"Daredevil: The Devil in Cell-Block D"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Daredevil: The Devil in Cell-Block D” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Blind lawyer/vigilante Matt Murdock/Daredevil had been arrested on suspicion of being the vigilante Daredevil. He was being held on Ryker’s Island in the Protected Custody Wing awaiting trial. He was kept out of General Population due to the fact that he was blind and was deemed unable to defend himself should he have any trouble with the other inmates. Meanwhile, someone else was running around Hell’s Kitchen, New York City dressed as Daredevil and fighting crime. Matt’s best friend and law partner Franklin “Foggy” Nelson was working on Matt’s defense, along with his assistant Becky Blake, and their investigator Dakota North was working on the case. The Federal Government decided that since Matt was Daredevil, he would be able to defend himself and moved to transfer Matt to Gen Pop. After being approached by gang leader Carlos LaMuerto/Black Tarantula in the prison infirmary, Matt was being walked back to his cell when he was attacked by Hammerhead and his thugs. Matt was able to defend himself but was placed in solitary confinement. Foggy and Dakota went to visit Matt in prison to inform him of the Feds’ plan, and while they were leaving, Foggy and Dakota were attacked, and Foggy was killed. After Foggy’s funeral, Matt and Becky went before the judge, and the Feds’ motion to have Matt placed in Gen Pop was granted due to Matt placing several of Hammerhead’s thugs in the infirmary, showing that he could defend himself and placed in Cell-Block D. Matt was approached by another prison gang leader named Morgan, who offered Matt to join his crew, but Matt declined. Tabloid Newspaper the Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich, and friend of Matt and Daredevil offered to help Dakota clear Matt’s name. Serial killer Bullseye was brought to Ryker’s, and every precaution was given to prevent him from harming any of the guards, fellow prisoners, or from escaping. Matt confronted Hammerhead to try to learn who stabbed Foggy, but Hammerhead didn’t know. Dakota and Ben got a lead on a lawyer named Alton Lennox, who was working with the imposter Daredevil, who was also involved in Foggy’s attack. Wilson Fisk/Kingpin was transferred from solitary confinement to Cell-Block D. After reading of Matt’s exploits at Ryker’s in The Daily Bugle, Frank Castle/Punisher turned himself in so he could get sent to Ryker’s. Fisk asked for a meeting with Matt. LaMuerto left Matt a shiv should things go bad. Matt confronted Fisk and accused Fisk of being behind Foggy’s attack, but Fisk denied Matt’s accusations. Hammerhead, LaMuerto, and Morgan planned to start a riot and take out Matt and Fisk. Matt was visited by his wife Milla Donovan, who tried to appeal to Matt’s gentler side. Becky told Matt about Ben and Dakota’s lead. Fisk prepared for the riot and attempt on his life by having Turk Barret and his gang get Bullseye freed and supplied with weapons. Matt, Fisk, and Bullseye were able to survive the riot, and Matt defeated Fisk and Bullseye. Matt turned to the Punisher, who faked kidnapping Matt, and the two were able to escape Ryker’s. Matt found the imposter Daredevil and engaged him in combat, but once the imposter unmasked, the fight came to an end. Both Daredevils, Ben and Dakota found their way to Lennox’s office, which was abandoned, but Dakota was able to reprint an e-ticket to Monaco from Lennox’s fax machine. Matt dyed his hair, bought contact lenses, got a fake passport as Michael Murdock, and flew to Monaco to find Lennox and the person behind Foggy’s attack.

            Matt learned Lennox’s only client was a mob-boss named Tybold Lucca, who lived on an estate in Monte Carlo, and Matt took on the identity Ray Mallory and booked passage to Monte Carlo. Matt did his best to get noticed in the casinos, hoping to get an invite to Lucca’s estate. One night, he caught the attention of Lily Lucca, Tybold Lucca’s daughter, who invited Ray to a party at Lucca’s estate. Matt was entranced to her due to her scent, which reminded him of his former lover Karen Page, who tragically died in his arms. Matt went to Lucca’s party, which was featuring a Matador. After putting on a performance, the Matador killed Lucca. Daredevil fought and defeated the Matador, and Alton Lennox and Lily were able to escape during the fight. Matt tracked down Lennox in Portugal, only to find he had been killed by Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone, who had now taken Lily. Matt followed them to Paris, where he learned Tombstone, the Matador and Lily were all working for the woman who ordered Foggy’s attack. Matt defeated Tombstone and the Matador and learned from Lily who was behind Foggy’s attack. Matt made his way to Zurich, Switzerland and confronted the mastermind, who confessed to Foggy’s attack and offered to clear all of Matt’s legal troubles if he represented Fisk. Matt declined her offer, but when he turned on the television, he found that the charges against him were being dropped. Matt returned to Hell’s Kitchen and to his life with Milla and had a surprise reunion. Following this, Matt decided to uphold the deal he made and got the charges against Fisk dropped and Fisk was released from jail.

            Matt was fighting as Daredevil while battling the flu. Carlos LaMuerto was released from prison on parole. LaMuerto was given a corrupt parole officer who demanded money from him, so LaMuerto went to Matt looking for a job. Matt agreed to allow LaMuerto to work with Dakota. LaMuerto had a run in with Little Loco, a former underling of LaMuerto’s from when he was a gang leader, who was now in charge of a gang of his own. Daredevil and Black Tarantula teamed up to take down the Yakuza. Dakota and LaMuerto worked on a case that led to Little Loco and led to a fight between Daredevil and Black Tarantula.

            Okay, that sums up the story, now it’s time for me to put in the review bits. We’re going to start with my personal reflections on this book. First off, I will say that I felt like I was missing a piece of the background before reading this book. For some reason, Marvel decided to release the Volumes of Daredevil Modern Era Epic Collections out of order. They published Vols 2 through 4, then skipped to Vol 6, and I feel like this gap impacted my enjoyment of this particular Volume, so through no actual fault of its own, I had a dislike to this Collection, and I do feel bad about that, but I have to be honest here. The story in this book did not begin at what I consider a proper starting point, there I background context missing, and I have no prior knowledge of it, so it really harms my opinion of this book. As it stands, I found some level of enjoyability to this book, but it wasn’t exceedingly high. I was rather disappointed. I just found that I couldn’t fully get excited about the stories. The whole concept of the book just fell flat for me. All-in-all, I didn’t really like the story. I can say that there were plot twists I didn’t see coming, but they honestly didn’t help me enjoy the book to any further extent. If anything, the biggest one only just made my already low opinion fall even lower. Also, I was expecting something different based on the title and my prior knowledge of the Marvel time period, which I honestly shouldn’t have made the assumption I did, but it just happens. The issues contained in this Volume were originally published between 2006-2007, so I was expecting the incarceration to have something to do with the Superhuman Registration Act from “Civil War,” which was kind of dumb for me to just preconceive it to be and get disappointed by it not being what I wanted it to be, and if you read my review of “Daredevil: Out” I did the same thing, so my preconceived notions have hurt my enjoyment of reading what the book actually is, and it’s really not fair to the writers or editors, but it’s just how things happen, I guess, I can’t help it. And when we go into the other consideration of a graphic novel, the graphic part itself, I also found myself disappointed. The artwork completely failed to appeal to me throughout this entire book, I did not like the way this book visually appeared. This book entirely failed to hit the mark for me.

            Next up on our docket, we’re going to discuss accessibility. I know I’ve said this over six dozen times at this point, and I know there are some of you who already know what I mean when I say this because I know I have some readers who have been with me for awhile now, but there’s always new readers with every post I do, so I have to include an explanation of my meaning every time I do a new post for you newbs, so here I go. When I say the word “accessibility” I mean if this book can be picked up and read and be completely understood by any reader, even a reader who knows nothing about Daredevil or Marvel Comics. As you can tell from the previous paragraph, I feel like the accessibility rating is low as it is due to the missing background. There are also plenty of threads that pick up from past Daredevil stories that new readers would have difficulty picking up on. I really would not say that this is a book for a person who wants to start reading Marvel Comic books to begin with.

            Okay, I’ve prattled on for a while now, I think we’re getting to the point where we’re ready to discuss my numeric score. So, my system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest score I can possibly give and that means that this book is not worth reading at all. Ten is the highest score that I could possibly give and that means that this book is sheer perfection. Now my regular readers know how picky I am and that I don’t like just handing out tens to books, and that to get a ten, the book has to be really special, with a flawless story and stunning art. This book did not deliver on either. The story was not engaging to me, I couldn’t find myself enjoying myself to the extent that I hope to hit while reading a graphic novel, and the visuals did not appeal to me at all, so obviously we’re talking an exceptionally low score here. So, putting all the ingredients into my metaphorical blender, the story I wasn’t too thrilled with, and the art I found to be atrocious, turning the blender on, mixing it until it is completely smooth, then stopping it, pouring it out into a cup and looking at it, the score I see is… a two. This book was a huge letdown for me, and I really did not enjoy it.

