Marvel's 616

The episodes are dense and thoughtful and long; they are best savored from week-to-week, and it’s a shame they’re being offloaded all at once, like some unsold batch of Brute Force comics. But that’s a minor quibble. Marvel’s 616 is an accomplishment that is nothing short of heroic.

It is a huge credit to the various people involved in this series, then, that Marvel’s 616 is not just several hours of needless mythologizing, but an engaging series that finds new angles from which to appreciate the Marvel universe.

It’s ultimately about as fawning as you might expect; any criticism of the way Marvel had conducted business is obvious enough not to leave too big a dent in its reputation, and a deified version of Stan Lee looms large. But the stories it chooses to tell turn out to be genuinely fascinating, whether you’re a diehard Marvel fan or someone who has no idea what “Marvel’s 616” even means.

We don’t recommend watching every episode of Marvel’s 616, but there should be enough material in the eight-episode first season to keep you occupied for a few entertaining hours.