"Hulk: Code Red"

 

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

                Doctor Robert Bruce Banner had finally been cured of being the Hulk. Karla Sofen/Ms. Marvel learned this fact and brought it to her boss Norman Osborn, Director of H.A.M.M.E.R. Osborn decided to test this information and sent out Ares, Greek god of war, to confirm if the Hulk truly was gone for good. Bruce and his ally Rick Jones/A-Bomb were discovered by Ares, who tried to force Bruce to turn into the Hulk by threatening A-Bomb’s life. Bruce managed to save A-Bomb and the two escaped from Ares. Ares confirmed to Osborn that the Hulk was no more.

                Neena Thurman/Domino was on an assignment when she accidentally saw the transformation of the Red Hulk from his human identity and was able to escape. General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross and Doctor Leonard Samson compiled a list of individuals to hire a team to help the Red Hulk find and eliminate Domino to prevent her from spreading the identity of the Red Hulk. This list included Wade Wilson/Deadpool, Frank Castle/Punisher, Boris Turgenov/Crimson Dynamo, Thundra, and Elektra Natchios. Team Code Red cornered Domino in a bar, but Domino brought backup in the form of X-Force (James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine, Laura Kinney/X-23, Warren Worthington III/Archangel, James Proudstar/Warpath, and Josh Foley/Elixir. Wolverine blinded the Red Hulk and the two teams clashed. A Red She-Hulk arrived on the scene and led Red Hulk away from the battle. Samson also turned up, and double-crossed Red Hulk, turning Team Code Red against Red Hulk. Thundra, however, was loyal to Red Hulk and fought Samson. Red Hulk’s sight returned, and he fought Red She-Hulk. Red She-Hulk threw Red Hulk off the top of the Empire State Building. Red Hulk survived and tracked down Domino and X-Force, who had tracked down Silver Sable, who revealed Sable was paid by Samson and that Sable was the one who tipped off Domino and that Advanced Idea Mechanics was involved, convincing Red Hulk Domino was in the wrong place in the wrong time. Red Hulk paid Team Code Red their promised payments and prepared to forge and alliance against Samson to protect his secret.

                Samson was struggling with his identities as Leonard, Doc Samson, and Samson as A.I.M. continued to try to control him.

                Bruce Banner returned to New York City to meet with Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic to receive information about the Hulk’s son Skaar, a half-Hulk/half-alien creature who blamed Hulk for the death of Skaar’s mother and wanted to kill the Hulk. Banner then teleported to the Mojave Desert and located Skaar and offered to train Skaar to prepare to kill the Hulk if ever Hulk were to return, as Skaar had no interest in killing Bruce Banner. Skaar agreed to this proposal. Banner angered Cain Marko/Juggernaut to give Skaar a challenge, and Skaar succeeded in defeating Juggernaut. Wolverine tracked down Banner and Skaar, and Skaar beat Wolverine. Skaar went looking for Wolverine’s son Daken. Daken was on Osborn’s Avengers team and suggested offering Skaar a place on the team. Banner and Wolverine watched their sons’ conversation but got involved when negotiations went sour. In the end, both dysfunctional families parted with the sons promising to one day end their father’s existence. Samuel Sterns/Leader had been spying on Bruce and Skaar’s bonding.

                H.A.M.M.E.R. scientists were attempting to siphon the Old Power of the Shadow People of Planet Sakaar that had been gifted to Doctor Kate Waynesboro, despite the fact that doing so could kill her in the process. Skaar and Banner infiltrated a H.A.M.M.E.R. laboratory in New Mexico and rescued Kate. Norman Osborn had a list of people he wanted taken care of, and Bruce Banner was on that list. Osborn sent someone “expendable” to take Banner off that list, so he sent his personal assistant Victoria Hand. Hand brought Karla Sofen/Ms. Marvel as muscle. Banner and Skaar went to take out another Old Power facility, and Hand and Ms. Marvel confronted them. Ms. Marvel and Skaar made a deal. Banner and Skaar destroyed the facility, which was also a gamma facility, once again exposing Bruce to gamma radiation, bringing him one step closer to becoming the Hulk again and allowing Skaar to complete Skaar’s desire to kill the Hulk, which was Osborn’s plan the entire time.

                Banner and Skaar played football against Korg, Kate, and A-Bomb. Bruce and Kate had begun to form a romantic attachment. Following the game, Bruce and Kate went to the Leader’s laboratory to try to find in the Leader had any data on Skaar in the Leader’s files. While there, Bruce and Kate were attacked by a flesh and blood Harpy, who had the appearance of Bruce’s wife Elizabeth “Betty” Ross-Banner. Bruce, Skaar, Korg and A-Bomb fought Harpy until they were able to defeat her and force her to revert to a human form, but it turned out not to be Betty. The Leader returned to his laboratory and discovered Kate there and destroyed it, preventing Kate from discovering if the Leader had any information on Skaar, but Kate was able to escape the lab before detonation. The Mole Man attempted to invade New York City with monsters who were refugees from the planet Sakaar. The Fantastic Four attempted to hold them back. Bruce and Skaar teleported to New York and Bruce set up a gamma dome to contain the monsters. The monsters worshipped Skaar, recognizing him as the monsters’ king since the Hulk had ruled Sakaar, and since the Hulk was no more and Skaar was the Hulk’s heir, Skaar was the next in lineage. Tyrannus attempted to kill Skaar in order to control the monsters, but Skaar was able to defeat him. The world saw Skaar in action and got to meet its new Hulk.

                Lyra was the genetically engineered daughter of Bruce Banner from an alternate future, and an agent of the Alternate Reality Monitoring and Operational Response agency, along with her AI companion Boudicca and the all-new savage She-Hulk, trying to honor the mantle of Jennifer Walters, who had gone missing. However, when she got angry, she lost her strength instead of gaining it like other gamma powered beings. She battled Phinn Mac Mram, who hailed from her world and attempted to corrupt the computer networks of her new home.

