“Wolverine: Blood Debt” by Marc Andreyko, Steve Skroce, Rob Liefeld, Eric Stephenson,, Joe Pruett, Paul Jenkins, Bill Jemas & Joe Quesada

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Wolverine: Blood Debt” as presented in Epic Collection format, written by Marc Andreyko, Steve Skroce, Rob Liefeld, Eric Stephenson,, Joe Pruett, Paul Jenkins, Bill Jemas & Joe Quesada.

            James Howlett was a sickly little boy. He came from a rich family in Canad. He lived with his kind father John, spiteful grandfather, and slightly mentally unsound mother Elizabeth. His family had a groundskeeper Thomas Logan, who had a son known only as “Dog.” James had trouble making friends, so the estate called in young orphan Rose from the nearby village up to the Hill to be James’ companion. James, Rose, and Dog became best friends and played together everyday, despite Thomas’ dislike for the Howlett’s and their son. Both James and Dog developed romantic feelings for Rose, feelings that were unreciprocated to them both. Thomas went over the edge one night, ultimately leading to the murder of John by the hands of Thomas, the death of Thomas by the newly manifested claws of James, and the death of Elizabeth. After the deaths, James and Rose ran away and joined a mining group, James now being called “Logan.” They did not fit in easily, James constantly being heckled by “Cookie” Malone, an unpleasant member of the group. This led from James growing out of the happy, playful boy he was into the hard-hearted Logan, forgetting his old life more and more with each passing day. The leader of the company, Smitty, fell in love with Rose and were engaged, despite Rose not truly being in love with Smitty and actually in love with James, rather more along the lines of the fact that Smitty could provide Rose with a comfy living that James could not provide. James became a fighter, nicknamed “Wolverine” for being short and aggressive. Dog tracked James and Rose, leading to the accidental death of Rose. James ran off, and truly became both Logan and Wolverine. He also discovered he had a healing factor and could heal from any wound. (He would later have his skeleton enforced by the nearly indestructible metal adamantium and have his memories purged.)

Many years later, mercenary Wade Wilson/Deadpool was contracted to off popular novelist Duncan Vess, who wrote a series about werewolves. Ironically Duncan was so good at writing about werewolves is because he is a werewolf himself. Logan’s friend Kitty Pryde is a huge fan of Duncan’s work, and Logan found himself Duncan’s protector.

            While playing a game of poker with several Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, Ben Grimm/Thing, Steve Rogers/Captain America, and Nick Fury, beverages are required, and on a simple grocery run, Logan finds himself targeted by the ninja cult, the Hand.

            Logan travels to Japan to visit the grave of his love Mariko Yashida, long at odds with her cousin Kenuichio Harada/Silver Samurai and check on his “daughter” Amiko, who Logan entrusted with his trusted friend Yukio. Harada, Amiko and Yukio are abducted by a Japanese crime syndicate which has old ties with Logan.

            Deadpool returns with his entourage and Wade and Logan have a major misunderstanding, and find out their true enemy is a sinister anti-mutant organization called the Watchtower.

            After a string of underground assaults, Logan and a team of  N.Y.P.D. led by Lieutenant Tara Curson go to investigate. The suspect is subterranean lord the Mole Man. Spider-Man arrives at the underground conflict, but it turns out that these attacks are not actually the Mole Man’s doing, and Logan, Curson, Spidey, and the Mole Man go on the offensive to find the true underground menace.

            Disgraced bounty hunter Zaran kidnaps Amiko to lure Logan into combat to up his standing in the bounty hunter business.

            Now, this book is a graphic novel. In graphic novel format, there are, of course, two major components to the quality of the book: as in any writing, you need a story, and the graphics are the artwork. You can have an amazing story but awful art that makes reading the book an awful experience. Or you can have visual perfection, but the story is so awful you just ignore it and just remember the fact that a picture is worth a thousand words and absorb the visual treat. As far as this book goes, for me the balance was near perfection. When I bought the book, I saw that it contained “Wolverine” #150-158 & Annual ’99 and “Wolverine: The Origin” #1-6, and figured, “Origin,” great, we’re looking at Weapon X for the zillionth time, but the fact that it contained art by Ian Churchill, I figured there might be hope there. Churchill was the artist of the first Marvel comic book I ever bought, way back in 2001, and I loved his art back then. While he only illustrated two issues in the book, I was still so excited to see his work in this book. And when I saw double trouble writer/artist Rob Liefeld worked on this, I was excited even more. I’ve looked back at comics from the 1990s, I always loved Liefeld’s work at both. The comics contained issues ranging from 1999-2002. Now, I’ve said before that every era of comic art has its own characteristics, unique to that time period, a specific style. For me, art from the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s have always been my favorites, and I truly wish this style had stayed, and while current comics have great art, this time period just had a standard that always pleased me. I think the colors from the period were so vivid, and the art was just the epitome of comic book which many current artists don’t actually draw like anymore. I don’t fully know why, it was just something about the art that just… Anyway, let’s talk about the story as you can obviously tell I loved the art in this book. So, yes, “Wolverine: The Origin.” This story had nothing to do with the commonly retold Weapon X story, which has been covered in comics, cartoons, and movies repeatedly. In the 1990s “X-Men” cartoon I grew up with, that story came up in at least five episodes, each showing different bits and pieces, but still that sequence over and over again. This was his childhood. So I got to that point and I thought I’d be reading something along the lines of the opening montage of the “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” feature film, but it absolutely was not, which was a major “thank goodness” for me, because I hated that movie, and the movie would have pleased me a lot more if they took concept from this book and added it to the movie. But no, this was Wolverine starting at the age of twelve-years-old, and the dynamic of James, Rose and Dog’s friendship was entertaining to me. There was a part of the story that almost made me cry, which I can’t actually talk about in this blog, but it was a true defining moment for James. And seeing his transformation from a sweet and sensitive little boy to his tough-as-nails adult self was riveting to me. It’s always been talked about how Logan lost his memories, and looking at this childhood, I can understand why. Some of these memories were not pleasant. I appreciated that it was finally an original origin of something different, and explained why he would both come to be known as “Logan” and “Wolverine.” (It should be noted that “Wolverine: The Origin” was placed at the end of the book, but I reversed it for this blog post for a better chronological cohesion.)

