"Wolverine: Madripoor Nights" by Chris Claremont & Peter David

 

            The following is a review of the “Wolverine: Madripoor Nights” graphic novel by Chris Claremont & Peter David.

            Madripoor: a small island principality south of Singapore. Not a nice place. Full of pirates, smugglers, and all kinds of other unsavory people. Crime central. Anything goes. Madripoor consists of two main areas. Hightown, full of the rich and powerful; Lowtown, the slums, a place you really don’t want to be. Ruled by a man known simply as “the Prince.”

            The X-Men: A team of mutant superpowers, born with a quirk of genetics giving them powers beyond those of regular humans. Mutants are hated and feared for their differences. The X-Men wish for mutants and humans to co-exist in peace and harmony. They battle against evil mutants who wish for mutant superiority, as well as other super villains, and humans who wish to end mutantkind. Or at least they did; until the X-Men all died… or did they?

            Logan: Also called Wolverine. The best there is at what he does, but what he does isn’t very nice. A mutant. Born with a healing factor allowing him to heal from almost any wound. His skeleton was bonded with the unbreakable metal adamantium, and he has claws that extend from his knuckles. Or at least he did; until he died… or did he?

            The mysterious Patch arrives in Madripoor, where he finds an old also dead ally of the X-Men, Jessan Hoan struggling to survive as a target of the crime lord Roche. The two team up against Roche and Jessan takes the name of Tyger Tiger and takes control of the Lowtown crime ring. General Nguyen Ngoc Coy, uncle of former New Mutant Karma, is the Kingpin of Hightown. His enforcers are Roughouse and Bloodsport, evil mutants both. Tyger is not happy with Coy’ rule and the two clash, with Patch caught in the middle. But Patch isn’t alone in Madripoor. He forges an alliance with private investigators Lindsay McCabe and Jessica Drew (the former super hero Spider-Woman), who have taken up residence in Madripoor. Patch battles the Silver Samurai, teams up with Mister Fixit (formerly the super hero Robert Bruce Banner/Hulk), and reminisces of his rivalry with evil mutant Sabretooth. He returns to San Francisco to try to stop the descendent of the ancient demon Ba’al from completing the Gehenna Stone, which will release Ba’al from his prison.

When I picked the book up, I expected the Madripoor story to be only one part of the book, with the title “Madripoor Nights” to be a tack-on that was catchy (prior readers of my other reviews of Marvel Epic Collections would know that this is often the case). But in this case, I was wrong. The entirety of the book took place in Madripoor. Spider-Woman is actually a favorite character of mine, so learning she was in this book got me excited. However, in this book, Jessica Drew never wore her costume and rarely used any of her powers except for the occasional wall-crawling, so this disappointed me. I especially enjoyed the “24 Hours” issue describing Logan’s history with Victor Creed/Sabretooth, also a favorite evil mutant of mine and the primary reason I picked out this book, and in this case, I was not disappointed. The concept of Logan believed to be dead and people not knowing that “Patch” was Wolverine seemed preposterous, however. He did try to avoid popping the claws as much as possible, but let’s face it: an eyepatch is a rather weak disguise. And even though the Hulk was in his Mister Fixit phase, Wolverine and Hulk have a lot of history (the first issue Wolverine appeared in was an issue of “The Incredible Hulk”). The artwork was not to my liking. The issues in this book were originally published in 1988-1989, but that’s not a bad thing. Longtime comic book readers such as myself know how artwork has changed over time and there are very recognizable traits of comic book art periods. Back in 1988-1989, the artwork was still hand-drawn at the time. John Buscema, one of the book’s primary artists in this book drew facial shapes which to me, just didn’t look realistic, and on top of that, the colors were a bit darker than other comics I’ve read. I typically like comics with brighter colors. That’s also not to say that I find that today’s art is better. Far from it. But with graphic novels, the story and the art are both equally important, that’s why it’s a GRAPHIC! NOVEL! The story itself actually did interest me. I found it to be high-quality. Now, I’m just going to go on the record of saying that all of this is just MY personal opinion. You might read this and have a totally opposite opinion of how I felt, that’s the beauty of entertainment. So I won’t say that this had a good story, because you might not agree with me. I leave this all up to you. Going past the not recognizing Patch as Wolverine thing and the Jessica Drew not being Spider-Woman thing, I enjoyed the story. I’m usually a fan of the works of both Chris Claremont and Peter David, so the prospect of both being the writers was totally appealing, and I was mostly not disappointed by their work, and the fact that they were the ONLY TWO writers of the book was appealing to me as having too many writers can totally make a story very different, and sometimes make contradictions. I particularly enjoyed “The Gehenna Stone Affair” storyline, which I found to be exciting, and I loved the climax.

