"Young Avengers: Not What You Think"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Young Avengers: Not What You Think” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Following the disbanding of the Avengers, four teenagers took to the streets in the fashion of their icons: Nathaniel Ricards/Iron Lad, with a suit of advanced technological armor; Elijah “Eli” Bradley/Patriot, super soldier; William “Billy” Kaplan/Asgardian, able to generate lightning and spellcasting; and Theodore “Teddy” Altman/Hulkling, shapeshifter with super strength. The New York newspaper dubbed them the “Young Avengers.” Editor in Chief J. Jonah Jameson tasked reporter Kat Farrell and private investigator and former teenage superhero Jessica Jones with finding out everything they could about these young “heroes.” Former Avengers Steve Rogers/Captain America and Tony Stark/Iron Man decided that they couldn’t endanger any young children and intended to shut the teenagers’ team down. A hostage situation occurred at a wedding at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and the young heroes crashed into the rescue. One of the hostages, Kate Bishop, assisted the team in stopping the crisis, but the teenagers almost burned the Cathedral down in the process of taking down the bad guys. Following this, the team retreated to the destroyed Avengers Mansion to discuss the goal of the founding of the team: to stop Kang the Conqueror when he returned, since there were no adult Avengers to combat him. After Asgardian, Hulkling and Patriot left, Iron Lad was discovered by Captain America, Iron Man, and Jessica Jones. Iron Lad revealed to the adult heroes that he himself was actually the person destined to become Kang the Conqueror and that he had travelled back from the thirtieth century to prevent himself from the fate of becoming the villain. He had tried to contact the former Avengers so they could unite against Kang when he came looking for Iron Lad, but his attempts failed, so he found the one Avenger who could help, one who had perished during the ending of the original Avengers: the synthezoid the Vision. Iron Lad download the Vision’s operating system and data files into his armor, which activated the failsafe, informing Iron Lad of just whom he had to contact and unite should the Avengers ever become unavailable. Meanwhile, Cassie Lang, daughter of deceased Avenger Scott Lang/Ant-Man, wanted to look for the Young Avengers with the intention of joining. She wished to use the Pym Particles that powered her father to aid the team, so she and Kate Bishop both went looking for the heroes. Kate and Cassie took their search to Avengers Mansion, where they were confronted by Asgardian, Hulkling and Patriot. During the confrontation, Cassie got angry and discovered her previous exposure to the Pym Particles had actually given her size changing powers, but the shock of using her powers caused her to pass out, and her crashing from giant form alerted Captain America, Iron Man and Jessica Jones to the presence of the teenagers on the grounds of Avengers Mansion. The teenagers introduced themselves to the adults, then the gathering of heroes was attacked by the Growing Man, who had come looking for his master, Kang. The heroes battled Growing Man, who multiplied into smaller versions of himself, but they Growing Men sent a signal to alert Kang they had found his young counterpart. For their safety, the adults locked the teenagers in the Avengers Mansion’s training room with the intention of contacting the teenagers’ parents. The adult Kang arrived from the future and revealed that if Iron Lad did not come back with him and fulfil his destiny of becoming Kang the Conqueror, reality as it currently was would cease to exist. As reality began to change, the adults realized that Kang was correct, and that Iron Lad would have to go forward in time with the adult Kang. The teenagers escaped from the training room, and wanted to protect their friend. During the conflict between the teenagers and Kang, Iron Lad slew his adult counterpart. As reality began to change, Iron Lad realized that he had no choice but to go back to the future to set everything right. Following this, the adults informed the teenagers that if they ever put their uniforms on again, the adults would shut the teenagers down, unless they had parental consent and training. The teenagers refused the parental consent request, got new uniforms, and decided to embrace the name “Young Avengers.” Cassie decided to be called Stature, and Asgardian changed his codename to Wiccan, while the others tried to get Kate to be either Hawkeye or Hawkingbird.

            As the Young Avengers decided not to come out to their parents, Patriot investigated a Mutant Growth Hormone operating ring. He discovered it was being operated by supervillain Calvin Zabo/Mister Hyde. Meanwhile, Captain America went to Eli’s grandparents and Jessica Jones went to Cassie’s mother to inform them of the teenagers’ activities as superheroes. Both the Young Avengers and Captain America discovered that Eli’s powers didn’t come from a Super Soldier Serum blood transfusion from his grandfather Isiah Bradley like he claimed, but rather that Eli was taking MGH. The Young Avengers defeated Mister Hyde, but Patriot quit the team.

            Jessica Jones investigated the histories of each of the Young Avengers and encouraged them to give an exclusive to Kat Farrell.

            The Young Avengers tracked down Eli and encouraged him to rejoin the team, saying he was the only one who could lead them. Right after he refused the offer, the team was attacked by the Super-Skrull, who claimed he was there to bring Teddy home to the Skrull Empire. The Young Avengers fought to protect Teddy and retreated to Billy’s parents’ apartment, where Teddy’s mother was waiting. The group was attacked by the Super-Skrull, who revealed to them that Teddy’s mother wasn’t actually his mother, rather a Skrull agent. The Super-Skrull then killed “Mrs. Altman” and abducted Teddy and informed him he was really Dorrek VIII, Heir to the Skrull Empire, and had been sentenced to death as an infant upon the discovery of the identity of his father. Teddy and the Super-Skrull were then attacked by the Kree Imperial Armada. Meanwhile, the Young Avengers decided they needed more help and went to recruit the Vision to find more Young Avengers from the failsafe program. They learned of Thomas “Tommy” Shepherd, who was a speedster and able to blow things up. Unfortunately, he was in a juvenile detention center for enhanced individuals. While the Young Avengers broke him out, they noticed his uncanny resemblance to Billy. As the Young Avengers and their new recruits Vision and Tommy came to rescue Teddy, Teddy learned his father was Kree Imperial Officer Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel. The Young Avengers rescued Teddy and the Super-Skrull from the Kree, and the Super-Skrull informed Billy and Tommy they were the sons of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and Vision, a possibility Vision confirmed and Billy believed due to Billy and Tommy having the same powers as Wanda and her twin brother Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver. The Young Avengers and adult New Avengers then found themselves caught in the middle of another Kree/Skrull war over the custody of Teddy.

            Okay, now that we have my professional synopsis out of the way, let’s get to the point where I give my personal opinion on this graphic novel. I will say that I found this book to be highly enjoyable. I honestly thought the stories were great. I found them to be engaging, well-written, and exciting, with good plot twists. Right off the bat from issue number one, with the Iron Lad/Kang the Conqueror reveal, I thought it was great. I especially loved the first battle between the Young Avengers and Kang where reality was changing and young Iron Lad had to make the impossible choice of embracing his villainous destiny. I thought that was superb writing. I was shocked when it was revealed that Eli really wasn’t a super soldier and that he was actually getting his powers from a drug. That was just a brilliant surprise. And Teddy being the Skrull Emperor/Kree Imperial Officer and Billy and Tommy being the sons of the Scarlet Witch and Vision were surely great shockers at the time, but twenty years later I already knew all this, but still, I thought that was a great way to tie the Young Avengers to the previous teams of Avengers. And as far as the artwork goes, I thought it was great, excellent work. I was consistently visually pleased the entire time I viewed this graphic novel. I just have to say I thought it was a fantastic job all around, both story and art, and I thoroughly enjoyed perusing this graphic novel.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve said this about thirty times by this point, but I know I have to say it again because I know some of you have never read one of my reviews before and don’t know what I mean when I use the word “accessibility” like this. I mean it very simply: how easy is it to just pick up and read this book and understand completely what you are consuming, even if you have absolutely no prior knowledge of the Avengers or Marvel Comics? I am incredibly pleased to say how accessible this book is. I think if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic before and have never seen any Marvel films or television shows or played any Marvel games or have absolutely any kind of prior knowledge of Marvel at all, you could still pick up this book and completely follow the storyline. It has no direct connection to any other Marvel Comic series prior or during it. Yes, there are plenty of other references, obviously, but this introduces a slew of new characters with a new origin story that is told totally independently of any other Marvel series. There are no events or crossovers, so this doesn’t have any missing pieces in the narrative. I feel like if you’re brand new to Marvel and want to start with something and are totally just for some bizarre reason reading this review on a whim because you personally know me and feel a commitment to me and read everything I post regardless of knowing nothing about Marvel, this is actually a perfect pick to start your experience with. And if you do know Marvel, which, if you’re reading this, you probably do, but have never actually touched a comic book before, the same thing applies in this case. In my opinion, it’s not going to be contradictory to what’s established in other Marvel media, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so if you’re a fan of the MCU and want to get into comics but don’t know where to start, I would definitely say this book is a fantastic choice. I just feel like this book is perfect Marvel Comics entry level. And if you are a lapsed reader of Marvel, say from like any time prior to 2005 when this series started, this book will still be understandable. It’s pretty self-explanatory once you start reading it, so it really shouldn’t give you a problem. And if you’re a regular Marvel reader from any time post 2006 when these issues were originally published, this will be a total breeze to read through and understand and will probably even fill in a lot of gaps.

