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Writer: Skottie Young
Artist: Dax Gordine
Colorist: Jean-François Beaulieu
Letterer: Nate Piekos
This year Marvel has been doing several Giant-Sized specials to celebrate the anniversary of the concept made famous by Giant-Sized X-Men #1 that forever changed the comic book landscape. This time, we have Giant-Size Little Marvels #1, which may have been made just for the opportunity to put that title on a book. I am guessing Giant Sized Man-Thing could not get approved.
Of course, this is not the first time we have gotten Gianted Sized Little Marvel as there were also specials during Avengers vs. X-Men. Although that was nearly a decade ago. Crazy to think about. Skottie Young is back on writing duties but Dax Gordine is handling the art. Despite the change in art, the styles remain nearly identical with rather strong cartooning. A lot of the comedy in this comes from the physicality of the characters and Gordine executes that well. Jean-François Beaulieu’s remaining colors certainly help maintain the continuity of the look and feel as well.
For those with Marvel Unlimited, these stories will seem very familiar as they were previously released as Infinity Comics, but now are being formatted for this issue. Despite being initially designed for digital release, they transfer over to physical with zero issues. If I did not know beforehand I would have never guessed this was released digitally first. Unlike other transfers done by companies like Webtoons which leave a lot of blank space on the page.
The comic is split into different short stories. The first chapter “Sorry, Cap!” has Captain America trying to make a movie about him being discovered in the ice only for his fellow little superhero friends to find new ways to mess it up. His attempt to make friends gets even worse. Chapter two is “Project: Iron-Way!” where Iron Man puts heroes to the test in his own reality show contest. To win they must build the best new Iron Man suit with Tony being the only judge to determine who wins. Chapter three is “Lo, There Probably Comes A Death Stone!” where Groot and Rocket go a search for a new Infinity Stone for The Collector, and lastly “Shame of Thrones!” has Doctor Doom showing his fellow villain buddies why he is the ruler of the world.
As a fan of the previous installment and a bigger fan of Skottie Young’s I Heart Fairyland I had hoped that at worst this would be a good time. It certainly is an enjoyable read and none of the chapters overstay their welcome. However, it does not quite have the cleverness of Young’s best work and a few chapters have a throwaway quality to them. “Sorry, Cap!” for example does seem to come together as an idea and ends abruptly. Never does the character feel like a kid Captain America either. I know that’s a hard concept to put anyone’s head around, but if you are going to do it you need to make it make sense for the character.
The best chapter was “Shame of Thrones!” mainly because seeing a kiddie version of Doctor Doom will always be funny. Plus having him hang out with other evil villains was an easy but effective joke. Not to mention the ending which was both fitting and funny. “Lo, There Probably Comes A Death Stone!” was a close second place, and Young’s experience with the characters paid off because it is not easy writing a story where your co-lead only says three words.
It does come off as a bit cheap that there was nothing additional added to this issue beyond what was already released on Marvel Unlimited, nor does it even include all the chapters. Beyond that, this will play even better for kids with its bite-sized story design, and operate as a gateway to the much larger Marvel Universe. Giant-Size Little Marvels #1 is a fun read but I also get the sense we have pushed this concept to its limit.
Overall: 6.5 / 10
