"All-New Wolverine: The Four Sisters"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “All-New Wolverine: The Four Sisters” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

X-23 was created to be a weapon. For a time, that’s all she was. But Laura Kinney escaped that life with the help of the man she was cloned from, the man who became her mentor: The Wolverine. Tragically, the original Wolverine has fallen, and the mantle has been left empty. Laura will live as Logan’s legacy, and she will fight for her brighter future. She will leave behind her old life, and make a new one. She is the all-new Wolverine.

Wolverine and her boyfriend Warren Worthington III/Angel went on a mission to stop a terrorist attack in Paris, France being led by a clone of Laura. The attack was thwarted, but the clone did not survive the encounter. Alchemax Genetics arranged a meeting with Laura two days later where Director Robert Chandler told her that four clones of Laura had escaped from and destroyed an Alchemax Genetics laboratory two weeks prior. These clones had not developed Laura’s healing factor or claws or conscience, could not feel pain, and wanted to kill everyone connected to Alchemax. Laura affirmed to stop her clones. Captain Mooney told his security agents to follow Laura. Laura ungently informed those agents she doesn’t like being followed. Laura returned to her apartment in the Bronx to find her clone Gabby waiting for her. Gabby asked for Laura’s help, but their conversation was interrupted and Gabby fled. Laura followed Gabby to her “sisters” Bellona and Zelda to talk, but Bellona shot Laura unconscious and tied Laura up. Upon waking up, the sisters tried to talk to Laura, but Captain Mooney and his forces showed up. Laura and the sisters incapacitated the soldiers, but the mercenary Taskmaster arrived and shot the sisters. Laura took down Taskmaster, and the sisters had been wearing body armor and survived the gunshots. Laura and the sisters drove off, but were followed by Mooney and his forces, who had placed a tracker on Laura when she went to the Alchemax laboratory. Laura stopped them and informed Mooney the sisters were under her protection. Laura planted the tracker on a squirrel, then followed the sisters, who told her they made their escape from Alchemax because they learned they were dying, but that they did not blow up the facility, and that there were originally ten clones of Laura. Zelda became very weak, so Laura brought the sisters to Doctor Strange, who helped them learn there was nanite technology in the sisters’ brains and that Zelda had days, if not hours, left to live and that the nanites were far too small and too numerous for Doctor Strange to operate on. Laura decided the only way to save Zelda was to steal an Ant-Man suit so she could shrink, enter Zelda’s body, and fight the nanites herself. Doctor Strange teleported Laura and the sisters to Pym Laboratories, but they were caught by Janet Van Dyne/Wasp, the owner of Pym Laboratories. Wasp agreed to help Laura fight the nanites in Zelda’s brain. While Laura and Wasp were in Zelda’s brain, Mooney found the sisters and shot Zelda. Laura and Wasp got out of Zelda’s body, but Zelda did not survive. Mooney returned to the Alchemax Genetics bunker, and Laura and the surviving sisters followed. Laura and the sisters fought Alchemax for the sisters’ lives and freedom and to expose Alchemax Genetics for their plans for the sisters. Bellona fled, and Gabby left with Laura.

Doreen Green/Squirrel Girl arrived at Laura’s apartment with a wolverine named Jonathan which Gabby decided to keep as a pet. Squirrel Girl had come to Laura for her help. The squirrel that Laura had placed the tracker on had been chased by Mooney’s forces and this squirrel was a father and his family had lost their home and was missing him. Laura and Squirrel Girl teamed up to search for the squirrel, which had been caught by a boy and kept in a box. Laura and Squirrel Girl rescued the squirrel, and Squirrel Girl gave Laura a speech which convinced Laura to let Gabby stay with Laura.

Laura and Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman of Earth-65 had their consciousnesses swapped across dimensions. Reed Richards of Gwen’s reality arrived at Gwen’s house to tell Laura and Gwen’s father George Stacy that if this swap wasn’t reversed, both Laura and Gwen would be left mindless. Reed helped Laura teleport back to her dimension and teamed up with Gwen to learn who had swapped them, restore their minds, and return both women to their proper homes.

S.H.I.E.L.D. raided a boat off the coast of New Jersey to prevent the sale of a mysterious box, but the boat, the buyers, the sellers, and the agents went missing. S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill contacted Laura and brought her aboard the Helicarrier, where Hill informed Laura that James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine from an alternate future had been investigating and went missing as well and asked for Laura’s aid in the investigation. S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives opened the box to find it contained a liquid that attracted the dragon Fin Fang Foom. Fin Fang Foom attacked the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. Laura went inside Fin Fang Foom to rescue Logan. Tony Stark/Iron Man and Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel teamed up to save the Helicarrier. Gabby asked for Iron Man and Captain Marvel’s help to rescue Laura and Logan, then Laura had to figure out a way to save S.H.I.E.L.D. and New York City from Fin Fang Foom. While Laura was fighting Fin Fang Foom, Gabby brought Logan to their home.

A young new Inhuman named Ulysses with the ability to predict the future foresaw Logan killing a lot of people, including Gabby. Burglars broke into Laura’s apartment, but she, Gabby and Logan stopped them easily. Steve Rogers/Captain America led a S.H.I.E.L.D. squadron to apprehend Logan and Hill contacted Laura to inform her of their presence. Logan ran off with Gabby, and when the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents caught up with Logan and Gabby, they shot Logan with tranquilizers, sending Logan to a feral state leading him to stab Gabby. Laura went after Logan and was about to end him, until Gabby revealed she also had Laura’s healing factor and claws. Laura and Gabby parted ways with Logan on hostile terms, and Laura informed Captain America she would be leaving with Gabby to a place where S.H.I.E.L.D. would be unable to find them.

Laura received a package containing the trigger scent that would send her into a feral rage. Laura moved up her moving plans and hit the road with Gabby and Jonathan. They traveled to Daylesville, California to a cabin just outside the town that Logan had used as a hideout. The power went out, and Laura left the cabin to investigate. She found out the power was out in the whole town. Suddenly, water bombers flew over the town and released trigger scent. When the effect wore off, the entire town was dead. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrived, and Laura allowed them to apprehend her. Nick Fury had two S.H.I.E.L.D. fighters follow the water bombers to a carrier, but they were shot down after learning that the bombers had come from Madripoor, a sovereign nation S.H.I.E.L.D. could not follow them to. Laura escaped from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody and returned to Gabby outside Daylesville. Laura and Gabby went to the cargo/pirate ship SS Yost helmed by Captain Ash for passage to Madripoor. Outside Madripoor, the ship stopped, and Ash revealed Ash had sold Laura out. Laura discovered the cargo Ash was carrying was children and was apprehended by Roughhouse and Bellona and brought to Laura’s former handler Kimura, while the SS Yost turned back to California. Kimura tried to reprogram Laura back into a weapon, revealing she knew where Laura’s remaining family was being hidden. Kimura sent Laura after Tyger Tiger, ruler of Madripoor. Gabby contacted the X-Men and managed to get to Madripoor and subdue Laura with the help of Remy LeBeau/Gambit. Laura was brought to Tyger Tiger’s private safe house, where she worked with Jean Grey/Marvel Girl to deprogram what Kimura had implanted into Laura, including the effect of trigger scent. Tyger betrayed Laura’s location to S.H.I.E.L.D. In transit to their location, Nick Fury along with Tyger Tiger, were shot down by Kimura’s agents. Kimura came to Madripoor with Bellona to face off with Laura and Tyger Tiger to trigger Laura into granting Kimura rulership of Madripoor, and Laura had to face her former handler for her humanity and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s judgement.

Okay, we’ve just had a very lengthy plot synopsis, let’s move on to my input in this review. We’ll start, as always, with my personal opinions of this graphic novel. I will say that I found this book to be extremely enjoyable. I’ve always enjoyed the character of Laura Kinney. I remember back when I was in high school and they introduced her in the “X-Men: Evolution” animated series and thought she was such a great character and was thrilled when they brought her into the comics. I also remember back when this story was first created when Marvel decided to kill off Wolverine, a decision I was very unhappy with. I actually didn’t read this series at the time, but I did read “The Death of Wolverine” right before my local comic book store closed. That said, I thought the stories in this book were fantastic. I liked The Four Sisters story arc. The story of the clones was highly interesting, and there were plenty of twists and turns, and I liked the guest cameos from Doctor Strange and Wasp. I liked the Father Lost story, I thought Jonathan was great, and I loved Squirrel Girl’s speech at the end that convinced her to let Gabby stay with her. I loved the Spider-Gwen issue, this one has come up on this blog before (see “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Weapon of Choice”), but I still found it enjoyable to read again with a new perspective. I enjoyed The Box storyline, especially Laura’s solution to save New York from Fin Fang Foom, which I will leave for you to read yourself if you want to find out. I really liked the Destiny storyline, and the schism between Laura and Gabby and Logan at the end was extremely intense, yet satisfying at the same time, Laura deciding who she wanted to be outside of Logan. I thought the Enemy of the State II story arc was excellent, I enjoyed the guest starring roles from Gambit, Marvel Girl, Angel, and Nick Fury, and I found the ending to be extremely surprising. I found Gabby to be an appealing character, and I enjoyed watching her relationship with Laura develop throughout the book. As far as the art goes, I thought it was exceptional throughout the entire book. I really enjoyed the artistic stylings, and I thought they worked really well. This book had a bunch of artists, which is usually very likely to displease me because there’s a chance that one or more of the artists don’t appeal to me, but surprisingly enough, all the artists produced work that I found palatable. As far as the title goes, which is something that I find very important to a graphic novel, there were pretty much four obvious choices (“The Four Sisters,” “The Box,” “Destiny,” or “Enemy of the State”), or they could have just made up a title, and I feel like three of them could have worked, and while I feel “Enemy of the State” could have been a good title, “The Four Sisters” was a good choice as well. And I feel like the editors made a perfect choice for the cover, Laura’s snarling face with her claws extended with two of them crossed in front of her. I feel like it captures the book perfectly. All-in-all, I thought this book was exemplary work and I was extremely pleased by it.

