Marvel Assembled a Supergroup of Indie Podcasters for MARVELS
Lauren Shippen, Mischa Stanton, and Paul Bae adapted Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross’ seminal graphic novel in time for its 25th anniversary.
MARVELS, the late 2019 Stitcher Premium exclusive, exists as a bit of an outlier in the current boom of celebrity-fronted fiction podcasts. Rather than creating a new IP with Hollywood talent in the hopes of landing an adaptation elsewhere, Marvel assembled a veritable supergroup of indie-podcasters to adapt Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross’ seminal graphic novel in time for its 25th anniversary. Writer Lauren Shippen (The Bright Sessions, The AM Archives), sound designer Mischa Stanton (ars PARADOXICA, The Far Meridian), director Paul Bae (The Black Tapes, The Big Loop), and composer Evan Cunningham (The AM Archives) were given license to play in this superhero sandbox for their very first time, and their combined expertise in creating a sound-forward work shined in a way that most major network podcasts could only dream of.
(For more on Bae, Shippen, and Stanton, read my interview with them.)
This was not Marvel’s first foray into the podcast territory, nor will it be their last. You could say that the company has fully invested in the medium, with Benjamin Percy’s two seasons of Stitcher Premium’s Wolverine (The Long Night and The Lost Trail) and an upcoming Defenders-style rollout of Wolverine, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Star-Lord for Pandora and Sirius XM. But each of these other series tells a new story with pre-established characters; what makes MARVELS so special is that it’s the first direct adaptation of one of the comic giant’s releases.
The show stars Seth Barrish (Billions) as Phil Sheldon, the classic comic’s photojournalist who is tasked with reporting on the universe’s superheroes, or Marvels, as he calls them. The cast is rounded out by Cliff ‘Method Man’ Smith as Ben Urich, Phil’s investigative partner, and Anna Sophia Robb (The Act, The Carrie Diaries) as Marcia Hardesty, Phil’s assistant and a budding journalist in her own right. Notorious planet-killer Galactus invaded New York, but was thwarted at the last possible minute by the Fantastic Four. The heroes have been accused by John Jonah Jameson, the head of the Daily Bugle, of creating a hoax to keep the people of NYC forever in their debt. Now Phil, Ben, and Marcia must re-investigate the incident years later to parse what really happened and whether or not the Fantastic Four were responsible for the incident that took the lives of so many New Yorkers.
The strength in this adaptation comes from Shippen’s decision to focus the story on a series of smaller, inter-related events pulled from the third chapter of the graphic novel rather than attempting to encompass the entire thing. Busiek and Ross’ work follows Sheldon from his time as a brand new photographer who encounters The Human Torch and Namor, the first superheroes to reveal themselves, all the way through his decades-long career of reporting on everyone from the Avengers to Galactus to the X-Men. Narrowing the scope of the adaptation allowed the team to create a tight, emotional story that was felt complete in ten episodes while hinting at the possibility for more. (Please, Marvel and Stitcher, give us a second season).
Don’t mistake MARVELS’ tight focus for a character- or history-light story. Throughout the season, we’re treated to appearances from long-beloved characters like Spider-Man, the Silver Surfer, Cyclops, and Uatu. Shippen has an incredible ability to imbue characters that have decades of pre-determined history with her distinctive voice. Every single line of dialogue delivered across the series is full of the same sense of empathy and humanity we’ve come to expect from Shippen’s time making The Bright Sessions, cast and directed to absolute perfection by Bae.
While the original graphic novel excelled at showcasing the Earth-616’s superheroes from Phil Sheldon’s very human perspective, the podcast expands upon this idea by widening the lens. While we still experience harrowing moments from Sheldon’s life — like his bleak walk through the streets of New York during Galactus’ invasion, surrounded by people convinced the world is about to end — we’re also treated to a contrasting perspective of the same incident by Ben Urich. Marcia, no longer simply Sheldon’s assistant, is given a direct connection to the mutant storyline that places her at the center of her own story. In fact, it’s her season-ending monologue that brings every single thread together and tugs at the audience’s heartstrings the hardest.
One of the brightest spots in the whole series is a podcast-original character, Charlie Martinez. She’s a 15-year old scientist from the Bronx whose technical and scientific ingenuity landed her a mentorship from the World’s Smartest Man, Reed Richards, and props from Peter Parker, the city’s other young science whiz. She’s whip-smart, strong in her convictions, and funny. I’m not exaggerating when I say that every time I heard her in a scene, I realized I would die for her.
None of these disparate elements would work without Stanton’s inventive sound design and Cunningham’s atmospheric score. Together, they were able to craft fully realized, harrowing moments I couldn’t help but revel in through multiple relistens. Galactus’ voice feels as appropriately massive as it should, and a zippy chase scene between Spider-Man and the Silver Surfer is not only fun to experience, but easy to track, a feat in and of itself in a purely audio medium. The Silver Surfer’s otherworldly manner of speaking is alien in a way that keeps him understandable, while clearly being from elsewhere. And even the more down-to-earth, human segments are brought to life by fully immersive flashbacks that sound like they’re happening somewhere and some-when else entirely.
I hope that more of the larger studios looking to break into the medium will take note of what Marvel as a company, and this series specifically, did well. Instead of depending on reliable Hollywood writers who don’t have a track record of making audio fiction, they hired a team comprised of some of the most seasoned, talented members of the independent community. The end result was truly one of the most special experiences I had as an audience member in 2019.
The entire series is available to stream now on Stitcher Premium (and you can sign up for a free month with the code: FANTASTIC). It will be premiere in an ad-supported format on all other platforms on Thursday, March 19th.
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