Marvel: Your Universe is one of those free books the publishers periodically put out to try and get new readers up to speed and interested in what's going on.
Earlier today, I posted on the Real World board about a study showing that ads for prescription drugs don't actually increase sales. That seems apt here, because I have always wondered who this audience is that reads these promo books and then goes out and buys what they're promoting. Because, FCBD notwithstanding, I can't think of one I've ever read that hasn't been terrible.
This one is only an exception to that rule inasmuch as it is probably worse than any other I've ever seen. Batman: The 10-Cent Adventure? The 12-Cent Adventure? At least they had original content. Even that Secret Invasion one Marvel put out a few months back reminded me that Skrulls used to be fun. Even if it totally failed to mention the time one of them impersonated Richard Nixon.
This one -- well, its biggest mistake is that it tries to cover every single fucking Marvel event since Avengers Disassembled. In chronological order. "The Scarlet Witch turned evil and then went comatose. Meanwhile, Cyclops and Havok discovered they had a long-lost brother. Then the Scarlet Witch came back and altered reality. Then everything went back to normal, except there were only 200 mutants left. Then they shot Hulk into space. Then there was a Civil War. Also, Hulk was fighting aliens. Then Captain America died. Then they tried to start a superhero team in every state, but they all got infiltrated by Skrulls. Then Hulk came back from space. Meanwhile, the mutants were fighting over a mutant baby, and Bishop betrayed them to avert his dystopian future, even though he already did that ten years ago in the Onslaught story. Then Bucky became Captain America. Also, Black Panther and Storm were part of the Fantastic Four for six issues, though that really doesn't matter and I'm not sure why I bothered to bring it up. Then Spider-Man and Mary Jane made a deal with the devil and now they don't remember they used to be married, and also now there is a Red Hulk and everybody is a Skrull. The end."
I mean, seriously, the only conceivable takeaway from all this is "The Marvel Universe is an epic goddamned clusterfuck." I seriously cannot envision the person who reads this thing and goes, "Oh, cool, I really want to read more about Captain America and Spider-Man's mutant baby red Skrull."
Even if I found a single one of those stories interesting on its merits (well...the first couple issues of Civil War were pretty good), the presentation here is just godawful. You could read a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book beginning-to-end and the narrative would jump around less and make more sense.
I just don't get it. It IS possible to do a good free promo book; I get a stack of the fuckers every May. But this...well, if people are looking for harbingers of the next comic industry crash, I nominate Marvel: Your Universe.
Well...that and One More Day.