            Well, I think it’s time we moved on to the next point, the recommendation. This segment has two questions. Do I personally recommend this book? And who do I think should read this book? As for the personal recommendation, this book does not receive that from me. I cannot, in good faith, tell you to read this book. However, if you are a diehard Daredevil fan, I think you’re the target audience for this book. And if you like prisonbreak stories in comic books, this book is for you. Or if you’re a fan of Ed Brubaker’s work, this isn’t, in my opinion, his best work, but you might find this enjoyable. Otherwise, I honestly really don’t recommend this book to many readers.

            Okay, we are approaching my signoff point. I have a few end of post announcements first. This blog has over 160 posts on it. I’ve written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, as well as about six dozen book reviews like this one, so if you enjoyed this post, there’s plenty more content to explore, just check out timcubbin.blogspot.com for other posts. I post on a very frequent basis. The current focus of this blog is reviews of Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Marvel Ultimate Epic Collections, but I might shake things up and add something else in soon, you never know. I collect every Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after their release and try to post a review when I’m finished reading them if possible, so you can usually expect at least one post a month, if not more. I’ve done a review of almost every Modern Era Epic Collection with the exception of four volumes that I couldn’t review due to the lack of having a device to draft the posts on at the time, but that could eventually change, we’ll have to wait and see on that, and I have reviewed every Ultimate Epic Collection released so far. At the time of my drafting this post, there is a new Modern Era Epic Collection coming out in one week, so you can probably expect another review upcoming sometime in the next four weeks. If this review seems professional, it’s because I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, but alas, I don’t get paid for this, I just do this as a side project on my days off from my actual job where I work in a grocery store, but you honestly don’t care about what I do for a living, so that’s enough said about that. Anyway, keep checking back for more, I will keep doing this until either I can no longer see or type, so expect this to keep going for quite a while. If you’re still reading at this point, you are THE BEST! I appreciate your support. Feel free to like, retweet, comment, share, leave something behind for me to let me know what you think, that would be greatly appreciated, I would honestly love to hear from you, my readers, feedback would be very much enjoyed. Anyway, I think that’s all for now, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Fantastic"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Fantastic” as presented in Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection format.

            Twenty-one years ago, Reed Richards was born. Eleven years ago, Reed was a young genius. He was bullied in school for his smarts, and his father was not understanding of his son’s intellect, so Reed only had his mother and best friend Ben Grimm in his corner. One day, Reed discovered another plane of existence. He began to try to breach the barrier, attempting to send some of his toys to this other dimension. He made it his Middle School Science Fair project, and he succeeded. A recruiter for the United States Director of Mainland Technology Development was in attendance and saw Reed’s project and came to Reed’s family, offering to take Reed to a “think tank” for young geniuses called the Baxter Building in New York City. Reed was introduced to Professor Franklin Storm, who informed Reed that although they were aware of this other dimension, which they called the N-Zone, Reed was the first to break through to it. Professor Storm had two young children, Sue and Johnny. Sue was also part of the think tank program. Five years ago, Reed was working on using the N-Zone as a transporter. One night, fellow Baxter Building Student Victor Van Damme snuck into Reed’s room to look at Reed’s formulas for the N-Zone. Though originally mad, Reed and Victor agreed to work together to further both Reed’s work in teleportation, and Victor’s work in robotics. General Ross of the United States Army fired Baxter Building scientist Arthur Molekevic for trying to create life through bio-technological methods. Five years later, the teleporter was ready for its first test. Reed invited his old friend Ben to view the test. Reed, Sue, Johnny, Ben, and Victor were all on the platform to watch an apple be teleported from the Nevada Desert to Guantanamo Bay. However, the teleporter did not teleport the apple, and Sue, Johnny, Ben, and Victor all disappeared, and Reed was able to elongate his body. Ben reappeared in Mexico City; his body transformed into rock. Johnny reappeared in France and could catch on fire. Susan reappeared in the desert, but was taken by Doctor Molekevic’s ani-men, with the ability to turn invisible. After being fired, Doctor Molekevic discovered an underworld 1.4 miles directly below the Baxter Building and had access to the Baxter Building mainframe and had been watching over its activities since he was fired with his creations. Johnny tried to learn to get his combustion powers under control. Ben was furious at Reed for mutating him, and Reed promised Ben he would fix them. Doctor Molekevic sent one of his creations, a giant monster, to the surface in order to bring Johnny down to him and Sue. Reed, Ben, and Johnny defeated the monster, then went below to rescue Sue. While fighting the monster, Johnny learned that while he was on fire, he had the ability to fly. Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny were reunited, and Sue learned she could create force fields that she was able to manipulate and move.

Reed determined that before the test, Victor must have changed the coordinates in the teleporter, and that it had instead sent them through the N-Zone and came out of it with these new powers. Reed and Sue grew romantically involved. Victor had reappeared in Copenhagen and had transformed into a metallic form. He had set up a Keep, where he used a mind-controlling tattoo to keep his own community. He sent a swarm of killer robot bugs to attack the Baxter Building. Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben were able to destroy his swarm, and Reed recognized this work as Victor’s and was able to reverse-trace Victor’s location. The United States Army was going to go to Copenhagen to arrest Victor for attacking the Baxter Building. Reed wanted to get to him first so he could get the codes he used for the transporter so he could attempt to reverse the effects of the transporter before they lost their only opportunity. Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben flew in Reed’s old invention, the Fantasti-car, to get there before the Army did. Victor reviewed the cameras from his robots and saw Sue, Ben and Johnny now had powers, but did not realize that Reed had also had powers since he had no abilities to use that aided in destroying the swarm. Victor shot down the Fantasti-Car, and he and his community fought Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben. Reed was unable to get the codes from Victor.

Reed continued to try to understand how to recreate the conditions of the accident, but Sue and Johnny decided they didn’t want to change back to the way they used to be. Reed decided the best way to get the information would be to actually go into the N-Zone himself. Sue, Johnny, and Ben agreed to go with him. Reed got the Army to agree and had a space shuttle decommissioned and refitted with his technology to make it able to travel through the N-Zone. The shuttle was renamed the “Awesome.” The four took the Awesome into the N-Zone. While in the N-Zone, they picked up a transmission. The four flew to investigate and Reed made contact with a lifeform in the N-Zone. The four arrived at a space station and were invited aboard. The lifeform was called Nihil. He used a special translator to communicate with the four, and Reed told Nihil that they hailed from another universe. During their conversation, Johnny’s skin turned to ash, and the four had to return to the Awesome to get back to their universe to treat Johnny. Reed and Ben went back to offer Nihil a way to establish communication between his universe and the N-Zone, but Nihil didn’t want that. The N-Zone was a dying universe, and he wanted to conquer a living one. Nihil tried to eliminate Reed and Ben, and Reed and Ben fought Nihil and his minions. Reed and Ben managed to retreat to the Awesome, and the four flew back to their universe. Unfortunately, they were unable to close the portal before Nihil and his minions could fly through. Nihil shot out the Awesome’s engines, and the Awesome crashed in Las Vegas. Reed, Sue, Ben, and the United States Army then had to fight Nihil and his minions in the streets of Vegas, and the existence of a new team of superheroes became known.

