"X-Force: Zero Tolerance” by John Francis Moore & Joseph Harris with Jay Faerber

 

            The following is a review of “X-Force: Zero Tolerance” graphic novel by John Francis Moore & Joseph Harris with Jay Faerber as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format.

            X-Force is a mutant strike team, organized by Nathan Summers/Cable, to fight for mutant rights in a world that hates and fears them. Recently, the United States government has instated Operation: Zero Tolerance to arrest mutants to be held in a detainment facility. It is headed by Bastion. The Sentinels are giant mutant hunting robots, but Bastion has become deceptive and created the Prime Sentinels, robots that either look like or are partially ordinary human beings, so effective that telling a human being or Prime Sentinel apart by looks alone is almost impossible. X-Force has now found themselves in the crosshairs of Operation: Zero Tolerance.

            Gloria Munoz/Risque finds herself on the run from the mutant Caliban, who is able to locate other mutants. Risque had been romantically involved in the past with X-Force member James Proudstar/Warpath, but the relationship ended after Risque’s betrayal to X-Force, and since Warpath’s romantic feeling for X-Force deputy leader Theresa Rourke/Siryn, who only thinks of Warpath as a best friend. Risque escapes, but X-Force is able to subdue Caliban and bring him to their base, the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, where Cable takes care of Caliban’s fractured, childlike psyche. Meanwhile, Risque has forced Warpath into working for the mutant Sledge, whose friend the teleporting mutant the Vanisher has been stuck between dimensions. X-Force associate Domino, who goes by many different aliases, has been taken in by the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistic Directorate (S.H.I.E.L.D.), where she finds out that former New Mutants member Danielle “Dani” Moonstar is actually an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

            Dani has infiltrated the Mutant Liberation Front (M.L.F.), a mutant terrorist organization founded by evil mutant Stryfe, a clone of Cable, believed to now be vanquished. Zero Tolerance has found the location of the M.L.F. and sent in a task force to apprehend the extremist mutants.

            In the past, Warpath and his now deceased older brother John Proudstar (the mutant who would go on the be called Thunderbird) along with fellow Apache Native American Michael Whitecloud had encountered twisted geneticist Doctor Edwin Martynec, who has purposely mutated himself into a monstrous being in his illegal genetics laboratory where he was attempting to create a race of warped super beings.

            Back in the present, X-Force is assaulted by Zero Tolerance commander Ekaterina Gryaznova, a Prime Sentinel with a grudge against Domino. X-Force members Tabitha Smith/Meltdown, Julio Richter/Rictor, and Shatterstar are all apprehended, and Zero Tolerance launches an assault upon the Xavier Institute, forcing Cable and Caliban to escape. Domino is apprehended as well, and Gryaznova placed in implant into Domino, which negates Domino’s probability powers and slows down her movements. Once all the members of X-Force are reunited, Cable sets up the members with false identities, but this causes a schism, and X-Force decides to cut their ties with Cable and hit the road on their own.

            Roberto DaCosta/Sunspot, finds his trust fund blocked and X-Force realize they are broke, and between stops they must stay at cheap, seedy motels. At one stop, X-Force rescue Richie Alegria, a young man from a rich family, who offers to hire X-Force to be his bodyguards. Dani, Sunspot, and Meltdown agree, but they discover Richie to be less than savory, and the team again leaves.

            Meanwhile, Siryn and Warpath hunt down Michael Whitecloud, who has information about the massacre of Warpath’s tribe. Also, Reignfire starts his evil machinations to torment Sunspot, who are believed to be the same entity, but Reignfire was actually an escaped lab experiment. On the trail of information, Siryn and Warpath have an encounter with Edwin Martynec, who is also searching for the same information that Warpath is. Martynec then sends Warpath to the underworld where he has an encounter with Stryfe. Dani, who has had a connection with the Valkyries, is able to lead the rest of X-Force to rescue Warpath.