            I totally thought “Cry Wolf!” was great. I’ll give you a parallel here: Vess was so good at writing werewolf novels because he himself was a werewolf, so does that mean Rowling so good at writing novels about witches and wizards because she herself is a witch? That’s how that story made me feel. And when you bring Deadpool into it? I love Deadpool, and Wolverine and Deadpool in the same story usually entertains me, and I felt like Andreyko pulled off a masterpiece.

            I loved Skroce’s work on “Blood Debt.” I always love Wolverine stories that focus on Logan’s family. I was touched by his love for Amiko, his “daughter.” It totally humanized Logan in ways that not every author can do. And when she was kidnapped (which actually happened twice in this book in two totally different stories), I just felt it. There was an effect of guilt. He trusted Yukio with his daughter and both were nabbed, I mean, wow. He thought he was keeping Amiko safe, and totally failed. I thought it was a powerful story.

            Again, I thought Liefeld did a great job in “All Along the Watchtower.” Liefeld was actually the author who created Deadpool, and he entertained me with this Deadpool appearance. Usually a writer who creates a character can tell a good story with that character, and I felt like Liefeld totally did this.

            The “Going Underground” story with Spider-Man really entertained me. I first got into Marvel by watching the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon with my dad, and Liefeld/Churchill teaming up was a treat to me. A great writer and a great artist is promising (and while it doesn’t always make a great graphic novel), I thought they made a great story.

            “Manhunt” was also a story I enjoyed. Sometimes bounty hunter stories feel cliché, but I didn’t think this was the case for me, especially since the bounty hunter was a C-List opponent. A-List and B-List bounty hunters against A-List heroes often bore me, the total predictability of the outcome is just forced. And while A-List heroes whup C-List villains, these kinds of bounty hunter stories are my favorite. Don’t ask me why, it’s just how I feel.

            Next, I have to say if I recommend the book and who I think is the best audience. I totally recommend it. I enjoyed this book so much I literally didn’t want to put it down, I finished it in less than six hours. I thought this book was very much self-contained. I feel that anyone, even someone who has never read comic books before can still pick it up and understand it. I mean, it’s literally “Wolverine: The Origin” which is a pretty big hint that it will explain the character (especially since in this particular case in a story never told before). If you’re reading this book with no prior Wolverine knowledge though (and I still encourage you to read this if this is the case), I would advise reading “Wolverine: The Origin” before the rest of the book as it will be a better introduction to the character. But if you’ve never read comic books before and have interest in starting to read comics and want a place to start, this is a good place to start. If you’re reading this review (and if you’re still here at this point, you are THE BEST!) and have interest in reading this book now, I totally say you should look into finding a way to read this, whether you buy it or find it in a library or borrow it in any way, don’t hesitate, read is ASAP!

            Now, a review of mine would not be complete unless I give it a numeric score. I’m very hard to please, so a good score from me is a big hint if you should read this. I score on a scale of one-to-ten. One is: this is awful, don’t read it (which you know I will NOT say); Ten is: read this as soon as you can (which I’ve actually already said, so sorry for the repetition). So, my score is (drumroll please)… NINE! This might surprise you, what with the glowing entire piece, and I don’t exactly know why myself, but I just can’t quite give it a ten. There’s just something holding me back. I would totally love to give it a ten, believe me, I just don’t exactly think it was totally perfect, and it breaks my heart because I thought the stories and artwork were amazing, but it’s just not a ten.

            So right before I sign off, I’m going to say that I’ve literally written over one-hundred posts, dozens of them being reviews, so if you liked this post, I invite you to keep looking at my work. I have a quirky personality, and some of my reviews were for laughs, but I write short fiction and nonfiction, poetry, essays, editorials and other forms of writing (I’m actually an unemployed certified journalist, with a bachelors’ degree in the fields of English and journalism), so I might have other posts you might enjoy, so keep looking at this blog. I do a lot of posts, I post very frequently, so you can keep looking for more pieces From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin. So all I can say now is, Tim Cubbin… out! 

“Ms. Marvel: This Woman, This Warrior” by Chris Claremont & Gerry Conway

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel Marvel Epic Collection “Ms. Marvel: This Woman, This Warrior” by Chris Claremont & Gerry Conway. It is NOT a review of the “Ms. Marvel” series on Disney+.

            Carol Danvers was the head of security for NASA. She had an encounter with the Kree super hero Captain Mar-Vell and villain Yon-Rogg when a Kree device called the Psyche Magnitron exploded. Mar-Vell was able to save Carol’s life, shielding her from the blast. Carol then retired from NASA and became a writer.

            Carol is hired by the publisher of the New York tabloid The Daily Bugle J. Jonah Jameson to be the editor of Woman Magazine. When super villain the Scorpion attempts to rob a bank, a new mysterious heroine arrives on the scene, wearing a uniform similar to that of Mar-Vell. She can fly, she has super strength, and a precognitive seventh sense. After rescuing Jameson from the Scorpion, unaware of her actual identity, she is christened “Ms. Marvel.” Carol forms a friendship with Mary Jane Watson, who hangs around the offices of The Daily Bugle and Woman with her boyfriend, photographer Peter Parker (secretly the super hero Spider-Man). Carol has been having headaches and blackouts.

            The villainous organization Advanced Idea Mechanics recovers the defeated Scorpion, AIM scientist Professor Kerwin Korman assumes the identity of the Destructor, and the Scorpion escapes AIM custody and swears vengeance against Ms. Marvel. Carol, wishing to understand her blackouts, turns to psychiatrist and friend Doctor Michael Barnett. After hypnotism, Carol reveals she is Ms. Marvel. Barnett believes Carol’s story to be a paranoid delusion until he witnesses Carol’s transformation to Ms. Marvel with his own two eyes.

