"Captain America: Death of the Dream"

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Captain America: Death of the Dream” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Soviet general Aleksander Lukin and the Nazi villain Johann Schmidt/Red Skull had been sharing a body due to Lukin murdering the Skull and his use of the Red Skull’s device the Cosmic Cube. Steve Rogers/Captain America and his S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison/secret girlfriend Sharon Carter/Agent 13 arrived in London in an attempt to bring down Lukin at his company Kronas’ London Headquarters Opening Gala. The met up with British superheroes Joseph Chapman/Union Jack and Jacqueline Falsworth/Spitfire to achieve this goal. Meanwhile, Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier planned to assassinate Lukin, while villains Brock Rumlow/Crossbones and the Red Skull’s daughter Synthia Schmidt/Sin planned to attack the Gala. Cap and the British heroes snuck onto a Kronas ship and battled the Skull’s minions the Master Race. The Skull has planted a bomb on the ship planned it out to implicate Cap and Union Jack in the explosion. Sharon got clearance for Cap and Union Jack to investigate the Master Race with S.H.I.E.L.D. All parties converged on the Gala, where the Skull activated his sleeper robot to cause mass destruction on London and the Kronas Building. The heroes and the Winter Soldier teamed up to battle the robot, and Crossbones and Sin’s attempt to assassinate Lukin was thwarted, and the villains escaped, and Red Skull revealed his association with Lukin to the pair of villains to plan a new attack on Captain America.

            The Superhuman Registration Act was enacted after a battle between superhumans caused the deaths of hundreds in Stamford, Connecticut, requiring all heroes to register their identities and submit to training and oversight. Heroes such as Tony Stark/Iron Man saw this as a natural evolution of the role of superheroes in society. Captain America was called to hunt down heroes who defied the law, but he refused and became Public Enemy #1, leading the anti-registration resistance, while Iron Man led the pro-registration front. Maria Hill, the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. became aware of Sharon’s relationship with Steve and attempted to use it to capture Cap, but Sharon misled S.H.I.E.L.D. and allowed Steve to escape. Hill submitted Sharon to counseling with S.H.I.E.L.D. psychiatrist Doctor Benjamin, who had been killed and replaced by mind-controlling villain Doctor Faustus, who was working with the Red Skull to condition Sharon and several other S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents to his cause. Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury went underground, and his absence was covered by a Life Model Decoy, a robot replica programmed to replace Fury. Fury asked the Winter Soldier to break into a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility to hack into a Fury L.M.D. to give Fury access to S.H.I.E.L.D. information. The Red Skull paid a visit to Latverian Dictator and supervillain Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom to upgrade his sleeper robot which had been destroyed during the battle in London. Maria Hill tasked Sharon into the force dedicated to finding the real Nick Fury. Cap infiltrated a Hydra base, where he was almost apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents tasked with bringing Cap in, but Sharon helped him escape. The Red Skull formed an alliance with evil genius Arnim Zola in an attack on Captain America.

            The Winter Soldier, now free from his conditioning, spent his first Christmas back in the world. Nick Fury learned the unregistered superhero team the Young Avengers were about to attack a Hydra base he had been spying on, the teenage heroes thinking it was one of Tony Stark’s secret factories, and asked the Winter Soldier to protect both his source of information and the young heroes who were about to bite off more than they could chew. After the battle, the Winter Soldier visited the grave of Jack Monroe/Nomad, a hero the Winter Soldier had killed while he had been programmed as a weapon by Lukin, where he was tailed by the Young Avengers, who learned the Winter Soldier’s true identity. The Winter Soldier recalled the last Christmas he remembered, from 1944, and met up with Namor, who was present for this same Christmas to learn of the life of fellow war hero Thomas Raymond/Toro.

            Cap realized that the Superhuman Civil War was causing more harm than good and surrendered to Iron Man, ending the War. As Cap was being brought in for his arraignment, Crossbones fired a shot at Cap. During the commotion, someone snuck in and fired three more shots at close range at Cap. Cap’s former superhero partner Sam Wilson/Falcon and the Winter Soldier were able to apprehend Crossbones. Though he was rushed to the hospital, Steve Rogers did not survive.

