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Annotations to Marvel 1602 #1 |
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first posted on 14 August 03 |
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JULIAN DARIUS |
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Read The Continuity
Page covering Marvel 1602 (and other Marvel universe-spanning work). |
Part One / Issue #1 This issue was cover-dated November 2003
and published on Wednesday, 13 August 2003.
It runs some 34 pages (plus six pages of ads), but was offered at the
same price ($3.50) as later, shorter issues. The cover depicts Doctor Stephen Strange,
apparently walking to his meeting with Queen Elizabeth as seen in the opening
pages of this issue. The cover thus
cleverly occurs before the first page of the issue. Note that this is not entirely unprecedented: the covers of Watchmen (the
12-issue series thought by many to be the best graphic novel ever written)
also served as a kind of super-large “first panel,” though those covers
exclusively featured objects rather than people. Page
1 Panels 1-2: The man pictured is Doctor Stephen Strange (formally introduced
to Sir Nicholas Fury on the following page), walking to meet Queen Elizabeth
-- a sequence actually continued from the cover image. Doctor Stephen Strange’s normal Marvel
incarnation as a very powerful magician (called “the Sorcerer Supreme”) is
similar to his appearance here, although his outfit is considerably less
garish in 1602. Strange
briefly narrates his origin in issue #4 (pages 3 and 4). Note that Strange wears a
skullcap, today a sign of Jewishness but then a religio-academic sign of very
different significance. The skullcap
had its roots in monks shaving a circular portion, about the same size as the
skullcap, of their head. It would evolve
in time to the tasseled mortar board seen in today’s academic dress and at
graduation ceremonies. (There were no
open Jews in England in 1602. King
Edward I officially expelled the Jews from England in 1290. Jews in Elizabethan England were quite rare
and were persecuted: forced
conversion was still thought a good thing, as it saved a soul, and comic
stereotypical Jewish characters were still common, as with Shakespeare’s The
Merchant of Venice or Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta. Jews were officially tolerated again in
1655, during the Interregnum. The
skullcap, called yarmulke, was not adopted by Jews until the 1700s.) The dialogue in captions is
that of Queen Elizabeth and Nicholas Fury, with the larger captions those of
Elizabeth and smaller captions those of Fury. In terms of Elizabeth’s speech here, note that metrological and
astrological events and conditions were often still taken as signs in the
Renaissance. The irony here, of
course, is that they are signs. Elizabeth, of course, uses the
royal “we” -- in other words, she refers to herself in the plural, which
symbolizes that monarchs are the living embodiment of their nation’s
people. See Ernst H. Kantorowicz’s
seminal The King’s Two Bodies: A
Study in Mediaevel Political Theology, first published by Princeton
University Press in 1957. Besides its
brilliant assertion of symbolic and cultural continuation throughout
apparently disparate eras, Kantorowicz famously articulated the division
between the monarch himself, whose body could be killed, and the king’s
immortal body politic: thus one can
proclaim, “The king is dead. Long
live the king.” In Elizabeth’s time,
the notion of the king’s two bodies has particular resonance, since the
crown’s lawyers advanced this theory to justify a female monarch in a time
when women were considered dangerously irrational. In addressing troops at Tilbury in 1588 in preparation for the
expected Spanish invasion, Elizabeth offered what is probably her most famous
quotation on the matter: she claimed
that she had been advised not to appear before so many armed men, asserting
in turn her loyalty to her loving subjects and adding, “I know I have the
body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king,
and of England too.” |
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I feel that it is my duty to add that we should remember, before
judging the era in regards to its view of female ability to govern, that
there was particular cause for this attitude in this period. |
I feel that it is my duty to
add that we should remember, before judging the era in regards to its view of
female ability to govern, that there was particular cause for this attitude
in this period -- besides the fact that women are, in general, more emotional
then men, even in today’s post-industrial, feminist societies. The women of the time were not as schooled
as the era’s men and did not seem suited to governance. Moreover, the physical circumstances in which
women lived -- including the use of corsets and the like that contributed to
female fainting spells and the use of make-ups containing lead (a theory also
applied to the ancient Greeks) -- may have contributed to a lack of female
intellect or rationality. This strange weather
referenced in the first panel, for one familiar with the set-up of 1602,
immediately seems to be related to the reason the Marvel universe has somehow
started almost 400 years earlier.
Note that, in DC’s epoch-making Crisis on Infinite Earths,
strange weather was used as a sign of coming annihilation, which led to a
revision of the DC universe’s entire history -- much as 1602 offers an
alternate history of the Marvel universe. |
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Elizabeth has just one more year to live, and she is coughing
because she is already sick. |
Panel 3:
The seated woman is, of course, Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth’s reign was astoundingly long,
beginning in November 1558 (with the death of Queen Mary I) and ended with
her death in March 1603. Born in
1533, she took the throne at just 25, and is here, in March 1602, some 70
years old. She has just one more year
to live, and she is coughing because she is already sick. As seen in her portraits, she really did
dress as she appears here, at least in public. The man standing beside her is
Sir Nicholas Fury, formally introduced to Doctor Stephen Strange on the
following page. In his normal Marvel
incarnation, Sir Nicholas Fury is Nick Fury, who commanded a group of
soldiers in World War II before becoming, in the 1960s, a James Bond figure
(as part of the fad for such figures in the 1960s) as the leader of
S.H.I.E.L.D., an espionage and counter-terrorism organization with exotic
gadgets including Life Model Decoys, robots outwardly indistinguishable from
humans, and the helicarrier, an aircraft carrier-sized headquarters kept
aloft by a system of helicopter-style blades. |
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Making Nicholas Fury a spymaster for Elizabeth has great
resonance with the functioning of England’s Elizabethan government. Lacking a standing army or national police
force, the government relied upon a network of spies and informers. |
Making Nicholas Fury a
spymaster for Elizabeth has great resonance with the functioning of England’s
Elizabethan government. Lacking a
standing army or national police force (let alone most of what we think of as
the bureaucratic necessities of state), the government relied upon a network
of spies and informers. One noted
figure of this network was Sir Francis Walsingham (1530-1590), Elizabeth’s
spymaster whose work in 1586 exposed the Babington Plot, leading to the
execution of Mary, Queen of Scots; he was also Elizabeth’s Secretary of State
in the 1570s and 1580s as well as a member of the Queen’s privy council. In short, then Nicholas Fury’s role here
in Elizabeth’s government not only serves the function of creating a good
1602 analogue but actually illustrates the nature of Elizabethan government. Queen Elizabeth’s speculation
about armageddon is typical of the times, in which many thought that they
lived in the last days before God ended the universe. Whether this meant fire and horror for the
living or the installation of God’s reign on Earth -- or often both in
sequence -- depended on the particular apocalyptic individual. It sometimes seems that everyone -- from
Jesus’s Jewish contemporaries and his followers (who believed the end of the
world would occur in their lifetimes) to John of Patmos (whose Revelation
was supposed to soon occur) and throughout the Renaissance -- believed that
they were living in the final days or years.
