Marvel Meow is a wonderful little comic with a simple premise: cats from throughout the Marvel Universe do cute, silly cat things with all kinds of heroes and villains. The project appears to have first started in the form of variant covers drawn by artist Nao Fuji, before the project was carried over to Marvel’s Instagram account. The Instagram comics were compiled into a physical release in 2021, and I immediately fell in love with Marvel Meow when I stumbled upon this book during a trip to the mall. As luck would have it, a new batch of Marvel Meow comics began dropping exclusively on Marvel Unlimited, following the format of the wildly successful It’s Jeff! Infinity Comic. Now, all 28 of the digitally-released Marvel Meow comics (and a new bonus story) have been put together in a single issue, and it’s glorious.
Like the two physical collections of It’s Jeff!, the physical edition of Marvel Meow does an incredible job of taking a comic designed for vertical scrolling on mobile devices and reformatting it for the page. I believe this is the work of Stacie Zucker, who’s credited as the book’s “Designer”, but I’m not certain. I did about a half hour of digging to try and confirm this, and while I didn’t find any answers, I did find out that Zucker is actually behind a lot of great Marvel logos from the last few years, as well as many really creative credits pages. I didn’t expect that writing this review would lead to me discovering that graphic designers are the unsung heroes of comics, but here we are.
As for the main contents of the book, Nao Fuji takes on all creative duties as both the artist and writer. Her artstyle is incredibly recognizable, with slick, detailed human characters contrasting with the cute, simplistic felines. Fuji works with a wide array of colors here, which is interesting because the Instagram/book Marvel Meow comics were in black, white, and a third color that would change between stories. This makes certain obscure characters a lot easier to identify, such as Fauna, the green-skinned Krakoan child.
Speaking of obscure characters, I love all of the deep pulls that Fuji makes. Characters like Mr. Sinister’s Cy-Cat from Immortal X-Men and Sabertooth’s “inner cat” from his 2022 miniseries not only come back, but also get their chance in the spotlight. There’s also a wonderfully wild array of guest stars, with Jeff the Land Shark making multiple appearances. Jeff is definitely a little scene-stealer, and I imagine that’s a big part of why Fuji was signed on to share the art duties with Gurihiru for the third season of It’s Jeff!. I particularly love that Fuji pairs Jeff up with Quentin Quire sometimes, because I loved their dynamic in West Coast Avengers, and not a lot of other creators have touched on that.
Marvel Meow is pure feline fun for readers of all ages. The stories pack in so many adorable moments, from Cyclops using a low-power optic blast like a laser pointer to Doctor Doom crafting Doombot kitties because he’s jealous of the cat-sitting Fantastic Four. There’s a whole multi-story arc where Loki transforms himself into a cat and gets into shenanigans, which is something I can only describe as “peak comics”. Every page of Marvel Meow is an absolute delight, and you should check this comic out as soon as possible.
