"New Avengers: Civil War"

The following is a review of the graphic novel “New Avengers: Civil War” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

Steve Rogers/Captain America, Tony Stark/Iron Man, Luke Cage, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Logan/Wolverine, Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman and Robert Reynolds/Sentry united again a common threat and became the New Avengers to fight the foes no single superhero could withstand.

Tony Stark and Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four were called to the Louisiana Bayou to investigate a spaceship which had been discovered, a ship that had been buried for a long time. The ship was transported to Stark Tower, where the Avengers and the rest of the Fantastic Four Sue Storm-Richards/Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Ben Grimm/Thing attempted to open it. Upon being successful, the two teams were attacked by a crew of Kree Warriors who had been sent long before to secure the planet as a battle station for the Kree Empire before the Skrulls could. The Kree and Skrulls had been at war for a long time, but the war had ended years ago on the Kree Homeworld. Tony Stark had to convince the Kree that Earth was not home to the Skrulls and not worth the Kree attempting to take over.

Captain America turned to Matt Murdock/Daredevil for assistance in stopping Kenuichio Harada/Silver Samurai, a supervillain who had recently escaped from the prison the Raft the night the New Avengers were formed and was brought to Japan by an organization, potentially the Ninja assassins the Hand or Clan Yashida, a Japanese Crime family. Murdock refused to join the Avengers, afraid that the recent exposure of his secret identity as a superhero would bring bad press to the Avengers, but offered Ronin, who had the same training, fighting styles, and knowledge of the Hand and Clan Yashida as Murdock. The Avengers traveled to Japan to find the Silver Samurai with Viper/Madame Hydra along with the forces of Hydra and the Hand. The Avengers fought Hydra and the Hand, and Viper attempted to escape. Spider-Woman cornered her, and the two discussed their secret deal before Viper allowed herself to get captured. The Avengers then confronted the Silver Samurai. The Avengers then boarded their Quinjet to return home, where Spider-Woman released the hatch, allowing Viper to escape. Upon returning home, Captain America confronted Spider-Woman to learn where her loyalties lied. Jessica had joined Hydra at an early age but had defected to S.H.I.E.L.D. Eventually she lost her powers, but Connely, an agent of Hydra, offered to give them back. Jessica turned to Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who told her to take the offer and feed Hydra information about S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to eventually get enough information about Hydra to take the organization down. Jessica underwent the procedure and got her powers back better than ever, and her and Fury’s plan worked… until Fury was forced to go underground, and Maria Hill was named Acting Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Jessica revealed her situation to the Avengers while in touch with Fury. Fury refused to reveal his location, but informed the New Avengers that they were about to have to go public because speculation about the Sentry’s watchtower atop Stark Tower was drawing notice. The Avengers called a press conference and revealed the formation of the new team to the world at large.

Following an event that went on to be called “the House of M,” most of the world’s mutants woke up to discover that they had lost their powers, but the truth that Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch had altered reality was kept hidden from the general public to keep the remaining few hundred mutants safe from anti-mutant hysteria. An energy blast from space came down onto North Pole, Alaska and obliterated the town, save one man, with powers, who was going on a destructive spree into Canada. The Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight was called in by S.H.I.E.L.D. to fight the man, but they were easily defeated, and the man continued. The New Avengers, who were doing impact police work in Detroit, were called in by S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man asked Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel for assistance, and Captain America asked Maria Hill for assistance from S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Daisy Johnson. However, the Sentry refused to answer the call along with the rest of the New Avengers, afraid that his antithesis the Void would arrive should he use his powers. Iron Man confronted the man, who revealed his name to be Michael, and the two were in dialogue, with Michael almost calmed down, when Ms. Marvel misinterpreted the situation and attacked Michael, enraging him, and reigniting the cosmic level powers she used to have as Binary. Iron Man called in the android former Avenger the Vision, who had the hard drive files belonging to the Avengers, to discover if Michael was a threat they had faced before. The Avengers, including the Sentry, battled Michael, and lost. They discovered that while they had never fought Michael before, they had fought his power sources before: the combined powers of the mutants who lost their abilities following the House of M. Spider-Man, who had been aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, was knocked out and apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents so Maria Hill could learn about the House of M. The Avengers followed Michael to the former mutant island nation Genosha, which had been destroyed by Sentinel robots a while before, where the former mutant Eric Lensherr/Magneto had been living in hiding. Michael’s powers went into Magneto, granting Magneto the powers, and the power source was revealed to be Xorn, a former enemy of the X-Men. The New Avengers, Daisy Johnson, and Ms. Marvel then had to fight the Xorn powered Magneto.