                Alex Erde, Agent of A.R.M.O.R., invited Lyra to look for Jen in Death Valley, against Director Little Sky’s orders. Norman Osborn wanted Boudicca for her information of the future. He had Ryker of the Origins® Corporation send out Aberration, Morass and Axon, three genetically enhanced convicted killers, pardoned in exchange for their services to the Corporation, to retrieve Boudicca. The Origins® killers shot Lyra and Erde’s plane out of the sky, fatally injuring Erde. Lyra swore vengeance on these three women and fought to protect Boudicca.

                Okay, we’ve got our synopsis out of the way, let’s move on to the Tim Cubbin part of this review. We’ll start, as usual, with my personal opinions on the book. I will say I found it to be mildly enjoyable. If you go back over a year and a half ago to my review of “Hulk: Who is the Red Hulk?” you will recall my disdain for the previous volume in the series. So, I will say that once again, we have a “Hulk” graphic novel starring the Red Hulk that does not reveal his true identity. Now, I’ve been reading Marvel for almost twenty-five years now, I’ve known who the Red Hulk is for fourteen years now, but still, I’m once again disappointed that I still don’t have an origin for the character. His whole background is shrouded in secrecy, and I just wish this book would have unclouded it. During the whole “Code Red” storyline, I kept hoping for the big unveiling and was highly disappointed that a year and a half later I still don’t have my answer. Plus, now they throw in the Red She-Hulk (who I also know who she is), who also gets no identity or origin reveal, just to rile me up even more. I also found that storyline to be highly confusing as there’s a scene where Red Hulk and his human form actually both appear on panel at the same time and Samson is in that same panel as a witness, so a lot of that story made no sense to me based entirely on that scene alone. I know the Red Hulk’s identity is a lot more well-known now also due to last year’s film “Captain America: Brave New World” which had not been released when I did my last “Hulk” review, so I know some of my readers may be familiar with him, and if you read this review extremely carefully, you might catch my confusion, but I don’t want to give spoilers to those who don’t know, although some of my other reviews have his identity already, so if you might have come across it if you’re a previous reader of mine, but I shall not give his identity in this particular review since it was not actually contained in this particular book. I also didn’t particularly like the Samson dissociative identity disorder issue as it did not further the story being placed in this volume and just succeeded in confounding the story even further. However, I did think team Code Red was an interesting gathering of characters, and I also enjoyed seeing them come up against X-Force. I also enjoyed seeing Bruce bonding with his son, I thought it was actually quite humorous how Bruce was training his son with the promise to one day kill the Hulk. I thought the “Dark Reign” issue was actually relatively good, I liked the twist ending of how Osborn accomplished his machinations. I found the All-New Savage She-Hulk storyline to be slightly interesting; I liked the paradox of her anger sapping her strength instead of increasing it. But this book failed to meet expectations. I think my biggest problem with this book was the dual focus. Most Modern Era Epic Collections I’ve read thus far really didn’t focus full-time on two separate ongoing series, and this split the attention from both the Red Hulk and Bruce Banner, and I feel like this didn’t work very well, it just slowed the progression of both stories by mixing both of them into one Collection. I feel like focusing on just the Red Hulk would have been a better option, but I honestly can’t officially say this until there’s another volume to say if compiling both Hulks’ stories is necessary to tell the narrative of the Red Hulk. And if telling Bruce’s story was unnecessary, then Lyra’s story was also unnecessary, and in all honesty, to me, it did feel like it was unimportant to the other stories. But again, I’m going to need another volume to confirm the necessity of all the included content. Moving on in my input, we’re going to discuss the artwork. I liked the artwork from Ed McGuiness, Ian Churchill, and Michael Ryan, but the rest of the artists failed to impress me. Churchill actually holds great sentiment for me as he was the artist for the first Marvel Comic book I purchased back in 2001 when I became a regular Marvel reader, and I enjoyed his work then, so seeing him lend his hand to this collection was a great privilege to me. But the other art just wasn’t as appealing. Next up, we’re going to discuss the title. I feel like “Code Red” was a relatively good choice for the title. It was the longest storyline in the volume, and I feel like it’s an adequate capturing of the essence of the book. We’re also going to discuss the cover. The cover depicts both the Red Hulk and the Incredible Hulk, which I feel is not completely appropriate for this volume as we never see Bruce Banner Hulk out over the course of this book, but when looking through the collection, the rest of the covers feature either the Red Hulk or Skaar with other characters that honestly wouldn’t appropriately represent the content in this volume, so it probably was the best if not only choice for a cover and I respect it as a choice. But overall, the internal content was relatively dissatisfying, and I was highly disappointed.

                Next up, we’re going to discuss accessibility. Now, I know there are some of you who are familiar with my reviews and know what I mean by this, and I have explained it over six dozen times at this point, but I always have new readers every time I do a review, so I have to explain myself to them every time, so to those of you who have been here before, please bear with me while I explain to the newbs. Accessibility means the ability for someone who knows absolutely nothing about the source material to see this book on a shelf or online and obtain it, read it, and understand everything as written with no outside knowledge of the characters or the story. I will say that it does draw on knowledge from other points in the Marvel Universe, such as “X-Force,” “World War Hulk” and “Dark Reign,” but it remains relatively standalone as far as content goes. This volume contains “sister series,” so they are connected to each other without straying into other characters aside from the Hulks. Also, the “Dark Reign” issue is self-contained. It does continue storylines from the previous volume, but it’s not a direct continuation and doesn’t rely on reading the previous “Hulk” storylines as being a necessity. I wouldn’t say it’s the best book to start with if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before, but if you really want to read it, it’s not a point that’s impossible to jump on at.