Our next topic in this review is going to be accessibility. I know I’ve been over my meaning of the usage of this word in my reviews over six dozen times at this point, but once again, I must do it because I’m sure that some of the people reading this review have never been to this blog before and don’t know what the heck I’m talking about when I throw out the word “accessibility” like this, so if you’ve been to this blog before, I kindly ask you to bear with me as I once again explain it for the newbs. Accessibility on this blog means can a person who has never had any experience with Marvel before at all find this book at their favorite book store, or at a local comic book shop, or on their preferred online retailer, or their local library if they’re lucky, or on a friend or family member’s book shelf, then decide “hey, this looks/sounds interesting, I want to read it” then obtain this book, read it, and understand everything they’ve just read with absolutely no background knowledge. I will say the basics of the main stories are accessible, but the cameos and guest appearances hinder it slightly, and there is the tie-in storyline to Civil War II that has no given explanation to the event which also makes accessibility a little wonkier, but it isn’t completely inaccessible. This whole book is all one series, but it has an event tie-in without any blurb describing the story of the event, so the whole point of Civil War II is really left out of this book, despite the back of the book even referencing that this book has this storyline in it in the description, so the whole event really feels like it’s missed. However, I don’t feel like knowing Civil War II is completely essential to reading this book, just Ulysses and his visions will seem odd to readers who know nothing about the event. I don’t feel like this is the perfect first book for readers who know nothing about Marvel comics, but at the same time, it’s not the worst book you can start your Marvel collection with either.

Next up on the docket is one of the most crucial topics in this review: my numeric score. I know there are some readers who come to this blog mainly to know exactly how good I think this graphic novel is before they put their mitts on it. I also know I have my readers who come for my description of the story to know what it’s about, I know I have at least one reader (if you’re reading this, you know who you are) who comes to this blog because they want to hear the story and then not have to read this book, which is why I’ve been cutting back on spoilers if possible so that there’s actually a reason to need to read this book to find out all the details, but the numeric score is a very key component to my reviews. My scoring system is very simplistic. I score on a scale of exact integers ranging from one through ten. If I give a book a score of a one, that is the worst score I can give, which means this book is completely unreadable, and if you want to move to extremes, every copy not purchased should be rounded up and burned out of existence and the prints should be wiped so it can never be reproduced. On the other hand, if I score a book at a ten, that is obviously then the highest score I can give, meaning that this book is sheer perfection and one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life, and if you want to go to extremes, I have no idea how it cannot possibly be a bestseller. I’m not in the business of just handing out tens to every book I read, it has to be the whole package to get a ten. The story has to be flawless, the art has to be consistently stunning throughout the entire book, the title and the cover have to perfectly represent the book. Now, while this book was exceptional, I cannot say the story was flawless. While I did enjoy this book, I do not feel it qualifies to be called “perfect.” That said, I’m still giving this book a great score. So, if we put all the ingredients in the blender, a great story, appealing art, a nice title, and a cover that encapsulates the essence of the book, mix it all together thoroughly, the score we’re pouring out is going to be… a nine! I feel like this book was a phenomenal production, but it wasn’t enough to be considered sheer perfection, but for what it was, it was still exemplary.

Next up on the agenda here is recommendation. In this segment, I will answer two questions. The first question is: do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in a conversation with me about this graphic novel? Question number two is: regardless of if I would recommend this book or not, who do I think would truly appreciate this kind of graphic novel, moving outside the obvious realm of fans of Marvel, Wolverine, X-23, superheroes, the writers or the artists? It’s pretty obvious what the answer to the first question is going to be, but I am compelled to answer it anyway with a confirmation. Yes, I would personally recommend this book to anyone who reads this review or listens to me talk about this book and has even the slightest interest in reading this book based solely on the words I used to describe this book. To answer the second question, I feel that a good audience for this graphic novel would be the following: fans of stories about family, whether it’s the one you’re born with, or the one you found; fans of stories about living up to a legacy, about a person being an ideal while still being their own person; fans of stories with strong female leads, who show that women can do anything a man can do in the same situations; fans of characters trying to be who they truly are and not what the world, society, or other people want them to be; fans of a character trying to break free from their programming and not be a weapon; and fans of stories about a person trying to figure out exactly who they are in life when a big change comes their way. As for Marvel fandom, if you’re a fan of X-23, whether from “X-Men: Evolution” or “Logan” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” or any other Marvel media outside of comics, this book is a good read, and if you’re a fan on X-23 from any experience reading Marvel comic books, then this book is a must read for you.

Okay, we’re at that point where I’m getting ready to wrap everything up after hours of typing and move on with my life and let you do whatever you want to do. Feel free to continue checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for plenty more of my work. I’ve been working on this blog for five years now. I’ve posted over 170 times. I’ve written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, as well as over six dozen other reviews of Marvel Epic Collections. Currently, the main focus of this blog is to review Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase every one as soon as I can after its release date, then post a review if possible, as early as I can after finishing reading it. There are only four Modern Era Epic Collections I haven’t reviewed due to not having had a laptop to review on at the point of reading the Modern Era Epic Collection and not having had a reason to reread these Collections, but I have reviewed all the Ultimate Epic Collections to date. As you can guess, since I collect all these, I post quite often, and I usually post at least once a month. My next review is going to be “The Amazing Spider-Man: The Life and Death of Spiders” you can expect to see that review coming up within the next two months from the time of the posting of this review, so keep checking back for that. I’ve also written reviews of prose novels and manga, so you can check those out too, if you are so inclined. If these reviews seem relatively professional, it’s because I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, and my dream job would be blogging for Marvel, but due to life circumstances, I work in a grocery store and just post these reviews on my days off as a hobby while receiving no monetary gains for all my hard work, but I honestly don’t mind doing this work, it’s cathartic to me, so not getting paid really doesn’t matter all that much. I’m going to keep doing this blog for as long as I can, which will be until my eyes or hands are unable to function or I am dead, and I don’t see that happening for a long time, so expect From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin to keep running for quite a while. I’m going to part ways with you for now, but I’ll be back in less than two months with another post, which I hope you’ll be back for, too. Feel free to leave a comment (only one person has ever done that to date), or like, share, retweet, do whatever you can to spread the good word about me to others so I can expand my readership, and I’ll continue to reward you with more posts. All I can say now at this point is until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Star Wars: Darth Vader: Vader Down"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Vader Down” as collected in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                It was a period of unrest in the galaxy. The Sith Lord Darth Vader, enforcer of the Galactic Empire, learned that it was Luke Skywalker who was the rebel pilot responsible for blowing up the Death Star. Vader was now more determined than ever to track down his son and turn him to the dark side. Luke, unaware that Vader is his father, fought against the Empire with the Rebel Alliance. New to the ways of the Force, Luke discovered the journal of Ben Kenobi and began investigating any information he could on the Force-using Jedi Knights and their ways. Through the underworld sources of his secret ally, Dr. Aphra, Vader received word of Luke’s location-the former Jedi temple of the planet Vrogas Vas…

                Vader flew to Vrogas Vas, where he encountered three squadrons of Rebel starfighters. Vader got into a firefight with them and took out two entire squadrons. Luke was with one of the Squadrons and rammed his starfighter into Vader’s Tie fighter. The two ships crashed down onto the surface of Vrogas Vas, and both Luke and Vader survived. Princess Leia of the Rebellion saw this as the perfect opportunity to take out Vader and ordered the Rebel soldiers on Vrogas Vas as well as a battalion of Rebel forces to go after them, a grouping she would be backing up herself. Smuggler and Rebel ally Han Solo, his companion Chewbacca, the droid C-3PO, and Leia boarded Han’s ship the Millenium Falcon and flew to Vrogas Vas. Doctor Aphra, along with her droids 0-0-0 and BT-1, fearful that Vader would believe Aphra had led Vader into a trap, decided to fly to Vrogas Vas to aid Vader. Luke and his droid R2-D2 discovered the Jedi temple, but as Luke was exploring it, he was discovered and rendered unconscious by Aphra and her droids. Aphra attempted to abduct Luke, but Han and Chewbacca found Aphra. Luke woke up, and he and R2-D2 were chased by BT-1, while Chewbacca was poisoned by 0-0-0. Han and Aphra were both attacked by wasp-worms. Luke managed to literally disarm 0-0-0. Luke, Han, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 managed to escape Aphra’s droids. Leia came face to face with Vader and ran. She found C-3PO and ordered him to find Luke and the others, then ordered the Rebel forces to fire on her location at her signal when Vader arrived. Luke, Han, Chewbacca and R2-D2 attempted to fly to Leia’s rescue in the Millenium Falcon but were rammed by the ship of the Wookie bounty hunter Black Krrsantan. Han told Luke to rescue Leia while he and Chewbacca handled Krrsantan. 0-0-0 and BT-1 found C-3PO and took C-3PO’s arms to replace 0-0-0’s missing pair. Vader found Leia, but the Rebel forces were taken out by Commander Karbin and his Imperial forces, who wanted to eliminate Vader and bring Luke to the Emperor. Karbin and Vader had a Lightsaber duel. R2-D2 gave Chewbacca the antidote to the poison. Luke was discovered by Karbin’s Imperial forces Chewbacca was defeated by Krrsantan. Leia had a chance to take out Vader while Vader was dueling Karbin but decided not to make the shot. C-3PO managed to stop Krrsantan. Aphra assisted Vader in ending Karbin. Vader stopped Luke from being abducted. The Rebels managed to capture Aphra and escape.