And this appearance is, in general, quite correct. In Renaissance England, however, this
apocalyptic strain was complicated by England’s unique state version of
Protestantism, neither very old nor invulnerable: if God was coming, or ending his Creation, he either preferred
England as his special place or, for Catholics, held special disdain for the
English who set up their own state church for King Henry VIII’s convenience. Page
2 Panel 1:
The quote here is from The Bible, specifically chapter 24 of
the gospel of Matthew. The
passage’s point is that, while people believe that they live in the end
times, one should not attempt to specify -- or get too caught up in --
exactly when armageddon will occur.
The passage is often used to dismiss -- or calm -- eschatological fervor. Remember that, in the context
of Biblical quotations in this work, that the King James Bible, through which
such quotes are typically known today, would not be issued until 1611. Panel 2:
“The royal purse is not inexhaustible” is a true statement: the English monarchy was always a “weak
monarch” -- a term designating (like “weak governors” and “strong governors”
in the United States) a position with less power than others in comparable
positions -- and was dependent upon Parliament to approve the royal budget,
though this generally was a formality, as well as any budget for waging war,
meaning that waging war meant that the crown had to plead for the funds. Parliament also controlled the right to
levy taxes and, while subject to the crown’s influence, was ostensibly
independent: members of the House of Commons were not appointed by the crown
but elected (though these elections were often corrupt) from their
boroughs. Despite their status, then,
English monarchs routinely faced budgetary problems. |
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Rumors of rebellion circulated constantly around her presence as
a Catholic symbol. To make matters
worse, Pope Gregory XIII proclaimed in 1580 that killing the heretical
Elizabeth would not constitute a mortal sin. |
Panel 4:
Elizabeth’s reference to assassinations foreshadows the attempt on her
life in issue #3. The historical Elizabeth
did face numerous threats to her rule, and she aggressively punished those
against her. Her reign faced both
Catholic and Protestant extremists from the beginning. Driven from her own kingdom in 1568 by
rebellious nobles, Mary, Queen of Scots, took refuge in England, where she
remained essentially under a state of house arrest. Rumors of rebellion circulated constantly around her presence
as a Catholic symbol. History
conspired to accentuate tensions, as with the French massacre of the
Protestant Huguenots on St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572. To make matters worse, Pope Gregory XIII
proclaimed in 1580 that killing the heretical Elizabeth would not constitute
a mortal sin. Sir Francis Walsingham,
Elizabeth’s spymaster, in July 1586 discovered correspondence between Mary,
Queen of Scots, and the Catholic Anthony Babington that referred to an
assassination plot -- the “Babington Plot” -- against Elizabeth; after
hesitating, Elizabeth had Mary executed in February 1587. War with Catholic Spain followed, leading
the miraculous destruction by storms of the seemingly invincible Spanish
Armada in July 1588. In short, there
really were “plots and counterplots” -- and her spymaster did have a role in
foiling them, at least on one very public occasion. Panel 5:
Elizabeth’s quote here comes from The Bible, specifically Proverbs
16:18. Sir Nicholas Fury earlier
quoted The Bible in panel 1 to temper Elizabeth’s apocalyptic
speculations. Elizabeth here quotes The
Bible back at him in a manner that, as in her response to his own
quotation, asserts her power over him. Page
3 Panel 7:
In 1602, the historical Elizabeth, as previously stated, had only a
year to live. Page
4 |
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Rumors circulated about the order -- including that the Templars
held secret holy artifacts discovered in the Holy Land and even that they
secretly worshipped another god. |
Panels 1-2: The Templars were a group of monastic knights (not a
contradiction) founded around the Crusades, though their supposed origin in
1118 as an international order has been disputed. Whatever the organization’s size and purpose, it eventually
became an incredibly powerful institution known for its secrecy and its great
wealth from international banking.
Rumors circulated about the order -- including that the Templars held
secret holy artifacts discovered in the Holy Land and even that they secretly
worshipped another god. Their wealth
enticing and their power threatening, they were suppressed in 1307 in an
international effort led by Pope Clement V and France’s King Philip IV (known
as Philip the Fair): their monies
were seized and they themselves were convicted of heresy. Sir Nicholas Fury
will explain the Templars (in very short form) to Peter Parquagh on page 23. The reference in the second
panel to “the Old Man himself” recalls the historical Old Man of the
Mountain, the head of the Templars’ Muslim counterparts, known as the
Assassins (or the Hashashin or the Nizari).
The Assassins were Shiite Muslims, specifically of the Ismaeli sect,
and occupied mountain fortresses around modern-day Iran. Their secrecy added to their legend; after
a while, local assassinations were routinely blamed on them. In time, the Assassins’ fortresses fell
during the Mongul invasions. The Templars’ suppression did
not stop their rumors. Ranging from
conspiratorial speculation to outright lies and distortions, these theories
are rooted in Medieval rumor and in speculation about where the surviving
Templars across Europe went and what they got up to. The focus on the Templar treasure was
enhanced in the late Medieval period’s obsession with holy relics, an
obsession that saw churches collect and display supposed holy artifacts from
saints’ bones to the True Cross (the cross with which Jesus Christ was
executed) -- many of them obviously fraudulent -- as part of an international
tourist industry centered around pilgrimages made to encounter such holy
objects. (Clergy even stole relics
from other churches under the guise of “liberating” the objects for the
church God intended to house them.)
