"Thor: Reborn from Ragnarok"

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Thor: Reborn from Ragnarok” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Thor was the Norse God of Thunder. He wielded the magic hammer Mjolnir which only Thor or those truly worthy could lift. He was a prince of the mystic realm Asgard. He was a member of the superhero team the Avengers, Earth’s mightiest heroes. But Ragnarok occurred, and Asgard was destroyed, and all the Norse Gods were dead.

            Mjolnir, however, survived the destruction of Asgard and fell to Midgard (Earth, as we mere mortals know it), and landed in Broxton, Oklahoma. The villainous Doctor Victor Von Doom had been stranded in Hell, but when Mjolnir fell to Earth, it created a void that allowed him to escape. Six months later, he found its location. Believing he was worthy of its power since it released him from Hell, Doctor Doom and his army of Doombots launched an assault on the base the United States government had built to protect Mjolnir. The military called in the superhero team the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom’s sworn enemies. The Fantastic Four battled Doctor Doom and his Doombots but were unable to stop Doctor Doom from reaching Mjolnir. Doctor Doom attempted to lift Mjolnir, but the hammer did not deem him worthy. It did, however, draw the attention of Doctor Donald Blake, Thor’s former human host, alerting him to the location of the weapon that allowed the transformation between his mortal form and that of the God of thunder. Blake traveled to Broxton and lifted Mjolnir and Thor was reborn.

            Blake and Thor decided to set roots in Broxton, so Blake booked a room at the Sooner Hotel. Thor then went out to the desert and used the magic of Mjolnir to summon and recreate Asgard. Local law enforcement was not happy with Thor, building land on private property, so Thor lifted this new Asgard to levitate above the ground. To satisfy the landowner, Thor allowed him to take from Asgard’s treasure vault, and Thor was given permission to keep Asgard in its new location in Oklahoma. Thor then realized that the other Asgardians were also on Midgard in the bodies of mere mortals, just waiting to be reawakened to the fact that they were Asgardians and restored to their true selves, and Thor began his quest to bring them back.

            Thor felt a calling to New Orleans, which had recently been devastated by a hurricane. Tony Stark/Iron Man arrived to greet Thor. The superheroes had just recently fought a Civil War over the Superhuman Registration Act. During Thor’s absence, the heroes had created a cyborg clone of Thor that had killed the superhero Goliath. Iron Man, who had been appointed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and in charge of Superhuman Registration, had come to ask Thor to register. Outraged by both Iron Man’s demand of registration and creation of an out of control copy that would commit such a heinous act as murder, Thor battled Iron Man. Iron Man relented to allow Asgard its status as a separate entity from the United States, and thus give Thor and any Asgardians diplomatic immunity, meaning they would not have to register. Thor then found the mortal form who had been hosting Heimdall and restored him back to his true self.

            Doctor Blake was called on a Doctors Without Borders mission to a refugee camp in Africa. While treating patients, there was an attack, and Thor’s intervention was needed. Afte protecting the refugees, Thor discovered the Warriors Three, Fandral, Volstagg and Hogun, and restored them to their true selves.

            Heimdall informed Thor that the Asgardians in mortal form were disappearing, so Thor went on a quest to discover the source of this anomaly. Thor also was in search of his love, the Lady Sif, who as yet had not been located. Thor found that the Asgardian weapon the Destroyer had been holding mortal Asgardians hostage. The Destroyer needs a host to function, and the host was Balder the Brave, who had temporarily been corrupted, but Thor freed him and returned him to his right mind. Thor also discovered his adopted brother Loki, the God of mischief, and often his sworn enemy, who now inhabited a female form and wished to repent for his/her past transgressions and do right by Thor, and Thor decided to give Loki his trust. But Loki had been in contact with Doctor Doom, planning to bring the Asgardians to Doctor Doom’s country of Latveria behind Thor’s back.