            Okay, I feel like I’ve gone on about that long enough, you probably want to move on to the single most important part of this review and the reason why we are actually here: my numeric score of this book. I score on a very simple scale: one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and that means that this book is a flaming pile of trash that should be avoided at all costs. Ten is the best score I can give, and that means that this book was sheer perfection. Now with me, basically every book starts at a nine and goes lower, I’m really not in the business of giving out tens. It’s just exceedingly rare for me to feel that a book is a perfect ten. Now, we’re looking at this book, which I found to have exceptional stories and astonishing art and no actual complaints from me. But the question is, is this a ten? I would honestly love to say it is, but it’s not what you think. There is just something holding me back from scoring this book at a ten. It’s just not quite perfection. Yes, it’s amazing, the whole book was just a joy to go through, but I can’t claim it to be perfect. I don’t know exactly what’s holding me back, I really just can’t quite say it, I can’t pinpoint it, I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s just something going on here that makes me say that this book just isn’t a ten. Now, this raises another question, of course: is this a nine, instead? So now, I’ll stop teasing you and just give you a numeric score of the book because I feel like I’ve rattled on long enough on how it’s not perfect. So, we’re going to take everything in this book, the stories and the art and throw it in a blender and turn it on to mix out a score. I’ve turned it on… I’m pouring it out… and it’s… yeah, it’s a nine. I honestly can’t find any further reason to deduct points from my score, so if I can’t give it a ten, then no duh, it’s got to be a nine. That’s still really darn good. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading the stories and looking at the artwork and I consumed this book and I really have nothing I can complain about here from this graphic novel, so yeah, I give it a solid nine and say that’s about as good a score as it could hope to get.

            Finally, I’m going to tell you two more things: One: do I give this book my personal recommendation? Two: regardless of the answer to question one, to whom do I recommend this book to. So, as you can imagine my answer to question number one, in this case, it is what you think. Yes, I most certainly do, one hundred percent, absolutely, positively, for sure give this book my personal recommendation. As far as to whom do I recommend this book to, that’s actually a very broad group of people. First off, if you’re a teenager interested in Marvel Comics, this book is perfect for you. If you are LGBTQ+ and interested in Marvel Comics, I would absolutely say you would love Wiccan and Hulkling’s relationship. If you’ve watched Marvel movies and shows such as “WandaVision,” “Hawkeye,” or “Agatha All Along,” you already know some of the characters and I feel you would enjoy reading more about them in this graphic novel. And, of course, if you’re a fan of “Young Avengers” from any point or a fan of any of the characters featured in this graphic novel and have yet to read these essential issues, I will tell you this is the perfect book for you. Oh, and if you’re reading this review and are interested in reading this book now, I will tell you to go for it. I found it to be highly enjoyable, and I am a very picky person, so if I can rave about it this much, it probably really is good. And I will say, if you do read this, feel free to leave a comment or a tweet or whatever to tell me what you thought of this book, I would really love to hear your opinion from you. Of course, this entire review is all my opinion, I leave you free to completely have your own opinions, you do not have to agree with me on this, I even welcome dissent, I’m honestly not telling you what to think, I leave everything up to you. That’s the beauty of life; we all have our own opinions on things, and I love that you have yours, so please, if you feel different about anything I said, let me know, again, I’d love to hear from you.

            Well, I think we’re at the point where I’m going to say goodbye to you. I’ve been doing this for a while now, and I’m sure you’re getting bored of me and want to get on with your life, so let’s just move on now. I will say a few more things before I sign off first. I post on this blog very often. I have made over 150 posts on this blog, so there is plenty more content you could see if you liked this. I’ve done about thirty reviews at this point, so if you liked this review, feel free to check out some more. I can tell you that you can expect another review to get posted sometime in the next three weeks, so keep an eye out for it, it’s definitely coming. I actually purchase every single Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection that’s released and try to review it if possible. There are a few I’ve yet to review, hopefully that can change, but at the moment I’ve done almost all of them. I’ve also done other kinds of content on this blog, such as short stories, free verse poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. If you’re looking for a laugh and a pointless read for several minutes, check out my B’ings series, they’re actually quite entertaining. They’re just me rambling on for a few minutes about a topic that really doesn’t mean anything and yet I make a big deal out of it anyway somehow. I hope to post more short stories and poetry in the future, I do have a few ideas in mind, I just need to find the time to get them down on my laptop. Well, I guess I’ve said all I have to say at this point, so I’ll end it with just a few more words, and they are: Tim Cubbin… out!

"Daredevil: King of Hell's Kitchen"

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Daredevil: King of Hell’s Kitchen” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format. This is NOT connected to the Disney+ series “Daredevil: Born Again” in any way.

            Maya Lopez/Echo is able to mimic any movement she is able to visibly observe. She was born deaf. Originally, she was not believed to be deaf as she was able to skillfully read lips and talk and was labeled an insulting diagnosis instead. She communicated through her love of art. After she was diagnosed as deaf, she learned sign language. She was Native American and went to the Reservation with her father where she enjoyed learning the stories of her culture. She also learned of the ritual called the Vision Quest. When she was nine years old, her father died, and she was raised by his business partner Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. She excelled in schools so well she went from a school for children with handicaps and learning disabilities to a school for prodigies, able to master musical instruments, ballet, sports, and martial arts. Eventually, Maya began to work for Fisk and his criminal empire but turned good after meeting Matthew Murdock/Daredevil. Maya and Matt had a brief romantic relationship, but in the end, it didn’t work out and they went their separate ways. After Matt’s secret identity as Daredevil was outed in the press, Maya came looking for him, hoping to reconnect, but Matt rejected her. After a meeting with Fisk, Maya decided to embark upon her own Vision Quest. She returned to the Reservation and visited the Chief and asked him for guidance to perform the ritual. As she participated in the Vision Quest, she came upon James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine, whom she believed to be a “Spirit Animal,” something one comes upon during a Vision Quest. The two had a conversation, and during this conversation, Wolverine told Maya a story he had heard, a story that was originally told by Maya’s father before he died, a story Maya didn’t understand at the time, but upon Wolverine’s telling of the tale, it clicked in Maya’s head just what her father meant. Upon the completion of her Vision Quest, Maya returned to Hell’s Kitchen to say her final goodbye to Matt before moving on with her life.

            Daredevil defeated Kingpin and declared himself the King of Hell’s Kitchen and defeated all the gangs. After winning one of the largest class action damage settlements in the history of New York state over a newspaper outing him as Daredevil, Matt, and his new girlfriend Milla Donovan gave the money to the development of Hell’s Kitchen. After his takedown of Fisk, Matt was confronted by fellow superheroes Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Doctor Stephen Strange, and Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, who could not support Matt’s course of action. Nearly a year passed, and the FBI were still trying to find proof Matt was Daredevil. During a fight with the Yakuza, Matt went missing, and Milla, now Matt’s wife, turned to Daily Bugle investigative reporter Ben Urich to find her husband. Ben had long known Matt was Daredevil but never said anything, and Matt helped Ben gather information for his investigations. However, after Matt’s outing, Matt and Ben had ended their “professional” relationship. Ben turned to Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, Matt’s law partner, to ascertain Matt’s location. After finding him in a private hospital, Ben suggested that Matt’s recent actions could all be a nervous breakdown following the death of Matt’s lover Karen Page. Upon his return home nine days later, the Yakuza attacked Hell’s Kitchen and Daredevil teamed up with Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand/Iron Fist to take them down. Matt asked Foggy to stay with Milla to protect her, and Foggy suggested the nervous breakdown theory to Milla. Following his battle with the Yakuza, Milla confronted Matt, asking if their marriage was all just a part of his nervous breakdown, going as far as filing an annulment.

            S.H.I.E.L.D. were able to apprehend Viper/Madame Hydra in Bulgaria. The Pentagon wanted Madame Hydra to answer for her crimes in the United States of America, but the Bulgarian government refused to turn her over without a trade. In return, they wanted Natasha Romanova/Black Widow. Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. informed Natasha to hide as she became wanted by the American government. Natasha turned to her former lover Matt Murdock for his assistance in evading capture. Daredevil and Black Widow went into action to take down Billy Russo/Jigsaw. Following the fight, Matt and Natasha returned to Matt’s place. Matt turned down Natasha’s advances but signed Milla’s annulment. Jigsaw confronted Matt at the offices of Nelson & Murdock, where Matt denied being Daredevil. The next day, Matt and Natasha went to lunch, where they fell into the crosshairs of Quinn, who had been hired to kill Natasha. The two barely survived. Jigsaw and his gang invaded Matt’s home and Natasha had to fight to stay alive until the police arrived. Upon discovering who hired Quinn, Fury was able to remove the warrant on Natasha.

