A new fictional podcast series will adapt Marvels as an audio drama. The series is a joint production between Marvel and Stitcher, who have already cemented a relationship with the release of sinister mysteries Wolverine: The Long Night and its follow-up Wolverine: The Lost Trail.
Marvels was an acclaimed four issue miniseries published in early 1994 that retold events in Marvel’s comics history from the perspective of the ordinary people who live in a world tinged by the fantastical, seen through the eyes of photographer Phil Sheldon. The story begins in 1939 with the appearance of and subsequent battling between John Hammond – the original android Human Torch – and Namor the Sub-Mariner, with each issue jumping forward to a key point in the timeline, ending in 1973 with the death of Gwen Stacy. Throughout its run its focus was less on the superheroes and more on how the everyday lives of people were impacted by their actions, such as being caught up in anti-mutant sentiment, or increased feelings of helplessness in the face of the vast levels of power to which they regularly bear witness.
The story of the Marvels podcast picks up after the third issue of the comics, which featured the appearance of the Silver Surfer and Galactus, and the Fantastic Four’s fight against with the world-devouring cosmic entity. In the aftermath of the battle the press, spearheaded by J. Jonah Jameson, has written off Galactus’ invasion as a hoax, tarnishing the superheroes’ credibility. Conspiracy theories run rampant and Sheldon, along with cynical journalist Ben Urich and ambitious college student Marcia Hardesty investigate to uncover the truth of what actually happened. Marvel New Media and Stitcher made the announcement in a press release.
As well as the central roles of Phil Sheldon, Ben Urich and Marcia Hardesty, to be voiced respectively by Seth Barrish, AnnaSophia Robb, and Clifford “Method Man” Smith, the series also features Reed Richards (Ethan Peck), Sue Storm (Louisa Krause), Johnny Storm (Ehad Berisha), Ben Grimm (Jake Hart), Peter Parker (Teo Rapp-Olsson) and new character Charlie Martinez (Gabriela Ortega). The 10-episode series will debut in fall 2019 exclusively on Stitcher Premium, and will see a wider distribution next year.
We live in a world where instead of people watching the news to be informed, they must instead first decide whether or not they believe the veracity of what’s being reported, with dozens of takes on even the most innocuous incident clogging up information feeds. As a result, something as incomprehensible as the appearance of an unstoppable monolithic humanoid in purple and blue armor appearing from the stars to consume the planet only to be warned off by a small handheld device, is exactly the kind of event that would have every hack with a digital camera and a YouTube channel spouting off about the ‘truth’ of what occurred and how this conveniently ties in with whatever agenda they want to push. Marvels may now be 25 years old and deal with events that debuted half a century ago, but given the nature of its story its appearance could not feel more timely.
Source: Marvel New Media, Stitcher