"Spider-Girl: Comes the Carnage!"

 

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

            After nearly perishing in a battle with the supervillain Roderick Kingsley/Hobgoblin, young superhero May “Mayday” Parker/Spider-Girl was convinced by her mother Mary Jane Parker to give up the webs and live a normal life. As a result, her grades went up, she had more time with her friends and even found a boyfriend in Eugene “Gene” Thompson, son of Coach Eugene “Flash” Thompson, high school rival-turned friend of Mayday’s father, former Spider-Man now forensic scientist, Peter Parker. With the support of her best friends Courtney Duran and Davida Kirby as her campaign managers, Mayday was running for student council at Midtown High School against the popular Simone DeSantos. Fellow Midtown High students Jimmy Yama and Reynard “Wes” Westin were drawing and illustrating a Spider-Girl comic book. Mayday and Courtney were volunteering at St. Andrews Shelter under the supervision of Caitlan Leiber. One of the women staying at the shelter, Mona Carlo, was sought out at the shelter by her ex, Charlie Kurkle, but Caitlan turned him away. Mona had an item that Charlie was sent by the Hobgoblin to obtain. It was a disk that contained information on all the people that the deceased Wilson Fisk/Kingpin had ever paid off, information that would boost whoever possessed it to the status of the new Kingpin of Crime. Fabian LaMuerto/Black Tarantula, current Kingpin who was hiding out in South America, also wanted that disk. Unhappy that Charlie did not possess the disk, Hobgoblin sent one of his stooges to take out Charlie. Mayday was on her way to Café Indigo to meet her friends, including Gene, when she came upon the scene of Charlie about to be put down. Covering her face, Mayday sprung into action and saved Charlie. Charlie returned to St. Andrews, where Mayday had to prevent Charlie from starting a fire in an attempt to lure Mona out. Mona, knowing she was at risk for carrying the disk, went on the run. Mayday then joined her friends at Café Indigo. Hobgoblin went to St. Andrews and attacked Caitlan looking for both Mona and a list of Caitlan’s teenage volunteers, under the impression that Spider-Girl was secretly volunteering at St. Andrews and was the daughter of Hobgoblin’s archnemesis Spider-Man. The police were called to the scene, including Detective Vincent Drasco, who was secretly in the employ of the Hobgoblin. Hobgoblin planned to send two of his stooges, Rudy and Barney, after the teenage volunteers, aided by a battle armor Hobgoblin had come into possession of. On her school lunch break, Mayday went to St. Andrews looking for clues and ran into Hobgoblin’s stooges. Mayday barely escaped, but the stooges were not under the impression they had just battled Spider-Girl. Mayday returned to school late for class, where she was caught by assistant principal Slattery, who gave Mayday detention and Simone leverage in the student council election. While in detention, both Peter and Mary Jane attempted to call Mayday to warn Mayday that Hobgoblin was looking for the teenage volunteers, which only irritated Slattery, but when Slattery answered Mayday’s phone and spoke to Mary Jane, Mary Jane was infuriated Slattery dared to answer Mayday’s phone and sprung Mayday from detention. Mary Jane returned Mayday’s Spider-Girl costume, telling Mayday that Mary Jane could not accept it if Spider-Girl were prevented from saving lives because of Mary Jane, but to keep this a secret from Peter. Spider-Girl returned to battle Rudy, now called Reverb, to save Courtney. Following Reverb’s arrest, Mary Jane took back possession of the Spider-Girl costume.

Former St. Andrews refugee Betty Forest/Bitter Frost returned to St. Andrews, intent on revenge against Caitlan, who failed Betty when Caitlan first started as a social worker years before. Mona contacted Handsome Richie Valentine, attempting to find a buyer for the disk. Bitter Frost went after her abusive ex-boyfriend Wayne, intent on ending him. Caitlan and Drasco went after Bitter Frost to prevent her from succeeding, but their lives were put in danger. Mayday stole the Spider-Girl costume and swung in to save the day. Mona came into contact with Chesbro, representative of the Black Tarantula.

“Mad Dog” Rassitano, reality television bounty hunter, announced his intention to catch Hobgoblin, a task he had done once before. Mayday’s return as Spider-Girl was beginning to have an impact on her school and social life. Jimmy and Wes made a deal with Deacon, owner of Deacon’s Den, a local comic book show, that if Deacon sole Jimmy and Wes’s Spider-Girl comic book, Spider-Girl would come to the release day event herself. Jimmy intended to have his girlfriend Heather Noble dress the part of Spider-Girl since Jimmy was not convinced Jimmy and Wes could get the real Spider-Girl to promote the comic book. Mad Dog went to Hobgoblin’s brother Daniel Kingsley for information on Hobgoblin’s location. Daniel, who was hiding his brother, sold Mad Dog a location the Hobgoblin was going to be at. However, this was an ambush, and Hobgoblin was not really going to be there. Spider-Girl helped Mad Dog take down the thugs who ambushed Mad Dog, and Mad Dog promised not to televise Spider-Girl’s presence on the scene, mostly because Mad Dog thought being rescued by Spider-Girl on national television would look bad for his reputation. This skirmish caused Mayday to miss a date with Gene.

Drasco and Black Tarantula both obtained Mona’s location. Drasco and Chesbro both went to attempt to get the disk. Spider-Girl swung to Mona’s rescue but needed an assist from Mad Dog. Spider-Girl managed to obtain the disk. Mayday almost missed her campaign speech, but in a turn of events, dropped out of the race and nominated Davida in Mayday’s place, saying Davida would be a better candidate. Hobgoblin learned that Spider-Girl was scheduled to appear at a launch event at Deacon’s Den.

Mayday turned to her confidante Felicity Hardy/Scarlet Spider to try to crack the information on the disk, but Felicity was unable to get past the decryption. At the launch event, Hobgoblin abducted Heather, but realized Heather wasn’t the real Spider-Girl. Spider-Girl saved Heather and lied to Hobgoblin, saying that Spider-Girl had destroyed the disk. Hobgoblin believed Spider-Girl. Spider-Girl was saved from Hobgoblin by Chesbro and one of Black Tarantula’s snipers. Spider-Girl gave the disk to Drasco, unaware Drasco was in the employ of the Hobgoblin. Mayday told her parents that she had returned to being Spider-Girl and intended to keep being a superhero.

Rosetta Morgan/Ladyhawk sought revenge on the Hobgoblin for ending the heroic career of Rosetta’s sister Regina Morgan/Ladyhawk. Harlem crime lord Morgan arranged a meeting with Hobgoblin. Spider-Girl and Ladyhawk came to Morgan to get information on the Hobgoblin. Morgan gave Spider-Girl and Ladyhawk a fake address to the meeting between Morgan and Hobgoblin. Morgan’s meeting with Hobgoblin was actually an attempt to take Hobgoblin out of the picture. Drasco heard shots, and Drasco and the police prevented Hobgoblin’s demise, and Hobgoblin escaped. Mayday realized how much strain being Spider-Girl put her parents through and promised to stop being Spider-Girl until Mayday’s parents said otherwise.

Mayday’s fellow Midtown High classmate Sara Hingle manifested her mutant powers in class. Sara was taken into custody. Mary Jane and assistant principal Slattery visited Sara’s parents Duane and Cindy Hingle. Duane was not handling the fact that his daughter was a mutant very well. Duane decided to send Sara to a mutant boarding school, despite Cindy wanting Sara to stay with Duane and Cindy. Sara escaped custody and tried to return home. Mary Jane tried to talk Duane out of Duane’s decision, saying Duane should love Sara no matter what Sara was. Mayday revealed to Sara that Mayday had powers and promised to try to help Sara live a normal life. Sara’s parents decided to let Sara stay at home. Slattery was impressed with Mary Jane’s empathy and offered to discuss a position for Mary Jane at Midtown High as a guidance counselor. Peter and Mary Jane decided that Mayday was ready to be Spider-Girl and gave Mayday back the Spider-Girl costume.

S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill came to government special agent Arthur Weadon and his team of rehabilitating convicted supervillains (Earthshaker, Mr. Abnormal, Killerwatt, and Kaine) with the mission of guarding an item code-named Specimen 297. Kaine turned to Reilly Tyne/Darkdevil for assistance in watching the transfer of the bioweapon that was being transferred to a government lab because it was believed the specimen might have medical benefits. Courtney’s boyfriend Maurice “Moose” Mansfield, whose father was in a hospital dying of cancer, was staying in New Jersey and not getting in touch with Courtney. Courtney learned Moose was coming to Midtown Medical Center to see Moose’s father and Courtney decided that Courtney wanted to see Moose to see where their relationship stood. Slattery offered Mary Jane a job at Midtown High. Courtney arrived at Midtown Medical and found Moose with another girl. The transfer of Specimen 297 was attacked by a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents led by Contessa Valentina Allegro De Fontaine. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team obtained Specimen 297. Spider-Girl attacked the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, and in the confusion, Specimen 297 escaped. Specimen 297 was one piece of the Carnage symbiote, which had been broken apart and was held in government custody. It was now believed that the symbiote could cure cancer. The escaped symbiote bonded with Moose, and a new Carnage was born. Moose was insistent on trying to curb Carnage’s murderous tendencies. Carnage attacked Café Indigo and scared Courtney and Davida, but Mayday fought Carnage until Carnage decided to leave. Weadon tasked his team with apprehending Spider-Girl. Kaine and Darkdevil contacted Spider-Girl to warn her about Carnage. Mary Jane went to school with Mayday to speak with Slattery about the guidance counselor position. Slattery offered the position to Mary Jane. Mary Jane said she would get back to Slattery with her decision. Carnage came to the Parker’s home and abducted Peter and Ben, Mayday’s baby brother. Spider-Girl went after Carnage and fought the symbiotic being. Peter managed to escape from Carnage’s imprisonment. Carnage went to Midtown Medical Center to find Moose’s father. Spider-Girl fought Carnage, and Carnage fled. During their fight, Carnage infected Ben with a piece of the symbiote. Ben attacked Spider-Girl. Hill and Weadon’s team tried to apprehend Spider-Girl but failed. Carnage took Ben back to Midtown Medical. Kaine and Darkdevil found Val and her agents and learned the truth about Specimen 297. Courtney found out the woman she saw Moose with was Moose’s cousin Donna Mansfield. Peter came to Midtown Medical with the Reverb armor, which fired sonic blasts, Carnage’s weakness. Peter faltered when he realized Carnage had infected Ben, so Spider-Girl took the sonic blaster and shot the symbiote off of Ben, causing Ben to have hearing loss. Mayday defeated Carnage before Carnage could infect Moose’s father, causing Moose, a huge Spider-Girl fan, to hate Spider-Girl, saying if Moose’s father died, it would be Spider-Girl’s fault. The doctors told Peter they had to run more tests to determine if Ben’s hearing loss was permanent.

