"Black Widow: Widowmaker"

 

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

                Natalia Romanova was rescued as a baby by Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov in the former Soviet Union in 1928. In 1938, Ivan sent young Natalia to train with Taras Romanoff. Taras became like a father to Natalia. In 1940, James Howlett/Logan, the man who would become Wolverine, killed Taras. Natalia then worked in partnership with Ivan. In 1956, Ivan was gravely injured. James “Bucky” Barnes/Winter Soldier offered Ivan and Natalia a serum that would heal Ivan and extend both Ivan and Natalia’s life spans. Natalia accepted the offer, against Ivan’s wishes. In 1957, while training as a Black Widow agent in the Red Room, Natalia was introduced to Alexei Shostakov, the Soviet super soldier the Red Guardian. Alexei gave Natalia the nickname “Natasha.” Soon after, the two were wed. In 1963, the Soviet government faked Alexei’s death. Natalia went on to become a member of the Avengers and a superhero herself. Ivan continued to stay by her side. Though Natalia thought of Ivan as a father figure, Ivan had romantic feelings for Natalia. After repeated rejections after many years, Ivan finally left Natalia. Natalia eventually learned Alexei was alive. Years later, Natalia received a phone call from Ivan, warning her Icepick Protocol had been activated, right before he was murdered. When Natalia came to confirm the body was in fact Ivan’s, Ivan’s head was missing. Natalia went to Russia to try to learn about Icepick Protocol, and discovered that she had been implanted with nanites that could be passed on to the people she was close to, which could be passed of from those people as well, and could cause those infected with them to go into a psychotic rage. After saving Clint Barton/Hawkeye from his wife Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird and giving them the cure, Natalia went off to give the cure to others afflicted by the nanites. Superspy Nick Fury, former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., gave Natalia the access codes to a H.A.M.M.E.R. government launch facility. Natalia broke in and flew to space, where she discovered a Soviet weapon called the Dreadnought floating in orbit over earth. Natalia discovered who the mastermind behind Icepick Protocol was, to her great horror, and was forced to face the past to save earth from nuclear annihilation.

                Natalia mysteriously received a black rose and a ribbon. She went to see her old spy contact the Black Rose to see if he was involved, be he denied any part in sending Natalia the items. On her way to see her boyfriend James Barnes/Captain America, she was attacked. Tony Stark/Iron Man had Wolverine investigate the attack. After finding the items, Wolverine returned to the hospital to watch Natalia after her surgery. Natalia escaped from the hospital. Tony Stark, Hawkeye, and Captain America learned that Natalia was attacked because Natalia had been implanted with a device that was recording information about superpowered individuals and was accused of selling their secrets to the highest bidder, and the device was extracted from inside of Natalia. Tony Stark’s assistant Virginia “Pepper” Potts was attacked by Maki Matsumoto/Lady Bullseye, and Natalia was framed for the attack. Natalia was attacked by Elektra Natchios, who was furious she had been spied on. Elektra let Natalia go after a fight to a standstill where Natalia told Elektra that she was not selling the information. After the fight, Natalia collapsed from her injury. Black Rose discovered Natalia and stitched Natalia up. Natalia flew to London, England to find Ned, son of the tech genius inventor of the device Natalia had been implanted with. Ned told Natalia Sumi was the man who had sold out Natalia to, and Sumi had bought Ned’s father’s tech out in exchange for money and a place to live. Sumi sent Russian agents Ninotchka and Boris after Natalia and Ned, and though Natalia was able to defeat the agents, she was unable to save Ned. Sumi taunted Natalia that Sumi knew about Natalia’s baby. While on a train, Natalia confronted Lady Bullseye, who she paralyzed with an injection and tried to learn who was behind Natalia’s predicament. Lady Bullseye did not give Natalia what she was hoping for. James found Natalia, but Natalia refused to let James get involved in her situation. Natalia visited the family of the woman who delivered Natalia’s stillborn child. In Munich, Germany, Natalia was confronted by a robotic body sent by Imus Champion, the man who was really Sumi. Natalia attacked the robot but was arrested afterwards by Captain America. Natalia escaped lockup, and the arrest had been planned by Natalia herself. Natalia then confronted Imus to the finish.

                Natalia went undercover to the opera to intercept a device for targeted assassinations, code-named “Tiny Dancer,” and deliver it to the Secret Intelligence Service. Natalia was surprised to discover what Tiny Dancer was and getting it to her clients was harder than she thought it would be.

                Tony Stark/Iron Man went undercover to Russia to recover stolen armor, with Natalia’s help. Tony went to make a deal in disguise but was caught by industrial spy Sunset Bain. Sunset hacked Tony’s brain and sent Tony in temporal armor to travel to the past to destroy Avengers Mansion at the first meeting of the Avengers, and Natalia had to find a way to shut down Tony’s brain to save the Avengers.

                Senator Whit Crane was running for vice president of the United States. He was seen with a mysterious “Woman in Black,” then dropped out of the race, and was found dead. His son Nick was a journalist and hoped to find the woman responsible for the death of his father. Kate Horsley/Fatale and Natalia both wanted to find out Nick’s source about the Woman in Black. Fatale got to Nick first and pretended to rescue Nick from the Black Widow. Natalia was able to separate Fatale and Nick and took Nick to a safe location. Natalia attempted to stage an abduction of both Natalia and Nick and bring them to a C.I.A. interrogation site in Poland run by a friend of Natalia’s to force the source out of Nick, but the staged abduction turned real. Nick and Natalia escaped the camp, but discovered Nick and Natalia were being framed for Senator Crane’s murder and went on the run. Nick and Natalia were on a train out of Poland when they were attacked by Russian agents Fantasma and Crimson Dynamo. Fatale rescued Nick and Natalia from the Russian agents. Nick told Natalia and Fatale that his source went by the name “Sadko.” Natalia and Fatale tracked Sadko to Bulgaria and teamed up to investigate Sadko’s true identity, but Sadko wanted Natalia and Fatale dead.

                An assassin called Ronin was striking the South Kuril Islands, islands that were disputed between Russia and Japan. Hawkeye and Mockingbird were investigation the death of a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and discovered that there was a killer targeting spies, and Mockingbird and Black Widow were on the list. Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Dominic Fortune went to Russia to meet up with Natalia, where they found themselves under attack. Natalia brought Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Fortune to a Red Room training facility, where the killer had struck. Russian super agents Crimson Dynamo, Fantasma, Sputnik, and Perun attacked Natalia, Hawkeye, Mockingbird and Fortune, due to the fact that Hawkeye had previously claimed the Ronin costume and identity, but Hawkeye was innocent of these killings. After a grueling fight, Natalia and Hawkeye escaped, and Mockingbird and Fortune left on a plane to Japan. Natalia informed Hawkeye that Natalia knew the killer as Sadko. Natalia and Hawkeye encountered the Madame, and during their fight, Natalia deduced where and who the new Ronin was. Natalia, Hawkeye, Mockingbird and Fortune met up on Iturup and faced Ronin and his army at the foot of an active volcano.

                Natalia and Alaine Racine/Peregrine teamed up in France to rescue hostages from cyborg villain Rapido and stop terrorists from leveling London.

                Okay, we’ve now got our synopsis out of the way, let’s move on to the next phase of this review: my input. First off, we’re going to start with what I thought of this graphic novel. I will say that I found this book to be relatively enjoyable. I liked reading it. Let’s break it down storyline by storyline. “Deadly Origin” was interesting because it blended Natalia’s history with her present and revealed a lot of her background. It was fascinating learning some of the facets of her past that I didn’t previously know about, and the twist at the end of the storyline was great as her past actions inadvertently nearly caused nuclear annihilation. However, I didn’t like how the art of the flashbacks looked compared to the art from the present scenes. “The Name of the Rose” was actually my favorite storyline. I enjoyed reading as the mystery unravel. However, the artwork detracted from my visual enjoyment, but the story itself was good. “Coppelia” was short but sweet, and the Tiny Dancer’s actual purpose led to an interesting read. The artwork was also visually appealing to me, so that made the read entertaining. “Iron Widow” was a fun read, watching Tony Stark trying to change for his deal, and still getting set up even though he came in disguise. I also found the artwork in this issue to be satisfactory. “Kiss or Kill” was highly enjoyable, I loved how the story kept twisting and turning as it went on, and Fatale was an interesting character. I’m torn about the artwork in this storyline because sometimes it looked good to me, and then at other times I just didn’t like how it looked at all. The consistency of the quality of the artwork varied, and there were times where I liked the art, and times I didn’t. “Widowmaker” was a greatly entertaining story arc, Hawkeye is one of my favorite Avengers, and the team up was an exciting one. The true identity of Ronin was a twist I didn’t see coming, and the end battle was exciting. I also felt the artwork was great from both of the artists who penciled this storyline. “Fear Itself” was an interesting issue, seeing her take down a hostage crisis and stop a terrorist attack single-handedly was quite satisfying. However, the artwork itself wasn’t quite so satisfying for me. I also enjoyed how several of the storylines connected, even though they came from separate series. The continuity was much appreciated, and the continuing themes but featuring different characters made the read more interesting. Overall, I highly enjoyed reading the stories, but there were times where the artwork wasn’t so appealing. I also have to critique the choice of the title for this collection. My opinion is that the title should reflect the majority of the overall content of the book. The longest storyline in this collection was “The Name of the Rose,” but other options were “Deadly Origins,” “Kiss or Kill,” and “Widowmaker.” I honestly think any of the latter three choices would be appropriate titles for this collection, but if I were the editors, I probably would have leaned in more for “Deadly Origins” or “Kiss or Kill” for the title as I feel those represent this volume better. However, I still find myself able to support “Widowmaker” as the title, despite not feeling it was the best title for this collection. Finally in my examinations, we’re going to talk about the cover. I feel like the front cover should be an accurate preview of what the reader should expect to see in this collection, meaning it also represents the majority of the overall content of the book. This book sports a cover of Black Widow posing with two guns in the foreground, in front of a motorcycle, with Wolverine and Winter Soldier standing in the background. I feel like this book should have featured a cover with just Black Widow on it. While Wolverine and James Barnes are recurring supporting characters in this collection, I feel that this cover does not deliver on a promise of a team up with Black Widow, Wolverine and Winter Soldier as I came to expect from viewing the cover. I actually feel like that cover is highly misleading as there are few points where all three characters appear on the same panel in this collection, and James Barnes and does not appear alongside Wolverine as Winter Soldier at any point in this collection, just as Captain America, so I feel like the choice of cover was actually poor to use for a solo issue, and especially poor to use to represent this whole book. However, I do feel relatively positively about the book itself, based on story, but the art sometimes left a little to be desired.