Carol flies to Cape Canaveral to interview old friends and NASA astronauts Salia Petrie and David Adamson as they prepare to fly into space. Ms. Marvel herself flies to space and finds herself battling the Doomsday Man. Upon falling to Earth, Carol and Ms. Marvel discover they are the same woman and have been transforming from one to the other, and now battle for control of their shared body.

Ms. Marvel has a premonition of a devastating disaster. She attempts to prevent it and has a misunderstanding with the synthetic Avenger the Vision, locking into a battle.

After Carol features Ms. Marvel in Woman magazine, Jameson is not happy. Jameson hates super heroes (especially Spider-Man). The Subterranean Prince Gor-Tok/Grotesk, only surviving member of his race, surfaces to steal the cavourite crystal in his bid to destroy Earth. Ms. Marvel is abducted by AIM’s former leader MODOK, who tries to replicate Carol’s costume, believed to be the source of Ms. Marvel’s powers, which reveals that the powers are actually Carol’s and not granted by the costume. Ms. Marvel discovers AIM’s base is in Alden’s Department Store. Carol alerts SHIELD, who are fooled by AIM, and their base is undiscovered.

Carol and Doctor Burnett are attacked, leading to a climactic battle between Ms. Marvel and Grotesk.

MODOK allies with Death-Bird, who ruin Carol’s dinner date, and Carol’s apartment is destroyed, and AIM strikes against Ms. Marvel again.

Spider-Man, Johnny Storm/Human Torch (of the Fantastic Four), and Ms. Marvel team up to battle the Super-Skrull, an alien shapeshifter with all the powers of the Fantastic Four (and a few other powers as well).

Carol returns to Cape Canaveral to witness Salia and David fly to space, but has a premonition of the shuttle’s destruction. Ms. Marvel battles the witch Hecate and the Elementals for the Ruby Scarab.

Carol returns to Massachusetts to visit with her family. Her father is a construction worker, and Ms. Marvel battles Steeplejack to save the life of her father.

Ms. Marvel teams up with the Defenders (Valkyrie, Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk, Patsy Walker/Hellcat [pardon my language] and Bruce Banner/Hulk) to defeat AIM and save the life of Doctor Michael Burnett.

Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I’ve long been a fan of Carol Danvers (as Ms. Marvel, Binary, Warbird, and Captain Marvel), and this book felt like a great buy for me. Not only was I not disappointed, I was impressed. I’ve been a fan of Chris Claremont as well, especially his runs of X-Men, and I was not disappointed by his work on early Carol stories. Carol and Ms. Marvel being unaware of their dual identity at first, then Carol fighting for control of her body was a tactic that I found interesting. I also liked that Carol shared villains with Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the Defenders. Too often is a super villain associated with just on super hero or team, so the Scorpion, Grotesk, MODOK, AIM, and Super-Skrull from other heroes, and the Destructor, Death-Bird, Hecate and the Elementals being her villains was an interesting balance to me. I enjoyed the supporting cast as well, Mary Jane Watson, J. Jonah Jameson, the Vision, Spider-Man, the Human Torch, and the Defenders appearing was a thrill for me. It’s rare for me to read an Epic Collection and enjoy every single story in it, and in this case, I actually never disliked anything at any point while reading this book. And, when reading a graphic novel, the artwork is also very important. The graphics and the novel are in an important balance. You can have an amazing story, yet when looking at the artwork you see a complete disaster, then enjoying the story is difficult. On the other hand, the story can be horrible, yet the art can be amazing, but that still doesn’t make it possible to enjoy the story. Balance is extremely important. Note that the issues contained in this graphic novel were published in 1977-1978, and that time period had a distinct comic book art style. It was a period where the art looked like a fusion between a cartoon and illustration that gave the period a certain flair, and that was executed, in my opinion, perfectly. I also enjoyed that while there were many different artists, there was a uniform standard, so that you could visually see benchmark differences in each artist’s turn at drawing. That said, sometimes you look at a comic book and don’t need to read the artists’ names to know that they were the artists in the issue. There are several artists who I feel that way about. But the artists in this book never stuck out to me, and I wouldn’t have known the artist just by looking at the artwork. You can also look at old comic books and say that the issue had good artwork for its time, which unfortunately is not actually good. Good comic art has to meet certain standards to actually be considered good art for all time. Now, I felt that the art in this book holds up to this day, which makes it good art, but I have to admit that two people can go to an art museum and have two completely different opinions on what they see, so while I may see good art, you could see an eyesore. But for me, the story was great, for me the art was great, so all-in-all, for me a great graphic novel. I did, however, notice a color inconsistency, as some colorists actually had Ms. Marvel’s stomach show and some covered her stomach with the costume.

As far as if I give this book my recommendation, I emphatically say that I do. I felt that this book was very self-contained and can be read and understood by a person if they knew nothing about Carol Danvers. But that’s the problem there. If you only know Carol Danvers from the “Captain Marvel” movie and liked it, I might actually say this is not the right book for you. There are so few consistencies and the characterizations are so vastly different it’s like it’s a completely different character. But if you didn’t like the “Captain Marvel” movie, this might give you a Carol redemption, if you’re willing to get her back in your head. If you’ve never seen any Marvel Cinematic Universe film with Captain Marvel, you might be interested in reading this book first to get a different, possibly positive, first impression of Carol that the MCU might taint. If you’re looking for a comic book with a strong female super hero lead, then this book is for you. Not only is she a super hero, she’s an editor of a magazine. If you’ve never read a Marvel comic book before, there are many better places to start. That’s not to say that this isn’t a good place to start, but for me it wouldn’t generally be my first recommendation. If you’re a fan of Carol from the comics, however, I would say that you should totally give this book a look. It should be noted she originally couldn’t create energy blasts and she had a precognitive seventh sense. This look back at the character was a treat to me, and I feel it will be one for other Carol Danvers fans as well.