                Next up, we’re going to move on to one of the primary reasons we’re here: for me to give a numeric score. Now, I know it’s not the single most important part of my reviews, the synopsis is also key, and my own opinions are crucial, but a review would not be complete without giving an evaluation of exactly how good I feel like the book is, so I give a numeric score to asses the quality of the content. My scoring system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of exact integers ranging from one through ten. The worst score I can possibly give is a one, and that means that this book is so awful and unreadable that every remaining unpurchased copy of this book should be rounded up off the shelves or pulled out of storage and collectively obliterated, then Marvel should destroy the plates containing any possible ways of reprinting this book so it can never be reproduced again and be completely wiped out of history. Okay, I know that’s a little extreme, that’s just a joke, I don’t condone destroying books. On the other hand, if I score a book at a ten, that’s my best score, and that means this book is sheer perfection and I will not understand how it is not a bestseller and how any copies could possibly be on the shelves or in stock because it’s so good it should just be bought, then it should have to be reprinted because all the copies are just out of stock and the book is still in demand. Now, I’m not a guy who likes to give out tens unless I feel like the book truly is perfection. That means the story has to be engaging and compelling with no possible flaws that I can find and nothing for me to complain about, the art has to be consistently visually pleasing and appealing and I have to enjoy looking at every panel, the title has to be an exact representation of the book, and the cover has to sell the content contained within the book, all wrapped up in a perfect package. And that is very hard to find. On the other hand, I’m not in the business of giving out ones unless the book is absolute garbage with a story that is unreadable, uninteresting, and not understandable, the art has to be an eyesore and I don’t even want to look at the book because the art is so awful, the title has nothing to do with the content of the book, and the cover is completely misleading to the story contained within. Now, I did relatively dislike this book, but I did feel it was almost average. There were things I liked about the story, and there was some art I liked, and the title was an adequate description of the book, and the cover was relatively appropriate to the content contained within, so it wasn’t complete garbage. So, when I consider my score for this Collection, all cards shuffled and dealt on the table, the score I’m looking at is… a four. It wasn’t completely horrible, but it didn’t meet my expectations or fulfil my desires for what I was hoping to come from this book, but all-in-all, I didn’t completely hate it.

                Moving on in this review, we’re going to go to my recommendation segment. In this segment, I answer two questions: the first question is, would I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend for anyone within the view of my words or the sound of my voice to read this book just based solely on what I just said? The second question is, regardless of if I would tell anyone to read this book or not, whom do I feel should be reading this book, beyond the obvious of Marvel or Hulk fans or fans of the creative team? To answer the first question, no, I do not personally recommend this book to you. If you are reading this and on the fence about reading this or not, I would tell you not to read this book. As for the second question, the best audience is action fans who like stories about dysfunctional families, and for readers who like paramilitary stories, and for people who like stories with characters who struggle with their identities.

                I think I’m at the point where I’ve said just about all I really need to say about the content, so let’s just get to the wrap-up. So, I can tell you that I’ve been working on this blog for over five years at this point. I’ve done over 180 posts. In addition to over six dozen reviews of Epic Collections, I’ve reviewed prose novels, manga, and comic book events. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials. If you liked this post and want more “Hulk” content, feel free to check out my review of “Hulk: Who is the Red Hulk?” and keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for plenty more content, there’s plenty more on here you might find you’ll like. I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after they are released and put up a review as soon as I can after I have finished reading them, so you can expect a lot of posts from me. I usually post at least once a month. My next review will be “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Revivals and Revelations” and you can expect to see that within the next month after this post, probably in a lot less time than that, so keep checking back for that. I’m going to keep on doing this blog for as long as I possibly can, until my eyes or hands are unable to function, so you can expect to see this blog continuing for a long time. So, I say goodbye for now, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Deadpool: Magnum Opus"

 

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

                Wade Wilson/Deadpool was hired to hunt down and take out James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine. Their encounter began when Deadpool attacked Wolverine in a restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown. After a prolonged fight that caused havoc and destruction through a department store, a coffee shop, and the streets of San Francisco, Deadpool was able to render Wolverine unconscious and abduct him. While Deadpool threatened to end Wolverine, Wolverine’s son Daken arrived, and Daken tried to kill Wolverine. Deadpool and Daken got into a fight. The fight was ended when Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier came to Wolverine’s rescue.

                The shape-shifting alien Skrulls began their invasion of Earth through infiltration, assuming positions in government, the military, and even the superhero community. They possessed highly advanced technology, a massive armada of warships, enough soldiers to occupy the planet and Super-Skrulls, which could imitate the powers of multiple superheroes. Deadpool fought a battalion at a baseball stadium, but when he was unable to defeat the Skrulls, he offered to join them. The Skrull scientists, impressed with his regenerative healing factor, decided his genetics would be perfect to implement in their next generation of Super-Skrulls. Deadpool offered the Skrull head scientist to train the Deadpool Super-Skrulls, which the scientist begrudgingly accepted. In their first training session, the Deadpool Super-Skrulls took out an entire squadron of previous Super-Skrulls. Deadpool’s training caused erratic, unstable, and insane behavior in the Deadpool Super-Skrulls. Deadpool called the man who hired him to infiltrate the Skrulls, former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury, but he was caught by a Super-Skrull while making the call and exposed as a traitor. Deadpool managed to defeat the Super-Skrull but was caught by the Skrull head scientist and the Deadpool Super-Skrulls. However, Deadpool had thought of a contingency plan to defeat the Deadpool Super-Skrulls. Deadpool stole Skrull bio data, specifically how to kill a queen, which he tried to send to Fury, but the data he sent was intercepted by Norman Osborn.