Yelena Belova/Black Widow had been burned during a previous encounter with the New Avengers. Hydra offered a chance at revenge and the return of her pretty face if she were to join them. They teamed up with Advanced Idea Mechanics to turn Yelena into a Super Adaptoid, able to absorb any powers used against her and be able to use them herself. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, who had just had a baby together, decided to get married. Yelena attacked Stark Tower and fought the New Avengers. Following the fight, Luke and Jones tied the knot.

Many years ago, Iron Man, Doctor Stephen Strange, Charles Xavier/Professor X, Reed Richards, Black Bolt, Namor and T’Challa/Black Panther met in Wakanda to have a discussion. Following the Kree-Skrull War, that the gathered parties all had prior bits of knowledge about before the conflict hit Earth, Tony Stark pitched the idea of the group of them all pooling their resources and information and working together so this kind of situation would never happen again. The others were not receptive of this idea, and all turned down this proposition. However, they did settle on forming a secret committee, where they would regularly discuss situations, but none of their family members, friends, or teammates could have knowledge of this committee… all except T’Challa, who advised them not to do this. Many years later, the group met to discuss how to manage the threat of the Hulk. The plan was to exile Hulk into deep space where he would no longer be a threat to anyone or himself again, and while Namor did not approve of the plan, the other set it into action. The committee met for the final time to discuss the proposed Superhuman Registration Act, which would require anyone with superpowers to register with the government, reveal their identity, and submit to training and a job as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. Refusal to do so would be considered a federal crime. The discussion did not go well, and the committee fell apart.

After Stamford, Connecticut was destroyed in a fight between the New Warriors and a group of supervillains, the Superhuman Registration Act came closer to becoming law. Iron Man decided to come out in favor of it. Captain America was called upon to hunt down his fellow heroes who were in defiance of the Superhuman Registration act, but he chose to oppose it and became a public enemy in the process. Captain America was able to find an ally with Sam Wilson/Falcon, but when he turned to Hank Pym, he was turned down. When the Superhuman Registration Act was passed, Tony Stark went to Luke Cage to attempt to convince him to register. Luke refused and told Jessica Jones to take the baby and leave the country and not to watch the television. Luke was targeted by a S.H.I.E.L.D. team, who attempted to apprehend him, but with the help of Captain America, Falcon, and Daredevil, he was able to escape. Spider-Woman’s double agent status was uncovered by Maria Hill, who called in a S.H.I.E.L.D. team to arrest her. She was brought aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, which was attacked by a Hydra squad that tried to crash the Helicarrier and rescued her. She managed to escape Hydra and turned to Captain America’s resistance team. The Sentry tried to stay out of the superhuman Civil War that was occurring and went to the moon. He was attacked by the Inhumans, who then invited him to dinner and an overnight stay. Iron Man arrived and recruited Sentry to his pro-registration movement but caused a conflict with the Inhumans in the process. A disgruntled former Stark Industries employee infiltrated Avengers Tower and shut down Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor and attempted to set off a bomb that would wipe Avengers Tower from existence. Maria Hill had to use S.H.I.E.L.D. tech to sneak into Avengers Tower and rescue Tony and save Avengers Tower.

Following the conclusion of the Superhuman Civil War, Tony Stark was forced to consider if the cost of the war was worth all the outcomes.

