"Ultimate X-Men: World Tour"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Ultimate X-Men: World Tour” as presented in Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection format.

                They are the X-Men – sworn to protect a world that fears and hates them. Led by Professor Charles Xavier, young mutants Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Colossus, and Iceman use their mutant abilities for the betterment of mankind as a whole. Weapon X, the covert government program that turned mutants into living weapons, is no more. Despite their capture, the X-Men helped bring it down and regrouped at the X-Mansion in New York’s Westchester County. As headmaster of the School for Gifted Youngsters, Professor X was pleased with the performance of his students, and things were quiet at the academy. But not all mutants had been fortunate enough to have been rescued by Charles Xavier. Some survived by their wits alone, with nobody to whom they could turn. Each day, they faced the scorn and fear of the human world – and sometimes, of themselves. One such mutant was Remy LeBeau.

                A little girl witnessed gangster Hammerhead murder her parents and barely escaped herself. Remy LeBeau used his powers as street performance on the streets of New York City. He thought he was going to be having a good time, until the little girl came to Remy and asked Remy to use his magic to bring the little girl’s parents back to life. Remy told the little girl Remy didn’t know that kind of magic but offered to protect the little girl for a little while. That night, when they went to sleep in an abandoned subway train, the little girl was taken by Hammerhead’s goons. Hammerhead’s goons left a note for Remy, telling Remy not to come looking for the little girl. Remy began shaking down New York City’s underworld, searching for information on how to find the little girl. During his search, Charles Xavier came to Remy with an offer, but Remy refused to hear it. Remy’s search led him to Hammerhead, whom Remy had to face off with to spare the life of the little girl and also for Remy’s own survival.

                Professor X wrote an article, detailing his world at his school and about his students, the X-Men, hoping to alleviate the anti-mutant tension. Professor X revealed to Peter Rasputin/Colossus that Magneto, the mutant terrorist whom the world believed had been neutralized by Professor X, was alive and living as Erik Lensherr, with mental blocks convincing him he was an ordinary human. Erik was working with special needs children and in a romantic relationship with a nonmutant woman. Colossus was unsettled by this. Fred Dukes/Blob was chatting online with Henry McCoy/Beast, pretending to be a closeted mutant female who was romantically interested in Beast. The Brotherhood of Mutants’ continued terrorist attacks led the magazine that Professor X’s article was to be published in to reconsider, and the article was scrapped before it hit the pages of the magazine.

                David Xavier, son of Professor X and Moira McTaggert, human geneticist and ex-wife of Professor X, who had been kept in a hidden school/hospital for mutants on Muir Island in Scotland funded by Professor X’s generous secret benefactors designated for mutants who could not go public due to the nature of their mutations, escaped before his dying body failed him by transferring his consciousness into one of Moira’s doctors on staff. Professor X published a book, and to promote it, held a world tour, bringing the X-Men along with him. While in London, the X-Men broke up into groups to compete in assignments to help the disadvantaged in order to earn their grades. Despite their work being lower profile, Beast and Scott Summers/Cyclops came out on top. While at their hotel, Colossus disappeared overnight with two unknown people, headed for Russia. Moira called Professor X to tell him David had escaped and trashed the hospital. S.T.R.I.K.E. agents Dai Thomas and Betsy Braddock had been dispatched to investigate the situation. Professor X, Bobby Drake/Iceman, Beast, Ororo Munroe/Storm, and Logan/Wolverine flew to Muir Island, while Cyclops and Jean Grey/Marvel Girl flew to Russia to search for Colossus, whom Professor X believed may have been kidnapped. The X-Men tracked David down to a Burger King in Aberdeen, where David had been jumping bodies due to the bodies’ inability to sustain David’s life energies. David jumped into Wolverine, whose healing factor made it so he would not deteriorate from David’s powers. David used his reality warping powers to defeat the X-Men but was unable to withstand Agent Braddock’s telepathy. David left Wolverine’s body and disappeared, but Wolverine found himself gravely injured. Cyclops and Marvel Girl found Colossus in Saint Petersburg. Colossus had left the X-Men because he felt neglected and unable to believe in Professor X’s dream. In Berlin, Professor X spent time bonding with Agent Braddock. A submarine was downed in Barent’s Sea, trapping the sailors within. Colossus rescued the sailors in the submarine and realized he could find his place in the X-Men after all. Professor X realized that after leaving Wolverine, David had jumped into Agent Braddock’s body and the woman he had been talking to was actually his son. As Wolverine, Iceman, Beast and Storm were driving to the airport to reunite with Cyclops, Marvel Girl, and Colossus, they encountered David, who was holding Professor X and Moira hostage. The X-Men combatted David, now calling himself Proteus, who used his reality warping powers to destroy the sites Professor X and the X-Men were planning on visiting along their book tour. The X-Men were nearly defeated, with Iceman gravely injured. The outcome of this conflict left Professor X with doubts of his dream.

