Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Marvel’s 616’ On Disney+, A Docuseries Exploring Various Aspects Of Marvel’s Creative Universe, Both Common And Obscure

The name of Marvel‘s new docuseries Marvel’s 616 comes from the fact that Earth-616 is where most of the Marvel Universe takes place, if you envision a multiverse full of hundreds or thousands of Earths. Learn something new every day, right? In its eight episodes, made by various filmmakers, a different aspect of the Marvel comic and film universe is explored. Some of those aspects are well-known, and others are very obscure. But there is something there for any fan of Marvel.

MARVEL’S 616: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see footage of an old Japanese kids show. A voice says, “In the ’70s, everyone wanted something new and exciting, and this was it.” The man, on a dirt bike, sees a cartoon wave of webs and says, “I see something with my spider sense!”

The Gist: Marvel’s 616, produced by Jason Sterman, David Gelb and Brian McGuinn, is an 8-episode docuseries that explores various aspects of Marvel’s history and creative universe. It doesn’t matter if the topic is a macro view of the “Marvel method,” as one episode explores, or tries to dig into the more obscure corners of Marvel history; the films in this series give a view of Marvel that even the most dedicated fans of the comic publisher and movie studio may now be familiar with.

The first episode goes into one of the obscure corners of Marvel history, about the 1978-79 Japanese Spider-Man series; aside from the character of Spider-Man, it had nothing to do with the world he occupied in the American version. His alter ego wasn’t Peter Parker, he flew in a plane that looked like a sphynx and transformed into a car, and all the villains were different. It was never seen in the United States until Marvel released them online in 2009.

Gene Pelc, who lived in Japan at the time and connected Marvel with toy manufacturer Toei to create the series, talked about how Marvel didn’t really care what the series was like as long as it made them money. So we see scenes from a low-budget kids series with lots of monsters and robots, and his alter ego, Takuya Yamashiro (Shinji Tōdō) transforming by zipping on his spider suit. Gelb, who directed the first episode, talks to Pelc, Tōdō and other people involved in the series, talking about its low budget, how they created one of the first transforming vehicles in order to produce marketable toys, and the fact that they tried to make a good show that ended up influencing other Japanese kids series, including the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. And, in no small feat, Stan Lee loved it and convinced Marvel execs to go forward with it.

Other episodes of 616 take a look at the women behind many of the Marvel universe’s characters, the fact that creators of Marvel characters live around the world, some of the universe’s more obscure characters.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Marvel’s 616 fits in with the other Marvel docuseries on Disney+, like Hero Project, and with other “inside Disney” docs that have premiered on Disney+ over the last year.

Our Take: The subjects examined in Marvel’s 616 feel eclectic enough to give viewers a choice of what to watch. If you’re more interested in the dusty, unexplored corners of the Marvel universe, like the “Japanese Spider-Man” episode, then 616 will be fun to watch. We’re especially looking forward to the episode where Paul Scheer tries to figure out what happened to some of the universe’s more obscure characters, for instance.

But we have the feeling that the rest of the episodes are more reverent of Marvel and its creative process, and how much enjoyment we’ll get out of them will all depend on how interesting the various filmmakers present their stories. Let’s be honest: Forty-four minutes on “The Marvel Method” sounds like a long commercial for Marvel, and 66 minutes on people dressing as Marvel characters for New York Comic Con sounds like… well, it sounds like a very skippable episode.

It’s interesting that Disney decided to put the Japanese Spider-Man episode out front in this first season. Except for Pelc, everyone else in the episode speaks Japanese, so it’s a risky proposition to introduce the series like this. But the story has been in the “WTF?” files for many years, so diving into the fact that Marvel greenlit such a series feels like a good way to introduce audiences to some of what 616 is trying to accomplish. We’re just not sure the rest of the first season will be quite as compelling as the first episode.

What Age Group Is This For?: The series is rated TV-14, but episodes like “Japanese Spider-Man” are good for the 10-and-up crowd.

Parting Shot: As we see a replica of the spider suit used on the series, Tōdō thanks Spider-Man for giving him an acting career.

Sleeper Star: Speaking of Tōdō, his observations on the show’s budget and shoestring effects were pretty funny.

Most Pilot-y Line: If only this episode was made three years ago, so we could hear Lee’s observations about Japanese Spider-Man while he was still alive. The footage of him talking about why he enjoyed it so much, though, put a satisfying bow on the episode.

Our Call: STREAM IT. 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.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Marvel's 616 On Disney+