Alright, we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, now let’s get to my part of the review. First off, let me say that I loved this book. I totally thought the stories were great. Some of my longtime readers have seen that I’ve done reviews of “Civil War” before, but this one is actually quite different from the others based on the content contained in it. Not all of the stories in this book were Civil War, so there’s actually new material to review this time. I recently reviewed the previous volume and stated that I am a huge fan of the work of Brian Michael Bendis, and I really feel like he hit the mark on this book. I highly enjoyed the Fantastic Four story; I thought the ending was just so cleverly written. The Ronin story was great, and I loved the double agent story with Spider-Woman. I liked the story with the reveal of the New Avengers, then ending with the Daily Bugle was truly unexpected based simply on the writing at the start of the issue. I thought the House of M follow-up story was interesting. The wedding issue was well-written, Yelena’s fate just blindsided me. The Illuminati issue is one I have literally read over one hundred times, and I never get tired of it, I enjoy it every time. The Civil War stories were all great ways of highlighting the characters. The Confession issue truly depressed me, though, but I honestly can’t talk much about it without giving away spoilers, so I’ll leave off from there. The problem for me was that there were too many artists, and some of the artists just didn’t do it for me, I hate to say it. There were just some issues with artwork that didn’t appeal to my eyes. Overall, though, I thought this was a really superb book.

Next, let’s talk about accessibility. I know some of you may not understand what I mean by this, so I will have to explain. I mean if a person with no knowledge of the New Avengers can just pick up this book and read it. I will say this book has incredibly low accessibility. This book actually focuses on two events without actually including those events within its pages, House of M and Civil War. So, if you don’t know either of these stories, you will probably have great difficulty understanding this book. I will say that even though this book is called “New Avengers: Civil War,” it is not actually a “Civil War” graphic novel, it just contains some issues that tie in to “Civil War” and they slapped the title “Civil War” on it because that’s what will sell the book, but if you’re buying a book hoping for “Civil War,” this book is not actually it. This book also calls on knowledge of what happens to Captain America after “Civil War.” So, I will say if you don’t know Marvel Comics at all, you will not be able to read this book very well. It’s not a jump-on point for new readers.

Okay, let’s move on to my numeric score. I’ve been going on for quite a while now and you’re probably starting to get bored of me. So, here’s how the scoring works. I go on a scale of one through ten. One is the lowest score I can give, which means this book is absolute trash. Ten is then obviously the highest score I can give, and that means that this book is perfection, and I have hardly ever read books better than this one. So, you’ve probably gathered that this is not getting anywhere near a one, since I have given this book such high praise. However, I can tell you that this book is not a ten. Now, we must consider that this is a GRAPHIC novel, which means that I must take two things into consideration when I score this book: both story and art. As I stated before, I had some problems with some of the artists, and that means I must dock something there. I will also say that the stories, while quite good, even on their own, were this all a prose novel, still would not be a ten. So, we’re looking at docking there. So, as I take everything into consideration on this book, both story and art, throw everything into the blender, make a smoothie, and churn out the score, I rate this book at… seven! Look, I would love to give it an eight, but the stories alone would be a nine and the art was just too inconsistent that I just had to dock two points. So, the seven is my final standing. I loved the stories, yes, but there were just too many different artists in one book, and that just caused such a complication for me, but a seven considering all that is still fairly good.

Next up, we’ll talk about if I give my personal recommendation and regardless of that to whom I’d recommend this book. So, I loved this book, so yes, it gets my recommendation. But again, this is not actually really a “Civil War” book, so if that’s what you’re looking for, I don’t recommend this book to you. If you’re a fan of “New Avengers” then yes, I recommend this book to you. If you’re a fan of Spider-Woman in particular, this is a perfect book for you as I feel this really highlights the character. If you’ve read House of M and Civil War, then I feel you should definitely read this book if you haven’t read these issues, they’re a good complement to those stories.