            Alexander Bont, the Kingpin before Wilson Fisk, received early parole. The FBI was advised due to their continuing investigation on Matt and the fact that Matt was Bont’s lawyer.

            Daredevil’s adversary Bullseye killed Karen Page, but what if she had lived? Matt would have gone on a hunt to find everyone involved in the attack that almost took his lover from him. The trail would eventually lead him to Wilson Fisk. In an act of blind rage, Matt would have accidentally killed the Kingpin. Matt would have been outed as Daredevil and arrested before he could turn himself in. Matt would have gone on trial for the murder of Wilson Fisk. And Matt would have been found guilty and sent to jail.

            Okay, I know I haven’t done one of these in a while, and I apologize, but I’m here now. Anyway, let’s get to my personal parts of this review. First off, you’re probably wondering just what I thought of this book. I will say I have mixed feelings. There were things I liked about this book, but there were also things I disliked. Let’s start with what I liked. I felt that the story was mostly enjoyable. “Echo” was fairly good, but the story was a little difficult to follow for two reasons. Reason number one was that there were points where the story was told out of order, which I really disliked. Reason number two was that the script wasn’t completely printed in speech bubbles or word boxes and knowing what to read and where to read, it wasn’t always immediately obvious, which again was relatively annoying. That said, when the story was clear to read, it was enjoyable. I especially liked the appearance of Wolverine. However, I will say that the story Logan told Maya actually is an old Native American story and was not actually originally told by Maya’s father as the story says, I know this for a fact because I have actually heard this story before, it was not new to me, and I am sure that there are a lot of people out there who will corroborate with me. I found “The King of Hell’s Kitchen” to be interesting. I liked all the plot twists, which I’m not going to get into because I don’t wish to give any further spoilers, which I feel like I did more than enough of in this review. “The Widow” was actually my favorite story in the book, I liked the team-up between Daredevil and Black Widow, and the scene at Matt’s house with the Black Widow fighting Jigsaw’s gang was just hysterical. That said, we have to talk about the things I disliked in this book, and there were a few things. First off, I wasn’t a fan of the artwork. I just did not find it to be enjoyable at all. I’m a nice guy most of the time, and I don’t wish to insult anyone, and I’m sure the artists worked their hardest to produce this art when they did it, so I won’t say anything bad or more, but it just wasn’t visually appealing to me. I especially didn’t like the art in “Echo,” and I didn’t like how in “The Universe” there were multiple artists, it just made the issue feel so disjointed. Also, I really disliked the issue “What if Karen Page Had Lived?” I totally didn’t like the story, with Matt going nuts and killing Kingpin. It just totally ruined the character. I know that the reader is supposed to accept this as Matt being in a blind rage, but Daredevil being a killer just isn’t acceptable. Also, the issue felt extremely rushed, especially the ending. The pacing felt all wrong and there were certain details that I felt like should have been more elaborated on or focused on. I felt like if the issue were a little longer it might have been more enjoyable. All-in-all though, I will say I found there to be more to enjoy about the book than to complain about.

            Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I say this every time I write a review, so I know there are some of you who have read this many times before because I know I do have people who regularly read this blog, but I also know there are people who have never been to this blog before, so I have to explain it for you newbs. Okay, so when I say “accessibility,” I mean just how easy it is to just pick up and read this book, particularly if you know little or nothing about Daredevil or Marvel Comics. I will say this book is relatively easily accessible. First off, when I read it, I didn’t feel like it completely forces you to have to have read any previous Daredevil comics, but it would certainly help you to understand this book. Yes, it picks up on previous storylines, but it’s not like the previous volume did a “To Be Continued…” at the end, so having to have read the last volume didn’t seem completely necessary to me. Second, it doesn’t cross over into any other events or series, so it’s not like there are missing pieces or gaps in the storyline either, so you don’t need to read other graphic novels to understand this one. As far as saying if this is a perfect starting point for new readers to Marvel Comics, I won’t say this is it, but it’s not off-putting either.

            Now we get to the nitty-gritty part of my review, the part that we’re all here for: the numeric score. My scoring system is extremely basic: I score on a scale of one to ten. If I give this book a one, that means it’s a piece of trash and should be avoided at all costs. If I give this book a ten, that means this is sheer perfection and should belong in every Marvel reader’s collection. Now, I will say I am a very harsh scorer, so a low score from me doesn’t necessarily mean anything, I’m just really particular, it’s a high score that’s impressive. Now, as far as this book goes, I found the story to be relatively good, my main problem was the art, so this book is getting a relatively average score. So, taking everything into account, I’m throwing everything into the blender, turning it on, and pouring out… a five. I honestly can’t give this book anything higher than that, I hate to say it. I just honestly can’t get past the artwork’s consistent displeasure, it really hurt the book that badly for me. And “What If Karen Page Had Lived?” was just totally disliked, so I had to deduct for that. So, all said, I have to score it at a five. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean this book was bad. There was plenty to like about it, the first three stories were all great in my opinion, but there was also a massive amount to dislike that I just had to deduct from, so I feel that the five is justified.

            Now, the next part of my review is my personal recommendation. By this, do I, myself, Tim Cubbin, say this book is worth reading? And then, regardless of that, who do I think would most enjoy this book? So, I’m going to start off by saying that, yes, I do recommend this book personally. As to whom I recommend this book to, I would say to fans of Daredevil mostly, and if you like Black Widow, her story in this book is really good, too. And if you’re a fan of Brian Michael Bendis, he did a rather decent job writing this book. And if you’re into Native American stories, this book would be interesting to you. And if you are a fan of Echo, I think this book would be appealing to you as well.

            Okay, so I’d say we’re at the point where it’s time to start saying goodbye. First, though, I will tell you there are over 150 posts on this blog, so there is plenty more content to check out. If you liked this “Daredevil” review and want more Daredevil, you can check out my reviews of “Daredevil: Underboss” and “Daredevil: Out” as well, you’d probably enjoy that. I have written dozens of reviews at this point, but there are also short stories, poems, essays, articles, editorials, and all kinds of other content on this blog, so keep scrolling, I’m sure you’ll find something else you’ll like. I have another review planned, it should be up in the next week, so keep an eye out for that. I post on a very frequent basis, I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection as it comes out and try to review it as soon as possible, so there’s always plenty more content on the way. Well, I guess I’ll let you get on your way, I’ve wasted enough of your time as it is, you probably want to move on with your life and I’ve been doing this for almost four hours, so I’m ready to move on to, so I’ll speed you on with just a few more words, and they are: Tim Cubbin… out!

"Guardians of the Galaxy: Somebody's Got to Do It"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Guardians of the Galaxy: Somebody’s Got to Do It” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            When the technological alien race the Phalanx began their invasion, the alien race the Kree needed a team to stop them. The Phalanx infect and assimilate with organics to subvert them into their collective. The Kree recruited Terran space adventurer Peter Jason Quill/Star-Lord, Kaliklak warrior Bug, Shi’ar murderess Deathcry, Celestial Madonna Mantis, Terran hero Gabriel Vargas/Captain Universe, enhanced life form Rocket Raccoon, and Flora-Organism King Groot for the mission. They had to go into a Kree facility on the Kree capital world Hala that was infested with Phalanx and destroy their replication machine with no technology since the Phalanx were able to control all technology, which meant they had to go in with basic weapons and uniforms that dampened their heat signatures to avoid detection by the Phalanx. Rocket and Groot formed an immediate bond, but Deathcry did not approve of Captain Universe saving her life as it went against Shi’ar creed. As they battled the Phalanx, Captain Universe and Deathcry got into an argument that ended in the friendly fire demise of Deathcry. Groot was also blown up by the Phalanx, but was able to survive as a sprig offshoot. Captain Universe had to cleverly use the power of the Uni-Force that gave him his abilities to defeat the Phalanx and complete the mission. However, the Kree were not quite so eager to give up on this new team.