Various secret orders or supposed secret orders, including the
Freemasons of the Scottish Rite, have claimed descent from the Templars. |
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Today, the Templars remain the Romantic subject of numerous
conspiracy theories, spawning so many questionable books that they might be
considered a cottage industry. |
Today, the Templars remain the
Romantic subject of numerous conspiracy theories, spawning so many
questionable books that they might be considered a cottage industry. Many theories focus on the fables of a
lost Templar treasure -- sometimes the Holy Grail, sometimes the Arc of the
Covenant, and sometimes others or some combination thereof -- perhaps
discovered during excavation of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Interest in such matters has provided fuel
for outright fiction as well, including the Indiana Jones movies Raiders
of the Lost Arc and, in stronger form, Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade, in which the Holy Grail is guarded by an elderly knight whose
white outfit is emblazoned with the red cross of the crusaders. In non-fiction, we are in the realm of
some truly strange stuff, such as multiple Arcs of the Covenant and the
tangled history of secret -- and often enough, fraudulent or mystified --
societies. Some theories claim the
Pope’s desire for this treasure (whatever it was) provided the real
motivation for the Templars’ suppression.
Some theories guess at the true nature of the secretive Templar
organization, rumored to have worshipped an object known as the Head of
Baphomet, discovered in the Holy Land and either of Islamic nature or part of
some older, mysterious tradition. (In
comics, Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles utilized the Head of
Baphomet.) Other theories focus on
escaping Templars forming a new secret society, perhaps with holy relics, in
areas as diverse as Scotland, Southern France, North Africa, and Ethiopia. The staple of such
conspiratorial literature is the continually well-selling non-fiction book Holy
Blood, Holy Grail. Coauthored by
Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln (all of whose work seems to
be of a similar, conspiratorial nature) the book was first published by Dell Publishing
in 1982 and offered various theories about the life of Jesus -- including
that his twin brother was crucified in his place and that he escaped to
France, where he had children whose lineage is preserved in that of the
Merovingian French royalty. While
interesting and not altogether unfounded (evidence is employed, while
more suggestive than indicative -- for example, the Gospels do suggest that
Jesus may have had a twin brother), the work may at best be considered one of
historical speculation. So too might the best-selling
novel The DaVinci Code, which claimed that the fabled lost Templar
treasure was not a thing but a person -- specifically Mary Magdalene, who
symbolically held the blood of Jesus through having his children. (Mary Magdalene was not, of course, the
whore that tradition regarded her as for a thousand or so years, an error
originating in the fact that she was introduced in the gospels just after the
prostitute about whom Jesus said “let he who is without sin cast the first
stone.”) A one-hour late-night
network documentary on this theory and others like it -- seeking to piggyback
on the novel’s success -- was broadcast in early November 2003, spurring
considerable press coverage that largely ignored the fact that none of this
was new. A recent trip to my local
Barnes & Noble in August 2003 (the same month as this issue’s
publication) turned up a slew of Templar-related books, including (in
alphabetical order by author):
Charles G. Addison’s The History of the Knights Templars, the
Temple Church, and the Temple (a 1997 reprinting by Adventures Unlimited
Press of an 1842 document, Addison supposing to be “a member of the Inner
Temple”); Edward Burman’s The Templars:
Knights of God (Destiny Books, 1986); The Templars’ Secret
Island: The Knights, the Priest, and
the Treasure (Barnes & Noble, 2002), by Erling Haagensen and Henry
Lincoln (of Holy Blood, Holy Grail); Jean Markale’s The Templar
Treasure at Gisors (Inner Traditions, 2003); Peter Parner’s The
Knights Templar & Their Myth (Destiny Books, 1987); Pier Paul Read’s The
Templars (Da Capo Press, 1999); Karen Rolls’s The Templars and the
Grail: Knights of the Quest (Quest Books, 2003); Frank Sanello’s The
Knights Templars: God’s Warriors, the
Devil’s Bankers (Taylor Trade Publishing, 2003); Steven Sorn’s The
Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar:
Solving the Oak Island Mystery (Destiny Books, 1999); and James
Wasserman’s The Templars and the Assassins: The Militia of Heaven (Inner Traditions, 2001), juxtaposing
the crusading Templars to their Muslim counterparts, the Assassins (or the
Hashashin or the Nizari). Note well
the fringe publishers of these books -- and the pulpish titles of both the
books and their publishers. Note also
how many of these books focus on the rumors of a lost, sacred Templar
treasure. Panel 3:
Portugal may not have had a competent intelligence apparatus at this
time. When Cardinal Henry, the King
of Portugal, died in 1580, he was succeeded by a regency of five. In effect, the Spanish crown exerted the most
influence. Panel 4:
Greenwich is, of course, a borough of greater London. This is an easy opportunity for an
analogue, as Doctor Strange’s house in the normal Marvel universe is in New York
City’s Greenwich Village. On
Westminster, see the note to the beginning of page 7. Page
5 Panel 1:
“Secret Jews” were Jews who hid their true religion while espousing to
be Christians. (The same dynamic
sometimes applied to Catholics in England, as well as to Communists in the
U.S. during the Cold War.) Converting
to Christianity was necessary to stay in Spain after Ferdinand of Aragon and
Isabella of Castile (whose union united the kingdom of Spain and who sent
Columbus to the New World) in 1492 proclaimed that all Jews should be driven
from the kingdom. Jews thus had to
convert or to abandon their lives and homes, leading many Jews to publicly
convert while secretly believing in or practicing Judaism. In Spain, such secret Jews were called marranos. Panel 6:
The answer to the question “Who HID me as I grew?” is, as we will find
out on the final page of this issue, his mother -- who was killed as he was
captured. “Did I kiss the Devil’s
RUMP” is a reference to the so-called black sabbath of Satan-worship (largely
invented by paranoid Christians), in which witches were supposed to have
participated: during the ritual,
worshippers literally kissed the Devil’s ass. |
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Read the essay |
“Witchbreed” is the 1602 term
for “mutant(s).” The X-Men and others
of the Marvel Universe are depicted as mutants, beneficiaries of genetic
permutations -- which, in the real world, are far more likely to impractically
deform or kill someone than to give them super powers. In the Marvel Universe, the theme of
persecution of mutants -- seen as analogous to racial persecution -- is a
commonplace. (See, however, my essay
“X-Men is not an Allegory of Racial Tolerance,” which revealed how the
original X-Men distinctly did not have this resonance.) |
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Page
6 The character, for one familiar with the
Marvel Universe, is immediately recognizable as the 1602 analogue of the
Angel (a.k.a. Warren Worthington III), one of the original members of the
X-Men. His body, hung with manacles
attached to all four limbs, forms an “X”-shape. He will be identified as “Werner” on page 5 of the second
issue. Page
7 Panel 1:
“The Moor’s Head” has resonance with the Black Moor’s Head or the
Black-a-moor’s Head. It has resonance
with the head of Baphomet that the Templars were accused of worshipping,
widely believed to be a bastardization of the “moor” Mohammad. In addition, we may remember the name of
influential comics writer Alan Moore, whose work on Swamp Thing caused
a young Neil Gaiman to read comics (having abandoned them as a child); Moore
helped teach Neil Gaiman comics scripting and was instrumental in connecting
Gaiman with DC, leading to Gaiman’s first American comics work. But the Moore referenced may also be
Stuart Moore, “head” of Marvel’s “Marvel Knights” imprint (following Joe
Quesada’s departure to become Editor-in-Chief of all of Marvel), who worked
with Joe Quesada to bring Gaiman to Marvel Comics. Westminster is the area of
London where Parliament, including Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey are and
were located. It sits on the Western
side of the river Thames to the southwest of London. Westminster and London were really two
cities that had gradually expanded into each other. Old London, known as the
City and bordered by old medieval walls, ran on the north side of the Thames,
with the Tower on the eastern edge.