Mayday felt overwhelming guilt over Ben’s predicament, but Peter and Mary Jane did not blame Mayday. Peter and Mary Jane brought Ben to the doctor. Hobgoblin disguised himself as his brother Daniel and locked up the real Daniel Kingsley. The day of the student council election came. Hobgoblin turned to William Turner/Mindworm to form an alliance against Spider-Girl. Gene, feeling neglected in his relationship with Mayday, broke up with Mayday. Ben began to manifest spider powers in front of Mayday. Gene moved on with Simone DeSantos. Hobgoblin went searching for Madame Web, hoping to learn a way to defeat Black Tarantula, and found Anya Corazon/Araña, disguised as a priestess. Araña told Hobgoblin the “heart of the spider” was the only weapon that could defeat the Black Tarantula. Moose announced he would be coming back to Midtown High, accompanied by his cousin Donna. The Parker family’s observed “May’s Special Day” arrived. Mindworm began to psychically implant illusions of Spider-Girl’s enemies into Mayday’s mind. Normie Osborn helped the Parkers arrange an appointment with Dr. Milton Kaplan, one of the nation’s top ear, nose and throat specialists. Mindworm learned Ben had an appointment with Dr. Kaplan, and Hobgoblin kidnapped the doctor. Mindworm attempted to manipulate Spider-Girl to learn about the “heart of the spider.” Hobgoblin abducted Spider-Girl and tried to force her to reveal the “heart of the spider.” Spider-Girl’s allies Darkdevil, Ladyhawk, Jack Jameson/The Buzz, the Fantastic Five, Mad Dog, Weadon’s team, the Avengers, Green Goblin, and more came to Spider-Girl’s rescue and fought off Hobgoblin and Mindworm. Mayday returned home to celebrate her special day with her family.

Okay, now that we have that lengthy plot summary out of the way, let’s move on to my individual bits of this review. As always, we’re going to start off with my own personal opinions about this book. I will say that I loved this book. I thought the stories in it were fantastic. Let’s talk about what I enjoyed the most. I loved watching Mayday trying to find her identity as both Mayday Parker and Spider-Girl. Her conflict between wanting a normal life and wanting to be a superhero was explored in a phenomenal way. Mayday tried to get her grades up and run for student council and because of Spider-Girl ended up in detention and her best friend had to take Mayday’s place in the election. Mayday tried to have a boyfriend, and Spider-Girl led him into the arms of her rival. I also loved how Mayday had to face the consequences of her battle with Carnage. Spider-Girl turned her greatest supporter into a Spider-Girl hater, and caused hearing loss in her baby brother, and then had to deal with the guilt of her actions. I enjoyed watching the Hobgoblin’s war against Black Tarantula with Spider-Girl caught in the middle, and that Spider-Girl wasn’t even Hobgoblin’s main concern, just an annoyance on the side. I enjoyed Mary Jane’s developments, from not wanting her daughter to be a superhero, to encouraging her daughter to be a superhero, then confronting the Hingle’s on how they should love their daughter no matter what she was and being offered a position as a guidance counselor at Mayday’s school. I enjoyed seeing the villains double-crossing with fake meeting locations and ambushes. I liked watching Slattery being an antagonist and assistant to Mayday and Mayday’s family, and particularly when Mary Jane stood up to Slattery after Slattery put Mayday in detention and answered Mayday’s phone. There was so much about this book that I thoroughly enjoyed. However, I will say that I do feel like the artwork did go wrong a lot. For the most part the art was relatively good, but there were just moments where the faces and bodies just didn’t look right. Now, I’m also very nitpicky about the title and cover being appropriate for the content of the book itself. Every issue in this book had a different title, and there were fifteen issues in this book, so including each individual issue title and the option to make an original title not taken from the title of any issue in the book, there were sixteen potential choices for a title. The title “Comes the Carnage!” was the title of an issue in this collection. The Carnage storyline was an ongoing storyline in this volume, and while I don’t particularly feel it was “the best” title for this book, I will say that I will approve this as an appropriate title. As for the cover, it very simple portrays Spider-Girl web-swinging through New York City. I feel like this simple cover is perfect. It offers the promise of seeing Spider-Girl swing into action in this book, and this book delivers on that promise. So, I will say that all in all, this book was an amazing production, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time going through it.

Next up on the list of topics we need to discuss is accessibility. I know I’ve explained my definition of this over seven dozen times at this point, but I feel obligated to explain myself again because I know that there are some readers here who have never been to this blog before to experience a Tim Cubbin review. So, for you newbs here, when I use the word “accessibility,” what I’m saying is how easy it is for someone who knows absolutely nothing about Spider-Girl or Marvel Comics to obtain this book, read it, and understand it as it is written with no outside knowledge on the source material. So, when asking if this book is accessible, I will say that, yes, it is. This book contains the first fifteen issues of one new series, and contains a recap issue (which I did not discuss, I only cover actual comic-style material and not expository-style material when reviewing a graphic novel, so since that issue was not written in a comic narrative style, I didn’t include that in my review), and it does not pick up directly off of any previous stories, crossover into any other series, or tie into any events. As such, getting into this book is actually pretty easy. If you’re looking to get into reading Marvel Comics and are looking for a good place to start, this book offers an excellent jump-on point.

Okay, moving on, we’re going on to the numeric score. I know that some people consider this section the most important segment in my reviews because it cements exactly how good I feel a book is. I also know that some of my readers come to these reviews primarily so they can read about the stories. I know that to different people, every segment in my reviews is the most important to some readers. But this is one of the primary segments of my reviews. So first, I will explain exactly how I score graphic novels. I work on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and if I give that score, I felt like this book is not even worth reading. If, however, I give a book a ten, that is my highest score, and that means that this book is sheer perfection and should be the top seller at all the retailers. To get a ten, a book has to have a story that is enjoyable all the way through, artwork that is consistently visually appealing, a title that fits the content of the book, and a cover that delivers on what it shows on the front of the book. So, when I take all these factors into consideration, the score I’m giving this book is… a nine! I loved almost everything about this book, and while I do feel the art could use some improvement, I thought this was a great effort.

Next up is the recommendation segment. This segment answers two separate questions. The first is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers? The second question is, regardless of whether I approved of this book or now, whom do I think would be the best audience, aside from the obvious fans of the characters, Marvel Comics, or the creative team? To answer the first question, yes, I do recommend this book. If you are reading this review, and now, based solely on the words you’ve just spent the past few minutes reading you’ve decided you want to read this graphic novel, I would tell you to go to your favorite bookstore or online retailer, or your local comic book shop or library, or your Marvel obsessed friend or family member, and try to get your hands on a copy of this book at your earliest convenience, you will definitely enjoy it. As for the best audience, I would recommend this book to teenagers or people who like reading stories about teenagers, females or people who enjoy reading about heroic female protagonists, people who like stories about characters trying to discover who they are, and people who like soap operatic stories.

Well, we’ve come to the ending paragraph of my review. There are still things that need to be said before we move on with our lives. If you have any spare time, please continue checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my content. I’ve been doing this blog for six years now. In that time, I’ve published over 190 posts. Some of these posts are short stories, some are poems, some are essays, some are articles, some are editorials, but the majority are reviews. You will find a few reviews of prose novels, manga, and comic book events here. Primarily, you will find over seven dozen other reviews of Marvel Epic Collections just like this one. The current focus of this blog is on Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase every one as soon as I can after it is released and post a review of it as soon as I possibly can. As such, I post on a very frequent basis, so expect to see plenty of content from me pretty often. If you liked this post and have some spare time, please feel free to check out my reviews of “Spider-Girl: Legacy” “Spider-Girl: Keeping the Faith” and “Spider-Girl: Family Ties” for more Spider-Girl content. As for the future of this blog, keep checking back because sometime in the next four weeks, you can expect my next review “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Sitting in a Tree” to be published. You can also keep expecting to see more content coming from me for a long time, I intend to keep doing this blog for as long as I can, and I don’t think anything is going to stop me soon. If you have anything you’d like to say, feel free to leave a comment, please like, share, retweet, reply, spread the word, do whatever you can to get me out there and let me know what you think of what I’m doing. I’d really love to hear from you guys. That’s really all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Venom: Sting of the Scorpion"

 