Okay, so I’ve kept you for quite a while and I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I feel like it’s time to wrap this up. I will tell you that this blog has a ton of content on it, as I said, I’ve written reviews of “Civil War” before, if you want, you can look for those, those were at the start of my time doing this blog so they go way back, but I feel like they’re worth looking at, you can see how my writing style has evolved over four years. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, editorials, articles, and other kinds of posts, so feel free to keep browsing on timcubbin.blogspot.com. I have another review coming up definitely sometime within the next three weeks, and I post very frequently, so you can always keep an eye out for new content. I think that this is all for now. So, I say to you, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

 

"New Avengers: Assembled"

 

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

            One day, Earth’s mightiest heroes had to unite to face a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were assembled, a team to combat the forces that no single hero could face alone. Over the years, the lineup and their funding changed, but their mission always remained the same.

            The Avengers faced the worst day they ever had to face. It started as a typical day at Avengers Mansion, and it turned into a catastrophe. Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Janet Van Dyne-Pym/Wasp, Kelsey Leigh/Captain Britain, and Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk were enjoying a meal when they were alerted of a security breach. They rushed outside to find Jack Hart/Jack of Hearts, an Avengers believed to be deceased, standing in their back court. Ant-Man attempted to talk to him, but Jack detonated, taking out Ant-Man in the process. Meanwhile, Tony Stark/Iron Man, United States’ Secretary of Defense, was giving a speech at the United Nations, when he inexplicably has a breakdown similar to an old pattern of his he had given up, and despite not giving into this pattern, he still exhibited its behavior. Hank Pym/Yellowjacket tried to calm him down, but his attempts failed as he threatened the delegate from Latveria. Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch attempted to comfort Tony, but the Avengers Code White alerted them to trouble at the Avengers Mansion. Steve Rogers/Captain America Sam Wilson/Falcon and a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents arrived at the Mansion just as an Avengers Quinjet came in for a crash landing on the Mansion. Android Avenger the Vision stepped out of the Quinjet and released five Ultron robots, one of the Avengers’ greatest enemies. The Avengers were able to defeat the Ultron robots, but She-Hulk went out of control and attacked the Avengers and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. Iron Man arrived and ended She-Hulk’s rampage, but Captain Britain and Wasp were critically injured, and Vision was destroyed. After a visit to the hospital, Captain America, Falcon, and Hawkeye returned to the Mansion to find every reserve member of the Avengers gathered outside, a gathering Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. did not approve of. The alien Kree armada suddenly arrived on Earth and began an attack. The Avengers battled the Kree until Hawkeye made the ultimate sacrifice to destroy the lead warship. The Kree then retreated. Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mystic Arts arrived to inform the Avengers these attacks were all being caused by magic and revealed the Avengers’ true enemy. The Avengers confronted their enemy and were able to put a stop to the attacks, but the cost was great.

            The Avengers reunited at the destroyed Mansion. Tony Stark had no choice but to step down from his position as Secretary of Defense, and the United States government, who had been funding the Avengers, decided to end their association with the team. Tony decided not to rebuild Avengers Mansion, and with no funding for the team, the Avengers felt like they had no choice but to disband and all go their separate ways. As a final tribute, the former Avengers discussed their favorite stories about the history of the Avengers, often stories that each member wasn’t even an active member of the team for. Then the Avengers were over.

