Following on from last weeks episode, about the increasing diversity that women have provided to Marvel - this episode explores the use of creative artists outside of the United States focusing on two Spanish artists who draw for Marvel today.
Natacha Bustos and Javier Garron are two Spanish born artists who tell their stories about how they came to draw for Marvel. Though the location of their upbringing initially felt like a hindrance to their dreams, technology has meant that collaboration to produce a comic can becoming a worldwide endeavour. Though both initially training in other fields, drawing and comics was a passion for both and through years of work and determination, both made it to Marvel, Natacha drawing for Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur whilst Javier works on Miles Morales Spiderman.
I found this episode of 616 to be slightly less interesting that the ones than have come before. It was, however, still a nicely shot documentary with an informative way of telling the stories of these two artists. I did wonder if the documentary might have worked better being slightly less focused on the central pair and more on the way Marvel works as a worldwide creative enterprise. Nothing against the pair - but it did feel a little like rather than pushing the idea of a global team, it was more like "everyone is in New York except for these two, who live in Spain". Presumably there are other people, in other countries, who also do similar work or even just work for Marvel in other departments that could have featured.
This might have just been me, but occasionally I had an issue where I began reading the comics, rather than the subtitles so missed little bits of what was said.
I don't want to sound too negative about what was a decent documentary about a couple of people living their dreams, but I'm not convinced that it paints as much of a picture of Marvel as a worldwide organisation as it might.