            James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine was not convinced that the assassinated body belonged to the actual Steve Rogers, so he had Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, cast a spell so he and Matt Murdock/Daredevil could sneak aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier to examine the body. Wolverine and Daredevil took a detour to interrogate Crossbones to learn the identity of the actual killer of Steve Rogers, only to find out that Crossbones knew nothing, and Wolverine confirmed Rogers’ death. The Mighty Avengers fought to stop supervillain Tiger Shark from using the Horn of Gabriel to destroy a top-secret nuclear warhead installation while the New Avengers met for a game of poker. Peter Parker/Spider-Man was having a tough time dealing with his grief and got into a fight with Wolverine. The newly revealed returned from the dead hero Clint Barton/Hawkeye called for Iron Man’s attention at the destroyed Avengers Mansion. Iron Man knocked him out and revealed that he was going to keep Captain America’s actual shield and donate a fake one to the Smithsonian and bury a fake one in Rogers’ coffin, then asked Clint to pick up Cap’s shield and be the new Captain America, but Clint insisted there is no Captain America without Steve Rogers. Iron Man and Clint teamed up with the Young Avengers, one of whom called herself “Hawkeye,” to fight supervillain Firebrand. Clint donned the Captain America costume and took up the shield to stop the threat, then Iron Man asked Clint to apprehend the young unregistered heroes, but Clint allowed them to escape and gave the shield back to Iron Man. Peter Parker went to the cemetery to visit the graves of his deceased parents and Uncle Ben, where he ran into Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino, who was there to visit his mother, and mistakenly got into a fight with the supervillain. A funeral was held for Steve Rogers, but the body buried in Arlington Cemetery didn’t actually belong to Steve Rogers, and Tony Stark thought of the perfect place and person to ensure Steve’s body rested in peace forever.

            Sharon in her grief quit S.H.I.E.L.D. The Winter Soldier learned S.H.I.E.L.D. was moving Cap’s actual shield, and tailed it, only to learn it was being moved by his former lover Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. The two fought, and the Winter Soldier made off with the shield. Natasha revealed to Tony Stark that Stark was the Winter Soldier’s next target, and Sharon and Falcon took it upon themselves to secretly protect Stark. Sin formed her own team of supervillains, the Serpent Squad. Tony Stark received a letter from Steve Rogers. Sin and the Serpent Squad learned of Crossbones’ transfer to supervillain prison the Raft and disguised themselves as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and broke him out. The Winter Soldier went after Lukin but was defeated by Sin and Crossbones and held hostage by Doctor Faustus. Falcon and Black Widow went to talk to Sharon, but Sharon took them out. Tony Stark tried to contact Black Widow after deducing Sharon was under the control of Doctor Faustus, but this attempt failed, and Iron Man was forced into action.

            Okay, some of you may remember from three years ago that I wrote a review of the prose novel “The Death of Captain America” by Larry Hama if you’ve been with me for that long. If not and you’re reading this post, please feel free to check that one out. Anyway, this is not a graphic novel with the exact same content, and I was actually very secretive in my previous review, so the reviews are nothing alike and this one is full of spoilers that my previous review did not have, but there are a few details I chose to leave out in order to surprise you. I’ve gotten a lot more thorough in my reviews over the past few years, so my style is quite different than it used to be. Anyway, I will say that I highly enjoyed this book. Yes, it was extremely depressing, and surprising that they would kill off so major a hero as Captain America, but I felt like the writing was well done. I enjoyed the whole concept of Lukin and Red Skull sharing a body. Some of you may know I am partial to Civil War, so reading the Captain America Civil War issues again was enjoyable. Winter Kills had an interesting concept. Fallen Son was particularly entertaining to me, seeing all the ways the Marvel characters reacted to Captain America’s death, especially seeing how hard Spider-Man took it and the rage it caused in him, and Iron Man trying to reason with Clint, saying if there can be a Hawkeye without Clint Barton, there can be a Captain America without Steve Rogers. And I loved all the big plot twists with Sharon, I never saw any of them coming. I loved the artwork in this book, I thought it was all superb. I will say, however, that this book did end in the middle of the storyline and left so much hanging, so that was disappointing, but I’m getting used to Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections doing that at this point, I’ve noticed several of the volumes have done that. The inclusion of “Twenty-First Century Blitz” and “Fallen Son” prevented this volume from being able to contain the complete storyline, which is a little unfortunate, but I found those stories to be highly enjoyable, so that fact is forgivable. But overall, I found the experience of reading this book to be a pleasant one and I hope for another volume, which Marvel better do as this left so much in the ar.