                Vader returned to the Emperor with the remains of Karbin and asked for a chance to prove himself. The Emperor informed Vader that the ore barons of Shu-Torun were rebelling against Queen Trios and that the Emperor required a full military intervention. Shu-Torun provided many rare metals and minerals and was an asset to the Empire and the Emperor required them to fight against the enemies of the Empire. Grand General Tagge insisted on the inclusion of Doctor Cylo in the mission. Cylo brought his creations Tulon Voidgazer and the twins Morit and Aiolinn with him. Vader destroyed a delving citadel, causing a conflict between himself and Queen Trios, where Vader established how their professional relationship would work. Vader placed a reward for the return of Aphra. Baron Rubix launched an assault on Queen Trios that Vader and the twins were able to fight off. Tagge and Cylo plotted against Vader. Vader went on an assault against Baron Rubix in a combat drill, but the ship went off course. Vader and his Stormtroopers and droid army fought Rubix’ elite troops and forced them into retreat, suggesting Queen Trios lead an attack. Queen Trios’ Chancellor Jooli tried to veto Trios’ order to lead an attack, and Trios had Jooli taken down as a traitor. The twins attacked Vader, and while the twins dueled Vader, Morit thinned the field, then escaped. Queen Trios breached Baron Rubix’ defenses and had him eliminated, setting up a new baronry. Vader’s adjutant Inspector Thanoth contacted Vader to inform him Aphra had been found.

                The Emperor informed Vader that Cylo had gone rogue and had to be destroyed. Vader confronted Thanoth, who revealed to Vader that Thanoth was aware of Vader’s machinations with Aphra and plans for Luke, revealing Aphra’s location on the Cosmatanic Steppes, before Vader eliminated Thanoth. Vader ordered 0-0-0, BT-1, and Black Krrsantan to return Aphra to the Executor, the Emperor’s flagship, and failing that, to silence her. Vader confronted Professor Thlu-ry to learn the location of Cylo in the Crushank Nebulae. Aphra surrendered to 0-0-0, BT-1 and Krrsantan. Vader boarded Cylo’s Whale Ship, where he was confronted by Voidgazer, who pitted Vader against Cylo’s cyberanimated Rancor. Vader defeated it, then turned Voidgazer’s own system against her, then destroyed the Whale Ship. Cylo attempted to steal the Executor. Vader disabled it, preventing Cylo’s escape. 0-0-0 and BT-1 rescued Aphra from the Executor’s holding cells. Cylo sent Morit after Vader and the two had a Lightsaber duel to the finish. Krrsantan assisted Aphra. Vader confronted Cylo, who shut down Vader’s cybernetics. Vader went through a mind trip, which enabled him to find the strength to reactivate, then he ended Cylo’s current body, but Cylo had emergency backups, ready to transfer his consciousness into should one of his bodies meet its demise. Aphra made her way to the Emperor’s chambers, where she revealed all the details of her alliance with Vader and his machinations, all save for the secret of Luke Skywalker. Vader confronted Cylo for the final time in his Whale Fleet. The Emperor had a discussion with Vader about what he thought of all of Vader’s dealings. Vader ended his alliance with Aphra. Vader then planned how to move forward.

                Okay, so we’ve got the plot synopsis out of the way, let’s go on to my input about this graphic novel. As my regular readers know, I always start with my own personal feelings about the book, and I will once again follow suit in this review. So, I will say that I found this book to be extremely enjoyable. I’ve already reviewed the “Vader Down” story arc in my review for “Star Wars: Skywalker Strikes” if you wish for a comparison piece. I highly enjoyed that story arc. The action was great, the story was exciting, the characters were used in the proper canon fashion. I love Doctor Aphra and her murder droids, I feel they add levity to the story. I like Krrsantan, I actually just recently discovered he appeared in the Disney+ series “The Book of Boba Fett” in live action, but he first appeared in the “Star Wars” comics. I enjoyed all the plot twists of who turned out to truly be allies and who turned out to be enemies. And I particularly marveled at the ending, which displayed just how dark Darth Vader could be if you crossed him. Darth Vader is a great cinematic villain, and a comic book series devoted to him solely is quite entertaining, something we never truly got to see on film, unless you want to call “The Clone Wars” about Anakin, but that series never truly displayed Anakin’s dark side the way this comic series has. In the two volumes released so far, the reader sees Vader make many machinations in his plot to first discover who destroyed the Death Star, then upon learning that this pilot was his son, he did everything he could to learn Luke’s location so he could turn his son to the dark side, and he would do absolutely anything he could to achieve this goal, no matter who he had to use or betray to do so along the way. I really loved the way Kieron Gillen depicted Vader in this series, and he highlighted this character so well. His ultimatum with Queen Trios was quite strict, and it showed exactly how in control of everything Vader was, considering how he placed Trios into the position she ascended to, and her reestablishment of the baronry was parallel to Vader’s actions, and her having Jooli out of the picture to get her way illustrated how much of Vader’s puppet she was, and I found her to be a complex character. I enjoyed watching Cylo’s descent further into villainy as the series progressed, especially his attempts at immortality and his creations. My big complaint, however, is my love/hate relationship with the artwork of Salvador Larroca. I’ve been conflicted with his art in the past, there have been times where I’ve really enjoyed it, and times where I’ve just been displeased by it. More recently, I’ve come to generally dislike it. There’s something in particular about the way he draws Darth Vader’s helmet that I dislike. There’s something about how he draws human faces that bothers me as well, they just don’t have a natural appearance to them. That said, the characters are portrayed by all the artists recognizably as their film counterparts. I would also love to see Doctor Aphra, 0-0-0, and BT-1 appear onscreen in a future “Star Wars” project. We have to also discuss the title. I’m a huge stickler on having the title of the graphic novel be appropriate to the content of the inside of the book. This book had three potential titles, “Vader Down,” “The Shu-Torun War,” “End of Games,” or they could have decided on calling it something else completely random. “Vader Down” and “End of Games” were the best of the choices in my opinion, and I do feel “End of Games” would have been a superior title, but “Vader Down” is an adequate title as well. I also mentioned in my last post that from then on, I would also be discussing the appropriateness of the cover as applied to the content of the book. This book uses the cover of “Darth Vader” #12, depicting Darth Vader with his hand outstretched superimposed over a Rebel squadron including the Millenium Falcon. This generally applies to the “Vader Down” story arc, which covers over a third of the book, so in my opinion, I feel like this cover is a decent enough choice for the cover. Going back to the inside content, as far as the story goes for this book, I really enjoyed it, but the art did fall flat throughout the majority of this graphic novel. But I will say that overall, I was able to find this a pleasurable experience to read and consume.

                Next up on our agenda of topics is accessibility. Now, I know there are some of you who are wondering what the heck I mean when I use the word “accessibility” like this, and there are some of you who have been with me for others of the seven or so dozen times I’ve done these reviews. If you’re not in the know, fret not, for I shall explain, and for those of you who already know what I’m about to say, please hang in there as I once again give my little speech. Anyway, in the case of a graphic novel, if I say “accessibility” I mean can a person who knows absolutely nothing about “Star Wars” purchase this book, read it, and fully understand everything they just consumed without having any prior outside knowledge of the source material. I will say that in this case, that is a relatively big no. This graphic novel continues directly out of both “Star Wars: Skywalker Strikes” and “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets” and not having read both is a major hindrance on understanding this graphic novel. On top of that, this graphic novel also requires knowledge of events from four of the “Star Wars” movies, “The Phantom Menace,” “Attack of the Clones,” “Revenge of the Sith,” and “A New Hope.” I don’t feel like anyone who is not a fan of “Star Wars” can read this graphic novel and truly appreciate it for all its complexities.