                Having spent all his money and used up all his munitions, Deadpool was desperate for a job. He called his old contact Zeke. Zeke’s wife had been into a zombie by a plastic surgeon named Doctor Druek Lovosno, who had created other zombies as well. Zeke hired Deadpool to kill Lovosno. Deadpool was to contact Zeke with the location of Zeke’s wife so Zeke’s men could rescue her, and Zeke could hopefully find someone to reverse the procedure. Zeke flew Deadpool to Grodke in Eastern Europe. Deadpool was believed to be a zombie and was shot and detained by the local police. After escaping with the help of one of Zeke’s men, Deadpool made it to Lovosno’s castle. Lovosno’s servant took Deadpool in, then poisoned Deadpool. When Deadpool came to, Zeke’s wife told Deadpool that Zeke was broke. Lovosno had made an arrangement with Zeke’s wife to pay for the procedure. Lovosno was then going to feed Deadpool to Lovosno’s patients. However, the patients did not want to eat Deadpool. Deadpool talked Lovosno into letting Deadpool go, promising Lovosno food for Lovosno’s patients, then called Zeke. Zeke and his men arrived, and Deadpool blew up Lovosno’s castle, betraying everyone.

                Tiger Shark was hired to kill Deadpool. Deadpool survived their first encounter and was found washed up on a beach near San Diego. He woke up at a homeless shelter, but as he tried to leave, Tiger Shark arrived. Tiger Shark attacked Deadpool at the homeless shelter, and the police came and shot Deadpool. Deadpool was found by his friend Bob, who helped Deadpool fight Tiger Shark. Bob and Deadpool went to hide out in a motel, where Deadpool figured out the Bob had also been hired to kill Deadpool. Bob revealed to Deadpool that Bob and Tiger Shark had both been hired by Norman Osborn, who had used the data Osborn intercepted from Deadpool to kill the Skrull Queen and assume leadership over S.H.I.E.L.D., now renamed H.A.M.M.E.R., and the Avengers. Deadpool ended Bob and faxed Osborn, demanding $100,000,000 in the following twelve hours or else Deadpool would expose Osborn for his theft.

                Deadpool infiltrated Avengers Tower, looking for Osborn. Osborn was at the Oscorp Building when Deadpool came looking, but Osborn’s Thunderbolts (Yelena Belova/Black Widow, Ghost, Ant-Man, Headsman, and Paladin) were at Avengers Tower. Deadpool and the Thunderbolts fought, and Deadpool escaped with a teleportation device he stole from an Avengers laboratory. The Thunderbolts were able to track Deadpool down, but Deadpool defeated them all except for Black Widow, who he flirted with. Paladin revived, and Deadpool escaped again. Deadpool retreated to a hideout with his associate Taskmaster, who agreed to be a decoy Deadpool. Deadpool took on the Thunderbolts while Taskmaster, disguised as Deadpool, went after Black Widow. Black Widow turned the tables on Taskmaster and abducted Taskmaster. The Thunderbolts were going to kill Taskmaster, who they thought was Deadpool, but Deadpool came to Taskmaster’s rescue and Deadpool and Taskmaster battled the Thunderbolts, but the fight only ended when the Thunderbolts thought they had killed Deadpool.

                When Norman Osborn found out Deadpool was still alive, he sent Bullseye, now posing as Hawkeye, to remedy the situation. After the two got into a fight, Deadpool took an arrow to the head. Deadpool survived and the two resumed fighting, and Deadpool beat Bullseye. The two once again resumed their fight until Bullseye talked Deadpool into disappearing from Osborn’s life.

                Okay, we’ve got our synopsis out of the way, it’s time to move on to my input for the rest of this review. We’re going to start, as always, with my own personal opinions about the book. I found this book to be, for the most part, enjoyable. My biggest complaint with this graphic novel is the balance between story and action. There was a huge focus on action that highly overshadowed the amount of space on the pages for story. That said, I did like what was readable. There was a good amount of comedy in this book, including some laugh out loud moments. I always liked Deadpool’s clever ways of outsmarting all of his opponents at the end of each story. “The Deep End” storyline with Wolverine had an interesting plot twist at the end with Daken I didn’t see coming. “One of Us” was the “Secret Invasion” storyline, and it actually turned out to secretly be one of the most important tie-in stories to how the heroes managed to beat the Skrulls as it was how Norman Osborn learned the information on how to kill the Skrull Queen. “Horror Business” also had a bunch of plot twists of everyone double-crossing everyone else. “How Low Can You Go?” also had double-crossing, and Bob and Tiger Shark both vying to take down Deadpool was amusing as obviously Bob was outclassed by Tiger Shark but still tried to succeed anyway. “Magnum Opus” was my favorite storyline, I enjoyed the Thunderbolts crossover, and seeing Norman Osborn fighting Deadpool was great. “Bullseye” was entertaining as well as both Deadpool and Bullseye wanted to kill each other and yet at the same time they really didn’t want to kill each other, so seeing the conflict was amusing. As far as the artwork is concerned, I did enjoy most of it, with the exception of Steve Dillon’s work on Wolverine: Origins #21-25. There’s just something about the way Dillon draws faces that doesn’t appeal to me. However, I greatly enjoyed the work of Paco Medina. I thought it was fantastic to look at, I really loved the style. I also appreciate the artwork from Carlo Barberi and Bong Dazo, I thought they produced excellent visuals as well. When thinking about the choice of a title, I feel like “Magnum Opus” was a good pick. There were six storylines in the book, giving the editors six already given choices, or they could have made a new one up, but I think they went with the best option that would work for this particular volume. However, I will say that I don’t feel like the editors picked the best cover for the front of this volume. They chose a cover from Deadpool #1, the “One of Us” storyline, depicting Deadpool and the Skrull invasion superimposed around him. I do feel like there were other covers from the issues contained in this graphic novel that would represent this volume better as a choice for the front cover as this storyline only spanned for three of the nineteen issues contained in this volume and is only a small part of the book as a whole when there were storylines in this book that ran longer. That said, ultimately, I was generally pleased with this book.