            Thor flew to space and used all of the Odinpower in an attempt to reawaken every Asgardian still lost on Earth. In a weakened state and needing to replenish his strength, Thor entered the Odinsleep. Thor and Donald Blake were separated. Blake decided to search for Sif. Sif had once inhabited the mortal form of Jane Foster, so Blake went to have a chat with her and see if Sif was once again in Jane’s mortal body. Meanwhile, in the Odinsleep, Thor found his father Odin locked in perpetual battle with the monster Surtur, a battle that cycled over and over again for all eternity. Thor learned that Odin’s father Bor had been defeated by a sorcerer, turned into living snow, and that Odin had the power to recall his father, but chose not to. Bor’s spirit haunted Odin and said he would only leave Odin if he killed another father and took his son in as his own. At the same time, Blake found Jane Foster had been working in New York as an oncologist and discovered she was not hosting Sif. Unbeknownst to all but Loki, Sif was in the body of one of Jane’s cancer patients. Blake left New York and Thor left the Odinsleep.

            Loki revealed to Balder that he was a son of Odin. Balder’s death was prophesied to bring about Ragnarok, so to prevent the event from happening, his true parentage had been kept from him by Odin and Thor. Balder was then publicly coronated as a prince of Asgard.

            Thor traveled to Earth on the anniversary of the death of his friend and fellow Avenger Steve Rogers/Captain America and summoned the spirit of his comrade. He then caused a minute-long media blackout over the entire world at the exact time of his ally’s death, giving a minute of silence in honor of the death of a hero.

            Loki went to Hela, Goddess of death, to resume her male form, travel through time, and cause a mischievous act that forever changed the lives of Bor, Odin, and himself.

            Loki summoned Bor and used her magic to corrupt him into seeing the world in a demonic form. Bor attacked New York City, and Jane Foster called Donald Blake to bring Thor in to stop him. Bor discovered Odin was dead, and believing Thor had killed him, attacked Thor. Thor was unaware of whom he was battling. He called for the aid of the Avengers, but the official Avengers roster was currently being led by Norman Osborn/Iron Patriot, and not the allies Thor was expecting. The outcome of this battle had a terrible consequence for Thor, and had a devastating impact on him and Asgard for all time.

            Loki’s conspiring with Doctor Doom began to come to fruition as she was getting exactly what she wanted.

            Okay, now that we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, let’s get to the Tim Cubbin part. So, first off, I’ve read the first two issues in this book dozens of times, we’re talking close to a hundred times, if not that or more. It was part of the Road to Civil War, which I’ve read a lot, so I knew all that part already. That said, after that, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Honestly, at the time of publication between 2006-2009, I was either not a reader of Thor or not a reader of comics at all. And I have to say, I was pleased by this book. And I find that highly unusual, since there wasn’t much of a plot. But I found the content itself to be entertaining. I enjoyed what was actually there. J. Michael Straczynski, the writer, combined action with a touch of humor, and I liked that. There were plenty of good comedic moments, my favorite being the landowner raiding the Asgard treasure vault, and Thor being told he couldn’t build land on the ground, so his response was to levitate the new Asgard. I also thought it was funny with Loki being reincarnated as a woman. I enjoyed the confrontation with Iron Man over the Thor clone and the Superhuman Registration Act, I thought the outcome was brilliant. There were plenty of good plot twists, which of course I can’t tell you, but the stories with Bor were just such surprises I didn’t see coming, so my hats off to Straczynski for coming up with such good endings. (Now, of course, when I review the next volume, you will probably get a spoiler of the ending of this book, so reader beware.) And I loved the art in this graphic novel. I thought Olivier Coipel did an excellent job with the penciling, I really appreciated the work he did on this book. The quality of the artwork was top notch, just brilliant. All-in-all, I thought this was an excellent book.