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

            Eddie Brock’s mother died giving birth to Eddie, something that Eddie’s sister Mary and father Carl struggled to get past as Eddie grew up. As a child, Eddie was a pathological liar, making things up to seem more impressive to others, particularly girls. Eddie always had an interest in the news, and one night, Eddie’s father joked that Eddie should report the news, something that Eddie took to heart. To appear impressive to the Director of Admissions at Empire State University, Eddie lied about an internship at the San Franscisco Chronicle, which helped him get into college. While on a walk at night, Eddie and a female co-ed named Ann Weying, whom Eddie was trying to impress, were attacked by muggers. Ann was knocked unconscious during the struggle. Spider-Man was in the neighborhood and swung to their rescue and knocked out the muggers, then left the scene, leaving Eddie to falsely take credit for protecting Ann when Ann came to. After college, Eddie and Ann got married, and Eddie got a job as an intern at the Daily Globe, but Eddie lied to Ann and said he was a reporter. While going through mail for the letters column, Eddie found a letter to the editor from a man calling himself the Sin-Eater, taking credit for the murder of New York Police Department Captain Jean DeWolff and leaving a date and location of where the killer next planned to make contact. Rather than deliver the letter to the editor, Eddie went to the payphone the Sin-Eater called, and Eddie interviewed the Sin-Eater. The editor would not run Eddie’s interview unless the Sin-Eater killed again, and when the Sin-Eater struck again, Eddie made the front page. Sin-Eater liked the sensitivity Eddie portrayed to the Sin-Eater’s plight in the article and Sin-Eater asked to meet Eddie at a church. Eddie met the Sin-Eater, who told Eddie the Sin-Eater’s next target would be Reverend Bernard Finn, and that the Sin-Eater’s true identity was Emil Gregg. After Reverend Finn’s murder, Sin-Eater contacted Eddie again and told Eddie Sin-Eater’s next target would be J. Jonah Jameson, published or rival newspaper The Daily Bugle. The NYPD found out Eddie had become Sin-Eater’s contact, and the police arrested Eddie as an accessory to murder. While awaiting trial, Eddie’s father made contact with Eddie to voice Carl’s disappointment in Eddie protecting a murderer. This led Eddie to publish Gregg’s identity as the Sin-Eater. Gregg was arrested attempting to assassinate Jameson, but with the help of Spider-Man, Stan Carter was arrested as the Sin-Eater, and Eddie’s source was revealed to be a copycat and not the actual Sin-Eater. The Globe had to recall the edition Eddie’s story broke out on and Eddie was fired. Following this, Ann filed for a divorce from Eddie. At a total low, Eddie went to the church he met Gregg in, and the alien symbiote that had previously been attached to Spider-Man bonded with Eddie. Hearing Eddie, the priest called the police. The police suspected Eddie to be on drugs and attempted to apprehend him, but the symbiote reacted and the two police officers did not survive the encounter while Eddie and the symbiote walked away. Eddie signed the divorce papers and ended Eddie’s marriage to Ann. The symbiote revealed to Eddie that the symbiote’s former host Spider-Man’s true identity was Peter Parker. Both Eddie and the symbiote nursed a hatred for Spider-Man and vowed revenge on Spider-Man. Eddie and the symbiote went to Peter Parker’s apartment and attacked Peter’s wife Mary Jane and told Mary Jane that Eddie was going to kill Spider-Man. Spider-Man fought Eddie and the symbiote, who now called themselves Venom, but this battle only the beginning of Spider-Man and Venom’s war.

            Years later, Carnage, the result of the bonding between the symbiote offspring of Venom and serial killer Cletus Kasady, was going to give birth. Carnage was not happy that he was going to reproduce and was planning to eliminate his offspring. Symbiote fathers never had loving relationships with their children. Following the birth of the symbiote, NYPD officer Patrick Mulligan had come to the scene of a disturbance caused by Carnage, and the symbiote attached to Mulligan. Mulligan, not knowing he was hosting a symbiote, went home to his pregnant wife Gina. Venom went to Mulligan’s apartment to protect Mulligan and Gina from an attack by Carnage. Spider-Man also came to the fight, and saved Gina, who went into labor. After pulling off a successful art robbery, Felicia Hardy/Black Cat came to Mulligan’s rescue. Venom vowed an allegiance with his grandson, whom he dubbed Toxin. Edward Mulligan was born. Mulligan was informed of the art robbery and recognized Black Cat in the surveillance photograph. Mulligan arranged a meeting with Black Cat, where the two were attacked by Carnage. Mulligan became Toxin and fought off Carnage. Mulligan was horrified that he had become a monster but decided to keep this fact a secret. Toxin went back to fight Carnage but held back on causing a fatality. Venom and Carnage realized Toxin was on the path of becoming a superhero and decided to team up to end him. Toxin stopped an armed robbery, and almost went fatal on the robbers, but with the help of Spider-Man, got the situation under control. Venom and Carnage attacked Toxin and overpowered Toxin, but Spider-Man and Black Cat came to Toxin’s rescue. After the villains were defeated, Mulligan realized that for his whole life, he would now be a target of Venom and Carnage and left Gina and Edward for their own protection while he went on the run.

            Peter’s Aunt May Parker had been abducted by a supervillain and was possibly dead. The Daily Bugle was offering a five million dollar cash prize for a photo of Spider-Man’s secret identity. Eddie received a cancer diagnosis and found religion. Eddie decided to get rid of the Venom symbiote and let the cancer do its work, so Eddie went to Phineas Mason/Tinkerer to hold an auction, the lot being the Venom symbiote. An assortment of super criminals and mob figures, including crime boss Don Fortunato, attended the auction. Spider-Man stopped at a diner where he met a waitress named Ramona, who had a sick grandson. The child’s grandfather was Adrian Toomes/Vulture, and Spider-Man had just stopped the Vulture from committing a robbery that Vulture would have given the money to Vulture’s grandson. To take Peter’s mind off of Aunt May, Mary Jane suggested Peter and Mary Jane attend Peter’s high school reunion. Don Fortunato won the Venom symbiote auction and gave the symbiote to Fortunato’s weakling son Angelo Fortunato. The new Venom attacked Spider-Man at Peter’s high school reunion. After taking it to the streets, Venom tried to kill Spider-Man, succeeding in killing an impersonator seeking to make the five million dollar prize. This only angered Spider-Man further, and Angelo proved to the symbiote that Angelo didn’t have what it took to be Venom, so the symbiote abandoned Angelo. Eddie had a bad reaction to Angelo and Venom’s split up. Peter found a way to end the Spider-Man secret identity photo contest and settle things with Ramona. Mac Gargan/Scorpion contacted Peter, revealing he was Aunt May’s kidnapper. He demanded that Spider-Man would break Norman Osborn/Green Goblin out of prison or Aunt May would face the consequences. Spider-Man agreed, and with Black Cat’s help, was able to break Osborn out of jail. Osborn double-crossed Spider-Man with an attack by an army of Spider-Man’s worst enemies. Scorpion was supposed to appear. Osborn had sent Gargan a new Scorpion suit. The Venom symbiote found Gargan, and Gargan attended Osborn’s attack on Spider-Man and Black Cat not as Scorpion, but as Venom. Osborn was not happy with Venom’s appearance, but continued Osborn’s plan of revenge on Spider-Man by going after Mary Jane as Spider-Man fought Spider-Man’s enemies. Just as Spider-Man and Black Cat were losing, a group of Spider-Man’s allies, summoned by Mary Jane, joined the fight. Spider-Man attempted to go after Osborn but was halted by Venom. Spider-Man was able to defeat Venom, but Osborn had already reached Mary Jane. Spider-Man was able to prevail, Peter was reunited with Aunt May, Gargan was apprehended, and Eddie was hospitalized.

            After Peter unmasked as Spider-Man on live television, Aunt May was shot and clung to life in the hospital. Eddie was still residually haunted by Venom, despite no longer being physically bonded to the symbiote. Eddie discovered that Peter’s Aunt May was dying in the same hospital Eddie was dying in. Venom saw this as a perfect opportunity for revenge on Spider-Man. Peter wanted to reach Aunt May on the astral plane and bring May back to consciousness. Peter went to the clairvoyant Cassandra Webb/Madame Web to ask for Madame Web’s help in contacting May. With the aid of Mary Jane and Aunt Anna Watson, Peter was able to reach Aunt May. Aunt May told Peter she was ready to die. Eddie could not go through with Venom’s plan to get revenge on Spider-Man.

            Carmilla Black debuted as the new Scorpion. Venom was not happy that his former namesake had been taken and wished to defend his trademark by eliminating Scorpion. Scorpion had to defend herself with her power to absorb toxins to survive Venom’s assault.

The Cape Killers came after Venom in violation of the Superhuman Registration Act. After Venom took them out, Songbird and Radioactive Man, representing the Thunderbolts, came to Gargan with the offer of joining the team. Venom accepted the offer.

While the Thunderbolts battled Biohazard, Venom was pulled aside by Whirlwind, who arranged Gargan to be able to leave Thunderbolts Mountain without consequence. Gargan met with Whirlwind, Tiger Shark, Boomerang, and Mister Hyde, who blackmailed Gargan into arranging a meeting between the quartet of villains and Norman Osborn. Gargan agreed. The villains found out what it was like to cross Norman Osborn.

Okay, we have that rather lengthy plot summary out of the way, now it’s time to move onto my individual bits in this review. Let’s start where we usually do, with my own personal opinions on the book. For the purposes of making this review make sense, I arranged the stories chronologically, they were not presented in this order in the collection itself. So, the verdict is… I loved the stories in this book. The “Venom Vs. Carnage” storyline was great, I loved the debut of Toxin. I enjoyed the “Venomous” segments, I liked how Spider-Man made good with Vulture’s ex. “The Last Stand” segments were enjoyable, Gargan’s debut as Venom was a great start. “The Last Temptation of Eddie Brock” was brilliant, with Eddie struggling with the remnants of being Venom, and the ending was so touching, with Eddie trying to be a better person, and Peter reaching Aunt May and what May told Peter. “Switching Sides” was a fun little bit with Venom fighting the Cape Killers and surprising Songbird and Radioactive Man by accepting the Thunderbolts offer. “Namesake” was entertaining, seeing Venom trying to defend his Scorpion trademark, and the fight was rather unexpected. “Reason in Madness” was enjoyable, seeing Norman Osborn in action as a human and not as the Green Goblin and still kicking butt was exciting. “Dark Origin” was my favorite story in the book, getting to look back at Eddie’s history and seeing what led him on his path to being who he was as both Eddie Brock and Venom was so much fun. Overall, I thought this book was very well written. Now, since this is a graphic novel, we also have to look at the artwork as well as the story. For the most part, I enjoyed the artwork. I thought most of it was relatively good, if not better. My favorites were Terry Dodson, Frank Cho, and Angel Medina, and I also enjoyed the work of Leonard Kirk. I generally enjoyed the work of Clayton Crain, but there were moments when Crain’s work did go wrong. Lee Weeks, Rick Hoberg and Ben Oliver did decent work, sometimes it was a little gritty, but I still found it enjoyable. And I did not care for the art from Leinil Francis Yu on “Switching Sides” at all. Now, I know this is being nitpicky, but I also evaluate the appropriateness of title and cover applied to graphic novels as well. And I will say that I don’t feel that “Sting of the Scorpion” was the perfect title for this book. It’s true that this book does involve Mac Gargan, the former Scorpion, but he’s not active as Scorpion in this book at all, and he also doesn’t hold as much of a majority of appearance as Venom as Eddie Brock did in this collection. I feel like a better title for this collection would have been “Dark Origin,” which would have been more fitting to the overall content for not only having the five issue “Venom: Dark Origin” limited series, but for featuring the birth of Toxin, and Angelo Fortunato and Mac Gargan both becoming Venom. As for the cover, this collection is fronted with Spider-Man perched on a building in the rain with Angelo Fortunato as Venom standing menacingly behind him. I feel like this was poor representation as Angelo appeared as Venom in only two issues in this entire book. As far as marketing goes, I feel the branding is not proper for the majority of the content in this particular collection.

Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve done over seven dozen reviews like this at this point, and in each one, I’ve been obligated to explain the usage of that word every single time. I know some of you have been to these reviews before and know what I’m about to say, so if you do, bear with me while I explain it to the newbs who are reading a Tim Cubbin review for the first time. So, essentially, accessibility means how easy it is to understand the material contained in this volume with no outside or prior knowledge of the characters or storylines. So, when asking the question of if this book is accessible, I will say that it really isn’t. This book has issues of “Marvel Knights Spider-Man” that are part of a twelve-issue storyline, but this book only contains excerpts and three entire issues, with only blurbs explaining the pieces that are missing. I feel like this book is extremely incomplete in that particular story. It also has tie-ins to other events like “Civil War” and “Back in Black,” detracting from making this easily accessible to beginners. I feel like if you are looking to get into reading Marvel Comics for the first time and are looking for a place to start, this book is not a good choice for you.

We’re up to the point where I give this book the ultimate evaluation: my numeric score. To some people, this is the key reason they come to read my reviews: to find out exactly how good I feel a book is. My scoring system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one through ten. The lowest score I can give is a one. That score means that this is one of the worst things I have ever read in my entire life, and the money I spent buying it and time I spent reading it were such a colossal waste and I totally regret all of it and wish I could go back and undo it. My highest score is ten. That score is reserved only for sheer perfection. That means that the story was exciting and engaging and entertaining the whole way through; the art was consistently visually appealing; the title fits the main theme of the book; and that what is shown on the cover is actually a proper representation of the content of this book. It also means that the time I spent reading this book was some of the best time of my life while consuming a form of entertainment. I’m not in the business of just handing out a ten to a book that doesn’t deserve it, and I am very hard to please. But in terms of what I’m looking for when I evaluate a book, the story was an enjoyable read, the art was, for the most part, relatively decent, but the title and cover, while are delivered upon in the book itself, don’t capture the totality of the essence of this book. So, when taking all the ingredients that make up the book, pouring them into my metaphorical blender, and blending them until they are completely fluid, then pouring the liquid out into a cup, the liquid represents a score of… an eight! This book was an enjoyable read, but the marketing does seem a little off in my opinion.

Our next stop on our journey through this review is the recommendation segment. This segment focuses on two topics. The first is to answer the question of, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in a conversation with me about this book? The second topic is to discuss what aspects of this book would appeal to specific readers, based on the content and what a person looks for when they read a book, and not looking at the obvious of fans of Venom, Marvel, or the creative team. In answer to the question, if you are reading this review, and now, based solely on the words you’ve just spent the past few minutes reading and my personal recommendation that you want to read this book, I would tell you to definitely read this book. Hop onto your favorite online retailer, head over to your favorite bookstore, your local comic book shop, your local library, or hit up a friend or family member with this book and get your hands on a copy as soon as you can. As far as the content that readers might find appealing, if you like stories about aliens, you’d probably find this book appealing. This book is also appealing to fans of horror comics. Also, fans of stories about people dealing with depression and other psychological issues might find something to relate to in this book. And people with an interest in journalism could be interested in this book.

Okay, we’re at the point where we’re just about ready to say goodbye for now. There are a bunch of things I do have to say first. If you liked this post and want to check out more of my work, keep looking at timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. I’ve been doing this blog for almost six years now. During that time, I’ve published over 190 posts. While I have posted short stories and poetry, this blog favors a journalistic approach, and I’ve also featured articles, essays, and editorials, but my primary focus is reviews. I’ve reviewed some prose novels, manga, and comic book events, but the majority of the reviews have been of graphic novels, particularly Marvel Epic Collections. I have done over seven dozen such reviews. I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released, and if possible, put up a review of it. At the moment, there are only four Modern Era Epic Collections I haven’t reviewed, three because I didn’t have a laptop to type a review on at the time, and one due to scheduling issues that made writing a review a problem and by the time I got around to being able to write a review I wasn’t able to properly recall the book to do an accurate review, but that should be amended by around the start of next year. I have reviewed every Ultimate Epic Collection released thus far. If you liked this review and want to read more similar posts, feel free to search for my reviews of “Venom: Shiver” “Venom: Agent Venom” “Venom: The Savage Six” and “Venom: Space Knight” for more Venom content. I post on a very frequent basis, at least once every two months, but usually more often than that, depending on releases of books to review and my scheduling. Just so you know, my next review is going to be on “Spider-Girl: Comes the Carnage!” You can expect to see it posted within the next two months following the publication of this post. Everything I say on this blog is strictly my opinion. I respect that you might not agree with what I have to say, and if you have ever read anything I’ve reviewed or have anything you’d like to say, like you disagreed with anything I’ve posted, or if you agree with me, or if you just want to let me know what you think of my post, feel free to leave a comment or a response or a post of some kind. I’d love to hear from you guys as I value all my readers and their opinions. Please follow, like, share, retweet, do something to spread me around the internet to your friends, that would be greatly appreciated. I’ll be doing this blog for as long as I can, so don’t expect me to stop anytime soon. I’m looking forward to posting again and hope you’ll come back to join me. That’s all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            It was a time of turmoil for the galaxy. While the evil Galactic Empire remained strong, the forces of the Rebel Alliance continued to struggle for freedom from their oppressive grasp, establishing a secret outpost on Horox III, deep in the Outer Rim. Young rebel pilot Luke Skywalker, struggling to forge his destiny, was at a loss. He felt the Force, but without the proper training, he could not become the Jedi Knight he was certain he must become. Meanwhile, the rogue archaeologist and sometime scoundrel Doctor Aphra came into possession of a very valuable – and very dangerous- artifact… one containing the recorded consciousness of an ancient Force user.

            After getting into a fight in a bar, Luke found himself teaming up with Aphra and the Wookie bounty hunter Black Krrsantan. Aphra had come to deduce the Force potential in Luke from Aphra’s time under the employ of Sith Lord Darth Vader. Aphra informed Luke she had a crystal containing the archived personality of a Jedi named Rur, and that once a year, the Queen of Ktath’atn held a party where the Queen received guests and swapped favors for meeting interesting organic life, and that the Queen could activate the crystal, giving Luke a teacher, and Aphra information on the ancient past. Luke agreed to go along with Aphra, Krrsantan, and Aphra’s droids 0-0-0 and BT-8. Upon arriving at “The Screaming Citadel” of the Queen, Krrsantan was denied admittance to the party due to the Queen’s allergies to certain species. The Rebel alliance, led by Princess Leia Organa, with the aid of Sana Starros, became aware of Luke’s departure with Aphra and suspected that Aphra had kidnapped Luke. When Aphra presented Luke to the Queen, Aphra and Luke were rejected, until Luke used the Force to defend Aphra from the Queen’s guards. Aphra and Luke were informed the Queen would hear their request in the morning. The Queen secretly planned to consume Luke’s life force to sustain the Queen’s own life. Sana, having history with Aphra, deduced that Aphra had brought Luke to Ktath’atn, and Leia, Sana, smuggler Han Solo, and his Wookie companion Chewbacca headed to Ktath’atn in Han’s ship the Millenium Falcon. Krrsantan had been placed in quarantine since the party. At breakfast with the Queen, the Queen attempted to force Luke to use the Force to open the breakfast platters, but the platters were hiding Abersyn Symbiotes which the Queen intended to use to control Luke and Aphra. Luke and Aphra managed to escape the Queen’s dining hall and ran right into 0-0-0, BT-8, Leia, Han, and Sana. Sana attempted to take out Aphra, but Luke protected Aphra and revealed to the Rebels that Aphra had not kidnapped Luke, and that not only had Luke gone voluntarily with Aphra, Luke now considered Aphra a friend. The Queen’s agents chased the Rebels, Aphra and the Droids into a laboratory, which BT-8 sealed shut. The lab was full of Abersyn Symbiotes. Aphra led Luke off on the pretense that Aphra was trying to find a way out of the complex, but in actuality was leading Luke to the Queen. Aphra threatened to destroy Luke, and bargained Luke’s life for the Queen activating the crystal. The Queen used her abilities to corrupt Han. Leia, Sana, and the Droids managed to escape and found Krrsantan about to be taken out by one of the Queen’s lieutenants, Bombinax. After Leia, Sana and the droids managed to temporarily evade Bombinax, 0-0-0 surgically implanted an Abersyn Symbiote in Krrsantan’s head. The Symbiote enhanced Krrsantan was able to defeat Bombinax. The Queen unlocked the crystal for Aphra after Aphra delivered Luke to the Queen. The Queen infected Han with an Abersyn Symbiote and took control of Han, converting Han into the Queen’s army. Han attempted to convert Leia, but Sana and the Droids were able to rescue Leia from Han and the Queen’s army’s clutches. Luke escaped the Queen’s confinement. Aphra triggered an explosion to distract the Queen, and implanted Luke with an Abersyn Symbiote. Luke was able to take over control of the Symbiote hive from the Queen and became the new King of the Symbiotes. Luke began a duel with the Queen. Aphra used Rur to give Luke assistance and Luke was able to get free of the Symbiote and take down the Queen. Leia and Sana took out the remaining hive leaders, converting Han into the new King of the Symbiotes. Han’s act as King was to free all of the former Queen’s subjects from the control of the Symbiotes. Leia then had 0-0-0 sedate Han and remove Han’s symbiote. Luke rejected Aphra’s offer of access to Rur, and the Rebels and Aphra’s group parted ways.