Of course, if you’re still reading at this point, you may be wondering exactly how I feel about this book on a numeric score. I always go on a scale of one-to-ten. One means that I regret buying this book, I will store it and I will never look at it again. Ten means this was a great buy and in all likelihood I’ll read this again. I am usually a very harsh scorer and difficult to please, so a high score should be factored in to your considering if you want to read the book yourself. I score this book as a nine. I would love to give this book a ten, I really would, but for some reason, I just can’t. I can say that I loved this book a lot, but I just can’t quite say I felt it was perfect.

If you enjoyed this review, keep looking at my blog, From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin. I have done dozens of book reviews. I’m a journalist, a writer and a poet, so you can find many examples of these on my blog as well. I post frequently, so keep checking back for more content whenever you like, there’ll be more. And I’ll leave you with just three more words: Tim Cubbin… out!

“Power Man and Iron Fist: Heroes For Hire” by Jo Duffy & Chris Claremont with Ed Hannigan, Steven Grant & Bob Layton

            The following is a review of the graphic novel Marvel Epic Collection “Power Man and Iron Fist: Heroes For Hire” by Jo Duffy & Chris Claremont with Ed Hannigan, Steven Grant & Bob Layton.

            Carl Lucas was convicted for a crime he did not commit and was sent for life to Seagate Prison. Years later prison scientist Doctor Noah Burstein offered Carl a lighter sentence if he were to undergo an experiment that would potentially give him super powers. The procedure went wrong, which made it turn out right. Carl gained steel-hard skin and super strength. Carl then broke out of Seagate and took on the names Luke Cage/Power Man and became a Hero For Hire.

            Daniel Rand was orphaned in the mystic city of K’un-Lun, which only appears once every ten years. He was trained in the way of the martial arts and became a skilled fighter. He took on a challenge to defeat the dragon Shou Lao. He succeeded and gained the power of the Iron Fist, able to channel his chi into strength. He came back to the United States to find himself in charge of Rand-Meachum Enterprises, a position he did not want, and that he now had a sizeable fortune, which he heavily squanders. He took to the masked identity Iron Fist.

            Luke and Danny did not have a good first meeting as Luke was hired by the sinister John Bushmaster to take out Danny’s closest friends Misty Knight and Colleen Wing of Nightwing Restorations. However, during the conflict, evidence was uncovered, and Luke’s lawyer Jeryn Hogarth was able to use to exonerate Luke and make him a free man.

            Luke and Danny hit it off after a showdown with villains Stiletto and Discus.

            Luke, Danny and Misty then team up against crime boss Morgan, the Cybernauts and Deadly Nightshade and barely escape with their lives.

            Luke and Danny then battle the Incinerator and then go into business as the Heroes For Hire under the representation of Hogarth.

            Luke is asked to participate in an Auto Show. Taggart the Tiger, the star attraction, is released into the crowd, but while Luke and Danny subdue Taggart, the Fantasticar, transport for the superhero team the Fantastic Four, is stolen.

            Hogarth forces Ms. Jennie Royce upon Luke and Danny as their executive secretary, informing her of Luke and Danny’s secret identities. Heroes For Hire are hired by Dr. Abdol and Professor Merridew to protect artifacts of Tutankhamen, which are being temporarily displayed in New York, but Luke and Danny ultimately fail, but there is more to the theft than meets the eye. Luke and Danny team up with Scott Summers/Cyclops, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, and Ororo Munroe/Storm of the mutant superhero team, the X-Men, against the threat of the Living Monolith.

            A new superhuman, El Aguila/The Eagle arrives and challenges Luke and Danny.

            Danny’s old friend Alan Cavenaugh is accused of terrorism and Danny must then investigate to clear his innocent friend.

            Luke has a run-in with Man Mountain Marko while Danny faces off against Thunderbolt, whose super speed powers have a debilitating effect. Luke then finds himself six feet under… alive.

            Luke’s home is destroyed by Suerte and Muerte, leaving Luke’s friend D.W. Griffith fighting for his life.

            Luke and Danny find the tables turned when the Heroes For Hire must team up with El Aguila.

            Heroes For Hire and Nightwing Restorations team up to protect the Jade Tiger from Constrictor and Sabretooth.

            Bushmaster resurfaces and kidnaps Doctor Burstein in an effort to replicate the experiment that created Power Man in order for Bushmaster to gain Luke’s powers, while Luke finds himself powerless and fighting for his own life.

            Luke and Danny find themselves hired in order to protect a criminal from an even worse criminal, targeting a team made years back who are being crossed off a list.

            Colleen searches for her father, who is amnesiac and does not even remember having a daughter.

            I found this to be an interesting read. Yes, this book had a lot of stories in it, so it stands to reason that I had mixed opinions of certain stories, as in ones I liked, and ones I disliked, but overall I liked more than I disliked. One of the writers, Chris Claremont is one of my favorite comic book scribes, especially his work on X-Men over the decades. Ironically, the Heroes For Hire/X-Men team-up story was actually not by Claremont, but I still found that one to be enjoyable. I personally loved the pairing of Power Man and Iron Fist. I feel that they worked very well together, despite being from two completely different worlds and backgrounds, which, in my opinion, is why the team dynamic was so effective. They say opposites attract, and I think in the platonic sense, this described Luke and Danny. I especially liked their first meeting where they did not originally see eye-to-eye, and working past this tiff really made it interesting to me. Longtime comic book readers know that some of the best superheroes start out as villains, and some of the best teams are formed by happenstance, and this book felt like that to me. My biggest complaint was the overuse of the words “until that hand becomes like unto a fist of iron.” That phrase was repeated way too often for my liking. Now, as a graphic novel, there are two very important things: the story and the artwork. You can have a great story, worthy of an Eisner Award, but if the artwork is horrible, or the artwork is stellar and the story is a total dud; that ruins the enjoyment. Longtime comic book readers know that comic book art has changed much over the years, specifically the style. That can create the concept of good comic book art of the time, or just good comic book art period. The issues in this book were published during the years 1977-1981, and my judgement is that this was good comic book art in general. Despite the fact that this book had an assortment of artists, the art style is consistent. I honestly cannot tell that there were more than one artist, the blending was that effective to me. So in general, both the story and the art combination was to my liking. In fact, there were moments where I felt like the art was better than the story.