            Now, let’s talk about accessibility. I know some of you have been over this before, I know I’ve been over this about fifty times by now, but I have to do it again for you newbs, so listen up. When I say accessibility, I mean if it’s possible to just pick up this book if you’ve somehow never heard of Thor before, or if you’ve heard the name Thor but don’t know anything about him, of if you’ve seen the movies or cartoons and think you know Thor, or if you’ve at any point been a reader of comics with Thor in them. This book makes me feel something I don’t think I’ve ever felt before about a graphic novel; I feel like it’s easier to pick up this book and read it if you know nothing about Thor more so than if you’ve seen the movies or cartoons. I feel this way because of the Donald Blake/Thor relationship. If you’ve only ever seen Thor from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you’ve never seen Donald Blake aside from the brief reference of the nametag on the scrubs that Jane Foster mentions belonged to her ex-boyfriend. This hurts the understanding of this book to an MCU/non-comic fan. Thor having a mortal alter-ego was something the MCU never did, Thor just lost his powers because he wasn’t worthy, so this is quite different. I feel even readers of the comics from certain time periods might not get the reference either. Donald Blake goes back to the early days of Thor to the 1960s and I’m not sure how much they used him after a certain period, but Donald Blake seems to have vanished into the ether at certain points and totally forgotten, so even some comic readers won’t know Donald Blake. Heck, when I read the Fantastic Four Road to Civil War storyline back in 2006, I didn’t get the reference of D.B. on the backpack. He’s just not a well-known character, so knowing Thor outside of this book but not knowing Donald Blake is damaging to the entertainment value of this book. That said, I feel like this is an accessible book to new readers. I feel like it’s self-explanatory. It does have slight connections to Civil War, so knowing that does help, understanding the Superhuman Registration Act, the Thor clone killing Goliath, and Tony Stark being appointed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. are somewhat expected, but if you’re reading this review, I’ve just told you, so that solves your problem right there. It also does have a story featuring the Dark Avengers, which is the one part that is not self-explanatory, so not knowing about them is a little difficult towards reading this book. But other than that, I feel like if you’ve never read a Thor comic before and want to start, this is a good jump on point. It is Vol. 1, it is a fresh start, it’s a new series, a new direction, a new storyline, so I feel like this is a good entry point for a new reader. You just must accept Donald Blake first, so if you’re jaded by the MCU, you’ll have to work past that, but I don’t think it’s too difficult.

            Okay, so I know I’ve been going on for quite a while now, so you just want me to get to my main point at this moment in time: my numeric score. Now, for those of you who don’t know, I rate it on a scale of one to ten. One means this book was terrible and not worth reading at all, ten means this book is worth reading every time I have nothing else to do. So, you can guess this score is going to be high. I do have to say this is a GRAPHIC novel, so I can’t just rate this book based on the story, I must take the art into consideration, too. But that’s not a problem because I thought the art was stellar, so that really helps the score. So, if I take everything, all cards on the table, everything in this book, the story, and the art, I will give this book… an eight! This was an enjoyable book, but I can’t give it any higher than that because the plot was just a little weak, but if there were more of a story, I would have given this book a nine. Still, an eight is pretty darn good.

            Next, I’m going to tell you if I recommend this book, and to whom I recommend this book to, if I do so recommend it. So, yes, I recommend this book, but it does come with a caveat. If you have a preconceived notion of Thor, I do give caution. I’m not saying not to read it, I’m telling anyone to read it, but I’m telling you to leave what you think you know about Thor at the door if you’ve never read a Thor comic before. Otherwise, I’d say that, yes, I would say you should read this book, absolutely, 100% yes.

            Okay, so I’ve been going on for a long time now, so I’m just going to try to wrap this up as quickly as possible. I write lots of reviews, I’ve done dozens of them, you can expect a new one in less than a month from now. I also write short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s plenty of other content for you to read on this blog, if you choose. I post very frequently, I buy lots of graphic novels and review them all, so you can expect to see a lot from me. Well, I think that’s all I have to say for now, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out! 

"Hawkeye: The Reunion"

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

            Clinton “Clint” Barton/Hawkeye is the world’s greatest marksman. He has been a carnival archer, a villain, an Avenger, the vigilante Ronin, and a husband. Barbara “Bobbi” Morse/Mockingbird has been a spy, an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., an Avenger, believed dead for years, and a wife. The two met and fell instantly in love and married nine days later. Both were active members of the Avengers for years, and even left to lead the West Coast Avengers. But their marriage hit a snag, and right as they were talking divorce, a shapeshifting alien replaced Bobbi called a Skrull that died impersonating her and she was held captive on the Skrull Homeworld for years. Clint was killed when the original Avengers disbanded. Years later, Clint returned to life as Ronin and Bobbi returned to Earth.