                Next up on our agenda of topics to cover, we’re going to discuss accessibility. I’ve been over this over six dozen times before, I know, but for every review I write, I know I always have my new readers, so I do feel obligated to explain myself again every time I write a new review. If you’re familiar with how this works, please be patient for a couple of sentences while I explain for the newbs what I mean when I throw out the word accessibility like this. So when I use the word accessibility, what I mean is, can someone who, in this case, has never heard of Deadpool or knows nothing about him obtain this book, read it, and understand everything they’ve just read with absolutely no prior knowledge on the subject? I will say that this is definitely not an easy book to get into if you are unfamiliar with Marvel Comics. This graphic novel has a tie-in story to “Secret Invasion” which, honestly, you don’t need to know everything about to follow this particular graphic novel, but it would help to have some knowledge about the basic concept of the Skrulls to understand this book. It also has a tie-in “Dark Reign” crossover with Thunderbolts, and these are some relatively obscure characters, but not knowing about them isn’t too damaging to understanding this graphic novel, just as long as you understand that they’re working for Norman Osborn. This book really doesn’t explain the purpose of the Thunderbolts very well, but they’re actually “reformed” villains working for Osborn in exchange for a governmental pardon, but this fact is never stated in this volume. The “Dark Reign” storyline itself also isn’t well explained in this collection, and knowledge about Osborn’s ascendance with H.A.M.M.E.R. and the Dark Avengers is required to understand this volume, particularly Bullseye being rebranded as Hawkeye. There are a lot of factors that make this book inaccessible to anyone but people who have experience with Marvel from the late 2000s. Even I wasn’t a regular reader at the time of “Dark Reign” and I honestly really didn’t know much about these Thunderbolts going into reading this book. Though this book is marketed as Vol. 1, it’s not an easy book for people with no prior Marvel Comics experience to get into.

                Next up, we’re going to move on to my numeric score. This is one of the most essential components to a Tim Cubbin review. Now I know some people come here because they want to know about the story, but it is very important to express just exactly how high of a quality standard the book left an impression of on me. First off, I’m going to explain my scoring system. It’s actually extremely simple: I score on a scale of exact integers ranging from one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and if I give it a one, then this book deserves to have every copy pulled off the shelves and collectively incinerated, then the prints should be destroyed by Marvel so this horrible pile of trash shall be wiped out of existence forever. If I give this book a ten, then this book is sheer perfection and if every Marvel and Deadpool fan doesn’t buy this book, I will seriously think there is something horribly wrong with them. Now, my longtime readers know that I don’t like to give tens very often. I have to actually be able to find no flaws with the book at all to give it a ten, and that includes story, art, title, and cover. That said, I’m not an ogre either and I don’t like giving low scores unless the book actually really deserves that. I honestly have not given a lot of ones over the five plus years I’ve been doing this blog. So, taking all the components of this book and mixing them all together: the story I enjoyed with lots of plot twists but a little too much focus on action and not enough on dialogue; the mostly good art with the exception of one artist; the title which I feel worked well for this book; and the cover that I don’t feel represented this book adequately, we’re looking at a score of… a seven. I found this book to be, for the most part, a pleasurable reading experience, and I enjoyed taking the journey through it., but I wish there had been a little more dialogue, and we already established how I felt about Steve Dillon, but overall, this was an enjoyable read.

                Next up on our list of things to cover is my recommendation segment. The point of this segment is to answer two questions. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, who have just spent the past few minutes reading my words, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught up in a conversation with me about this book? The second question I answer is, regardless of if I would actually tell you I’d recommend this book personally, who is the best audience for this graphic novel, besides fans of Marvel and Deadpool and the creative team? The answer to my first question is yes. If you’re reading this review and now, based solely on what you’ve just read me post, you want to read this graphic novel, I will tell you to go read this book now. Check your local bookstore, or your favorite comic book store, or your preferred online retailer, or if you’re lucky, your nearby library to find this book and read it as soon as you can. I think if you’re intrigued by what I’ve described, you’ll enjoy reading the entire story. As for the target audiences, I think readers who like stories full of plot twists and double crossings would find this book will check off that list many times over. Readers who enjoy stories about mercenaries would probably like this book. Readers who enjoy stories about alien invasions could find something to like in this book. And if you like comic books with humor, this book might tickle your funny bone.

                Okay, I’ve been going on for long enough now, I think we’re at the point where we’re all about ready to move on with our lives. I do have a few end of term notices to hand out before I sign off, though. First off, like I said before, I have been doing this blog for over five years now. I have done over 180 posts now. In addition to over six dozen Epic Collection reviews just like this one, I’ve done other kinds of reviews as well, such as prose novelizations, manga, and comic book events. I have also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so if you want a variety of content, feel free to keep checking timcubbin.blogspot.com for more posts, you might find something else to like. If you want more content like this, I’ll recommend specific posts for you: feel free to check out “Deadpool: In Wade We Trust” “Deadpool & Cable: Ballistic Bromance” “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Isn’t it Bromantic?” “Spider-Man/Deadpool: ‘Til Death Do Us…” and “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Road Trip” for more reviews about our favorite Merc with the Mouth. My next new post will be “Hulk: Code Red” you can expect to see that coming up within the next month from my posting of this review. I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released and if possible, put up a review right after I am done reading it. I’m going to keep doing this blog for as long as I can, and you won’t expect an end to it anytime soon, as my eyesight and handiness seem to currently be in good order. I wish you goodbye for now, but I shall be back, but I say to you until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"The Amazing Spider-Man: The Life and Death of Spiders"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “The Amazing Spider-Man: The Life and Death of Spiders” as collected in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Peter Parker/Spider-Man returned to New York from California after failing to reconcile with his estranged wife Mary Jane Watson-Parker. After being forced into a state of slumber, Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, informed Peter that due to his actions on the Astral Plane during his battle with the supervillain the Shade, Peter had attracted a totemic enemy from another plane of existence and told Peter to check a page in his book on etymology to prove their meeting wasn’t a dream. This page was about the spider wasp, the natural killer of spiders. Three nights later, while out of patrol, Spider-Man encountered a creature calling herself Shathra. The two fought, but Spider-Man was unable to defeat Shathra, and Shathra escaped following their spar, but Shathra revealed during their encounter she was aware of Spider-Man’s secret identity. Shathra went to the media in the guise of Sharon Keller to lure Spider-Man to her, claiming to be Spider-Man’s lover, that many of his battles were staged so he could make money, and that he made fun of other superheroes behind their back., and that if he came forward to refute her claims, she would reveal his secret identity to the media. At first, Peter was hesitant to come forward, but after calling Mary Jane and hearing the hurt in her voice, Peter couldn’t let it slide. Spider-Man swung to the television studio where he exposed Shathra as the creature she was and took the battle to the streets. Shathra stung Spider-Man with a paralyzing agent, and Spider-Man was barely able to escape to the Musuem of Natural History’s spider exhibit enclosure to hide. He was found by Ezekiel Sims and brought to a ruins site in Ghana watched over by the people of the Ashanti tribe, who first told the story of Kwaku Anansi, the original spider-man. Shathra followed Spider-Man to Ghana, where to two engaged in their final battle. Mary Jane decided she wanted to see Peter in person, so she booked a flight to New York. Ezekiel booked Peter a flight back to New York, but Peter decided he wanted to see Mary Jane and switched the reservation from a one-way first class ticket to New York for a coach ticket to Los Angeles with an open-date return flight to New York. Both Peter and Mary Jane got to the other’s apartment and waited for the other, but after both were left unable to meet, they decided to let each other go and move on with their lives. Mary Jane’s flight to Los Angeles had a stop-over in Denver. Peter’s flight to New York was grazed by lightning and had to land in Denver for inspection. While at the airport, Peter saw Mary Jane, and the two began to talk. While they were talking, Peter noticed Latverian dictator and supervillain Doctor Victor Von Doom being escorted by two Denver International Airport security guards. A bomb went off in the middle of the airport, and Peter sprang into action. He realized that one of the security guards was actually Steve Rogers/Captain America. Peter quickly changed to Spider-Man and fought to save Doctor Doom from being assassinated. Captain America joined the fight, and the two protected Doctor Doom and the people in the airport. Peter and Mary Jane talked, and Peter told Mary Jane he needed her, something Mary Jane didn’t know Peter felt anymore, and Mary Jane agreed to reconcile their marriage.

