Old future, new past, or how Neil Gaiman tinkers with temporality in Marvel 1602

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to substantiate the thesis that, in the Marvel 1602 series, there is a common denominator of the narrative mechanisms with which its author embeds fiction in history and reworks selected characters from the so-called mainstream Marvel continuity. As such denominator, I see the idea of repeatability of situational and behavioural patterns. With this end in view, I open this work by outlining how selected events of the so-called “age of heroes” are transplanted into the Elizabethan age. Second, I show how chosen Marvel characters are reworked to match the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century context. Third, I expand on the reiterative quality of the mechanisms the author uses for these purposes to support the view that the repeatability of situational and behavioural patterns is the main idea informing the narrative structure of Marvel 1602. In the conclusion section, I capitalise on the presented findings and suggest their potential implications.