            Clint and Bobbi’s relationship did not begin again based on trust. In her time back on Earth, Bobbi had founded the World Counterterrorism Agency. Clint followed her on one of her missions to a hospital that turned out to be a front for the terrorist organization A.I.M., who Bobbi found out were planning to set off a bomb at a scientist ceremony in Spain. Bobbi refused to allow the Avengers to get involved with her plans to stop the bomb, but she did allow Clint to tag along on the mission. Bobbi still tried to keep Clint at arm’s length on the mission, not fully sure if she could trust him. She confirmed to him that their divorce was finalized and that she had filed the divorce papers before she was kidnapped by the Skrulls and that she and Clint were no longer legally married. Clint and Bobbi were able to work their way into the ceremony with false identities and invites. While searching for the bomb, Bobbi fainted, having flashbacks to her time on the Skrull Homeworld. Clint and Bobbi discovered a bomb and discovered that Bobbi was set up by A.I.M. Scientist Supreme Doctor Monica Rappaccini and that the bomb was planted specifically to lure Bobbi in particular right into Monica’s trap. Monica attempted to kill Clint but failed. Clint and Bobbi then had to find a way to defeat Monica, stop the bomb, and save the scientists. Following this, Clint and Bobbi decided to start dating again, and Clint officially joined the W.C.A.

            Clint then decided to go back to his Hawkeye identity.

            Clint and Bobbi’s old enemy William Cross/Crossfire returned to target the pair. A transport truck carrying artifacts belonging to the Slade family was hit. Jaime Slade was the daughter of Hamilton Slade and a descendent of Lincoln Slade, both of whom were known as the Phantom Rider. Lincoln Slade had tortured Bobbi in the past. Jaime picked up an urn that was cracked and the spirit of the Phantom Rider was transferred into her. Fearing for Bobbi’s sanity, Clint searched for Bobbi’s family and found her mother and brother were still alive but had been told Bobbi was dead. The reunion was not as happy as Clint thought it would be. Jaime/Phantom Rider sought revenge against Bobbi and Clint and formed a partnership with Crossfire. Their first strike was against Bobbi’s mother, who, with great luck, survived the attack. Bobbi, Clint, and W.C.A. member Dominic Fortune went after Jaime and Crossfire but were led into a trap that Dominic barely survived. Clint and Bobbi reached out to the other current Phantom Rider, Jaime’s father Hamilton Slade, who told them he could exorcise the spirit of Lincoln’s Phantom Rider out of his daughter. The ritual almost succeeded until Crossfire took Hamilton out of the picture, but Clint and Bobbi were able to overpower both Crossfire and Jaime. Following the battle, Clint and Bobbi broke up and Clint’s time with the W.C.A. was supposed to have been ended, until Steve Rogers/Captain America, informed Clint Bobbi’s life was in danger.

            A new Ronin had emerged and started killing spies around the world. A treaty over disputed territory between Russia and Japan was on the horizon, and this new Ronin was a threat to destabilize this potential peace. The Ronin’s kills got personal to Bobbi when he killed a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent she was friends with. Clint, Bobbi, and Dominic went to Russia, where they ran into Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. Ronin had hit the Red Room, the facility where Natasha received her training. Clint was accused by the Supreme Soviets for all the murders due to his past identity as Ronin and targeted for arrest. Bobbi, Dominic, and Natasha were able to help Clint defeat the Supreme Soviets and escape arrest. While doing recon, Clint and Natasha encountered the Madame, who gave away to Natasha the identity of the new Ronin. Clint, Bobbi, Dominic, and Natasha, along with some unexpected help from the Supreme Soviets, then had to battle to Ronin and his clan the Dark Ocean to ensure that the peace treaty between Russia and Japan happened.