                Continuing on, we’re going to discuss one of the main purposes of these kinds of reviews: the numeric score. I know some of you come to my blog to know exactly how good I think a book is after I read it before they decide to spend their money on a costly investment such as a Marvel Epic Collection. I know I have at least one person (you know who you are) who comes to this blog just so they can hear about a graphic novel and not have to buy it to know the story, which is why I’ve tried to put a crackdown on spoilers compared to previous posts (granted the ending to this graphic novel really isn’t all that unexpected if you know “Star Wars” lore). Anyway, people come to this blog mostly to hear about these stories and hear my own personal opinion of the quality of these books more than any other topic in these reviews. So, let’s just get right on to it. I have a very simple system on which I score books on. My system goes from exact integers from one through ten. The lowest score I can possibly give is a one, and that means that this book is so horrible that every remaining copy in stock should immediately be removed, put in a large pile, and be ignited until all traces of it is gone from existence, and the print should be wiped from memory so this flaming pile of trash can never be reprinted. If I give a book a ten (which is highly unlikely), then this book is sheer perfection and I would not understand it if this book does not do well in sales and I’d honestly wish every copy would be bought off the shelves and reprints would be frequently necessary to get this gold mine into every home that it belongs in. I know those are extreme examples, and I’m honestly joking, I’d never condone burning a book, let alone wiping an entire piece of history from existence, and I also know my opinions are my opinions and not everyone is going to want to buy the same books that I buy. All that aside, I do not believe that this book was a flaming pile of trash. But I also don’t believe it was a gold mine, either. I will say that I feel like this book exceeded average expectations but did not live up to grand expectations. So, the score we’re looking at here instead is… drumroll please… a seven! This may come as a surprise to you and seem low, compared to how I’ve been praising this book, but in all honesty, the story was not perfect enough to get a higher score, and the artwork brought the score down a bit as well. I also preferred the title “End of Games” compared to “Vader Down.” I think the best this book could have hoped for was an eight, and I don’t think it was quite on that level, so I feel like a seven is an adequate score.

                Continuing on, we’re going to the topic of recommendation. In this segment, I will tell you two things. The first thing I will tell you is if I personally would recommend this graphic novel to you, my readers, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught up in conversation with me about this graphic novel. The second thing I will tell you is, regardless of if I would personally tell you to read this book or not, who do I think is the best audience for this graphic novel, moving beyond the obvious of “Star Wars” fans. So, in answer to my first question, yes, this graphic novel gets the Tim Cubbin seal of approval. If you are reading this review and even if you know nothing about “Star Wars” but want to read this book based solely on everything I’ve spent the past several hours writing, I say go for it. Or, of course, if you’re a diehard “Star Wars” fan, I’d say just go to your favorite bookstore, or comic shop, or online retailer, or local library if you’re lucky, and look for this book, I honestly think you would enjoy it. As for an audience outside of “Star Wars” fandom, if you love science fiction or action or space stories, this is a good read for you. If you like books about robots, this is a good pick for you. If you enjoy stories about villains told from the perspective of the villain that heroizes them, this book is perfect for you. And if you like stories where the villain is not actually the true villain, this book may be just right for you.

                Okay, I’ve been prattling on for a long time, I think we’re all ready to get on with our lives. There are a few things I do have to say before I click post. The first is that I have been doing this blog for five years now and have done over 170 posts. There is a lot of content on this blog. While the majority of this blog is reviews of Marvel Epic Collections, there is other content as well, such as a collection of short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so if you have the time, feel free to keep browsing on timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. I’ve done over seven dozen reviews of Marvel Epic Collections. I have also done reviews of prose novels, manga, and comic book events as well. My current main focus is on Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase each one as soon as I can after their release and if possible, throw up a review at my earliest convenience after finishing reading it. I currently have in my possession “All-New Wolverine: The Four Sisters,” you can expect a review of that book by next week. If you enjoyed this review, there are plenty of other “Star Wars” reviews, so feel free to check out my reviews of “Star Wars: Skywalker Strikes,” “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets,” “Star Wars: Yoda’s Secret War,” and “Star Wars: Kanan: The Last Padawan” for more “Star Wars” content. I post on a very frequent basis, usually at least once a month, so check back often for more of my work. I don’t plan on stopping doing this anytime soon, I’m going to keep doing this until either my eyes, hands, or body fails and I’m incapable of typing any longer, so you can probably expect that won’t be for a long time. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Spider-Girl: Family Ties"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Spider-Girl: Family Ties” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                May “Mayday” Parker/Spider-Girl and Normie Osborn chose to keep Normie’s decision to keep the Venom symbiote a secret, telling everyone else, including May’s parents Peter (formerly Spider-Man now a forensic scientist) and Mary Jane, that they had destroyed the symbiote following a fight at Normie’s engagement party to Brenda Drago/Raptor. Spider-Girl’s villain Funny Face escaped police custody looking for someone he loved. Peter assumed this to be Funny Face’s mother, the criminal Angel Face, currently in Ravencroft, a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane. However, Funny Face went to the Midtown South Police Department where Peter worked, looking for Bunky, his puppet friend who he believed he could communicate with that was being held as evidence in his trial. To get his demands, he took Peter hostage. Spider-Girl had to rush to the Police Department to secure the capture of Funny Face and save the life of her father. Normie decided he wanted to take his place as the head of the Osborn Corporation.

                Spider-Girl’s villain Apox, the Omega Skrull was granted the Power Cosmic and escaped from imprisonment. Mayday comforted her friend Maurice “Moose” Mansfield, the boyfriend of her best friend Courtney Duran, whose father had just been diagnosed with cancer. Nova, the Avengers, the Hulk, and Namor all fought Apox and lost. The Fantastic Five were in the Negative Zone, leaving their children Franklin Richards/Psi-Lord, Alyce Grimm/Rad, Jacob Grimm, Torus Storm/Super-Storm, and Kristoff Vernard/Doom behind in the Baxter Building. May decided she wanted to tell Franklin the truth about Normie and Venom and went to the Baxter Building, which was attacked by Apox. The Baxter Building was encased in a solar bomb that once detonated would destroy all of Manhattan. Apox was looking for the Fantastic Five and forced their location out of Torus and entered the Negative Zone Portal. Spider-Girl and Psi-Lord went through the Portal to the Fantasti-station, where Susan Richards/Invisible Woman, believed dead by the general public, was held in stasis, keeping a hole in the Negative Zone from breaching the Earth. Spider-Girl teamed up with the Fantastic Five to fight Apox and try to rescue Invisible Woman from the Negative Zone. Mayday’s classmate Sandra Healy came to Courtney, seeking aid against her abusive boyfriend Howard Kavanagh. Normie had his scientist team working on upgraded Green Goblin weaponry.

                Howard landed both Sandra and Courtney in the hospital, and Mayday had to stop Moose from doing something he would have regretted forever and see that Sandra and Courtney got justice.

                Spider-Girl was kidnapped by Melissa Carsdale/Misery and put through a hallucination scenario, but a guardian angel helped Mayday break through the simulation and fight Misery in the real world.

                A DVD of an old animated movie called “Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham: The Dark Pig Returns” saw circulation. Peter told Mayday of how he teamed up with fellow spider-hero Araňa and her reluctant sidekick Miguel to discover Jack O’Lantern had used the movie to lure the heroes to Jack’s studio, but the heroes had been able to subdue the villain. Mayday decided to investigate the same studio as Spider-Girl, and fought a robot of Jack O’Lantern, but Jack was not actually the person who wanted to assess Spider-Girl.

                Fashion designer Daniel Kingsley, brother of Roderick Kingsley/Hobgoblin, debuted a new line of clothing based on Spider-Women. Kingsley’s exhibit was crashed by La Fantome, who tried to eliminate Kingsley. Spider-Girl saved Kingsley but was unable to prevent La Fantome from escaping. The Spider Shoppe, a clothing store dedicated to Spider-Girl, was having a rally to defend the store from being bought over by a bigger corporation. Spider-Girl had to rescue Kingsley from La Fantome a second time. La Fantome tried to take the Spider Shoppe rally hostage, a rally both Mayday and Mary Jane attended, and with the help of her mother, Mayday was able to learn the identity of La Fantome and the person behind the Spider Shoppe. Normie invited Mayday’s honorary Uncle Phil Urich/Green Goblin to Osborn Plaza.

                Spider-Girl and the other reserve Avengers were called in after the resurfacing of the mutant master of magnetism, Magneto. The Avengers were instructed not to try to take on Magneto alone. Mayday was unable to contact her Uncle Phil. Nancy Lu/Push, a trainee of the X-People, and Spider-Girl heard of a Magneto sighting and went in to investigate. The two fought the villain, but not all was as it appeared. Spider-Girl’s status as a reserve member of the Avengers was suspended pending a formal hearing.

                Mayday spotted a Green Goblin leaving the Osborn Corporation and discovered that Normie had given Phil a power upgrade. Normie hired Mary Jane’s cousin Kristy Watson, his former nanny, as his personal assistant, and Kristy announced she would be living with the Parkers. Tony Stark, formerly Iron Man, decided the current Avengers weren’t good enough and called in veteran members Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Jim Rhodes to assist. Kaine and Spider-Girl shared a precognitive vision of an organization called the Brotherhood of Scriers ending Spider-Girl and told Mayday the only way to prevent this vision from coming true was for Mayday to stop being Spider-Girl. Ant-Man was able to discover that Normie was the new host of the Venom symbiote. Cassie Lang/Stinger of the Avengers called Mayday to tell Spider-Girl that the veteran Avengers, Mainframe, and J2 were on their way to apprehend Normie. Spider-Girl, Green Goblin and Raptor rushed to the scene to defend Normie, and Scarlet Witch used a hex, which missed and hit Jim Rhodes. Jim Rhodes was an android and blamed Tony Stark for his original self’s murder and announced his intentions to end Tony Stark. The Avengers, Spider-Girl, Green Goblin, Raptor, Normie, and Iron Man all teamed up to fight Jim. Moose’s father, who was a firefighter, was injured during the fight. Kaine went after the Brotherhood of Scriers to learn why they intended to harm Spider-Girl, unintentionally informing them of Spider-Girl’s existence, and the Scriers decided they could use her to get to Kaine. Normie declared his intention to join his fiancé’s government sponsored supervillain rehabilitation team.