            Okay, now we’re moving on to accessibility. Bear with me if you know what I mean by this because there are some people here who have never read a Tim Cubbin review before. So, when I say accessibility, I mean if you can know little or nothing about Captain America and read and understand this book. I found this book to have a huge accessibility flaw. Now I have to tell you, this book is a Vol. 2 and reading Vol. 1 really helps understand this book, but what makes this book have especially low accessibility is the fact that this takes place before, during, and after Civil War, and knowing Civil War is absolutely essential to understanding this book. So, if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic Book before, I’m expressly saying this is not a book for you. Yes, the book does give a brief summary of the events of Civil War, but a paragraph can only do so much. And no, I’m not talking about the film “Captain America: Civil War,” that will not prepare you to read this book, the storyline and characterizations are completely different. I honestly think that this book is highly inaccessible if you’ve never read Civil War, and if you know nothing about Marvel’s Civil War, this book is just going to be so difficult to get into and properly understand.

            Okay, I’ve gone on for long enough, you’re probably getting antsy and want to move on with your life, so I’m just going to move on and get to the single most important part of a Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. Now, some of you know the drill by now, but I know some of you are newbs who need an explanation, so I’m going to give you one. I score on an extremely basic scale, a solid one to ten. One means this is a stinky pile of trash that should never have been printed, ten means this is one of the best graphic novels I have ever read. Now, if you’ve read one of my reviews before, you know I’m not in the business of handing out tens. I give this book extremely high praise. However, there are some things holding me back from scoring this book higher. It’s not perfect, and it has flaws. I can’t quite put my finger on all of these reasons, but I feel like I must give some point deductions. Now, as this is a graphic novel, I must take both story and art into consideration when I give my score. The story was particularly good, and the art was excellent, but there were just a few hiccups here and there. So, taking everything, putting it in the blender, and turning out the score in the mix, I must give this book a score of… eight! I have my reasons for not being able to give this book a higher score, but I just can’t quite put them exactly into words, I don’t know why.

            Okay, we’re going to move on now to my recommendation. This is just a simple matter of do I personally recommend this book, and regardless of that, to whom do I recommend this book. As far as my personal recommendation goes, yes, I do personally recommend this book. However, I will say that if you want to read this book, read Civil War #1-7 first. If you’re a fan of Steve Rogers, this book is going to be difficult for you, but I think there’s so much you’d enjoy from these last moments and the aftermath of his untimely passing. There are many plot twists and shockers, I left a few things out for you to discover when you read it, like exactly who pulled the trigger. I would particularly recommend this book to any fan of the Winter Soldier, he has some really good story arcs in this book, especially Winter Kills. I recommend this book to anyone who read Civil War and enjoyed it, this had good tie-in and follow-up story arcs.

            Okay, I think I’ve gone on for way too long at this point, I’ve kept you for a while and you want to go on with your life, you have more important things to do, and quite frankly, I’ve been at this for over three and a half hours, I need to move on with my life. Anyway, as usual, I will tell you I have literally written dozens of reviews just like this one, you can browse through the archives and see if there’s anything else here you like. If you want, you can check out my review of “The Death of Captain America” by Larry Hama for comparison purposes, although that review is extremely vague. I’ll be back with you in less than a month for another new Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection review, and I might have something else to sneak in in in the meantime between, so keep an eye out. I post on a very frequent basis, so there’s often more to see. I make it my mission to collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection released, so you can always expect lots of content here. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s plenty more to see, keep on browsing. And I will sign off now, and simply finish with a few more words. They are Tim Cubbin… out!

