Are you read to get on with this? No? How about now? How about… now? How about … now?

Well that was a fun joke. Let’s do a review.

Written by Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Jeph Loeb, Nick Spencer, Kieron Gillen and Dennis Hopeless

Illustrated by Steve McNiven, Michael Allred, Ed McGuinness, Luke Ross, Jamie McKelvie and Gabriel Hernandez Walta THE FUTURE OF MARVEL IS NOW!

Marvel’s last “Point One” issue was a bit of a missed opportunity. It was a chance for folks to get a gander at what would come the next year from Marvel, a book where the “next big thing” would be revealed, and yet for the most part it was little more than an anthology of potential. After all, “Age of Ultron” was definitely a thing I read in the year since the book has come out.

And yet, this second attempt at riding the Point One initiative seems a bit more focused. This is all about Marvel’s new line-wide relaunch, Marvel NOW!, and because of it everything is done very specifically not just to give ideas of where things could be headed but rather to offer up specific preludes to books you’ll soon maybe buy. The final two-page spread of book covers and release dates isn’t just in there in case you’ve got a few extra dimes. No, this is a concentrated effort to say: here are books that will be coming out soon, and this is why you’re going to want to buy it.

Let it then be noted that, for all intents and purposes, this anthology issue is actually rather great. Despite what you may think of the content (since all comics are inherently subjective to who reads them), the entire idea of the issue is executed quite well. Here are six stories, almost all of which are straight preludes to books you’ll be able to buy soon, and all of which show off the abilities of the involved creative teams. And at 5.99, where you’re paying for a book that’s twice as much as the average comic on stands yet with more than twice the content, it’s one hell of a preview.

Really, the only thing better would be a free preview magazine with pages from upcoming issues. Oh, wait, you can get that? Never mind then. Still a good deal, though.

So in looking at the book, it is rather easy to break everything down and observe each story individually. All of it is sewn together by a framing sequence written by Nick Spencer and illustrated by Luke Ross that is set to prelude the new “Secret Avengers,” but outside of that each story is very much it’s own thing.

Fans of Spencer and Ross should be pleased with their short, however, as it’s very much the type of work you’d expect from them — or at least from Spencer. The dialogue is full of playful nods and winks to thinks past and future, very much a huge tease towards whatever Marvel’s next big event is, and yet it’s also very similar to how politic-heavy Spencer tread “SA” his last time around on the book. Luke Ross is the real stand-out however, because while most are assumedly familiar with Spencer’s past Marvel work, Ross’ art is strikingly different than his “Ultimate Comics Ultimates” artwork — thanks in part to the fantastic colors by Lee Loughridge. The colors give Ross’ art a sharper edge to it, and stripping away some of the rounded nature Ross’ art has had in the past and replacing it with this flatter and edgier work gives the entire sequence a much sleeker and prettier execution. It should be interesting to see where they take the title when it relaunches.

From there we’re given four short but engaging little tales that all serve to tease and entice for upcoming ongoings. The Bendis/McNiven “Guardians” teaser is action-packed, and it’s not at all indicative of the overly verbose sass-filled work that fans have come to find from Bendis’ “Avengers” run; this is darker, it’s fast paced, action-heavy and really lets McNiven do the heavy lifting, for the benefit of the future story. Loeb and McGuinness are a pairing that obviously work well together and have proven to do so in the past, and “Nova” feels a little different — it’s more playful, it’s kind of goofy, but it’s a far cry from the last version of Nova we saw to the extent that while it feels a bit immature, it’s actually quite fun. Gillen and McKelvie’s “Young Avengers” should barely need any convincing; they’re a duo who have proven to work phenomenally well together, and now we’re given “Phonogram” in the Marvel Universe (the last page of the short is by far the best page in the entire book). And Fraction and Allred’s “FF” prelude? It’s fast, loose, fun, wild, ginchy, sharp and everything you should expect from both creators, along the same lines of Gillen and McKelvie.

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Yes, skeptics and general peanut gallery: it may shock you to learn, but “Marvel NOW! Point One” is pretty great. If this is truly a blueprint of the house Marvel is hoping to build with this initiative, then the future of NOW! is rather bright indeed.

Truth be told, the only story that doesn’t build interest in a follow-up is the “Cable and X-Force” short by Dennis Hopeless and Gabriel Hernandez Walta — specifically for the reason that it has little to do with Cable or X-Force. The ball is tee’d up by Spencer and Ross’ over-arcing tale, yet when the story begins Cable is little more than after-thought, let alone X-Force’s involvement or why they’re “wanted.” Every other story in the anthology in one way or another is a jumping on point for whatever book it’s here to help create interest in except this one. While it isn’t ostensibly bad in any major way — Hopeless’ writing is clever and well paced, for example, and Walta’s art is sharp and stylistic — the story simply feels out of place in an otherwise cohesive unit. (Especially when Cable is the character that graces the cover.)

However, the unfortunate kicker is that the book operates on the Heroes principal. I suppose this is a bit of a “spoiler“, but the final page spread shows a destroyed city (that I’m 99% sure is from Bryan Hitch and “the Age of Ultron”) with the note that bad things will happen in the future no matter. It’s basically what Heroes did almost every season, where a disaster was predicted of epic proportions and it was up to the characters to futiley fight the future. The framing sequence makes fun of the “Heroic Age” idea and the “Young Avengers” short makes fun of the inevitability of company-wide crossovers, but even if this is just an ad for “AoU”, it does sort of damn the future of the Marvel line to the notion that a crossover is inevitable — and that’s just disheartening.

Yet, outside of those two things, it’s a very solid book. It basically boils down to this: if you’re at all curious about Marvel NOW!, and you’re specifically curious about titles that aren’t “Big Names” (i.e. Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, etc), this issue is pretty perfect for you. It can indeed help inform you on some of the titles you may be interested in buying (it certainly did for me), and at the end of the day it can sit nicely in your longbox next to Issue #1 of whichever series this may convince you to get.

Think about it like this: this is a book for undecided voters. Giving the title a chance is like getting to pre-cast your vote in order to find out if who you wanted to vote for would make a good President a month in advance of the election. That’s a pretty sweet opportunity, all in all.

Final Verdict: 7.5 – Buy