            Six months later, Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four asked lawyer and outed superhero Matt Murdock/Daredevil to go to the Raft, the supervillain prison, to speak to an inmate named Robert Reynolds/Senty, who had been accused of killing his wife. He came with his associate Luke Cage and law partner Franklin “Foggy” Nelson and was escorted by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent and superhero Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman. During this visit, supervillain Maxwell Dillon/Electro executed a prison break, shutting down the power at the Raft and releasing all the inmates from their cells. Peter Parker/Spider-Man hitched a ride on a helicopter to the Raft to investigate and was greeted by Captain America. The gathered heroes battled to contain the villains, and Iron Man arrived on the scene. Though the heroes were able to keep forty-five villains from escaping, forty-two supervillains were able to escape from the Raft. Captain America was reminded of how the original Avengers came together by pure happenstance, and took this prison break as fate, and asked Tony to reform the Avengers. Cap was able to recruit Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Spider-Woman, but Daredevil turned down his offer. The heroes met at the newly established Stark Tower and Tony offered the top three floors to the new team. S.H.I.E.L.D. Deputy Director Maria Hill was informed of this development, and she was not happy with the idea of a new Avengers team, but since Cap had Full Champion License with S.H.I.E.L.D., he had the authority to assemble any team he saw fit to go on any mission he saw fit. The new Avengers were able to discover it was Electro who staged the prison break and were able to track him down and apprehend him. They then learned the prisoner he had been hired to break out was Karl Lykos/Sauron. As they tried to access the S.H.I.E.L.D. files pertaining to the breakout that Jessica had access to, they learned that the S.H.I.E.L.D. outpost in the Savage Land had gone offline, and the Savage Land was the place Lykos liked to call home. Upon arriving in the Savage Land, the new Avengers encountered X-Man Logan/Wolverine, who had gone to the Savage Land to find Lykos, who had previously been an adversary of the X-Men. The heroes were attacked by a group of mutates working with Lykos and were apprehended and brought to Lykos’ castle. While they were able to escape, Lykos was able to transform into Sauron, but the heroes and the villain and mutates were suddenly attacked by Yelena Belova/Black Widow and a squad of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. A confrontation ensued, and by the end, the Avengers learned S.H.I.E.L.D. engaged in some questionable activities they did not approve of. Tony also decided to invite Wolverine to join the Avengers as their last missing ingredient.

            Tony met with his associates in his superhuman alliance the Illuminati to discuss the new Avengers and the Senty, while Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman and Wolverine went to Long Island to apprehend the Wrecker, an escaped villain from the Raft who had gone looking for his mystic weapon that gave him his powers. Iron Man and Captain America were able to track the Sentry to the Nevada Desert, where they brought his wife who was very much alive, and Paul Jenkins, a comic book writer who was the only person who left any records of the Sentry’s entire existence. The Sentry was paranoid of his enemy the Void, who would come because Sentry used his powers, and whom Sentry was sure had killed Sentry’s wife. Sentry escaped from Nevada and went to New York, where he was confronted by the new Avengers, the astonishing X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Inhumans. While the Void attacked, Reed Richards and Emma Frost of the X-Men tried to discover the reason no one remembered the existence of the Sentry.

            Okay, so now that we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, let’s move on to my own personal opinions about this book. Let me say, I’m a huge fan of the works of Brian Michael Bendis, and in this book, I feel like he did a fantastic job. Ending the Avengers the way he did was so tragic. Ending several key members of so iconic a team and having them completely disband was a very bold move, then putting together a new team with heroes who have never truly been team players was a stroke of genius, then adding a character who already has an affiliation with another team was just excellent, and I thought Bendis pulled this all off exceptionally. Coming up with a reason for heroes to work together is always important, and I thought forming a team after a prison break like this was just brilliant. I enjoyed the concept of the Sentry being an established superhero that no one could remember, I thought that was totally inspired. I’ve always been a fan of Spider-Man ever since I was a little boy, so seeing him on an Avengers team back in 2004 when this series first came out was such a thrill for me. And I liked Wolverine being on a team of heroes other than one affiliated with the X-Men or other mutants, it was a welcome change. I enjoyed the humorous moments that were cleverly interspersed throughout this book, they were greatly appreciated. Spider-Man is known for being a wise-mouth, and Bendis did an excellent job writing him. The artwork, however, did not consistently appeal to me. Avengers Finale and New Avengers #7-10 didn’t quite please my eyes. Steve McNiven is an artist I really am not a fan of, I’m sorry to say, so seeing some of his work featured in this book was a bit of a turn off for me. It didn’t totally ruin the book for me, but I had a tough time enjoying the four issues he illustrated. Otherwise, I really can’t find much to complain about in this book.