"Daredevil: Out"

 

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

            Mobster Sammy Silke led a group of Wilson Fisk/Kingpin’s men into attempting to end the life of the Kingpin. Thinking he had succeeded and hoping to get away with it, he went to the cops and offered a confession and something big in exchange for immunity. The something big he offered was the true identity of the vigilante superhero of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen: blind attorney Matthew Murdock. This information was sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who investigated Matt’s background and considered if it was a possibility. Although instructed to keep this information contained, Agent Driver disobeyed orders and went to the tabloid the Daily Globe and sold out Matt’s secret identity as Daredevil. Matt’s law partner and confidante Franklin “Foggy” Nelson met to discuss Matt’s options on how to proceed. Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich and former Daily Bugle photographer Peter Parker tried to cover up Matt’s identity by telling Daily Bugle Editor in Chief J. Jonah Jameson they knew Daredevil’s true identity but wouldn’t reveal it because Daredevil gave Ben exclusive stories for the Daily Bugle and exposing Daredevil would mean losing information. Matt’s life became a nightmare as he was hounded by reporters who followed him, trying to find proof that he was Daredevil. Matt was conflicted on whether he wanted to reveal to the world if he was Daredevil or not. He came close to doing it but changed his mind. Supervillain Mister Hyde came to Matt’s house and attacked, and Daredevil had to team up with Spider-Man to take him down. Matt had to hire fellow superheroes Luke Cage and Jessica Jones to act as his bodyguards in public. Matt made his decision to tell the press that the reports that he was Daredevil were untrue, and he sued Rosenthal Publications, the owners and publishers of the Daily Globe, for $400 million. Following this, Matt decided to lay low and not be Daredevil. His ex-girlfriend, fellow superhero and S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow attempted to bring Daredevil back into action. Matt had dinner with Vanessa Fisk, wife of the Kingpin, who revealed to Matt who sold him out to the press. Natasha went to another of Matt’s ex-girlfriends, Elektra Natchios, who also tried to bring Daredevil out of retirement. Matt met with Uri Rosenthal to try to settle the suit out of court and get an apology retraction printed, but this meeting failed for Matt. Matt then swung back into action as Daredevil.

            A gang of street thugs attempted to rob a pawn shop. As they were doing so, a police officer caught them and met an unfortunate ending. “Retired” superhero Hector Ayala/White Tiger arrived at the crime scene, but the street thugs were able to escape and when the officer’s backup arrived, White Tiger was in a guilty-looking position and was arrested for the heinous crime. Street level superheroes Luke Cage and Danny Rand/Iron Fist, who were friends with White Tiger, went to Matt and asked him to represent Hector. Matt and Foggy met with Hector and agreed to take his case. Hector’s wife was unable to handle the situation and wanted a divorce, but Matt was able to convince her to hold off until after the trial, afraid of what the lack of support from his spouse would have as an impact on Hector’s performance in court. The prosecution tried to dispute that Hector’s mystic amulet gave him powers, and even went so far as to suggest that he could fire a gun without pulling a trigger, as his fingerprints were not on the gun. Matt called in several superheroes for the defense, including Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic and Doctor Stephen Strange, to explain Hector’s abilities. Matt called Hector to the stand, but Hector lost control and erupted during the cross-examination. After both sides made their cases, the jury deliberated. The process was quick, and the verdict led to nothing short of a great tragedy.

            Blind woman Milla Donovan was crossing the street when she was right in front of a truck. Fortunately, Daredevil was there to save her. This led Milla to have a crush on the superhero. Crime boss Leland Owlsley/Owl started a racket on Mutant Growth Hormone, a street drug that temporarily gives its user superpowers. He also intended to incriminate Daredevil with a video camera to record their altercation, but this attempt failed. Milla figured out that Matt was Daredevil based on voice comparison. The two agreed to go on a date. Uri Rosenthal met with an unfortunate demise. Matt and Luke Cage had a falling out over Matt’s hypocrisy. Matt became a suspect in the ending of Rosenthal. His house was searched, and he was brought in for questioning, but he was released. Wilson Fisk returned to the United States, recovered from his near demise. The FBI closed in on the Owl, and Daredevil arrived to assist in the aid of his takedown.