                Next up, we’re going to discuss accessibility. I know some of you have been here before so you know what I’m about to explain, I’ve done it over seven dozen times at this point, but every time I do a new post, I know I have readers who have never been here before, so I have to do it once again, so if you do know this, just bear with me for a few sentences while I explain it to the newbs. So, the question I’m posing here is, is this book accessible? Accessible means can a person who knows absolutely nothing about Black Widow comics obtain a copy of this book, read it, and follow the story as it is written, with no difficulties? So, my answer to that question is yes. This book is extremely standalone. These are all limited series or one-shots that really don’t continue directly off of storylines from other series, with the exception of “Fear Itself: Black Widow,” but even that doesn’t feel to me like knowing the main event “Fear Itself” is actually a necessity to comprehend this issue. I don’t feel like having outside knowledge of Marvel Comics is essential to read this book. Despite this book being marketed as Vol. 2, every series in this book starts with issue #1, so there are no previous issues to any of the issues contained in this collection. If you are looking for a place to start reading Marvel Comics, I wouldn’t say this is the best starter book, but I feel it is definitely a book that a person who has never read a Marvel Comic book before can begin with.

                Next up, we’re going to move on to one of the core components of my review: the numeric score. I won’t say it’s the most important part of my review, everything in these reviews has some kind of essentiality for being in it, so I can’t say any one paragraph in this review is the reason everyone is reading this review for. However, this is, in my opinion, highly essential to my reviews and they would not be complete without it. So let me start off by explaining my scoring system. The system is extremely simple: I score on whole numbers ranging from one to ten. My lowest score is a one, and that means this book was so awful that every copy not sold should be immediately gathered up and obliterated, then all the prints that could be used to recreate this abomination should be wiped clean to prevent the continuation of this horrible piece of trash’s existence. Okay, that is extremely extra, but it illustrates my point that this book is just awful. However, if I give a score of a ten, that means this book is sheer perfection and I will never understand it if this book does not become a bestseller and if every copy doesn’t get sold and if it doesn’t have to get reprinted every few years. Now, I am very much not easy to please, and I will not give out a ten if a book truly is not perfection. So, what I’m looking for in a graphic novel is a constantly entertaining story, consistently appealing art, a title that perfectly captures the essence of the story, and a cover that accurately represents the content of the book. So we’ve established that I did enjoy the story, I found the art to be hit-and-miss, the title wasn’t absolutely perfect in my opinion, and I don’t believe the cover delivers on what it shows on the front of the book as actually being what comprises the majority of this book. So, looking at all of this, and putting it all together and churning out a score, what I have to rate this book at is… a seven! While the story was good, the artwork and the cover brought my score down a bit.

                Next up on our list of topics to discuss is the recommendation. In this paragraph, I answer two questions. Question number one is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers? Would I tell you, if you are interested in reading this book based solely on what I have just spent the past few hours writing, to go out to your nearby bookstore, or preferred online retailer, or favorite comic book shop, or local library, or Marvel fanatic friend or relative’s house, and procure this book and read it as soon as you possibly can? The second question is, regardless of if I would actually recommend this book personally, what kind of audience might appreciate this book, besides the obvious target group of fans of Marvel, Black Widow, or the creators? So, to answer the first question, yes, this book has my personal recommendation. I’d totally tell you to read it if my words have piqued your interest in perusing through this collection. To answer my second question, I think that this book would appeal to fans of spy stories, espionage stories, stories with mysteries, stories with lots of plot twists, and stories with a strong female lead.

                Okay, we’ve reached the point where I’m getting ready to wrap things up. There are a few things I would like to say before I go. I’ve been doing this blog for over five and a half years now. I’ve compiled over 180 posts, so keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. Over seven dozen of these posts are reviews of Epic Collections just like this one. I currently collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after its release and if possible, post a review. If you liked this post, feel free to check out my reviews of “Black Widow: The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” and “Black Widow: Chaos” for more content about Black Widow Modern Era Epic Collections. In addition to these reviews, I’ve also reviewed some prose novels, manga, and comic book events. I’ve also written short stories, poems, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s other kinds of content to enjoy here as well. I post on a very frequent basis. My next post will be a review of “Ultimate X-Men: World Tour” you can expect to see that post sometime within the next two months following this post, most likely a lot sooner than that. I plan to keep doing this blog for as long as I can, so you can expect to keep seeing posts on this site for quite some time, unless I do something to prevent myself from being able to type. That’s all I have to say for now except Tim Cubbin… out!

"Ultimate Spider-Man: Hunted"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Ultimate Spider-Man: Hunted” as presented in Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection format.

            Accidentally bitten by a genetically altered spider, teenager Peter Parker now finds he had the proportionate abilities of a spider. This includes strength, agility, a spider-like sixth sense warning him of personal danger. And, most amazing of all-Peter can walk on walls. When Peter learns through the recent tragedy of his Uncle Ben’s death that with great power there must also come great responsibility, he fearlessly dons the costume of: Spider-Man. After two rousing trials by fire in the form of his first two conflicts as a real-life super hero, Spider-Man came out victorious over the misshapen monstrosity of the Goblin and the underworld overboss the Kingpin of Crime. Peter had many unanswered questions about his powers and how he got them. One thing he knew was that by running around as Spider-Man, he had been hurting the feelings of the only true friend he has, the beautiful Mary Jane Watson. After defeating the Kingpin, the first thing he did was call Mary Jane over for a serious talk-where he revealed his secret identity to her.

            In an effort to help the students study the environment around them from another perspective, Peter’s social studies teacher at Midtown High School assigned her class an oral presentation to come to class in character as a superhero and explain why they were the way they were and what their powers meant to them. This assignment caused great dissent among the students, who were unhappy with the prospect of coming to school in costume. Kenny “Kong” MacFarlane worried that the advent of the supers was the end of the normals, but new student Gwendolyn Stacy just shared her perspective that what everyone does best is their superpower. Doctor Otto Octavius awoke in a S.H.I.E.L.D. medical facility after being in a coma for three months following an explosion at Osborn Industries. His apparatus he wore for lab work, four mechanical arms, were now fused to his body, and he could control them telepathically. He had no memory of the accident. After a show of violence, Otto escaped the facility. He returned to his old home to find a new resident living there and took his anger out on her. Kong, who had been present when Peter was bitten by the spider that gave Peter spider powers, and had witnessed several changes in Peter’s reflexes, surmised that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. He shared his theory with Fred “Flash” Thompson and Liz Allan, who did not agree with Kong’s opinion. To try to prove his theory, Flash told Kong to attack Peter from behind, rationalizing that is Peter were Spider-Man, Peter would be able to prevent the assault. Although Peter’s spider sense warned him of Kong’s impending attack, Peter allowed Kong to get his attack in order to hide his identity. In anger of Peter being bullied, Gwen pulled a blade on Kong, threatening him should he ever bully Peter again. Gwen was pulled out of school. Gwen’s father, New York Police Department Captain John Stacy, was pulled off of a homicide case to deal with his daughter. Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich came to Editor in Chief J. Jonah Jameson with insider information about Otto Octavius. Though skeptical, Jameson told Urich to look into this story. Octavius mistakenly blamed Justin Hammer for the accident at Osborn Industries. Hammer was a businessman and rival to Norman Osborn, head of Osborn Industries, missing since the accident in the laboratory. Octavius swore revenge on Hammer for turning Octavius into a freak. Octavius broke into Hammer’s residence, but Hammer was no present at the time. Reality television star Kraven the Hunter announced he would be coming to New York City for his greatest hunt yet. Urich tipped Captain Stacy off to the possibility that Octavius was involved in the recent murder right before S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrived to ask Stacy about the case. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents interrogated Hammer about his knowledge of Octavius, warning Hammer that Octavius was targeting Hammer. Kraven arrived in New York and announced that the creature he intended to hunt and kill in the City was Spider-Man. Hammer unveiled the Big Apple Energy Dome Project, a facility that would provide New York was an abundance of affordable and alternative energy sources as a distraction from the secret illegal genetic experiments he was performing in his laboratory. Octavius attacked the project. The Midtown High School student body was informed Kraven the Hunter would be filming a segment of his show at the High School, location of one of the first Spider-Man sightings. Peter heard the report of an attack on the Dome Project and swung in as Spider-Man. Octavius defeated Spider-Man and fled the scene, and Spider-Man was only able to escape S.H.I.E.L.D. agents by leaving behind a piece of Spider-Man’s costume. Mary Jane patched Peter up after Spider-Man’s beating and promised to help repair Peter’s costume. Peter barely managed to hide his injuries from his Aunt May. Peter went to school, where Gwen’s attention to Peter drew jealousy from Mary Jane. Mary Jane gave Peter Spider-Man’s costume piece replacement in time for Spider-Man to tail Hammer. Hammer received a summons from Octavius to Hammer’s laboratory, and Spider-Man rode on top of Hammer’s limo. Kraven received word of Spider-Man’s location and began his hunt. Octavius intended to expose Hammer’s illegal experiments. Spider-Man swung into action to protect Hammer and Hammer’s assistant. Spider-Man confronted both Otto Octavius and Kraven the Hunter but was unable to save the life of Justin Hammer. Peter returned home at three o’clock in the morning to find Aunt May awake waiting for Peter to return home. Peter was caught in a lie as to his whereabouts and was grounded. S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to obtain Spider-Man’s secret identity.