            The team then travels to Texas during the Exploding Colossal Man Shindig and Hullaballoo, an eclectic yearly festival. Unbeknownst to X-Force, this is also during a convergence, which evil mutant Selene wishes to take advantage of the event to gain incredible, godlike powers. Warpath is able to intercept this, but accidentally gives powers to the Exploding Colossal Man effigy. At the festival, Sunspot and Meltdown start to feel a mutual attraction, but exploration to these feelings is interrupted by the arrival of Samuel Guthrie/Cannonball, former member of X-Force, current member of the X-Men, Sunspot’s best friend, and Meltdown’s current long-distance boyfriend.

            Villains Mojo and Arcade attempt to defeat Domino by setting up a trap, forcing her to enter into gladiatorial battles to save the life of Rictor.

            Cannonball accidentally discovers Meltdown and Sunspot kissing and leaves X-Force, which he was considering rejoining, but leaves after the betrayal of his best friend and girlfriend.

            X-Force stop at the town of Almost Reno, New Mexico and investigate a series of mysterious deaths.

            X-Force stops at the home of old friend, Sally Blevins/Skids, who wishes to stay out of the super hero gig and goes to college.

            Reignfire then takes Siryn, Dani, Sally, Meltdown, and Sunspot hostage in Las Vegas, but doesn’t take into account the absence of Warpath, who comes to his friends’ and teammates’ aid, forcing a major confrontation between X-Force and Reignfire. Sunspot, whose trust funds had been frozen due to the belief that Sunspot and Reignfire were the same person, gets his fortune back and purchases a warehouse in San Francisco to serve as X-Force’s new base, but first, the team takes a vacation to Hawaii, where the find themselves in conflict with Risque, Sledge, and Vanisher to prevent the species known as the Deviants from setting off every volcano in Hawaii and destroying the islands, teaming up with Hawaiian goddess Pele.

            Upon returning to their base, they find that a mutant named Jesse Aaronson has found his way in. Jesse is looking for his missing brother. Jesse had been aiding Domino to get her revenge on Gryaznova in exchange for her aid in finding his brother. Gryaznova now goes by the name Gryphon. X-Force reluctantly agree to accept Jesse as a probationary member of the team.

            Cannonball returns to his hometown of Cumberland, Kentucky to visit his family, reconsidering his membership in the X-Men and ends up aiding Deviants to escape from the Sword. Arcadia, a Deviant, accidentally teleports X-Force into the heat of the battle, and after the successful rescue mission, Cannonball asks to rejoin X-Force.

 

            If you’ve never read a review of mine, I will inform you that this was a synopsis of a Marvel Epic Collection, a graphic novel which contains a rather large amount of content. As you can tell by my more than 1,000 words that a lot happened in this book.

            I have to say that I really enjoyed this graphic novel. I’d never really read much of the original run of X-Force, so I thought upon purchase that I may have some difficulties reading something I know nothing about, especially since this book was only one side of a comic event called “Operation: Zero Tolerance” which I have never read before, but I picked up on the story right from the beginning. I will say, don’t confuse this graphic novel with the graphic novel “Operation: Zero Tolerance” because the content of that graphic novel has very little connection with this graphic novel I am reviewing, pretty much aside from the title. Also, the entire graphic novel was not reserved to “Operation: Zero Tolerance,” there was a lot of other content as well, as you could probably tell if you’re still actually reading this (and if you’re still here and plan to keep reading this, you are THE BEST!). It’s somewhat rare for me to enjoy every story in an Epic Collection, but I will say I enjoyed pretty much the entire graphic novel’s stories. And, of course, this is a GRAPHIC novel, which means that the stories are accompanied with art. I’ve talked about that with almost every Epic Collection I’ve reviewed. I always think of a graphic novel as half-and-half: half of the book is the story, half is the art. You could have a graphic novel with the most amazing story you’ve ever read, but the artwork was a complete eyesore, or one with a horrendous story, but the artwork just makes up for it slightly. I found the artwork in this graphic novel to be amazing. I’ve said before that comic book art has standards depending on the time period of the penciling. I’ve also said I love comic book art from the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s, and the content of this book were published between 1997-1998, which was basically why I picked this Epic Collection to purchase. Let me tell you, this book did not disappoint with the artwork. I’ve also said that because of comic book art changing over the years that it is good artwork for the time or just good art. I have to say in my opinion that the artwork in this graphic novel still holds true today. I feel that this was just good art, period. My eyes were very pleased to look at the artwork in this graphic novel. So, I loved the stories, I loved the art, I just loved the graphic novel, one of my better purchases, I have to say. Some of my reviews have talked about how dismal I found the graphic novel to be, whether story, art, or both. Nothing in this book disappointed me.