            Wilson Fisk brought rehabilitated pyrokinetic and telekinetic supervillain Mary Walker/Typhoid Mary out of her hypnotic state and back to her evil self. He then started trying to rebuild his criminal empire. Matt and Milla agreed to another date, but on their way to their destination, Typhoid Mary attacked them. With the help of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, Matt was able to defeat Typhoid Mary but was injured. Kingpin hired assassin Bullseye to take down Daredevil. Milla almost became collateral damage, but Daredevil was able to defeat Bullseye. Matt then knew that he had to take the fight to Wilson Fisk to establish the ground rules of being Kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen.

            Okay, so now that we have the plot thoroughly analyzed, let’s talk about my opinions of this graphic novel. I will say that this was not exactly what I was expecting. After reading the end of the previous Volume, I formulated an idea of what this Volume was going to be, and this was not it. I was expecting a whole trial of Matt Murdock as Daredevil and maybe an attempt at getting him disbarred. Now, I’m not saying this is a bad thing. I found this book to be highly entertaining as it was. I enjoyed the whole concept of Matt trying to pick up the pieces of his life after being outed and trying to cover it up by saying he wasn’t Daredevil. I especially enjoyed the Daily Bugle scene where Ben Urich and Peter Parker covered for Matt and Ben wondering how Peter knew, I thought that little scene was great. The trial of the White Tiger totally threw me. That ending to that storyline was something I did not see coming, and I will not spoil it for you in this post, but to me, it was totally unexpected. I enjoyed the character of Milla Donovan, shipping Matt with another blind person makes perfect sense, I don’t know why the writers didn’t think of this sooner. And I thought the Typhoid Mary and Bullseye fights were great. And I will tell you, the ending was brutal, but I won’t give any details, you’ll have to read it for yourself. I thought these stories were very well written, Brian Michael Bendis is one of my favorite comic book writers, and he did not disappoint me in this book. However, I am not a fan of the artwork of Alex Maleev, sadly to say. The art in this book was mostly just not visually appealing to me. Really there was only one issue with art that I truly appreciated and two others that I found acceptable, but mostly it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I know some of you have read me say this multiple times (and if you have, you are THE BEST!), but I have to say it again for the new people who have never read a Tim Cubbin review before. Accessibility, for the purposes of these reviews, is how easy it is to get into this book, especially if you know little or nothing at all about Daredevil or Marvel Comics. Now, I find this interesting, because even though this book is marketed as Vol. 3 and picks up directly after the previous Volume, I still think it’s easily accessible to new readers. This book only has issues from one series, all consecutively, and there are no ongoing events that take place at the same time as the issues in this book, so there are no crossovers. Reading it, I honestly felt like it doesn’t draw a lot of knowledge from other Marvel stories that deeply. Yes, it helps to know the lore, but I think that this is actually a good jump on point for a new reader. If you’ve somehow never heard of Daredevil and are reading this review and think that you want to read this, I honestly don’t think that there is a hindrance there. Or if you know about Daredevil from other Marvel media, the same applies, this honestly doesn’t deviate from those concepts a lot. If you’ve ever read Daredevil comics at any point in Marvel history, you are well prepared to read this graphic novel. I am surprised at how easily accessible I found this book to be, but I think if you’re looking to get into Marvel Comics and want an enjoyable book to start with, this is actually a fairly good choice.

            Okay, you’ve come here to know just how good I thought this book was, not to read about how easy it is to read, so let’s get to the key point of my review: the numeric score. Some of you know the drill already, but some of you are new to the game, so I must explain my scoring system. I score media based on a scale of one to ten. One means that this media was total trash and should not even be looked at in a bookstore shelf. Ten means that this book is so good it shouldn’t be on a bookstore shelf because every copy should be sold out. Now, of course, I said I loved the story, and that means the score is probably going to be higher, but we have the problem of the art. This is a GRAPHIC novel, and I have to take both the story and the artwork into consideration when I give the book a score. I can’t give it a super high score because the art was just a disappointment. So, I think that an appropriate score for this book would be… (drumroll please) seven. Though it was not artistically appealing to me, the story was, so I can give it a higher score.