In the City’s center on a small hill stood St. Paul’s, a splendid
Gothic cathedral. In the Renaissance,
the City had gained a financial district and mercantile class as trade boomed
there, accounting for perhaps 90% of the whole of England’s economy. At the same time, prostitution and crime
was rife. London itself had expanded
in all directions, including to the south over London Bridge into
Southwark. So too had Westminster
expanded north into Whitehall, at the curve of the Thames, and then eastward
with the Inns of Court, sandwiched between Whitehall and the City. At Whitehall, the monarchy and court took
residence, creating a culture of courtly petitions and of administration that
was decidedly at odds with the City; the Inns of Court, filled with lawyers,
their families, and a community of more elite commoners. The geography of London was thus a
geography of culture as well as space.
These areas with different citizens and cultures even had their own
governmental structures: the Lord
Mayor of London and his Common Council ruled the City, but none of the
suburbs and not, of course, the Court. A covert meeting of government
ministers in Westminster, as depicted here, has a different, more elevated
sensibility than such a meeting in the grungy City, where such ministers
would might mingle with the newly rich trading class yet not really be at
home. Panels 1-3: The minstrel is Matthew Murdoch. In his normal Marvel incarnation, he is Matt Murdock, the
super-hero known as Daredevil. The
trick to recognizing him here is that he is blind, as demonstrated by his
blindfold, and yet does not have trouble navigating: Matt Murdock is blind but his other senses
were heightened due to being struck with radioactive material as a child. In his normal Marvel incarnation, he does
not sing. |
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on “The Ballad of the Fantastick” |
“The Ballad of the Fantastick”
is a reference to the Fantastic Four, the super-team that Stan Lee and Jack
Kirby created in 1961, leading to the launch of the entire Marvel Universe as
we know it. In the normal Marvel
universe, the team acquired their powers through an experimental space flight
that was exposed to cosmic rays before it crashed, at which point the four
aboard discovered their new powers.
The “Lord” of the ballad is Mr. Fantastic, the scientist and team
leader with the ability to stretch his body and mold it into bizarre
shapes. The “Captain” is the Thing,
Ben Grimm, who piloted (or “captained”) the experimental spaceship and who is
imprisoned in the rocky body that gives him his strength. The “young hothead” in the song refers to
the Human Torch, a young man named Johnny Storm who can burst into flame and
fly while aflame; he is known for his hotheaded impulsiveness and
playfulness, if not exactly being a Hotspur-like braggart. The “maiden so pale” in the song is the Invisible
Woman, love interest and later wife of Mr. Fantastic, who has the power to
turn not “pale” but invisible -- although the way of illustrating this in
comics has traditionally been to draw her outline. The ballad continues on page 8 of the following issue (see
notes to that page) and in subsequent issues. The ballad not only provides clues as to the 1602 equivalents
of the Fantastic Four, but in fact tells the origin of the team: the ship dubbed the Fantastick is the 1602
equivalent of the spaceship that originally took the Fantastic Four
into space, leading to their discovery of their super-powers after its
crash. A further clue to the
Fantastic Four is provided in panel 2 on page 26 of this issue (see notes to
that page). Panel 2:
Note Peter Parquaugh in the foreground observing his spider, which
becomes the focus for a few panels on the next page. Panel 3:
A “groat” was an English coin, worth four pence (or four-hundredths of
a pound), used from the 14th to the 17th Century. The word came into Middle English from the Middle Dutch word groot
-- meaning a large, thick coin. The term “bog-trotter” or
“bogtrotter” (without the hyphen) -- meaning someone who lives in or
frequents bogs -- is a disparaging one for an Irishman. Page
8 |
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The complaint that Queen Elizabeth has not “had issue” -- or
children -- is not without merit. |
Panel 1:
The complaint that Queen Elizabeth has not “had issue” -- or children
-- is not without merit. It was the
duty of a king or queen to have children not only so that their royal line --
blessed by God as rulers -- would continue, but so that the nation could
avoid the crises of succession that so often led to strife, war, and
bloodbath -- not to mention social disorder, economic disruption, and suspension
of governmental services (such as the mail). In addition, a marriage with a
foreign noble might add to England’s safety and power. While Elizabeth is remembered
as -- and was, by the end of her reign, symbolized as -- the “Virgin Queen”
-- a kind of equivalent of the Virgin Mary, fetishized by Catholics, for the
Church of England -- she not only (almost certainly) had affairs (that were
the subject of courtly gossip) but she was (certainly) expected to
marry. The first few decades of her
reign were filled with speculation about possible husbands, often foreign
rulers or their children, and Elizabeth entertained such prospective husbands
while constantly waffling and avoiding any decision. She faced intense pressure to wed and to
produce an heir, since her death would otherwise end the Tudor line. (Some today speculate that she did not
wish to marry, since doing so might have reduced her power by placing her
under her husband. If true and not
feminist-influenced revisionist history, this motivation might be
understandable but would nonetheless be incredibly selfish, since it
threatened the nation as a whole and its relation to God.) |
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In Elizabeth’s case, these concerns were exaggerated by the
threat of a Catholic rising to Protestant England’s throne. |
In Elizabeth’s case, these
concerns were exaggerated by the threat of a Catholic rising to Protestant
England’s throne. Consider the case
of John Stubbs, a Protestant polemicist who published a pamphlet that strongly
denounced the Queen’s proposed marriage to the Catholic French Duke of
Alençon: both Stubbs and his
publisher were arrested and had their right hands severed. In her early reign, Elizabeth’s nearest
heir was her Catholic cousin -- Mary, Queen of Scots -- whose claim was
supported by the papacy and by Catholic France. Even after the nightmare scenario of the Catholic Mary, Queen
of Scots, rising to the throne was ended by her execution in February 1587,
the threat of a Catholic succeeding Elizabeth was not put to rest. Scotland's James VI, who would become