            Peter had to get swing time in as Spider-Man during the day due to being grounded, which made him late for school. Peter informed Mary Jane she would be unable to come over to the Parker residence. Harry Osborn returned to Midtown High School. Harry informed Peter that Norman Osborn wished to have dinner with Peter. Peter was surprised, as he believed the Goblin that attacked Midtown High School was Norman. Peter told Harry that Peter was grounded. Norman sent a limo to the Parker house, and Aunt May relented and allowed Peter to go to the Osborn residence. Norman met with Peter in private, where he induced a transformation into the Goblin and informed Peter that Spider-Man worked for Norman Osborn or else Peter’s friends and family would pay the price. Peter quickly fled the Osborn residence before dinner and returned home. Aunt May decided to lift Peter’s grounding. Peter tried to call Mary Jane to inform her about what happened, but the call was interrupted by the arrival of Gwen Stacy at the Parker residence. Gwen’s mother had run off to Chicago with a new boyfriend, and John was at work, and Gwen had been left home alone. Aunt May watched over Gwen until John was able to come pick Gwen up. The next day at school, Peter tried to tell Mary Jane about the previous night but was interrupted by both Gwen and a page by Doctor Bradley. Doctor Bradley was secretly an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Peter was introduced to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, who informed Peter S.H.I.E.L.D. was aware Peter was Spider-Man and Norman was the Goblin. Fury told Peter that Osborn was going to have Peter kill Fury. Fury also informed Peter that S.H.I.E.L.D. would be unable to act against Osborn until Osborn actually did something illegal. Upon returning home, Peter found a limo waiting to take both Peter and Aunt May to the Osborn residence for dinner. Peter told Aunt May that Norman might be a criminal, and Aunt May turned down the dinner invitation. Spider-Man confronted the Goblin and told the Goblin that Spider-Man would not do the Goblin’s bidding. In retaliation, the Goblin abducted Mary Jane. The Goblin led Spider-Man to the Queensborough Bridge. The Goblin threw Mary Jane off of the Bridge. Spider-Man shot a web and caught her and returned to ground level, but Mary Jane was unresponsive. Now that Osborn had crossed the line, S.H.I.E.L.D. could act against Osborn. Peter’s rage against Osborn was now increased, and Spider-Man joined S.H.I.E.L.D.’s fight against the Goblin. Goblin tried to flee to the Osborn residence, where Goblin used code words Doctor Warren, the psychiatrist Norman hired in order to for Norman to control Harry, had programmed into Harry to render Harry unconscious. Goblin injected himself with more of the Goblin serum and Spider-Man faced the fury of a souped-up Goblin.

            Okay, now that we’ve got a rather lengthy summary out of the way, let’s move on to my perspective parts of this review. My previous readers know I always start with my own personal opinions on the book when I do a review, and I will do the same once again. I will say that I thoroughly loved this book. I’ve actually read the issues collected in this book both individually and in other collection formats many times before, and the original “Ultimate Spider-Man” is very much a favorite of mine. This series began right before I started regularly reading Marvel Comics, so this series was an entry point for me into Spider-Man comics as this was a new universe where all of Spider-Man history had never happened. I could really relate to fifteen-year-old Peter Parker, being thirteen years old myself at the time I started reading the series. This series also came out before the first “Spider-Man” movie, so there weren’t a lot of retellings of Spider-Man’s origin story available at the time. I have been a fan of Brian Michael Bendis’ work since “Ultimate Spider-Man,” I think he is a brilliant writer. I thought the stories in this book were phenomenal. I love Ultimate Gwen Stacy, I think she is absolutely a bad (word I’m not going to use on this blog). I loved how she stood up to Kong for bullying Peter, and then friction she caused between Peter and Mary Jane was great drama. I will also say I enjoyed that Bendis didn’t make Aunt May a sweet doting old lady like Stan Lee created, rather a strict woman who exerts authority. I enjoyed that change. Aunt May grounding Peter actually made the story more entertaining for me because it impacted Peter’s activities as Spider-Man and gave him limitations. I also liked Bendis’ interpretation of the Goblin, being an actual monstrosity who could fly and shoot energy blasts, rather than just being a man in a costume flying around on a glider throwing out weapons. I liked how Bendis made Kraven the Hunter a reality television star, but I will say that Kraven has never really been one of my favorite Spider-Man villains, and I will say I feel Bendis totally nerfed him. I think Doctor Octopus was done perfectly in this book. I enjoyed the amnesia and the derangement and the desire for revenge. And to top this off on things I liked about this book, Mark Bagley is my favorite comic book artist, I love his work, I think he has a fantastic artistic style and his work in this book was nothing short of amazing. If there is something I didn’t like about this book, it was that is didn’t include “Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special” #1, which concluded the story about the “be a superhero” assignment. The fact it was left out made the whole plotline feel like it was for no reason and that it went nowhere. I know the previous formats didn’t include it, and I was hoping the Ultimate Epic Collection might fix this, but alas, it didn’t, so I was slightly disappointed by that. I will also say I found the choice of title odd. None of the other formats have ever used the title “Hunted” before, so this kind of came out of left field. This book had fourteen issues in it, each with a different title, and the previous formats used two titles, and the choice they used was one that I don’t feel was ideal for this book. “Hunted” just doesn’t capture the essence of the book as a whole, in my opinion. I’m not going to speculate on what would have been the best title for this book as I think that very few of them would be perfect representations of the book as a whole, and I think they all have their flaws when it comes to being the ideal title for this particular collection. What I found very interesting was the cover. Usually, the cover of an Epic Collection is the cover of one of the issues contained in the book. This collection uses a panel from one page inside one of the issues as the cover. I actually approve of this choice. While, yes, there are covers inside this book that would have worked as a cover for this collection, I think this choice works perfectly. It was a bold choice, in my opinion, and they didn’t have to do it and there were plenty of other options to choose from, but I thought choosing a panel instead of an individual issue cover fits this book just fine. Overall, I found this book to be an enjoyable read and I loved experiencing it again.

            Next up on our list of topics to cover while doing this review, we’re going to discuss accessibility. If you’ve read more than one of my reviews before, you know exactly what’s coming next because I’ve been over this over seven dozen times already, but every time I write a review, I always have new readers who have never consumed a Tim Cubbin review before and might not know what I mean when I use the word “accessibility.” So, what I’m asking here is, is this book accessible? And what I mean is, can a person who knows absolutely nothing about Spider-Man at all, or have no knowledge of the plotlines outside this book, decide to read this book and then completely understand the whole story in its entirety based solely on what is contained in this volume alone. I will tell you this book is relatively accessible. It does continue directly out of the previous volume, picking up on its stories and continuing where it left off, that is true, but to me, I don’t feel like having read the previous stories is an absolute necessity to read this volume. Having read the previous volume makes this volume fully accessible. This is marketed as Vol. 2, so there is a little bit of backstory. But the issues in this book are all consecutive issues of one series and don’t tie-into any other series or storylines or crossover or rely on knowledge of other series or characters outside of this volume. And the stories in this book don’t pick up from an unfinished ending of the previous volume and don’t leave an unresolved conclusion hanging directly into the next volume. Yes, it continues from the foundation of Vol. 1, but I don’t feel like reading it is absolutely essential to enjoying this volume.

            Moving on, we’re going to move on to the scoring. I know some people feel that a numeric score is the most important part of my reviews. I can’t completely agree with that. It’s beneficial for me to discuss the story as well, and talking about my personal opinions establishes a lot, even saying if the book is accessible helps, and it’s key to know if I’d give the book a personal recommendation, so I think each part of my reviews are important in their own way. But I will say that the score is a very essential point in my reviews. So obviously it would help if I explained my scoring system first. I know if you’ve read more than one of my reviews before, you know the gist of what I’m about to say, but again, I have the newbs who don’t know how this works, so I have to explain the system to benefit them. Well, my scoring system is extremely simple. I score on a scale of whole numbers ranging from one through ten. If I score the book at a one, that is the lowest score, and that means this book is absolute trash and not worth reading. However, if I score the book at a ten, that means the book is sheer perfection and one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life. Let us not forget that this is a graphic novel, so we have to take several things into consideration when scoring this book. Obviously we’re going for story, that’s a very key thing to look at when scoring, but we also have to take into consideration if the art is actually at peak, too; and on top of that, we have to look if the title lives up to what its name implies it will give us. And yes, I even look at the cover, if what it shows us on the front of this book is actually accurate to the essence of the book. I loved so much about this book, and while I would love to score it at a ten, I just can’t. The title just doesn’t feel right to me, and the exclusion of “Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special” #1 just makes the “be a superhero” assignment storyline feel like it goes nowhere and would make anyone who hasn’t read the “Super Special” wonder why these scenes are even included in this collection at all, so deduction on the score is imperative. However, I don’t feel like being harsh on this book either. So, when all is said and done and I give out my numeric score, the number we are looking at is… a nine! I feel like this book exceeded expectations and highly excelled and while it did have a few flaws, they were only minor. This book was close to perfection for me, and I really would love to have given it a ten, but there were just a few things holding me back, the title being one of the biggest ones. All-in-all though, I thought this was an excellent book.