            While in a battle between the Avengers and the Lethal Legion, Clint missed a shot. Upon returning to Avengers Tower, he was examined by Doctor Donald Blake, who informed Clint he was going blind. Tony Stark/Iron Man produced some technology that would help Clint’s vision while he still had his sight but would not prevent the blindness from happening. Buck Chisholm/Trick Shot arrived at Avengers Tower to warn him he was in danger from another archer and his “Benefactor” before he passed away. The Benefactor was longtime Avengers villain Baron Zemo, and the archer was Clint’s long thought deceased brother Barney Barton, who was brainwashed and now wanted his brother dead. Clint struck out on his own without the Avengers to take down Zemo and his brother before he lost his sight.

            Okay, so let’s get to my opinion. First off, Hawkeye is one of my favorite Avengers. He has no actual superpowers, yet he is a valuable member of a team with a guy with a suit of high-tech armor, a literal god, a super soldier, and a superstrong rage monster. I find that to be so impressive. HOWEVER! This book just didn’t do it for me. It felt a little disjointed. The reason for this being the case is that this book did not contain any ongoing series, it was just a collection of limited series and pieces from one-shots, and I feel like that hurt the focus a bit. I feel like I was promised Hawkeye and that’s not exactly what I got. It might be one of those cases where I expected something and didn’t get what I expected. I’ve said this before a few months ago with “Hulk: Who is the Red Hulk?” if any of you recall that. I expected one thing and that’s not what I got and that was disappointing. I’ve also reviewed another Hawkeye Epic Collection “The Avenging Archer” before over a year ago and this disjointedness happened in that as well, but I must say this book wasn’t as bad as “The Avenging Archer.” This did have a little more, shall we say, cohesiveness than that. Still, this was disappointing. And I just didn’t find the stories themselves to be all that interesting, either. They were all subpar or less in my honest opinion. That said, the art was decent. I found that at least to be enjoyable. But the book just wasn’t what I was hoping for overall.

            Next, we’re going to talk about the accessibility level of this book. So, for those of you who don’t know what I mean by accessibility, I mean just how easy it is to get into this book for a new reader. So, if you’ve never heard of Hawkeye from Marvel before, I wouldn’t say it’s too hard to get into this book. This is marked as Vol. 1 and it does not directly pick up from any previous stories, cross over into any other stories, or continue into any other stories. So, if you’re reading this review and find this book to sound interesting, I wouldn’t think you’d find it too difficult to understand. I feel like it’s self-explanatory. If you’re a fan of Hawkeye from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his story here is a bit different, I will say, he doesn’t have kids, his wife was not Laura, but the character’s essence is still there, you just must realize he doesn’t have a wife and kids in this universe, and you should be able to grasp it well enough. If you’re a previous Marvel reader, meaning you read in the past before the original release dates from this book, 2009-2011, but stopped and are looking to get back in, I’d say you could still be able to pick it up again easily enough, or if you’re a current reader from after those dates looking to backtrack, I think it's something that you should have no problem understanding. In other words, this book is accessible.

            Okay, now for the section we’ve all been waiting for: my numeric score! Just how good of a book did I think this was? Obviously, you can tell this isn’t going to be the greatest. So, of course, this is a graphic novel, so we must take everything in this book into consideration; the art and the story. As I said, the stories were subpar or less, and I felt like it was highly disjointed. That’s going to deduct a lot of points there. The art was decent, so that’s going to give some points there, but it won’t save it too much for me. I really hate giving low scores, but I really don’t feel like I can just feel happy giving every book I read a high score, either, but this book just MUST get a low score, I’m sorry. So, all considered, everything thrown into the blender and mixed and the score comes out, it’s a… four! I really hate doing this to you Clint, but this book just missed its mark for me.