                In 1957, mob boss Morris Forelli had six mob bosses and seven mob lieutenants killed in a hit in Las Vegas and had the bodies dumped in a desert in Nevada. In 2003, the United States military decided to test weapons in the Nevada desert, beginning with a gamma bomb. The bomb created a creature called Digger, an amalgamation of the Vegas Thirteen. Digger traveled to New York to get revenge on Forelli. New York Police Department Lieutenant Lamont got Spider-Man’s attention about Digger, revealing that Digger had fingerprints from different people on the same hand and that he was green. Digger went to the Starlight Club and came into conflict with the clubgoers. Spider-Man arrived and fought Digger, but Digger was able to escape. Forelli sent one of underlings to fetch Spider-Man. Forelli offered to pay Spider-Man $10,000 to be his and his daughter Lynne’s bodyguard. Spider-Man agreed, and Forelli gave Spider-Man a pager. One of Forelli’s ships was sunk, and he sent Spider-Man to Nevada to confirm if the Vegas Thirteen were still where Forelli had left them forty-six years before. Spider-Man went to the Nevada desert, where he discovered a government test site where Forelli sent him. Peter returned to New York where he continued reviving his marriage to Mary Jane. Spider-Man fought Digger again, and Forelli’s men unloaded on Digger. This left Spider-Man with a blood sample from Digger and an anger with Forelli. Spider-Man then used this blood sample to learn the secret to defeat Digger, and after ending his association with Forelli, Peter put the money he made as Forelli’s bodyguard to a worthy cause.

                While running late for a faculty meeting, Peter found a student with a broken leg named Melissa Coolridge planning to play hooky, and convinced Melissa to come to school with Peter. Peter found that despite being smart, Melissa was in remedial reading and pulled strings to get Melissa into Peter’s honors biology class. After class, Peter walked Melissa home, where they found Melissa’s apartment being burglarized. Peter was able to stop the burglars from stealing from Melissa’s apartment, but the burglars were able to return to their corrupt landlord Hugh Muller, who was having his tenants steal to make him money. Peter discovered that as Spider-Man, he had gotten Melissa’s older brother Joshua arrested for carjacking. Spider-Man had an encounter with Ezekiel where Spider-Man discussed his guilt in ruining Melissa’s family. After Joshua got out of jail, he disappeared. Melissa began searching for him, and Spider-Man kept tabs on Melissa as she searched for her brother out of guilt, hoping he could help her reunite her family.

                After a go around with administrative assistant Julie, Peter’s Aunt May Parker, who recently found out her nephew was Spider-Man, gave sage advice to calm him down. While enjoying a night with Mary Jane, Peter saw red lightning and swung into action as Spider-Man. New York City was being overrun by the Mindless Ones, who were entering the city through a portal, and New York’s heroes were attempting to stem the invasion. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, of the Fantastic Four, created a device that would pull them back into whatever dimension they escaped from. Doctor Strange had dispersed his foe Dormammu through multiple dimensions during their last encounter, and Mister Fantastic’s device inadvertently reconstituted Dormammu. Doctor Strange used a spell to try to remove Dormammu, but Spider-Man got caught in it, and was brought outside of time and space, where they could see the past and a future where Dormammu had killed all the superheroes during the battle. Spider-Man saw his ending and had a chance to stop himself from ever becoming Spider-Man in the first place. Thought severely tempted, Peter could not bring himself to alter the course of his past. Spider-Man had to travel through his timeline to reach the present so he could prevent Mister Fantastic from activating the device and freeing Dormammu. Peter fought through the pain of his past back to the present day, to his birthday, where he was presented with a very special gift by Doctor Strange.

                A man stole a military-grade prototype mining suit and took on the name the Shaker. Spider-Man had to battle him. Meanwhile, Aunt May went to the park to talk to her passed loved ones as she continued to cope with her nephew being a superhero.

