that we see this being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is extremely well presented. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing the story, the characters and how the world changes we are captivated by the events which we see.

How this is being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and evolve over such a short period of time is beautifully achieved. What I love about these layers is how we see the various avenues open up and whether or not they work with the main story or simply swirl around it; they all add such delightful depth, dimension and complexity to the story. The way we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is sensationally achieved.

The interiors here are utterly gorgeous. I wish all Marvel books looked this good to be honest. Even better that there is one creative team doing the interiors here is sublime. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create this level & quality of detail work throughout the book is stunning. Backgrounds are being utilised fairly well throughout the book as they enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels bringing out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is marvellous to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show such a beautiful understanding of how colour works, how the application of it needs to be done and overall just a master colourist at work.

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I’m not sure how much of this I’ll read but I'll definitely be back for next issue to see what direction they are deciding to take this. The only real problem I have is that Marvel relies so heavily on the same characters for every event and after a while it gets a tad too predictable. Still with the intelligent writing and witty characterisation side-by-side with these gorgeous interior pages this is definitely worth starting.