            Continuing on with our agenda of topics to discuss, we’re going to do the recommendation segment. This segment answers two separate questions. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers, and if you are reading this review and are intrigued by what I’ve written, should you now try to obtain this book and read it as well, based solely on the words I’ve just spent the past several hours typing? The second question is regardless of the answer to my first question, and it is, whom do I think would be the best audiences for this book, besides the obvious answers of Spider-Man fans, Marvel fans, or fans of the creative team? I could probably skip the first question as it’s pretty obvious what I’m going to say, but the answer is yes, I recommend this book to anyone reading these words or who is unfortunate enough to find themselves caught up in a conversation about this graphic novel with me. If you’re interested in reading this book now just because of me, I’d highly recommend going to a bookstore, or your favorite comic book store, or your preferred online retailer, or your local library, or (if you’re lucky enough) from a Marvelite friend or relative, and get a copy as soon as you can. In answer to question number two, I feel like the best audience is teenagers who want to read a comic book as they will find the characters most relatable. I also feel like if you like soap operas and are interested in print medium, this book captures the essence of a daytime drama in an action and science fiction format.

            Well, we’re just about ready to part ways for this review. There are a few things I do have to say first before I hit publish. First off, I’ve been doing this blog for five and a half years now. I’ve published over 180 posts. A lot of them are reviews just like this. I’ve reviewed a lot of Marvel Epic Collections, particularly Modern Era Epic Collections, and right now, the main focus of this blog is reviewing Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I have reviewed comic book events, prose novels, and manga as well. I’ve also posted short stories, poems, articles, essays, and editorials, so there’s plenty of other content to check out, so keep browsing timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my work. If you liked this post and have some more free time, please check out my review of “Ultimate Spider-Man: Learning Curve” for more “Ultimate Spider-Man” content. My next post is going to be “Black Widow: Widowmaker” which will be posted within the next two months following this post, so keep checking back for it if you liked this post and want to continue reading my new works. I post on a very frequent basis as I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after its release and post a review on the earliest day I have free after I’ve finished reading the Epic Collection. I’m going to keep this blog going as long as I can, so you can expect to see this going on for a while as my doctor yesterday told me I’m healthier than she is. I love doing this blog and even though I don’t get paid for it, I still do it as professionally as I can. I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, so doing this blog puts me in the field, since my actual job is working in a grocery store. Anyway, if you read all the way to this point, you are THE BEST! I appreciate you. Feel free to like, share, retweet, comment, and tell your friends about me, and please keep coming back for more, as I’ll keep dishing out plenty more content on this blog. That’s all I have to say for now, but until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Daredevil: The Murdock Papers"

 

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

            Alexander Bont had been an up-and-coming mobster during prohibition. He went on to become the Kingpin of crime in New York City. He ended the career of a crimefighter who called himself the Defender. Matt Murdock/Daredevil helped play a part in Bont’s arrest. After Bont got out on bail, Bont turned to Melvin Potter/Gladiator, one of the people on his payroll. Bont offered Gladiator ownership of Gladiator’s shop in exchange for the demise of Daredevil. Bont turned to Matt Murdock and his law partner Franklin “Foggy” Nelson for legal representation, but Nelson and Murdock were already involved in a case that qualified as a conflict of interest with Bont. Daredevil fought and defeated Gladiator and learned the Bont had enticed Gladiator into attempting to end Daredevil. Bont was found guilty in court and sent to jail. Following this, another up-and-coming mobster named Wilson Fisk took Bont’s place as New York City’s Kingpin of Crime. Years later, Daredevil defeated Wilson Fisk and declared himself the Kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen. Bont was released from prison and wanted to take his position back. He started taking the street drug Mutant Growth Hormone to temporarily obtain superpowers and ended the life of one of his former underlings, Slick Saul. Matt had been outed in the press as Daredevil and Bont wanted revenge on the hero who put Bont in prison. FBI Special Agent Angela Del Toro was assigned to the cases of investigating Matt Murdock as Daredevil and of following Bont and was able to connect Bont with Slick Saul’s ending. Del Toro had inherited the White Tiger amulets from her deceased uncle Hector Ayala, the former White Tiger. Daredevil began training Del Toro in using the powers the White Tiger amulets granted. Bont once again procured Gladiator’s service and had Matt abducted. Del Toro came to Matt’s rescue and fought Gladiator, and Matt faced Bont for the final time.

            Reverand Bob Cumeo led a support group for the people of Hell’s Kitchen to come discuss the effects of Daredevil on their daily lives. One woman was present the night Daredevil took down Fisk and shared the story of how Daredevil’s cleansing of crime in Hell’s Kitchen changed this woman’s life for the better. One man in attendance had planted a bomb in an attempt to destroy Daredevil. One woman shared a story of how her husband was talked into committing crimes by a demon and defeated by Daredevil. This led to an outbreak of violence between this woman and a victim of the woman’s husband who came to the meeting just to have a confrontation and was furious to hear such an outlandish story. Just as the group about to disband, another woman in attendance pulled out her daughter’s drawing of the demon. The supervillain Jonathan Powers/Jester had this demon inside him, and it spurred him into holding a bank full of people hostage, including this woman’s daughter. Daredevil had defeated Jester and the demon had escaped. To the group’s surprise, one of the members in attendance was Matt Murdock, who had come to the group looking for the man who had conjured the demon that had been inside Jester and was inside a man in attendance of this same group. The man escaped and Matt had a confrontation that ended both the conjurer and the demon.

            Wilson Fisk spoke to Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich from Fisk’s prison cell. He wanted to make a deal with the Federal Agents: he could leave the country with all of his assets unseized in exchange for proving Matt Murdock was Daredevil. Agent Del Toro had a conversation with the Director of the FBI, where the Director revealed he was planning to take Fisk’s deal. The two argued, and Del Toro was fired. Natasha Romanov/Black Widow went to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill to try to bargain for Hill to squash the deal, but Hill refused. Matt reconnected with his ex-wife Milla Donovan. Elektra Natchios, Matt’s ex-girlfriend, came to Matt after news about “The Murdock Papers” broke. Fisk told the FBI director he had documented evidence proving Matt Murdock, and Elektra wanted to help Matt get to it before the FBI did. Black Widow agreed to help Daredevil and Elektra get the papers. Del Toro also offered her support. Leland Owsley/Owl hired contract killer Bullseye to kill Daredevil to prevent Fisk from getting his deal. Daredevil and Elektra beat Bullseye, but Daredevil was shot by the mercenary Paladin, hired by the FBI. Fisk revealed that there were no Murdock Papers and that it was all just a story he told to keep his underlings and associates in line. Elektra brought Daredevil to the Night Nurse, a nurse who secretly treated superheroes. Fisk surmised thar Daredevil was taken to the Night Nurse, and Ben Urich, who had been brought along on the deal, knew the location of the Night Nurse’s clinic, and to not reveal this information would be an obstruction of justice that could get Urich arrested. As Night Nurse struggled to save Daredevil’s life, Black Widow brought Milla to the clinic. The ninja clan the Hand arrived and used their magic to heal Daredevil. Luke Cage and Danny Rand/Iron Fist tried to prevent the FBI from finding Daredevil. As chaos ensued, Daredevil revived and surrendered to the FBI.

            Okay, now that we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, let’s move on to the Tim Cubbin segments of this review. We’re going to start, as we usually do, with my personal opinions. First off, I will say that I found this book to be pretty enjoyable. I found the stories to be relatively interesting. I enjoyed “Golden Age,” the rise and fall and attempted reprisal of Bont was entertaining. I really liked “Decalogue,” the support group stories and the demon made for a compelling read. “The Murdock Papers” was engaging, the deal with Fisk was a shocker, the twist that Fisk sent everyone on a wild goose chase was a huge surprise, and the ending was just unbelievable. I feel like Bendis did a very good job finishing his run. That said, I was not a fan of the artwork done by Alex Maleev. I can compare his artwork to looking like a colored sketchbook and it’s just a style I don’t like. As far as the title choice for this book, there were the options “Golden Age,” “Decalogue,” “The Murdock Papers,” or make up a title, and I feel like “The Murdock Papers” was the best choice for this collection. While “Golden Age” could have worked, I think it doesn’t sound as appealing as the title the editors chose, and “Decalogue” would not have worked as a title for this collection in my opinion. I think the editors picked right with “The Murdock Papers.” And it also was the longest story arc in the book, although both “Golden Age” and “Decalogue” were five issues and “The Murdock Papers” was six issues, so it’s not hugely a significant dominance, but it still was longer even though only slightly. I do have to complain about the choice of the cover. The cover chosen for this book depicts Daredevil swinging in his original yellow and red costume, which is only seen in flashback sequences in “Golden Age.” As such, I don’t feel it was an appropriate representation for the book as a whole as it was seen briefly in a story arc that made up less than one third of the book. I feel there were plenty of other covers in this collection that could have been chosen that would have made a much more accurate front cover for a book with this content. As far as story goes with this book, I was generally satisfied, it was just the artwork that I found to be disappointing.