            As far as the target audience, I’d say it’s very general. If you’ve never read a Marvel comic book before, I feel that picking this book up and reading it and understanding it would not be a problem. I feel like background knowledge is not needed and that the book is self-contained. I feel like if you liked the “Luke Cage” Netflix series and are looking to get into a comic, this book would probably be a great place to start. There were a lot of parallels and consistencies between the two and I think this book would be to your liking if you’re a fan of the show. However, I wouldn’t recommend this book directly to anyone who just wants to randomly start somewhere, but I’m not deterring it from you either, I just feel that there are other places that would be better to start. There are other reasons I would recommend this book to you, but constraints to this blog site means I can’t share them. If you can infer these reasons and relate to them, I recommend this book to you.

            Now we’re at the most decisive point of this review that may get you to decide to read this book: my numeric score. I score on a scale of one-to-ten. One means to keep away at all costs, ten means if you’ve been interested at all by this review at all that you should buy it at your immediate opportunity. I’m a tough scorer, I don’t just go around giving tens to just anything, so a high score is a good thing. So, all cards on the table, combining all the stories and all the art, I’ve come up with my score: seven! Like I said, there were stories I liked and stories I disliked, which were my deciding factor since I personally loved the artwork, and I didn’t like enough of them to give the book a higher score. Still, if you ask if I recommend this book, I say that yes, I do.

            If you enjoyed this blog post, there is plenty more content on this page. Yes I’ve written dozens of reviews and those are my primary source of content, but I’ve written other things as well, such as short stories, poetry, essays and editorials, so there’s plenty more to see. I post on a frequent basis. I suffered a great personal loss and am recovering from an injury, which has impeded this blog in a major way, some of my planned content has been affected, but I can guarantee you that I am about to work on another review, which will be available shortly after this post has been uploaded, so if you liked this current post, look out for my next post. I’ll just wrap this whole review up with a few more words: Tim Cubbin… out! 

"Avengers West Coast: Vision Quest” by John Byrne & Steve Englehart with Mark Gruenwald, D.G. Chichester, Margaret Clark, Tom DeFalco, Ralph Macchio, Kieron Dwyer, Fabian Nicieza & Peter Sanderson

            The following is a review of the “Marvel Epic Collection, Avengers West Coast: Vision Quest” graphic novel by John Byrne & Steve Englehart with Mark Gruenwald, D.G. Chichester, Margaret Clark, Tom DeFalco, Ralph Macchio, Kieron Dwyer, Fabian Nicieza & Peter Sanderson.

            The original Avengers started by happenstance. The villainous Loki mind controlled the Incredible Hulk to attack the Earth and lead Loki to conquer the world. The Invincible Iron Man, the Mighty Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp gathered together to defeat Loki and force him back from whence he came. The heroes realized that working together, they could stop threats more efficiently if they worked together as a team, and the Avengers were formed.

            Over the years, the Avengers roster has prospered and changed many times, and the team had so many Avengers that a grouping of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes traveled from their base in New York City off to California, and thus the West Coast Avengers were formed. The following is a list of their members and a little bit about each West Coast Avenger:

            Clint Barton/Hawkeye: Expert marksman. Preferred weapon are a bow and tricked out arrows. Team founder and leader.

            Bobbi Moorse/Mockingbird: Skilled hand-to-hand fighter. Preferred weapons are batons. Hawkeye’s wife. They are in the process of divorce.

            Hank Pym: Former Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Goliath/Yellowjacket, currently tech support.

            Janet Van Dyne/Wasp: Able to shrink down to insect size while still retaining human strength, wings when shrunk, and “wasp stings,” concentrated blasts of electricity. Hank’s ex-wife, currently working through their problems.

            Simon Williams/Wonder Man: Able to transform into ionic energy and redirect them into energy blasts, and flight. Actor.

            Greer Grant-Nelson/Tigra: Feline form, enhanced strength, speed and agility.

            Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch: Mutant with hex powers that can alternate probabilities.

            Vision: Synthezoid, able to fly, energy blast fueled by sunlight, can alter density to be diamond hard to intangible. Created from the body of the robot Jim Hammond/the Human Torch, contains Wonder Man’s brain patterns when Wonder Man was presumed deceased. Scarlet Witch’s husband.

            Tony Stark/Iron Man: High tech suit of armor.

            John Walker/U.S.Agent: Super soldier, enhanced strength, speed, agility, and accelerated healing.

            The full force of both the Avengers and their West Coast counterparts are united to face the threat of the High Evolutionary. Bill Foster, a scientist and associate of Hank Pym, takes a dose of the Pym Particles and becomes the new Giant Man to assist in their battle. The High Evolutionary has been experimenting to fuse animals and human together to create new species and wishes to conquer the world with his hybrids.

            The W.A.C. then return to California to defeat the Defiler, who is kidnapping and corrupting teenagers.

            The Swordsman, a deceased Avenger, returns from the dead to reunite with his wife, the Avenger Mantis.

            The Night Shift assaults California, leaving Hawkeye to tell a major lie to the rest of the W.A.C.

            The Phantom Rider strikes, and a familial link between the history of the Phantom Rider is revealed.

            Tigra is going through a transformation, becoming more cat than woman.

