"Marvel Rising" is the comic series that inspired the latest brilliant entry to the Marvel Animated TV universe, and the first collected edition is finally available. As huge fans of Ryan North's work and of course his continued brilliant writing in "Squirrel Girl", we couldn't wait to see whether the latest teen team-up would work out. As soon as I saw the Gurihiri cover for this I was sold on it straight away.
"Marvel Rising Volume 1" takes place in Squirrel Girl's coding club, and Kamala Khan (AKA Ms Marvel) just happens to be a pupil. So when one of her classmates seems to go completely off the rails, summoning death-dealing videogame characters from thin air, both Squirrel Girl and Ms Marvel must risk exposing their secret identities with a titanic team up alongside other teen superheroes, kicking Marvel's comic universe into a cool new generation of stories.
At the heart of this collection, SG and MM meet an old foe who has cropped up again and again in the Marvel Universe. We won't say who it is yet (spoilers, sweetie) suffice to say that you're taken on a blisteringly brilliant rollercoaster ride of a story from start to finish.
What we particularly liked about this series was Marvel's full understanding of the audience that this comic will appeal to. Middle grade / early teen audiences are going to absolutely love this, and will not miss one iota the usual comic book violence and slightly darker tone you see in far too many other comics (whether purposely designed for kids or not).
Writing that deals with the types of issues kids will face in tween and teen years, but giving everything a super-energetic Marvel twist or two really does show that far from merely being "Disneyfied", Marvel understand that their youth comic audience is A) Not stupid and B) not just won over by 'cute' makeovers of existing superheroes.
Once again though, it's Ryan North who steals the show with so many brilliant killer lines for Squirrel Girl and Kamala Khan as they buddy up. We are really liking this more joyful and energy-filled approach to comic storytelling, and this is an absolute belter of a series that we can't wait to read more of.
Sum this comic up in one sentence: Good for a huge range of ages, positive male / female role models, brilliant storytelling and absolutely blisteringly awesome artwork but fun, joyful and satisfying stuff for comic fans.
"Marvel Rising" Volume 1 by North, Grayson, Wilson and various series artists is out now (self published on ComiXology).