                Felicity Thompson/Scarlet Spider tried to get Mayday to rejoin the Midtown High School girls’ basketball team because her father Eugene “Flash” Thompson was at risk of being fired due to the poor performance of the team he coached. Spider-Girl teamed up with Scarlet Spider to survive an attack from the Brotherhood of Scriers. Courtney saw Mayday offering comfort to Moose. Raza, the head of the Brotherhood of Scriers decided to employ the Hobgoblin to destroy Spider-Girl.

                The Brotherhood of Scriers busted Roderick Kingsley out of custody. Normie planned his wedding with Brenda. Mayday decided to prevent the vision from coming true, she could switch to a costume she wasn’t wearing in the vision and returned to her black and white costume. Normie informed Kristy Normie was the host of the Venom symbiote and the real reason he hired Kristy was to alert Spider-Girl should Normie ever turn to the dark side so that Spider-Girl could destroy Normie. Fabian LeMuerto/Black Tarantula learned of the Brotherhood of Scriers’ intentions to end Spider-Girl and decided he could not allow that.

                Kristy let slip to Peter and Mary Jane that Normie was hosting the Venom symbiote. Peter, angry that Mayday lied to Peter, asked Mayday to turn over her costume and web-shooters to Peter and informed Mayday that she was grounded. Courtney’s jealousy of Moose’s reliance for advice from Mayday increased. Mayday returned to her black and white costume. The Hobgoblin took out the Ladyhawks, the Buzz, and Raptor to lure Spider-Girl to him. Hobgoblin went after Phil Urich. Moose and his brothers decided to move to New Jersey with their uncle while their father recuperated in the hospital. Moose’s friends threw him a goodbye party, and Moose’s desire for Mayday’s presence at the party heightened Courtney’s jealousy. Spider-Girl confronted the Hobgoblin and was defeated. Peter decided to save his daughter, Spider-Man had to live again. When Kaine’s vision came true, Spider-Man, Normie, the Venom symbiote and Kaine were left to end the threat of the Hobgoblin, and Black Tarantula faced Raza to take the Brotherhood of Scriers out of the heroes’ lives.

                Okay, now that I’ve thoroughly analyzed the plotlines of this graphic novel with an attempt to minimize spoilers, let’s move on to my own personal input for this review. So, we’re going to start, as usual, with my thoughts on the quality of the content of this graphic novel. I will definitely say that I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel. I really loved all the stories. I liked Tom DeFalco’s portrayal of Funny Face, and his odd attachment to Bunky was actually kind of touching. I had a toy I talked to and was really attached to when I was a child (granted I didn’t believe it could talk back or have the emotions or desires Funny Face claimed Bunky had), so it kind of resonated with me. I honestly didn’t see him as a villain, just as someone who needed his friend, and the depiction of how Spider-Girl handled him was moving. She still kicked his butt, but she didn’t do it with malice, and I thought that was brilliant. I enjoyed the Apox story, I thought the children of the Fantastic Five were interesting characters, and I honestly would enjoy to see more of them. I thought the abuse issue was handled well, I thought the resolution of the story was perfect. I enjoyed the Misery issue, Mayday turning into a turtle and everyone acting like it was completely normal was quite amusing, and I loved the guardian angel in the story, I thought that was great. The Spider-Ham issue was entertaining, I enjoyed the plot twist of the identity of the baiters at the end of the story, I was not expecting that and the last line was perfect. I thought the Spider Shoppe issue was great, I did not see the endings coming at all, the identities of La Fantome and the owner of the Spider Shoppe totally surprised me, and I love when a comic can catch me off guard like that. I liked the Magneto issue, the twist ending to that one was great, too, I liked the team up between Spider-Girl and Push. I enjoyed the old Avengers storyline, I found it reminiscent of the death of Captain Stacy, and I felt it emotional for all the involved parties to have to face the consequences of their actions. I was moved by the whole story of Moose following his father’s injury and was caught up in Courtney’s jealousy of Mayday comforting Courtey’s boyfriend and Moose’s reliance on Mayday, of course knowing it was strictly platonic, but Courtney’s emotions were valid. I enjoyed the encroachment of Kristy Watson into Peter, Mary Jane, Mayday and Ben’s daily lives, I thought she was an entertaining character. And I thought the Hobgoblin story was phenomenal, the way he methodically went about all his actions to hurt Spider-Girl in every way he could before ending her, I thought this portrayal of the villain was truly heinous and it was excellent. All-in-all, I felt like DeFalco did a fantastic job writing this book. I would be remiss in my duties of reviewing a graphic novel if I didn’t discuss the artwork as well. I thought it was excellent. It was a visual treat to look at the art as I read this graphic novel, I thoroughly enjoyed viewing the artwork. Finally, before we move on, we have to talk about the title. I’m actually pretty picky about choices for titles of Modern Era Epic Collections, I will complain if I feel the title is inadequate to the content of the graphic novel. Often, titles for the Collection are chosen from titles of storylines, usually choosing from one of the ongoing story arcs contained in the Collection. This particular Modern Era Epic Collection had one story arc with a collective title, but every other issue in this book had a separate title. There were seventeen issues in this volume, so there were a lot of potential choices, or the editors could have just made up a title of their own that they felt fitting. In this case, one issue was in fact called “Family Ties,” and I actually feel like it encapsulates this volume very well, despite not being the ongoing storyline. A lot of this book was about family. Mayday and Peter and Mary Jane. Normie trying to live up to the family name. The children of the Fantastic Five. Moose and his father. Kristy Watson living with the Parkers. Felicity Thompson trying to get Mayday to rejoin the Midtown High basketball team to save her father’s career as coach at the school. I do question the choice for the front cover as they chose to use the cover from the Magneto issue, depicting Spider-Girl, Push and Magneto, and I honestly don’t feel like it was the right cover for this book as it doesn’t truly capture the essence of this book, as it’s not in any way primarily about Push and Magneto, they both only appear in the one issue. I would venture to say that in my opinion it is the most appealing cover in the book and that the editors probably thought that this would be the one to sell this book best, but it’s just not an accurate depiction of the book itself. But the book itself was, in my opinion, spectacular, and I thought it was an outstanding effort by all parties involved.

                Next up on our agenda of topic to discuss, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I know my regular readers know what is about to happen now, but I always have those new readers who are just discovering me for the first time, so I have to do this as usual. Some of you may be wondering just what the heck I mean exactly by using the word accessibility like this. I know that I’ve explained this over six dozen times now, but I have to do it once again for those newbies. Now, what I mean by using the word accessibility like this simply is that can a person who knows absolutely nothing about Spider-Girl pick up this graphic novel, read it, and understand what they have just read based on the content contained solely in this volume? I will say that this volume, which is marketed as Vol. 6, picks up directly where Vol. 5 “Keeping the Faith” left off and continues the storyline where that book ended, that being Normie deciding to keep and tame the Venom symbiote. That said, this volume does explain that in thorough detail, so it’s not something you’ll not know about if you didn’t read the previous volume. This book does have a lot of obscure characters, but they are not used in any way that their history needs explaining to understand their particular presence in this book. There is reference to a miniseries called “Last Hero Standing,” but it is explained in a way that reading that storyline is not required (I myself have never actually read it and I got through this volume just fine knowing nothing about it). Otherwise, there are no other series contained in this volume, there are no actual crossover event tie-in issues collected, so I would say that this book is relatively accessible.

                Okay, I know I’ve been going on for quite a while now and you’re probably starting to get bored of me, so let’s move onward now, shall we? The next step on our docket is the numeric score. This is one of the main reasons some of my readers come to read my reviews, to know exactly how good I think this book is before they purchase it for themselves, because my regular readers will know how hard I am to please when it comes to scoring a book. Now I also know I have some readers who come to read my reviews so they can hear about the story. I know I have at least one person out there (you know who you are) who comes to my reviews so they don’t have to read the books for themselves, which is why I’ve really tried harder to cut back on spoilers compared to how I’ve been over the course of the past couple of years, so that they might actually consider trying to read something so maybe we might have a discussion about something (I doubt that will happen, but one can always hope). But the numeric score is a very important component in my reviews as it reflects what I feel the readability level of this particular story is. So, let’s start by explaining my scoring system. It is extremely simple. I score on a scale of whole numbers between one and ten. One is my lowest score and that means that this book was so awful every copy should be taken off the shelves, put through shredders until they are no longer recognizable, and then never reprinted again. Ten is the highest possible score I can give, and I rarely give those out, because that means that this book is sheer perfection and one of the best reading experiences I’ve ever had in my entire life and that every copy should be bought off the shelves and there should be a need for this book to be reprinted on an annual basis. In all honesty, that is a little extreme to say a book should be demolished or purchased until it’s out of stock, but I’m just using these examples to emphasize my point. To be succinct, one just means it was awful to the point where I would not tell anyone to read it, ten means it was absolutely amazing, and I found everything about this book to be enjoyable and there are no faults. As you can probably guess, this book is getting a higher score. The thing is, I don’t feel like it was perfect. Yes, the stories were phenomenal, the art was fantastic, the title was accurate, but it just wasn’t a book I can give a ten to. There are a lot of things I didn’t like, the details of the stories that I really don’t have the time to delve into here, but the story about a boy attacking both his girlfriend and a girl trying to help her wasn’t enjoyable, it was extremely depressing what happened to Moose’s dad, and Courtney’s jealousy was misplaced, just to name a few. That does hit my score a little bit. Also, I find fault with the choice of the front cover, which I’ve never actually complained about in one of my reviews before now, but will now be included in all future reviews, so be prepared for that new insert. So we’re going to take everything into consideration here, the phenomenal story, the fantastic art, the accurate title, my gripes, the misleading cover, and we’re going to mix it all up completely until we have a score, and the score we are looking at here is… an eight. I thought this book was totally great, I loved reading it, but it was far from perfect. I think that the art was stellar and deserved to keep the score higher as well. I’ve done reviews where the book had a perfect story, but the art was absolute garbage, and I had to deduct two or three points just for that. On other occasions, the story was totally horrible, but the art was so amazing that I mostly scored the book for the art and ignored the story. This book did well in both story and art, but there were just factors about it that I had to deduct a couple of points for.

