"Devil's Reign"

 

            The following is a review of the Marvel Comics Event “Devil’s Reign” as presented on Marvel Unlimited.

            When he was a teenager, Matthew Murdock saved a man from being hit by a truck. The truck was carrying a load of toxic chemicals. The chemicals hit Matt in the eyes and was blinded. However, Matt realized that his other four senses had been heightened. He also discovered that he had a 360 degree “radar sense,” akin to echolocation. Matt grew up to become a lawyer. While in college, Matt met a woman named Elektra Natchios, and the two fell in love. Elektra went on to become a deadly assassin. As an adult, Matt decided that he wanted to use his gifts to help other people and became the crime-fighting vigilante, Daredevil. Matt and Elektra shared an on-and-off romantic relationship. Later in his career as Daredevil, Daredevil was convicted for a serious crime he did not commit, but Matt found a loophole in the justice system that allowed Matt to serve his sentence as Daredevil. In his absence, Elektra took on the mantle of Daredevil and Matt’s rules of not causing fatal injuries to others. Matt/Daredevil was eventually released from jail under time served, but continued to have both himself and Elektra sharing the title of Daredevil.

            Wilson Fisk had a criminal empire that spanned dominance over the entire city of New York, as well as beyond the city. He was an infamous mobster called the Kingpin of Crime, yet always managed to beat the legal system. Kingpin and Daredevil became arch-nemeses and battled each other countless times in the following years. Somehow, Fisk was able to win a fair election and became the mayor of New York City. He later married the schizophrenic villain Mary Walker/Typhoid Mary. The couple retreated to the mayor’s mansion.

            Daredevil’s secret identity as Matt Murdock was once exposed to the general public. Through the help of the Purple Children, who are able to influence minds, Matt was able to erase the public’s knowledge and again reestablished his secret identity as Daredevil.

            Mayor Fisk was able to find a sealed file on Daredevil, which used to contain Daredevil’s secret identity, but was now a blank folder, causing Fisk to realize that at one point, he knew the true identity of Daredevil. Armed with this information, Fisk decided to stick it to Daredevil in the worst way possible: Fisk made a law that declared vigilantism in New York city was now illegal, and any superhero was now a criminal and would now be sent to prison in the Myrmidon, a prison made to contain arrested super-powered individuals. He used the mind control powers of Zebediah Killgrave/Purple Man to keep New York City in his thrall.

            Fisk’s first targets were the Fantastic Four, who lived in the Baxter Building. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic and Susan Storm-Richards/Invisible Woman were arrested and sent to the Myrmidon, but Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Ben Grimm/Thing were able to avoid capture. Several other superheroes, including Marc Spector/Moon Knight were arrested and sent to the Myrmidon as well.

            The heroes of New York City decided to make a bold move against Fisk: the election was upcoming, and Fisk was running unopposed, so they needed a candidate in the super community to unseat Fisk as the mayor of New York City. The heroes decided to have Luke Cage be Fisk’s opponent.

            Fisk was aware of the true identity of Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman and targeted her through her young son, Gerry.

            Elektra is targeted by Fisk and must contend with the villainous Kraven the Hunter.

            Fisk gave the Baxter Building to super villain Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus. Doc Ock decided to use Reed Richards’ laboratory for his own experiments, namely to create the Superior Four, an assortment of Otto’s variants from throughout the Multiverse, consisting of Otto Blaze/Ghost Rider, Otto Banner/Hulk, and Otto Howlett/Wolverine. However, their alliance was totally unsteady, and dominance of the quartet was up for grabs.

            Fisk decided that he had to have a hold on law enforcement and created a new team of Thunderbolts, consisting of former B- and C-list super villains, to tighten his grip of terror over New York City.

            James “Bucky” Barnes decided to take Fisk out of the picture by targeting Fisk’s mansion, but this mission ultimately ended in failure.

            The X-Men live in their Treehouse in Central Park. Despite the recognition of the mutants’ island home of Krakoa by some countries as a sovereign nation, they were unable to attain diplomatic immunity for their New York home and became targets of Fisk’s reign. He dredged up the past of the mutant Emma Frost in a supposed kidnapping and murder that supposedly occurred many years ago, but that was, in fact, false. The “victim” is very much alive and well and living in England.

            Another target of Fisk’s crackdown on New York’s vigilantes was Ben Reilly/Spider-Man. He was arrested but unable to be identified due to the beating Ben had taken to his face that obscured his features. Ben’s supporter at the Beyond Corporation, Marcus Momplaisir, was able to rescue Ben by placing himself as a decoy.

