Marvel Comics is teaming up with ESPN to produce a comic series focused on the upcoming World Cup which will take place in Russia this summer. The World Cup is an international soccer tournament that pits countries against each other until the best of the best emerges as the victor.
The comics feature a story by Fabian Nicieza with pencils by Diego Bernard, inks by J.P. Mayer, colors by Andrew Crossley and letters by VC’s Joe Sabina.
There are currently 13 chapters already available to be read. The first chapter pits Aregentinian superstar Lionel Messi against Portuguese phenom Cristiano Ronaldo. Subsequent chapters focus on Messi and Ronaldo individually. There are also stories about Brazil and Neymar. One chapter even recounts Germany’s dominant performance in the previous World Cup in Brazil. There are also a chapters about the United States, Chile, and Italy. Another chapter focuses on France, Belgium. There is also a chapter on England and Spain as well as one on Mexico, Poland, and Iceland. The final chapter features the World Cup and asks who will lift the trophy this year and what legends will be forged?
All 13 chapters of the comic are available to be read right now. The user interface is a little clunky. Each chapter is presented next to each other and there doesn’t appear to be a way to scroll across the screen to get to later chapters without click on the previous ones. You also have to scroll down the page in order to each chapter before returning to the top for the next chapter.
It’s a fun little tie-in that looks to mainly serve those who aren’t die hard soccer fans. It does a good job of recapping the previous World Cup and setting the stage for the upcoming World Cup in Russia.
It’s unclear whether the series will continue as the World Cup progresses, but the last chapter lends me to believe new chapters will be added to document this year’s World Cup.
We have contacted Marvel to see if new chapters will be added, they did not get back to us at the time of print.