1602, when you stop to think about it, is a rather strange book.  On the one hand, it wants to be a Neil Gaiman book; on the other hand, it wants to be a big epic superhero story with a ton of Marvel Universe characters included.  That may be a difficult circle to square; Gaiman's strengths as a writer don't necessarily lend themselves to the X-Men, and vice versa.

The high concept is that this is the Marvel Universe, only it's emerging in 1602 rather than 1961.  Gaiman has insisted in interviews that, notwithstanding the set-up, it is in continuity.  Presumably this means that the world has somehow or other been transformed into Marvel 1602, and the plot is going to involve putting it back.  But that's in the future; to all intents and purposes, what we're seeing here is a load of Marvel characters in 1602.

1602 was the penultimate year of Elizabeth I's reign as monarch, and she's in declining health here.  The gathering plot threads involve the question of who's going to succeed her, a mysterious object on its way from the Holy Land, and the arrival in England of the serendipitously named Virginia Dare.  Dare, who apparently really existed, was the first child born in North America of English parents.  The coincidence of her sounding exactly like a superhero character from the Silver Age must have been too good to pass up.

Meanwhile, Gaiman brings in the original X-Men as "witchbreed", and ties in the theme of persecution to the religious tensions of the time, with specific reference to the Inquisition.  And a bunch of superheroes show up in modified form.

You get the general idea; there is undoubtedly a story here, but there is also a distinct sense that Gaiman is playing parlour games by seeing how he can tweak the Silver Age Marvel line-up to make them work in the framework of 1602 society.  And at times, he's not exactly subtle about it.  (Look, here's Peter Parquagh - see how he talks about spiders just in case anyone didn't get the hint from the name.)  Others are more obscure; the Grand Inquisitor occupies a role which obviously hints at Magneto, but looks nothing like him and seems to have an entirely contrary agenda.

How you'll react to this book depends on what you're expecting from it.  My suspicion is that a lot of people will expect it to be a Neil Gaiman story of the sort they're used to getting from Vertigo and will then be annoyed that it's full of rather strained gags about time-displaced superheroes; others will be wanting some kind of epic superhero story and then get rather annoyed that it's playing Gaiman's game of messing around with historical references and obscurities such as Dare.  In short, if you're expecting Secret Wars or Sandman, you're going to end up disappointed either way.

It has to be taken on its own terms, which is a middle ground between the two - Gaiman having fun, essentially, and delivering a a tongue-in-cheek story that hybridises two rather incompatible styles into a somewhat contrived parlour game.  By his own admission, the superhero genre is not Gaiman's strength and what we're seeing here is a bit of a compromise.  It has a certain amusement value if you're a reader with a foot in both camps.

As to whether it will end up with anything more, or just as an amusing novelty for superhero fans of a historical bent... I'm not so sure.  It's perfectly readable stuff, but I can't shake the feeling of awkward compromise between two styles that don't really play well together.

Rating: B

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