                Next on our agenda is my recommendation segment. In this segment, I discuss two things. The first is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to anyone reading this review and to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in conversation with me about this without having read it? The second topic is, regardless of if I would recommend it personally, who do I think the best audience would be, and I try to go beyond the obvious, as it can be pretty obvious who would want to read it, so I need to say who in more or a specific kind of category this book would appeal to? To answer the first question, yes, I absolutely, positively, one hundred percent recommend this book to you if you are reading this review and your curiosity about this book is piqued. I would totally say you should go to your favorite bookstore, or online retailer, or comic book shop, or see if your comic obsessed friend or family member has it, or even try a local library, just do what you can to get your hands on it and read it. As for a more specific demographic of readership, I would say fans of teenage dramas would enjoy this. You can either be a teenager yourself or just be a fan of the genre at any age, it really doesn’t matter, but I feel like teenagers will really resonate with Spider-Girl, particularly females, but that’s a little obvious. If you like stories about families, this is a good book for you. Or if you like stories about trying to avert deathly prophecies, then this book is perfect of you.

                Okay, I think we’re getting to the point where we’re just about ready to get on with our lives. There are a few things I’d like to say before I log off and post this. The first is that I have been doing this blog for five years now and I have done over 170 posts. Over six dozen of them are on Epic Collections just like this one, and if you enjoyed my review of “Spider-Girl: Family Ties” and are new to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin, feel free to search for “Spider-Girl: Legacy” and “Spider-Girl: Keeping the Faith” for more Spider-Girl content. I’ve also reviewed prose novels, manga, and events, so there are even more reviews there. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, but the main focus of this blog at the moment is to review Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Marvel Ultimate Epic Collections. I post on a very frequent basis, as I get each new Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after their release. Right now, I have two more Modern Era Epic Collections in my possession, so you can expect more reviews shortly. The next review will be “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Vader Down” which will be posted within the next two weeks. I hope you’ll join me then. I’ll keep doing this blog for as long as I can, until I’m either blind, unable to type, or dead, so expect this to be going on for quite a while. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Gwenom"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider: Gwenom” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                As a teenager, Gwen Stacy was bitten by a mutated spider. The bite transformed her, granting her amazing powers: a precognitive awareness of danger, adhesive fingertips and toes, and the proportional speed and strength of a spider. But those gifts were taken away when a super villain further tampered with her genetics, and Gwen had no choice but to embrace a symbiotic parasite called Venom to restore them. To the residents of New York, she is the dangerous outlaw called Spider-Woman.

                Former NYPD Captain George Stacy had been in prison awaiting trial for aiding and abetting Spider-Woman when he was brutally assaulted in jail by the supervillain Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino and went into a coma. Gwen sought vengeance for the wrongs against her father. In her anger, she was losing control of the Venom symbiote and giving in to her dark side. However, revenge against the Rhino was denied her as rogue police officer Frank Castle ended the Rhino in front of Gwen, but the blame for Rhino’s demise fell upon Gwen. Gwen broke into a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison to talk to Cindy Moon, the woman responsible for both the spider that created Spider-Woman and for the loss of Gwen’s powers for advice on how to defeat Matt Murdock/Kingpin, who had been pulling Gwen’s strings since the arrest of George Stacy. Gwen’s friends and bandmates The Mary Janes (Mary Jane Watson, Betty Brant, and Glory Grant) started a search for Gwen, who had been absent because of Gwen’s activities as Spider-Woman. They enlisted Ben and May Parker in their search. Spider-Woman had a run in with Castle, who offered a team-up against Kingpin. Kingpin had stolen Gwen’s interdimensional teleporter “watch” but was unaware of its purpose or how to work it, but it had been making a noise that Kingpin did not know how to stop. Gwen confessed her secret identity to The Mary Janes and the Parkers, unsure if she could defeat the Kingpin. Ben Parker insisted the war against the Kingpin was indeed Gwen’s fight. Gwen, Castle, and Samantha Wilson/Captain America took the fight to Kingpin. At the conclusion of the battle, Gwen found herself teleported from her home dimension of Earth-65 to another reality, where she ran into that reality’s version of Gwen Stacy. The Watcher of Earth-65 Utua and the Watcher of Earth-8 Utaa observed the dimensional travel and saw that an anomaly was occurring.

                Gwen was unsure of the reality she was in or when in the timeline she was and was afraid, she was on Earth-616 and talking to the Gwen Stacy that was soon to meet her demise and to preserve the timeline tried not to talk to her. She couldn’t find help from the Fantastic Four, so turned back to that reality’s Gwen. She confessed to being Spider-Woman from another reality and the two agreed to work together to get Gwen back to her reality. The Watchers traveled on Earth-8, where they ran into Charlotte Morales-Stacy/Spider-Girl and George Morales-Stacy/Spider-Max, the children of Miles Morales/Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman from that reality, when a Gwen Stacy/Venom arrived to reveal she and a council of Spider-Women were behind the anomaly to prevent Gwen from killing Kingpin. The two Gwens on what turned out to be Earth-617 went to Tony Stark, who created a device that could get Gwen home. Upon returning to her reality, Gwen went to J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of the tabloid newspaper The Daily Bugle, and revealed her identity as Spider-Woman. She was dubbed “Spider-Gwen” in the newspaper. She had a confrontation with Kingpin, where she was able to get her watch back. She was put on trial for crimes committed as Spider-Woman and found guilty and sentenced to a year in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Maximum-Security Prison. She was assaulted daily by Titania. After six months, Captain America came to her with an offer that would release her early if she agreed to sign on for a S.H.I.E.L.D. assignment, but Gwen refused and decided to serve her sentence. While she was in prison, her father came out of his coma. Upon her release, Gwen went back to her life with her father, in The Mary Janes, and as Spider-Gwen.

                While craving a burger, Gwen ran into her old friend Harry Osborn. The two tried to catch up, but Peter Porker/Spider-Ham, the Spider-Hero of another reality, came to inform Gwen the Inheritors, a group of vampiric creatures who fed off of Spider-Totems, had returned and were after Spider-Heroes again. They had already ended Spider-Man Noir and Spider-UK. Gwen attempted to join the fight, but when she tried to transport realities, she lost her watch and was stranded. She decided to go to Oscorp, where she ran into that reality’s Gwen Stacy/Green Goblin. In this reality, Harry Osborn/Spider-Man and Green Goblin had been a superhero team, but after Spider-Man’s death, Green Goblin lost touch with her humanity. Gwen ran into this reality’s Peter Parker, who was a scientist, who informed her this reality’s Gwen would be able to create a reality transporter for her if they could bring Green Goblin back to her senses. Peter and Gwen went to this reality’s Mary Jane Watson, who informed them that this reality’s Betty Brant and Glory Grant were reporters investigating the Green Goblin’s hideout locations. Peter, Gwen, and Mary Jane went after Green Goblin, followed by Betty and Glory who were hoping to get a story. Mary Jane was able to appeal to Green Goblin’s humanity, and Green Goblin was able to create a dimensional transporter for Gwen. Betty and Glory decided not to break the story out of respect for a hero. Gwen was able to rejoin the fight against the Inheritors, and though the Spider-Heroes won, it was not without great cost. Gwen was now the only Spider-Hero able to travel between realities. She went to the worlds of fallen Spider-Heroes to inform the Spider-Heroes’ loved ones of their losses.

                The Mary Janes were planning their big comeback. Gwen, a convicted felon, found herself unable to obtain employment, and decided to open a business as a hero for hire. The Man-Wolf and his gang decided to target Gwen. Gwen attempted a date with Harry Osborn, but the two were denied service at a fancy restaurant due to Gwen’s status as Spider-Gwen. Gwen started having headaches. Gwen decided to turn to Oscorp scientist Doctor Elsa Brock for help. Harry tried to help Gwen arrange an appointment, but the two were informed that there was no Doctor Brock employed at Oscorp. As the Mary Janes performed a concert, the venue was attacked by the Man-Wolf’s gang. During the attack, Harry was severely injured. Gwen then had to fight the Man-Wolf himself.

                Gwen traveled to Earth-616 where she teamed up with Peter Parker/Spider-Man to fight the supervillain Swarm, who was attempting to steal a rare dinosaur skeleton. After the fight, Gwen settled on a new superhero code name: Ghost Spider.