            Hunter’s Moon took on the duties as a Fist of Konshu, the Egyptian God of the Moon, who also shared his duties with Marc Spector/Moon Knight in Moon Knight’s mission.

            Matt Murdock’s twin brother Mike tried to hone in on Mayor Fisk by siding with Fisk’s son, Butch, while Fisk’s other son Richard also wanted payback against his corrupt father, but Mike soon had a target placed on his head by Wilson Fisk and his legion.

            In the Myrmidon, Marc Spector found himself undesirable to many of the prison’s other inmates. He ended up joining in on the prison’s fight club to ensure his survival.

            It now all comes down to Luke Cage, the election and the remaining heroes to try to stop Fisk and his reign of terror once and for all.

 

            Personally, I enjoyed the stories that comprise the event. I found them to be highly interesting, entertaining, and exciting. I was gripped into the event right from the start. BUT! This DID NOT feel new to me from Marvel. I done several reviews of different formats of Marvel’s “Civil War” events, and there were similarities. In “Civil War,” the Superhuman Registration Act was passed, requiring anyone who wanted to use their super powers in public had to register their identities with the government and join as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they’re exactly the same thing. At least in “Civil War,” the super heroes had a choice. In “Devil’s Reign,” the heroes had no choice. And I have to say, Fisk’s first move against the Fantastic Four was rather harsh, walking into the Baxter Building and placing Reed and Sue in cuffs hours after the law was enacted, perhaps even too harsh. Nothing was said, they were just arrested. That seems highly wrong to me. And the Thunderbolts were pure hypocrisy. Heroes get nabbed, but his enforcement team being all former or current super villains is just fine and dandy? This really ruined the suspension of disbelief. And the desperation of Fisk creating this law just because he got ticked off seems to be too much. And also, it would take months of litigation, even after the election, before the anti-super human act could become law, but in this story it was just signed into law by the end of the first issue. Highly unrealistic. Now, like I said, I enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but the realism was just not there. Also, this event seems to have no true ramifications on other Marvel characters and series. There were several other major story arcs occurring at the time that don’t seem to have had any impact created by “Devil’s Reign.” This was released during “Beyond,” “The Death of Doctor Strange,” and “The Reckoning War” and I saw absolutely no correlation there. There might be a few outcomes of “Devil’s Reign” that will stick, but as a regular devoted reader, I haven’t seen any yet.

            Now, you might want to know if I’ll refer this to you? I give a resounding “YES!” But I don’t think this story is for non-readers looking to start reading Marvel comics for the first time with no prior knowledge to anything Marvel. If you’ve never read Marvel before but have knowledge of the characters from movies and shows, you might enjoy this. For non-readers who have watched the Marvel Netflix series (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher), this might be a good start for you as this story heavily features the characters from the shows. If you’re an on again/off again Marvel reader, I think this might be enjoyable for you. If you’re currently Marvel reader by collecting stories in paperback, this is something I feel you should check out. I give this a high recommendation, but I think you need to have some background knowledge and expect that there are a lot of unrealistic parts of this event.

            Okay, let’s move on to the moment you’ve been waiting for: my numeric score. In every one of my literally dozens of reviews, I give a numeric score of a scale of one-to-ten, one being the worst, ten being the best. So let’s take it all into consideration. Now, also take into account that this focused on many different characters in many different titles and had many different artists that I honestly can’t credit all those who worked on this event into said consideration. I will say that as this is a “graphic novel,” the artwork is also important. I enjoyed most of the artwork, but this was still a reason to have my score knocked down. So, again, everything into account, I score this at… SEVEN! I think that this was a very good effort by the writers and artists, but if the realism was fixed a little better I’d have given this a higher score.

            So, before you go back to whatever you were doing before you read this post (and if you’re still reading at this point, you are THE BEST!), I have a few more things to say. First is that this blog has a lot of content on it, not just all reviews of Marvel books and events (which, I hate to say, is what most of this blog is). I feature other content, such as short stories (fiction and nonfiction), poetry, essays, editorials, and articles. I am a certified journalist who can’t find a true job because I’m disabled, and I want to get my words out there somehow, so this unpaid job is what I do. Also, I post rather frequently, maybe once every week or two. I have a series of pointless complaints called B’ings if you’re interested in reading more of my work. I’m also an aspiring author looking to one day get published and a volunteer group leader with the Mental Health Association in Putnam County, so I am a rather busy little bee and don’t always have the time to do this blog, so you’ll have to forgive me for that. Finally, I’ll say that I hope you come back for more and if you want you can keep reading more of what I’ve already posted and until then, Tim Cubbin… out!