            The Vision had linked to every computer on earth, and fearing his repeated attempt, representatives from world governments form a unit to abduct the Vision, disassemble him, and wipe all records of the Vision’s memory from both the Vision’s mainframe and the Avengers’ back-up files, effectively killing the Vision. The team is shocked to see that Mockingbird has betrayed them and given the task force access to the Vision and the virus that wiped the Vision’s memories. The W.A.C. are able to rescue him and reassemble him but all of Vision’s memories have been wiped, not knowing his wife, the Scarlet Witch. The W.A.C. find Phineas Horton, the creator of the original Human Torch, who was believed to die in the Vision’s arms, but a shock comes when Horton reveals that the Vision is not Horton’s work and not a refurbishing of the Human Torch but a different android completely. Meanwhile, Vision and Scarlet Witch’s children William and Thomas keep disappearing, but Scarlet Witch is under the impression that the twins’ governesses are incompetent and progresses to fire six governesses in the process.

            The Vision, now devoid of color and the emotions he had developed after years with the Avengers, decides to announce his new presence and goes on live television to reintroduce himself to the world. Meanwhile, Wonder Man, whose brain wave patterns were the Vision’s personality foundation, refuses to give Vision back his personality due to Wonder Man’s romantic feeling for the Scarlet Witch and feeling that now that Vision is out of the way he now stands a chance at winning Scarlet Witch’s heart.

            The team is forced to accept a new member, the U.S.Agent. Hawkeye, dismayed by the Vision’s dismantlement, Mockingbird’s betrayal, and U.S.Agent’s imposition, leaves the team. He then meets a new team calling themselves the Great Lakes Avengers and takes to them, offering training, advice and expertise, becoming the team’s leader.

            Scarlet Witch is then lured into a trap by a group of mad scientists, who experiment and corrupt her. Captain America and She-Hulk from the East Coast Avengers arrive and must rescue Scarlet Witch and avoid being put through the same corrupting process.

            Ann Raymond, widow of Thomas “Toro” Raymond, the partner of the original Human Torch arrives at the Compound, which leads the W.A.C. to recovering the Human Torch’s body and resuscitating the Human Torch.

            Iron Man arrives in time for an attack on the W.A.C. by Master Pandemonium, where Agatha Harkness, Scarlet Witch’s magic teacher, arrives to send the W.A.C. to Pandemonium’s dimension to attempt to rescue Thomas and William from Pandemonium.

            The Deviant Ghaur then kidnaps seven women to be the brides of the banished God Set to restore Set to the world.

            Wasp and She-Hulk then rate the hunkiness of all the male Avengers and allies.

            U.S.Agent goes on a secret mission.

            Firebird assists a party of Atlanteans who get stranded in the desert.

            The Squadron Supreme go on a quest to keep Set from attaining the Serpent Crown.

            Okay, so we have the synopses analyzed, now it’s my turn for critiquing. Yes, a lot happens in this book, which, to me, was actually a bad thing. First off, “The Evolutionary War” was taken completely out of context. This was a crossover event contained in the 1988 Marvel Annuals of every major series at a time, but only the West Coast Avengers Annual was featured in this book. This was Part Nine and not the last Part in the storyline, so honestly, this issue gave little information to me as a reader, and led be to thoroughly dislike this issue. The same applies to the 1989 Avengers West Coast Annual, Part Twelve in the “Atlantis Attacks” storyline crossing over through every 1989 Marvel series’ Annuals. Because of this, they felt like a waste of space to me, but the Marvel Epic Collections contain all issues from their respective time periods, this book’s issues ranging from 1988-1989, so the inclusion was “needed” but the execution failed. Also, the micro-storylines fell flat to me. I just didn’t really enjoy them, particularly the “Great Lakes Avengers.” First off, what gives them the right to call themselves “Avengers?” This was, of course, brought up in the book, and the story was called “Franchise” but honestly, this team just did not appeal to me. They were all unknowns, characters created specifically for this storyline, and this team did not meet the conditions of what I’d call a team of “Avengers.” And Hawkeye’s defection from a team he created and Mockingbird’s betrayal as team co-founder just didn’t make sense to me. And U.S.Agent is a character who I have never come to enjoy. Walker had at one point been Captain America, so I can’t quite call him a knockoff, but he seemed to me like a cheap substitute. As far as Tigra transmogrifying into more cat than woman, that was disgusting, her lurking in the pantry, waiting for small rodents as her meals. And let’s talk about the elephant in the room here. We have Scarlet Witch, a mutant (well that’s what was believed at the time, a few years back they did a retcon revealing she was a human enhanced by the High Evolutionary, but that wasn’t written in 1988, so we just have to say she’s a mutant), and Vision, a synthezoid, who have children? If that’s what you’re wondering, then honestly, read the book, I’ve given too much of a spoiler as is, but that is explained in this book. Now this was a GRAPHIC novel, and a graphic novel must be appreciated in two ways: story and artwork. While I didn’t fancy the story, I must say, I thought the artwork was amazing. Now, you Millennials might not appreciate art from the time, you want the computer generated art and not the hand-drawn stuff. So you may think along the lines of “I thought it was amazing art for the time.” Last week I did a review of another graphic novel from the eighties, and I talked about this as well. Comic books have specific qualities of artwork for the time periods they’re released in, the realism, the proportions, the colors. Now, some of that post may have to be taken back this week later, but I appreciate art for its time period. Eighties art had quality that today’s art doesn’t, back when a comic book actually looked comic book-y. Artists these days sometimes make art that doesn’t fit the original concept of graphic storytelling. But the style in the late eighties looked like a comic book. The colors in this book are so vivid and bright, and I just loved the quality of the art. I’d mention the artists, but this has been long enough already. But I don’t think this was “amazing artwork for the time,” I just think it was amazing art period. So for me, I preferred the “graphic” to the “novel.”

