The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1 Is a Fun Crossover That I Want More Of (Review)

The Muppets are one of those indelible parts of pop culture that hasn’t got a lot of play in recent years. 50 years ago, The Muppet Show debuted, one of many ’70s variety shows and become a favorite of viewers for years. Now, I’m old, so I grew up watching the show with my mom in the early ’80s and have a soft spot for the Muppets. The Muppet Show starred hilarious characters like Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Rawlf, and many more, but the Muppets have faded a lot lately. Disney has owned them for years, but the company rarely does very much with them. Nostalgia is all the rage nowadays, but there’s something about the Muppets that have made them a much harder sell in recent years. However, it feels like Marvel Comics may have found the perfect way to showcase the Muppets – by teaming them with the heroes of the Marvel Universe.

The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1 is an over-sized one-shot bringing two very different worlds together. The book contains six stories, from creators Chip Zdarsky, Pete Wood, Kyle Starks, Mike Henderson, MacKenzie Cadenhead, David Baldeon, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Athila Fabbio, Ashley Allen, Chef Paul Carmichael, Paco Medina, Adam F. Goldberg, and E.J. Su, and they all do a fantastic job of blending the Marvel Universe with the Muppets. Marvel has put out lots of crossovers, and this one may give the Muppets direction they haven’t had in a long time.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Pros	Cons
All of the stories do a fantastic job of crossing two very different properties together	There’s really nothing wrong with any of the stories, but they are simple, somewhat predictable stories
The art is mostly great, with Marvel choosing some awesome pencilers
This book proves that the Muppets might have a great new home in comics

The Muppets and the Marvel Universe Belong Together

Chip Zdarsky is about to reboot the Avengers and has been doing fantastic superhero stories at the House of Ideas for years, so putting him in a crossover book like this makes a lot of sense. He’s also one of the best comedic writers in comics and you can feel his love of the Muppets come off every page. The story made me so happy. He’s able to nail the various characters (I won’t say too much about the plot but I will say this – Fozzy and Spider-Man and Miss Piggy and Emma Frost are the MVPs because of two very cool scenes) and create a fun story that takes the tropes of The Muppet Show and the Marvel Universe and mixes them in perfect proportions.

Zdarsky’s story is my favorite in this book, but most of the others one are fantastic as well. We get to see Bunsen and Beaker meet Hank Pym and Bruce Banner from Kyle Starks, Miss Piggy join the Guardians of the Galaxy courtesy of Cadenhead, Phillip Kennedy Johns gives readers Wolverine joining Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, Ashley Allen and Chef Paul Carmichael bridge two worls with Doctor Strange meeting the Swedish Chef, and the Avengers looking for new recruits from Adam F. Goldberg. The only one I don’t really like is the last one and that’s more because the humor didn’t land for me than the quality of the story.

Disney doesn’t really know what to do with the Muppets, but this comic and its various stories might just be the key to the future. The Muppet Show is a classic from another generation, so it’s a hard sell today. However, The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1 shows that maybe comics are the perfect place for them. The various stories in this book are able to capture what made the Muppets so popular for so long, contrasting their insanity with that of the Marvel Universe and creating some hilarious at times. Marvel has been doing more crossovers lately, and these stories show that maybe, a Muppet/Marvel anthology book could be the future for the property.

The Artists Do a Fantastic Job of Landing the Jokes

The main story is drawn by Pete Woods. Woods has been around for a long time, and his style has evolved a lot, especially lately. His art has a cartoonish quality to it, and it fits this story to a tee. Wood is able to help every joke land perfectly. He’s able to give readers some fantastic imagery and visual gags, with his adroit character acting is one of the most important parts of the book. I love Woods’ rendition of Miss Piggy and I literally cheered when I saw the above panel. Woods works seamlessly with Zdarsky, the two of them creating some of the funniest Muppet jokes in years. If Marvel listens to me and actually does a Muppets comic, he’s the perfect man for the job.

Mike Henderson and David Baldeon’s art is more cartoonish as well and their stories, starring Bunson and Miss Piggy respectively, knock it out of the park with every page as well, capturing the humor and the gonzo imagery (no pun intended) of each story. The Wolverine story has no dialogue and uses with five to nine panel grids to tell its story, with artist Athila Fabbio getting the story across perfectly with just the images. Paco Medina handles the Strange/Swedish Chef story, and it’s some of the best art in the book. Finally, E.J. Su handles the Avengers story and for me, this was the weakest art in the book. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn’t help that the rest of the art is so much better or that Su had to follow Medina. All in all, the art is in this book does everything you want it to.

The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1 is a fantastic crossover comic. The Muppets need a new home and I’m going to be honest – if Marvel put Zdarsky and Wood on a Muppets Marvel Universe series, I would buy it even if it cost $8.99 a month. This comic is that good. Life can be hard sometimes and you just want to read something light and fun. That’s this book in a nutshell, an entertaining yarn that will make you laugh and cheer.

The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1 is on sale now.

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