                Professor X penned a letter to Cyclops, announcing the disbandment of the X-Men and Professor X’s plans to remove the mental blocks on Magneto, but an unexpected encounter led Professor X to realize the validity of Professor X’s dream. Cyclops and Marvel Girl became romantically involved.

                Kitty Pryde had manifested her mutant powers of intangibility and was unable to control them. Theresa Pryde, Kitty’s mother, contacted Professor X to tell Professor X about Kitty’s situation. Professor X met with Theresa and Kitty and accepted Kitty as a student at Xavier’s School for Gifted Children, under Theresa’s condition that Kitty was not to go on any missions or be a superhero. Iceman’s family filed a lawsuit against Professor X. Senator Andrew Border Turk took an interest in the case and became the public face of the lawsuit against the X-Men. Marvel Girl’s visions of the Phoenix returned. The Brotherhood pulled off an operation in Pakistan, in which they disarmed the country of its nuclear arsenal. The members of the Brotherhood became disillusioned with Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch’s leadership strategies and prepared to oust Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch as heads of the Brotherhood. Cyclops and Colossus were picked to go on a mission to the Savage Land after the Pentagon lost communication with the members of the United States military stationed in the Savage Land. Wolverine and Cyclops got into a physical fight over Marvel Girl. As punishment, Professor X picked Wolverine instead of Colossus to go with Cyclops on the Savage Land mission. Beast let slip in an instant message to Blob, who was pretending to be a closeted mutant female, that Magneto was alive. Cyclops and Wolverine found that Kitty had stowed away with them on the X-Jet to the Savage Land. Professor X’s response was to expel her from Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The Brotherhood, without Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, planned an ambush on Beast to learn the location of Magneto. Iceman was asked to testify against Professor X and the X-Men. Cyclops and Wolverine discovered the Savage Land’s computer had achieved self-awareness and planned to overthrow the planet. Professor X’s secret benefactors, the Hellfire Club, arranged a gala to meet with Professor X and the X-Men. Professor X, Storm, Colossus, and Marvel Girl attended the gala. Professor X learned one of his benefactors was Sebastian Shaw from Shaw Industries. The Hellfire Club’s agents attacked and incapacitated Professor X, Storm, and Colossus. The Hellfire Club summoned the Phoenix and used Marvel Girl as it’s vessel. The Phoenix was not happy with Shaw trying to command it and went out of control. Professor X was left to face the Phoenix and save the mind of his student. The Brotherhood attacked Beast and went in search of Magneto to remove the mental blocks.

                Okay, now that we have the synopsis out of the way, let’s move on to the Tim Cubbin segments of this review. First off, we’ll start with, as we usually do, my own personal opinions about this graphic novel. Let’s begin by evaluating the stories. I absolutely loved these stories. “Thief in the Night”/”Wild Card” with Remy LeBeau was actually my favorite story in this collection, I really enjoyed seeing him do everything he could to protect the little girl from Hammerhead. “It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way” was an interesting way to get a glimpse into the personal lives of the X-Men. “World Tour” was exciting, I really enjoyed this interpretation of Proteus. “Registration” was a great epilogue; I liked how it explored the relationships between the characters. “Hellfire and Brimstone” was also a great storyline, I especially enjoyed the part at the end with Phoenix, and I loved the introduction of Kitty Pryde, and I also liked how it very slightly loosely reinterpreted “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” one of my all-time favorite comic book stories. However, I did have a major problem with this graphic novel, that being the graphics. The artists failed to consistently appeal to my visual palate. I did not like the way Esad Ribic drew Remy’s face, it didn’t look natural. There were times where I liked Adam Kubert’s work, but much of the time, his characters’ faces just didn’t look right. I especially disliked Chris Bachalo’s drawings of Proteus and Iceman. I kind of appreciated where Kaare Andrews was going with his artwork, but I don’t quite approve of the execution. Moving on, let’s discuss the title. I felt like “World Tour” was the ideal choice for a title for this book. Despite “Hellfire and Brimstone” being the longest storyline in the book, I still thought “World Tour” was a better fit. It just seems to capture the essence of the book better. Finally, we’re going to talk about the cover. It features the X-Men poised for action. I feel like it’s a great cover. What I do find odd is that it comes from nowhere within this collection. I honestly don’t know where it comes from, none of the issues in this book have this cover, but I do like it. So, when looking at this book, reading the story was enjoyable, but the artwork detracted from the experience a great deal.