            Next up, we’re going to discuss accessibility. Now I know at this point I have explained my usage of this word over seven dozen times in my vast amount of reviews on this blog, but since every time I write this review I have new readers, I have to explain myself again each time because there are the newbs who might not understand what I mean by my usage of the word. So when I’m posing the question “is ‘Daredevil: The Murdock Papers’ accessible?,” what I’m asking is, can a person who knows absolutely nothing about Daredevil or Marvel Comics in general see this book at a bookstore, online retailer, comic shop, library, or friend/relative’s collection, be intrigued by it, decide they want to read it, obtain it, read it, and understand everything they’ve read without context? The answer to this is a huge no. This book is marketed as Vol. 5, and it culminates a story that has been running since Vol. 2 straight through. Not having read the previous three volumes in the series is extremely detrimental to comprehending these storylines as these stories continue directly from Vols. 2-4. If you have been following the series, however, this volume is one-hundred percent accessible as it contains content from only one series in order with no gaps, and it does not cross over into other series or tie into any ongoing events. But if you have not read the entirety of Bendis’ run prior to the start of this volume, I will tell you not to attempt to read this volume at all, you have missed so much backstory and grasping all the content will be extremely difficult. If you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and are looking for a place to start reading, this is not your jump on point. If you want to tackle this book with no other Marvel Comics history, first read the Marvel Daredevil Modern Era Epic Collections “Underboss,” “Out,” and “King of Hell’s Kitchen,” then you will be all prepared to dive headfirst into this volume, but outside of that, I would not recommend reading this graphic novel without consuming the previous three sequential volumes in the series first. Some of my previous readers may recall I already wrote a review of “Daredevil: The Devil in Cell-Block D,” which is actually Vol. 6 and was released out of sequence, and if you read this review, you may recall my great displeasure in this choice of marketing. Were they to have been released in order, “The Devil in Cell-Block D” would probably have gotten a better review as this volume leads directly into the next volume and this release plan makes no sense and was very detrimental to my enjoyment of the story. I will definitely tell you to read the Modern Era Epic Collections by volume numbers and not by release date order.

            Next up, I’m going to give this book a numeric score. While some people read these reviews to know exactly how good I think a book is, I can’t say this paragraph is the single most important segment in my reviews, but it is very essential to my reviews. So, let’s discuss my scoring system really quick. I score on an extremely basic scale: my scale is a system of exact numbers ranging from one to ten. One is the lowest score I can possibly give, and that means this book is awful, and that if I ran the world, every unsold copy of this book would be rounded up and put on a massive pile, then ignited and burned until they are nothing but ashes, then every possible way to reprint this book would be wiped so this affront to the literary world can never be reproduced and it will be extinguished from existence forever. Ten is the highest score I can possibly give, and that means this book is sheer perfection and that I will never understand if this book does not become a bestseller that goes out of stock and has to be reprinted every three years. So, when I’m scoring a book, I’m looking at four things: story, art, title, and cover. All of these factors are taken into consideration when I make my scoring verdict. So, with this book, we had a story I found generally enjoyable, art I found entirely displeasing, a title I feel represented this book well, and a cover that did not depict the overall content contained in the pages of this graphic novel. This makes churning out a score somewhat difficult. But when mixing a score for this book as a whole, taking everything into account, the score I’m going to give out is… a seven. For the most part, I found the book to be literarily enjoyable, just not artistically enjoyable.

            Next up is going to be my recommendation segment. Here I answer two questions. The first is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught up in a conversation with me about this book? The second question is, regardless of my answer to question number one, who do I think, beyond the regular fandom of Marvel, Daredevil, comic book fans, or fans of the creative team would most enjoy this graphic? To answer my first question, I would answer yes with a caveat: read Vols. 2-4 first, then read this volume. If what I’ve been writing for the past few hours has you interested in reading this book, I tell you to go for it, as long as you read all of the previous parts of Bendis’ run first and read it as an entirety of his work on Daredevil. As for an audience whom I think might enjoy this graphic novel, I would say that fans of crime graphic novels would find this appealing, especially the mob, as the Bont flashback sequences pertain to prohibition and mobster fans would probably find those segments particularly enjoyable. “Decalogue” actually hold religious connotations, so Catholic or Christian graphic novel fans might enjoy it as it is framed around the Ten Commandments and features a satanic presence. Espionage fans would also possibly find this enjoyable, with the FBI going after Daredevil and the Black Widow getting involved. And fans of legal dramas might find this interesting as Daredevil’s alter ego is a lawyer and “The Murdock Papers” has a huge focus on the law.

            Okay, we’re at the point where we’re just about finished. There are a few more things I have to say before I log off and click post. First off, I’ve been doing this blog for over five years and have accumulated over 180 posts. Over seven dozen of them are reviews of Epic Collections just like this one. I’ve also reviewed prose novels and manga in the past. I’ve also drafted short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s a variety of content on this blog if you’re looking for a change of pace. My current main focus however is to review Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase each one as soon as I can after it is released and review it as quickly as possible. If you liked this particular review, feel free to search for my reviews of “Daredevil: Underboss,” “Daredevil: Out,” “Daredevil: The King of Hell’s Kitchen,” and “Daredevil: The Devil in Cell-Block D” for more Daredevil content. My next review is going to be “Ultimate Spider-Man: Hunted” you can expect to see this post within the next two months from the date of this posting. I plan to keep doing this blog for as long as possible, which will be until I am no longer capable of typing, so expect this to keep going for quite a while. That’s all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Young Avengers: The Children's Crusade"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Young Avengers: The Children’s Crusade” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Erik Lensherr/Magneto became interested in the Young Avengers, particularly Billy Kaplan/Wiccan and Tommy Shepherd/Speed, who might be the reincarnated children of Magneto’s daughter Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, essentially his own grandsons. Both Scott Summers/Cyclops and James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine warned Magneto to stay away from the kids.

                The Young Avengers (Cassie Lang/Stature, Eli Bradley/Patriot, Kate Bishop/Hawkeye, Tommy Shepherd/Speed, Kate Bishop/Hawkeye, Teddy Altman/Hulkling, Billy Kaplan/Wiccan, and Vision) battled the supremacist group the Sons of the Serpent. Steve Rogers/Captain America, Tony Stark/Iron Man, and Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel arrived to assist the fight. Wiccan lost control of his powers and put all the members of the Sons of the Serpent into comas. The Avengers feared he could potentially have the same powers as the Scarlet Witch and be the Scarlet Witch’s son. The Scarlet Witch had lost control of her powers and killed Avengers Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Scott Lang/Ant-Man, and Vision; created a world where Magneto ruled; and when the World of M failed, robbed millions of mutants of their powers with a single spell. After the World of M, Scarlet Witch disappeared, and no one had been able to find her. Wiccan refused to believe the Scarlet Witch was acting of her own free will when she committed these acts. The Avengers took Wiccan in for assessment. Hulkling volunteered to stay with Wiccan. The rest of the Young Avengers broke Wiccan and Hulkling out. Magneto found the Young Avengers and asked for Wiccan and Speed’s help finding Scarlet Witch. Wiccan refused to go without the rest of his team. The Avengers (Steve Rogers/Captain America, Tony Stark/Iron Man, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Carol Danvers/Ms. Mavel, Logan/Wolverine, and Luke Cage arrived and fought Magneto, but Wiccan teleported the Young Avengers and Magneto to Wundagore Mountain in Transia, birthplace of the Scarlet Witch. They began to search for Scarlet Witch when they encountered Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver, who tried to separate Wiccan from Magneto. Quicksilver attacked Magneto, and during this attack, destroyed a Doombot disguised as the Scarlet Witch. Wiccan tried to sneak off to teleport to Latveria, the country ruled by Doctor Doom, but he was discovered by Quicksilver and the Young Avengers before he could make the jump. The Avengers turned to Simon Williams/Wonder Man for help finding Scarlet Witch due to an energy bond the two shared. Wiccan managed to sneak away from the Young Avengers, Magneto, and Quicksilver and teleport to Latveria. He used his magic to disguise himself as Scarlet Witch to see if the guards would lead Wiccan to the Scarlet Witch. Wiccan was brought to a room where he came face to face with Scarlet Witch. She had no memories of her life as an Avenger or the Scarlet Witch and no magical powers and informed Wiccan she would be getting married the next day. The groom arrived in the room, and it was Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom, who rendered Wiccan unconscious. The Young Avengers, Magneto, and Quicksilver managed to travel to Latveria, but they arrived at the same time as the Avengers. Doctor Doom used a spell to heal Wiccan, but the spell robbed Wiccan of his powers and locked Wiccan up. Wanda freed Wiccan and asked Wiccan to tell Wanda about the Scarlet Witch. Wiccan agreed if Wanda would help him escape. The Avengers and the Young Avengers got into a battle. Wolverine was about to end Wanda’s existence when Nathaniel Richards/Iron Lad arrived and stopped him. Iron Lad had come from the future where he found out that Scarlet Witch and Wiccan were killed at this point in time and traveled to the past to save both their lives. Iron Lad, the Young Avengers, and Wanda escaped into the Timestream. Iron Lad informed the Young Avengers he had developed new technology that would allow them to inhabit a moment in time without altering in. Stature asked Iron Lad to take them to the day the Avengers ended so Wanda would be able to remember. Stature reunited with her father Ant-Man before Jack of Hearts exploded and killed him. Seeing Jack of Hearts restored Wanda’s memories and powers, and Scarlet Witch teleported herself, the Young Avenger, and Ant-Man back to the present. Scarlet Witch lost control of her powers again. Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Jessica Jones, and Hank McCoy/Beast arrived at the scene with the Young Avengers. Wiccan talked to Scarlet Witch, and she regained control and recognized Wiccan and Speed as her sons. Beast decided to see if Scarlet Witch could undo her “no more mutants” spell. Jessica Jones suggested they go to X-Factor Investigations, the mutant detective agency, (Jamie Madrox/Multiple Man, Guido Carosella/Strong Guy, Geveedra-Seven/Shatterstar, and Juilo Esteban Richter/Rictor) Rictor was one of the mutants who had lost his powers on M-Day. Rictor agreed to let Scarlet Witch try to undo the spell on him, and Rictor got his powers back. The X-Men (Scott Summers/Cyclops, Anna Marie/Rogue, Piotr Rasputin/Colossus, Ororo Munroe/Storm, Emma Frost, Bobby Drake/Iceman, and Remy LeBeau/Gambit) arrived outside X-Factor Headquarters, looking for the Scarlet Witch. The Avengers fought the X-Men. Wanda knocked them all out and teleported herself and the Young Avengers back to Castle Doom. Doctor Doom revealed to Wiccan that Wiccan had never truly been depowered. Doctor Doom asked Wiccan and Scarlet Witch to join him in casting a spell to return the powers to the mutants of the world. Patriot tried to take out Doctor Doom while the three were casting the spell, but his shot hit Scarlet Witch, giving Doctor Doom the reality altering power of the Life Force. Doctor Doom teleported the Young Avengers and Scarlet Witch back outside X-Factor Headquarters. Doctor Doom arrived and asked the heroes to surrender to him. When the heroes refused, Doctor Doom fought the combined X-Men, X-Factor, Avengers, and Young Avengers. Not everyone walked away from the fight.