            I will say that if you are considering reading this book, I feel like you should have some background knowledge about the characters before you read this, whether you’ve read Marvel X-Teams graphic novels either before this was published or from more recent years, but otherwise, I feel that this is easy enough to pick up with little knowledge. To me, the book felt pretty much self-contained and doesn’t require you to have read the entire series before this, but I still feel you might need a little background knowledge if you’re considering reading this book based on just this review, this might not be the perfect jump-in point or to start reading this even if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before, but I still think first timers should be able to pick it up easily enough.

            Next up is, in my opinion, the most important part of the review, but feel free to disagree with that statement: my numeric score. It’s simple enough to explain. It’s based on a scale of one to ten, one being the worst score, ten being the best score. In this case, I have to take everything about this graphic novel into consideration, the story and the art. Now, you can expect a great score based on how I ranted and raved for so long. BUT! I just can’t quite call this perfect. Sadly, I have to give this a nine. There’s just something, I don’t know what, but there’s something preventing me from giving this graphic novel a ten. I felt this was a great graphic novel, but it’s just not perfect. There must have been a little flaw in one of the stories, I can’t quite place its exact location.

            Anyway, you probably want to know if I recommend reading this graphic novel? Now, if you’ve read this entire review and are now curious about if you should read this or not, then just read it. I wasn’t disappointed, and if you read the actual graphic novel, I have a hunch that you’ll probably like it. I hope that I didn’t give too many spoilers in this review, there’s possibly a chance of it, but I hope I didn’t ruin too many surprises, I tried to be as vague as I could. Still, if you liked this review and are interested in reading this graphic novel, I say go for it.

            Now, before I let you go after 2,000 words, I will tell you that this blog has dozens of reviews, mostly Marvel prose novels, Marvel comic events, and Marvel Epic Collections, but you might find some other things here and there. I am an unsuccessful journalist, so I do this blog to feel like I’m doing something in the field I have a bachelors’ degree in, and I do this for free, so I hope you appreciate it, but I also write editorials, essays, short fiction, short nonfiction and poetry on this blog as well, so please feel free to keep browsing, I’ve done over 100 posts, you might find something else you like. Please feel free to like, comment, or share this or whatever you do on these websites, and I leave you with the words: Tim Cubbin… out!

"X-Men: Mutant Genesis"

 

            The following is a review for the graphic novel “X-Men: Mutant Genesis” by Fabian Nicieza, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio Chris Claremont, & Peter David with Len Kaminski, as collected in Marvel Epic Collection format.

            The X-Men are a team of mutants, those born with a genetic anomaly that grants them powers beyond those of ordinary humans. They were gathered by telepath Professor Charles Xavier, who dreams of peaceful coexistence between mutants and baseline humans. The X-Men pledge to try to make this dream a reality. The roster has changed many times over the years. The original X-Men reunited many years after leaving the X-Men to create X-Factor. Professor Xavier founded the New Mutants after the presumed deaths of the X-Men, but the New Mutants left Charles Xavier’s tutelage to study under the mutant Cable to become X-Force.

In Kuwait City, Freedom Force (formerly the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, now government agents) is assigned to transfer German physicist Reinhold Kurtzmann from a resistance safe house to allied forces and not allow the Iraqis to get him. This transfer is interrupted by a super powered Iraqi team calling themselves Desert Sword.