                Next up we’re going to discuss accessibility. I know that I’ve been over this over seven dozen times at this point, but every time I do a new post, I have readers who have never read a Tim Cubbin review before, so I have to explain what I mean every time I do it, so I’m doing it again. What I’m posing here is this: is this book accessible? When I say this, what I mean is, can someone who knows absolutely nothing about the X-Men or even Marvel Comics in general decide to take this book from wherever they find it, read it, and be able to understand it as it is written, with no outside knowledge? This collection is marketed as Vol. 2, and it does pick up exactly where Vol. 1 left off. Reading this volume without having read the previous volume is not going to be easy. That said, Vol. 1 did not end in the middle of a storyline, and this book does not feature any events or crossovers, and only contains issues of “Ultimate X-Men,” so while not having read Vol. 1 leaves a lot of blanks, I don’t feel it is absolutely essential to being able to read and enjoy this particular volume. Also, this is part of the Ultimate Universe, which was relatively new at the time, and there really is not a lot of backstory at this particular point, so not having read Vol. 1 is only missing twelve issues of a new Universe. However, if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and are looking for a place to start, I would not recommend picking this book as your first choice, I would recommend reading the first twelve issues of Ultimate X-Men (2001) first, then you will be fine reading this book as your next option.

                Next up, we’re going to reveal my numeric score. While this is one of the key points of all my reviews, I don’t necessarily feel it is the most important part of the review. After all, everyone has different values, and each segment of these reviews has different meanings to all my readers. Readers come for the synopsis so they can learn what this book is about, some might say that’s the most important part. Others may say my recommendation paragraph is the most important because it makes them decide if they actually want to read the book or not. Everyone feels differently. Anyway, let’s discuss my scoring system. It’s fairly simple: I score on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one through ten. If I score a book at a one, that means it’s a flaming pile of trash, and every remaining copy should be rounded up, placed in a pile, and lit up, then all the print plates should be deleted so this horror can never be recreated and is wiped out of existence permanently. Okay, that’s a little extreme, I’d never actually condone book burning, I’m just being extra. All I’m saying is it’s horrible. If, on the other hand, I score a book at a ten, that means the book is absolutely sheer perfection, perfect in every way and one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life. Now, a ten requires a story that is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, artwork that consistently appeals to my eyes, a title that fits the story perfectly, and a cover that is a great representation of the content inside the book. So, you can probably guess that this book is not getting a ten due to my assessment of the art. While this book did have a great story, title and cover, the art still detracted from the experience of enjoying this book. Still, I do have to give this book a pretty good score. So, everything in the metaphorical blender, the score that comes out when thoroughly blended is… an eight. I thought reading the words was enjoyable, despite not reading the imagery, but I still don’t find myself able to fault this book too terribly for that.

                Next up on our agenda is my recommendation segment. This segment answers two questions: do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught up in a conversation with me about this book? The second question is, regardless of if I would tell you to read it or not based on my preferences, whom do I think is the ideal audience for this book? In response to question number one, my answer is yes, I do recommend this book to you. If you are reading this review and now, based solely on the words I’ve just spent the last few hours writing, you want to read this book, I would tell you to hop online to your preferred online retailer, your favorite bookstore, your local comic store, your public library, or check with a Marvel loving friend or family member and get your hands on this book as soon as you possibly can. To answer question number two, we’re going to look past the obvious answer of X-Men and Marvel fans, and I’ll say the best audiences for this book include teenagers, who can find themselves able to relate with the teenage superheroes, and fans of international action stories.

                Okay, we’ve covered all the key points of the review, we’re just going to do the wrap-up. Anyway, I’ve been doing this blog for over five years now. I’ve posted over 180 times. Keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for all kinds of content. I’ve done several kinds of content on this blog. I’ve posted short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials. I’ve also posted over seven dozen reviews just like this one. I’ve reviewed prose novels, manga, and comic events. The priority of this blog currently is to review Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase every one of them as soon as I can after publication and try to get a review up as soon as I can after reading it. If you liked this post, feel free to search for “Ultimate X-Men: The Tomorrow People” if you want to read more about “Ultimate X-Men.” Expect my next post to come up within the next two months after this posting, it will be “The Amazing Spider-Man: Sins Past” so if you liked this post and want more from me, keep checking back for that one soon. That’s all I have to say for now. Until I post again, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Black Widow: Widowmaker"

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Ultimate Spider-Man: Hunted"

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Daredevil: The Murdock Papers"

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Young Avengers: The Children's Crusade"

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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