Okay, we’ve covered the synopsis. That’s just the first part of a Tim Cubbin review. Believe me, there’s plenty more content coming. Anyway, I start of my critiquing segments with my personal thoughts about the book. So, I’ll start off by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. As some of my regular readers know, I have been reading Marvel Comics regularly for nearly twenty-five years now. The issues in this Collection were originally published between 2004-2005, and I read them pretty close to the time of original publication, but it’s been over fifteen years since I last read these issues, so experiencing them again was a genuine pleasure. Now, for context, this is my fourth review of a Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection, the Ultimate Universe was created back in 2000 to attract new readers by throwing away forty years of history and starting fresh with new stories for the classic characters, like Spider-Man and the X-Men. This eventually led to the Ultimates, which was a reimagining of the Avengers. Marvel eventually decided to move on to Fantastic Four in the Ultimate Universe. “Ultimate Fantastic Four” actually really was my introduction into Fantastic Four comics. I never really went for the classic Fantastic Four too much, even as my tenure reading Marvel went on. My only true foray into the classics was “Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” two years ago, so if you want to compare original “Fantastic Four” to “Ultimate Fantastic Four,” please check out that review after completing your read of this review. But anyway, that’s enough history, let’s get on to what actually matters. So, yes, I really enjoyed the stories. I found this origin story of the Fantastic Four to actually be more compelling than any other I’ve read or viewed. I found Mark Millar’s take on having them gain their powers through a joint through the N-Zone to actually be more interesting than any others, which pretty much all involve something to do with space. Mind you, this was my first real Fantastic Four origin, too, but I don’t think any other origin has been as ambitious or as original as Millar’s was. I think pretty much every other writer has tried to do something similar to what Stan Lee did back in 1961, so something different is actually welcome. I remember seeing “Fantastic Four” in 2005 and being slightly disappointed with seeing them get their powers from a solar flare. As far as 2015, I honestly don’t remember how that one went, it was so bad I’ve tried to completely block it from my memory. Now we have “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” coming out in less than a month, I don’t know how that’s going to compare. But once again, I digress. That said, I support Millar’s choice with going with something different. I also like how he, Brian Michael Bendis, and Warren Ellis didn’t rush in with names, either. Nowhere in this book do they call themselves “Fantastic Four,” “Mister Fantastic,” “Invisible Woman,” “Human Torch,” or “the Thing,” although Johnny is attempting to shop names for them, but never do those original names actually get spoken in this entire volume. I liked that they weren’t rushing into being superheroes. I also liked Millar’s/Bendis’ idea to call the character Victor “Van Damme” and not “Von Doom” or “Doctor Doom.” I hate to say it, but I always found “Doctor Victor Von Doom” to sound kind of cheesy. I liked how Victor actually became metallic rather than just wearing a suit of metal, I thought that was really cool. I liked that Victor was a descendant of Dracula, even though I honestly feel like it serves no purpose, I just thought that was interesting. I liked the decision to call the other dimension the “N-Zone” rather than the “Negative Zone,” and I liked Ellis’ version of Annihilus, “Nihil.” I actually thought I caught a lapse in continuity with the inclusion of General Ross, but that did get addressed in this book, so I was happy Ellis included the line he did about Ross, or I might have been rather disappointed. And I must say, Adam Kubert and Stuart Immonen did a fantastic job illustrating this book. I felt that the quality of the artwork was consistently exemplary. All-in-all, I found this book to be outstanding and thought all the writers and artists did an amazing job with producing this book.

Next up on the agenda is the ever-important issue of accessibility. Now, I say this every single time, but I know I always have new readers with every post I do, so I have to say I again every single time, so if you already know my next sentence, please bear with me. When I say the word “accessibility,” it may sound a little odd, so to clarify what I mean, when I use the word, I am saying if this book is has the ability to be picked up by a person who knows absolutely nothing about Marvel Comics or the Fantastic Four and still be completely understood by that reader. Like I said before, this is a new universe and a new origin, so the answer to the question of whether this book is accessible is a definitive yes. You can know absolutely nothing about anything Marvel or the Fantastic Four and still be able to completely follow this entire book with no problems. It is one hundred percent self-contained. There are a few references to other characters and occurrences in the Ultimate Universe, including the Ultimates, but not knowing who or what they are does absolutely no damage to understanding the content of this particular book. If you now want to start reading Marvel Comics because of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” this is a perfect place to start, in my humble opinion, as there’s no other real history there, and it’s a more modern take than the one done by Stan Lee back in 1961, and it has banger art.

Okay, now we’ve finally come to the central point of this review: the numeric score. My scoring system is a very simple scale. I score on a scale of one through ten. One is the lowest score I give and that means that this book is not worth being taken off the shelf at all. Ten is the best score I could possibly give and that means that this book is absolute perfection and should be purchased off of every shelf and have to go into reprints every two years due to the need to restock. My regular readers will know that I very rarely give books a ten because I find it extremely hard to consider something perfection. There have to be absolutely no flaws. Sadly to say, this book is not a ten. While I thoroughly enjoyed consuming this book, I just don’t feel it meets the standard of perfection. That said, I’ll choose not to keep you in suspense like I usually do and just tell you that I do feel like this book is worthy of a nine. There were a few points in the story that just weren’t the greatest, and some of the panels of art did come out a little off but not enough to take away from my enjoyment of this book like some artists do. And I will say, when a graphic novel has multiple writers and artists, that is muddy waters because of the varying level of talent. However, I will also say I found every creator of this book to be on pretty much the same level.

Moving on, since I have been blathering for quite a while now, I will move on to my recommendation segment. In this segment, I say two things. The first is if I personally recommend this book. The second is whom I think is the best audience for this book. As for the first, that is a resounding yes, this book definitely gets this recommendation. And to the second, if you’re a neophyte fan of the Fantastic Four, I feel this is a perfect book for you. If you’re a longtime fan of the Fantastic Four and are looking for a fresh new take on an origin that has always been told in a similar manner, I feel like this book is for you. If you’re a fan of the original Marvel Ultimate Universe, I recommend this book to you. And if you’ve never had any vested interest in reading the Fantastic Four but for some odd reason are reading this review and are now interested in reading this book based solely on the words I’m typing now, I say you should not hesitate to try to read this book.

Okay, I’ve been at this for quite a while now, and I think we’re all about ready to just move on with our lives. First, though, I’ll talk a little about me. I’ve been doing this blog for five years now and have done over 160 posts. I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, but due to disability, I am unable to get a job as a professional journalist and instead work at a grocery store. This blog is my unpaid second job that I do on days when I’m not working at the grocery store. Would I love to be a professional blogger? Yes! But that just doesn’t seem to be in the cards, and honestly, I’m okay with that. Is this what I wanted when I graduated high school nineteen years ago? No. But my life isn’t super horrible right now. Anyway, you really don’t care about all that. What you do care about is that I have a lot of content you can view on this website. I’ve done over five dozen book reviews like this one at this point, and I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials as well as these reviews, so if you like my work and are in the market for something different from me, keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for all of my work, there’s plenty more to enjoy. I’m a very avid Marvel Comics collector; I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as early as I can after publication and attempt to get a review up if possible. I think at the moment there are only four Modern Era Epic Collections I haven’t reviewed due to not having had a laptop at the time of reading three of them. and not being able to get a review done promptly enough after one other and felt I would not do an accurate review of that one, and not having had the need to reread those four books yet. But since I purchase so many books, you can expect me to have a lot of content for you. Marvel always puts out at least one Modern Era Epic Collection a month. There are no further upcoming Ultimate Epic Collections at the moment of my drafting this post. There’s another Modern Era Epic Collection coming out five days from the point of my drafting this review, and I’m going to purchase it as early as I possibly can, and hopefully I can get a review of it up for you, so you can probably expect to see that in the next three weeks, so keep checking timcubbin.blogspot.com for that one. I might try to get some other kinds of work up here and there too, so check back for that, too. Follow me on X if you don’t already so you know when I’ve done a new post. Tell your friends and family about me if you think they’ll be interested in my work. Feel free to leave a comment for me, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Like, share, retweet, do whatever you can on the site you’re on. And I say to you until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Annihilation: Annihilation Day"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Annihilation: Annihilation Day” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                The Prison Transport Vessel Dredge 01 was carrying galactic criminals, including the Blood Brothers, Lunatik, Paibok, and Drax the Destroyer en route to the Kyln prison station at the Universal Crunch when it crash landed onto the planet Earth in Coot’s Bluff, Alaska. The Blood Brothers, Lunatik and Paibok formed an alliance and planned to find a way off of Earth and enjoy their newfound freedom, but Drax remained separate, and fought the Blood Brothers. Drax, who had been known to be mentally dull, seemed to get smarter and more coherent with every hit he took from the Blood Brothers. Elementary school students Cammi and Dex saw the crash on television and went to the woods to investigate the crash and found the aliens. Drax, whose daughter Heather had been killed by the Mad Titan Thanos, mistook Cammi for his daughter, and came to protect her, a mistake Cammi took advantage of. Paibok and Lunatik went into Coot’s Bluff and forced the inhabitants to go to the crash site to aid them in building a way off the planet. As Cammi and Dex returned to town, Drax fought Lunatik and Paibok, and Paibok shape-shifted into Thanos to throw Drax off his game, then killed Drax. Cammi asked Paibok for ownership of Drax’s body, to which Paibok agreed. As Cammi watched Drax’s body, Drax hatched a new, smaller body out of the deceased body. Drax merged minds with Cammi and learned she was not actually Heather, and Drax explained his history to Cammi, and Cammi chose to accompany Drax. Lunatik and the Blood Brothers learned that the transport they were on was damaged beyond repair and that they were unable to leave Earth. Drax returned to fight Lunatik and the Blood Brothers, ending Lunatik and allowing only one Blood Brother to survive, feeling that was the worst form of revenge he could dish out. Paibok summoned a prison transport, and Cammi and Drax were taken into space about the Prison Transport Vessel Dredge 02.

