Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

Like I said in my review of Eric Shanower and Skottie Young's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the pleasure of these Marvel Oz adaptations is in getting the familiar and the new all at once: the L. Frank Baum plots I remember from childhood, coupled with dynamic new Skottie Young illustrations. In that regard, The Marvelous Land of Oz is probably the most successful of all the Marvel Oz comics. Marvelous Land has a decent plot, less meandering than some of Baum's travel narratives, with a real antagonist (or pair of antagonists, General Jinjur and Mombi) and set of goals for our heroes (restore the throne of Oz). Tip is a fun protagonist, too, an easygoing young boy with a good fairytale backstory (oppressed servant of an evil witch, though of course it turns out to be more complicated than that). There's some random traveling, too, of course (the bit where they end up flying over the desert has always seemed a bit arbitrary to me), but moreso than many other Oz novels, this one is about overcoming a specific problem.

What Marvelous Land has in spades are visually interesting characters: the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman return, of course, and then Baum adds Jack Pumpkinhead, the Sawhorse, the Gump, and H. M. Wogglebug T.E. Each of these gives Young something to work with-- I love, for example, the way he draws the Sawhorse, as a sleek single piece of wood with these deep eyes and slightly ajar mouth that make him look like a loyal dog. The weirdness of its characters is fundamental to my enjoyment of the Oz books, and my favorite panel was one where you just see all these weirdos lined up and the Gump comments, "none of you seems to be constructed any more artistically than I am." These are books where the weird and misfits are the exalted and the clever, and in none of them is that better depicted than in Marvelous Land, and Skottie Young captures that perfectly. (Plus I love the way he draws Mombi.)

Wir befinden uns im Reich Oz. Der kleine Tip lebt bei der Hexe Mombi. Aus der Laune heraus, die alte Frau zu erschrecken, bastelt er Jack Pumpkinhead zusammen. Doch die alte Dame erweckt Jack mit einem Pulver zum Leben. Als Strafe will sie den kleine Tip in eine Statue verwandeln. Dieser kann jedoch noch rechtzeitig entkommen und begibt sich mit Jack auf den Weg in die Smaragdenstadt. Währenddessen wird der gute Scheuch jedoch von einer Horde Rebellinnen vom Thron gestoßen. Fortan herrscht Generalin Jinjur über die Smaragdenstadt und über deren Männer…Können die Freunde den Thron zurückerobern?

In The Marvelous Land of Oz treffen neue und alte Bekannte zusammen. Wie die kleine Dorothy findet auch Tip eine Menge skurriler Freunde, zu denen auch der Scheuch und der Holzfäller gehören.
Shanower und Young haben wieder einmal ein künstlerisches Meisterwerk geschaffen, nach der Vorlage des L.Frank Baums.
Gesellschaftskritisch deutet die Geschichte die Anfänge der Frauenrechtsbewegung zu Baums Zeiten an. Aber natürlich geht es vorrangig um den Zusammenhalt in einer Freundschaft. Und Tip spielt in dem Ganzen eine ganz besondere Rolle…

Auch der zweite Band der Oz-Reihe aus dem Marvel Verlag ist wunderschön gezeichnet und umgesetzt. Wer einmal angefangen hat zu lesen und zu schauen, kommt aus dem Staunen nicht mehr heraus. ( )

Eric Shanower and Skottie Young's follow-up to their adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is no less kinetic, fun, or colorful, but because it moves beyond the boundaries of the most famous Oz characters and adventures, it's at least slightly more surprising - which is good. Baum's theatrical tale of enchantments, inanimate objects brought to life and the invasion of the Emerald City is golden material for the graphic novel format, and some of the least familiar scenes from the original work - such as the consultations between General Jinjur and the witch Mombi - actually become some of the most memorable here. Baum's satirical sense of humor gets a good outing as well, with lots and lots of groan-worthy puns (which is lampshaded in the character of the Wogglebug).

If I have any complete, it's only that Young seems to have pulled back a little in finding new and different ways to depict the Oz characters. His Ozma is clearly based on John R. Neill's Ozma; his Sawhorse is clearly Neill's Sawhorse; his Jack Pumpkinhead, while not exactly Neill's Pumpkinhead, is dressed in precisely the same garments. That's authenticity to the text, to be sure, but it would have been nice to see Young's art push beyond those boundaries a little bit. His Tin Woodman isn't much like the description we get of the Tin Woodman in Wonderful Wizard, but he is a highly effective creation all the same. I would have liked to see a Young-styled Ozma created from a similar position of carte blanche. ( )

So I have no idea why this book took me over a month to read. Just like the first book in the series it's funny and filled with action and adventure. In this volume we follow Tip as he leaves his home with the witch Mombi and meets up with the Scarecrow and the Tin Man and helps Glinda the good witch reestablish the rightful ruler of the Emerald City when the Scarecrow is ousted by an arm of women. There is a very unexpected twist at the end and we get to meet some great new characters. The artwork is just phenomenal and is again very bright and colorful. The whole book has a very nostalgic feel to it that anyone would benefit reading. ( )

So I have no idea why this book took me over a month to read. Just like the first book in the series it's funny and filled with action and adventure. In this volume we follow Tip as he leaves his home with the witch Mombi and meets up with the Scarecrow and the Tin Man and helps Glinda the good witch reestablish the rightful ruler of the Emerald City when the Scarecrow is ousted by an arm of women. There is a very unexpected twist at the end and we get to meet some great new characters. The artwork is just phenomenal and is again very bright and colorful. The whole book has a very nostalgic feel to it that anyone would benefit reading. ( )