            Following the Phalanx Conquest, Star-Lord was able to convince Mantis, Rocket, Groot, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Phyla-Vell/Quasar and Adam Warlock to form a strike force to protect the galaxy from future threats such as another invasion. They took up a base at Knowhere, the severed head of a Celestial and established a liaison with Cosmo, the head of security at Knowhere and used the Continuum Cortex to provide rapid transit via passport bracelets. Their first mission pitted them against the Universal Church of Truth, who used their beliefs to give them strength, on their Templeship the Tancred, to destroy the Font and prevent it from falling into a fissure. Another fissure opened around the vicinity of 56 Hydronis, which the team investigated, where they discovered Vance Astrovik/Major Victory of the Guardians of the Galaxy, a spacefaring team of adventurers from an alternate future. The team took him in, but he was suffering from a form of amnesia. He knew he was there for a purpose, where and when he belonged, but he couldn’t remember why. Another fissure opened near Binary Stasis Twelve Dyson Sphere, an artificial habitat shell with s caged sun at its heart. The team, now christened the Guardians of the Galaxy, attempted to come to the rescue of its fifty-two hundred inhabitants, but they had all been fused into one biomass. The Universal Church of Truth attacked again, while on Knowhere, a villain called Starhawk attacked and damaged the Continuum Cortex, preventing the Guardians from using their teleport passports. The team was able to survive, but Gamora was severely burned.

            Back on Knowhere, it was discovered that there were Skrulls, a species of shapeshifting aliens, who had infiltrated the station and that anyone could be a Skull. This caused great distrust among the Guardians, and the Administrative Council on Knowhere gave the team a hard time for setting up shop upon Knowhere without permission. Drax attacked three Luminals, leading to suspicion that he might be a Skrull. Quasar discovered Drax setting up synaptic disruptor charges, while Starhawk reappeared, this time in a female form, claiming the future tense was in flux and claimed she had to destroy Knowhere to save the future tense. Meanwhile, Warlock discovered Cosmo hiding a group of Skrulls on Knowhere. Before anyone could attack, Drax set off the charges, temporarily killing everyone on Knowhere so he could locate the Skrulls. Upon revival, the Guardians were able to apprehend Starhawk. Cosmo was able to convince the Guardians of the Skrulls upon Knowhere’s innocence and purpose upon Knowhere. Following this, Drax revealed the secret truth behind the forming of the Guardians of the Galaxy, a secret Star-Lord and Mantis had been keeping the whole time, a secret that imploded the entire team.

            Rocket and Groot stayed with the Guardians, adding Mantis and Major Victory as active members, and recruiting Bug to the team. The Guardians went up against the alien race the Badoon, who conquered the galaxy and exterminated the human race in Major Victory’s future. Meanwhile, Warlock and Gamora went off after the Universal Church of Truth, which Warlock intended to lead, while Drax and Quasar went off in search of a girl named Cammi who had a mysterious importance to Drax. Meanwhile, Star-Lord went after the Kree to protect them from the Skrulls, but was caught by Ronan the Accuser, who accused Star-Lord of crimes against the Kree and banished him to the Negative Zone, where Star-Lord ran afoul of Blastaar, newly crowned King of the Negative Zone. Blastaar ordered Star-Lord to get him into 42, the Initiative Prison located in the Negative Zone, so Blastaar could enter it to access its portal to Earth so he could invade. Star-Lord broke in, where he was taken in by vigilante Jack Flag and his crew, who refused to believe his story about the Guardians of the Galaxy. Meanwhile, Drax and Quasar went to Titan, home of the Eternals, to ask Mentor if he could locate Heather Douglass/Moondragon, Quasar’s lover and Drax’s daughter, but instead Mentor killed them both. Star-Lord was able to contact the Guardians of the Galaxy to break him out of 42 and prevent Blastaar from entering Earth, while Warlock and Gamora met with the Matriarch of the Universal Church of Truth to convince them to believe in him, but the Matriarch had a coccoon that contained another Adam Warlock, lending doubt to the authenticity of the Adam Warlock that had been trying to sway the Universal Church of Truth to his sway. While in their death state, Drax and Quasar ran into Maelstrom, who tried to steal the Quantum Bands from Quasar and feed them to the Dragon of the Moon, a creature that Heather had transformed into upon her death.

            Okay, that’s the synopsis with as minimal amounts of spoilers as I could, but let’s face it, it’s hard to review a 400+ page book with multiple stories without giving away spoilers. Anyway, let’s talk about my opinion about this book for a little bit, then I’m going to give a numeric score to this book and tell you if I personally recommend this book to you or not. So, I will say that I found this book to be relatively enjoyable. Personally, I’m a fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy, so reading about how the modern team formed was actually quite pleasurable to me, and it was an experience I liked. I thought the Annihilation: Conquest – Starlord story was well-written. His ragtag team was quite interesting to read about, and their adventure was entertaining to read. I liked the stories about the fissures. The Secret Invasion tie-in story was quite enjoyable to me, and I really found the ending to be quite a shocker and thought that was brilliantly written. The remaining adventures were all fun to read, and I had a fun time while I did. Now we’re going to talk about the art. Modern Era Epic Collections often tend to have multiple artists, and that can often hurt my enjoyment of the consumption of these graphic novels. I have to say, I honestly have no complaints about the art. I found all the artists to have done an excellent job, and it was consistently pleasing to my eyes.

            Now, before I go into my numeric score, there is something I have to discuss first, that being accessibility. When I say accessibility, what I mean is how easy it is to just pick up, read, and understand this book, even if you have little or no prior knowledge about the Guardians of the Galaxy or Marvel Comics. I will say this book is pretty accessible. Yes, it occurs during two events, those being Annihilation: Conquest and Secret Invasion, and that often hurts understanding of a Modern Era Epic Collection, but in this case, I honestly don’t feel it’s a problem. Annihilation: Conquest – Starlord is actually a four issue limited series and is pretty much stand-alone, so not actually reading the rest of Annihilation: Conquest really doesn’t feel like a hindrance in my opinion, and I will tell you that I never read the rest of Annihilation: Conquest myself and was able to follow this story just fine. As far as Secret Invasion goes, this doesn’t impact the rest of the event, which takes place on Earth, so not reading the rest of Secret Invasion will have absolutely no effect on understanding the tie-in issues contained in this book. Yes, there are a few things knowing more about Marvel would help with, such as the existence of 42, which stems from Civil War, but if you’ve never read anything Marvel before and are looking for a place to start, I feel like this is actually a pretty safe bet for you. And if you’ve never heard of the Guardians of the Galaxy and think this sounds interesting, I think you’d be able to pick up this book pretty easily and get most of what is going on in the story.

            Okay, it’s time to go into what I feel is honestly the most important part of any Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. My scoring system is extremely basic: I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the worst score I can give and means that this book probably truly deserves to be avoided at all costs and if you want to read this even after I’m telling you how horrible this is, I truly pity you. Ten is the highest score I can give, and that means that this is one of the best books I have ever read, and it should truly be read by everyone as soon as is humanly possible. Now, while I did find it enjoyable, I will say that I don’t feel like it’s anywhere near a ten. It was good, truly, but it was far from perfect. Honestly, if I have to give it a numeric score, and of course I obviously do since this is a book review, I’d have to give it a score of… an eight. Hey, that is still really good. I’m a pretty harsh scorer; I’m not in the business of just giving out tens. In all honesty, a default starting score is a nine, so since I didn’t find this perfect, I had to give it an eight. And that’s also good because I found no fault with the art, which could easily have brought the score down to a seven or even a six potentially, so getting an eight is actually pretty impressive. So, I say to the writers and artists of this graphic novel, excellent job!

            Now, as promised, I’m going to tell you if I recommend this book personally, and regardless of if I give it my personal recommendation or not, to whom do I recommend this book to. Now, you can pretty much guess that by the way I’ve been talking for the past three paragraphs that this book is going to get my recommendation, and if you’ve made that guess that I do, you are completely correct. This book emphatically gets my recommendation. As for to whom I’d recommend this book to, if you’re looking for a graphic novel of cosmic adventures, this is the book for you. If you’re a fan of Marvel from the movies or cartoons or video games or shows and are looking for a graphic novel to get into, I feel like this is an enjoyable book for you. If you’re a Guardians of the Galaxy fan of any form, this is the perfect book for you. If you’re reading this review and are interested in reading this book now based solely on what I’ve just spent the past several hours typing, I say go for it. Honestly, I’d recommend this book to just about anybody.

            Okay, I’ve been going on for quite a while, and I feel like it’s time for all of us to move on with our lives, so I’m going to wrap this up now. Before I go, though, there are a few more things that I have to say first. Starting with, this blog has tons of content. I’ve written almost 150 posts at this point, so there is plenty more to read. I have written several short stories, some poetry, a bunch of editorials, a few essays and articles, and dozens of reviews like this one. So, if you liked this post, keep browsing, there’s so much more for you to enjoy. I will say that I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection that gets released and will review it when I am completed, so there are reviews posted quite frequently. There are a few in my possession I have yet to review, and I do hope to rectify that eventually. At the moment, you can expect another review upcoming within the next two weeks, so keep checking back for that. And with that, I believe I’ve said all that needs be said for the moment, so I shall leave you with just three more words: Tim Cubbin… out!