England’s James I after Elizabeth’s death, was the son of Mary, Queen of
Scots, and many wondered whether he was secretly a Catholic planning to
return the country to Papacy once he got the throne. In short, Elizabeth’s failure
to wed and to produce an heir put her whole nation in jeopardy, risking a war
over succession and generating further religious strife. |
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These two panels offer a joke for those who get it. |
Panels 2-3: These two panels offer a joke for those who get it. The
reference is to Peter Parker, who became Spider-Man when bitten by a
radioactive spider. The boy here is
Peter Parquagh (identified on the bottom of the following page), and does
indeed look like his normal Marvel incarnation as Peter Parker. Peter even seems to spot that the spider
is radioactive (though we think of radiation as a modern development, it is
naturally occurring and common at low levels), or perhaps some 1602
equivalent (such as enchanted by magic):
he points out that it is particularly interesting and seems to have
shimmering skin. The joke is that
here, however, the spider is smashed before it can bite him. This joke will be echoed in
issue #3 on the top of page 18, where a spider in Dr. Strange’s mansion
approaches Peter. Indeed, Peter
Parquagh frequently laments -- without knowing so -- that he is not
Spider-Man. While Peter does not have
powers here, it seems that he unconsciously knows that he should and is
somehow dissatisfied with his life; moreover, it seems that the universe
itself desires that Peter become Spider-Man, but the delicate and fairly
random operation of a spider bite has never properly come off despite
repeated attempts. Page
9 Panel 2:
Matthew Murdoch has requested no light in the meeting room because he
is blind yet can “see” through his heightened senses. Panel 3:
The turquoise circles emanating from Matthew Murdoch’s head indicate
the use of his enhanced sensory powers. Panel 4-5: The references to the Devil are references to Matthew Murdoch’s
alter ego in the normal Marvel universe, in which Matt Murdock is the
super-hero Daredevil. Panel 5:
“Mystery” once had far greater significance than it did today,
applying to religious mysteries beyond the human understanding -- as in the
mystery of Christ’s resurrection. The
word derives from the Latin ministerium, roughly meaning “service” or
a ritual that is religiously instructive.
This use of this word was preserved in the so-called “Mystery Plays”
of the Middle Ages, which began as didactic dramatizations by clerics of
episodes from The Bible. Only
a few Mystery Plays survive from the 12th Century. Humor and less instructive elements increasingly entered the
plays, which became less didactic and more dramatic: Satan and demons came to be treated almost
entirely as comic buffoons, stupidly choosing the loosing side. By the end of the Medieval period, Mystery
Plays were being performed throughout Europe in cycles of plays dramatizing
swaths of Biblical history. Trade
guilds would divide the plays among themselves, sometimes in quite logical
fashion: cooks and bakers typically
performed Christ’s harrowing of Hell because they were accustomed to working
with fire. Sometimes traveling
troupes with their own assigned material traveled with their own stages. Four English cycles of Mystery Plays
preserve fairly completely. The plays
suffered from the Reformation, which generally opposed the plays. (A revival of a Mystery Play provided the
circumstance for the plot of the excellent postmodern graphic novella The
Mystery Play, written by Grant Morrison with painted art Jon J. Muth and
published by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint.) |
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Panel 6:
In the normal Marvel universe, Peter Parker was never the assistant to
Nick Fury. Page
10 Panel 2:
Otto Von Doom, called the Handsome, is a reference to Victor Von Doom,
the mad scientist who is the main adversary of the Fantastic Four; Victor Von
Doom may have once been handsome, but was facially scarred in a laboratory
accident and thus wears an iron mask along with his cape and armor. Otto Von Doom will be seen on pages 11-12
of the following issue. The change of
Doom’s first name brings to mind Otto Octavius, who became Spider-Man’s foe
Doctor Octopus. Panel 3:
Trieste is a port city in the northeastern corner of what is today
Italy. Though it is not much known
today, it has a long history as a center for shipping, trade, and
banking. It was a Roman city, then
under the control of powerful Venice, then conquered by Napoleon, then the
Habsburgs, then under Nazi German control, then the Allies, then Yugoslavia,
and was finally made a part of Italy again in 1954. The influx of foreigners from its ports made Trieste a
multicultural city in which Jews experienced more freedom than elsewhere and
in which Catholics and Protestants mixed with the Greek and Russian Orthodox
and even Muslims. Trieste has, since
the 19th Century, been a home to ex-patriot writers, most prominently
including James Joyce. Ironically
given our presumption of multicultural progress, Trieste’s noted tolerance
lessened in the 20th Century due to anti-Semitism and the recent ethnic
cleansing to the east. Trieste’s inclusion in 1602
is a reference to the fact that the series was conceived in Venice while
Gaiman was in Europe to attend a science fiction and comics convention in
Trieste. (See the introduction.) Page
11 Panel 3:
The speech in captions is that of Sir Nicholas Fury; they continue
from the previous panel and continue into the panel following. Panel 5:
Sir Nicholas Fury’s comment about Matthew Murdoch not being afraid of
“anything” is perhaps a bit clichéd by itself, but is also a reference to
Murdoch’s normal Marvel universe incarnation as the super-hero Daredevil,
known as “The Man Without Fear.” (A
caption will make a similarly resonant comment in the following issue on page
9, panel 5.) Page
12 Panel 1:
The speaker here is Clea, Doctor Stephen Strange’s female assistant
and, apparently, lover. In the normal
Marvel universe, Clea was also Doctor Strange’s assistant and lover from
another dimension, though she eventually betrayed him. Doctor Strange’s house (in
New York City’s Greenwich Village) in the normal Marvel universe is a bizarre
mansion not too dissimilar to the one here (in London’s Greenwich). Panel 2:
Doctor Strange, aware of Queen Elizabeth’s fading health, explains a
potential problem with the plot by asserting that, despite the presence of
magic in this universe, his magic can do nothing for her. Panel 3:
The Spanish invasion, at least in our world, never occurred, although
it was very much expected in 1588.