                Doctor Doom summoned his niece, Valeria Richards. The Scarlet Witch would be coming for Doctor Doom, and Doctor Doom wanted to restrain Scarlet Witch and harness Scarlet Witch’s powers for good purposes. Doctor Doom presented Valeria with a list of candidates who could help him in this effort. Valeria went to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill, who partnered Valeria with Agent Phil Coulson. Valeria and Coulson recruited Elsa Bloodstone, John Walker/U.S.Agent, Valkyrie, Delroy Garrett/3-D Man, and Walter Newell/Stingray in the mission to Latveria to capture the Scarlet Witch and use her powers to undo Doctor Doom’s sins.

                The Young Avengers were invited to the new Avengers mansion, where they had to deal with the security system.

                Iron Man guilted Stature for destroying Iron Man’s car.

                Thor gave the Young Avengers good weather to play baseball in.

                Okay, now that we’ve got the plot summary out of the way, let’s get to the Tim Cubbin part of this review. I’ll start, as always, with my own personal opinions about the book. I found this book to be highly enjoyable. I thought “The Children’s Crusade” was a great storyline. I liked the whole web of family drama. I enjoyed the fatherly portrayal of Magneto. Seeing Magneto trying to save his daughter was touching (for those of you who are thinking you want to correct me about Magneto not being Scarlet Witch’s father, yes, I am aware that Marvel decided to declare he is not, this book was written before that retcon). It was also interesting seeing him accepting the role of a grandfather and seeing just how far he would go for family. Wiccan’s character development was also interesting to observe over the course of the book, watching how his decisions got him in trouble over and over again, but how he really wanted to find his family and absolve his mother of her crimes against the Avengers and mutantkind. I loved seeing X-Factor in this book, they are one of my favorite teams and I honestly wish Marvel would make Modern Era Epic Collections out of this run, it really deserves it. Rictor getting his powers back was great. I loved the war between the Avengers and the X-Men, and the Young Avengers and X-Factor having to take a side. I especially enjoyed watching Wolverine in his own solo vendetta against the Scarlet Witch where he was neither X-Man nor Avenger. I liked seeing the return of the Scarlet Witch. I enjoyed her development from being Wanda Maximoff, the bride of Doom, to the Scarlet Witch, Avenger, and mother. I enjoyed how Heinberg brought back Ant-Man through time travel. I liked seeing Iron Lad return. I will say, however, that the “Avengers World” issues felt out of place in a “Young Avengers” Modern Era Epic Collection. None of the Young Avengers played a starring part in it. It somewhat connects with the main story, and I can see the reason that the editors decided to include these two issues in this book, but they still really felt to me like they didn’t belong in this particular collection based on the main storyline being completely separate and from quite a time apart, and also for not including the Young Avengers in starring roles. That’s not to say I didn’t find the story interesting. It wasn’t my favorite part of the book, but I still found it to be relatively enjoyable. The “I am an Avenger” short stories were fun; I found them to be enjoyable for the brief bits that they were. As far as the art goes, for the majority of this book, I found the art to be excellent. My points of unenjoyment come from two of the “I am an Avenger” stories. Otherwise, I thought the art was fantastic. As far as the title goes, this book could not have been given any other title but “The Children’s Crusade,” and if it had, that would have been a crime in my opinion. It was the title of the series that was the majority of this book, so no other title would have made sense. I will say, though, that I feel it was a little odd to make this series into a “Young Avengers” Modern Era Epic Collection as this was not a “Young Avengers” comic series. The title was officially “Avengers: The Children’s Crusade,” and included the one-shot “Avengers: The Children’s Crusade – Young Avengers,” but this was not officially designated as a “Young Avengers” limited series. I can see the editors’ reasons for making this a “Young Avengers” Modern Era Epic Collection, the whole book focuses on them, but this was called an “Avengers” limited series at the time. As far as the cover goes, I feel the choice was perfect, it features the Young Avengers in the foreground, the Scarlet Witch in the midground, and the Avengers in the background. It is an excellent representation of the content of this book, and I am satisfied with the editors’ pick. All-in-all, I thought this book was a great read and I highly enjoyed myself consuming it.

                Next up, we’re going to discuss accessibility. Now, I’ve done over seven dozen Epic Collection reviews at this point, and I’ve explained myself every time, but I know that I have newbies reading my reviews every time I post, so I have to explain myself once again. When I’m talking about accessibility in graphic novels, I’m talking about if people who, for example, have never read a Marvel Comic book before can hear about this book and decide to read it, then actually read it, and understand it completely as is without any prior of outside knowledge of the backstory or the history of the characters. This book does draw on a lot of backstories such as “Avengers Disassembled,” “House of M,” and “Decimation,” but for the majority, it is self-contained. The hiccup is including the two issues of “Avengers World” from the “Axis” storyline, which does break the self-containment and draw on some outside knowledge. That said, I do still feel that this book is highly accessible. The stories are presented in such a way that I feel having no outside knowledge of Marvel Comics would be super detrimental to. Marvel goes as far as to advertise this as essential reading for fans of Marvel Television’s “Wandavision” and “Agatha All Along,” and I concur that fans of those series would possibly find enjoyment with this book as it highlights Scarlet Witch and Wiccan, both prominent figures in the two television series, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s essential myself as the storylines have no actual connections, the television series did not actually adapt “The Children’s Crusade” in the shows. I will say that I do feel that even though this book is marketed as Vol. 3, Vols. 1-2 are not necessary reads before reading this book, as the stories are not directly connected to or continued from the previous volumes. If you’ve never read a Marvel Comic before and are looking for a jump on point, I would say that this is a relatively decent one.

                Next up, I’m going to score this book on a numeric scale. I know some readers primarily come to this blog to hear about the story and read my numeric score, I know that some of my other segments aren’t as popular or as big of a draw, but I still feel that every segment in my reviews has validity, just some more than others, and the numeric score is one of my key segments, not to dismiss the importance of any of my other segments. Anyway, I score on a very basic system. I work with a scale of exact integers ranging from one through ten, no point somethings, just whole numbers. If I give a graphic novel a score of a one, that means that this book is a pile of trash that should be collectively gathered and set on a massive pyre, then all the plates containing prints of these issues so reprints can be made should be wiped so this horrible book can never be reproduced and is completely erased from existence, sparing anyone the pain of spending their money obtaining this book. However, a score of a ten means that this book is sheer perfection, and I will never understand it if this book doesn’t become a bestseller that needs to be reprinted every few years because there are no copies available on the shelves anymore because it is completely sold out. Okay, so I’m not actually being serious about this, I’m just trying to make a point. Anyway, I don’t give out tens very often because I don’t very often find books to be perfection. So, let’s talk about what I’m looking for when I give a numeric score. I’m looking for a compelling story, fantastic art, accurate title, and adequate cover. Now, this book did have all of that, yet I still don’t feel like this book was perfection. Again, the “Avengers World” issues felt a little out of place being in a “Young Avengers” Modern Era Epic Collection, it didn’t quite fit like a glove in my opinion. And some of the art in “I am an Avenger” was a little wonky. So, I do have to deduct. However, I still feel like this book deserves a high score, the problems with this book weren’t too detrimental in my opinion. So, when I churn out my numeric score, it’s going to be… an eight! I thought it was an excellent read and I highly enjoyed it.

                Moving on in our list of topics to discuss, we’re going to my recommendation segment. In this segment, I answer two questions. The first is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend that you, who have just spent the past however many minutes you’ve been taking to read this, should read this book if you are now interested in reading this book, based solely on the words I have just spent the past few hours typing? The second question is, beyond the obvious of the people who are already Marvel and Young Avengers fans, who do I think should be reading this book, regardless of the fact if I would personally tell you to read it or not? The answer to the first question is probably obvious, but yes, I would recommend this book to you, my readers. If you are reading this review and now want to read this graphic novel, I recommend going to your favorite bookstore or online retailer, or your favorite comic book store, or your local library, or to your Marvel-obsessed friend’s house, and look for this book and read it as soon as you possibly can. If you do read this graphic novel, feel free to express your opinions. Comment or post or tweet anything you’d like to say, I’d love to hear from you. Everything I write in this blog is my own personal opinion and I don’t expect any of my readers to agree with what I say. We all have our own minds and think our own thoughts, and I invite you to feel however you want to feel about what I have to say, and if you disagree with me on anything I write, I’d really like to know so we can discuss our opinions. As far as to answer the second question on who the best audience is, I’d say that it includes teenagers and young adults, the LGBTQ+ community, and people who like stories about family drama.