I’ve dilly-dallied too much, so let’s just move on to my recommendation. If you only know Wanda and Vision from the MCU and have never touched a Marvel comic book before, I honestly don’t recommend this book to you, the differences just do not match up with “WandaVision” and you probably wouldn’t like it. I’ve been reading Marvel Comics regularly for over twenty years, and I didn’t particularly like this book, but don’t go by me, this whole post is my opinion and I welcome (even encourage) you to have a different opinion, and I would love to hear from you, leave me a comment if you’ve read this book either as from this book or if you read Avengers West Coast comics in the late 1980s, that would be THE BEST (in my year-and-a-half of doing this blog, no one has commented, so you can be the first, wouldn’t that be cool?)! If you liked Avengers at this time, however, I’d recommend this book to you. It did have many twists and turns, I’ll give it that, and I was surprised many times over the course of the book. But if you weren’t big on comics from the 1980s (either actually living in the time or just collect classic comic books here-and-there), I’d honestly deter you from reading this book. And if you’re only interested in modern comic book artwork and can’t appreciate art from before you were born (cough-Generation Z-cough), then this book probably won’t appeal to you. I will tell you that if you are a comic book fan of Vision and Scarlet Witch, you should check this out. I thought the emotional impact is amazing, especially the ending, but I just didn’t fully like the execution of the rest of the story. And if you are a fan of the Great Lakes Avengers (I’m not, but hey, you might be, I’m not going to judge you on that), this is their first appearance, so if you haven’t read their origin before, you might benefit from reading this book, and would probably like that story arc, so I’d recommend that to you. And if you are a fan of “West Coast Avengers/Avenger West Coast” from any point and haven’t read this story yet, check it out.

Okay, I know, you’re getting bored of me, so I’m cutting to the chase here. I always give a numeric score in my reviews on a scale of one to ten. One means I regret reading this, ten means I’m going to read it again soon. My regulars know I’m very hard to please, so a high score from me might tell you that maybe you should read this book. I’d love nothing more than to tell you I give this a high score… but unfortunately, I can’t this time, I’m so sorry to tell you this. But, despite all of my negativity and criticism, I didn’t think it was a bad book, per se, but it just felt average to me, so I have to score it as a six.

Okay, enough dillydally, shillyshally you want to go back to your cat pictures, so I’m wrapping it up here. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say a few more things. First off, this blog has been mostly book reviews for the last several months, but I promise you, I have more content planned, a few B’ings here, a few poems there, mix in an editorial, maybe an essay, we’ll see where time goes. I post very frequently, so you won’t have to wait too long for more posts, and it’s Tuesday May 3, 2022 right now, so on Friday I’m doing another post, so be sure to check it out when it’s done, or hey, maybe instead of the cats, you can read some more posts by me, that’s be great, you’d be THE BEST! So I’ll say goodbye for now, please come back, and til next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" by J.K. Rowling

            The following is a review of the NOVEL “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by J.K. Rowling and NOT a review of the MOVIE of the same title.

            Harry Potter is just your average, normal, everyday fifteen-year-old boy… well, except that he’s a wizard. He attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and is getting ready to enter his fifth year after the end of holiday. His two best friends at Hogwarts are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. His greatest rival at Hogwarts is Draco Malfoy, who is always flanked by his cronies Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. He is in Gryffindor house, as well as with Ron and Hermione.

            As a baby, he was targeted by the most notorious dark wizard of all time, the evil Lord Voldemort, who attempted to murder Harry to prevent a prophecy for coming true. Harry was able to somehow mysteriously survive Voldemort’s attack, and the spell meant to kill Harry rebounded and hit Voldemort, and he was reduced to next to nothing. Harry was a legend in the magical community as “the boy who lived,” and Voldemort’s name was feared to be spoken. The failed curse left a lightning bolt scar on Harry’s forehead.

Harry was sent to live with his awful Aunt Petunia Dursley, her husband Uncle Vernon, and their son, Harry’s cousin Dudley. For years they tried to stamp out the magic from him and neglected to inform Harry that he is a wizard. When he was eleven years old, he was accepted into Hogwarts and has been a student there since.

At the end of his fourth year at Hogwarts, he witnessed Voldemort’s return to power. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Magic does not wish to accept this, and Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge has used the newspaper The Daily Prophet to smear Harry’s once well regarded name. Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore has believed Harry’s story and is now treated as unbalanced, insane, crazy, what-have-you and his once reputable reputation has been dragged through the mud along with Harry’s.

As Harry’s fifth year of Hogwarts approaches, he is at a park with his cousin Dudley when they are suddenly besieged by two dementors, the awful creatures who serve as the guards at the wizard prison Azkaban, who eliminate all happiness and can suck out souls by performing their “kiss.” Harry uses the Patronus charm to drive away the dementors. But underage wizards are not supposed to use magic outside of schools, especially in front of muggles (non-magical folks). Harry had already been reprimanded for magic being performed at number four Privet Drive (which had been performed by the house-elf Dobby and not Harry himself) and is told he is expelled from Hogwarts and must attend a disciplinary hearing in front of the Ministry of Magic. He manages to squeeze out of the expulsion, but still must attend the hearing.

Harry is punished by Uncle Vernon and is locked in his bedroom. Harry is sprung by wizards Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, Remus Lupin, Kingsley Shacklebolt and witch Nymphadora Tonks and brought to number twelve Grimmauld Place, the headquarter of the Order of the Phoenix, a group of adult wizards and witches who are an anti-Voldemort army. This also includes Ron’s parents Arthur and Molly Weasley and Harry’s outlaw godfather Sirius Black (accused of a crime he didn’t commit, falsely named one of Voldemort’s followers the Death Eaters, and an escapee from Azkaban). Hermione and Ron have been living there over holiday with Ron’s parents and Sirius, who is hidden away there, as well as the house-elf Kreacher, the servant of the Black family. Grimmauld Place is the Black family home, which rightfully belongs to Sirius.

Harry attends the hearing and is acquitted of all charges, but Dumbledore, who testifies in Harry’s favor, has been unusually distant towards Harry, a fact that quite upsets him. Harry is also upset when Ron and Hermione are appointed Gryffindor’s new Prefects, a power of authority at Hogwarts. Harry had been hoping to be Prefect and is miffed that Ron was picked instead of Harry.

Harry returns to Hogwarts and discovers that the Ministry of Magic is now interfering at Hogwarts and has appointed Ministry worker Delores Umbridge as new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and teaches the subject as theory rather than action. Harry, Ron and Hermione also must prepare for their Ordinary Wizarding Level (O.W.L.s) tests, something magical students must take to determine qualifications for their careers after graduating from school.

