Trade Marks: Marvel - 1985

I picked this up knowing nothing about it, but have since learned that it was surrounded by a decent amount of hype. I do like Mark Millar's work, but I feel as though he can sometimes get tripped up by his own cleverness. We are deep in high concept, meta textual land here, as some sort of portal opens between the 'real' world and the Marvel Universe. The good news is that when it works, it is splendid. The brutality of the villains is on full display, and the sense of impending danger is really well portrayed. What does not work, however, are the characterizations of the 'real' people. The father and son protagonists are poorly fleshed out and the relationships are only dealt with at a superficial level. The artwork is strong at times, but the storytelling gets quite muddles in certain sequences. All in all, it is a gimmick book that falls far short of its intended target. Trade Mark: C