                Tailor Leo Zelinsky, who designed outfits for both superheroes and supervillains, overheard Killshot, one of his clients, planning a hit. He had to guarantee the privacy of his clients, but under the urging of his grandson Michael, Leo went to Spider-Man with this information and painted a target on his own back.

                Okay, we’ve been through quite a lengthy summary of the stories from this Modern Era Epic Collection, it’s time to move on to my input on this graphic novel. For those of you who don’t know, I’m going to start with my own personal thoughts and opinions about this book, including if I liked the book, what I liked and disliked about the book, what I thought about the stories and the art, if I thought the title was appropriate, and if I feel like the cover fit the book. So, for starters, I will say that I personally loved this book. J. Michael Straczynski is one of my all-time favorite “The Amazing Spider-Man” writers. These stories were originally published between 2002-2003, which was during my early days collecting comics, so I read these relatively close to their original release dates, I actually didn’t get the issues individually, I got the trade paperbacks, my individual comics were strictly “X-Men” series at the time. Regardless of that, I still enjoyed reading Spider-Man. Spider-Man was my childhood favorite cartoon Marvel hero, but I entered comics with the X-Men in middle school. Anyway, I enjoyed reading the developments with Ezekiel, I just like the enigmatic-ness of him, just how and when he shows up and what he does when he enters Peter’s life. I enjoyed seeing Spider-Man’s battle with Shathra, which tested the limits of Peter’s restraint, both in fighting a female and how far he would go to defeat an enemy. I was so happy when Peter and Mary Jane reunited. Their missing each other at their homes then meeting in the airport was great. I loved how Mary Jane complained that Peter never introduced her to Peter’s friends, and the Peter’s response with Captain America was humorous. I enjoyed the Digger storyline, particularly the resolution at the end, I really thought that was great. I enjoyed the storyline with Melissa, the conflict Peter felt over sending Melissa’s brother to jail and trying to make amends was very humanizing and it was a very touching and emotional story. I loved the “Happy Birthday” storyline, the war with Julie was actually very entertaining and I loved her second appearance in the story. I loved how Spider-Man had to relive his past, and some of the greatest moments from Spider-Man’s early history were relived, including his most devastating moments with Betty Brant and Gwen Stacy, although I will say that Straczynski did write these scenes incorrectly, the special features in this collection compare the original scenes to Straczynski’s scenes and they are vastly different, but I still enjoyed seeing these scenes. Peter’s struggle with seeing his demise and then having a chance to end all the pain caused by him becoming Spider-Man and having to make the choice was a very strong moment, and the ending with Peter’s birthday gift from Doctor Strange was very emotional. I enjoyed the “Saturday in the Park with May” issue, seeing Aunt May coping with her nephew being Spider-Man after years of hating the vigilante was fun to see, and the scene in the cell phone store was hysterical, I love the moments when Aunt May doesn’t take stuff from anyone and proves just how strong a woman she is. The “You Want Pants with That?” issue was great as well, I loved the character of Leo Zelinksy, even though I doubt we’ll ever see him again, and the scene with the waiter was great, particularly since the same waiter appeared twice in this book at two different restaurants, and Peter gave him sass both times, I thought that scene was really funny. All-in-all, I thought this book was extremely well-written. There really weren’t too many things I could find to dislike in the stories. There were a few small moments that weren’t great, but they really didn’t ruin my enjoyment of this book all that much. I do have a few complaints about Straczynski’s continuity issues. In the scene where Spider-Man relives the Gwen Stacy bridge scene in the “Happy Birthday” storyline, Gwen is awake when she is knocked off the bridge, but if you read “The Amazing Spider-Man” #121, she was unconscious when the Green Goblin knocked Gwen off the bridge. Straczynski states in his flashbacks that Peter was seventeen when he was bitten by the spider, but other writers have made the claim Peter was fifteen, so I honestly don’t know who to believe. Also, Straczynski made a contradiction in Melissa’s brother’s name. In “Amazing Spider-Man” #55, Melissa’s brother is called “Jack,” but in #56, he is called “Joshua.” This same mistake also happened in the previous volume, so I’ve noticed a pattern of Straczynski forgetting his sub-characters’ names, which is very bad in a writer. I thought Straczynski was a good writer for “The Amazing Spider-Man,” but he did make a few mess ups here and there. Next up, we’re going to discuss the art. I personally love the work of John Romita, Jr., I think he is a fantastic artist. With him and his father being the only artists in this book, I found the art in this collection to be exceptional. I have absolutely no complaints about the artwork inside this graphic novel. As far as the title goes, there were a lot of options from the fact that most of the stories had different titles in this book, the only story that was broken into parts was “Happy Birthday,” which was given three parts. Honestly, the only titles that I feel could have worked were “Unnatural Enemies,” “The Life and Death of Spiders,” “A Spider’s Tale,” “Unintended Consequences,” or “The Revolution Within,” or they could have just made up an original title and that could have worked as well, but I do think that “The Life and Death of Spiders” was a choice that was catchy, but I’m not completely sold on it being the correct title for the entire book. I feel like this was actually the weakest choice for the title and that a different choice would have represented this book better. Moving on to the cover, the editors of this book decided to use a cover depicting Spider-Man swinging with Mary Jane holding onto him and an assortment of his villains following in the background. I feel like this was a perfect cover for this book as this book focused on Spider-Man and Mary Jane’s relationship and all of these villains battled him in the “Happy Birthday” storyline. Overall, though, I was extremely satisfied with this graphic novel.