I would recommend this book. If you are a Wolvie fan and want to read classic Wolverine stories, this book may be appealing to you. This applies to any kind of reader. If you have been a reader of Wolverine comics and have never read his comics going back to the late 80s, like myself, I recommend this book to you. If you only know Wolverine from the cartoons or movies and are looking for a good starting point, I think this book may be a good jump-on point because I felt like this story is nicely self-contained. If you’ve never even heard of Wolverine and are looking for just any good comic book, background knowledge didn’t seem to be a prerequisite, so I feel this could be a good read for you. Again, this is all MY opinion, so if you read this book and are disappointed by it, you have my apologies, but if you read this book and like it, you’re welcome!

Now, for the most important point of any of my reviews: the numeric score. I’m pretty hard to please, as prior readers will know, so if I give a high score, it probably is a good book. I score on a scale of one-to-ten. One means this was trash, ten means every page in this book deserves to be framed. Okay, well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, so let’s just say one is the worst, ten is the best. Taking everything to account here, the story I like, the contents that disappointed me, and the artwork that didn’t appeal to me, I score this book as a six. Now, don’t go with me about the artwork, there is appeal to many readers, just not to me personally. Comic book art from the late 1980s was unique, so if you grew up with comic books about that time (I didn’t start to collect comics regularly until 2001, and I was born in 1988), the visuals may appeal to you, as they are indicative of comic book art at the time, but if you’re only reading this book because of my recommendation and have never touched a comic book before, this might be a deterrent. I recommend looking at the covers before committing to this book as they are a good indication of the art inside. Like I said, though, the score takes everything into account, the art, my personal misgivings, and the story itself, so you could find your opinion to be the polar opposite of mine, but that’s the beauty of being a human being. So if you do or don’t want to read this based just on my words, it’s all up to you.

So that’s all I have to say about “Wolverine: Madripoor Nights.” Before I sign off, first I will say I have literally written dozens of book reviews, dominantly Marvel graphic novels and prose novels, and that’s all I’ve really been doing lately (due to the fact I am drafting a prose young adult novel myself), but I’ve written essays, editorials, articles, short stories, and poetry in the past and will do again soon, and I post very regularly, so you can keep looking out for more work from me (expect two more reviews next week), and I thank you for reading this entire article, you are THE BEST, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams" by Devin Grayson

            The following is a review of the PROSE NOVEL “Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams” by Devin Grayson. It does NOT involve the FEATURE FILMS “Doctor Strange” NOR “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”

            Thousands of years ago, the alien race the Kree went from world to world to experiment on civilizations. They travelled to Earth in their expeditions. They took early human civilizations and experimented on humans in an attempt to create a race of super-beings. The Kree felt their experiments were a failure and left the Earth and their attempted super-beings behind. What they didn’t know was that if any person with the genetic markings the Kree created were exposed to the rare chemical Terrigen, therefore enacting the Terrigenesis process, that human would be granted para-human abilities. This community continued through the centuries, calling themselves the “Inhumans.”

            There exists a world outside the human world of consciousness called “the Dream Dimension,” that one may enter upon going to sleep.

            There also exists a variety of realms of dreams. Upon entering a dream, the dreamer is sent to one of those realms and visits this realm during their sleep. The realms are separated, but all connect at the Pathways, the center point of the Dream Dimension.

            Each realm is guarded over by a single entity known as “the Dream Sovereign.”

            One Dream Sovereign is the malevolent demon Nightmare, Dream Sovereign of the Realm of Nightmares.