            The terrorist organization Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) schemed to recreate Proteus, a powerful reality warping mutant who the X-Men vanquished several years past. To that end, A.I.M. hired mutant mercenaries Harness and Piecemeal. Superhero team the New Warriors and X-Force traveled to Muir Island, home of the original Proteus’ mother, geneticist Doctor Moira MacTaggert to warn her of the plan, but Moira had been possessed by the psychic mutant entity, the Shadow King. Moira has her assistants Multiple Man, Siryn, Legion and Polaris intercept the two arriving teams. A skirmish ensues, and all parties fail to prevent Piecemeal from merging with Kevin MacTaggert’s essence and resurrecting Proteus. The New Warriors and X-Force are able to contact X-Factor to help defeat Proteus once and for all. Meanwhile evil mutants Toad and Gideon literally play a game of chess, plotting against the mutant heroes in the X-Men, X-Factor and X-Force.

            X-Factor’s greatest nemesis, evil mutant En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse resurfaces and uses X-Factor’s sentient headquarters, Ship, in an all-out assault upon Manhattan. X-Factor teams up with fellow super hero teams the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. X-Factor arrives on the moon and teams up with the Inhumans, a race of super beings created long ago by the alien race, the Kree. Apocalypse abducts X-Factor leader Scott Summers/Cyclops’ infant son Nathan Christopher and infects him with a techno-organic virus that the present has no cure for, and Cyclops made the difficult decision of sending Nathan with the mysterious mutant the Askani, Nathan’s only hope for survival, with the possibility Cyclops may never see his son again.

            Meanwhile, the Shadow King has invaded Muir Island, enslaving the X-Men to lure Charles Xavier, who cost the Shadow King his corporeal body many years past to enact his revenge. Xavier contacts X-Factor to help defeat the Shadow King and free the X-Men from the Shadow King’s control.

            Following this battle, the mutants of X-Factor decide to rejoin the X-Men at their mansion headquarters Professor Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in Salem Center, New York. However, this grouping is considered too big and the X-Men divide into the Blue Team and the Gold Team. They X-Men are contacted by the global peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D. to inform them that their old enemy Magneto has established a haven for mutants called Asteroid M, hovering in orbit by Magneto’s magnetic powers over Russia during the height of the Cold War, kidnapping several human astronauts and risking the threat of nuclear retaliation. A new group of mutants the Acolytes pledge themselves to Magneto’s cause of mutant supremacy. Upon hearing of the nuclear threat, Magneto returns to earth in an attempt to disarm the planet of their nuclear weaponry, but the X-Men Blue engage Magneto. After his defeat, Magneto retreats to Asteroid M and to the supposed care of Fabian Cortez, who is actually planning to eliminate Magneto and usurp control of the Acolytes and the mutant supremacy cause. During his attempted recuperation, Magneto discovers an anomaly in his system. Several years past, Magneto had been reduced to infancy. During this time, Moira MacTaggert had been entrusted with the care of the baby Magneto. Moira attempted to prevent Magneto from being corrupted by his power by genetically tampering with his genetics. Magneto and the Acolytes again returned to earth, where the X-Men Blue Team was abducted. Magneto also abducted Xavier and Moira, and brought them all to Asteroid M. He then used the powers of the Acolytes to subvert the X-Men Blue Team to his cause. Meanwhile, the powers that be upon earth all globally agree to enact the Magneto Protocols and obliterate Asteroid M. The X-Men Gold Team then must mount a rescue effort to save the X-Men Blue Team and evacuate Asteroid M.