"Thor: The Siege of Asgard"

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

            Asgard had been relocated above Broxton, Oklahoma. For killing his grandfather Bor, Thor was exiled from Asgard and Balder was named king of Asgard. Thor’s hammer Mjolnir was damaged. Thor’s adopted brother Loki had secretly been plotting with the villainous Doctor Victor Von Doom. Doom offered the Asgardians a home in Latveria, the country he ruled, claiming it would be more suitable for the Asgardians. The Warriors Three Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral agreed to join Thor in exile from Asgard. Young Broxton local Bill was in a romantic relationship with Asgardian goddess Kelda and left for Latveria with her. Loki revealed to Thor that “her” new female form actually belonged to Thor’s lover, the Lady Sif, and that the actual Sif’s consciousness was trapped in a mortal’s form that was yet to be restored to her Asgardian self like the other Asgardians Thor had reawakened when he restored Asgard following Ragnarok. Doctor Jane Foster, Thor’s former love, discovered Sif was actually contained in Mrs. Chambers, one of her terminal cancer patients who was about to die, and if she died, Sif would be lost for eternity. To save Sif, Thor required a repaired Mjolnir, so he turned to his ally Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, Master of the Mystic Arts to perform the magic to fix his hammer. Strange warned Thor that while he could do this task, it would require depleting the Odinforce from Thor and that should Mjolnir ever be damaged again, Thor would die along with it. Thor agreed to this deal, and Doctor Strange was able to repair Mjolnir and Thor was able to restore Sif to her true body before Mrs. Chambers expired. Bill found himself bullied by the Asgardians in Latveria, who were unable to accept Kelda taking a mortal lover, but Kelda came to Bill’s defense.

            Egyptian god Seth learned of Thor’s exile from Asgard and saw this as the perfect opportunity to slay his foe and sent his agents, including Scarab, Gog, and Grog to do the job. Thor was hiding in a cabin in his mortal guise of Doctor Donald Blake. Grog attacked a highway, and Thor came to the rescue, saving a woman from being crushed, then quickly reverting to Don Blake. Blake then visited the woman in the hospital, but the facility was attacked by Grog, who wished to draw out Thor. Thor then had to find the strength to defeat Grog and Seth’s other agents.

            Sif decided to stay in Broxton with Thor under the cover of Sylvan, a “model from New York.” The Warriors Three took over the restaurant Bill vacated. Doctor Doom began performing experiments on Asgardians. Bill discovered this and paid the ultimate price for this discovery, but he did not go down alone, and he was avenged by Balder. Thor and his allies had to fight for their lives as Doom sent his Doombots to Broxton to slay them and collect their forms for his experiments. Kelda learned of Bill’s death and that Loki had responsibility in her lover’s demise and swore revenge against Loki.

            Doom’s plans involved taking parts from Asgardians in order to obtain immortality for himself. Loki attempted to lie his way out of responsibility in Bill’s death and was taken into custody to await trial. Doom used his experiments to battle the Asgardians until Thor arrived to fight Doctor Doom, who imperiled Kelda, then retreated. Loki revealed he could save her with Thor and Balder’s help, but Thor first had to battle Doom in his new Destroyer armor.

            Loki encouraged Commander of H.A.M.M.E.R. Norman Osborn to attack Asgard. He then contracted the Dísir, former All-Father Bor’s Valkyries who could only feed on the spirits of deceased gods and were believed to be a myth as deceased gods either went to Valhalla or Hel. Because of Ragnarok, Hel was inaccessible, and Hela, goddess of death, had no Hel to rule over. Loki made a contract with Hell-Lord Mephisto to give Hela a slice of his hell for one thousand and one years in exchange for the service of the Dísir for one hundred and one days. He also brokered a deal with Hela that when he died, he would not be bound to Hel.

            Volstagg was arrested for attacking a football stadium, a crime he didn’t directly commit. Asgardian seer Knut entered an Asgardian banquet, warning of the end of Asgard, but Heimdall did not perceive a threat, and Knut was not taken seriously. Loki then eliminated Knut and trapped Heimdall. Kelda visited Bill’s family to inform them of Bill’s demise. Volstagg released a video on the internet proclaiming his innocence. Norman Osborn arranged an attack upon Asgard. Volstagg was released from prison and was attacked by Thor’s evil cyborg clone calling himself “Ragnarok.” Tyr, God of war, led the Asgardian army against the forces of H.A.M.M.E.R. The organization also went to Bill’s family’s house to go after Kelda. The real Thor arrived at the ruins of Asgard to join the battle, despite the penalty of death placed upon the violation of his exile. Balder fought Loki and learned the truth about Loki’s part in Bor’s death. Following the siege, Thor’s exile was ended, but he refused to accept the role of King of Asgard again, leaving it to Balder and instead offering to serve on as an advisor. Kelda found the entry to Valhalla and saw Bill was there but could not get in herself. Ragnarok came to Asgard and Thor and Ragnarok had a fight.

            The New Mutants were staying at the Inferno Club in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Hela was holed up. Dani Moonstar, who had formerly been a Valkyrie, was contracted by Hela to usher in the dead from the siege of Asgard to her Hel. During her mission, she was attacked by the Dísir and teamed up with the not-so-dead Tyr to battle them.

            Mephisto made a deal with the Dísir: in exchange for favors, he would allow them access to a feast in Hela’s Hel. Hela contacted the Asgardians, who saw firsthand the threat the Dísir posed when their name is spoken. Thor and Tyr travelled to Mephisto’s Hell to combat them. Thor learned of the sword Eir-Gram, which would be able to defeat the Dísir, but the Dísir had already stolen it and placed a spell on it so that only the one whom it belonged to would be able to withdraw it. Thor learned that Mephisto was using Hell to torment the spirit of Gaia, Thor’s mother. Meanwhile, Kelda was planning to poison Balder, whom she blamed for Bill’s death. Thor and Tyr had to defeat the Dísir and end the conflict between Hela and Mephisto.

            Okay, so the synopsis is now covered, let’s get to my part of the review. First off, let me say, I really didn’t enjoy this book. Honestly, the stories just didn’t grab me. I found them to be relatively bland. First off, the Asgardians relocating to Latveria made no sense. They know this is Doctor Doom’s country. They know he’s a villain. They know he’s up to schemes. Why would they go there? Especially since Loki was orchestrating the whole thing. How could Balder possibly think he could trust Loki? And the whole thing of Thor’s exile was also kind of dumb to me because again, Balder was trusting Loki. And Loki getting Sif’s body so Sif couldn’t be restored with the other Asgardians also made no sense to me. There were a lot of things there that made no sense. “The Hand of Grog” was a subpar storyline in my opinion, I actually found it kind of boring. As far as Kelda goes, I actually found her to be a bit of an annoyance. I admit she furthered the storyline, but she just wasn’t a character I liked. “Latverian Prometheus” was another storyline I didn’t like. As far as “Siege” went, “Siege” was actually published during a time when I wasn’t a regular reader, and I never actually read the main event, and Modern Era Epic Collections don’t actually contain events if they are published about specific characters, and since this was “Thor” there were no issues of the main event in it, and I found myself rather confused by not knowing the full story of exactly what was going on in the story itself. The inclusion of “Hel’s Valkyrie” to me made no sense considering it was an issue of “New Mutants” and this book was “Thor” and Thor doesn’t even actually appear in that issue, so I honestly have no real idea as to why the editors thought it was important to include this specific issue in this Modern Era Epic Collection as it really did nothing to the rest of the book. And “The Fine Print” was a storyline that actually confused me a little bit, I didn’t fully understand what was going on in the story, and you can probably even tell that based specifically upon my explanation of the synopsis being a little weak. All around, I just found the stories in this book to be highly disappointing. And as far as the art went, most of the time, I was displeased. I just found the styles to be in general unappealing. This whole book was just not my cup of tea.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. Now, when I say this, what I mean is how easy it is to pick up and read this book, even if you know nothing about Thor or Marvel Comics. As I mentioned before, this book contains the Thor issues of “Siege” but doesn’t actually include any of the main event, which makes this book highly inaccessible. Plus, it picks up directly where the previous Volume of the series left off following on the knowledge of said Volume, so missing that is missing a substantial chunk of the story, too. I’ve been reading Marvel Comics on and off regularly for twenty-four years now, and I missed this storyline and I was lost reading this graphic novel, so imagine being a reader with no experience with Marvel at all just picking up this book and trying to read it, I just don’t think they’d be able to follow the story. This is not an entry level graphic novel. So, if you’re a fan of the MCU and want to start reading Marvel Comics because you love Thor that much, I’m telling you, this is not the right book to start with.