            Doctor Stephen Strange was a world-renowned neurosurgeon. One night, he was involved in a car accident. He was badly injured, and the nerve endings in his hands were severed. He was told he would never hold a scalpel again, and just like that, his career was over. Stephen did not want to accept this. He sought out nonconventional forms of treatment, hoping for positive results, but they all failed. He found his way to Tibet and came upon the Monastery of a long-lived wizard, the Ancient One. Stephen studied magic under the Ancient One, and went on to become the Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel Universe, the first line of defense again magical and mystical forces that threaten to invade reality. His base is 177A Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, New York, in his Sanctum Sanctorum, where he lives with his assistant Wong, and has been entrusted with many magical artifacts.

            One of Stephen’s greatest enemies is Nightmare. Nightmare has made many attempts to escape the Realm of Nightmares and enter Earth, sometimes successfully, but each time Nightmare was defeated and repelled by Doctor Strange.

            The greatest source of Terrigen crystals was located in the Inhuman City of Attilan. Black Bolt was king of this Inhuman community. Earth was attacked by alien forces, and Black Bolt thought the best way to defend the Earth was the release of the Terrigen Bomb. This explosion sent Terrigen Mists out all across the world, catalyzing Terrigenesis in any person with Inhuman genetic makeup.

            Jane Bailey was exposed to the Terrigen Mists and underwent Terrigenesis, granted the Inhuman power to consciously access and influence the Dream Dimension.

            Jane Bailey’s transformation rattled the Pathways, destabilizing the entire Dream Dimension, causing an all-out war between the Dream Sovereigns. The Dream Sovereign Numinous grew the ambition to rule the entire Dream Dimension herself, and therefore control every dream, going as far as dethrone Nightmare as Dream Sovereign of the Realm of Nightmares.

            Doctor Sharanya Misra works for the Baxter Foundation as a research scientist. Her latest study was on the metacognition in lucid dreaming on the criminally insane. Her study went sideways, and the name Doctor Stephen Strange came out of several of the patients. Sharanya did not believe in magic at all, but her research (and mother) sent Sharanya to seek out Doctor Strange at 177A Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, New York.

            Nightmare arrived in the Sanctum Sanctorum to warn of Numinous’ attempt of a hostile takeover of the Dream Dimension and to plead for Stephen’s help. Stephen agreed, and he, Nightmare, Sharanya, and Jane all entered the Dream Dimension to stop Numinous and restore the Pathways and return order to the Dream Dimension.

            I have to say, in my honest opinion, I read the first Prologue and was not immediately wowed. In Grayson’s defense, it started in the Dream Dimension with a new character, so it was hard to immediately establish judgement. Grayson divided the novel into three Books, and I wasn’t at all really thrilled until Book II. The setup for the direction of the novel seemed dull, slow, and even a little boring to me. But when Nightmare arrived in Chapter VII, I felt the narrative truly picked up, but when the main characters entered the Dream Dimension, I was hooked. It was actually compelling to me. I never really thought of classifying different types of dreams, so it gave me a lot to think about. The concept of the Pathways and Dream Sovereigns felt brilliant to me. But there were certain aspects of the writing style I thought lacking. I felt like there really was little humor in the novel. In some novels, humor really isn’t appropriate, the seriousness shouldn’t be interrupted with moments to make you laugh or even smile. In this case, I think Grayson could have improved the novel with a few jokes, or things to evoke laughs or smiles. There were a few points I smiled and a couple of scoffs, but I never found a point that caused me to truly laugh. Being a novel inspired by comic books, I kind of expected to laugh. That’s not to say, however, that the book wasn’t fun for me to read. I found the read to be primarily enjoyable. I also found it to be an easy read which I felt, in this case, was a good thing. I didn’t find too much unnecessary content. There were things here and there that in the grand scheme seemed that didn’t need to be there, and there were a few areas that augmentation might help as well, but I found the balance there was about right. I also felt that Grayson utilized the characters properly and kept the true essences of the characters of Doctor Strange, Wong, and Nightmare from the original source material.