Following her execution of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, Spain
prepared to invade with its mighty army of ships, then the best in the world
and known as “The Invincible Armada.”
England, in contrast, had a small fleet of more maneuverable ships,
well-armed and supported by ships from the merchant navy: the island nation braced for
invasion. July 1588 saw the Spanish
Armada reach English waters, where it was routed by the English in what
became one of the most famous naval battles in world history. Then, in what the English took to be a
divinely-granted miracle, the Spanish Armada was destroyed by violent storms. |
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Scotland’s James VI, was indeed was known for oppressing
witchcraft. In 1597, James published
his Demonology, a learned attack upon what he believed to be an aggressive
campaign by Satan and his minions against none more than himself. |
James of Scotland (still a
separate country at the time) is Scotland’s James VI, who indeed was known
for oppressing witchcraft. As he
returned from Denmark to Scotland with his bride, Anne of Denmark, in 1590, a
violent storm threatened him at sea -- for which he blamed a conspiracy of
witches. Witchcraft trials began soon
after and continued for years. “Witches”
-- thought today mostly to have been strange or reclusive women disliked by
their neighbors -- were accused and tortured until they confessed to such
things as cannibalizing infants and having sex with Satan in massive orgies
called “witches’ Sabbaths” -- and were finally, in turn, burned at the stake. Such trials had been (since the 1400s)
altogether too commonplace on the continent -- particularly in France,
Germany, and Switzerland -- but had been rare in England and Scotland. (Note, however, that less witchcraft
trials and anti-witch laws began to appear in England in the 1540s, though
the charges were generally the commission of evil goods rather than outright
worship of Satan. Moreover, torture
as punishment was not permitted and juries acquitted the majority of
accused.) In 1597, James published
his Demonology, a learned attack upon what he believed to be an
aggressive campaign by Satan and his minions against none more than himself. Of course, Scotland’s James VI
would shortly be succeeding Elizabeth I, becoming England’s James I. His succession was the source of some
controversy, as he as king might have swung England back towards Catholicism
yet again. His very lineage
symbolized a threat to the Elizabethan order: he was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic symbol and
magnet for malcontents who Elizabeth I had executed for participation in a
conspiracy against the crown (see annotations to page 2, panel 4). Even after his ascent to the
throne, James would continue to oppose witches -- though he somewhat
moderated his views. Scottish
persecutions continued but did not spread their ferocity to England. That is not to say that the English liked
witches, of course, as plays like Witch (1616 or earlier) by Thomas
Middleton and Witch of Edmonton (1621) by Thomas Dekker, John Ford,
and William Rowley attest. We should
not judge too quickly, however, as the idea of the witch and witchly
conspiracies spoke to parts of the soul that we still have today, albeit with
other forms to latch onto -- such as aliens and government conspiracies -- as
the TV show The X-Files, if nothing else, demonstrates. (Some would point out that aliens can’t be
tried and burned at the stake, but others might point to the U.S.
imprisonment and perhaps torture of suspected terrorists in the wake of the
11 September 2001 terrorist attacks upon the U.S.) Page
13 Panel 3:
Doctor Strange is apparently putting himself into a trance, perhaps in
contact with supernatural beings. As
his instructions to his assistant in the previous panel attest, he is not himself
when in this trance and needs someone to ask him questions, the answers to
which he will not even remember. I have been unable to trace
the strange characters in Dr. Strange’s speech. The dots beside letters are almost certainly vowel indicators; Hebrew
similarly indicates vowel with similar dots. Pages
14-15 |
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on Virginia Dare and the Roanoke settlement |
Panel 2:
The maid on deck is Virginia Dare, the first child (of English decent)
born (though not conceived) in the New World. Her parents, Ananias and Eleanor Dare, were among the 120 or so
men, women, and children who left England on 8 May 1587 to establish a
settlement in the New World; Eleanor was already quite pregnant with Virginia
upon their departure. The expedition,
aboard their ship the Lion, was sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh, who
had intended for the colony to be established in the area of Chesapeake
Bay. The ship’s captain landed
instead on Roanoke Island -- off the coast of North Carolina near Virginia --
which had been the site of an earlier, unsuccessful attempt at
colonization. Eleanor gave birth to
Virginia on 18 August 1587, just days after their arrival. Virginia’s baptism
the following Sunday was the second recorded in North America, the first
being of an Indian chief a few days earlier. The colony began to flounder
almost immediately; on 27 August 1587 (just days after Virginia’s birth),
John White -- the colony’s governor and father to (Virginia’s mother) Eleanor
Dare -- left for England to plead for more supplies and assistance for the
settlement. Arriving in November 1587
to an England about to war with Spain, White’s return to Roanoke was
delayed. At last, on 18 August 1590,
he reached the island with a relief expedition -- only to find the settlement
abandoned and the settlers (including Virginia Dare) missing. The only clue seemed to be the letters
“CRO” carved into a tree, which could mean the nearby island of Croatoan or
its Indian tribe -- sailing there, however, White and crew found no trace of
the colony. The Roanoke settlement is now
best known simply as “The Lost Colony” and remains the subject of speculation
-- and of outright fiction. Dominant
thought today believes that the colonists were absorbed into local Indian
tribes, for which there seems to be some suggestive evidence. I recall learning in a U.S. grade school
about these competing theories, then prominently including that Indians
killed the colony, perhaps in retaliation for colonists’ raids. |
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While Virginia Dare is less known
than “The Lost Colony,” she has inspired a surprising amount of devotion over
the years -- especially for someone for whom we have no records after she was
9 days old. She has not only been
depicted in plays and movies about the colony, but was herself the subject of
a sculpture (of her as an adult, ridiculously) and of a U.S. stamp. Virginia Dare was even adopted in 1835 as
the brand name for a line of wine made in the region -- a line that, during
Prohibition, expanded to a wide line of flavoring extracts. The man on deck is Virginia
Dare’s American Indian companion, Rojhaz (identified as such in the first
panel of page 21). Although not yet
altogether apparent, he is analogous to Steve Rogers, who in the normal Marvel
universe is Captain America. Besides
coming from America and having a similar name, it is worth pointing out that
the two have a similar appearance:
although an American native, Rojhaz has blond hair -- a point Queen
Elizabeth I will make on page 20 of the next issue. Note how Dr. Strange is shown
the ship in response to Clea’s question about what is causing the strange
weather. Although Strange receives no
answer to the question, his astral form being sent to the ship in response to
that question strongly suggests that Virginia Dare is responsible for the
weather. In fact, this helped cause
many to guess that Virginia was an analogue for Storm of the X-Men, although
that character had not been invented until after Gaiman’s stated cut-off point
for incorporation of characters; moreover, while Storm has white hair, she is
also black and that her powers were both controlled and more local in
effect. More than an historical
oddity, this guesswork reveals a certain truth: while Storm does not appear in 1602, she is invoked in
Virginia Dare’s appearance -- helping readers piece together Virgina’s
connection to the weather. Panel 3:
The person seen here is the 1602 equivalent of Johnny Storm, the Human
Torch, a member of the Fantastic Four.