                Annihilus, Lord of the Negative Zone, unleashed his monstrous Annihilation Wave upon the universe. The Dredge 02 arrived at the Xandar Spaceport near the Xandar Cluster, Xandar being the home planet to the Nova Corps. Drax was released upon a technicality. Because he was reborn, his current genetic matrix readings didn’t match those the Nova Corps had on file and thus they could not prove this was the same Drax the Destroyer who destroyed two hundred thousand beings and were left with no choice but to let him go. As the Annihilation Wave hit Xandar, the Nova Corps were having a meeting. All the Nova Corps was wiped out, save for Richard Rider, a Nova Corpsman from the planet Earth. Drax and Cammi were able to evade the Annihilation Wave from the Xandar Spaceport in an escape pod. Ronan, the Kree Accuser, was arrested for crimes of sedition against the Kree Empire. Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer felt the Annihilation Wave. Kl’Rt/Super-Skrull learned of a super-weapon called the Harvester of Sorrows that was taking down entire Skrull planets. Annihilus planned to infest the entire universe.

                Richard Rider was awakened on the ruins of Xandar by Worldmind, the Artificial Intelligence collection of all Xandarian culture and possessor of the Nova Force. As Richard was the last surviving Nova Corpsman, there was no one except for him left to carry on Xandarian culture as all life on Xandar had been eliminated by the Annihilation Wave. Worldmind downloaded itself and the entirety of the Nova Force into Richard. Richard attacked a ship of the Annihilation Wave and destroyed it, but the power of the Nova Force overwhelmed him and began to corrupt him. Annihilus became aware of Richard’s power. Drax and Cammi came across Richard and suggested joining together to find a ship and a way off the decimated Xandar, but Richard was afraid he was a liability due to his powers making him mentally unstable. Worldmind instructed Richard to find a way off of Xandar, but Richard was resistant to team up with Drax, due to his criminal reputation, a history Drax denied. Richard was afraid to use the Nova Force, afraid he would lose control when he, Drax and Cammi were attacked by Annihilus’ forces. Drax eliminated them. Drax communed with Worldmind. Worldmind instructed Drax to help Richard keep control of himself while Richard used the Nova Force. Richard, Drax and Cammi boarded a ship, and Richard used the Nova Force to create a stargate to escape Xandar. The trio arrived at Nycos Aristedes, where they were rescued by Wendell Vaughn/Quasar, a human from Earth who gained powers from the Quantum Bands. Quasar was attempting to aid the Aakonian fleet in helping 18.6 million Aakonian Colonists escape from the Annihilation Wave. Richard, Cammi, and Drax agreed to help Quasar in the mission. Richard opened a stargate, then Richard and Quasar teamed up and took the fight to Annihilus, while trying to give the Aakonian fleet time to help the colonists flee to safety. Annihilus used his Cosmic Control Rod to drain Quasar’s powers and take control of the Quantum Bands. Richard was left by himself to fight Annihilus and buy the Aakonian fleet, Cammi, and Drax time to allow the colonists to escape and hold back the Annihilation Wave.

                Silver Surfer came upon Gabriel Air Walker, an android from Xandar and former Herald of Galactus, who was being attacked by Seekers, servants of Annihilus. Silver Surfer himself was once a Herald of Galactus, who had been discharged by the Devourer of Worlds. The Seekers were attempting to abduct those with the Power Cosmic imbued by Galactus upon his Heralds in order to give Annihilus their Power Cosmic. Being a machine, Annihilus would not be able to take the Power Cosmic from Gabriel Air Walker but had successfully rooted out Silver Surfer. Silver Surfer was able to help Gabriel Air Walker escape the Seekers, by Gabriel was too damaged and Silver Surfer had no choice but to destroy him and swore vengeance upon Annihilus. Thanos sent out his current servant and former Herald of Galactus, the Fallen One, to find the Beyonder. Thanos and Annihilus met, and the two found common ground. Silver Surfer was attacked by Seekers and was aided by Firelord and Red Shift, both former Heralds of Galactus. The Seekers were able to abduct Terrax, another former Herald of Galactus. The Fallen One found the Beyonder dead, and became indentured to Tenebrous and Aegis, two mythological beings. Firelord suggested an alliance with Silver Surfer against the Annihilation Wave, and current Herald of Galactus Stardust asked to join. Stardust informed Silver Surfer that Galactus wished to have an audience with Silver Surfer. Galactus reinstated Silver Surfer as a Herald of Galactus. The Seekers attempted to abduct Galactus for Annihilus, but Silver Surfer fought them off. Silver Surfer was then forced back into service of helping Galactus find worlds to consume. Thanos met with Tenebrous and Aegis and discovered all three sought out Galactus.

                Super-Skrull learned the Harvester of Sorrows was aimed at the planet Zaragz’na, the planet his son lived on. He asked Skrull Baroness S’Bak for a small force of Skrull warriors to seek out and destroy the super-weapon, but due to his history of failure as a warrior, he was denied his request. In his anger, he attacked the Baroness and was forced to flee her squadron. He was rescued by a Skrull mechanic named R’Kin, who grew up idolizing Super-Skrull. R’Kin’s father fought with Super-Skrull in the Battle of Harkoon and Super-Skrull was a hero to R’Kin. Super-Skrull was branded an enemy of the Skrull Empire and was wanted captured alive. R’Kin agreed to help Super-Skrull destroy the Harvester of Sorrows. The two traveled to Earth to the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four, to ask Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic to open a portal to the Negative Zone for them so Super-Skrull could recruit an army to destroy the super-weapon. Super-Skrull learned from one of Annihilus’ soldiers that the scientist who built the Harvester of Sorrows was Hawal, who had a laboratory on a prison planet in the Nexus of Igoa, then Super-Skrull killed the soldier in front of R’Kin, whose faith in his hero was shaken. R’Kin revealed to Super-Skrull that R’Kin’s father died fighting in the Battle of Harkoon. The two traveled to the UX-73 Prison Planetoid and found Hawal, who informed Super-Skrull the Harvester of Sorrows was a living being and could only be killed with a virus, and under torture agreed to make a virus for Super-Skrull. The prisoners escaped and sought revenge on their jailer, but Super-Skrull defeated the prisoners, and the prisoners agreed to serve Super-Skrull. R’Kin asked Super-Skrull to be the one to pilot the missile ship into the Harvester of Sorrows and be worthy of being called a Skrull. Former prisoner Praxagora fell in love with her new master, but Super-Skrull refused the return her affections. As the army went to fight the Harvester of Sorrows, Super-Skrull was betrayed by a member of his army, and Super-Skrull’s plans to destroy the super-weapon went wrong.

                Okay, I feel that this summarizes the graphic novel well enough, so let’s move on to my personal part of the review. Now, if you’ve ever read enough of my reviews of Epic Collections to see me complain about how Epic Collections never contain the actual events, they share the title with, you’ll come to understand just how significant this Modern Era Epic Collection is to me. For example, last year, I reviewed “New Avengers: Civil War” and mentioned how not a single issue of “Civil War” was actually contained in it, or you can look further back to other reviews, such as “Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet.” Epic Collections may share titles with events, but they don’t actually contain any issues of the main event itself. So here we have “Annihilation: Annihilation Day.” According to the back of this book, “Annihilation” was an event originally released in 2005-2006. This Modern Era Epic Collection actually is an Epic Collection of an event. I received this book two days ago and saw that the six issue limited series “Annihilation” is not actually contained in this volume, and I figured “oh, great, we have a Modern Era Epic Collection about an event that doesn’t actually contain the main series,” but upon further research, I found “Annihilation” #1-6 will be republished in the second volume of “Annihilation” which will be released later this year, so my fears of not understanding what I would be reading were alleviated, as I have never actually read “Annihilation” before and was afraid that reading the issues around it would mean that this book would make no sense. So, what we have here is the first volume of something unique among Epic Collections, this has never actually been done before, so for me, this is a pretty big deal. And I have to say, I loved it. This experience was very enjoyable. Like I said, I never read “Annihilation,” so this is new content for me, and it was fun to read. I feel like the editors of this book assembled it well. The chronology of the issues made sense, it was very coherent, and it was easy to follow the timeline. This book mainly focused on four characters: Drax the Destroyer, Richard Rider/Nova, Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer, and Kl’Rt/Super-Skrull, and I found myself invested in what the characters were going through. They were written so well I cared about their character arcs. Drax’s death and rebirth and partnership with Cammi was touching. I felt for Richard Rider as he found himself to be the last surviving member of the Nova Corps. Silver Surfer’s alliance with the Herald’s and his deal with Galactus was engaging. Super-Skrull’s betrayal was certainly unexpected. I felt that all-in-all, the authors did an excellent job writing these stories. As far as the artwork goes, I generally found it to be enjoyable. When a graphic novel has six artists, I often find myself expecting to find some source of disappointment. But I have to say, I pretty much can’t complain. Overall, I found the art to be visually appealing. Even the grittiness of the “Annihilation: Silver Surfer” series wasn’t a turnoff, which is a little odd because usually I find that to be a source of dissent, but in this case, I found it to be acceptable. Was it perfection? No. I’ve seen art that has been a lot more appealing, but in this case, the art was adequate. In total, this book was a pleasurable consumption. It wasn’t my favorite, but I found it to be entertaining.

                Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I know some of you have been through this with me before, I’ve done it about five dozen times now, but I have to go over it again. When I use the word “accessibility,” my meaning is if it’s possible to know nothing about Marvel Comics and still be able to pick up this book from a store or library, read it, and understand all the content in the book. I will say that this book is easily accessible. I feel like this book is very well self-contained and self-explanatory. I feel like not knowing anything about Marvel isn’t a hindrance in this case. In my view, knowing the history of the characters isn’t mandatory to understanding this Modern Era Epic Collection. You can never have picked up a Marvel Comic book before and still be able to follow the story just fine. Does knowing about these characters help? Yes. But if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and are looking into picking a starting point, this isn’t necessarily a perfect jump-on, but it is fine for a first foray into the Marvel Universe anyway. This can be the first Marvel graphic novel you’ve ever read, but it won’t necessarily prepare you for further ventures into other series because this book is a complete event of limited series that didn’t cross over into ongoing series, so there’s no direct continuation from this graphic novel into other graphic novels, but if you want to read something Marvel and you’ve never touched a comic book before, feel free to read this.

                Next up, we’re coming to the most important part of my review: my numeric score. I’ve done this over six dozen times at this point, but I have to explain it again to you newbs who have never read one of my reviews before. I score on a very simple scale: exact integers between one through ten. One is the worst score I can give and means that this book is trash and should stop being published and every existing copy should be burned. Ten is the best possible score I can give and means that this book is sheer perfection and every copy on the shelves should be bought and then reprints should be done frequently to replace the out-of-stock books. So, I have to say that it is extremely hard for me to give something a ten. Finding a book to be perfection is something that is extremely hard for me to accept, the story has to be completely engaging, and the artwork has to be consistently visually appealing, and that is a rarity. But at the same time, I don’t give ones very often either, that means that the story has to be boring, confusing, pointless, stupid, predictable, or unengaging, and the art has to be visually displeasing and not something I want to look at. I can usually find something to like in every graphic novel I read and can give it some points above a one, I’ve only given ones at a rate you can count on one hand at this point in time. Now this book is definitely nowhere near being a one, the story was engaging, the characters were well-written, the plot was well thought out, and the artwork was, for the most part, acceptable. But, at the same time, this book is a bit far off from being a ten. It wasn’t total perfection, and it just isn’t my favorite read. Now, my score is going to come as a surprise, considering I gave it such high praise, but it’s just not going to be a high score. The score I give when I take every factor in this book, the story and the art, combine all of it, throw it into my metaphorical blender, then turn it on and blend it to the point where it’s completely liquid, then pour it out and put in in a cup is… seven. I honestly don’t quite know why I can’t give this book a higher score, but there’s just something inhibiting me from doing it. It just doesn’t feel right to give it a score any higher than seven, but at the same time, it’s not possible for me to consider me going any lower with a score.

                Next up, we’re going to talk about recommendation. In this segment, I discuss if I, myself, personally recommend this book to anyone who has any prospective interest in reading this book, and then regardless of this fact, to whom do I feel should be reading this book. So, when it comes to my personal recommendation, I will say that yes, I will genuinely say that I feel like anyone interested in reading this book should definitely do so, and if you’re not already interested in reading it, I feel like you should be if you have any kind of interest in Marvel Comics. As to whom I feel should be reading this book, I feel like this is for anyone who enjoys cosmic adventures. This book should be appealing to people who are fans of space series such as “Star Wars” or “Star Trek” or other similar space action/adventure series. And if you enjoy Marvel Comics such as “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “Fantastic Four,” this book will hold interest for you. At the moment “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is not yet in theaters, and I have not seen it, so I can’t tell you if you see the movie and enjoy it that you’re the target audience, but if you enjoyed the “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy, I feel like you’d find enjoyment in this graphic novel, especially if you like Drax, his story was entertaining to me. I’ve been reading Marvel Comics for twenty-five years now and I feel like if you have any kind of investment in Marvel space odysseys, this is the perfect book for you.

                Okay, the end is now in sight. I’ve been rambling on for quite a while now and I’m ready to move on with my life and I think you’re probably ready to do something else. Maybe that something else is to continue exploring timcubbin.blogspot.com? I’ve got over 160 posts at the moment, there’s plenty more to read. I’ve written over five dozen other book reviews like this, and I’ve also written short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials, so there’s tons of other content to peruse if this post was to your liking. I will tell you that I purchase every new Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection released as early as I can after its release and try to post a review after I read it if possible. I do have a few Modern Era Epic Collections I haven’t reviewed because at the time I purchased and read them, I didn’t have a device to compose a review on, and I do have one I didn’t review because I couldn’t get to my laptop soon enough after reading it to write an accurate review, but maybe someday, those might be remedied, but it is not likely for me to purchase one and not review it. Marvel always puts out at least one Modern Era Epic Collection every month, and I get them as soon as I possibly can, so the possibility of more content coming up is highly likely to be frequent. I just have to find a day where I’m home all day to be there when the book arrives as I live in a house with three units and the delivery people sometimes have a hard time finding my correct door, and also the weather has to be good because I order from Amazon and those envelopes are not waterproof and I have had damaged books before and these books are very expensive and I pay for one day shipping, so I’d like to avoid having my sizeable investment ruined by water, so sometimes it takes a little while after release for me to obtain the book, but I get it at my earliest possible convenience. Anyway, that is probably too much information that you honestly don’t care about, but I threw it out there anyway, so hopefully you took it and accepted it. As it is, there is a book coming out this following week, so you can probably expect to see a new review upcoming sometime in the next four weeks, this is based entirely on if I’m off from work, don’t have therapy, doctor’s appointment, or other engagement, and if the weather is good, I’m not sure when these events will align, but they should happen soon. So, check back for it soon, and keep browsing what’s already here, there’s plenty of existing content to like at the moment. Anyway, I’m going to let you go now, all I have left to say at present is Tim Cubbin… out!

"New X-Men: New Worlds"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “New X-Men: New Worlds” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            The X-Men are a team of mutant outreach workers who fight for the peaceful coexistence between the two species of both baseline human beings and those born with mutations that set them apart from normal human beings. Their base of operations is the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, located in Salem Center in New York’s Westchester County. There the X-Men teach young mutants both a regular education and how to use their gifts to protect themselves and benefit human and mutantkind. They were founded by Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X, and include Scott Summers/Cyclops, Jean Grey-Summers/Phoenix, Henry “Hank” McCoy/Beast, James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine, Emma Frost/White Queen, and Xorn.

            The presence of a “monster” from “Mutant Town” was sparking riots in New York City. Xorn, who grew up in China and had been jailed since his mutation emerged and had been considered a monster himself, went to Mutant Town to investigate. He found a woman and her son, the “monster,” a young mutant who was ten days away from reaching his genetic potential. After his mother died, the young mutant went on a rampage, and the cops stepped in, and during the confrontation, the young mutant was never able to transition to his true form.

            As part of his mutant outreach program, Charles Xavier opened the X-Corporation, a worldwide agency of X-Men teams. Professor X and Jean Grey-Summers went to visit one of the offices in Europe as part of Professor X’s lecture tour. This team consisted of Theresa Rourke/Siryn, Monet St. Croix/M, Jamie Madrox/Multiple Man, Julio Richter/Rictor, Sam Guthrie/Cannonball, and Leynia Petrovna/Darkstar. Jean informed the team of a gene-hazard involved in a trainwreck in the Channel Tunnel leaving one hundred and fifty-one people trapped in the wreckage. While the team was dispatched, Jean asked Professor X to talk to the Phoenix to learn if her new powers were a threat since the last time the X-Men dealt with the Phoenix, the force turned malevolent and caused destruction on a cosmic level. They were interrupted by the arrival of Fantomex, a European mutant criminal seeking sanctuary, and a military unit sent to apprehend him. He informed them the gene-hazard on the train was Weapon XII. Cyclops turned to Emma Frost for marriage counseling. Professor X and Jean helped Fantomex escape from the military and retreated to Fantomex’ home, where Fantomex tried to sell Professor X information on the Weapon Plus Program, the operation that created Weapon XII and gave the X-Men’s own Wolverine his adamantium skeleton and wiped Wolverine’s memories of his past, but Professor X refused to be bought. Fantomex had been on a quest to kill Weapon XII. He, Professor X, Jean, and the European X-Corporation team were able to end the threat of Weapon XII, but Darkstar did not survive. Afterwards, Jean allowed Fantomex to escape after learning Fantomex himself was actually Weapon XIII.

