Not a whole lot to say about this. I thought it was entertaining and enjoyable, but not especially good, which is surprising given that it was written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Andy Kubert. To paraphrase Gaiman though, it was just supposed to be something to pass the time reading. It was exactly that. Not really that involving.
The premise is essentially that due to a temporal anomaly (unfortunately that's been turned into a cliche by Star Trek), the age of heroes and mutants arises nearly 400 years early. The book doesn't include a huge cast of characters, but it does work in quite a few, including such favorites as Nick Fury (spymaster for the Queen of England), Jonathan Strange, Matt Murdoch, Charles Xavier (Carlos Javier), Scott Somerisle, Jean Grey, Otto Von Doom, the Fantastick Four (that's the correct spelling), and a few more. For the most part, they're just themselves transposed into past versions almost identical to their current forms. That's not the most imaginative use of those characters. Although nothing stands out as completely anachronistic, the historicity of the story is pretty vague and generic, much like you'd expect to see in your average syndicated show (Hercules etc.)
So it was worth reading, but definitely not worth buying (which I didn't, I borrowed it from the library). I really did expect more just because of Neil Gaiman's involvement. Not that I think he just crapped out on this one, but maybe he wasn't putting too much sweat into it (or maybe the format cramped his style). As for the art, well, I can't say I'm a huge fan of Kubert. As far as I'm concerned, he draws serviceable depictions rather than art (for the comics anyway). Not that there's really anything wrong with that, but I gave up on such bland fare as X-Men long ago. This will definitely be more interesting and entertaining if you're a real Marvel fan.
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