I'd never have known about Big Hero 6 if it weren't for the animated movie that Walt Disney Animation Studios put out in 2014. When I found out that it was a comic put out by Marvel in the late '90s and throughout the 2000s, I actively went looking for the issues. I was out of luck as none of the comic book stores I went to had them in their back issue bins, and the trade paperback that collected the five issue mini-series from 2008 was long out of print so nobody had them on their shelves either. So I gave up my search. Then almost two years ago, Brad and I were at a toy and comic sale I happened to come across issue #2 of the 2008 mini-series. There weren't any other issues of the series, so I passed on it because I didn't want to just get the second issue without anything else surrounding it. But, being that it was my birthday, or the weekend before my birthday in actuality, Brad bought it for me as part of my birthday present, while my back was turned. This is the only issue of Big Hero 6 that I have so I probably won't get to review any of the other issues since they're so rare and like I said, the trade has been out of print for almost a decade.
It wasn't super difficult to follow the story in this issue, as Chris Claremont does a good job at getting people up to speed on the first page of the issue. Yes, Chris Claremont wrote this mini-series, putting the same slant on this book that he did so well on the various X-Men comics he's written over the years. At least, as far as the team's dynamics are concerned. As in, they're at each other's throats for most of the issue. For absolutely no reason. It's like a CW teen drama TV show in comic book form. The only difference is that all of the main characters are Japanese and they're on a mission in the United States, because that's never happened before *he says sarcastically*.
Unlike the versions in the movie, I don't like any of the characters in this issue. Well, that's not entirely true. I like Hiro and Marys, who is the female, American, equivalent of Hiro. Honey Lemon, Go-Go, Wasabi, and Fred are all completely unlikeable in this issue. I don't know if that's because Marvel can't seem to come up with genuinely likeable characters or if Claremont is the problem, but whatever the case may be, there's a problem when half the members of the superhero team, whether they're teenagers or adults, whose name is on the cover of the book, are people you don't like.
Baymax is kind of weird as he seems to be modeled after a Yakuza bodyguard, complete with a bowler hat, rather than the sidekick health/medical robot from the movie. His personality is also not as cuddly as it is in the movie either. Maybe if the movie had been live action and made by Marvel Studios, they would've gotten closer to the comics in the movie than Disney did through their main animation studio. I guess we'll never know, but it would've been interesting to see what Marvel Studios would've done with this property.
I like the story, though this issue is focused more on the team's experiences at an American high school rather than the Japanese high school they usually go to. Which is kinda cool. It just would've been cool to read the first issue so I'd know who exactly they're up against. Though from the way this issue plays out, it doesn't seem like the kids know who they're up against. Which is actually pretty refreshing, considering so many comics are about heroes who know exactly who they're fighting every single time they face a bad guy. Being this is the original comic book version of Big Hero 6, chances are pretty good it isn't going to be any of the usual Marvel bad guys since from what I've read online, they kept this book completely isolated from the rest of the Marvel Universe after the original mini-series, Sunfire & Big Hero Six ended it's three issue run back in 1998. I really appreciate that because one of the biggest problems I've had getting into Marvel Comics is how interconnected everything is and it seems like you can't read and enjoy one book or one character without reading five or six other books or characters. Even if it's not a team book like The Avengers or The Fantastic Four. So it's nice to have a Marvel book that, while set in the Marvel Universe, is separate from what's going on in the rest of the Marvel Universe.
The artwork in this issue is spectacular. It's a very Anime/Manga style of artwork which makes sense since for all intents and purposes, this is an American Manga book. It's something Marvel dabbled in quite a bit in the 2000s, right around the time this book was being put out and earlier. One of the more notable ones that I discovered five years ago, but have yet to read any of, is Agent X, a book that served as sort of a spin-off of Deadpool as well as a relaunch of the character in 2002. This was a period where Deadpool wasn't selling very well and they hadn't yet come up with the idea of pairing up Deadpool with Cable yet. So this was a style of art that Marvel played with numerous times. I think they even had their own Manga line at one point, but I don't remember exactly when that was, or if I'm even remembering that correctly, but I'm pretty sure Marvel had it's own Manga line sometime in the 2000s or even early 2010s. Either way the art style works very well for this book.
If you've never read Big Hero 6 before, but loved the movie, I would definitely recommend you read this mini-series. Don't expect it to be like the movie though, because they are very different entities, and none of the characters are the same between the two versions. It's definitely worth a read though since this is one of Marvel's least known properties, something that hasn't changed in the last six years. It's a pretty cool comic though, even if most of the main characters are unlikeable in the comic book version. I'm giving Big Hero 6 #2 8/10 stars. The story is solid, the artwork is great, but the majority of the main characters are unlikeable, drama instigating people for no reason at all.
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