            Warren Worthington III/Archangel was teaching a flying lesson to several students at the Xavier Institute, including Barnell Bohusk/Beak and Angel Salvadore. Beak was unable to fly, and Angel offered him motivation by giving Beak a kiss. Although unable to fly, and although Angel had been put up to it, this caused Beak to develop feelings for Angel. Cyclops and Emma’s counseling sessions began to turn into more than just counseling.

            Professor X, Jean, Ororo Munroe/Storm, Ruth Bat-Seraph/Sabra, Neal Sharra/Thunderbird, and Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver went to the ruins of Genosha, the former mutant island homeland that had recently been destroyed by Cassanda Nova’s Sentinel attack. Unus, one of the refugees hiding out on Genosha, reported seeing ghosts and a green-haired woman, leading Professor X to believe Lorna Dane/Polaris, daughter of Erik Lensherr/Magneto, the President of Genosha, might be somewhere on the island. The group searched for Polaris and found she was going insane, causing magnetic fields, and replaying voice recordings of people’s last moments alive on the island before the destruction. Polaris was building a monument to her father and played the last words of Magneto as Professor X and Jean calmed Polaris down.

            Wolverine went to Afghanistan to find a newly discovered mutant named Sooraya Qadir. Professor X and Jean flew to Mumbai to meet up with them and the Mumbai office of X-Corporation. At the airport, Jean prevented Lilandra Nerimani, Professor X’s wife and Shi’ar Empress, from assassinating Professor X. Lilandra believed her husband to still be possessed by Cassandra Nova, who had recently corrupted the Shi’ar Imperium. Due to this, Imperial Sage Araki annulled Professor X and Lilandra’s marriage and cut all ties between the Shi’ar and the planet Earth.

            Mutant fashion designer Jumbo Carnation died in Mutant Town, apparently murdered by a group of human teenagers. Beast and Cyclops investigated the crime scene where Beast discovered a Kick inhaler, a drug that temporarily boosts a mutant’s powers. The Xavier Institute was getting ready for Open Day, where humans would be invited to tour the school grounds and interact with the mutant faculty and students. Promising student Quentin Quire learned he was adopted and began undergoing a secondary mutation, greatly impacting his sense of identity. He became extremely rebellious, began using Kick, and sporting a provocative new haircut and fashion statement. Xorn was assigned to teach the Special Class at the Xavier Institute, Angel, Basilisk, Beak, Martha Johansson, Ernst, and Dummy. He began by taking them on a walk in the woods around the Xavier Institute. Quentin assembled a gang of students, and they began dressing the same, using Kick, getting matching tattoos and attacking humans outside of Mutant Town. Xorn and the Special Class were attacked by the U-Men, a group of human fanatics who harvest mutant organs and then implant them into themselves in the hope of gaining mutant powers. They managed to win the fight. Cyclops and Emma’s relationship continued to intensify. Quentin and his gang knocked out Professor X the night before Open Day and used a helmet on him to inhibit his telepathic powers. They caused a riot at Xavier’s on Open Day, attacking the humans who had come to visit. The X-Men fought the gang Emma Frost’s prized students, the Stepford Cuckoos, joined the fight, using Kick to boost their telepathic powers, and stopped Quentin, but not all of them survived using the drug. Following the conclusion of the riot, the school year came close to wrapping up. Professor X announced he would be stepping down as headmaster of the Xavier Institute. On Prizegiving night, Angel revealed to Beak that she was pregnant and was afraid the two of them would be kicked out of the school. Jean discovered what her husband and Emma had been up to. She was not happy to say the least. Jean and Emma had a psychic argument, and Cyclops fled the Institute. Emma admitted to Wolverine that she had fallen in love with Cyclops. Beast came to check on Emma later, only to discover she had been shot while in her diamond form and shattered into millions of pieces. Professor X called in Lucas Bishop and Sage, mutant investigators, to try to solve the crime. Everyone in the school was a suspect. The outcome of the investigation led to the uncovering of an even deeper conspiracy going on within the Xavier Institute right under the X-Men’s noses.

            Okay, I feel that wraps up our overview of the synopsis. I tried to include as minimal spoilers as I could for this review as I don’t want to make it superfluous for you to read the book if I tell the entire story including the ending in this review, so I’m giving you a teasing reason to want to read this book so you can find out some of the bigger surprises, like who shot Emma. Anyway, you’re probably wondering now what I’m going to say next. I know some of you have read my reviews before, I’ve done over four dozen of them at this point, so there’s a good chance that some of you reading right now aren’t new to this blog. Anyway, at this point, I’m going to tell you my thoughts on this book. Okay, so I’ll start by saying I’ve been reading Marvel Comic Books regularly for almost twenty-five years now, and I read these issues when they first came out back in 2002-2003. Let me say, Grant Morrison’s run on “New X-Men” is actually up there as one of my all-time favorites. So last year, when the first volume of “New X-Men” as a Modern Era Epic Collection was announced, of course I was thrilled. Unfortunately, I had to wait a full year for volume two, and I have a feeling Marvel intends to do another full year wait for volume three, which is a pain because this book does leave the reader hanging, not everything is resolved at the end, there’s still the conspiracy that isn’t solved, Cyclops has fled, there are a few other loose ends, so a year long wait will be torture to get the conclusion of Morrison’s run on the series, and I remember thinking back then that waiting a month for the next issue was torture every time I finished. But hey, there are plenty more Modern Era Epic Collections coming out between that time, so at least I’ll have other series to read. Anyway, I thought Morrison was a brilliant writer. That first story about the “monster” in Mutant Town was just devastating, my heart broke while reading that issue. The X-Corporation story was great, too. I loved the scene where Professor X met with Phoenix. Fantomex is a character I have always enjoyed. I loved the X-Men team Morrison put together that looking back was basically the team Peter David took and used for his “X-Factor” series a few years later, which is another one of my all-time favorite comic book runs, and with David’s passing, I hope Marvel decides to use his run on the series as a Modern Era Epic Collection series, I would totally love that. I liked how Morrison decided that when Wolverine was called “Weapon X” he was actually Weapon Ten, and that there were more Weapons in the Weapon Plus program, I loved that whole development and it led to a lot of great stories in the time after that. I loved the story with Polaris, especially how she replayed Magneto’s last words, I thought they were immensely powerful. I loved how Morrison shipped Cyclops and Emma Frost, I actually liked them together better than I did Cyclops and Jean Grey. The confrontation scene between Jean and Emma was fantastic, in my opinion, by the way, the way Jean totally tore Emma apart, and I loved Emma’s reveal that she had plastic surgery to make herself pretty. I loved Xorn’s Special Class of misfits, Dummy was funny, but I honestly don’t feel like it’s appropriate to discuss him on this blog, you’ll have to read the book if you want to find out about him. I loved the “No-Girl” jokes, especially since eventually she actually really did exist. Quentin Quire has always been a character I’ve enjoyed over the years, he’s gone on to have some really great storylines and has been a very entertaining character and Morrison did an excellent job creating him the way he did. I always loved the Stepford Cuckoos, they’ve also had great stories throughout the past two decades. I loved the story of Emma Frost’s demise, that really kept me going for months when it first came out, I remember waiting for so long for the truth to finally come out, and when it did, I was blown away, but the big reveal doesn’t actually happen in this book, so if you’ve never read it before and you read this book right around the time of me writing this review, you’re going to have a long wait to find out. I loved Angel and Beak’s storyline, their bizarre relationship was entertaining, especially at the end of this book. Beast had an unusual storyline that I don’t feel is appropriate to discuss, but it made for a few good laughs. There was so much I loved about this book. But there is a major problem with this book for me, that being the artists. This book had six artists, and I did not like a single one of them. This book for me was a visual disaster. I wanted to love this, the story was so good but looking at this was just absolutely awful. This just ruined the book for me. Also, I caught a mistake in #135 with the art. In the teachers’ meeting scene on one page, Jean Grey-Summers is sitting in a chair wearing a skirt with bare legs, and on the next page, she is wearing pants. This is one of those minor details that they probably later thought no one would notice, but it did not escape me. Also, Emma’s outfit changed many times over the course of this book, none of them honestly being appropriate to wear in a school for teenagers. Some of the artists also did a terrible job drawing Beak, one in particular made him look even more unnatural than he already should. If this book had different artists, this book could have potentially been more appealing. But as far as Morrison’s work went, the book was great, I loved that, but the art just ruined something great.

            Anyway, I’ve gone on for quite a while, let’s move on to some other topics. Next up on our agenda is the accessibility segment. I’ve said this over four dozen times now, but I have to say it once again because I know some of you are newbies to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin and have no idea what I mean by this. Anyway, accessibility simply means if a reader who knows nothing about X-Men can pick up this book and comprehend all the details they are reading. So, this is Vol. 2, and I will tell you that if you haven’t read Vol. 1 “E is for Extinction” you will be very lost. This is a direct continuation from there, picking up on many threads from the previous volume, so not reading that is very harmful to accessibility. I will tell you if you haven’t read “E is for Extinction,” don’t even try to read this book. However, if you have read the previous volume, this book is fine to read, this has no direct ties to any other series or events from the time and is completely self-contained, so continuing from there is no problem at all, and Vol. 1 is highly accessible, it’s where I started reading twenty-five years ago, so feel free to follow in my footsteps. If you want to start reading Marvel Comics or X-Men after reading this review, start with “New X-Men: E is for Extinction” then move on to “New Worlds,” it’s a good jump on point.