                Okay, now that we have the plot summary out of the way, let’s move on to the Tim Cubbin input segments of this review. We’re going to start with my personal reflections on this book. I found this book to be moderately enjoyable. While I liked it, I didn’t love it. Let’s talk about what I liked first. I liked Gwen meeting herself from other dimensions. I enjoyed how she met herself on Earth-617 in particular. Readers of “The Amazing Spider-Man” #121 know exactly what is supposed to happen to that Gwen that specific night based on the outfit she’s wearing, and I liked how Gwen didn’t want to tell this Gwen her suspicions as she was unsure if she was in 616 in the past and didn’t want to prevent her death in order to preserve the sanctity of the timeline, something she easily could have violated, and I liked the payoff that occurred from this meeting. I also enjoyed the “Gwen Goblin,” I thought it was a very interesting choice to make a Gwen Stacy the Green Goblin. I liked the follow-up to Spider-Geddon, with Gwen informing the fallen Spider-Heroes’ families of their loved ones’ passings, the Spider-Man Noir particularly hit hard with Aunt May’s reaction. I liked the jail issue, which was a huge surprise, you don’t often see your protagonist superhero due jail time, and I thought that issue was fascinating, especially when she wouldn’t take the deal to get out early. That may seem odd to like, but what I liked about it was that it showed Gwen takes accountability for her actions, and it showcased her sense of justice and her resilience, and the strength and willpower of her character, that she would go to jail for her beliefs and willingly accept her punishment and serve it to its full time. I liked how she tried to reestablish her life after jail and all the hiccups that came with it, unable to get a job, too much public attention, getting turned down at a restaurant, then forming her own business as a solution, I thought that was great and actually very realistic and that the writers did a good job with that storyline. I liked the relationship between Gwen and her father; I found it to be very heartwarming how devoted Gwen was to her father and how supportive George was of his daughter. But while I liked all these points, these were the highlights for me. The rest of the book I mostly coasted through. The whole story arc with the Watchers felt unnecessary and was slightly confusing, and while supposedly a key point in Gwen’s journey, really didn’t seem to have much of an impact on the story. Also, I have to complain about the art from “Spider-Gwen” #25-34, I honestly didn’t particularly like it, it just didn’t visually appeal to me. However, the art in “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider” #1-10 was actually highly enjoyable. Our final thing to touch on in my reflection is the title. I feel that “Gwenom” was a very accurate title for this volume. The storyline was one of the longest storylines in the book and the symbiote was a key component to this volume, so I think this was the best choice for a title for this book.

                Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve been over this over six dozen times at this point, and I know I have previous readers who already know what I’m about to explain again, but I know I always have newbies for every review I write, so I always have to explain this for them, so regular readers, bear with me for a few seconds. When I use the word accessibility in one of my reviews, it applies to if a new reader, who has never heard of or knows nothing about Spider-Gwen, can find this book online, or in a bookstore or comic book shop, or a local library, or at a friend’s house, and decide that they want to read this, and be able to completely understand what they’ve read without any prior knowledge on the subject matter. I will tell you that this book is highly inaccessible. This book, which is marketed as Vol. 3, picks up directly where Vol. 2 left off, and that built up from storylines from the first volume, so reading those are pretty essential to understanding this particular volume, and not having read them is a huge amount of missed storylines. Also, this book crosses over into “Spider-Geddon,” which was a Spider-Man crossover event. This book had only the “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider” issues of the event, as Epic Collections almost never include the main series of the events, only the tie-in issues of the particular characters that are the focus of the collection, so not knowing the other Spider-Heroes is also detrimental to understanding this particular volume. So, if you’re looking to get into reading Marvel Comics and are looking for a starting point, this book is not the point to jump in on.

                Continuing on, we’re going to get to my numeric score. My score is, of course, one of the key points of my reviews. I score on a very basic system: exact integers on a scale ranging from one through ten. If I give a book a score of a one, that is my lowest score, which signifies that this book is so horrible it’s not worth taking off the shelf and shouldn’t even be bought If a give a book a ten, that is my highest score, which signifies that this book is sheer perfection and it would be a sin if this book didn’t fly off the shelves. When I give a graphic novel a score, I take three factors into account: the story, the artwork, and the title. A graphic novel can have a perfect story, but the art can be horrible, and the title could be a complete misnomer, and I’d have to deduct two points. On the other hand, a graphic novel can have the worst story ever told but still have fantastic artwork and the most perfect title ever and get points just for that. So, let’s take a quick look at our ingredients here: we have a story that for me had good points, but this was still only a book I could coast through. The artwork was only enjoyable for me for half of the book. The title was an accurate representation of the book. So, we’re going to take these three factors, throw them in a blender, mix it until it’s completely blended, then the score we’re working with here is… a six. To me, this book was mid-level, but I still feel like it falls on the high side of mid.

                The next topic on our agenda is my recommendation. In this segment, I will answer two questions. The first is do I personally recommend this book to my readers or anyone who I talk to about comic books? The second question is completely independent of the first question, and it is who do I believe would be the best audience for this book? The answer to the first question is that I believe if you’re reading this review and are interested in reading this book based solely on what I’ve been writing, I would tell you that I feel like you should give this book a try. As for the best audience for this book, beyond the obvious fans of Spider-Gwen, Marvel Comics, Jason Latour, and Seanan McGuire, I would say this book is for comic readers who enjoy stories about family bonds, as this is a story about a daughter seeking vengeance for the wrongs committed against her father. Also, if you like comics about alternate realities, this is a good book for you. If you like comic books about a character fighting their dark side, this comic is perfect for you. And if you like comics about the justice system, you might like this book.

                Okay, we’re at the point where I’m going to start wrapping things up. There are a few things that should be noted before I sign off. First, I have been working on this blog for five years now, I’ve done over 170 posts. I’ve done over six dozen reviews of Marvel Epic Collections, as well as reviews of prose novels, events, and even a few manga. I’ve also written several short stories and poetry, as well as essays, articles, and editorials. I have done reviews of almost every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection, and I have written a review of every Ultimate Epic Collection. I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after their release, and if possible, I post a review as soon as I can after I finish reading it. If you liked this review, check out my reviews of “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Edge of Spider-Verse” and “Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider: Weapon of Choice” for more Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider content, and keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for other posts, I’m sure you’ll find something else here you’ll like as well. I post on a very frequent basis, so keep checking back for more. You can expect my next review “Spider-Girl: Family Ties” sometime in the next two months, so keep checking back for it. And with that, I release you from your bonds to me. You can go back to doing what you were doing, and I’ll move on with my life. But until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Captain America: The Burden of Dreams"

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Captain America: The Burden of Dreams” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Steve Rogers/Captain America is dead. The Red Skull, with the help of megalomaniacal psychiatrist Doctor Faustus, manipulated Sharon Carter, former Agent 13 of S.H.I.E.L.D., into taking the life of the man she loved. Mentally blocked from telling anyone what she’d done, Sharon spiraled out of control, fighting to hold onto her sanity. But when she found out she was pregnant, she lost control of her mind again, shot her allies, Sam Wilson/Falcon, and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, and fled. Meanwhile, Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier sought vengeance on the men he felt responsible for the death of Steve Rogers. But on his hunt, he fell into the hands of the Red Skull, who had secretly been sharing the mind of Bucky’s former master from his Winter Soldier days, ex-Soviet General Aleksander Lukin. Bucky was faced with Faustus’ mind-manipulation as well, but having been previously programmed, he was resistant. Falcon and Black Widow recovered on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, having only been stunned, leading Director Tony Stark/Iron Man, who was aware Sharon killed Steve, to believe Sharon was not completely gone. Falcon and Black Widow tracked the R.A.I.D. base where Faustus was hiding and infiltrated it. Faustus and Sharon escaped in an aircraft, taking Winter Soldier with them, but to cover their escape, Sharon kicked Winter Soldier out of the aircraft. Black Widow arrested the Winter Soldier, and the Winter Soldier was brought to the Helicarrier. Winter Soldier escaped and attacked Iron Man. The two fought until Iron Man talked him down. Iron Man showed Winter Soldier a letter left to him by Steve Rogers in the event of Rogers’ death, explaining Rogers’ wishes for there to be another Captain America and for Tony to save Bucky. Tony decided to kill two birds with one stone and make Bucky the new Captain America. Bucky agreed but said he would not work for S.H.I.E.L.D. Lukin faked his death in a plane crash. The new CEO of Lukin’s company Kronas Vladmir Morovin, who was secretly not even a real person, started to cause financial troubles for the American public by doubling oil prices and foreclosing mortgages. Stark was immediately suspicious about the existence of Morovin, but his theory was ignored. The new Captain America debuted against a R.A.I.D. faction. As a crowd demanded action from the government outside the White House, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stationed outside, who were under the programming of Faustus, went wild and attacked the crowd. Senator Gordon Wright contracted Kane-Meyer Securities, secretly a subsidiary of Kronas, to keep Washington, D.C. safe. Wright was under the influence of Faustus. A riot erupted outside the White House, and Captain America sprung into action to defuse it. As he entered the Senate Building, he was confronted by Synthia Shmidt/Sin, Brock Rumlow/Crossbones, and the Serpent Society. Captain America won the fight, but not the public’s affections. Arnim Zola, Red Skull’s scientist, discovered Sharon was pregnant. Sharon, who was fighting Faustus’ programming, discovered what appeared to be Steve Rogers alive in the Red Skull’s base. Red Skull deduced that Bucky was the new Captain America.