            Next, we’re going to discuss accessibility. I know I’ve said this about five dozen times by now, but I know that there are still people who have never read one of my reviews before and may not understand what I mean by it, so I have to explain what I mean again, as much of a pain as it is for me to do. So, accessibility means just how easy it is to pick up and read and completely understand this book, particularly if you have no knowledge about Marvel or the Avengers. I’d say accessibility is a little low on this book. The first story, “Chaos” features some relatively unknown or underrated and underused characters, particularly Captain Britain, who is so obscure that I wasn’t even aware of her existence before reading this book. There’s a lot of history involved in this book as well. Also, Luke Cage and Spider-Woman are more obscure characters. And a lot of the villains featured in the Raft scene were lesser-known characters. Yes, this is listed as Vol. 1 and it is an origin story, but there’s so much backstory that may confuse readers who know nothing about Marvel Comics. I honestly can’t tell you what kind of knowledge would be minimally required to understand this book because I’ve been reading Marvel Comics for twenty-four years and know all these characters, but I don’t feel like this is a book for a person who has never read anything Marvel or seen any Marvel films or television shows. If you’re looking to start reading Avengers comics, this may seem like a perfect jump on point, and I would agree except for the fact that this book includes the ending of the original Avengers series, and I feel like that detracts from the accessibility, but hey, that’s just my opinion. All that said, this book also features New Avengers: Most Wanted Files, which is a dossier issue which gives profiles of the villains, so that does help clarify some of the history of the villains, so it’s not completely inaccessible with the obscure characters.

            Speaking of my opinion, I’ve been going on for a while now, and you’re probably getting bored of my driveling on, so let’s get to the point of why we’re here: my numeric score. So, let’s just get right to it then. I score on a very basic scale. I score between one and ten. One means this is a flaming pile of garbage. Ten means this is a mountain of gold. Now, you can probably guess the score of this book is going to be relatively good, considering all the praise I gave two paragraphs ago, and you would be completely right. However, this is a GRAPHIC novel, and I have to include both story and art when I distribute my numeric score in these reviews. So, while yes, I did love the story, there were some art issues that I just can’t look past. All that said, however, I’m still able to give this book a great score. And that great score is going to be… an eight! I loved this book so much, but the artwork forces me to detract some points, and the book wasn’t perfect enough to earn a nine, as much as I wish it were. But still, eight is a really good score.

            Next up, I’m going to tell you if I give this book my personal recommendation, and regardless, to whom I would recommend this book to. First off, it’s pretty obvious that I give this book my personal recommendation, but I must actually state it, or else it’s not official, so yes, indeed I recommend this book personally. As for to whom do I recommend this book to, if you’re an Avengers comics fan and have never read this book, I’m telling you, you need to read this book, it is essential. If you’re a fan of the Avengers from any other form of Marvel media and are looking to get into comics, I would recommend this book with a slight warning that you might not know every character in this book, but I still think you would enjoy it. If you’re reading this review and are interested in reading this book but don’t know anything about Marvel comics, I can’t quite recommend this, but I’m not going to tell you not to read it because I thought it was a really good book and don’t want to ruin some potential enjoyment time. Plus, the dossier issue is really informative and highly enjoyable, and I think it clarifies the history, so I can’t tell you not to read that.

            Okay, I think we’ve gotten to that point where I’ve said all that needs to be said about this book at this point, so I’m just going to start wrapping things up right now. First off, if you’re still here and reading at this point, thank you, you are THE BEST! I totally enjoy doing these reviews and will keep on doing these. I’ve literally written about five dozen reviews at this point, and there’s no end in sight. I have another review that should be coming up within the next four weeks, so keep an eye out for it. I’ve also written short stories, free verse poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. I’ve written some pieces called B’ings which are a total waste of time but are actually pretty funny if you want to check those out. I’ve written a review for the prose novel “New Avengers: Breakout” a long time ago with actually was an adaptation of one storyline contained in this book if you want to check that out for comparisons. Well, I’ll leave you to be doing whatever else you’d rather be doing with your life now, all I have left to say now is Tim Cubbin… out!

"Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets"

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format. It is NOT a review of any of the films, television series, or video games.

            It is a period of insurgence. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base on s moon of Yavin, have won a shocking surprise victory against the rightful reign of the Galactic Empire. The Empire’s ultimate peacekeeping force, the Death Star, was destroyed due to an unforeseen design flaw. Without this deterrent, the rule of law is in danger. Chaos looms. For the nineteen years after the vanquishing of the Jedi and his painful rebirth of volcanic Mustafar, Sith Lord Darth Vader has faithfully served his master. But now, he has failed the Emperor and must pay the price.

