1 out of 5

Wow, pardon my use of a phrase that I hate, but post a ‘framing’ bit by Skottie Young, ‘Now What?!’ totally blows its load in the first couple pages with a hilarious skewering of their revamps and reboots written by Daily Show-er Elliott Kalan.  It’s this bit that I browsed at athe shop that convinced me to plunk down cash for this little humor comic (which undoubtedly takes some punctuation from the classic (?) ‘What The?!’ series)… but it’s only this bit that ends up being worthwhile, womp womp.  The rest of the comic I guess tries to poke fun at Marvel tropes or history, but fails miserably, especially some repeated ‘Wy If’ one-pagers – questioning the logic of comics or applying real-world scenarios to the fantasy – that I’m sure seemed clever and funny the first time you read a comic book, but feel really tired and obvious to long-time readers.  Though since Marvel Now! is meant for new readers… maybe it’s intended to chase me away…

But lack of entertainment aside, all the bits are written and drawn fully, and come close to humor.  The structure and nabbing of indie / non-comic talent is definitely reminiscent of the awesome Strange Tales anthologies (like the Sara Schaefer / Steve Lieber online dating bit), but it ends up being a lot safer and, eh, youthier with its humor than that initial bit hinted at.  Skottie’s ‘alternate cover trends’ missive is fine, and the Watcher intervention bit by Scott Adsit / Declan Shalvey (since Uatu is addicted to intervening) is a yukkable concept, but in both cases, its just a concept, yuk yuk, and no punchline.

Boring.  (But I respect the “this page intentionally left blank” gag.)