            This has been pretty lengthy at this point, so I’m going to move on to our next segment, which is my numeric score. Now, everything that goes with a numeric score has a specific scale. My system is extremely simple. I score on exact numbers between one to ten. One is the worst score I give and means this book is completely unreadable and I hated every second I spend consuming it. Ten is a score of perfection and is not a score I give very often. My roommate often says “Tim, why don’t you give books a ten?” and I reply “I can’t give out a score of a ten to a book with flaws, it has to be perfect to get a ten,” to which he replies “but there’s no such thing as perfection,” to which I say “that’s why I don’t give out many tens.” To get a ten, a book has to have a story that I find no problems with, and the art has to be consistently visually pleasing. As far as the story goes with this book, I would really love to give this book a nine. I don’t quite feel the story was complete perfection, but it was absolutely amazing. But we have the art, which was consistently displeasing, so for that, I have to deduct points. And unfortunately, in this case, that really hurts this book. I found very few panels in this book that I actually enjoyed artistically looking at, even though I loved reading the story. So, I’m just going to move on to giving this book a score since I’ve been rambling on for a while now and you’re probably getting tired of me. So, taking everything into account, the fantastic story but the horrible art, we put it all together and I throw out to you… a six. I really wanted to like this book, and for the most part, I enjoyed reading the story, but the art was just so horrendous that reading this was slightly unpleasant.

            Next, we’re moving on the my recommendation section. In this segment, I tell you, my reader, if I personally recommend this book to you, and if I do or don’t, who I think should be reading this. So, as far as if this book gets the Tim Cubbin personal recommendation, that is a resounding yes. Story wise, this book is fantastic and a delightful read, if you can get past the art. If you are a fan of X-Men, I totally recommend reading the “New X-Men” Modern Era Epic Collections. I feel like Morrison did a fantastic job and any X-Men fan should read this amazing run. If you’re a fan of Grant Morrison, definitely read this, his work on this series was stellar. I’ve never read anything else by Grant Morrison personally, so I can’t speak for him as an author, but I feel like if you’ve read his work on anything else before and enjoyed it, you should definitely read “New X-Men,” I feel like it’s a fantastic series and deserves a read. If you’re a Marvel Comics reader, I think this should definitely be on your queue of things to read.

            Well, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time, this has certainly taken up a lot of my time, so how about we all move on with our lives in just a wee bit. First, I do have a few more things of note before I sign off. Okay, I’ve been doing this blog for five years at this point, and as I’ve said, I’ve done over four dozen other book reviews just like this one, so if you enjoyed reading this, check out timcubbin.blogspot.com for plenty more book reviews. I’ve posted on this site over 160 times, I’m sure you’ll find something else you’ll like. I’ve done a review of “New X-Men: E is for Extinction” so if you liked this review, please check that one out if you haven’t already. I will tell you I post of a very frequent basis, Marvel puts out at least one Modern Era Epic Collection a month, and I buy every single one of them and try to throw up a review as soon as I possibly can. I have a few I haven’t reviewed yet, I might remedy that someday, I’m not totally sure. One book I didn’t review since I spent too much time after reading it before attempting to write a review, it centered around multiple Marvel events which I never read so I didn’t fully understand it, and the details just left my mind before I could review it, but if another volume of that series comes out, you can expect that review to come out. There are a couple of other series that might not get other volumes and I didn’t have this laptop at the time I read them, so I couldn’t write reviews at those exact moments, so I’m not sure if those will get reviews, but who knows, I might decide to go back and fix that. I also collect Marvel Ultimate Epic Collections, and I review those. So, every month, there’s probably going to be something to read. I’m expecting another delivery today, but it’s running late, so I’m not sure when I’ll be getting it, but you can expect to see a review of that one sometime in the next three weeks. If you’re into other styles of reading, I’ve also written a few short stories and poems, plus I’ve done editorials, essays, and articles, so you can check those out as well, if you’re so inclined and have some time to kill and want to continue hanging out with me. If you think this review seems pretty professional, I have a degree in journalism, but due to cruddy life circumstances, I can’t get a job in the field and am relegated to working as an Instacart shopper at a local grocery store instead of getting paid for blogging as was my dream job, but you have to go with what life gives you, so I do these reviews for free to feel like I’m somehow using my degree. I will continue to post for as long as I can, so that’s likely to be a long time coming. So, expect me to keep coming back and I hope you become a fan of me and keep coming back too. So, I’ll say goodbye for now, but until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"The Ultimates: Super-Human"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “The Ultimates: Super-Human” as presented in Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection format.

            In 1945, the Nazis had created a super-weapon that was aimed at Washington, D.C. that would potentially bring an end to World War II. The United States Army sent in a platoon to try to disable the weapon, led by a super-soldier named Steve Rogers, codenamed Captain America. Along with his teenage friend James “Bucky” Barnes, and the rest of the platoon, they charged on Germany. Not all of the platoon survived the assault, and they were unable to stop the weapon from being launched. Captain America jumped on the missile and detonated a grenade that knocked the missile off course and prevented it from hitting its target, and Captain America disappeared into the waters of the North Atlantic, leaving behind his fiancé Gail Richards.

            In 2002, newly posted Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. General Nicholas Fury reignited the Super-Soldier Program with the hopes of preventing super-powered threats from becoming a problem for the United States of America. He met with Doctor Robert Bruce Banner, who had attempted to recreate the serum that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America and had instead turned Bruce into a creature called the Hulk. Bruce had been leading the Super-Soldier Research Facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but when hired by S.H.I.E.L.D., the condition behind his substantial paycheck was he was demoted to number two, behind his prior assistant Henry “Hank” Pym. Hank was married to Janet “Jan” Pym, a mutant with the ability to shrink in size and gifted with wings, who also had some unfortunate bug-like qualities. Jan called herself the Wasp. Hank, using Jan’s DNA, had created a serum that allowed him to grow in size to almost sixty feet in height, the maximum height the human body can support. Hank took on the codename Giant Man. S.H.I.E.L.D. also hired tech genius businessman billionaire Anthony “Tony” Stark, who had an advanced technological suit of armor and assumed the identity Iron Man. Bruce’s ex Betty Ross was hired as the Director of Communications for the Super-Soldier Program. As they were preparing to move forward with the project, Captain America’s body was found frozen in the Arctic Ocean. Miraculously, Steve Rogers had survived frozen in ice for fifty-seven years and was able to be revived. At first, Steve was unaccepting of his new surroundings, and it took some convincing to acclimate him to now living in the 21^st Century. Nick Fury brought Steve to the house of Bucky Barnes, now an old man and now married to Steve’s ex-fiancé, Gail. While Steve and Bucky had a tearful reunion, Gail refused to come see Steve. Steve also found out most of his family had passed away in the fifty-seven years he had been in suspended animation. The Ultimates were announced at the Triskelion in the Upper Bay of Manhattan, their new headquarters. While Giant Man, Wasp, Iron Man and Captain America were introduced as the faces of the Ultimates, Fury was also attempting to recruit a man claiming to be Thor, Norse God of thunder, a protestor and former mental patient who was gaining notoriety in Norway and gaining a group of followers. Thor, however, refused to join Fury’s little gang. Held back from the launch were Clint Barton/Hawkeye and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, who were awaiting rewritten histories to cover up past indiscretions, and in the background were Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, children of the mutant terrorist Magneto and former members of his Brotherhood of Mutants, who were unable to be shown as public faces due to their genetic statuses. Time went by after the launch of the Ultimates, but the team had no threats to face. While Betty began to move on from Bruce with Freddie Prinze, Jr., Bruce made the drastic decision to inject himself with Captain America’s blood and the Hulk serum. This created an even more powerful version of the Hulk, who went on a destructive rampage through Manhattan, fixated on finding Betty and winning her back for Bruce and removing Freddie Prinze, Jr. from the picture. Captain America, Iron Man, Giant Man, and the Wasp were dispatched to stop the Hulk, and Thor joined in to aid in the fight. The team was able to calm the Hulk and revert him back to Bruce Banner, and Bruce was put in a holding unit, while his identity as the Hulk was withheld from the public and the Ultimates were hailed as the heroes who saved Manhattan. As the Ultimates were invited to Tony’s penthouse for a black-tie dinner, Hank and Jan got into an argument that turned horribly violent. While Thor refused to accept a S.H.I.E.L.D. paycheck as a member of the Ultimates, he agreed to come to the aid if ever the need arose. Jan was taken to the hospital, and Hank was wanted for spousal abuse charges. Jan was quickly transferred back to the Triskelion, but her assault went public. Steve went out on a hunt for Hank. Clint, Natasha, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were introduced to Tony and Thor, who were all briefed on the presence on Earth of an alien race called the Chitauri since 1777, who were able to assume human form and had been in part responsible for the rise of the Nazis during World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D. had believed them to have been completely annihilated after World War II, but several Chitauri had then been discovered to be hiding on Earth. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Psi-Division recovered the location of a Chitauri base near Micronesia. Before Fury could order against it, Steve found Hank in a bar in Chicago and had a S.H.I.E.L.D. team bring him to Hank’s location. Steve put the beat down on Hank, and Hank was apprehended. While in his holding unit, Bruce and Betty began to reconnect. Steve visited Jan in the Triskelion infirmary, but Steve’s actions against Hank and butting into Hank and Jan’s personal business only served to upset Jan. While Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow and Fury flew with a S.H.I.E.L.D. Unit to Micronesia to assault the Chitauri base, Jan discovered that S.H.I.E.L.D. had already been infiltrated by the Chitauri, and their leader Kleiser was already on the Triskelion. Jan was caught by Kleiser and brought to the Chitauri base in the Arizona desert, while the Chitauri base in Micronesia was just a decoy base and was detonated, killing most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Unit, but Thor had managed to teleport several of the Unit to safety, including Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow and Nick Fury, and they arrived at the Arizona base. The Chitauri began their full-scale assault of Earth, with the intention of destroying the Earth. Captain America fought Kleiser, Iron Man and Thor flew in to stop the weapon, Black Widow came to rescue Jan, and Hulk was unleashed to destroy the invading ships and the Ultimates battled to save the Earth from the threat of Chitauri destruction.