“The Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet” by Ron Marz & Susan Kennedy with Len Wein, John Figueroa & Gavin Curtis

            The following is a review of “The Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet” graphic novel by Ron Marz & Susan Kennedy with Len Wein, John Figueroa & Gavin Curtis as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format. This is not a review of “The Infinity Gauntlet” limited series.

            Galactus is a creature of cosmic destruction that sustains himself by devouring the life essences of entire planets. Norrin Radd was a man on the peaceful planet of Zenn-La. Galactus discovered Zenn-La and prepared to consume the planet. Norrin wished to save his planet and made a deal with Galactus: if Galactus were to spare Zenn-La, Norrin would now become Galactus’ herald, to search through the spaceways for planets that may sustain Galactus. Galactus accepted this deal, spared Zenn-La, and granted Norrin the Power Cosmic, and a surfboard that obeyed Norrin’s every command. Norrin was reborn as the Silver Surfer.

            The Silver Surfer eventually discovered the planet Earth, and summoned Galactus. However, as the Silver Surfer awaited Galactus’ arrival, he met humans, and learned the value of life. The super hero team, the Fantastic Four learned of a doomsday device called the Ultimate Nullifier that would defeat Galactus. Galactus admitted defeat and agreed to spare Earth, but felt betrayed by the Silver Surfer, so Galactus placed a barrier around Earth that prevented the Silver Surfer from leaving Earth’s atmosphere. Galactus moved on and took on a new herald named Nova, an Earth woman who served Galactus due to her unrequited love for Galactus. The Silver Surfer was eventually able to leave Earth’s atmosphere and now searches the spaceways for adventure, to help those in need, and to eventually eliminate the threat of Galactus for the universe.

            The Silver Surfer was pulled into a time warp, placing him on a peaceful planet in the 26^th century. The leader of the planet, a long-lived man named Marshach used his power to eliminate war, violence, and weapons. Unfortunately, this peace was destroyed when the Guardians of the Galaxy arrived and a conflict broke out, eventually bringing Marshach to accept mortality.

            The Eternal named Eros has a power that attracts almost every woman. He has never actually fallen in love before, until a captivating woman walks into an intergalactic bar. However, this woman is able to resist Eros’ charms.

            The Midnight Sun was experimented on and was mind-wiped with the mission to destroy the Silver Surfer. He escaped his captors and went off through the spaceways to establish a life of his own.

            Nova and the Silver Surfer have had an unspoken romance that they can never actually understand or act upon, being literally from two different worlds and from being in the service of Galactus. The Silver Surfer has been unsuccessfully trying to convince Nova to leave Galactus, and the Silver Surfer now takes Nova into the past to her Earth. Upon next planet she discovers, Nova sees the potential of the life on this planet, but she is still unable to prevent Galactus from consuming the planet.

            Thanos is an Eternal from Titan, a moon of the planet Saturn. He wishes to take over the universe, hoping to impress the Mistress Death. Thanos had learned of the Infinity Gems and set out on a quest to obtain them to create death on a massive scale. Thanos obtains all six Infinity Gems and attached them to his device, the Infinity Gauntlet. With a snap of his fingers, half of all the inhabitants of the universe instantly dies. The Silver Surfer was unable to prevent this. The Silver Surfer is able to contact Doctor Stephen Strange on Earth and brings Firelord and Drax the Destroyer into a team with the intent to bring down Thanos.

            The alien Kree Empire have been in an upheaval and are now lead by the Emperor Clumsy Foulup. The Kree Armada wish to eliminate their Emperor and try to trick the Silver Surfer into doing the job.

            Proceeding Thanos’ snap, the Earth super villain the Rhino has now mentally spiraled out of control and has decided that all animals should be free and begins to let loose all the animals living in the Central Park Zoo. The Silver Surfer attempts to convince Rhino to return the animals to safety, resulting in a conflict between the Silver Surfer and the Rhino.

            The demon named Mephisto has formed an alliance with Thanos. With Mephisto’s help, Thanos now creates a dream world where all of the universe’s remaining super heroes and super villains who would oppose him have been eliminated. The Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock are pulled into this reality and the Silver Surfer battles Thanos and destroys the dream.