Umbridge takes every chance she can to put Harry in detention, which clashes with his completing his homework and his Quidditch practices (a wizarding sport played on broomsticks).

Hogwarts groundskeeper and Care of Magical Creatures professor has been mysteriously absent.

Umbridge has been gaining power at Hogwarts and is named Hogwarts High Inquisitor and passes rules that inhibit the activities of students, as well as able to pass judgement on other Hogwarts professors, placing Divinations professor Sybil Trelawney on probation.

Ron is appointed as keeper on Gryffindor’s Quidditch team, despite his nerves getting the better of him, and is picked on by the Slytherins (another house in Hogwarts) for his lack of proficiency and consistency.

Hagrid returns, having gone on a mission for the Order in a failed attempt to form an alliance with the giants before the Death Eaters, appears to continuously and mysteriously sustain injuries he refuses to inform anyone of how he got them.

Hermione suggests that Harry, who has proven himself proficient in magical abilities, be the secret teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts where students can actually perform magic. Many students accept that idea, and the group names themselves Dumbledore’s Army.

Harry has long had a crush on fellow Hogwarts student Cho Chang, who had been dating Cedric Diggory the previous year, is now willing to be Harry’s girlfriend since Cedric was killed by Voldemort’s followers.

Harry has been having dreams of wandering a dark corridor in a place he is unfamiliar with, and his scar (which has a mysterious connection with Voldemort) has been hurting worse than ever since Voldemort’s return to power. Harry has a dream of an assault on Arthur Weasley that turns out to be a vision as Arthur Weasley was indeed attacked by a snake, and brought to St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries right as Christmas holiday begins.

Dumbledore realizes Harry’s connection with Voldemort may be feeding Voldemort information about the Order and is forced to study Occlumecy with Professor Severus Snape, (who has had a grudge with Harry since Harry’s first day at Hogwarts due to Snape’s history with Harry’s parents) to block Voldemort from entering Harry’s thoughts.

After Harry, Fred, and George (Ron’s older twin brothers now in their seventh and final year at Hogwarts) fight with Malfoy, Umbridge invokes a lifetime ban from playing Quidditch and confiscates and locks up their brooms.

Upon finishing taking his O.W.L.s, Harry has a vision of Voldemort holding Sirius in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny Weasley (Ron’s younger sister, who had a crush on Harry at one point and now jumps from boyfriend after boyfriend quite frequently), and fellow students Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood travel to the Ministry of Magic to rescue Sirius, defeat the Death Eaters, and stop Voldemort from obtaining a prophecy that could spell the end of Harry Potter.

Personally, this was my favorite “Harry Potter” novel. It was also the longest of all the “Harry Potter” books, and a lot of important things happen in this book, which is why it is my favorite. I would love to tell you my reasons for loving this book, but honestly, I probably already given a lot of spoilers, and sharing my reasons why would just give too many more.

I know there are naysayers who will claim the “Harry Potter” is just for kids, and I respectfully disagree. If you open the book and look at the praise page with blurbs left by reviewers, Stephen King wrote a praise. Yes, Stephen King, the famous horror writer. He loved the “Harry Potter” books. And there is the inclusion of profanity and some of the descriptions are actually quite gruesome and even scary. I’d go into it, but this blog doesn’t allow me to post them, I’m sorry if you were hoping to read that from me, well, then read the books yourselves. And on a side-note, my Grandma started reading the “Harry Potter” books before she passed away (this book itself wasn’t published until after she passed) and she was in her eighties. When I was in college, I knew a staff member at a snack shop in her seventies who read the books. And the film adaptation of this book was rated PG-13. I’d honestly say that if a person likes fantasy novels, the “Harry Potter” books are good reads. And I also have to say that this book was actually a moderately difficult read (being eight-hundred-seventy pages and some chapters taking close to forty-five minutes to read) and takes quite a lot of commitment to get through. Also, people who only go for “Harry Potter” by watching the movies, they are missing a lot (and while this was the longest book, it was the shortest movie and so many good parts got cut out). I’ve also read these books at least ten times each, and I’m thirty-four years old, I never get tired of them, and each time I pick up more details, and if I really like a book series, I will read them several times, and that doesn’t happen very often because I’m hard to please, especially how many time I’ve read these books in particular. So obviously, you’d see I recommend the series. And the movies don’t do justice to the books, I’d rather read the books than watch the movies, but of course there are time constraints so that isn’t practical.

Well, I think I’ve said enough of all of that, so I’ll just jump into the most important part of any of my reviews: the numeric score. I score on a scale of one to ten. One being the worst, ten being the best. If you’ve read some of my previous reviews (you may notice the seriousness my reviews have become now and don’t try to joke around anymore), you may notice I say how I’m hard to please (I literally just said it in my past paragraph if you’ve failed to notice). So if I give a book a good score, then maybe you should think about reading it yourself, but I leave that up to you. I will say if you want to read this book, you must read the first four books first or you will totally not understand it (and don’t try to cheat out of it by only watching the first four movies and not reading the books, then decide to read this book without reading the first four books because there are threads that just do not connect). And I do feel these book are worth reading to any fantasy novel fan. But I digress, you just want my score. So I’ll simply just give it to you: TEN! This is one of my all-time favorite books and I never get tired of reading it.

Okay, well, I think I’ve kept you reading long enough. If you’re up to this point still, you are THE BEST! I hope you’ll continue checking out my work, I love doing this. I’ve written literally dozens of reviews (mostly Marvel, I’m sorry to say) and I occasionally post short stories, poems, essays, editorials, and a few other things, so I’m a little diverse in my material. You can expect two more reviews coming up this week (this is Monday, May 2, 2022) one tomorrow, one Friday, and maybe I’ll throw in a few things more for you in the next few weeks, so if you liked this review, keep looking for more. So I only have a few more words: until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!