            Okay, so now we have the synopsis out of the way, let’s get on to my own personal take on this graphic novel. Essentially the Ultimates are the Marvel Ultimate Universe version of the Avengers, but I will say that this is a vastly different take on their story, and I will also say that I found that to be a good thing. When Stan Lee created the Avengers back in 1963, they assembled by happenstance, all joining in to fight against a common threat and then realizing that working together as a team was beneficial. In Mark Millar’s Ultimates, the team is assembled by S.H.I.E.L.D. as a combat unit to fight threats ordinary units couldn’t. This is a completely different origin story. And I feel that it actually worked. I liked the idea of the Ultimates being a military unit. I thought the Hulk story was great, I loved Millar’s choice of hooking up Betty with Freddie Prinze, Jr., I thought that joke was pretty funny. I liked how Bruce and Betty’s relationship played out after that while Bruce was in a holding unit, it was actually quite humorous. I liked how Millar made Wasp secretly a mutant, but I wish he would have taken a little more of an opportunity to play up on that more than he actually did, it was just mentioned once and it was never brought up again throughout the rest of the graphic novel. I liked the concept of having a black ops unit within the Ultimates, keeping Black Widow, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in the shadows because of their statuses keeping them from being public faces. I especially liked Quicksilver’s comments of how he and Scarlet Witch had actually been helping if you looked at the tapes and slowed them down, those gave me a good chuckle. I liked the Chitauri as the enemy that was the true test of the Ultimates as a team. I liked that Thor wouldn’t join S.H.I.E.L.D. on principal but would aid anyway because it was the right thing to do, and his characterization as a former mental patient now messiah activist was, in my opinion, rather brilliant, rather than just outright saying that this was truly the God of thunder. What I didn’t like was the spousal abuse story. I felt like Millar went a little too far with that one and that it was rather unnecessary with how graphically it was illustrated. I felt that it negatively portrayed mental illness, and I honestly did not approve of that storyline. I did enjoy Brian Hitch’s work as the artist, I thought he did an amazing job illustrating this graphic novel, I really like his artistic style. I loved how I read that Millar had told Hitch to make Nick Fury look like Samuel L. Jackson and that when Disney finally made the movies, they actually did contract Jackson to play Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I actually totally geeked out the first time I saw the post-credits scene in “Iron Man” when they introduced Jackson as Fury, having read this comic series after it was originally published back in 2002-2004 prior to the release of the “Iron Man” film and there was actually a scene in this graphic novel where the group discuss who would play them in films and Jackson was named as Fury. In general, I rather enjoyed this graphic novel.

            Next up on our agenda of things to discuss, we’re going to talk about accessibility. For those of you who know what I mean, please bear with me while I explain this to my new readers who have never read one of my reviews before and don’t know what I mean by using the word “accessibility.” So, what I mean by that is, if you know nothing about the Ultimates or Marvel Comics at all, can you pick up this book, read it, and understand what you’re reading? This is the first volume of the series from a universe that was relatively new at the time and had very little background history. It has no direct ties to any other series published by Marvel. There are no crossovers or events occurring during this graphic novel. It has a self-contained origin story. So, yes, this book is extremely accessible. If you’re new to Marvel and are looking for a good place to start, this is an exceptionally enjoyable book to pick up and begin your Marvel journey.

            Okay, now we’re going to get to the point that you’ve all been waiting for: my numeric score. So, my scoring system is extremely basic. I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest score and means this book is complete trash and is not even worth reading. Ten is the highest score and means this book is perfection. On principal, I generally don’t give out tens very often because perfection is extremely hard to publish, but there have been occasions where I felt that this score is appropriate. As far as this book goes, I do not feel like a ten is an appropriate score for this book. I found some faults with the story, especially the spousal abuse storyline that highly detracted from my enjoyment of the story. And while I generally enjoyed Hitch’s art, there were moments where I felt like his artwork had a few mishaps. Unfortunately, there was also some content that doesn’t hold up over twenty years later, especially the inclusion of President Bush. But overall, I found this book to be high-quality and extremely enjoyable, so when I give it a score, I am compelled to score it at… an eight. It was entertaining to read, and the art was, for the most part, nice to look at. I feel like it deserves a particularly good score, but it’s not quite near perfection, so a minor deduction is required, but it shouldn’t be impacted harshly for the few problems I had with this book.

            Next up, we’re going to discuss if I give this book my personal Tim Cubbin recommendation, and then, regardless of that fact or not, whom do I think should be reading this book. If you’re guessing that I give this book my own personal recommendation, you would be absolutely correct. This book does, in fact, get my seal of approval. Moving on to whom do I recommend this book to, the answer is to anyone who likes the Avengers and wants to see a different take on what the team could be like. So, if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and have an interest in the Avengers, I highly recommend you read this book, this is a totally interesting twist on their origin and worth the read. If you’re already a Marvel Comics fan and have never read this, I recommend this book to you, this is a whole new reimagining of what the Avengers could be, and I think you will enjoy this. If you’re just reading this review and have gained any vested interest in reading this graphic novel based solely on what you’re consuming right now, I’d recommend you get out there and pick up this book, if you enjoyed my review, you will definitely enjoy actually reading the entire story as there is obviously so much more than what I can describe on this blog and I think you should make the effort to get the complete story and enjoy this work for yourself.

            Well, I think we’ve gotten to the point where I’ve said pretty much all there is to say at the moment. There is a little more to add in conclusion, however, so don’t quite give up on me yet. First off, if you liked this post, there are over four dozen other reviews like this one to read, so keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my work. I am a huge collector of Marvel Epic Collections, I buy every Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after they are released and if possible, I try to put up a review right after I finish reading them. So, obviously, I am going to be working with a lot of potential content. I currently have a Modern Era Epic Collection in my possession I am preparing to read, so you can expect to see a review of that one coming up some time in the next couple of weeks after this post, I have to finish reading it first, then find a day where I can actually sit down and write a review of it, but I will promise you it is coming soon. I have 160 other posts on this blog and there is no end in sight, so keep checking it out for more content if you’re interested. If you go really far back on my blog, I’ve actually written short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials, but right now my main focus is on writing reviews. If you think these seem highly professional, it’s because I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, so writing this kind of thing is what I should professionally be doing, but due to circumstances, it’s not something I’ve actually been able to secure, so I currently work in a grocery store and work for free on a blog in my spare time. But it’s in my nature and I don’t mind doing it, it is the job I honestly should be doing but just can’t actually manage to get hired for due to the situation in my life that I don’t want to talk about and you honestly don’t care about. But enough about that. Keep checking back regularly for more, as there will definitely be plenty of upcoming content on the way, I’ll be doing this blog until I am physically unable to do it anymore, so that’s probably going to be a long time. I’ve already been doing this for five years at this point. And at this point, I’m just rambling on unnecessarily and boring you with useless details about my personal life that you really don’t want to know, so I’m going to let you go now and move on with your life while I move on with mine. But I will be back soon, and I hope you come back with me. And so, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!