            Next up is my recommendation. This of course means do I personally recommend this book and regardless of if it has my personal recommendation or not to whom do I recommend this book? The answer to the first question is a resounding yes, I personally recommend this book. To answer my second question, I start by saying if you’re reading this review and are interested in reading this book now, I’m telling you to try to make every effort you can to read this book as soon as possible. If you’re a fan of Daredevil from any form of Marvel media, TV shows, movies, video games, comic books, this book is definitely for you. Matt has faced many challenges over the years, but this one is quite different and makes for a very compelling read, and I totally think it’s worth it.

            Okay, I’ve gone on for long enough now, I think it’s time we wrapped this up and you can go about doing whatever else you’d rather be doing than spending time reading this review that I have now been working on for almost three hours. So, I just have a few more things to say first. This review is but one of dozens of reviews I have written. If you liked this one, there are plenty more. Feel free to search for my review of the previous Volume in the series “Daredevil: Underboss” if you want more Daredevil stories. I have so many more reviews planned in store for you, so you can keep coming back for more. You can expect another review coming up sometime within the next two weeks. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials. I’ve written a bunch of things called B’ings, if you want to completely waste your time you can read those. I post on a very regular basis, I literally collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection, so there’s always going to be plenty of more content on the horizon. And I will leave you now with just a few more words. They are Tim Cubbin… out!

 

"Spider-Man/Deadpool: 'Til Death Do Us..."

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Spider-Man/Deadpool: ’Til Death Do Us…” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Wade Wilson/Deadpool’s wife Shiklah is Queen of the Monster Metropolis located beneath the city of Manhattan in New York. One monster, Farcus, wandered into the subway tunnels and was killed by a group of humans. Shiklah, in her rage, claimed Manhattan as the new capital of the monsters on Earth and ordered the humans to vacate Manhattan. Blade the vampire slayer arrived in Manhattan to combat the monsters and teamed up with Deadpool. Blade told Deadpool they needed the help of Camper Van Helsing, the last of a line of vampire slayers. Camper had been working as an R&D engineer at Parker Industries, but Peter Parker/Spider-Man fired her for her continued absences from work. Camper had been obsessed with Versus, an MMORPG she was extremely gifted at and always played as Deadpool. When the monster invasion began, Peter donned his Spider-Man costume at Parker Industries. Shiklah deceived Spider-Man and gained access to Parker Industries’ R&D vault, where she learned of Camper’s sleep-inducing device, the Sandman, which Shiklah then used on Spider-Man and instructed Camper to make it’s effect radius wide enough to work on all of New York City, but Camper tricked Shiklah and decreased it’s effect to zero. Deadpool arrived at Parker Industries, where he, Spider-Man, and Camper made their escape to Camper’s apartment so she could use a stake that could track specific monsters, and in this case, the monster they needed was Dracula. The Mercs for Money (Domino, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Machine Man, Gorilla-Man, Hit-Monkey and Masacre) decided to sneak into Shiklah’s base dressed up in disguise as monsters. This plan went awry when Gorilla-Man fell under Shiklah’s sway, but the team was able to convince Gorilla-Man on his humanity. Meanwhile, Spider-Man, Deadpool and Camper found Dracula, and made a deal with him: if he lost to Camper at Versus, he had to come to New York to fight Shiklah. Dracula lost. Shiklah had Morbius the Living Vampire modify the Sandman and activated it, putting every human in New York City to sleep. Spider-Man, Deadpool, Camper and Dracula arrived in New York City, where Dracula united the vampires against the other monsters. Dracula and Shiklah came face to face, and Dracula proposed to Shiklah, and Shiklah accepted. The two were wedded by the Hell Lord Mephisto. Spider-Man and the Mercs for Money battled Dracula and the monster army, while Deadpool compromised Shiklah’s integrity to end the monster invasion of New York City.

            Valeria Colon, widow of Ferraro Colon, came to Peter Parker and asked him to find the negatives of photographs he took of Spider-Man’s first fight with the supervillain the Vulture, a fight that caused the death of her husband, hoping those photos would give her some closure. Peter knew the negatives, if they still existed, would be locked in the archives of the Daily Bugle in New Jersey, so he decided to go as Spider-Man. Spider-Man found Deadpool and told him they should be more serious and to stop cracking jokes all the time and that it was insensitive. To Spider-Man’s surprise, Ms. Colon had also hired Deadpool to get the negatives as well. When the two arrived at the warehouse, they were attacked by the supervillain Slapstick, who had been hired by the mobster known as El Tenor to steal the negatives as well. The three temporarily teamed up against the underlings, but Slapstick double-crossed Spider-Man and Deadpool, but El Tenor double-crossed Slapstick. Spider-Man and Deadpool then had to find El Tenor and recover the negatives while Slapstick had to bargain for his life.