            Okay, let’s get to the main reason we’re all here, or at least what I think is the most essential part of a Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. My scoring system is quite basic: one to ten. One is the lowest score, meaning that this book should be avoided at all cost, ten is the highest score and that this book should be in every comic book collector’s collection. So, you can obviously guess that this book is nowhere near earning a ten. Now, I had to think really hard about giving this book its score, and I honestly feel that it is… a one. I’ve very rarely given out a score of a one, but I feel like this book deserves it. It was just an all-around disappointment, and I just found it highly unenjoyable upon careful consideration. The stories were just so bland, and the art was subpar, I just can’t possibly give this book a good score. So yes, this book gets a rare one.

            Next up, we’re going to talk about if I recommend this book with my personal seal of approval, and regardless of that, to whom do I recommend this book. I think you can pretty much guess that I’m not going to give this book my recommendation. I honestly do not recommend this book at all. If you’re actually a die-hard Marvel fan and read “Siege” and want a companion book, I would say this might be an enjoyable book for you, but if you haven’t read “Siege,” I would tell you to avoid this book at all costs.

            Okay, I think at this point that I’ve gone on for quite long enough, you and I both want to get on with our days and do whatever else we need to do. But I do have a few parting notes first. Starting with this blog is updated on a very frequent basis. If you liked this review, there are dozens of other posts like this, including “Thor: Reborn from Ragnarok” if you want to check that one out for comparison purposes and get a little more background on this book. Most of this blog is reviews of Marvel graphic novels, and at the moment my project is buying and reading all the Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections released and when I read them, I will post a review. There are a few I haven’t reviewed yet because when I last read them, I didn’t have a laptop but hopefully I will be able to rectify that problem. As it stands, I have two more reviews lined up to be posted in a time than less than over the next four weeks or so, so you can keep an eye out for them. I was an English major with a concentration in journalism in college, which is why I do this blog for you, without pay, out of the kindness of my heart. I’ve also written short stories, poems, articles, essays, editorials, and other kinds of content for this blog, over one hundred and forty posts at this point, so if you liked this, keep browsing on timcubbin.blogspot.com, there is tons of other content available for you to enjoy. I’m going to sign off for now, but I’ll be back in less than two weeks with a new review, so keep checking. And so, I’ll just say until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Iron Man: Stark Disassembled"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Iron Man: Stark Disassembled” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Tony Stark was injured in a jungle in Vietnam and taken into captivity. He had shrapnel close to his heart. With the help of Professor Ho Yinsen, Tony was able to create a magnet to prevent the shrapnel from reaching his heart, and a suit of armor that allowed him to escape captivity. With the help of James Rhodes, Tony was able to return to the United States, where Tony became the superhero Iron Man.

Many years later, Norman Osborn became the leader of the corrupt government organization H.A.M.M.E.R., formerly S.H.I.E.L.D., which Tony Stark had been in charge of. Tony felt he couldn’t let Osborn obtain the database of the superhuman secret identities and the secrets of the Iron Man technology, so he did the only thing he could do; deleted the data. But that included wiping his own mind. It put him into a persistent vegetative state. He left Pepper Potts, his right-hand woman, with a suit of iron and a repulsor generator of her own before this. He also had his second-in-command at S.H.I.E.L.D. Maria Hill obtain a hard drive with the assistance of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. Pepper, Hill, and Widow gathered with Bucky Barnes/Captain America and Doctor Donald Blake/Thor to revive Tony.

Tony Stark was trapped in a repeated simulation in his own mind with his parents Howard and Maria Stark. In the real world, Tony’s allies watched a video which instructed them on how to prepare to revive Tony. Pepper, having lost her husband Happy Hogan, was hesitant about this, wondering why it was Tony who got to come back from the dead. Meanwhile, Osborn, who had placed a bounty on Tony Stark with a consortium of supervillains, called it off. Madame Masque, however, refused to let this go since her grudge with Tony went deeper, so she called on the supervillain Ghost to finish Tony Stark completely. She arranged a “Ghost Phone” which would allow Ghost to teleport to Tony’s location simply by making a phone call. Steve Rogers/Captain America returned from the dead and arrived in Broxton, Oklahoma, where Tony and his allies were hiding. The repulsor unit in Pepper had to be removed and implanted into Tony’s chest. The data drive Hill had obtained kept a backup of Tony’s memories, and they had to be implanted back into Tony. However, Thor’s attempt to revive Tony with a lightning bolt failed. Ghost was able to locate Tony at the Sooner Inn. Hill, Pepper, Doctor Lisk, and Mrs. Sooner moved Tony to the basement of a middle school to escape Ghost, where they called in Doctor Stephen Strange to perform a mystical surgery on Tony. Rhodey arrived but was immediately attacked by Ghost. In Tony’s mind, Doctor Strange tried to convince Tony that he had a life worth returning to but was pulled away from the surgery to fight Ghost, who defeated Strange. As Hill was losing to Ghost and Ghost was about to finish off Tony, Pepper made a phone call to H.A.M.M.E.R. to report on Ghost’s illegal activities, and as Ghost was about to attack Pepper, Tony returned to consciousness and defeated Ghost. However, Tony’s backup drive was not recent, and there were many things that Tony didn’t know.

Pepper imagined a conversation with her deceased husband Happy, where she recalled her time as the armored hero Rescue. Her suit wasn’t made to fight, but it was made to help save lives. Tony gave it to her while she had the repulsor technology in her and she used it while she was on the run from H.A.M.M.E.R.

Mother and daughter business team Justine and Sasha Hammer pitched the idea of a new mechanical force called Detroit Steel to the United States Army but were turned down. Tony Stark learned that he had given his company Stark Industries to Pepper before he erased his mind and that he was essentially broke. Tony decided to plan his new business venture, one that no longer involved making weapons. The Hammers bought decommissioned H.A.M.M.E.R. technology to plan their move against Tony Stark. Tony founded Stark Resilient and pitched making his proprietary repulsor tech available to the everyday consumer to replace fossil fuels. The Army got back in touch with the Hammer girls. Tony partnered with carmaker Carson Wyche to build a new car that ran on repulsor power and not fossil fuels. Pepper told Tony she wanted the repulsor disc Tony had removed from her replaced back into her. Tony agreed. Bambi Arbogast, a former Stark Industries employee, signed on with Stark Resilient. During Pepper’s surgery, the Hammer girls staged a terrorist attack in Shibuya, Tokyo in order to promote Detroit Steel. Iron Man and War Machine flew in to help fight, but were made to look like fools, especially since the tech the terrorists used were old Stark Industries technology. Stark Resilient hired Cababa, Macken and Pimacher to help build their new car. The Hammer girls build drones to assist Detroit Steel, and created a “game” app, tricking players into thinking they were assisting Detroit Steel in a game, when in actuality they were flying these real drones and assisting the actual Detroit Steel. Tony created a new Rescue armor for Pepper. Stark Resilient planned to debut their new car at the 21-Green International Expo in the following six weeks and had to build two cars within that time limit. Rhodey pitched placing War Machine under military supervision as liaison to Stark Resilient, but General Babbage refused, preferring Detroit Steel. Stark Resilient held a Gala, inviting the Hammer girls. Tony took Sasha Hammer on a private ride, where she attacked him with cybernetic upgrades. Iron Man and Rescue fought her, but Sasha was still able to escape. Tony’s Alpha car was sabotaged and exploded during its test run, and only Tony’s implanted Iron Man armor was able to save his life. Because of the attack, the 21-Green Expo was cancelled. Tony decided to have the Betty car tested at their factory. As the test began, Detroit Steel and the drones attacked. Tony, Pepper and Rhodey suited up as Iron Man, Rescue and War Machine and fought the drones. Tony’s team discovered that the drones were being controlled by the gamers and that they were locking on to repulsor signatures, so Rhodey and Pepper powered down. It would take twenty minutes to shut down the cellular transmissions, but Pepper and Rhodey could only survive for fifteen minutes without repulsor power. Tony had to race against time to defeat Detroit Steel, survive the drones, and save Rhodey and Pepper.

Luna Inc. created Luna City, a community on the moon. They used an old Stark Industries machine that could control the weather, and it was having a negative effect upon the earth. Iron Man and Thor had to team up, fly to the moon, and stop Luna Inc.