            Now we’re going to talk about if I recommend this book and to whom I recommend it. So, let’s start with this: do I recommend this book? HECK NO! I just can’t in good faith tell anyone to go read this book. I’m a huge Hawkeye fan and I was HIGHLY disappointed by this book, so I just can’t say you should read this, too. That said, I can’t tell you what to do, that’s up to you. If you read this review and are interested in reading this book now, you can totally read it if you want, I can’t tell you not to. Hey, you can read it and leave some kind of communication for me to let me know how you felt about it! I’d love to hear from you, that would be great! No one has ever reached out to me on this blog, and I would totally love to hear someone’s opinions of the same things I read! Please feel free to be the first! If you liked it, I want to know! If you didn’t like it, I want to know! Whatever! But I don’t recommend you read it.

            So, let’s start wrapping up here, I’ve been droning on for quite some time now. So, I’ll say a few more things before I log off. First off, I write a lot of book reviews, I’ve done dozens of Marvel Epic Collection reviews, and you can expect another Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection review within the next couple of weeks. I post very frequently, I buy every new Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and review them, so expect the reviews when they come out. There are actually a few I haven’t reviewed that I plan to go back to eventually, I just didn’t review them because I didn’t have a laptop at the time I read them, but I will probably review them eventually when I reread them, because I usually reread previous volumes when new ones come out, so backlogged books will probably come up. Second, I write other content, including short stories, free-verse poetry, articles, editorials, and essays, so you can check those out, too. I’ve done a bunch of B’ings in the past, if you want to waste time on something pointless, and there’s a chance I might do more. I’ve been sitting on a short story idea for months now, I hope I’ll eventually be able to sit down and write it, I’m just a busy guy, I have a job, I do activities, I just don’t always have the time to just sit down and write, and when I do, it’s usually reviews. But hopefully that short story gets done soon, it’s going to be entertaining. And with all that said, I’ll leave you to go back to doing whatever you were doing before you decided to spend a little bit of time with me. Thanks for reading, if you’re here, you are THE BEST! I appreciate you! I’ll be back soon, and so, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out! 

"New X-Men: E is for Extinction"

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “New X-Men: E is for Extinction” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            The X-Men were born with genetic mutations that give them powers and abilities that normal humans do not and fight for peaceful coexistence between the two species.

            Charles Xavier/Professor X is the founder of the X-Men. He was crippled and confined to a wheelchair. He is one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet.

            Scott Summers/Cyclops is the field leader of the X-Men. He possesses optic blasts that are uncontrollable and can only be contained by glasses or a visor made of ruby quartz.

            Jean Grey-Summers/Phoenix is Cyclops’ wife. She is a powerful telepath and telekinetic and may be possessed by a cosmic entity.

            Emma Frost/White Queen is a reformed villain turned hero. She is also a telepath.

            Henry “Hank” McCoy/Beast is a brilliant scientist. His mutation has given him a leonine form, and he possesses enhanced speed, strength, agility, and heightened senses.

            James Howlett, A.K.A. Logan/Wolverine had his skeleton bonded with the nigh unbreakable metal adamantium. He possesses a healing factor that heals almost any wound and has heightened senses. His memories were wiped, and he does not remember his past.

            The X-Men are based at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, located in Salem Center, New York.

            Evolutionary biologist Cassandra Nova brought dentist Donald Trask to Ecuador, where an abandoned Sentinel Master Mold was located. Donald’s uncle Bolivar created the Sentinels to exterminate mutants, but the program was shut down. Beast upgraded the X-Men’s mutant detection device, Cerebra. While running a test, Beast noticed a spike in Ecuador, and Professor X sent Cyclops and Wolverine to investigate. While using Cerebra, Professor X encountered another telepathic presence. Cyclops and Wolverine were attacked by Wild Sentinels which had been built from spare parts. They were defeated and abducted by Cassandra Nova, who disposed of Trask and took control of the Sentinels. Cyclops and Wolverine were able to escape, defeat, and capture Cassandra Nova, but were unable to prevent her from launching a Sentinel attack on the mutant nation of Genosha, ending the lives of sixteen million mutants. Emma Frost was situated in Genosha, but survived due to a newly emerged secondary mutation that granted her diamond hard skin, but in this form, her telepathy was negated. The X-Men returned to the Xavier Institute, where Cassandra Nova escaped confinement and breached Cerebra. The X-Men were again able to defeat her, but not before she was able to access the device. Professor X, believed to simply be a mutant sympathizer, went on television for an interview and announced that he himself was a mutant.

            Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine and Emma Frost went on a mission to China to assist the newly formed X-Corporation’s Domino in her investigation of author and activist John Sublime and his U-Man army. The U-Men were baseline humans who grafted parts and organs from mutants to obtain their powers. They discovered a mutant healer named Xorn, who had a prison built around him. Xorn had developed a black hole in his brain and needed a helmet to contain it. They were able to free him, Cyclops was able to communicate with him and offered him a position with the X-Men, which Xorn accepted.

            The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning opened as a school for young mutants to receive an education and learn the proper use of their powers. The Xavier Institute was picketed by anti-mutant protestors. One young mutant, Barnell Bohusk/Beak, formed a bond with Beast. Professor X decided to take a leave of absence from the X-Men and travel to space with his wife Lilandra, Empress of the Shi’ar Imperium, and left Jean Grey in charge of the Xavier Institute. Before he left, Beast confronted Professor X to ask why his DNA showed an almost exact match with that of Cassandra Nova’s. Cassandra Nova then revealed that she had swapped bodies with Professor X and had Beak attack Beast into a coma. Cassandra Nova then went into space in Professor X’s body.

            The influence of the U-Men army continued to spread. They targeted the newly emerged mutant Angel Salvadore. Wolverine was sent to rescue her. Cyclops and Emma Frost went to interrogate John Sublime but were defeated and captured. The U-Men staged an assault on the Xavier Institute. Jean Grey manifested the powers of the Phoenix and was able to fight off the invasion, and Emma Frost was able to end the threat of John Sublime. Beast emerged from his coma and revealed that Professor X and Cassandra Nova had swapped bodies.

            Jean Grey and Emma Frost psychically reawakened Professor X’s consciousness in Cassandra Nova’s dying body and discovered that they were twins.

            Cassandra Nova used Professor X’s telepathic powers to influence Lilandra to launch an assault on earth’s mutant population. The staff at the Xavier Institute were suffering from the flu. Cyclops turned to Xorn for his assistance, hoping for a way to heal the X-Men’s dying leader. Jean Grey decided that the way to end the harassment at the gates of the Xavier Institute was to invite the press and show that the X-Men had nothing to hide. The Shi’ar captured Cyclops and Xorn, and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard launched an assault on the Xavier Institute, hoping to give Cassandra Nova access to Cerebra so she could shut down the minds of every remaining mutant on earth. The X-Men then had to protect the press and their students, try to save the life of Professor X, defeat Cassandra Nova and prevent the extinction of all mutantkind.

            Okay, it’s me again. And may I just say, I LOVED this book. This graphic novel has a lot of sentimental value for me. The issues in this book were originally published between 2001-2002, right when I started regularly reading Marvel comic books, and these issues were in my collection. Grant Morrison’s tenure as the writer of New X-Men between 2001-2004 remains one of my all-time favorite runs of Marvel comics ever, so when I read that Marvel was publishing New X-Men as a Modern Era Epic Collection, I was thrilled. Honestly, I thought his work was brilliant and I hope Marvel continues the series as Modern Era Epic Collections because I would love to read the rest again. I thought that Morrison picked the perfect team for his stories. I felt that adding Emma Frost was just a stroke of genius. I liked Beast’s redesign. The feline look was so awesome compared to his previous look. And I loved the new leather costumes. They looked so cool. Emma Frost had a very… attention grabbing design, to say the least. I loved the new students. The Stepford Cuckoos have been favorites of mine. The concept of finally making the Xavier Institute into a proper school was perfect, it created so many new opportunities in the years to come and gave me characters to identify with, being a teenager myself at the time. I felt like Cassandra Nova was a great villain, and the U-Men were a great threat. I loved how Jean Grey manifested the Phoenix. BUT! The art was not my favorite. It just didn’t quite do it for me. The style wasn’t to my liking.