 

            I figured this Epic Collection would be a huge joy for me, it has been on my radar for several years. Unfortunately, I was relatively disappointed. When I first started collecting Marvel Comic Books, I went to a comic book store and bought the first three issues of X-Men (1991) from a three for a dollar bin, which were contained in this graphic novel, but I never read the issues leading up to the X-Men (1991) premier, which is why I picked to purchase this book. The first three issues of X-Men (1991) were arranged at the conclusion of this graphic novel. Now, I love those three issues, I’ve read them literally dozens of times I kid you not, so I figured that this would be a great book. And that is where my complaints begin. During the late 1980s and early 1990’s, Marvel published their Annuals as crossover events (if you’ve read my posts before, you might recall this). The problem is, the Epic Collections only feature the Annuals for the titular characters. This Epic Collection again followed suit. The main crossover was “Kings of Pain.” This Epic Collection featured an excerpt from New Mutants Annual #7, but not the “Kings of Pain” story, which I felt made no sense. This Epic Collection contained the entirety of X-Men Annual #15 and the “Kings of Pain” story from X-Factor Annual #6, but it still felt very out of context, leaving out two parts of the story from other Annuals from that year (every issue in this book were originally published in 1991). I will give credit that this contained Annuals aside from X-Men, but it still didn’t give the whole story, which was highly disappointing. I will also say that I figured this would be mostly Uncanny X-Men, which is the series that X-Men Epic Collections mainly follow. The majority series in this Epic Collection, however, was X-Factor. Also, X-Men Annual #15 really didn’t feel like X-Men story as there was literally no appearance of the X-Men, aside from a revisited origin and a Wolverine short story that I found to be rather flat. Otherwise, X-Men Annual #15 belonged to X-Force and the New Warriors. The original New Warriors are one of my Marvel weak points, I really have not read much of their run. Another thing that bothered me was the appearance of both Cable and Nathan Christopher Summers in the same point in time since (spoiler alert) Cable is Nathan returned from the future. That just seemed weird to me, but Marvel time travel has very different rules when compared to time travel in other written and visual works. He was both an infant boy and an older man at the same time. Like I said, weird. I will say I found the X-Factor “Endgame” storyline to be enjoyable and a good Apocalypse storyline. Yes, there have been good and poorly written Apocalypse stories (don’t get me started on the “X-Men: Apocalypse” film, ugh) and I felt that this one was pretty good, especially the heartbreaking sacrifice of Nathan Christopher at the end. I thought that was a great ending. The “Muir Island” saga, however, felt mediocre to me. The saving grace for me though, was X-Men #1-3, which I’ve already talked about, so we can move on from there. This graphic novel just didn’t live up to my expectations. And X-Men #3 was supposed to be Chris Claremont’s final issue, but his retirement didn’t last, which was a relief for me because he has been my favorite X-Men writer and I think his work is brilliant. And now, let’s turn to the “graphic” part of “graphic novel.” I felt like the art was high quality. Previous readers of my reviews know how I feel about artwork in comic books, but I still have to say it to you newbies. The art styles of time periods has certain common traits. As I said earlier this paragraph that every issue in this book was from 1991. I love late ’80s-early ’90s artwork, there was just something about it that just stood out. I have also previously mentioned in my blog that there is art which reflects on either good/bad art of the time or good/bad art period. In other words, some artwork may be good for the time it was released, but it can’t be considered good art by the standards of other times of art. To me, I feel this artwork is good in general, and not just for 1991, and the artwork in this book felt to me like the epitome of art of the time. The art in this book totally stands out to me and even now, thirty-two years later, I still feel it is great. And now, I want to talk about the costumes. The original X-Factor and the Uncanny X-Men had mostly generic outfits that all looked pretty identical. That lack of individuality just didn’t make the characters stand out. Yes, military, police, and other organizations have standard uniforms for their profession, but I just feel like it doesn’t work for mutant teams in visual form. Look at the original X-Men from 1963. You could only tell them apart from Cyclops’ visor, Angel’s wings, Iceman being covered in ice, Beast not wearing gloves and shoes, and Marvel Girl being female. Now, you can counter me with the Fantastic Four all wearing the same costume, and that works, and I will agree with that. But look at the Avengers: they all wear different costumes and you immediately know who everyone is because of that, and viewers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe like that, the representation of the characters. You can counter me again by saying the X-Men in the films all had the same outfit. But think about supervillains; they all wear different costumes and you know Magneto when you see him, or Doctor Doom, or Thanos; you just see them and know who they are. In my opinion, the X-Men, all being different, deserve to look different, to show off who they are. And again, there have been times where the X-Men in the comics have all dressed the same, but there were customizations that made them stand out. But, when X-Factor joined the X-Men and the X-Men Blue Team and X-Men Gold Teams were created, the costumes changed and I just totally loved that visualization. The X-Men Blue Team and X-Men Gold Teams were drawn with some of the most iconic appearances of the X-Men in all of Marvel history. If you watched the “X-Men” animated series from 1992-1997, these were the costumes you know. I grew up with that, so the appearances of the costumes in the new teams were familiar to me and I enjoyed those costumes. Seeing these just felt right. So I must give a shout out to Jim Lee for creating these iconic costumes, I thought they were brilliant, so thank you for contributing to my childhood!