            The Silver Surfer is sent into the pocket dimension ruled by Virtual Reality that forces the Silver Surfer to face the doubts, shames, and regrets the Silver Surfer has experienced over the course of his life and triumphs with the memories of friendship and love.

            Upon complete victory over all of the remaining super heroes and super villains, Thanos leaves his physical body and becomes the universe’s Supreme Being. Thanos’ granddaughter Nebula discovers Thanos’ body and snatches the Infinity Gauntlet, stealing all of Thanos’ power. The Silver Surfer, Doctor Stephen Strange, Adam Warlock, Thor, Drax the Destroyer, Firelord, Doctor Victor Von Doom, and Bruce Banner/the Hulk unite and realize that if they hope to defeat Nebula, they need the assistance of Thanos. The Silver Surfer needs further convincing, so Doctor Strange sends the Silver Surfer and Thanos to the astral plane to settle their conflict.

            The Midnight Sun finally encounters the Silver Surfer, but their battle is ended upon the arrival of the Inhumans (Black Bolt, Karnak, Gorgon and Lockjaw).

            Taneleer Tivian/the Collector learns of a rare space virus, which intrigues him and wishes to obtain a specimen. Having faked his death, he sends the Silver Surfer in his stead. However, the Silver Surfer is not the only one seeking the virus. The Collection Agency, a mercenary cadre, have been hired to obtain the virus. The two forces are eventually able to put aside their differences, but the Silver Surfer has now been infected by the virus himself.

            In his sickness, the Silver Surfer unites with the deceased Kree soldier Mar-Vell/Captain Marvel in a fever dream.

            Following this, the Silver Surfer finds himself battling his dark side and his good self and bad self must unite if the Silver Surfer is to survive.

            After the virus debacle is finished, the Silver Surfer battles the space monster Reptyl, unintentionally drawing the attraction of Princess Alaisa Ruantha Pethnan of the Second Royal House of the Kharta’een Empire, a woman used to getting her way. Because of his near-immortality and her mortality, the Silver Surfer tries to send her away to prevent him from heartbreak, something Alaisa will not stand for. She turns to Mistress Love to gain immortality and becomes Mistress Love’s Avatar. Mistress Love warns Alaisa of the other side of love. The new Avatar, however, is corrupted by Master Hate. Alaisa is still spurned by the Silver Surfer, but Alaisa still refuses to give up on her quest for Silver Surfer’s love.

            While on his travels, the Silver Surfer hears a mysterious moaning, and upon investigation, he learns that it is from an injured sentient spaceship, who asks the Silver Surfer to do a difficult task for the Silver Surfer to complete.

            When the Silver Surfer is targeted by an assault force, he accidentally enters a hyperwave, sending him on a massive collision course with Earth, and Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic must act fast to save both the Silver Surfer and Earth.

            Nova spares the lives of the Kehilla before their planet is destroyed by Galactus and promises to give them a new planet to live on. However, the Kehilla fleet’s leader Kastyx is not receptive of this, and Nova is caught in a conflict between Kastyx and his wife Kasema for the future of the Kehilla race.

 