Okay, so now we’ve done the synopsis, let’s get down to the Tim Cubbin part of this review. Obviously, you want to know if I liked this book or not and what I thought about it. While I did find this book to be somewhat enjoyable, I honestly can’t rave about it. I found it to simply just be mediocre. There honestly wasn’t anything special about it. The stories really didn’t stand out. While it was readable, it just didn’t have a super high level of enjoyability. We start off with a reprint of the first Iron Man story and a classic Iron Man story that got severely retconned and was actually somewhat offensive that I really couldn’t go into much detail about it in this review since I’m a nice guy and I don’t want to offend anyone who reads this blog, I want people to keep coming back for more, so I don’t want to do anything to scare people away. The story of Tony Stark trapped in a self-imposed simulation and needing to be rescued and revived really didn’t grab me, and I couldn’t find the suspension of disbelief required to believe in Tony’s revival. The way he deleted his memories and had them reimplanted just wasn’t plausible enough for me to accept. I can say, however, that I do enjoy reading about Pepper as Rescue. As far as the “Stark Resilient” storyline went, however, that at least saved the book for me a little bit. I enjoyed the concept. I liked how Tony had to start a new business venture, and I thought that the car was an interesting idea. I liked Sasha Hammer as a villain. I liked the drones being piloted as a gaming app, and while I thought the idea was brilliant, I also found it to be slightly predictable, as soon as they started talking about the drones, I knew exactly how they were going to be used, but it was still a great idea to include. I enjoyed the dynamics between Tony, Pepper, and Hill throughout the course of the book, their grudge against Tony for a reason I can’t talk about in a G-Rated blog, but I thought it brought good humor and drama to the stories. As far as the Iron Man/Thor “Fair Weather” team-up, I found that to be entertaining. As far as the main artist Salvador Larroca goes, he’s an artist that I love to hate and hate to love at the same time. His artwork is inconsistently good and bad. There are times when he totally nails it, and there are times when he totally fails it. There were points where his artwork was just totally amazing, and there were times when I just thought it was awful. Usually when I give a bad art review on an Epic Collection, it’s because there are a lot of different artists, and while this book did have several artists, Larroca was the main artist, and he was the one who disappointed me the most. As far as this book goes all around, this was not one of my favorites.

Next, I’m going to talk about accessibility. I’ve literally said this at least three dozen times at this point, but I always have to do it again for my new readers since I know some of you have never read a Tim Cubbin review before and have no idea what I mean when I say “accessibility.” So here goes: Accessibility means if a person who has little or no knowledge about Iron Man or Marvel can pick up this book, read it, and fully comprehend what they are reading. In this case, I will say this book is highly inaccessible if you have not read the previous volume “World’s Most Wanted” as this book directly continues out of the storyline from that which was not finished in the previous volume, so if you have not read it, you have missed a significant chunk of the story and will have no idea what is going on at the start of this book. The entire story of Tony erasing his memories was told in the previous volume and he was left in a vegetative state, and that’s where this volume picks up. There are also many other threads that carried over from the previous volume that not having read it will have negative impact on a reader’s ability to fully comprehend what they are reading, including Pepper’s original run as Resue, why Tony had to be kept hidden, the fall of Stark Industries, Tony’s disconnection from Extremis, and the start of the dynamic between Tony, Pepper and Hill which I can’t talk about in a G-Rated blog, just to name a few, and one I can’t discuss that would spoil the ending of “Stark Resilient.” This book is marketed as Vol. 4, and while Vols. 1 and 2 have not been released at the moment of my writing this review, Vol. 3 is an essential read prior to reading this book.

I’ve been going on for quite a while now, and I’m sure you’re starting to get bored of me, so let’s move on to the most imperative part of a Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. I score on a very basic scale: one to ten precisely. One means this book is a flaming piece of trash. Ten means this book is one of the best things I’ve ever laid eyes upon. Now, you can obviously guess at this point that this book is nowhere near getting a ten, and you would be absolutely correct. However, I wouldn’t completely call this book a flaming piece of trash, either. So, of course, we must take into account that this is a GRAPHIC novel, so art is just as important as story when I write my reviews. So, we have a mediocre story and inconsistent qualitied art, so you can imagine this score is going to be on the low side. So, imagine no further, as I am now going to tell you my score. Taking everything into consideration, I throw it all together and spit out… four. This book was readable, but it is not going to be on the list of one of my favorite graphic novels.

Next up, I’m going to tell you if I give this book my personal recommendation, and regardless of that, to whom do I recommend this book. Okay, so this book does not get my recommendation as it honestly really did not stand out to me. If I were to recommend this book to anyone though, I would say it would honestly mostly be for Iron Man fans of the comics from 2000 on, but the origin story that went on to be retconned is a huge turn off to fans from said period, and writer Matt Fraction even writes into the story that it was retconned just to redeem the change. Honestly, though, I do have a hard time recommending this book to anyone.

Well, I think we’re at the point where we should be parting ways, but first I do have a few things I have to say first. First off, this website has dozens of reviews just like this if you enjoyed it, so feel free to keep browsing timcubbin.blogspot.com, check out my “Iron Man: World’s Most Wanted” review, too, you’ll probably find that enjoyable. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, editorials, essays, articles, and several other kinds of content that you can check out, I’ve done quite a variety of work on this over the past four and a half years. There are almost 150 posts now, I’m sure you’ll find something else you can enjoy. My reason for doing this blog is because I have a degree in English with a concentration in journalism and currently remain unemployed in the field but still wish to remain active in it. I post on a very frequent basis, literally any time a new Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection comes out, I buy it, and I will review it. There are a few I haven’t reviewed due to the lack of having a laptop at the time, but they will probably eventually receive reviews. I have another review coming up, expect it sometime within the next two weeks. I guess that’s really all I have to say for now, so I’ll finish with just a few more words: Tim Cubbin… out!

"New Avengers: Civil War"

The following is a review of the graphic novel “New Avengers: Civil War” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

Steve Rogers/Captain America, Tony Stark/Iron Man, Luke Cage, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Logan/Wolverine, Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman and Robert Reynolds/Sentry united again a common threat and became the New Avengers to fight the foes no single superhero could withstand.

Tony Stark and Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four were called to the Louisiana Bayou to investigate a spaceship which had been discovered, a ship that had been buried for a long time. The ship was transported to Stark Tower, where the Avengers and the rest of the Fantastic Four Sue Storm-Richards/Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Ben Grimm/Thing attempted to open it. Upon being successful, the two teams were attacked by a crew of Kree Warriors who had been sent long before to secure the planet as a battle station for the Kree Empire before the Skrulls could. The Kree and Skrulls had been at war for a long time, but the war had ended years ago on the Kree Homeworld. Tony Stark had to convince the Kree that Earth was not home to the Skrulls and not worth the Kree attempting to take over.

Captain America turned to Matt Murdock/Daredevil for assistance in stopping Kenuichio Harada/Silver Samurai, a supervillain who had recently escaped from the prison the Raft the night the New Avengers were formed and was brought to Japan by an organization, potentially the Ninja assassins the Hand or Clan Yashida, a Japanese Crime family. Murdock refused to join the Avengers, afraid that the recent exposure of his secret identity as a superhero would bring bad press to the Avengers, but offered Ronin, who had the same training, fighting styles, and knowledge of the Hand and Clan Yashida as Murdock. The Avengers traveled to Japan to find the Silver Samurai with Viper/Madame Hydra along with the forces of Hydra and the Hand. The Avengers fought Hydra and the Hand, and Viper attempted to escape. Spider-Woman cornered her, and the two discussed their secret deal before Viper allowed herself to get captured. The Avengers then confronted the Silver Samurai. The Avengers then boarded their Quinjet to return home, where Spider-Woman released the hatch, allowing Viper to escape. Upon returning home, Captain America confronted Spider-Woman to learn where her loyalties lied. Jessica had joined Hydra at an early age but had defected to S.H.I.E.L.D. Eventually she lost her powers, but Connely, an agent of Hydra, offered to give them back. Jessica turned to Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who told her to take the offer and feed Hydra information about S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to eventually get enough information about Hydra to take the organization down. Jessica underwent the procedure and got her powers back better than ever, and her and Fury’s plan worked… until Fury was forced to go underground, and Maria Hill was named Acting Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Jessica revealed her situation to the Avengers while in touch with Fury. Fury refused to reveal his location, but informed the New Avengers that they were about to have to go public because speculation about the Sentry’s watchtower atop Stark Tower was drawing notice. The Avengers called a press conference and revealed the formation of the new team to the world at large.