            Darth Vader, on a mission from Emperor Palpatine, traveled to the planet Tatooine to make a deal with crime lord Jabba the Hutt. In the process, Vader hired Jabba’s best bounty hunters Boba Fett and Black Krrsantan. Fett was to the pilot who was responsible for the destruction of the Death Star and Krrsantan was to find the agent engaged in secret work for the Emperor. Grand General Tagge assigned Vader an adjutant, Lieutenant Oon-Ai, and sent him on a mission to learn the source of pirates who had been raiding the Empire. Vader was able to learn that the leak actually was Oon-Ai. Darth Vader turned to rogue archeologist Doctor Aphra in search of private resources and troops on unquestioning loyalty. Aphra had just stolen the Triple-Zero personality matrix and used it to create 0-0-0-, a protocol droid specialized in torture, and to animate a Blastomech BT-1assassin droid. Aphra had heard from the Droid Gotra of a Droid Factory on the planet Geonosis, a planet that had been sterilized. Vader and Aphra traveled to Geonosis, where they found a surviving Queen and who thought of the droid producer as a womb and the droids as her children. Vader and Aphra were able to defeat the Queen and obtain the producer. Krrsantan found the Emperor’s agent Doctor Cylo-IV, and 0-0-0 was able to torture the information that the Emperor was planning to replace Vader before Cylo-IV expired. Vader found Cylo-IV’s base and discovered Cylo-V and his creations. Vader battled the cyborgs to the Emperor’s pleasure. After the fight, Fett returned to Vader with the name of the pilot who destroyed the Death Star: Skywalker, Vader’s own son, whom he believed had not survived childbirth.

            Vader and Aphra returned to Tatooine to search the house of Luke Skywalker but found nothing. They then went to Son-tuul to steal the Son-tuul fortune for the Empire. Aphra then hired a crew to steal the fortune while it was in transit to its new home in order to secure some money for Vader’s needs. Vader was assigned a new adjutant, Inspector Thanoth, and was tasked with taking down the Plasma Devils, a criminal organization that was considered an opposition to the Empire. Aphra went to an informant called the Ante and learned the location of Commodex Tahn, the mortician that dressed Padme Amidala, wife of Anakin Skywalker, the man Darth Vader used to be. 0-0-0 tortured Tahn into revealing that Padme had in fact given birth to a son before she died and that this son had in fact survived childbirth. Vader and his Stormtrooper army were tasked with finding the person responsible for stealing the Son-tuul fortune, and the trail led right to Aphra. Aphra had made a deal with the Ante in order to ensure her survival: she learned the location of Luke Skywalker before the Ante was slain. Sure enough, Vader allowed Aphra to escape. Vader later tracked Aphra down and extracted the location of Luke Skywalker to Vrogas Vas, but as it turned out, one of Vader’s competitors was listening in on this conversation.

            Vader traveled to the planet Shu-torun to bring an item from the Empire to its King. However, the King was planning to have Vader assassinated during this meeting. Vader was trapped in the bowels of Shu-torun with the King’s daughter Trios and forced to fight for his survival.

