Marvel Romance Redux: Restraining Orders Are For Other Girls

    (Marvel, 2006)

The third issue of Marvel’s semi-regular Romance Redux sports some wickedly funny rescripting jobs, turning Marvel’s Silver Age romance comics into modern farce. It’s a cheap joke, taking existing visuals and rewriting the dialogue, but effective when done well.

Marvel’s first effort in the line, But I Thought He Loved Me, was a highlight of February’s Valentine’s event, but the second issue, Guys and Dolls, lacked the fizz of its predecessor: curious, since many of the same writers were involved.

Restraining Orders picks up where the debut left off, giving readers six clever satirical diversions. Even so, the book is heavily front-loaded, the first three stories being much funnier than the last. “Too Smart to Date!” is a fun lampoon of comic-book intellectuals, while “Co-Ed Campus Undercover Cutie” gets off on self-consciously breaking the fourth wall.

The real treat here, though, is “Psycho for You.” Pretty much any story that leads with the caption “Oh God, I love him so much, I want to stab him in the face!!!” is going to be good reading.

—Shaun Manning
Jump to issue:
  NotesWriterArtist
#1

June, 2006
Cover Price: $2.99
3 copies available from $1.00 		Robert Loren Fleming, Michael Lieb, Fred Van Lente, Kyle Baker, Kirsten SinclairJack Kirby, Dick Giordano, Don Heck