The “mountain, far from here” is that beneath Otto Von Doom’s
castle in Latveria. None of this will
become apparent until issue #4, on which this same character appears on page
11. (Some did quickly guess that this
figure was an imprisoned Johnny Storm, though others suggested Thor and
others.) “Earth and Air, Water and
Fire” refer to the four elements believed since pre-historic Greeks to be the
materials out of which all things were made; Elizabethans shared this view,
which was deeply rooted in the study of alchemy -- a leading pursuit of Elizabethan
magicians such as Dr. Strange. The
four elements also loosely correspond to the Fantastic Four: the rocky Thing to Earth, the scientific
leader Mr. Fantastic to Air (though note that air may stretch but this is not
an attribute of that intellectual element), the Invisible Woman to Water
(though note that water may be transparent, but no more than air, nor is the
Invisible Woman tied to water more clearly, except perhaps in her former love
for the Sub-Mariner, the ruler of Atlantis), and the Human Torch to
Fire. “Hold” should be read in the
sense of a prison holding its inmates. Note that Dr. Strange is
shown this vision with its implications for the Fantastic Four in response to
the question, “How may the darkness be lifted from the land?” – suggesting
that the Fantastic Four analogues will be key in resolving the storyline. Page
16 Panel 1:
This is the fortress of the Inquisition in Domdaniel, Spain, where the
winged prisoner seen earlier is being kept. Panel 3:
Yes, the Inquisition was bad. While this may seem obvious
to anyone with a modicum of (non-revisionist) historical knowledge, a 16
September 2003 entry in his
blog may communicate Gaiman’s feelings on the Inquisition and its usage
here. In response to a somewhat
confused and angry fan, Gaiman wrote: The Spanish Inquisition
tortured and killed a lot of Jews.
That was pretty much their prime initial purpose -- they watched for
the marranos, the secret Jews, the ones who had pretended to have
converted in order to keep their lands or livelihoods, after the expulsion of
the Jews from Spain in 1492, and burned tens of thousands. (The last Auto da Fe was in the
early eighteenth century.) That
really happened … Torquemada’s team were very real. It
is worth noting that his intensity on this matter may be influenced by the
context, in which a fan came close to accusing Gaiman of holocaust
revisionism by having Magneto (or an equivalent) head the Inquisition (since
Magneto had himself been persecuted as a mutant). Gaiman continued: “I
put it in because I wanted to make clear what the Inquisition really did,
even in a world in which they’re burning boys with wings, not because it was
‘politically correct’.” The ropes that bind the screaming ghosts here to their stakes
form an “X”-shape, invoking the X-Men and suggesting that they were
witchbreed. Page
17 Panel 1:
These people are figures of authority in the Inquisition. We will find out more about them later. Panel 3:
This banishment abridges what might have been a longer and possibly
more revealing sequence. On page 13,
he has prepared for Clea a list of questions; she has only gotten to ask two. Panel 4:
Doctor Strange has rather remarkably failed to find any real answers. Page
18 |
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Wanda is, in the normal Marvel universe, Wanda Maximoff, the
alter ego of the Scarlet Witch -- ironically, given her role here in
persecuting witches. |
Panel 4:
Wanda is, in the normal Marvel universe, Wanda Maximoff, the alter ego
of the Scarlet Witch -- ironically, given her role here in persecuting
witches. The mutant Scarlet Witch
supposedly has the mutant power to affect probability, though the way she
alters it typically produces an effect indistinguishable from magic. The daughter of Magneto, she was a villain
in her father’s group, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, along with her
brother Quicksilver, before they both converted and became heroes as part of
the super-team The Avengers. Besides being ironic, Gaiman’s
use of the Scarlet Witch (along with the term “witchbreed”) may be seen as
having deeper implications, suggesting that magic and super-powers are more
deeply connected than the artificial split between the genres of fantasy and
super-heroes would suggest. (Many
have seen super-heroes as more closely related to science fiction, generally
a more socially respectable genre, though one should note that this depends
on the origin of the particular super-hero: for example, while Superman as an
alien is science fiction, Wonder Woman has a magical origin and Batman owes
more to the pulp heroes of the 1930s.
One should note also that Gaiman has made his reputation in the
fantasy genre, which greatly influenced his The Sandman and can be
seen in his novels, such as Stardust.) Page
19 Panel 1:
Javier is an analogue to Charles Xavier, or Professor X, who in the
normal Marvel universe is the wheelchair-bound telepathic guru and leader of
the X-Men. The Grand Inquisitor, seen
here talking with Wanda, is an analogue of Magneto, the arch-foe of the X-Men
who has the power to control magnetism.
Magneto first appeared in (the original) X-Men #1, and he
eventually became a guru for mutants who sought to overthrow humans’ rule of
the planet, replacing them with their evolutionary superiors. (Mutants were even called homo superior,
in contrast with homo sapiens.)