                Okay, we’re getting to the wrap up point. So, I do have a few things to say before I log off. First, I’ve been doing this blog for over five years now and have done over 180 posts. I’ve done plenty of reviews of Epic Collections, Modern Era Epic Collections, and Ultimate Epic Collections. If you want to read more “Young Avengers” posts, feel free to check out my reviews of “Young Avengers: Not What You Think” and “Young Avengers: Dark Reign” for more content. I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released and put up a review of it as soon as possible. I’ve done over seven dozen reviews just like this, so there are plenty more to read. My next review will be “Daredevil: The Murdock Papers” which you can expect to see within the next two months following this review, so keep checking back for it. There are also short stories, poems, essays, articles, and editorials, so keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for tons more content that I’m sure you’ll like. I post on a very frequent basis, so keep checking back regularly, and tell your friends, family members, and coworkers about my blog so I get more readership. I’ll be doing this blog for as long as I possibly can, so you can expect that to be for quite a while. That’s all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Revivals and Revelations"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Revivals and Revelations” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            After taking a year off to mourn the death of his mother, Miles Morales/Spider-Man found himself teamed up with the Ultimates’ Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman and new heroes Tyrone Johnson/Cloak, Tandy Bowen/Dagger, and Lana Baumgartner/Bombshell to shut down the evil Roxxon Corporation. Meanwhile, on another Earth in another dimension, a massive amount of time-travel abuses among the super-hero community created a series of rips in the space-time continuum that wreaked havoc across the galaxy. One such rip dropped into this universe a cosmic force, known only as Galactus, with a carnal appetite for entire worlds.

            Spider-Woman, after afraid of losing her position on the Ultimates, requested S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Monica Chang place her in charge of an investigation into the surviving Roxxon genetic experiments other than Cloak, Dagger, and Bombshell. Bombshell’s parole officer threatened her with jail time for using her powers as it violated the rules of her probation. Miles found out that some members of the NYPD were happy Spider-Man was back in action. Cloak brought Dagger to her old home, only to find it abandoned. Frustrated and wanting a big bad guy to hit, Cloak and Dagger witnessed the appearance of Galactus in New Jersey, which Galactus then proceeded to wipe off the map, but Cloak and Dagger discovered they were no match for Galactus. Spider-Man teamed up with the Ultimates to try to save as many people in New York as possible. Bombshell witnessed the carnage being caused by Galactus and decided to try her hand at being a superhero. Cloak and Dagger joined the rescue effort. Spider-Man found his father Jefferson Davis looking for his son and unmasked to his father. Jefferson then blamed Miles for the death of both Jefferson’s brother Aaron Davis/Prowler and Miles’ mother Rio Morales. Miles told his father to hide and that Miles would come back. Spider-Man found a crashed plane, carrying a surviving J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of the Daily Bugle and thebugle.com. As the heroes struggled to save lives, Jameson promised to change their lives. Miles returned home, looking for his father, but Jefferson was nowhere to be found. Miles was contacted by Steve Rogers/Captain America, who asked for Spider-Man’s help stopping Galactus.

            To commemorate the second anniversary of the untimely passing of Peter Parker, Peter’s Aunt May Parker and confidante Gwen Stacy hosted a small get-together at their house to celebrate Peter’s life. Miles was invited and brought his best friend Ganke Lee along as his plus one. Those in attendance at the get-together were Peter’s girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, Lana Baumgartner/Bombshell, Johnny Storm/Human Torch, Bobby Drake/Iceman, Liz Allan/Firestar, Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat, Kenny “Kong” McFarlane. J. Jonah Jameson was invited, but he decided not to leave his limousine, and Tony Stark/Iron Man was unable to attend, but he sent catering from chef Chester Cebulski. Ganke brought Gwen a gift he made from Legos, which Miles feared would scare Gwen away, but which instead earned Ganke a kiss from Gwen. The guests discussed what they thought Peter’s life would turn out to be like should he have lived. Gwen decided to honor Peter that the party should do something nice, so the guests brought the catering to Queen’s Mission to offer food and comfort to the poor, homeless, and hungry. As the guests dispersed from May’s house, someone was watching from the bushes.

            Following the shut down of S.H.I.E.L.D., Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, who was believed dead and was being held in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, was to be transferred to federal prison. Burglars who came to be called the “Spider-Man Twins” began a crime spree. While being transferred, Osborn escaped custody as the Green Goblin. Miles consulted Mary Jane as Miles considered telling his girlfriend Katie Bishop that Miles was Spider-Man, asking how long Mary Jane knew Peter was Spider-Man and what Mary Jane’s relationship with Peter was like. Miles went to his father’s apartment to check if Jefferson had returned and instead found Peter Parker searching through the apartment. Peter wanted his web-shooters back, which May had gifted to Miles after Miles took up the mantle of Spider-Man after Peter’s death. Miles wanted Peter to tell May that Peter was alive. Peter knocked Miles unconscious and took back the web-shooters. Miles believed this Peter Parker to be a clone and went to Ganke with Miles’s suspicions. Ned Leeds came to Jameson with intentions to run a story on the Spider-Men, but Jameson refused to publish it. Reporter Ben Urich arrived with the story of Norman Osborn being alive and on the loose, which Jameson decided to go along with. A security guard attacked by the Spider-Men died in the ER, and homicide detective Maria Hill was put in charge of the case. Hill was already aware that Miles was Spider-Man. Miles confessed to Katie that he was Spider-Man. Her reaction was to run away from him. Hill arrived and asked Miles to get in the car with her, but Miles pulled a disappearing act. After Hill left, Miles and Ganke read Urich’s story about Norman Osborn. Miles decided to go to the last place Norman Osborn was seen alive: in front of Peter Parker’s house. Monica Chang led a unit into Osborn Industries to look for Norman Osborn, but the unit did not survive their encounter with the Green Goblin. Miles went to Peter Parker’s house, where he was confronted by the Green Goblin. Katie confessed to her sister Misha that Miles was Spider-Man. Miles fought the Green Goblin and was joined in the fight by Peter Parker. The media witnessed the arrival of Peter Parker, and May immediately knew this was the real Peter Parker by watching the news footage. Miles used his venom blast on the Green Goblin, who then fled from the two Spider-Men, who were then confronted by the police. During Miles and Peter’s escape, Miles was grazed in the leg by a police bullet. Miles was discovered by Maria Hill, who Miles got in the car with. The Spider-Man Twins decided to take advantage of the return of Peter Parker. Hill helped Miles treat his wound. Osborn went to Jameson to confess his story. Osborn had a theory that because of the Oz formula in their blood, Osborn and Peter were unable to die. Jameson attempted to end Osborn but only ended up meeting his own demise. Miles and Hill went to Mary Jane’s house, where they learned she had been helping hide the fact that Peter Parker was alive. May and Gwen arrived and reunited with Peter. The Green Goblin also arrived in front of Mary Jane’s house. Miles fought and defeated the Green Goblin with his venom blast. Osborn taunted Miles, saying Osborn had information about Miles’ father before turning back into the Green Goblin. Miles and Peter fought the Green Goblin again, and Hill joined in to make sure Norman Osborn would never menace the world again. Peter returned the web-shooters to Miles and gave Miles his blessing to be Spider-Man, but decided he had to leave for the safety of his family and friends, and Peter and Mary Jane drove off together. Miles returned to Brooklyn Visions Academy, where he was woken up by Ganke, who informed Miles that Miles had a visitor: Miles’ father. Jefferson revealed to Miles that twenty-five years ago, Jefferson had gone undercover for S.H.I.E.L.D., working to bring down Wilson Fisk/Kingpin from inside Fisk’s own organization and the reason he left Miles was because Jefferson didn’t feel worthy enough, and Jefferson and Miles reunited as father and son. Miles found Max Dillon/Electro and Victor Creed/Sabretooth engaged in a fight. He tried to let them defeat each other, until innocent lives were threatened, and he joined in the fight. Miles was aided in the fight by Cloak and Dagger, and the trio were able to defeat the supervillains. Miles went to Katie’s house to try to talk to Katie and was greeted by Katie’s father. Misha had revealed to her father that Miles was Spider-Man. Katie’s father drugged Miles. The Spider-Man Twins robbed a top secret S.H.I.E.L.D. warehouse. They were confronted by Jessica Drew/Black Widow, but the Twins were able to defeat Black Widow. Miles’ father attempted to contact Miles but was unsuccessful. Ganke and Miles’ roommate Judge revealed to Ganke that Judge knew Miles was Spider-Man. Miles woke up in a Hydra facility. Katie’s parents were agents of Hydra, and she was born into the organization. Hydra agents also abducted Jefferson and Ganke. Miles tried to escape but was blackmailed with Jefferson and Ganke’s lives. Judge was sent to look for Miles and Ganke and discovered their room was trashed. Victor Van Damme/Doctor Doom was in the process of making a merger with Hydra and arrived at the Hydra facility. Doom wanted to learn how to duplicate Miles and Jessica’s powers, make an army of super-soldiers with spider powers, then dispose of Miles and Jessica. Judge went to Miles’ father’s apartment to search for Miles and was greeted by Cloak and Dagger, who were also looking for Miles. Judge, Cloak and Dagger contacted Bombshell and Kitty Pryde, and the group recruited Maria Hill and Brooklyn Police Department Captain Frank Quaid to rescue Miles. As the group tried to make their escape, they witnessed their world about to come to an end.