            Spider-Man, Nathan Skreemie, Thornton Blackball, Prof. Seymour Crippen, and Dorothy woke up in Arcade’s Murderworld, designed like a board game, and forced to fight for their lives. Spider-Man’s companions, aside from Dorothy, were all unsavory people. Arcade had invited supervillain the Stinger to Murderworld, but Deadpool stole his invitation. Deadpool arrived in Murderworld, where Arcade told Deadpool he was dying and wanted to leave Murderworld to Deadpool, all Deadpool had to do was help Arcade kill Spider-Man. Deadpool refused, and Arcade revealed he had been lying and dropped Deadpool into the game. The group were forced to struggle through Murderworld to save their lives and had to face off with a leveled-up Arcade to escape Murderworld.

            Parker Industries collapsed, S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, and Deadpool killed Agent Phil Coulson and became a wanted man, even by Spider-Man. Deadpool was seen on television selling S.H.I.E.L.D. technology, and Peter turned to his friend Barbara “Bobbi” Moorse/Mockingbird, former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for held finding Deadpool to bring him to justice. Deadpool was based on a stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier with Kate Waynesboro, Hellcow, Screwball, Clay Quartermain and Branch, Manphibian, and super sharks Deborah and Bruce. Spider-Man found the Helicarrier, and he and Deadpool landed in Tabula Rasa where they ran into former X-Man Paige Guthrie/Husk. The three discovered a fake Deadpool and it was supervillain the Chameleon. Deadpool’s team came to the rescue, but Chameleon got his hands on a file about Project Doppelganger.

            Deadpool and his team decided to get their hands on more S.H.I.E.L.D. tech and broke into an old S.H.I.E.L.D. facility called Area 14. Spider-Man arrived and battled Deadpool, but Deadpool escaped with a haul of S.H.I.E.L.D. tech. The Chameleon snuck in and stole a piece of tech that would power up Project Doppelganger, a collection of Life Model Decoys of superheroes and villains. He commandeered a Life Model Decoy of Kraven the Hunter to battle Spider-Man, Deadpool and his team. Chameleon then began an auction on the Life Model Decoys he had stolen. Spider-Man and Cindy Moon/Silk battled a Life Model Decoy of the Hulk, then the two confronted Deadpool, Clay Quartermain and Branch, and Deborah and Bruce. Chameleon then attempted to blow them all up. The group survived. They joined up with Mockingbird, only to be assaulted by an army of Life Model Decoys.

            In the far future, Peter Parker was an old man. He had retired from being Spider-Man after he was nearly cut in half and stitched back together, and he and Wade Wilson were in the same retirement home. Wade had been keeping Peter alive with transfusions of his regenerative blood, a fact Peter was unaware of. After Wade orchestrated a string of robberies in the retirement home, Peter got the fire back in him and decided to be Spider-Man again. Spider-Man and Deadpool escaped from the retirement home and went after a Life Model Decoy of Deadpool. They defeated it, but accidentally activated an army of Deadpool Life Model Decoys. Spider-Man and Deadpool teamed up with the Fantastic Four to battle the Deadpool Life Model Decoys, and Wade decided to travel to the past to fix it.

