Towards the end of 2013, Marvel announced a very exciting project for adult Disney fans, a new comic book series entitled Disney Kingdoms. The premise, a series of stories that use Disney lands, parks and attractions as the basis to tell new and exciting stories. To make sure the new series is as authentic as possible, Marvel have teamed up with Disney Imagineers with a wealth of the park’s history to create something new and unique. We have read the first in the new series and we wanted to tell you what we thought.
Our first impression was the front cover. It’s clear that this isn’t something designed for children. We were so pleased to see Disney creating something that really is for adults. The story, based upon the concept of Rolly Crump’s Museum of the weird, is something that only Disney fans would understand although there is a short history of the never completed attraction at the back of the issue.
I must confess now, I’m not a huge comic book fan. I’ve read a few over the years and only really got in to reading them more regularly when I discovered The Walking Dead series. This was the first time I’d read something that I didn’t really know anything about. It’s the first issue of something new and like any new concept, there needs to be a set up. The first issue does begin slowly and for the first few pages I admit I wasn’t sure where it was going but after reading for a few minutes, it became clear that this was going to be something different.
The story, albeit a simple one so far, is well written and brilliantly drawn. It certainly sets up a good number of questions that will be answered in this 5 part story arc. For me, the most exciting part about this is that it takes something that Walt Disney was ready to build just before his death and begin to she’s some light and what he might have been considering to build, a forgotten concept. This will thrill older Disney fans in the way that The Kingdom Keepers thrills younger. It may not be set within a Disney park but the people behind it are Disney through and through. I’m looking forward to issue 2 and what comes next in the series.
Disney Kingdom: Seekers of the Weird is available now from comic book stores and online from digital comic book store apps.