            Okay, now that we’ve gotten that rather lengthy summary out of the way, let’s move on to my part of this review. We’re going to start, as always, with my own personal opinions on the book. I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down. As some of my longtime readers may know, one of my favorite comic book writers is Brian Michael Bendis, I usually love reading his work, and this time, he did not disappoint me. I do, however, have a major complaint with the “Cataclysm” storyline. As some of my longtime readers may know, Epic Collections do not actually contain the main issues of an event, rather they collect the issues of characters from around the time of the event pertaining to the titular series. “Cataclysm: The Ultimates’ Last Stand” was an event that spawned several other limited series, including “Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man,” this latter limited series being the only part of “Cataclysm” included in this volume. Therefore, readers of this volume only get one part of the story, which is far from the complete story. The ending of my third paragraph was actually not me trying to be vague to avoid spoiling the ending of the story, that paragraph ends where the story ends. I will admit to a good deal of disappointment from this, but I was still able to find enjoyment reading what was contained in this volume. I found the storyline of Miles and Jefferson dealing with Miles being Spider-Man to be very emotional, having been abandoned by my father myself, and I thought the writing on that was excellent. It was established right at the beginning of the series that Jefferson hated mutants and superheroes and Miles was afraid of what telling Miles’ father that Miles was Spider-Man would mean for Miles, and the readers had been waiting for this to happen, and when it finally did Jefferson’s reaction was to abandon Miles. And the fact was that Jefferson really did this because he didn’t feel worthy whereas Miles was worthy, and I thought that was highly compelling, and the resolution between the two of them was extremely touching. I loved the celebration for Peter Parker; I thought that issue was fantastic. I especially loved the connection between Ganke and Gwen, I thought that was quite humorous. I was quite surprised by Peter Parker’s return and the fact that Oz grants immortality when I first read this storyline when it originally came out. I found it entertaining watching Peter and Miles team up against the Green Goblin, I thought their fights were pretty epic. I had forgotten over the years exactly how dark this storyline was and how many deaths and attempted deaths were caused by Osborn. Jameson’s fate in particular was extremely shocking to me, how he attempted to end Norman before meeting his own demise. This was also one of the few series of the comics where I found Maria Hill to actually be a likeable character. The way she took on Osborn was impressive. I enjoyed the Bishop Hydra twist. I totally did not see that one coming. I also enjoyed Miles’ father’s involvement in S.H.I.E.L.D., that was also unexpected. I liked Bendis’ subtle hints about “Secret Wars” with the arrests of the crazy people in costume, that was actually quite amusing. I do hate how the ending led directly into “Secret Wars” and the next volume of “Miles Morales: Spider-Man” will be in a different universe with no explanation of how Miles became part of the Marvel Universe because Marvel will not include “Secret Wars” in a Modern Era Epic Collection because of the whole not including events in Epic Collections thing and I don’t have a good recollection of that event from ten years ago. And the whole last issue in this book felt rather rushed, especially leading up to the ending, which was extremely inconclusive, by the way. I did like seeing the little team form together at the end, even though we’ll never see this team-up again. Moving forward, I will also say that I found the art in this graphic novel to be spectacular. I thought David Marquez did an exceptional job illustrating these issues and I found looking at this book to be visually pleasing. I thought this was amazing comic book artwork. As far as the title goes, I feel like it is a good representation of this collection. This book did have the revivals of Peter Parker and Norman Osborn, and there were a lot of revelations such as Jefferson being involved with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Bishops being involved with Hydra, so “Revivals and Revelations” perfectly encapsulates the essence of this volume, and I think it’s a spot-on title. Finally, we’re going to discuss the cover. The cover of this book shows a small Miles swinging in front of a large, roaring Green Goblin. I don’t feel this shows accurate proportions to the characters inside the issue. As such, I don’t find this to be the “perfect” cover to this book. However, the Green Goblin is a threat through seven of the sixteen issues contained in this collection, so featuring him so prominently on the cover is, in my opinion, adequate enough, but I do feel there are other covers from this collection that would work as well as, if not better than, the choice the editors picked for this volume. Overall, though, I did find this book to be a highly enjoyable experience, despite the few areas of disappointment at the beginning and end.

            Next up on our docket of topics to discuss, we’re going to cover accessibility. I know my longtime readers know what I mean by this, I have used this word in reviews over six dozen times by this point, but I know I always have first-time readers with every post I do, so I have to re-explain myself every time I do a review for the newbs who have stumbled onto my blog for the first time. So, when I say “is ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Revivals and Revelations’ accessible?” what I am asking is, can a person who has never heard of Miles Morales before or never read a Marvel Comic before obtain this book, read it cover to cover, and understand what they have just read based solely on what is contained in this book and this book alone? The answer to that question is a big no. My reasoning for this is the “Cataclysm: The Ultimates’ Last Stand” tie-in. First off, this is a spin-off series from an event that does not tell the full story of the event and all of the details of the event outside of Miles, Cloak, Dagger, Bombshell, and Spider-Woman’s actions saving the people in New York City are left out of this volume. On top of that, this event is multiversal, originating in the Marvel Universe and impacting the Ultimate Universe, the latter being the setting for this collection. Secondly, the “Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man” series continues directly from where “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man” left off, following twenty-eight issues of continuity, and reading this volume without consuming the previous storylines leading up to this point can be somewhat difficult to process. I would not qualify this book as one for someone who knows nothing about Marvel Comics. As for qualifications for reading this volume, I would say the reader should have read the previous two volumes of “Miles Morales: Spider-Man”, “Cataclysm: The Ultimates’ Last Stand,” and know the essence of the original “Ultimate Spider-Man” and “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man” series, particularly Peter Parker’s death in order to optimally read this collection and completely assimilate what they have just read.

            Okay, moving on, we’re up to one of the key elements of my reviews: the numeric score. I know that it’s not the single most important part of my reviews to everyone, some people come so they can read about the story, but it is essential to state exactly how good I feel a book is when I write a review on a scaling system. So, my scoring system is extremely simple: I score media on a scale of exact integers ranging from one through ten. One is the lowest score I can possibly give, and that means that this book is not worth reading at all, and every remaining copy that hasn’t been purchased by unfortunate souls should be pulled off the shelves and destroyed, then the original plates should be wiped so this trash can never be reprinted. Ten is the highest score I can possibly give, and that means that this book is sheer perfection and one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life, and it should not be on shelves because everyone should be buying it, and the publishers should need to reprint this book on a regular basis because of the popularity that there just aren’t enough copies to satisfy the masses. Okay, I know, I’m being extra here, one and ten honestly should not exactly mean what I’ve just typed, but you get my point. Anyway, when I score an Epic Collection, I take every factor into account when producing my scores. This includes: the story: was it exciting, compelling, interesting, entertaining, and enjoyable to read from beginning to end? The art: was it visually appealing and nice to look at throughout the entire book? And the title: does it perfectly capture the essence of what the stories are about? The cover: does it adequately depict what to expect from the interior content of the collection? My longtime readers will know that I am extremely hard to please and that I don’t give out tens unless all of those factors are met exactly. So, I will say I did highly enjoy the story that was in the book, but the missing content hurts the quality of the read, and the last issue felt rushed and the story ended in an inconclusive way that will not be resolved in the next volume. The artwork was excellent. The title was a perfect choice to describe the stories in the book. The cover was adequate enough for the book, but it wasn’t the perfect representation for all the content in this collection. So, putting all of these puzzle pieces together, the score we are looking at here is… an eight! I feel like this was an exceptionally good book. While it did have its flaws, it was still highly entertaining.

            Next up, we’re going to do my recommendation segment. This segment answers 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 up in a conversation with me about this book, who are now interested in reading this book based solely on what I have just related to anyone consuming my words? The second question is: regardless of if I would recommend this book personally, whom do I think is a good type of audience for this book, besides the obvious Miles Morales, Spider-Man and Marvel Comics fans? To answer my first question, yes, I do recommend this book to you. If you’re reading this review and want to read this book now, I suggest you go to your favorite online retailer, or your preferred bookstore, or your nearest comic book store, or your local library, or your Marvel obsessed friend or relative and look for this book and read it as soon as you can. If you read this, feel free to comment to me your opinions on this book, I would love to hear from you. Everything I say on this blog is purely my own personal opinion, and I don’t expect anyone to agree with me at all. You’re entitled to feel however you want to feel about what you read, and if you feel the same or if you feel different, I want to know. Please drop a comment here to let me know what you thought of this book. As for an audience for this book, I would recommend it to readers who enjoy family dramas and trying to find acceptance from your family; readers who enjoy stories about legacy, trying to live up to being who you are, who you want to be, and who others expect you to be; readers who enjoy stories about immortality and the repercussions of such a gift and how it can be a curse; readers who enjoy stories about secrets and what those secrets can mean to your friends, family, and relationships; and readers who enjoy stories with lots of plot twists and twists and turns and unexpected moments.

            Okay, we’re just about done here, but there are a few more things I do have to say before I click post. First off, I have been doing this blog for over five years. I have done over 180 posts, so feel free to keep exploring timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content by me. If you liked this post and want more Miles Morales, feel free to check out “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Hero in Training” and “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Spider-Man No More” for more content. I’ve done over six dozen other Epic Collection reviews similar to this one, so feel free to check some of those out too. I’ve also written reviews of Marvel Comics events posted on Marvel Unlimited, as well as reviews of prose novels and manga, but the current focus of this blog is on Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Marvel Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase every one of those as soon as I can after their release and if possible, put up a review as soon as I can after I’m done reading it. My next review is going to be “Young Avengers: The Children’s Crusade,” you can expect to see that within the next two months following the posting of this review, so if that sound interesting to you, keep checking back for it. Feel free to like, retweet, share, do whatever you can to promote this post and me. I do have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, but due to life circumstances am unable to get a job in the professional field, but I do this blog in my spare time to do something to contribute to what I spent my time in college learning so my skills don’t go to waste, so I’d appreciate getting as much readership as I possibly can. That’s all I have to say for now, but until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!