            So we have a few more pieces of subjects to consider. What do I think you should know about Marvel history in order to understand this book? First off, if you have never read Marvel Comics before, especially from the 1970’s-1980s, this is not the right book for you. It is absolutely not an introductory point to start at. I barely know the New Warriors and the Annuals’ story is incomplete, so it’s easy to get confused by just that (heck, even I was confused). Also, almost every character had been established before and none of their backgrounds were explained and it continues almost directly from storylines that had already started prior to this book. It is not at all a jump-on point.

            Next, we’ll do the ever important and pretty much only reason that you’re still here after over 2,000 words: (and if you are here still, you are THE BEST!) my numeric score. As some of you may already know, I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the worst, ten is the best. In this case, I have to take in everything about the graphic novel before I score it, which means both story and art are considered. I was highly disappointed by some of the story. BUT! The artwork did not fail to impress. So, all the eggs in one basket, I give it a score of… (drumroll please!)… seven. There were stories I disliked, but it had several stories I really enjoyed, and the artwork just amazed me, so I scored it at a balance. If it were just a story as a prose novel, I would have given it a lower score, but the artwork totally upped it, so the score went higher. I will say that I didn’t think it was a bad book, I just didn’t quite get what I was hoping for. I should also be said that Marvel published another graphic novel called “X-Men: Mutant Genesis” which actually does NOT contain the same stories. If you read my review of “The Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet” you may recall that I said it was not “The Infinity Gauntlet,” but only the issues of “The Silver Surfer” from the year around it, and this is much the same. Epic Collections only contain specific stories from mostly a singular point of view. Were you to get the other edition of “X-Men: Mutant Genesis,” you would be reading X-Men (1991) #1-7, so if you are actually interested in reading this book, check the contents first to make sure you are actually getting the right book (it will have the words “Marvel Epic Collection” on the top of the cover). And I have an upcoming review about to sit on my desk called “X-Force: Zero Tolerance” which surrounds the “X-Men: Operation: Zero Tolerance” crossover event, but only features the X-Force issues. If you want to read more of my work, at the moment it should be posted in about a week, so keep an eye out for it.

            Next, I will tell you if I recommend this book. I totally don’t know what to tell you. I can’t quite say I recommend it, but at the same time I can’t tell you to just completely avoid it. All I can really say is if you want to read it, then go for it, but if you don’t feel like reading this book, then I say you should follow that instinct. It’s all totally up to you. In all my reviews, this has never truly happened before, which is weird for me, but I leave the decision up to you.

            As I said before, I have the “X-Force: Zero Tolerance” Epic Collection getting close to being on my desk, so keep an eye out for it. Otherwise, I have literally written dozens of reviews, I’ve made over 100 posts, I write short fiction, short nonfiction, poetry, essays, editorial, reviews and plenty of other content, so if you liked this post, I totally say you should read more of my posts, you may find something else you like. If you read to this point, you are THE BEST, and all I can say is, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" by Stan Lee

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format, written by Stan Lee.

