The Marvels podcast is among the nominees for this year’s Audio Verse Awards, specifically for Action Sound Design in a New Production and Environment Sound Design in a New Production. These nominations are the latest in a long list of accolades for the Marvels series, which actually dates back to the ‘90s.
Marvels was originally a limited comic series launched in 1994 by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. Spanning from 1939 to 1974, the four-issue series depicts the Marvel Universe through the eyes of an ordinary man, Phil Sheldon, a news photographer, as he and the other normal people around him come to terms with living in a world full of superpowered beings, or “Marvels.” This critically acclaimed series is widely considered a classic and received several Eisner awards in the year of its publication, including Best Finite Series, Best Painter for Alex Ross, and Best Publication Design for Comicraft. It was also nominated for Best Cover Artist for Alex Ross and Best Single Issue for Marvels #2.
Last year, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the series, Marvels was adapted into a podcast drama co-produced by Marvel and Stitcher, a media company specializing in podcasts. The first season is broken up into 10 episodes, each around 20 to 25 minutes long, and mostly follows the plot of Marvels #3, which focuses on the Fantastic Four’s battle with Galactus in the 1960s and the subsequent fallout. The podcast is currently available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher Premium.
Just like the books on which it is based, the Marvels podcast has been met with great acclaim, with these nominations cementing its place in the top tier of the world of comic book audio dramas. Both nominations go out to sound designer Mischa Stanton. Since 2013, the Audio Verse Awards have annually celebrated the best productions in audio fiction. Voting for the 2020 nominees will be open until October 31 on the Audio Verse Awards website, so there's still time to cast a vote.
If the ten episodes of Marvels aren’t enough, rest assured that there are plenty of other podcast dramas set in the Marvel Universe out there. Marvel and Stitcher have also partnered on Wolverine: The Long Night back in 2017, as well as the the sequel, Wolverine: The Lost Trail. In addition, Serial Box has several podcasts in their library that follow Marvel characters, including Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire, Marvel’s Thor: Metal Gods, and Marvel’s Black Widow: Bad Blood. So any fans of comics and their audio adaptations should be sure to place their vote for MARVELS.