Following an event that went on to be called “the House of M,” most of the world’s mutants woke up to discover that they had lost their powers, but the truth that Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch had altered reality was kept hidden from the general public to keep the remaining few hundred mutants safe from anti-mutant hysteria. An energy blast from space came down onto North Pole, Alaska and obliterated the town, save one man, with powers, who was going on a destructive spree into Canada. The Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight was called in by S.H.I.E.L.D. to fight the man, but they were easily defeated, and the man continued. The New Avengers, who were doing impact police work in Detroit, were called in by S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man asked Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel for assistance, and Captain America asked Maria Hill for assistance from S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Daisy Johnson. However, the Sentry refused to answer the call along with the rest of the New Avengers, afraid that his antithesis the Void would arrive should he use his powers. Iron Man confronted the man, who revealed his name to be Michael, and the two were in dialogue, with Michael almost calmed down, when Ms. Marvel misinterpreted the situation and attacked Michael, enraging him, and reigniting the cosmic level powers she used to have as Binary. Iron Man called in the android former Avenger the Vision, who had the hard drive files belonging to the Avengers, to discover if Michael was a threat they had faced before. The Avengers, including the Sentry, battled Michael, and lost. They discovered that while they had never fought Michael before, they had fought his power sources before: the combined powers of the mutants who lost their abilities following the House of M. Spider-Man, who had been aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, was knocked out and apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents so Maria Hill could learn about the House of M. The Avengers followed Michael to the former mutant island nation Genosha, which had been destroyed by Sentinel robots a while before, where the former mutant Eric Lensherr/Magneto had been living in hiding. Michael’s powers went into Magneto, granting Magneto the powers, and the power source was revealed to be Xorn, a former enemy of the X-Men. The New Avengers, Daisy Johnson, and Ms. Marvel then had to fight the Xorn powered Magneto.

Yelena Belova/Black Widow had been burned during a previous encounter with the New Avengers. Hydra offered a chance at revenge and the return of her pretty face if she were to join them. They teamed up with Advanced Idea Mechanics to turn Yelena into a Super Adaptoid, able to absorb any powers used against her and be able to use them herself. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, who had just had a baby together, decided to get married. Yelena attacked Stark Tower and fought the New Avengers. Following the fight, Luke and Jones tied the knot.

Many years ago, Iron Man, Doctor Stephen Strange, Charles Xavier/Professor X, Reed Richards, Black Bolt, Namor and T’Challa/Black Panther met in Wakanda to have a discussion. Following the Kree-Skrull War, that the gathered parties all had prior bits of knowledge about before the conflict hit Earth, Tony Stark pitched the idea of the group of them all pooling their resources and information and working together so this kind of situation would never happen again. The others were not receptive of this idea, and all turned down this proposition. However, they did settle on forming a secret committee, where they would regularly discuss situations, but none of their family members, friends, or teammates could have knowledge of this committee… all except T’Challa, who advised them not to do this. Many years later, the group met to discuss how to manage the threat of the Hulk. The plan was to exile Hulk into deep space where he would no longer be a threat to anyone or himself again, and while Namor did not approve of the plan, the other set it into action. The committee met for the final time to discuss the proposed Superhuman Registration Act, which would require anyone with superpowers to register with the government, reveal their identity, and submit to training and a job as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. Refusal to do so would be considered a federal crime. The discussion did not go well, and the committee fell apart.

After Stamford, Connecticut was destroyed in a fight between the New Warriors and a group of supervillains, the Superhuman Registration Act came closer to becoming law. Iron Man decided to come out in favor of it. Captain America was called upon to hunt down his fellow heroes who were in defiance of the Superhuman Registration act, but he chose to oppose it and became a public enemy in the process. Captain America was able to find an ally with Sam Wilson/Falcon, but when he turned to Hank Pym, he was turned down. When the Superhuman Registration Act was passed, Tony Stark went to Luke Cage to attempt to convince him to register. Luke refused and told Jessica Jones to take the baby and leave the country and not to watch the television. Luke was targeted by a S.H.I.E.L.D. team, who attempted to apprehend him, but with the help of Captain America, Falcon, and Daredevil, he was able to escape. Spider-Woman’s double agent status was uncovered by Maria Hill, who called in a S.H.I.E.L.D. team to arrest her. She was brought aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, which was attacked by a Hydra squad that tried to crash the Helicarrier and rescued her. She managed to escape Hydra and turned to Captain America’s resistance team. The Sentry tried to stay out of the superhuman Civil War that was occurring and went to the moon. He was attacked by the Inhumans, who then invited him to dinner and an overnight stay. Iron Man arrived and recruited Sentry to his pro-registration movement but caused a conflict with the Inhumans in the process. A disgruntled former Stark Industries employee infiltrated Avengers Tower and shut down Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor and attempted to set off a bomb that would wipe Avengers Tower from existence. Maria Hill had to use S.H.I.E.L.D. tech to sneak into Avengers Tower and rescue Tony and save Avengers Tower.

Following the conclusion of the Superhuman Civil War, Tony Stark was forced to consider if the cost of the war was worth all the outcomes.

Alright, we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, now let’s get to my part of the review. First off, let me say that I loved this book. I totally thought the stories were great. Some of my longtime readers have seen that I’ve done reviews of “Civil War” before, but this one is actually quite different from the others based on the content contained in it. Not all of the stories in this book were Civil War, so there’s actually new material to review this time. I recently reviewed the previous volume and stated that I am a huge fan of the work of Brian Michael Bendis, and I really feel like he hit the mark on this book. I highly enjoyed the Fantastic Four story; I thought the ending was just so cleverly written. The Ronin story was great, and I loved the double agent story with Spider-Woman. I liked the story with the reveal of the New Avengers, then ending with the Daily Bugle was truly unexpected based simply on the writing at the start of the issue. I thought the House of M follow-up story was interesting. The wedding issue was well-written, Yelena’s fate just blindsided me. The Illuminati issue is one I have literally read over one hundred times, and I never get tired of it, I enjoy it every time. The Civil War stories were all great ways of highlighting the characters. The Confession issue truly depressed me, though, but I honestly can’t talk much about it without giving away spoilers, so I’ll leave off from there. The problem for me was that there were too many artists, and some of the artists just didn’t do it for me, I hate to say it. There were just some issues with artwork that didn’t appeal to my eyes. Overall, though, I thought this was a really superb book.

Next, let’s talk about accessibility. I know some of you may not understand what I mean by this, so I will have to explain. I mean if a person with no knowledge of the New Avengers can just pick up this book and read it. I will say this book has incredibly low accessibility. This book actually focuses on two events without actually including those events within its pages, House of M and Civil War. So, if you don’t know either of these stories, you will probably have great difficulty understanding this book. I will say that even though this book is called “New Avengers: Civil War,” it is not actually a “Civil War” graphic novel, it just contains some issues that tie in to “Civil War” and they slapped the title “Civil War” on it because that’s what will sell the book, but if you’re buying a book hoping for “Civil War,” this book is not actually it. This book also calls on knowledge of what happens to Captain America after “Civil War.” So, I will say if you don’t know Marvel Comics at all, you will not be able to read this book very well. It’s not a jump-on point for new readers.

Okay, let’s move on to my numeric score. I’ve been going on for quite a while now and you’re probably starting to get bored of me. So, here’s how the scoring works. I go on a scale of one through ten. One is the lowest score I can give, which means this book is absolute trash. Ten is then obviously the highest score I can give, and that means that this book is perfection, and I have hardly ever read books better than this one. So, you’ve probably gathered that this is not getting anywhere near a one, since I have given this book such high praise. However, I can tell you that this book is not a ten. Now, we must consider that this is a GRAPHIC novel, which means that I must take two things into consideration when I score this book: both story and art. As I stated before, I had some problems with some of the artists, and that means I must dock something there. I will also say that the stories, while quite good, even on their own, were this all a prose novel, still would not be a ten. So, we’re looking at docking there. So, as I take everything into consideration on this book, both story and art, throw everything into the blender, make a smoothie, and churn out the score, I rate this book at… seven! Look, I would love to give it an eight, but the stories alone would be a nine and the art was just too inconsistent that I just had to dock two points. So, the seven is my final standing. I loved the stories, yes, but there were just too many different artists in one book, and that just caused such a complication for me, but a seven considering all that is still fairly good.

Next up, we’ll talk about if I give my personal recommendation and regardless of that to whom I’d recommend this book. So, I loved this book, so yes, it gets my recommendation. But again, this is not actually really a “Civil War” book, so if that’s what you’re looking for, I don’t recommend this book to you. If you’re a fan of “New Avengers” then yes, I recommend this book to you. If you’re a fan of Spider-Woman in particular, this is a perfect book for you as I feel this really highlights the character. If you’ve read House of M and Civil War, then I feel you should definitely read this book if you haven’t read these issues, they’re a good complement to those stories.

Okay, so I’ve kept you for quite a while and I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I feel like it’s time to wrap this up. I will tell you that this blog has a ton of content on it, as I said, I’ve written reviews of “Civil War” before, if you want, you can look for those, those were at the start of my time doing this blog so they go way back, but I feel like they’re worth looking at, you can see how my writing style has evolved over four years. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, editorials, articles, and other kinds of posts, so feel free to keep browsing on timcubbin.blogspot.com. I have another review coming up definitely sometime within the next three weeks, and I post very frequently, so you can always keep an eye out for new content. I think that this is all for now. So, I say to you, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!