            Reed Richards is a brilliant scientist. Susan Storm is the woman he loves. Johnathan Storm is Susan’s young brother. Benjamin Grimm is Reed’s best friend. At the height of the “Space Race,” Reed invented a ship that could travel to space in order to study cosmic rays. Reed, Sue Johnny and Ben ventured to space, but Reed had not properly reinforced the shielding of the ship and the rays bombarded the four travelers. After crashing to earth, the four realized that they had been imbued with super human powers. Reed could stretch his body to great lengths and became Mister Fantastic. Sue could turn invisible and became the Invisible Girl. Johnny could fly and create and control fire and became the Human Torch. Ben’s body became stone and he gained super strength and became the Thing. The four as a team became known as the Fantastic Four. The team soon discovered that there were now such things as super villains and the Fantastic Four became a team of super heroes to stop those who wished to inflict evil upon the Earth.

            The Mole Man, who lived deep under Monster Isle, decided to destabilize the surface world by destroying atomic facilities to ensure his rise to new ruler of earth.

            The race of intergalactic aliens, the shape-shifting Skrulls, traveled to Earth and impersonated the Fantastic Four, the only beings who could prevent a Skrull invasion of Earth.

            The mysterious Miracle Man wished to prove himself better than the Fantastic Four with his amazing feats of magic.

            Namor, the Sub-Mariner, having gotten over a case of amnesia, returned to his underwater kingdom, only to find it destroyed, and swore vengeance against the surface world, whom he blamed for the devastation of his home.

            Reed’s college rival, Doctor Victor von Doom, abducted the Fantastic Four, and forced Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, and Thing to travel to the time of Blackbeard in order to spare the life of the Invisible Girl.

            The Invisible Girl struggled with her romantic feelings for both Mister Fantastic and Sub-Mariner. When Doctor Doom and Sub-Mariner teamed up, it was the mutual attraction between Invisible Girl and Sub-Mariner caused the alliance between Doctor Doom and Sub-Mariner to fail and bring Sub-Mariner to the aid the Fantastic Four against Doctor Doom.

            Kurrgo, the Master of Planet X, mentally turned Earth against the Fantastic Four in order to enlist the Fantastic Four to prevent the destruction of Planet X.

            The Fantastic Four met the blind sculptress, Alicia Masters. There was an immediate attraction between Alicia and Thing. Alicia’s stepfather became the Puppet Master and used radioactive clay to create figures that he could mentally control.

            As the imminent threat of bankruptcy descended upon the Fantastic Four, the team reluctantly accepted parts in a Fantastic Four action film put out by S.M. Studios to save their home, the Baxter Building.

            Doctor Doom invented a device that swapped his body with Mister Fantastic’s body, and Mister Fantastic had to both convince the Fantastic Four of the swap and return Doctor Doom and Mister Fantastic back to their proper bodies.

            Mister Fantastic continually tried to cure the Thing from his rocklike body, always to only temporary results. The Fantastic Four also found themselves as media darlings swamped with fan mail. The fun-loving Impossible Man from the planet Poppup arrived on Earth and caused chaos that only the Fantastic Four could bring to an end.

            The Fantastic Four were summoned by General “Thunderbolt” Ross to attempt to defeat Ross’ most pressing problem: the Incredible Hulk, a rampaging monstrous being. Mister Fantastic was paired with scientist Bruce Banner, who secretly under times of great anger, fear or stress, transformed into the Hulk.

            The Fantastic Four traveled to the moon to defeat the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes.

            The Puppet Master took control of the Sub-Mariner in his revenge against the Fantastic Four.

            The Mad Thinker, a man capable of calculating any situation before it happened to the instant, used his Awesome Android in his attempt to defeat the Fantastic Four.

            Doctor Doom used his shrink ray to send the Fantastic Four to the Micro-World, a quantum realm that he had taken over. The Fantastic Four then had a team-up with the size changing Ant-Man to defeat Doom and return to their proper sizes.