            As far as the accessibility of the book to readers who just read the review of this book because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films involving Doctor Strange and now are seriously considering reading this book, I think they would be able to fully comprehend this novel. I don’t feel like background knowledge is required to understand the book, so if you’re only reading this review because you like my work and read everything I write and are now interested in reading this book based on what I wrote, I don’t think you’d have a problem understanding the story. Having knowledge on Doctor Strange would benefit reading this book, no matter if you know Doctor Strange from reading the comics or just the films, but it really didn’t seem to me like prior knowledge is required to enjoy the novel.

I know it’s expected from me to give a numeric score of the content of the novel. I score on a scale of one to ten, one being the worst, ten being the best. Taking the entire book into consideration, taking in everything I just wrote, I score it at a seven.

            If you’re now considering reading this book based on everything you just read, I do recommend it. As I don’t feel like background knowledge is required, and knowing Doctor Strange only from the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t truly cause contradictions, I think it’s a good read, so if you want to read it, I say go for it.

            In summary, I thank you for taking the time to read this review. If you liked this piece, I write reviews on a regular basis. I hold a bachelor’s degree in English, I’m a certified journalist and I’m an aspiring novelist. I write short fiction, short nonfiction, and poetry, as well as essays, articles, and editorials. I’ve written dozens of pieces on this blog, so there’s plenty other content to see. If you are on social media, feel free to comment, like, share, retweet, whatever else you can do, that would be great. I appreciate all of your support. And until next time, Tim Cubbin… out! 

"The Darkhold Saga"

 

            The following is a review of the Marvel Comics Event “The Darkhold Saga” as presented on Marvel Unlimited.

            The Darkhold is a cursed book. Its origins are pretty gruesome, but it has held the elder-God Chthon in Other-Realm for centuries. Its magic is corruptive. Reading from the Darkhold will drive any reader insane.

Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom has been searching for the Darkhold for many years, and has finally unearthed it. He has sent his herald Victorious to Abysmia to retrieve it. In the meantime, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch has a haunting dream of chaos caused by Chthon as a warning that he will soon be released. Arriving in Abysmia, Wanda finds that Doctor Doom has already read from the book, believing himself above the standards of “normal men.” Wanda discovers that Chthon had been sealed into the Darkhold by a group of five heroes called the Darkhold Defenders. They all had specific roles in the creation of the seal. Wanda decides to build her own team of Darkhold Defenders: Tony Stark/Iron Man-The Dreamer, Eric Brooks/Blade-The Hunter, Janet Van Dyne/Wasp-The Artist, Blackagar Boltagon/Black Bolt-The Stoic, and Peter Parker/Spider-Man-The Fool. To reinforce the seal, the heroes are to read from the Darkhold, but only enough so as not to be driven insane. The heroes, however, read too far, and their histories are now changed.

Tony Stark created the Iron Man armor as a defense to escape from captivity after being abducted on a routine weapons test. He had to create an electromagnet to save his life. He worked on an update of the armor to use to heal its wearer. Unfortunately, the plan failed and the armor became his skin with no way to safely remove it.

Eric Brooks is Blade, a unique vampire also called the Daywalker due to his immunity to sunlight. He is also a vampire hunter. Unfortunately, a vampire plague has been released, and now almost everyone on earth is now a vampire. Blade must now struggle to keep himself and his friends alive in this new world.

Janet Van Dyne is married to scientist Hank Pym. Their marriage is rather complicated, almost completely one-sided. Hank is more married to his lab work than Jan. He often ignores her and stays in his lab for days at a time. When Hank does pay attention to her, he is verbally abusive to Jan. Finally, Jan has had enough being ignored.

Black Bolt is the King of the Inhuman race. His brother Maximus the Mad has tried to stage several coups over the years to dethrone Black Bolt, and has now had an Inhuman scientist create a device that can make him look like anyone else. Black Bolt must now try to find the wolf in the fold.

Peter Parker is Spider-Man. A plague called the unravelling has struck the world, destabilizing everything. Spider-Man does as much webbing as he can to hold people, animals, and structures together, but it is nowhere near enough.

After all the former heroes escape the Darkhold, they are not the Darkhold Defenders, but the Darkhold Defiled. Doom has been defeated by Chthon, and now it rests solely upon Wanda to stop Chthon’s escape and save the world.