            In an effort to find a new staging ground for a hidden rebel base, Han Solo led rebel leader Princess Leia to the planet of Odona, a remote world of Harsh extremes and secret alcoves long used by pirates and smugglers to avoid the Empire. But as their mission stretched on, Han and Leia found themselves cut off from their allies and lost in the caves of Odona as a massive ice storm approached.

            Some time beforehand, Han had double-crossed Frax. Frax teamed up with Selt and HR-PO to get revenge on Han. Frax, Selt and HR-PO followed Han to Odona. Han and Leia found themselves under fire and were separated. Han escaped into the caves, while Leia retreated to the Millenium Falcon. After getting weapons, Leia followed Han, Frax, Selt and HR-PO into the caves. After a shootout, Selt and HR-PO broke their deal with Frax, feeling they were tricked into a harder operation than they were led to believe it would be. Frax did not take this betrayal and ensured Selt and HR-PO did not walk away from the deal-break. Han and Leia escaped the caves, and Frax followed, and the three battled it out in the ice storm, and Han and Leia were rescued by the Rebellion.

            After escaping from a group of the Empire’s Tie Fighters, Luke and Leia landed on a planet made primarily of water. After spending week surviving, Luke and Leia met an aquatic race. Luke and Leia survived an assault from a squad of Stormtroopers and a Walker. Luke and Leia then used the parts from the Walker to fix their ship and escape from the planet.

            Sana teamed up with Lando Calrissian to run a moneymaking con on a group of pirates, the Empire, and Jabba the Hutt.

            The Rebellion tasked Han Solo and Chewbacca with smuggling Grakkus the Hutt across the galaxy past Imperial patrols to a prison facility.

            The Empire had abducted C-3PO and were interrogating the droid to try to get information on the Rebellion. Fellow droid R2-D2 stole an X-Wing to fly to C-3PO’s rescue.

            Sergeant Kreel and the Special Commando Advanced Recon Troopers were tasked by Darth Vader to find and destroy the Rebel base in the Horox System and bring Luke Skywalker to Darth Vader.

            As war raged on between the Galactic Empire and the Rebellion, the battle of everyday survival continued for those trying to live a normal life. Between the scorching heat of the twin suns on Tatooine and the vast deserts of the Jundland Wastes, the life of a Tusken Raider was not an easy one. But when the world had turned its back on the Tusken Raiders, they always had the sand to call their home.

            On Jedha, Luke and Leia rescued Ubin Des and Chulco Gi, two Partisans who fought with Saw Gerrera. After retreating to NaJedha, Luke learned Chulco was an Aspirant to the Disciples of the Whills, a group that worshipped the Force. Leia asked Ubin for a meeting with the Partisans’ leader. Queen Trios of Shu-Torun was working with the Empire to assist in mining Kyber crystals from Jedha. Trios was allied with Commander Kanchar in the operation. Ubin and Chulco brought Leia, Luke, and Han to the Partisans’ leader Benthic on Jedha. Benthic agreed to negotiate an alliance with the Rebellion. Chulco told Luke about the temple of the Cult of the Central Isotoper at the edge of the blast crater on Jedha. The Partisans planned to destroy the Empire’s mining Citadel on Jedha, and Luke, Han and Leia agreed to aid the Partisans in destroying it. After the Citadel was destroyed, Chulco decided he had to complete his pilgrimage. Luke decided to go with Chulco, against Leia’s wishes. Upon arriving, Luke felt a massive disturbance in the Force. The Imperials deployed their super weapon. Ubin attempted to destroy it but failed. Chewbacca was injured in a shootout in Nejedha space. Chulco was corrupted by the Dark Side of the Force, and attacked Luke, and Chulco did not survive. Luke reunited with the Partisans. Leia, Luke, C-3PO, and R2-D2 boarded the Imperial Destroyer Leviathan to disable the ship. Luke confronted Kanchan. Leia faced off with Trios. Han took command of the backup mission. The Rebellion and the Partisans worked together to end the Empire’s mining operation on Jedha.

            Okay, now we have the plot synopsis out of the way, so it’s time to move on to my individual segments of this review. As always, I’m going to start off by giving my personal opinions about the book. As far as the stories go, I found this book to be pretty entertaining. I will say that I love Doctor Aphra, so “The Screaming Citadel” crossover storyline with her was a real treat and turned out to be my favorite story in the book. I just like how she plays both sides of the field, and her relationship with Luke throughout the story was complex and I liked watching how it changed over the course of the adventure. I enjoyed the story of the Queen, and I liked how the Symbiotes were able to be controlled by the most powerful being in the hive, and the fluctuation of leadership was entertaining. I found all the one issue stories to be enjoyable, they gave fun brief looks at all the characters and offered some insight into their personalities, and it was especially enjoyable to get to see stories centered around characters like Sana Starros and Sergeant Kreel who have not had screen time in any current “Star Wars” film or show projects, so they don’t appear in any other media but the comics and there are no other places where you can view these characters, so those were actually the most interesting stories. I liked how the Empire was getting annoyed by C-3PO, they couldn’t get him to shut up about things they didn’t want to hear about and couldn’t get any of the information that they actually wanted out of him. I also enjoyed “The Ashes of Jedha” storyline, I thought it was exciting and had a lot of interesting moments, particularly the ending, which I am not going to spoil, but it did surprise me how Leia’s faceoff with Trios turned out. All that said, while I found the stories enjoyable, we cannot forget that this was a graphic novel and must be judged as such. And unfortunately, I did not enjoy the artwork at all. Some of my regular readers who have been with me before may recall my great hatred of the work of Salvador Larroca, and to my great displeasure, he was the artist on the issues of the main “Star Wars” series contained in this book. None of the other artists who illustrated for this collection appealed to me, either. Another component of a graphic novel I evaluate is the title. What I’m looking at is how best it was in representing the stories contained in this volume. There were only two ongoing storylines in this collection, “The Screaming Citadel” and “The Ashes of Jedha,” and I honestly feel like either one is good for the book, despite “The Ashes of Jedha” being one issue longer than “The Screaming Citadel,” but I won’t hold it against the editors for deciding on choosing “The Screaming Citadel” considering that it was a crossover between two different series and contained a one-shot, so I feel like it does deserve the priority title because it was an event and those are pretty big deals in Epic Collections. The final aspect I’m going to evaluate is the cover. This is to assess whether this cover represents the contents of the volume and if it actually delivers on what the cover shows, if what you see on the front of the book actually happens inside. This cover features Luke Skywalker with his Lightsaber in the foreground, with Doctor Aphra and the Queen in the midground, and the Millenium Falcon firing shots and red lightning in the background. I will say that all this does happen in this volume, so I won’t gripe about the cover being an inaccurate representation of this collection. I will also say that since “The Screaming Citadel” takes up a large portion of this volume and this cover primarily represents “The Screaming Citadel” that this cover is an appropriate choice as a cover for this particular volume. Was it the only cover that would work for this volume? Absolutely not, but it was an accurate depiction of events contained in this book, so I feel like it was a great choice as a cover.

            Next up on the agenda is accessibility. Now, I know there are some of you who are new to this blog and have never read one of my posts before and are wondering what I mean by accessibility, just as I know there are some of you who have been to this blog many times and already know what I’m about to say, having explained this over seven dozen times at this point, but for those formerly mentioned newbs to my blog, I must once again explain what I mean when I use the word “accessibility” in application to media. So, what I’m saying is basically how easy it is to get into this book. So, let’s pose the question of if this book is accessible? In other words, can a person who has no outside knowledge of “Star Wars” pick up this book, read it, and understand what they have just read based solely on what is contained in the pages of this volume, and this volume alone? I would say that this book is relatively standalone. While this book is marketed as Vol. 3, I don’t feel like the first two volumes are essential reads to understanding this book. I would say having seen the film “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” is essential viewing for understanding this book, though, and would not recommend reading this book if you know absolutely nothing about “Star Wars.” If you’re a fan of the “Star Wars” franchise and want to enjoy more “Star Wars” media, I wouldn’t say you should start with this volume as your first choice in comic reads, but I would not say it’s uninviting if you choose to skip the first two volumes and decide to start here. There are absolutely worse places you could start reading at.

            Okay, we’ve come to one of the most important parts of my reviews: the numeric score. I know that some of my readers come to my reviews specifically for this reason, but I know every segment of my reviews is important in some way, shape, or form, so I really can’t say this segment is the most essential part of my reviews, but it does have a high amount of value in the scope of the review. There are those of you who have been with me on some of my other seven dozen or so reviews, and already know how I roll, but I also know there are some of you newbs who need me to explain how I score. My system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one through ten. One is the lowest score I will give, and that means that reading this book was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. Ten is my highest score, and represents sheer perfection in every way, I can find no complaints about it, and reading it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. To get a ten, a graphic novel has to have an enjoyable story, amazing art, an accurate title, and an appropriate cover. I don’t very often give out tens. This book had an enjoyable story, but it wasn’t perfect. The artwork was consistently visually displeasing. The title and cover were both proper representations of the volume. So, putting all of those factors together and evaluating a score, what we’re looking at is… a six! While I enjoyed reading the words written, the visuals were just not appealing to look at and made the reading experience so much less enjoyable.

            Next up is my recommendation segment. This segment is meant to do two things. The first is to answer if I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers. The second is to suggest traits that a person looks for while they read that they can find in this particular volume, things that would make it appealing to readers. In answer to my first question, yes, I do personally recommend this book. If you’re reading this review and now, based solely on the words you’ve just been reading for the past few minutes you’ve decided you want to read this book, I would tell you to check your favorite online retailer or bookstore, or your local comic book shop or library, or “Star Wars” obsessed friend, and try to get your hands on a copy of this book as soon as you can and give it a read. As for the kind of people who might enjoy this book, besides the obvious of fans of “Star Wars” or the creative team, people who like books about aliens, robots, pirates, and smugglers will find this book enjoyable.

