Lego Marvel Super Heroes (2013 One-Shot)

 Posted: Jan 2014
 Staff: The Editor (E-Mail)

Background

This pamphlet is 5" x 6.7". The contained story is 10 pages long, including inside front and inside back cover pages. Spider-Man appears on the cover, as well as in the story.

The comic ties-in with Lego's new range of Marvel Super Heroes figures, as well as a number of online videos and web-based mini-games games, plus of course the 2013 cross-platform console game "Lego Marvel Super Heroes".

Story Details

Since this is Lego characters, nobody speaks, so it's not entirely possible to determine exactly what is going in the story. But there are plenty of clues, so let's give it a go.

Spider-Man meets Nick Fury, and is handed a sheet of paper with the words "PROTECT - IN DANGER" and a picture of J. Jonah Jameson. Sure enough, Jonah is promptly attacked in his office by the Beetle, who is holding a cannister labelled "Venom".

Venom himself arrives at that point and takes the cannister from the Beetle. Doctor Doom arrives in a flying vehicle. Beetle and Venom fight over the cannister, Spidey attacks the flying vehicle (which disintegrates into Lego bricks). Spidey attacks Venom, Nova arrives and attacks the Beetle, Doctor Doom attacks everybody, Nick Fury arrives in a car and attacks Venom and Doom, Spider-Man acquires a motorbike which then becomes a flying motorbike.

The bad guys fly away, as black gunk from the broken Venom cannister starts to envelop Jameson.

General Comments

So, despite seeing what is going on, I really have no idea what is going on. How can the Venom symbiote be in the cannister if it is also on Venom himself? What was anybody's plan? Where does this all lead?

I guess it really doesn't matter. In the Lego adaptation of Marvel Heroes, the most important thing is that you mash buttons and lots of things fly into small pieces. A story? Too much to ask, perhaps.

Overall Rating

I'm torn. I love Lego. I grew up with it as a child. But having played the Star Wars Lego game on the Wii, I really can't see the appeal. There's no particular challenge, and no particular goal. Just run around and smash stuff. Maybe there's a deeper strategy I'm missing, but really I just can't connect with it.

I feel the same way about this promo. It's pretty, and all. But seems utterly pointless. I cannot see that Lego has improved Marvel, nor that Marvel has improved Lego. The whole is not greater than the sum of its parts.

One web. Sorry.

 Posted: Jan 2014
 Staff: The Editor (E-Mail)