Looking at this event as a whole, I found it relatively interesting. The different histories of the Darkhold Defiled entertained me. And all the issues had a surprise twist ending, and that made me feel the story was worthwhile. However, I must complain about the gruesomeness contained in this event that I can’t talk about on this blog, especially the endings of Iron Man and Spider-Man. Blade’s story, however, was relatively cliché, a vampire apocalypse. I did feel that Wasp’s story got a bit stale in the middle, but I figured out how it would end relatively early on. Black Bolt’s story was my favorite. But in all honestly, I can’t say much about the stories to prevent spoilers. Despite all of it, though, I wasn’t disappointed. I enjoyed the read, and the event didn’t feel overextended like some comic events can be. The seven issues felt just right to me. The focus on all the new histories were interesting, but in all honesty, there were only two issues of importance, the other five just making it an event, but all being one-shots sufficed it for me, especially since it felt like expanding on each character’s story would be unnecessary and even possibly ruin the enjoyment of the story. Plus, hitting the end of each one-shot solidified the story just fine.

Now, again, looking at this as a whole, I must give a numeric score to enforce just how I felt about the story. I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest, ten is the highest. Prior readers will know I’m very hard to please when it comes to reviewing books, so a high score probably means it’s good, but this is just all my opinion. So, let’s not mince words here, get right to the score. Again, as I said, the event as a whole, all cards in, I give it a seven. Despite the gruesome endings of Iron Man and Spider-Man, the endings of Wasp and Black Bolt were good twists, but the Blade issue was mediocre. But the main two issues felt like good bookends. Fortunately, the ending of the last issue didn’t disappoint me. Some events’ finales can be very disappointing, making me feel like reading the whole thing was a waste of time. “The Darkhold Saga” had a conclusive ending that made sense and I didn’t feel like it was forced upon me. I actually read it twice, as each was originally posted on Marvel Unlimited and then as a binge of the event, and reading it twice wasn’t a chore.

Okay, so, let’s talk about if I recommend it. I do. I found this event to be very much self-contained. If you’ve never read a Marvel comic book before, I think this will be intriguing, there could definitely be worse starts. If you’re into the supernatural, and want a supernatural comic storyline, I’d recommend it to you, Marvel veteran or not. I didn’t think it was too off-putting in the gruesomeness, but if you have a weak stomach, this isn’t one to read. Still, I recommend it to you, regular comic reader or newbie reader, pretty much to everyone. And it is very rare that I give an almost completely unconditional recommendation, so you might want to read it for yourself.

Now, to wrap up, I’ll tell you this blog has many reviews on it, mostly Marvel, but I also write essays, editorials, short stories and poetry, so if you like this post, feel free to keep looking at this blog. I post frequently, so you don’t have to wait too long for new posts. And until next time, I say to you, Tim Cubbin… out!

“Marvel Epic Collection Moon Knight: Bad Moon Rising” by Doug Moench, David Anthony Kraft, Bill Mantlo & Steven Grant with Roger Slifer & John Warner

            The following is a review of “Marvel Epic Collection Moon Knight: Bad Moon Rising” written by Doug Moench, David Anthony Kraft, Bill Mantlo & Steven Grant with Roger Slifer & John Warner and not the “Moon Knight” series on Disney+.

            Marc Specter was a mercenary, a soldier-for-hire. He was associated with Bushman, a terrorist-for-hire on one of his missions in Egypt. Bushman took an action that Marc did not approve of and turned against Bushman. Bushman in return left Marc to die. Marc died in front of an edifice of the Egyptian God of the Moon, Khonshu. Khonshu, in return, restored Marc to life as Khonshu’s right fist. Marc was found by Frenchie, his helicopter pilot and associate, and the two formed a partnership. This also caused a split in Marc’s personalities, creating three new identities. One is Steven Grant, the millionaire who found love in the form of Marlene Fontaine. Another is Jake Lockley, the cab driver who frequents Gena’s Diner to gather information from a man named Bertrand Crawley, who hears a lot about the goings on in New York City. The third is the Moon Knight. The four identities switch at points when they are needed. Moon Knight is armed with crescent darts, a truncheon that doubles as nunchakus and a glider cape, with a cowl-mic linking him with Frenchie who brings Moon Knight to where he is needed and provides extractions, Steven constantly paying for upgraded flying transportation.