            Well, I’d say we’re getting close to the point where I’m about ready to post. I do have a few things I have to say first. I’ve been doing this blog for nearly six years at this point. In that time, I’ve published over 190 posts. Keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. I’ve compiled short stories, poems, essays, articles and editorials, and reviews. I’ve reviewed prose novels, comic book events, and manga, as well as over seven dozen other Epic Collections. I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released and if possible, post a review after I read it. Those are currently the main focus of this blog at the moment. If you liked this post and have some more time and want to check out more “Star Wars” content, I’d recommend reading my reviews of “Star Wars: Skywalker Strikes” “Star Wars: Yoda’s Secret War” “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets” “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Vader Down” and “Star Wars: Kanan: The Last Padawan” as more “Star Wars” Modern Era Epic Collection posts. I post on a very frequent basis My next review is going to be “Venom: Sting of the Scorpion” which should be posted within the next month after the posting of this review, so if you’re interested, keep checking back for it. That’s all I have to say for now, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Iron Man: The Future"

 

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

            The Mandarin and Ezekiel Stane began working together, along with Vibro, Firebrand, Chemistro, Blizzard, Titanium Man, Crimson Dynamo, Living Laser, Melter, Whirlwind, Mauler, and Firepower to commit terrorist attacks. Following the Serpent’s War, Tony Stark/Iron Man invited the elf Splitlip to join Stark Resilient. Tony and Splitlip also worked on getting sober. Tony was subpoenaed for the Iron Man armor’s biometric information for the prior thirty days after it was suspected he piloted the Iron Man armor drunk. Mandarin, Stane, Justine Hammer, and Sasha Hammer began plotting to take down Tony Stark. Tony piloting the armor drunk hit the news. Sasha Hammer was promoted to the head of the Detroit Steel Corps following the apparent death of Lieutenant Doug Johnson, the face of Detroit Steel. The Stark Resilient Board of Investors voiced their concerns over CEO Virginia “Pepper” Potts’ activities as the armored hero Rescue following a leaked photo of Pepper crying in Pepper’s office while in the Rescue armor. Stane discovered that Tony’s Repulsor Unit that kept Tony alive was damaged, and Mandarin sent Living Laser to attack Iron Man. Stark Resilient Head of Security Bethany Cabe revealed to Pepper that Cabe was the one who leaked the photo of Pepper crying so Cabe could make the money that Pepper was not providing Cabe. Justine Hammer secretly had Spymaster infiltrating Stark Resilient, and Justine planned to have Spymaster make a move against Stark Resilient. Living Laser compromised Tony’s Repulsor Unit further and put Tony in cardiac arrest. Stane discovered he and all the villains the Mandarin had recruited had been implanted with bombs. Tony was revived at Lenox Hill Hospital and physically resisted treatment from the doctors. Mandarin had Stane working on Dreadnought machines, and when Stane showed resistance, Mandarin revealed Mandarin was using one of the Mandarin’s rings to control Stane’s mind. General Babbage informed James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine, Stark Resilient’s liaison with the United States government, that Babbage felt Tony was unfit to pilot the Iron Man armor. Mandarin sent a fleet of Dreadnoughts to attack Three Gorges dam in China. Iron Man, War Machine, and the Chinese superhero team the Dynasty put a stop to the Dreadnoughts’ attack. In Paris, a deranged Doug Johnson, identifying as Detroit Steel, secured a path back to the United States. Tony provided the data on the Iron Man armor to the Feds. Tony was forced to wear a governing device on his Repulsor Unit that would allow Babbage and Justine Hammer control when Tony could be Iron Man and be able to deactivate the armor. Iron Man fought Whirlwind, but Iron Man was deactivated during the fight, and Whirlwind was able to escape. Melter attacked Downtown Los Angeles. War Machine fought him, and Whirlwind and Living Laser joined the fight. Tony discovered he could not remove the governing device after it was attached to his Repulsor Unit. Tony and Rhodey faked Rhodey’s death as part of Tony’s plan to fight back against the Mandarin.

            Iron Man fought Firebrand and Crimson Dynamo, but Iron Man was deactivated and Sasha Hammer and the Detroit Steel Corps were allowed to finish the fight. Tony told Steve Rogers/Captain America and Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel that Tony was taking a leave of absence from the Avengers. Stane’s Dreadnoughts failed, much to the Mandarin’s displeasure. The Mandarin’s mole in Stark Resilient Leonard Pimacher/Spymaster violently attacked Stark Resilient employee Tim Cababa. Tony informed Babbage he would no longer be Iron Man and purged himself of the Iron Man armor. Stane removed the Mandarin’s bomb from Stane’s body. Spymaster attacked Stark Resilient employee Carson Wyche, but Cabe and Stark Resilient secretary Bambi Arbogast came to Wyche’s rescue. Firepower attacked internation waters near Somalia, and Rhodey arrived as the new Iron Man arrived to defeat Firepower. Tony publicly announced that he was no longer Iron Man. Johnson/Detroit Steel attacked Sasha Hammer and abducted her. Stane attacked Mandarin, furious that the Mandarin had been manipulating Stane, but Stane was easily stopped by the Mandarin. Cababa and Spymaster were taken to Seatle Medical Center to treat their injuries. Johnson brought Sasha to Hammer Industries, demanding a trade of her life for his old armor. Justine agreed, planning to detonate the armor as soon as Johnson climbed into it. Spymaster attacked the police in the hospital, and the police put Spymaster down for good. Tony removed himself from Stark Resilient. Iron Man and Rescue saved Tony from an attempt on Tony’s life. Johnson had overwritten Justine’s programming of the Detroit Steel and Johnson attacked the Hammer girls. Sasha fought back and ended Johnson. Tony discovered that the Mandarin was in Tony’s head and could control Tony.

            Tony went to Mandarin City in China to work for the Mandarin. Resilient announced their plan to launch their new product, the Swarm. Rescue teamed up with the new Iron Man to defeat Vibro. Tony worked with a mentally damaged Zeke Stane on Mandarin’s Dreadnoughts. Justine Hammer took Babbage off the board. Tony and Melter got in a fight in Mandarin City Mess Hall. Mandarin attempted to detonate Melter’s implant, but Tony saved Melter, much to Mandarin’s displeasure. Tony gave Mandarin a list of needs for building the Dreadnoughts. Mandarin sent the villains out to get the items, who came into conflict with Iron Man and Rescue. Tony operated on Stane to restore his cognitive functions. Mandarin revealed to Tony that the rings were living aliens and Mandarin planned to implant the aliens in the Dreadnoughts. Rescue fought the new Iron Man and deduced that Iron Man was Rhodey. Mandarin began implanting the aliens in the Dreadnoughts. Tony tried to incite the supervillains to fight against Mandarin. Pepper began to believe the J.A.R.V.I.S. AI in Pepper’s armor was compromised. When Pepper and Wyche tried to fix J.A.R.V.I.S., the AI attacked Pepper and Wyche. Tony built a new Iron Man armor in secret. Rhodey/Iron Man came to Pepper and Wyche’s rescue. The Resilient employees used the Swarm to locate Tony. Justine Hammer, now in Babbage’s position, refused to send aid to Tony. Iron Man, Blizzard, Living Laser, Whirlwind, and Stane united against Mandarin. Pepper turned to Triumph Division and the Dynasty to rescue Tony. Mandarin revealed he planned to destroy the Earth. Pepper destroyed the Rescue armor and the J.A.R.V.I.S. AI. Iron Man and his allies had a final battle with Mandarin and the Dreadnoughts for the fate of the world. Tony took heat from S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill. Tony planned what Tony wanted to do for his future.

            Okay, now we have the plot synopsis out of the way, let’s move on to my individual segments. So, as I always do in my reviews, I’m going to start with my own personal opinions on the book. I will say that I really enjoyed the stories. The running plotlines were really entertaining to me. I liked how the whole book focused on the Mandarin and his machinations against Tony/Iron Man. Some of the reveals were really great. The Mandarin being in Stane and Tony’s heads, the rings being living aliens, the identity of the mole in Stark Resilient, Cabe being the leak on the picture of Pepper crying in armor in her office, Johnson having survived being turned to stone, there were some really good plot twists and surprises in this book. The gaggle of villains added to the entertainment value, with so many great foes for Tony, Rhodey and Pepper to fight. The whole back and forth between Tony and Mandarin was exciting, with each making their moves, including Rhodey faking his death. Stane’s arc was interesting, going from being a villain to ally and his part in the final battle with the Mandarin and the conclusion of Stane’s story. The Hammer girls were entertaining antagonists as well, and the Detroit Steel story was enjoyable to read. Overall, I found this to be a fun, exciting, intriguing read. However, this is a graphic novel, and I will say that the graphics were not enjoyable for me. Some of my regular readers may recall my grievances with Salvador Larroca, I’ve brought him up several times in other reviews. This whole book was illustrated by him, and I just did not like the work he did on this book. I don’t like the way Larroca draws faces, so looking at the artwork detracted from the entertainment of the experience of consuming this book. I would like to share my opinion on the title as well. This collection contains eighteen issues, making three story arcs, each issue having its own subtitle, so technically, there were twenty-one choices for a title for this collection. “The Future” was one of the storylines, lasting for seven issues, and it was the longest storyline in the collection. As far as choices for titles go, I feel like this was a good pick. We’re also going to talk about the cover. It shows Iron Man flying. It’s simple, yet it’s still perfect. Was it the only cover that could work for this collection? No. But it still works as a representation for this book, and it does deliver on its promise, so I feel like it’s totally appropriate for this book. This book was an entertaining read, and I feel like it delivered on what it advertised, but the artwork was difficult to enjoy.

            Next up, we’re going to discuss accessibility. Now, even though I’ve gone over this over seven dozen times before, I know there are always those new people who have never read a Tim Cubbin review before and don’t know what I mean when I say accessibility when I apply it to media, so I shall have to explain it once again. If you already know what I’m about to say, please bear with me while I explain to the newbs. So, I’m asking if this book is accessible, and I’m asking if a person who had never heard of Iron Man before can obtain this book, read it, and understand everything they have just read based solely on the content in this book alone. I will say that answer is no. This volume is marketed as Vol. 6. This volume continues directly where the last story left off, and builds on stories collected in the three previous volumes of the series. However, this volume only contains issues from one series and does not tie into any events or crossover into any other storylines, so the story is self-contained to this volume. Following this series’ previous three volumes requires a requisite knowledge of the Marvel Universe from the time-period, so this series is not a beginner’s series. If you are looking into starting to read Marvel Comics, I would not only say that this volume is not a good place to start, but I would also say starting at Vol. 3 and reading through to this point probably isn’t the best place for Marvel beginners.

