A review in list form
1) When I first read that Marvel was continuing its adaptations of Jane Austen's novels (former entries had been the rather generic and patchy Pride and Prejudice, with fantastic covers by Sonny Liew, and the great Sense and Sensibility, with Liew taking on interiors as well as covers), I was confirmed in my predictions (Emma is, after all, the most adapted Austen novel after Pride and Prejudice, and the one with the highest profile after those two, with a famous 96 film with Gwyneth Paltrow, a recent BBC miniseries with Romola Garai, and constant press comments on how "no one but Jane Austen could like this chick..."), excited (Emma is my favorite Jane Austen novel, and one of my favorite novels of all time), and worried (see previous paranthetical statement).
2) My worries were exacerbated by the announcement that Liew was completely off the series. In my mind, he was the only real reason I paid attention to Pride and Prejudice, and his fantastic blending of chibi-style character design in strategic moments of the story with more normally proportioned figures perfectly captured the wit and intelligence of Austen's satire. Additionally, his angular villains captured the darkness of that spiky and somewhat rough first published novel of Austen.
3) However, when I got a glimpse at preview art by Janet Lee, as well as reading about the decoupage method used to make her art, I quickly became very excited.
4) Now that it's out, I am thrilled. Nancy Butler's scripts have only gotten better at capturing the elegance of Austen's storytelling (with a few blips I wouldn't have used, but quite excellent nonetheless). Such a huge leap forward from Pride and Prejudice, which I felt really relied too much on captions and was hampered by pedestrian, Hollywoodized art. Even more delicate than the very intelligent Sense and Sensibility, the exposition and character notes are balanced between interpolated dialogue and captions.
5) And the art by Janet Lee is wonderful. Delicately colored, with muted yet vivid reds popping Emma herself out from the rest of the pastels and beautiful dress designs which make up Lee and Butler's adapted world, the adaptation is much less grim than the appropriately gritty slate-grey which dominated Sense and Sensibility. The character designs are quirky in a totally different manner than Liew's, but completely in tune with the kind of brilliant, intelligent, loving, mocking, and above all loveable characterizations of Austen's masterpieces.
6) I have great hopes of this series, especially as they've breezed through to Emma and Mr. Knightley's major argument in the first volume of the novel in this first of five installments, leaving more room for the important bits of the extremely tightly plotted yet beautifully detailed final volume.