            On Marc’s first mission as Moon Knight, he was tasked with capturing young Jack Russell, a werewolf. Jack had injured his hand, and was not in prime fighting form during the abduction, and Moon Knight’s weaponry being made of silver did not help the Werewolf by Night as werewolves are weak against silver. During the battle, Werewolf by Night bit Moon Knight, not turning Moon Knight into a werewolf as Jack Russell’s werewolf curse was mystical and hereditary, but enhancing Moon Knight’s abilities during the full moon.

            As Moon Knight’s reputation grew, he found himself facing new villains, such as the Conquer- Lord, goading Moon Knight into battle after abducting Marlene and attempting to take down the mayor of New York City, engaging Moon Knight into a dangerous game of living chess.

            Moon Knight formed a temporary association with the superhero “non-team” consisting of the Valkyrie, Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk, Patsy Walker/Hellcat (pardon my language), and occasionally Bruce Banner/Hulk. This brings him into conflict with the Avenger Simon Williams/Wonder Man.

            Moon Knight and the Defenders came into conflict with Nick Fury, Jake Fury/Scorpio and S.H.I.E.L.D. as Scorpio corrupts Hulk, sending the “monster” on a rampage only the Defenders can stop.

            After the end of the battle, Moon Knight returns to his solo career.

            Then, Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Moon Knight have a misunderstanding, which culminates into a team-up against Cyclone, a villain sent by the Maggia Crime Syndicate.

            Moon Knight takes part in another team-up, this time with Ben Grimm/Thing of the superhero team the Fantastic Four against the super villain Crossfire.

            Following this, Marlene’s life is placed in jeopardy after a power play of the possession of an artifact, a statuette of the Egyptian God Horus, which was intended to be placed in a museum.

            Steven promises to attend a viewing of a lunar eclipse with an old friend, Jason. He feels called off to duty during the eclipse and misses the entire eclipse, and narrowly avoids another faceoff with the Hulk.

            Marlene’s life is once again placed in danger when someone from Marc’s past returns and commits a horrific crime spree to draw Marc and Moon Knight out to have a faceoff to settle old debts.

            Following this, the minds and sanity of Steven Grant, Jake Lockley, Moon Knight and Marc Specter are tested, and Marlene joins the action, and yet this time, her life is not the life in danger.

            Bushman then makes his dreadful return to draw out Marc Spector/Moon Knight out to settle an old score.

            Then, a crime spree against the derelicts of New York City endangers the life of Crawley as a figure from Crawley’s past comes back to haunt him, and Jake Lockley lets Crawley, Gena, and Gena’s two sons into his secret in order to better protect them and Steven Grant backs the group financially.

            Marc then finds himself baited out by an art theft who calls himself the Midnight Man.

            Finally, the Committee of 5: Boom-Boom, Razor, Ice, Dragon, and Bull surface with the goal of ending their former associate Marc Spector, and Marc’s secret circle join in the fight to gather the information needed to take down the organization.