While the Grand Inquisitor’s identity will not become clear until
issue #3 (when he uses his magnetic powers), his relationship to Wanda and
Petros (the latter is seen next panel), as well as his apparent adversarial
relationship with Javier, suggests this identity in the first two
issues. More mysterious, however, is
why this guru for mutant supremacy would be leading persecution of mutants in
1602. Panel 2:
Petros is, in the normal Marvel universe, Pietro Maximoff, the alter
ego of Quicksilver. The mutant
Quicksilver has the power to move, generally used to run, at
super-speed. The son of Magneto, he
was a villain in her father’s group, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, along
with his sister the Scarlet Witch, before they both converted and became
heroes as part of the super-team The Avengers. Quicksilver’s costume in the normal Marvel universe is green
and white, though in a different pattern than his outfit here, and his hair
is similar in both continuities. Panel 4:
As previously mentioned, James VI of Scotland did indeed have a
reputation for witchcraft trials. Panel 5:
Queen Mary, also known as Bloody Mary, held the English throne just
prior to Elizabeth. Mary, like
Elizabeth the daughter of Henry VIII, took the throne in 1553 following the
death of Edward VI, who succeeded Henry VIII, his father who had broken with
the Catholic Church. A bit of
background might be useful here. When Henry VIII, in 1527, requested
that the Pope invalidate his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, she had
produced six children, of which only Mary had survived infancy, leaving no
son to inherit the throne. Catherine,
daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile (whose union united
Spain and who sent Columbus to the New World), had powerful friends in Rome,
and the Pope denied Henry VIII’s request.
Henry VIII lurched England towards religious independence, threatening
the clergy in England, who declared Henry VIII “supreme head of the English
Church and clergy.” In 1533, Henry’s
marriage to Catherine was annulled by English law; on 1 June, Anne Boleyn was
crown Queen of England. Pope Clement
VII quickly excommunicated the king.
Beginning the following year, a series of acts were passed requiring
oaths from all men in support of the new queen, eventually leading, in May
1535, to executions. Henry VIII spent
the rest of the 1530s suppressing the monasteries and seizing their wealth,
and his men, in early 1937, put down with some 130 executions a Catholic
insurrection begun in the north of England on 1 October 1936 -- though his
persecution and executions of the uncooperative targeted both Catholics and
Protestants. Meanwhile, Henry VIII in
1536 charged the queen, Anne Boleyn (who he had finally married just three
years before), with adultery and treason, having her beheaded and asking
Parliament to invalidate the marriage. When Henry VIII died in 1547,
his son Edward VI, then only 10, came to the throne. A staunch Protestant surrounded by
staunched Protestants, Edward presided over the formulation of the Church of
England as an organized, separate institution: he wrote the first Book of
Common Prayer, which became in 1549 the basis of English church services,
and presided over the creation of the 42 articles of religion that became the
core of Anglican orthodoxy. Gravely
ill, he was persuaded to sign a will depriving of succession his two
half-sisters -- Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, and Elizabeth,
daughter of Anne Boleyn. The scheme
would have placed Lady Jane Grey, the Protestant granddaughter of Henry VII
(not Henry VIII), on the throne. Upon
Edward’s death in 1553, Lady Jane took the throne -- and ruled with her
husband for nine days before Mary, who quickly marshaled support, seized the
throne and had the couple executed. Queen Mary, however, was
Catholic -- and married to Philip II, the king of Spain. She immediately lurched the nation towards
Catholicism, affirming papal authority and restoring the Catholic mass in
English churches. She earned the name
Bloody Mary through her series of religious persecutions, burning at the
stake almost three hundred Protestants and causing hundreds to flee abroad. Bloody Mary died childless in
1558, and her half-sister Elizabeth took the throne. She had been outwardly Catholic during
Mary’s reign, but her true religious beliefs were suspect. At her coronation, she affirmed her
Protestantism by kissing and laying to her breast an English translation of The
Bible, banned under Queen Mary.
The English had been through change of religion after change of
religion, but Elizabeth’s long reign would solidify the Church of England --
and preserve the memory of Bloody Mary. Page
20 |
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“Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I see no reason the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.” |
Panel 1:
The reference here is to the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605, by
which time James VI of Scotland had become King James I, succeeding Elizabeth
I after her death in March 1603. In
1605, the Catholic Guy Fawkes and 12 co-conspirators attempted to blow up
Parliament on the first day of its new session, thus eliminating both Houses
as well as those attending the opening ceremonies, including King James
himself, the Bishops of England, and the king’s entourage (including his wife
and eldest son). To do this, they
used some 36 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar rented underneath the House of
Lords. The plot failed, causing James
to become more authoritarian and leading to the immortality of Fawkes in
rhyme and annual remembrance: Guy
Fawkes Day is still celebrated in England with the burning of Guy Fawkes in
effigy. This fact that served as
inspiration for the graphic novel V for Vendetta, written by Alan
Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd.
Neil Gaiman himself made reference to Guy Fawkes in The Sandman
#75, in which an elderly William Shakespeare invents the famous rhyme about
the plot: “Remember, remember, / the
fifth of November, / the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. / I see no reason / the
Gunpowder Treason / should ever be forgot.” Of course, the plan here,
formulated in Catholic Spain, is to blame the Witchbreed for the plot,
whereas Catholics were blamed in reality.
This misdirection of blame recalls not so much the Gunpowder Plot (in
which the real culprits were caught) as the Reichstag fire. On 27 February 1333, after Adolf Hitler
had been democratically elected Chancellor of Germany, the German Parliament
building known as the Reichstag burned, receiving extremely quick response
from Hitler’s men, who then rapidly blamed the fire on Germany’s Communists –
who comprised one of the three major German parties, the two non-Nazi ones
having received together more votes than Hitler in the election of the
Chncellor. The fire was used as a
pretext for increasing totalitarian consolidation and suspension of
democratic rights, and many historians believe the fire to have been
perpetrated by the Nazis themselves.
This has particular resonance for 1602 given the Inquisition
and the role of Jews in the narrative. Panel 2:
These two cloaked characters are, presumably, Scotius Summerisle and
Robert Trefusis, who will shortly be seen rescuing the winged prisoner. Page
21 |