            Next up on our list of topics to discuss, we’ve gotten to my numeric score. My scoring system is extremely basic and simple to understand. I score on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one through ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and that means that this book is so horrible it should be avoided at all costs. Ten, however, is my highest score, reserved only for absolute perfection, and I do not give out a lot of those, but that means it’s one of the best things I’ve ever read and if you get me started talking about it, I will not stop for several hours. When I score a graphic novel, I’m scoring the quality of the story and the artwork, and the appropriateness of the title and cover. I will say that I thought the story was fantastic, but it wasn’t absolutely perfect and if this weren’t a graphic novel, it wouldn’t get a ten. The art was very much to my displeasure. The title was a good choice, and the cover was adequate. So, combining all these factors together, mixing everything up thoroughly, the score we’re looking at is… a six! Despite loving the story, I had to deduct points for the artwork, but the title and cover were just fine and did not require any point deductions.

            Next up is my recommendation segment. This segment has two foci: to tell you if I give this book the Tim Cubbin seal of approval and would personally recommend and tell you to read this book; and regardless of if I condone this book or not, who do I think the best audience for this book would be, based on the characteristics of the book itself and topics readers enjoy, and not based on fans of Iron Man, Marvel Comics, or fans of the creative team? To address the first topic, I would very much recommend this book to you, my readers. If you’re reading this review and are now interested in reading this graphic novel based solely on the words you’ve spent the past few minutes reading, I would tell you to get your hands on this book as soon as you can and read it, head to your favorite bookstore, comic shop, online retailer, local library, or see if any of your friends have this, and hopefully you enjoy reading it. As for whom I believe a good audience would be, I feel people who enjoy stories about people recovering from addiction, or people who are actually doing so themselves, could find Tony’s predicament sympathetic or even relatable. People who enjoy stories about technology would enjoy this book. And people who enjoy stories about industrial espionage could find this book enjoyable.

            Well, I think we’re getting to the point where we’re getting ready to wrap things up. There are some more things I need to discuss before I log off. I’ve been working on this blog for almost six years at the present. I’ve compiled over 190 posts, including short stories, poems, essays, articles, editorials, and over seven dozen reviews, so if you liked this post, feel free to keep browsing timcubbin.blogspot.com for plenty more content. I’ve reviewed prose novels, comic events, manga, and over seven dozen other graphic novels just like this one. The current main focus of this blog is reviewing Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. If you enjoyed this particular review and have some free time, you’re invited to check out my reviews of “Iron Man: World’s Most Wanted” “Iron Man: Stark Disassembled” and “Iron Man: The New Iron Age” for more Iron Man content. I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released and try to post a review if possible, so I post on a rather frequent basis. My next review is going to be “Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel” which should be up in the next two months following the date of this posting, so if you want to see more of my new content, keep checking back for it. If you have anything to say about this post, feel free to leave a comment, and please follow, like, share, retweet, spread the word to your friends, interact with me and get the word out. I would love to hear from you, my readers. Everything posted inside of these posts is all just my opinion. I welcome you all to feel differently than me on anything and to call me out on it if you do, or if you agree with me and want me to know, please let me. I value you guys and want to know what I can do to improve this blog for all of you, and I can’t do that unless you let me know. I hope you come back for more of my work, and if you read all the way to this point, you are THE BEST! Please keep coming back for more, I will be doing this blog for as long as I can, so you can expect that to be for quite a while. Thank you so much for reading. All I have to say for now is until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Deadpool: X X Baby"

 

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

            Norman Osborn swindled Wade Wilson/Deadpool out of a large amount of money. When Deadpool tried to collect, Osborn sent his covert strike force, the Thunderbolts after him. After Deadpool defeated the Thunderbolts, Osborn sent the Dark Avenger Hawkeye (really the assassin Bullseye in disguise) to take Deadpool out. Bullseye failed. Rather than return to Osborn with the news that Bullseye was defeated, Bullseye chose to pay Deadpool the money that Osborn owed him.

            Using some of the money he came into, Deadpool bought a boat in Vladivostok, Russia. Deadpool called his friend Bob, agent of Hydra to be a pirate with Deadpool. Deadpool planned to rob the luxury resort island Jallarka. After six weeks at sea, Deadpool and Bob finally arrived on Jallarka and met the island’s blind tour guide Kalani. Jallarka was suddenly under attack by pirates led by a man known (not by himself) as Captain Wackbeard. Deadpool agreed to defend Jallarka if Kalani joined Deadpool’s crew. Kalani agreed to Deadpool’s proposition. Wackbeard and his crew boarded Deadpool’s ship while Deadpool and crew were off of it. Deadpool climbed back aboard Deadpool’s ship and faced off against Wackbeard and crew, and while Deadpool was able to reclaim Deadpool’s ship, Deadpool was defeated by Wackbeard. Deadpool and crew then took to the seas to defeat Wackbeard, and Deadpool realized that being a pirate really wasn’t his ambition in life.

            After faking being sick and adrift at sea to board a cruise ship, Deadpool was thrown off the ship after being described as the most wanted and hated man on the planet, after seemingly selling out Earth to the Skrull’s during the Secret Invasion. Deadpool found himself in San Francisco, where he saw the X-Men on TV. X-Men leader Scott Summers/Cyclops spoke out against Norman Osborn, and Deadpool decided that Deadpool wanted to join the X-Men, despite not being a true mutant. Upon arriving at Utopia, Cyclops told Deadpool no. Ellis Kincaid, father of X-Men trainee Cessily Kincaid/Mercury, believed the X-Men were holding Mercury against Mercury’s will, and wanted to free Kincaid’s daughter from the X-Men. Cyclops decided it was not safe to have Deadpool unsupervised and sent Neena Thurman/Domino to be his chaperone and an offer of probationary status on the team. Deadpool decided the best way to ingratiate himself with Cyclops would be to get the X-Men out of their legal trouble with Kincaid by putting Kincaid out of the picture permanently. Kincaid made a television appearance, and Deadpool came to take him out. Domino protected Kincaid from afar, then brought Deadpool out for a drink, where she drugged him and tied him up to wait for the X-Men. Domino overheard part of a conversation between Cyclops and James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine talking about getting Deadpool out of the picture, and mistakenly assumed the worst, but Cyclops’ actual plan was to take Deadpool on a “special mission” to China and ditch him, and Domino allowed Deadpool to escape before Wolverine could get to Deadpool. Kincaid turned to Norman Osborn for protection. Osborn pretended to be offering it but secretly was willing to let Deadpool eliminate Kincaid because this act made the X-Men look bad. Two of Osborn’s H.A.M.M.E.R. agents acted as Kincaid’s escorts. Deadpool went after Kincaid, but Wolverine and Domino came to Kincaid’s rescue. The X-Men then had to stop Deadpool and save Kincaid and look good to the public. After losing X-Men probationary status, Deadpool headed for New York.

            Peter Parker/Spider-Man came upon the scene of an accomplished hit. Spider-Man immediately believed Deadpool to be the assassin, but Deadpool had an alibi. Spider-Man reluctantly agreed to let Deadpool see the crime scene and try to get to the bottom of the assassination. Deadpool recognized the crime scene as being the work of Hit-Monkey, an assassin who was an actual monkey who killed other killers… and Deadpool was on Hit-Monkey’s list. Spider-Man didn’t believe in the existence of Hit-Monkey at first, until at the scene of Hit-Monkey’s next crime scene, and monkey paw print was left behind. Spider-Man went looking for Deadpool and Hit-Monkey followed. Following a shoot-out, Spider-Man took a bullet to the shoulder. Spider-Man brought Deadpool to the Fantastic Four for convalescence, but the heroes turned Deadpool away. Needing to make a change of costume, Spider-Man brought Deadpool to Peter Parker’s apartment. While Spider-Man wasn’t looking, Deadpool stole the Spider-Man costume with the bullet hole in it. Deadpool then used the costume to fake Spider-Man’s death. At Spider-Man’s funeral, Hit-Monkey made an appearance. Deadpool hopped out of the casket, and Spider-Man and Deadpool teamed up to fight Hit-Monkey. Following the fight, Deadpool was taken into custody, but Spider-Man helped Deadpool escape from jail.

            While on the road in rural North Georgia, the bus Deadpool was traveling on was the target of a robbery. Deadpool was defeated by a man with electrical powers calling himself White Lightnin’. Deadpool found a police walkie-talkie at the crime scene and deduced the robbery had been conducted by a pair of cops. Deadpool went to the local police department, where an officer named Darlene pointed Deadpool to Sheriff Dale’s moonshine still, where the sheriff and his nephew Clovis Maines/White Lightnin’ operated out of, encouraging Deadpool to permanently put a stop to the crooked cop’s operation. Deadpool went to the still to combat Dale and White Lightnin’ again.  However, Dale wasn’t the only crooked cop.

            Deadpool found his way to Las Vegas. Upon arriving, Deadpool was slandered on television by club owner Lonzo Toutolos. In revenge for the defamation, Deadpool blew up the club. Deadpool then went to a casino, where he started to win games. The casino owner wouldn’t have that and sent his armored soldier the House after Deadpool. The House fought and defeated Deadpool. After detaining Deadpool, the House revealed himself to be Deadpool’s old ally Jack Hammer/Weasel. Deadpool propositioned an alliance with Weasel, and Deadpool took on the ironed mantle of Wildcard. The House and Wildcard protected Las Vegas from a robbery by supervillain Grizzly, but Wildcard became the most popular superhero in Las Vegas. Deadpool revealed his dual identity as Wildcard to the House’s bosses, forcing them into letting him keep the armor. Weasel felt jealous of Wildcard’s popularity over the House as the hero of Las Vegas. Deadpool suggested Deadpool and Weasel switch identities so Weasel could be the more popular hero. Weasel agreed to the switch. However, Deadpool secretly formed a partnership with Grizzly. Grizzly struck at the counting room of another casino to commit robbery, and the House and Wildcard battled Grizzly. The House then helped Grizzly escape with the money, having Weasel publicly dubbed a criminal. The House and Grizzly committed another robbery, but Wildcard stopped it. Deadpool allowed Weasel to escape, but since Deadpool had revealed Deadpool’s identity as Wildcard to the casino owners, Deadpool was consigned to be the Chief of Security for the casinos, and that Deadpool now had a job.