            Okay, so now that we have the scenario out of the way, let’s get to my part of the review. First off, I will say that I thought that this was a relatively enjoyable book. There was a lot to like about it. The book was a lot of fun to read for me. I thought the titular story was great. I loved how Camper Van Helsing roped Dracula into helping the heroes by beating him at a video game. I thought that was just brilliant. I liked the twist of El Tenor’s identity in the “No Laughing Matter” storyline. I thought that was interesting. The Murderworld storyline was good. “Arms Race” was interesting, I loved the telepathic sharks Bruce and Deborah. “Area 14” was good. “Oldies” was well written, I liked Old Man Parker and Old Man Wilson and the future Fantastic Four, I thought they were engaging. Overall, I thought the writing was decent. As for the art, I thought it was exemplary. I found it to be pleasurable to look at and a visual treat. It made reading a lot more enjoyable to have such great artwork at the points when the story fell a little flat, which happened here and there, but on the plus side, that was not a consistency. I enjoyed having the Chameleon as a villain, having a big-name Spider-Man villain in this series made the stakes a little higher, and I thought that was a good thing. And the assortment of Monsters Underground were familiar faces, and I thought that was entertaining. But there were points where the story did fall a little flat, I hate to say. This volume wasn’t as good as I was hoping, and it was not as good as the first volume, but I guess it could be I had high expectations, and I just didn’t quite get what I wanted and that was a little disappointing and that did detract from my enjoyment factor. I also must complain about how they mixed in the “Oldies” and “Area 14” storylines together in a mishmash that made little sense and got a little confusing.

            Next, we’re going to discuss accessibility. I’ve explained this dozens of times, but I’ll do it again because I know some of you have never read one of my reviews before, so I must explain again. When I say accessibility, I mean how easy it is to pick up this book and read it, even if you know little or nothing about Spider-Man and Deadpool. I feel like the accessibility level for this book is a little low. One of the main reasons I say this is for the titular storyline being a crossover between three series, “Spider-Man/Deadpool,” “Deadpool,” and “Deadpool and the Mercs for Money.” The Mercs for Money are characters that are obscure, some of them even I know relatively little about. Also, there’s reference to other series here and there, like Deadpool killing Agent Coulson, which happened outside this series, and Parker Industries, which changes status in the Marvel Universe outside of this book from a big tech business to being completely shut down, and no explanation is given in this book for it other than a few lines which really don’t do much. Also, there are a few other obscure characters used in this book, like Clay Quartermain and Husk. However, I will say this doesn’t draw too much from the previous volume of the series. I think you could read this book without reading the first volume. So, I will tell you that if you know about Shiklah and the Mercs for Money, you could read this book without reading the first volume and probably not feel like you missed anything. Other than that, there were no events that directly tied-in around this time. But if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before, I don’t suggest this book as a starting point as backgrounds on the characters are not given, so if you don’t know they characters, you will probably not get what is going on with them.

            Okay, I’ve gone on long enough, you’re probably getting bored now and just want me to get to the point, so I think I’ll do that. The main point of all my reviews is my score. I give my reviews a numeric score on a scale of one to ten. One means this is a steaming pile of garbage and should be avoided at all costs, ten means this is pure gold and needs to be read. My regular readers know I’m not in the habit of handing out tens to graphic novels unless they’re sheer perfection, and I’m not sure if that’s ever actually happened with a graphic novel before. Now, of course, you can tell this book is not at the top or bottom of either spectrum based just on all of what I’ve said. This book is particularly hard for me to score. But, of course, I’m obligated to do so, so I’ll have to do it. So, of course, I must take everything into consideration when I score a graphic novel, story, and art. So, taking everything into account, and judging it all together and churning out a score, I give it… a seven. The story was okay, but the art was great, so that really boosted the score there.

            Next, we’re going to talk about if I give my recommendation or not. Now, that’s a definite yes. I’d recommend it to any fans of the Spider-Man or Deadpool comics from the 2010s in particular, but I’d recommend it to just any Spider-Man or Deadpool reader. If you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before, I don’t recommend this as a starting point, however. Still, if you’ve read this review and want to read this book, I think you should go for it, there really should be little stopping you other than not knowing who the Mercs for Money are.

            Okay, I think I’ve said about all I really need to say at this point. So, I’ll wrap up in just a few more sentences. First off, timcubbin.blogspot.com has dozens of reviews of books, so you can check all those out. I post on a very frequent basis. I should have a new review in the next three days, so be sure to check that out. I also have written several short stories, some poetry, a bunch of editorials, some articles and essays, all kinds of content on this site, so if you liked this post, please feel free to keep browsing. Keep coming back for more because I will be posting more. And I say to you, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!