            Now, let’s talk about accessibility. I know some of you already know what I mean by this, I know I do have regulars, but I also know that many of you may be new to a Tim Cubbin review, so I feel like I must explain it to you, so bear with me, my loyalists. By accessibility, I mean how easy this graphic novel will be to just pick up and read for people who are new to the world of the X-Men. I have to say that I feel like this book is the perfect jump on point for new readers. I say this from experience. Granted I had some knowledge before I started reading this, I had seen some episodes of the “X-Men” animated series from the 1990s, had been a regular viewer of “X-Men: Evolution” and had seen the first 20^th Century Fox “X-Men” movie (which was the only one that had been released at the time). But I still feel like it’s self-explanatory enough for a new reader to pick up on. This graphic novel doesn’t directly pick up from any previous storylines, nor does it cross over into other series. This is rare for a Modern Era Epic Collection to be so standalone like this, I honestly don’t think I’ve seen that very much. There are no other events from the time that this ties into, so it’s not like the reader is missing any pieces while reading this book. I think that makes this one of the best Modern Era Epic Collections for a new reader to pick. Granted having some knowledge of the X-Men before reading this would help, but I picked up on this series quickly enough back in 2001 with a lot less opportunities for experience of the X-Men than we do now in 2024 as I write this review, and I’d only read a few issues of “Uncanny X-Men” from 2001 before starting with this series. Of course, after reading this series for a few months, I got heavy into X-Men and bought a bunch of old graphic novels to fill in some blanks, but this series is what ignited my passion for Marvel Comics. Honestly, I don’t think I’d have gotten as full on into Marvel without Grant Morrison, so I thank him for that. But if you’re looking to start with X-Men and have never read it, this is a perfect place to start.

            Now we come to the single most important part of my review: the score! I score on a basic system. I work on a scale of one to ten. One means this is a piece of trash, toss it and light it on fire, ten means this is sheer perfection. I would honestly LOVE to give this book a ten. Morrison told a story that would get a ten from me, but the artists sadly prevented me from handing out that ten. This IS a GRAPHIC novel, so I can’t discount the artwork when I give this book a score. Still, the designs of the new costumes and the new look of Beast were endearing to me, so I can’t be TOO harsh on the artists. So, put it all in the blender, mix it up, and toss out the score and it is… nine! This book was SO close to perfection, if there had been some different artists, this book could have gotten a ten easy, I’m so sad that I must deduct a point for the art.

            Next up is the recommendation. Obviously, you can figure that I recommend this book. And as to who I recommend this book to, I would say anyone. This series is the series that ignited my passion for Marvel Comics. I’d tell you that even if you’ve never heard of the X-Men before reading this review and have even the slightest bit of interest in reading this book based solely on this review alone, make every effort to read this book. I’ve told you about the characters and the whole point of the X-Men, I think it shouldn’t be all that hard to follow now. This is Vol. 1. And if you’re a fan of the X-Men from any capacity, whether from any comics, or from the movies or cartoons, you honestly should make every effort to read this book, I feel like you will find this book worth your time. I mean, I practically gave this book a ten, so if I’m being this generous to a graphic novel, chances are it’s good. I’m not an easy scorer, I don’t just go around giving out tens to everything I read. If you’re a fan of “X-Men ’97,” you will notice that the episode “Remember It” takes inspiration from this graphic novel, you’re at the top of my recommendation list.

            Well, I think we can start to wrap this up at this point. I will tell you that there are dozens of other book reviews on this blog, I post very frequently. I specialize in Marvel reviews, so if you’re a Marvel fan, keep checking this site out, there are tons of others, I think you might find something else you’ll like. You can expect another review sometime in the next two weeks, so keep checking for that. I’ve written a few short stories, some poetry, articles, essays, editorials, and the like, so there’s plenty of other content to see here, so you can keep looking. I think that’ll do it for now, so I’ll say just a few more words: Tim Cubbin… out!