Marville (comics)

Marville
Cover of Marville #1 Art by Mark D. Bright
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Format	Limited series
Publication date	2002–2003
Number of issues	7
Creative team
Writer(s)	Bill Jemas

Marville is a 2002 comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Bill Jemas, and the stories involve satirical comments on comic book industry conventions and trends.

The main character is Kal-AOL Turner, the son of Ted Turner and Jane Fonda from 5002. Kal-AOL is sent back in time via a time machine made out of video game systems. Despite having no superpowers, he tries to be a superhero. After some adventures as a Superhero, he and his friends decide to use their time machine to travel back to the origin of time and talk to God. Jack (who is never definitively stated to be God) takes Al and his friend through the times of the dinosaurs and neanderthals, explaining the origins of life and bestowing the secret of world peace to Al in the process. Al tries to have his story published as a series of comic books to share the secret of world peace, but is rejected because his story is not about superheroes or action.

The title is a reference to the TV series Smallville; the cover of issue #1 features the main character tied up as a scarecrow with a red 'M' painted on his chest, much as Tom Welling is in the first episode of Smallville and in related publicity material.

The series revisits several existing points of Marvel continuity in a completely irreverent and contradictory manner. For example, the issue titled "Originville" (referencing Origin) visits a prehistoric setting in which Wolverine is a mutant Neanderthal. Despite this, the series' main character, Kal-AOL Turner made a cameo appearance in the Marvel Universe series GLA and received a profile in The All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z.