            Doctor Doom then unleashed his “Followers” to disrupt the Fantastic Four at inopportune moments.

             The Skrulls genetically enhanced a Skrull Warrior to become the Super-Skrull, an agent with all the powers of the Fantastic Four at a higher strength level.

 

            I personally highly enjoyed this graphic novel. Stan Lee is my absolute idol and the artwork of Jack Kirby has always thrilled me ever since I started regularly reading Marvel Comics, having gotten a collection of classic X-Men issues written by Lee and illustrated by Kirby, and I always thought they were an excellent team. This graphic novel contained “Fantastic Four” #1-18, originally published between the years 1961-1963. Some current readers might say that this was too corny. Yes, I can admit to the level of cheesiness. Some of the inventions did sound kind of lame or dumb, like “The Pogo Plane” or “The Fantasti-car,” just to name a few. Some of the jokes were not actually funny. Some of the comments might be considered offensive were they published today. Take into consideration this was the time of the Cold War and the “Space Race.” For that reason, the technology that the Fantastic Four used for space travel and other details about space and space travel has modernly been debunked. And yet, I was mostly able to overlook these flaws. I also have to discuss the art. This artwork is iconic for comics of the time period. I’ve said this in a lot of my reviews that every time period of comics has basic standards in artwork. I felt like Kirby epitomized the art of the time. But, it is just that: art of the time. It’s the same as old horror movies; kids these days might see a monster in a classic horror movie and laugh at the absurdity of the monster. Kirby’s drawings of Thing and the Human Torch’s “flame on” design were pretty wonky. And Doctor Doom’s face plate mouth did have different expressions, which realistically should not happen. But I honestly did my best to ignore all these things, and succeeded pretty well at it.

            I make it a point with my review posts to explain accessibility, or to say what readers may need to know to fully enjoy the story content. “Fantastic Four” #1 was the start of the “Marvel-Age of Comics” and is very classic, so honestly, it’s a gateway book for Marvel Comics. A reader could have never picked up a Marvel comic book or watched a Marvel comic book movie or TV show or played a video game based off of a Marvel comic and still completely will have no difficulty with picking up on the storylines and understand the book.

            Now, I’ve got to get to the moment of truth: my numeric score. I score on a system of 1 to 10. 1 is my lowest score, 10 is my highest score. Now, when I score a graphic novel, I take everything into consideration, the art and the story. So, all considered, I give it an 8. It’s as high as I can go with the corniness of the story and the wonkiness of the art. I really enjoyed it anyway, but there were flaws which had to be addressed that prevent me from scoring any higher.

            Well, I do have just one more thing to address in this paragraph, then next paragraph I’ll wrap it up: Do I recommend this book and to whom do I recommend it to? If you’ve never read a Marvel comic book before and are considering starting to read comics, whether because of movies and television shows that interest you, or have no Marvel knowledge whatsoever, then this is the perfect book for you. If you’re a Fantastic Four fan but have never read the issues in this book, I totally recommend this to you. I’ve been reading Marvel Comics for over twenty years and never knew how it all started, so this was very informative and enjoyable for me. I totally recommend this book to pretty much anyone who wants to start reading Marvel comics or is a current reader who never experienced the classics. So, basically, if this review interested you, then read this graphic novel.

            So, a few more notes before the torture ends. (If you’re still here after all my blathering, you are THE BEST!) I’ve been away from this blog for a while, but now I’ve got things sorted out and I am officially back. I have literally written dozens of Marvel reviews and other reviews, so if you liked this post, there are dozens more like this, so feel free to keep checking them out. I also write short fiction, short nonfiction, poems, editorials (particularly my B’ings series that will be returning in the next few weeks, if you don’t know what it is, check it out), essays and several other forms of writing, so feel free to keep perusing those. I will also be posting on a fairly regular basis, so you can keep checking for my if you like my posts. So, until next time, as always, Tim Cubbin… out!