                Wright announced his candidacy for Presidency of the United States of America by forming the Third Wing Party. He negotiated with Kronas to halt the foreclosures and to reduce oil prices. This was all part of the Red Skull’s plan to take over and destroy America. Falcon confronted Stark, unhappy with Stark making Bucky the new Captain America. Clint Barton/Hawkeye confronted Bucky, telling Bucky Clint would be watching Bucky’s actions. Falcon came to Bucky and asked to team up with Bucky to save Sharon. Sharon came to rescue Steve, but discovered the person Red Skull was hiding was William Burnside, the Captain America of the 1950s, who was programmed to believe he was Steve Rogers. She was about to put him down but was discovered and stopped by Faustus. Falcon and Captain America confronted Zola at a R.A.I.D. base, and though the base was destroyed, Zola escaped. Sharon attempted to escape Red Skull’s base by taking a recovering Sin hostage. Bucky, who was following Wright, was confronted by Burnside. The two fought first, but Bucky tried to reason with Burnside and almost succeeded until Faustus reactivated Burnside’s programming. Sin fought off Sharon and stabbed Sharon in the stomach, causing Sharon to lose the baby. Red Skull turned on his daughter for ruining his plans. Red Skull had Zola working on a machine that would separate Red Skull from Lukin. Faustus decided to betray the Red Skull, causing Sharon to forget she was pregnant and releasing Sharon from Faustus’ control. Sin was tasked to take out Wright’s opponents at the presidential debate, but Sin, furious with her father, planned to take out Wright instead. Falcon and Black Widow discovered Red Skull’s base and infiltrated it. Red Skull’s machine failed. Burnside escaped. Red Skull set his base to explode. Falcon, Black Widow, Sharon, and Burnside had to stop Red Skull, Lukin and Zola, while Bucky had to stop Sin.

                Back in 1942, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Bucky and Jim Hammond/Human Torch saved Professor Zhang Chin. In 1968, the Winter Soldier was assigned to kill Chin, but Chin was saved by his experiment, the Man with No Face. In the present, Georges Batroc was hired by Chin to steal an archive drive from a United Nations Scientific Research Facility. Bucky was unable to prevent him from escaping. Captain America and Black Widow decided to investigate. Captain America found Batroc involved in a transport and tried to stop it and fought both Batroc and the Man with No Face. Captain America was almost defeated until Black Widow jumped in to help him, and the villains escaped. Captain America saw what was being transported and was furious.

                Bucky and Black Widow teamed up with Namor to go after Chin. Bucky decided to go in as the Winter Soldier. Bucky fought Chin’s agents and was abducted and brought to Chin’s laboratory. Chin created a virus from what he had stolen from the United Nations and planned to unleash it to eliminate half of earth’s population. He tested it airborne, and it was a success. He next attempted to transmit it through water and use it on Namor. Black Widow infiltrated Chin’s lab to rescue Bucky, and Bucky, Black Widow and Namor had to work together to stop Chin from releasing the virus and defeat the Man with No Face.

                Okay, now that we’ve got the plot summary out of the way, let’s progress to my input for this review. We’re going to start with my own personal opinions about this graphic novel. Honestly, I really enjoyed this graphic novel, and I looked back at previous reviews I wrote on the “The Death of Captain America” prose novel from several years ago and last year’s “Captain America: Death of the Dream” and I really enjoyed those as well. So, let’s talk about what I liked in particular. This book did have a lot of plot twists. I feel like Ed Brubaker wrote a compelling and cohesive story that wove past and present in perfectly. It was a big decision to kill Steve Rogers and replacing him with Bucky Barnes did seem like both an odd and logical choice at the same time. This gave Bucky a true shot at redemption for his actions as the Winter Soldier, and I did enjoy that, seeing him find himself again and be a hero. I don’t know if I’m more jaded now because of the MCU and future Captain America stories that I’ve read since where Sam Wilson was Captain America, and that in turn made having Bucky being Cap seem a little weird. I enjoyed how the supporting characters all had important roles in the drama as well and that the story wasn’t entirely centered on Bucky. I liked how the villains were written, the Red Skull’s machinations, Zola’s sycophantism, and Faustus’ betrayal were all excellent in my opinion. I thought the Red Skull’s plot with Wright, attempting to control America by getting his pawn elected President, was cleverly written. I found Chin to be an interesting mastermind. Watching Sharon throughout the course of the graphic novel was actually one of my favorite plotlines and I liked following her progression, even though it was full of tragedy, but it showed that a superhero’s non-powered girlfriend doesn’t always have to be helpless, which was what made her story so interesting, that she wasn’t just some damsel in distress, she actually fought for herself. I appreciated that Bucky wasn’t accepted as Captain America right away. If it were written that a superhero had just died and a new person showed up wearing a similar costume using the same name and everyone immediately loved them, that would be poor writing. Steve Rogers was Captain America since the 1940s and died, a guy who shows up in 2008 being the new Captain America should not be accepted in the mantle on his first public appearance. And I will say that I thought Bucky’s Captain America uniform was a lot cooler than Steve’s. I will say, though, that I was a little offput by the Superhuman Registration Act’s effect on Bucky’s ability to be officially backed by S.H.I.E.L.D., my longtime readers know how I am about unregistered heroes, and for those who don’t know, I’m actually pro-registration, so reading about an unregistered hero was a little bit of a turnoff. Now, I would be remiss in my duties reviewing a graphic novel if I didn’t discuss the visuals. As far as my liking of the artwork in this graphic novel, I found it to be acceptable. I’m not going to rave about it, I didn’t love it, but at the same time, I didn’t find it to be displeasing, I just thought that it was adequate and didn’t make perusing this graphic novel unappealing. I’d also like to touch on the title. I actually thought the title was perfect. There honestly were four given choices for a title, or the editors could have come up with something else, but I thought “The Burden of Dreams,” which was a title of one of the story arcs, was the best title the editors could have picked for this collection. I feel like it succinctly sums up the story, as Bucky takes up the mantle of Captain America and has to live up to the ideals of a symbol of a nation.

                Next up on our agenda is going to be the segment where I discuss accessibility. I know at this point I’ve explained this over six dozen times, but it’s something I always have to go over again for my newbs every time I do a review because I always have new readers who have never read a Tim Cubbin review before and may not know what I mean when I throw out the word accessibility like this. So when I say “accessibility” in association with a graphic novel, I mean if a person who has never heard of Captain America before can discover this book in their favorite bookstore, or website, or local library, or from a friend or relative, decide they want to read this book, then read the entire story and comprehend all the details they have just read. This book is extremely inaccessible. This collection is marketed as Vol. 3, and picks up in the middle of a story left off from Vol. 2, which had a storyline built from Vol. 1, so if you have not read the first two Modern Era Epic Collections of “Captain America,” do not try to read this volume. It is a direct continuation of an unfinished storyline, and you will have no idea what you are reading if this is the first Marvel graphic novel you ever pick up. This volume is absolutely not a place for a person who wants to begin reading Marvel Comic books to start with.

                We’re going to continue this review by me giving this graphic novel a numeric score. My scoring system is extremely simplistic. I score on a scale of one through ten, using exact integers. If I give a book a score of a one, that’s my lowest score, and that means that this book is a pile of trash that should be avoided at all costs. If I score a book at a ten, however, that’s my highest score, which means that this book is sheer perfection. When I review a graphic novel, I’m looking at a combination of three things: story, art, and title. The majority of the score usually goes to the story, while art and title will give point deductions if I don’t like them. I also am usually not one to give a book a ten unless I do truly feel the book is in fact perfection, so usually I start scoring a book at a nine and take my deductions from there. So, let’s quickly review what we’ve got going on here. I really enjoyed the story, I thought the art was acceptable, and I thought the title was spot on, so we’re looking at a relatively good score here. So, if I put all these factors together, the score I’m giving this graphic novel is… a seven! This may seem a little low, considering that I really did enjoy this book, but it is what I feel is appropriate.

                Next up is my recommendation segment. This covers two topics. The first topic is, do I personally recommend this book to anyone reading this review or to anyone unfortunate enough to have to hear me talk about this book in person? The second topic is regardless of the fact of if I would tell anyone to read this or not, who do I think is the best audience for this book? To answer the first question, yes, this book does get the personal Tim Cubbin recommendation. As for who I think the best audience is, we’ll look at the obvious first, fans of Captain America. Another target audience is fans of Ed Brubaker. Fans of Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier would very much appreciate this story of his redemption and evolution as a character. Beyond that, I feel this book is good for readers of comics who like spy stories or tales of espionage. It’s also for comic readers who like political intrigue stories. Finally, I think it’s good for readers who like war and soldier stories.

                Okay, we’re getting to the point where I have said almost all I have to say. There are a few more things I have to touch on first. Let’s begin with the contents of this blog. I’ve been writing for five years now and have published over 175 posts. In addition to over six dozen other Marvel Epic Collection reviews, I’ve reviewed prose novels and manga, as well as written a few short stories, poems, articles, essays, and editorials, so if you want to try other material, keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for plenty more content. I’ve previously written reviews of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Death of the Dream” if you liked this post and want more Captain America content. I post on a very frequent basis as I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after they are released and try to post a review if possible. I usually do at least one post a month. I’m expecting to do a post of “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Gwenon” sometime in the next two weeks, so keep an eye out for that post, and expect plenty more to keep coming as I’m going to keep doing this blog for as long as I possibly can, so that until I can’t see or type anymore, which I don’t expect to be a long time from now. I think that’s it for now, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!