            Deadpool quit his job and found himself the target of Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider, who wished to punish Deadpool for the sins Wade Wilson committed over the years.

            Deadpool found himself in a team up with Steve Rogers, Natalia Romanova/Black Widow, and Marc Spector/Moon Knight against a terrorist. Rogers offered a continued alliance. Rogers, Widow and Moon Knight had all been cloned by the evil Doctor Bong, and Rogers wanted Deadpool to help Rogers’ team stop Doctor Bong and Bong’s cloning operation. However, during the mission into Bong’s laboratory, Rogers and Deadpool got into a fight. Moon Knight came to Rogers’ aid. Bong detonated the lab, attempting to destroy the heroes, and escaped. Rogers, Deadpool and Moon Knight also all managed to escape. Bong then disguised his soldiers as Deadpool when Rogers, Black Widow, Moon Knight, and the real Deadpool came to try to apprehend the evil Doctor.

            Deadpool was approached by vampires, led by Colvin. The opposing vampire Claw Sect had been provided with amulets that allowed them to walk in the light of day, and Mercy General Hospital, the hospital Colvin was the director of, needed protection for the daytime, so Colvin wished to hire Deadpool. Human Doctor Matsuzaki found herself targeted by vampires. Deadpool became smitten with Matsuzaki and fought to protect her, and the rest of Mercy General Hospital, from the invasion of the Claw Sect.

            A blinded Deadpool fought against a faction of terrorists in the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, in the United Arab Emirates.

            Okay, we have the plot synopses out of the way, it’s time to focus on my individual segments of the review. As always, we’re going to start with my own personal opinions about the book. I will say that I found this book to be highly enjoyable. I had a fun time reading it. I liked Deadpool as a pirate. I thought it was funny how Deadpool didn’t make Bob first mate, Deadpool made Bob be a parrot. And it was an interesting idea to have a blind tour guide. I enjoyed Deadpool trying to join the X-Men, particularly Cyclops’ response. I liked how Osborn played his game to manipulate public opinion against the X-Men by using both Kincaid and Deadpool as puppets, I thought it was brilliant writing. Spider-Man/Deadpool team ups are usually entertaining, and I feel like the one in this book definitely was. I loved Hit-Monkey, I thought he was a unique threat, you don’t usually see superheroes fight animals like this one. The dirty cops issue had twists I did not see coming and I thought that it was well written. I enjoyed reading Deadpool becoming the hero of Las Vegas, and I was shocked when Deadpool pulled a double-cross on Weasel and teamed up with Grizzly, then screwed them both over, but I guess that’s just typical Deadpool. And I was amused how he backed himself into a corner there and wound up with a job. Deadpool’s encounter with Ghost Rider was an interesting one to me, especially the outcome of Ghost Rider’s Penance Stare. I was surprised when Steve Rogers actually asked Deadpool for a team up, and I thought their mission was an exciting read. I loved the concept of vampires secretly running a hospital, and the Claw Sect were an interesting group of vampires. I also love how Deadpool calls every vampire a Dracula. Finally, Deadpool’s Pool-o-Vision did not work like Daredevil’s radar sense, but it made for a difficult handicap for Deadpool to work with, and he did it well. While I found the stories to be amusing and entertaining in general, some of the jokes, to me, just weren’t funny. I’m not saying it was because they were offensive or inappropriate, I just didn’t think they were anything that invoked humor in me. I also felt like Deadpool’s warped way of thinking wasn’t always likeable at times, particularly his fixation on killing Ellis Kincaid. Moving on, we’re going to discuss the art. I did not particularly enjoy the work of Shawn Crystal, Tan Eng Huat, or Philip Bond. However, I loved the work by Paco Medina, Carlo Barberi, and Bond Dazo, whom I feel did phenomenal work. The next thing I’d like to talk about is the title. In general, an Epic Collection is titled after an issue or storyline title. “X, X! Baby!!” was a caption on one of the covers, rather than a title. I found this to be an exceptionally odd choice. There were plenty of titles that the editors could have chosen from for this Collection, and they chose to disregard all these choices in favor of a quote on a cover and remove the punctuation marks. I feel like a few of the titles of storylines would have worked as titles for the Collection, such as “Want You to Want Me,” “Tricky,” or “I’m Your Man.” “Want You to Want Me” was the longest story arc in the book and the one to feature the Collection’s titular caption on the cover of one issue, so I’ll settle on “X X Baby” being an adequate title for this volume. As for the cover of this volume, it features Deadpool in his X-Men uniform in front of the cover of “Giant-Size X-Men” #1. This issue was the debut of a new team of X-Men, and I feel like the significance of that issue does not match the significance of the story of Deadpool trying to join the X-Men. Also, this cover is an edited version of the cover of “Deadpool” #17, and I feel like if the editors had used the original cover, which features Domino and Emma Frost next to Deadpool, it would be a better representation of the actual story in these issues. That said, this book was an entertaining read and a fun experience and in general, I enjoyed my time consuming it.

            Next up on the docket of topics we need to cover is accessibility. Now, if you’ve never been to one of the seven dozen or so other times, I’ve already explained my meaning of using the word “accessibility” in application to a graphic novel, you may not know what I’m trying to say. So, if you’re a newb to a Tim Cubbin review, allow me to explain, and if you’ve been to one of my seven dozen or so other reviews, please bear with me while I go over it once again. When I say “accessibility,” I mean can a person who has never heard of Deadpool or read a Marvel Comic before obtaining this Collection, then read the story, and understand everything they have just read based solely on the material contained in just this book and this book alone? I would say that the answer is a relative yes. This Collection really doesn’t rely on outside knowledge. While this is marketed as Vol. 2, and it does directly continue from where the previous volume left off, the storyline is a fresh start, and I feel like not having read the previous volume is too detrimental to understanding this particular volume. All the issues in this Collection come from one series. There are no events occurring during this Collection and there are no tie in issues or crossovers. As such, I feel like this book has a relatively high accessibility rating. If you’ve never read a Marvel Comic before and are looking into starting, this volume is not a terrible place to jump on at.

            We’ve now come to the point where I give my numeric score. My scores are done on an extremely simple system. I score on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one through ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and that means that reading this book was so bad, I wish I could go back in time and erase the period of consuming this book from my memory to never have experienced this absolute abomination of literature and art. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if I score a book at a ten, that signifies sheer perfection, and the time I spent reading this book were some of the best hours of my life and when I have reason to reexperience this book, I will be in absolute bliss. When I score a book, I focus on four things: if the story was completely enjoyable; if the art was consistently visually appealing; if the title was an accurate description of the contents within; and if the cover properly delivered on the promise of what it showed and adequately represents the book. So, after careful consideration, taking into account that we have: a story that was enjoyable, yet had a lack of amusement where humor was expected; art that was, for the most part, enjoyable; a title that was questionably adequate; and a cover that didn’t quite match its significance, when I give this book a score, we’re looking at… seven! It was a decent read, but it had visual flaws, and the title and cover didn’t quite live up to the essence of the book’s content.

            Continuing forward, we have my recommendation segment. This segment handles two separate questions. The first question I answer is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers? The second question is regardless of the first question, beyond the obvious answer of fans of Deadpool, Marvel Comics, or the creative team, who are the fans of particular genres, characteristics, or styles of literature that would find this book most appealing? The answer of my first question is a resounding yes. If you’re reading this review right now and based solely on the words you’ve spent the past few minutes reading you want to read this book, I’ll tell you to hop onto your favorite online retailer, or check out your favorite book store, local comic book shop, or public library, or hit up some friends who are into Marvel, and try to find a copy of this book. As for who should be reading this book, I’d say readers who enjoy stories about mercenaries would enjoy this, fans of pirates might enjoy it, people who enjoy vampire stories could find this entertaining, and people who like literature with crude jokes might find something amusing with this book.

            Okay, we’re at the point where I’m just about ready to wrap everything up. I’ve been at this for several hours now and I need to move on with my life. Before I go, there are a few final things that do need to be said. I’ve been doing this blog for almost six years now. In that time, I have posted over 190 times. If you enjoyed reading this post, check out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content from me. If you go way back, you’ll find I’ve written short stories, poems, essays, articles, and editorials. I’ve also written over seven dozen other reviews of Epic Collections just like this one. I’ve also reviewed some prose novels, comic book events, and manga as well. Right now, the primary focus of From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin is to review Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase every one of them as soon as I can after it is released and if possible, put up a review as soon as I can after I finish reading it. If you liked this review, there are similar reviews you might like. Search for “Deadpool: Magnum Opus” “Deadpool: In Wade We Trust” “Deadpool & Cable: Ballistic Bromance” “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Isn’t it Bromantic?” “Spider-Man/Deadpool: ‘Til Death Do Us” and “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Road Trip” for more Deadpool content if you have some more free time to spare. You can also keep checking back for more upcoming posts. I post on a very frequent basis. My next review will be “Iron Man: The Future” and you can expect to see that within the next four weeks. That is a rough estimate, it will most likely be sooner than that, I just have to give a wide timeframe, so I don’t give false hope. But definitely keep checking back for it, because it will be up soon. If you liked this post, feel free to follow me. Leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you. Interact with me on whatever platform you found this post on. I’d totally love to hear from you guys, my readers, I’d totally value your opinions. Everything said by me on this blog is my opinion and I don’t expect anyone to agree with me on what I say, and if you have read this book and feel differently about it, please let it be known to me, I’d like to know what you think of this book. That’s really all I have to say for now. I’ll be back soon, but until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!