            This book had a lot going on in it. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes it’s a bad thing. This book featured a lot of the first appearances of Moon Knight in the Marvel Universe. That is why I found this book to be so disjointed. There were several stories taken out of context. Also, only four issues in the entire book to be the titular Moon Knight solo series, which caused a lot of team-ups. I hated the fact that Marlene’s life was endangered in almost every story and the damsel in distress ploy is so cliché that I found some of the book to be lame. Once or twice wouldn’t have truly soured my taste buds, but looking at the description of every story on this review involving Marlene’s life being in danger was just too much for me. In fact, I felt the character of Marlene to be too two-dimensional. I felt that she was just there to love Steven and had no other purpose. I didn’t find her character to be well developed at all. It was all the same story every time. Also, I know this was from the 1970s, so saying Steven Grant was a millionaire is laughable by today’s standards, especially with all the payments for the contracts being $100,000 or less. I know $25,000 was a big amount in the 70s, but in today, it seems like nothing. Were this written today, Steven Grant would be a billionaire and the contracts would be $1,000,000 at the least. Generations after mine would laugh at this book. I also didn’t find the villains to be well defined, either. To me, it felt like they were just there to fight Moon Knight and served no other purpose. They just didn’t seem nuanced to me. There were no follow-ups to any of the villains after their appearances in each story. Also, Marc’s portrayal of dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities) felt totally wrong to me. He switched identities depending on what was needed. I have a friend with D.I.D. and his condition is nothing like how these writers described it. The condition does not work that way. I actually found that very offensive. I’m bipolar myself and understand mental illness, and to me, it even felt like an insult. I felt like these writers clearly did not do their research when originally writing it. I also hate how the Jake Lockley character was portrayed. He was supposed to be a cab driver, but never in this entire book did he have a fare. That’s not how cab drivers work. And the updates on Gena’s kids at the early points in the book, failing black history, what else have you, just didn’t amuse me. It was supposed to be a joke thing, but I felt like it fell flat. In fact, this whole book felt like a failure to me. I felt like all the team-ups in the book were just gimmicks. I know how it was planned like that, being a writer and avid comic book reader myself: Introduce a new character in one or two issues; bring them back here and there is spotlight series; get the readers to like the character; put the character into already ongoing successful series; the reader sees the character in the book and buys it; now the reader who is a fan on the new character sees the existing character team-up and now buys the existing character’s book because they find the existing characters interesting, or the reader is a fan of the existing character’s book, sees the new character and likes them and now reads more appearances of the new character. Perfect marketing ploy. I totally do not applaud anyone on that, as this is also at times cliché. They even do it on television shows these days. Now, I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing. This can work, this can fail. Obviously it worked in this case, considering there is now a Disney+ series of “Moon Knight” (which I have not watched yet, so forgive me if you have watched the show, but as I said at the start that this is only about this graphic novel and not about the show, so look past that if you love the show and are only reading this post only because of the show, clear your mind and focus on just what I’m writing and not what you think you know by watching the show. Also, the team-ups in this book can’t happen in the show at this specific point in time due to copyright infringements). I wanted to like this specific book. I’ve read many recent “Moon Knight” series and crossovers/guest-stars and enjoyed them. But from the stories from 1975-1981 just didn’t do it for me.

            Now, I have to give a numeric score on this, just to fully establish exactly how I feel about this book. I am very hard to satisfy, so higher scores probably means the book is good. I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest, ten is the highest. I give this book a three. I know I was very harsh in the previous paragraph, but the book did have some good moments. There were some interesting plot twists and surprises in it, I’ll give it that, and they often felt welcome to me. I might even have given a higher score were the book not so disjointed. But, ultimately for better or worse, I have to take into account this book as a whole and score it, and I give it a three.

            Finally, I’m going to say if I recommend this book or not. If you are a fan of the “Moon Knight” comics and want to see his earliest appearances, I would totally recommend it to you. Despite all my negativity, it is rather informative on the origins of the character, but it just doesn’t match up to my standards as “good” comics. However, if you just like “Moon Knight” by the Disney+ series and now want to read the comics, I have to warn you that knowing what you’ve seen in the show and the comics seem like vastly different concepts. Honestly, though, I’m not dissuading you from reading this if you so wish. You may have a vastly different opinion than mine, and I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Comment, like, share, retweet, whatever you can do, I appreciate the support. I will say there have been many good “Moon Knight” stories, and I think they may be more enjoyable, but I also understand if you want to get the true origin of the character. I have read several “Moon Knight” comic stories over the years that I’ve enjoyed, so feel free to look them up if you so desire, and I totally value your opinion and would be very receptive to hear them. I get that opinions are opinions. You don’t have to agree with me, I don’t have to agree with you, we’re all entitled to feel however we want about anything, that’s a complexity of the human species.

            So I’m going to bring this to an end, seeing how I have said a lot. You may want to look at more content on this blog. I frequently post things such as reviews, essays, editorials, short stories and poetry, so keep checking, you may find more things you like. I’ll even tell you there is another post I’m about to work on and will be up in a few hours after I post this, so please keep your eye out for it. And so, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!