                Next up on our agenda of topics to go over, we’re going to discuss accessibility. Now, I know some of you have never read one of my reviews before and are wondering just what the heck I mean throwing out the word accessibility like this, so I shall explain it to you. I’ve been over this over six dozen times before in my previous reviews, so I know there are people who already know what they’re about to read, but I have to write it again for the newbs, so if you’ve read my reviews before, please bear with me for a few sentences. So when I say accessibility pertaining to any media I’m reviewing, I’m saying if a person who, in this case, has somehow never heard of Spider-Man before, sees this book anywhere they get books and decides that they want to now read this book based just on looking at the title or cover, then obtains it and reads it, will be able to comprehend the entire story based solely on the content contained in this book and this book alone. In this case, I would say that is a definite no. The content in this book is a direct continuation of the previous storylines written by J. Michael Straczynski, which can conveniently be purchased in Modern Era Epic Collection format as “The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home.” Prior reading is essential in understanding the status of Peter and Mary Jane’s relationship, as well as the presences of both Shathra and Ezekiel, and Aunt May’s struggles with Peter are established in the previous volume as well. I would say not having read “Coming Home” is extremely detrimental to understanding this particular volume. Also, the “Happy Birthday” storyline brings up Spider-Man’s past struggles without context, something than people not acquainted with Spider-Man would recognize. If you are looking to start getting into reading Marvel Comics, I would not say this is a good first volume for you. For those people who do know things about Spider-Man, whether from movies, shows, or video games, I still wouldn’t recommend reading this book without reading “Coming Home.” And for current or lapsed readers of Marvel Comics, again I would still say read all of Straczynski’s previous storylines before attempting to read this book. As a book for accessibility, this one isn’t the greatest. I will say, however, that this does only contain issues from one series and it does not include any tie-in issues to any events, so the narrative is consistent and doesn’t deviate from the one focus, so if you have read “Coming Home,” reading this book won’t present difficulties with following the story.

                Continuing on with this review, as I have been going on for quite a long time, we’re going to get on to a key segment of my review: the numeric score. I know that some people come to my reviews solely to know just how good I score these books I read, but this isn’t the only thing in my reviews that is important to everyone, the story is the most important thing to some readers, but there are readers who come to just read everything I have to say because for some reason they enjoy reading these reviews, and to those people, I say you are THE BEST! I know some people who read these reviews do actually personally know me as well, and read these reviews because of that, so I say “hi” to all of you, and thanks for reading my long-winded review, as this one is particularly long today. But moving one, I’m going to explain my scoring system. I’ve been over this over six dozen times in my previous reviews, and I know some of you already know it, but they newbs don’t, so I have to explain it again. It’s a very simple system, running on a scale of exact integers from one through ten. One is the lowest score I can possibly give, which means this book is not worth reading, and if you really want me to be extreme, in my opinion, every copy of this book should be removed from the shelves or storage and collectively obliterated in a massive fire, then Marvel should go and delete all the plates containing the contents of this book so it can never be reprinted again (honestly that is extreme and I don’t really mean that, that’s just a joking example of saying that it’s bad and shouldn’t be read). Now, if on the other hand, I score anything at a ten, that means that this book is perfection, one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life, and if you get stuck in a conversation with me about it, I will probably rave about it nonstop for ten minutes, and if anyone reads this and doesn’t like it, I will probably think they need to have their head examined because they don’t know what a good story looks like (again, that’s extreme, I actually welcome everyone to have their own opinions on anything I write in my blog as this blog is strictly my opinion and I cannot control what anyone else thinks and I wish you to formulate your own opinion if you read it so we can have a thorough discussion about it, but I still will have a hard time comprehending how you can’t possibly enjoy this book). Now I am extremely strict about giving out tens, I will not give a ten out unless I can find absolutely no flaws with the book at all. That said, I also don’t like giving low scores unless I feel the book actually really deserves it. If you’ve actually been paying attention to my words two paragraphs ago, you’ve probably gathered that this score is going to be relatively high, and I will tell you that you are correct. I did think the story was excellent, but there were a few moments that weren’t spot on, and yes, there were a bunch of continuity mistakes. I thought the art was consistently exceptional throughout the whole book, I find no visual things to complain about. I feel like the title was a little weak. I thought the cover was an adequate representation of the content within the book. So, putting all of that together, the score that I’m going to give this book is… an eight! There were flaws with the writing and the title, but they weren’t too overpowering, and the art was great, so I feel like my score is fair for this book.

                Next up on the docket is my recommendation segment. This section always answers two separate questions. The first question is: do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers of this review, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught up in conversation with me about this book? The second is, regardless of if I recommend this book or not, whom do I think, beyond the obvious answers of fans of the character or the publisher, should be reading this book? So, to answer the first question, you probably don’t need me to say this, but yes, I do recommend this book to anyone who is reading this review and is now interested in reading this book based solely on the words I have typed in this post. As for the second question, I think the best audience for this book is people who enjoy the story of lovers trying to make their romance work through many obstacles in the path of their relationship. It’s also good for people who like reading mob stories. It’s also got a story good for readers who enjoy trying to reunite a family. Finally, it’s also good for readers who enjoy a character forced to face their past, present and future with the option to change all three.

                Okay, we’re at the point where we’re just about ready to wrap this all up and move on with our lives. I’ve been working on this for several hours now, and you’ve been reading this for several minutes now, and we now have other things to do. Maybe some of those other things you have to do is continue browsing timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content from me? If you liked this post and want more “The Amazing Spider-Man” content, I’ve posted reviews of two other “The Amazing Spider-Man” Modern Era Epic Collections, so feel free to check out “The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home” and “The Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time” if you liked this and want to read more of my work. I’ve also written over six dozen other reviews, including Epic Collections, Modern Era Epic Collections, Ultimate Epic Collections, prose novels, and comic book events, so there are plenty of other reviews you can check out as well. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. I’ve done over 170 posts, so there’s plenty of other content you can check out if you want to read more from me. I’ve been doing this blog for five years, so there’s plenty more to read. I post on a very frequent basis, I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released, so you can usually expect at least one post a month. My next post will be “Deadpool: Magnum Opus” which you can expect to see within the next three weeks after the posting of this review, so keep checking for it, it’ll be up soon. I’ll be doing this blog for as long as I can, until I can no longer see or type, so expect this to be going on for a long time. That’s all I have to say for now. I’ll just leave you with the words: Tim Cubbin… out!

"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!