            Okay, so now that we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, let’s talk about my own personal opinions about this book. First off, I will say that I found this to be a highly entertaining book. In my opinion, Darth Vader is one of the greatest cinematic villains of all time, and him getting his own ongoing comic series was just fantastic, especially since I feel it was written so well. I thought Kieron Gillen did an exceptional job scripting these stories. I’ve read some of the “Star Wars” comics from recent years, and Doctor Aphra has actually been my favorite “Star Wars” comics created character, and I would love to see her appear in an upcoming television series or movie, so seeing her first appearance was an enjoyable experience for me. I loved the dynamic between her and Vader. That was actually my favorite thing about this book. The whole “I’ll let her live as long as she’s useful to me” deal was just brilliant. And I love her murder droids. As far as the art goes, I thought it was excellent. Salvador Larroca did an exemplary job illustrating this graphic novel. I’m usually a fan of his work, and in this book, he did not fail to impress me. I have to say, all around, I was greatly satisfied with this book and thought it was an entertaining read.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve literally typed this at least thirty times, but I know for some of you newbs I have to do it again, so I have to explain what I mean when I say “accessibility.” What that means is how easy this is to just pick up, read, completely understand, and enjoy, even if you know nothing about Star Wars or Darth Vader. So, I will say that this book does require knowledge of “Star Wars” to actually understand. Mostly you’d need to have seen “Episode IV: A New Hope,” but seeing “Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” “Episode II: Attack of the Clones,” and “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” would really help, too, but I feel like you could get away with having only seen “Episode IV: A New Hope,” but that is a prerequisite to actually get anything out of this book, or you will have no idea who these characters are or what’s going on in the story, it’s just essential. “Episodes I-III” are referenced in it, talking about Darth Vader’s history, particularly Padme, but I don’t feel like you absolutely have to have seen them in order to understand this book. However, “Episode IV” is a must see.

            Now let’s get down to the nitty gritty: my numeric score. Now, I score on a pretty simple scale: one to ten. One is the worst, ten is the best. If I give this book a one, it means that every copy of this book should be taken off the shelves, burned, and never reprinted. If I give it a ten, the only reason it shouldn’t be on the shelves is because every copy was sold out by the influx of readers who want to read this exemplary graphic novel. Now, I’m going to explain what a ten means. A ten means perfection. That means this book was written perfectly and the artwork was consistently pleasing to the visual palate. Now the question is, was this book a ten? So, I have to say… it just is not. Yes, the artwork was perfect. It’s exceedingly rare for me to say that a Modern Era Epic Collection had consistently pleasing art. I often find fault in one or more of the artists. Larroca and Yu did not disappoint me with their work. And Gillen did an excellent job with the stories. And yet it just wasn’t perfect, I’m sorry to say. Yes, the stories were all above par, but they just weren’t at the top shelf. I just can’t quite give this book a ten. I can, however, give it a solid nine gladly. This book was excellent, no doubt, but there’s just something holding me back from giving it a ten. I don’t quite know exactly what it is, but I just can’t, in good faith, just hand this book a ten if I don’t feel it deserves it. It does deserve the nine I gave it for sure, and that’s still really good. And to be honest, I’m really not often in the business of handing out tens. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve given out a ten on this blog before, without using a thumb, and this book just doesn’t belong on that hand, sadly to say.

            Next, we’re going to talk about if I give this book the Tim Cubbin personal recommendation and regardless of that, to whom do I recommend this book to? You would probably think that the answer to the first question is “yes,” and if that is your guess, you would be absolutely correct. I do give this book my personal recommendation. As to whom do I recommend this book to, that answer is to any “Star Wars” fan. If you like, enjoy, or love “Star Wars” in any capacity, this book is for you. I just say go get your hands on a copy of this book as soon as you can and read it, I think you will enjoy it.

            So now, we have reached the parting of ways. I can tell you that there are over one hundred posts on this blog, so if you liked this post, please do consider reading more from timcubbin.blogspot.com. You can look for my review of “Star Wars: Skywalker Strikes” if you want another “Star Wars” Modern Era Epic Collection review, and I’ve reviewed over ten other Modern Era Epic Collections at this point, so there are plenty more to read if you liked this. I post on a very frequent basis, so keep checking back frequently for more content. I should have another post coming up sometime in the next two weeks, so keep an eye out for that one. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s all kinds of posts you can read, you’ll probably find something else you’ll enjoy. If you like my book reviews, there are dozens of them on this blog, and there’s a new one coming up soon. I think we’ve come to the point where I have nothing more to say, so I’ll let you get back to your life and do something that’s actually important. I’ve wasted a few minutes of your life, this has been four hours of mine, but I honestly don’t mind doing it for you folks. Feel free to drop a comment, like, share, retweet, whatever you want to do on this site. If you read all the way up to this point, you are THE BEST! And now, all I can say to you is, Tim Cubbin… out!