            Let me start by saying that the Silver Surfer is not a character I am very familiar with, and I’ve actually never read “The Infinity Gauntlet.” When I bought this graphic novel, I was expecting to have it contain “The Infinity Gauntlet” limited series. After purchasing the graphic novel, I noticed that this book actually did not contain any issues of “The Infinity Gauntlet” limited series. This made me a little wary as I started to read the book. The first issue in the book was an Annual issue that was Part 3 of “The Korvac Quest.” I’ve had experiences with Annuals in Epic Collections, which, oddly enough, usually does not require reading other Parts in the “story arc.” They don’t really completely crossover, so this didn’t deter me, especially since a recap was offered on the first page after the Table of Contents and a summary follow-up explaining how the story ended. That said, the story of “The Korvac Quest” contained in this graphic novel featured the Guardians of the Galaxy, but these were the Guardians of the Galaxy from the 31^st century, a team I am very much not familiar with. This is not the team from the Marvel Cinematic Universe films and shows, and I only know the current Guardians of the Galaxy team, which was rather disappointing. Then, “The Infinity Gauntlet” issues were issues of “The Silver Surfer” that tied-in with “The Infinity Gauntlet” limited series actually had fill-ins periodically that guides the reader through the main “The Infinity Gauntlet” limited series without actually reading the limited series. This made the graphic novel a lot more comfortable to me. As I continued through the whole book (which took me three days to read, but only because I had other commitments, so I probably could have finished it in two), I found myself rather enjoying it. I will say that I found no dull moments, the book kept my interest, I never felt bored, and reading it never felt like a chore, all things that can happen in any form of media, so that meant I found it to be a relative good read. Yes, there were points where I could have used more background information, but that wasn’t too much of a hindrance to me since enough way explained. Nebula never actually appeared in the entire book, but I could forgive that. Also, the Nova storyline at the end of the book felt superfluous as the Silver Surfer never actually appeared and I don’t know why the editors felt it fit in in the book, but I still thought the story was relatively interesting, so that was also forgivable. Now, anyone who knows what a “graphic novel” means knows that a graphic novel is a narrative storyline with supporting artwork. Which means that artwork can be tricky to pair with a narrative. You could have what you felt like a stellar story, but if the artwork is not to your liking, it ruins the book for you. And there are also times there is what you feel is amazing art, but you still can’t accept it because you hated the story, so it seems like a total waste. You, at this point, can obviously tell that most of the book was to my liking. My gripes actually did not hamper too much on my numeric score, which we will get to in a couple of paragraphs, so hold your horses (does anyone say that anymore or am I just old?). Now, many of my prior readers know how I feel about comic book art. The period when the book is written tend to have relatively standardized art styles. The issues contained in this Epic Collection range from the years 1991-1992. Some of my prior readers know how I feel about art from that time. If not, I feel like it’s typically a good style. It’s from the point before we had computers to touch up the artwork, but I feel like it still was relatively high quality. Now, I can say that I felt like it was good artwork, or I felt like it was good artwork for the time, which is a major distinction. Ultimately, I feel like it was just plain good artwork. I still feel like it holds up to today’s standards. I never felt like I was looking at low-quality work and I felt like it fit the story very well.

            I’m now going to tell you how I feel about accessibility of the book. I know that some of my readers have never read Marvel comic books before, but love the MCU films and are now considering reading comics and are looking for a place to start. I know some of you have no knowledge of Marvel at all and are only reading this because you’re a fan of my work or personally know me and are only reading this post out of what you feel is obligation. I also know some of you are longtime Marvel comics readers but have never read this story before and are interested in hearing about something you now want to read. Or, I know some of you have already read everything contained in this book and are just interested in reading my opinions. Like I said before, this book is not “The Infinity Gauntlet” and that is a major deterrent to anyone who is unfamiliar with Marvel or “The Infinity Gauntlet.” This is absolutely NOT a good place to start for new readers. Some of my prior readers know I use the phrase “self-contained.” This means that everything inside the book is completely cohesive and doesn’t rely on outside stories aside from what’s actually in this book. If you’ve actually really been reading this and actually paid any form of attention know that this is not “The Infinity Gauntlet.” And that I’ve never actually read “The Infinity Gauntlet.” And that there were points where I wish there was more information. So, I’m saying that if you’ve never read a Marvel comic before, this is a TERRIBLE place to start. I think the optimal reader should know “The Infinity Gauntlet” if they hope to fully grasp the book’s entire storyline. Now, I’m a longtime reader of Marvel comics, I’ve been reading for over twenty years (yes, I’m old), so the fact that I haven’t read “The Infinity Gauntlet” didn’t hinder me too much, but I can’t in good faith say you can do the same as me.

            Okay, I’ve been going on for quite awhile now, so we’re going to speed up the rest as much as possible. So now I’m giving you my numeric score. I score on a scale of one-(the worst)to-ten (the best). I have to take everything I’ve just typed into consideration to give it a fair score. This may surprise you, but I still give it an eight. I felt like it was a solid enough work, with both an enjoyable story and enjoyable art. So if you’re a Marvel fan but have never read the content in this book, I totally recommend this book to you, but if you’re not a longtime Marvel fan, I totally have to say this isn’t the droid you’re looking for.

            So, to finish up, this blog is all my opinions and my opinions only. I can’t expect you to agree with everything I say, and I actually like that you disagree with me. We’re all entitled to feel however you want about anything. So you’ll see that I don’t say “it was a good book,” I say “I felt like it was a good book.” This blog is primarily book reviews, mostly Marvel, having done literally dozens, but I also write short fiction and nonfiction, free-verse poetry, editorials and essays, and several other kinds of work, and I try to post at as frequent of a basis as I can (I do have a life outside this blog), usually a post or two a week, sometimes none, sometimes more, but I keep at this. I have plenty more content coming up for you to read, so if you liked this post, check out what I’ve already written and come back for more, and so, ‘til next time, Tim Cubbin… out!