"Star Wars: Yoda's Secret War"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Star Wars: Yoda’s Secret War” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                It was a time before the Clone Wars, during the twilight of the Old Republic. Jedi Master Yoda had just rescued a young boy strong in the Force when he heard a calling. It led him to a planet that didn’t appear on any of his star maps. Upon landing and disembarking from his ship, he found himself surrounded by a group of children warriors called the Muckwhackers. They accused him of being a monster sent by their adversaries the Rockhawkers and attacked him. Yoda protected himself using the Force, and the children believed him to have strong Stonepower and to be the Deliverer. The Muckwhackers took Yoda to their home of Mucktown and showed him their Skyscreamers, who had used their Stonepower and their minds to scream for help. The Muckwhackers explained that the blue mountains granted the people of that world their Stonepower, but greed caused division and a war started, and all of their parents had lost the war and been cast into the mud. Two Muckwhackers got into a fight, and when the blue stones of their spears touched, Yoda felt a disturbance, as if the planet wanted to tear itself apart. The Muckwhackers had captured a Rockhawker scout. The Muckwhackers let him go with Yoda to return to the other Rockhawkers. Yoda was surprised to find that they were also all children. The Rockhawkers attacked Yoda and abducted him, then ordered him to go into a cave to find the Heart of the Mountain. While in the cave, Yoda found the missing parents, who had abandoned their children. Deeper in the cave, Yoda found a young Rockhawker named Garro, who had been exiled for his perceived weakness for not killing in battle. Yoda asked Garro to teach him the ways of Stonepower and for Garro to become Yoda’s Master. Garro agreed to train Yoda. During their training, Yoda and Garro discovered that the mountain wasn’t really a mountain but actually a barely living creature, and the Heart of the Mountain was the creature’s actual beating heart. Yoda awakened the creature, and he and Garro departed. The Rockhawkers asked Yoda what the secret of the mountain was, but Yoda refused to tell. Garro, however, revealed that the mountain was not really a mountain but a living thing and told Yoda that Yoda was no longer Garro’s student. Yoda returned to the Muckwhackers to ask them to help them wake the sleeping world, and together, they battled the creature. He then left this world and told no one of this adventure except for fellow Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi so he could pass on the lesson he learned, and Kenobi recorded it in his journal.

While searching for answers in his quest to become a Jedi, Luke Skywalker uncovered a journal written by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The journal detailed Kenobi’s adventures during the time he was in hiding on Tatooine—including when Obi-Wan rescued a young Luke from Jabba the Hutt’s thugs during the Great Drought. Luke’s Uncle Owen Lars ordered Obi-Wan to stay away from Luke. A year after the Great Drought, Luke crashed Owen’s speeder, and Owen vowed Luke would never fly again. Obi-Wan, who was watching over Luke from afar,  believed Luke would have to fly one day and tried to sneak the parts to Luke through a group of Jawas that he assisted against Tuskan Raiders, but only succeeded in angering Owen, who returned the parts. Jabba hired Wookie bounty hunter Black Krrsantan to find the person responsible for defeating his water tax collectors during the Great Drought. Owen decided to renege on his vow and bought the parts to repair the speeder. As Owen was returning home, Luke was running away. Owen was abducted by Black Krrsantan. Luke sensed his uncle was in trouble and returned home. Obi-Wan came to try to rescue Owen from Black Krrsantan, and while Obi-Wan was the one who defeated the Wookie, it was Luke who saved Owen.

It was an era of renewed hope for the Rebellion. The evil Galactic Empire’s greatest weapon, the Death Star, had been destroyed by the young rebel pilot, Luke Skywalker. But Imperial forces still stood strong. Rebel spy Eneb Ray had infiltrated Coruscant, working under an Imperial guise and the name Tharius Demo. He quickly learned that some missions prove to be much more complicated than others. Princess Leia Organa informed Ray that Senator Nadea Tural and the Anti-Imperial Senators were about to be executed and instructed him to extract them from Arrth-Eno Prison Complex. During the breakout attempt, Ray learned that the Emperor was coming to witness the executions. He asked Leia to quickly assemble a team of Rebel agents to eliminate the Emperor. The assassination attempt failed, and in retaliation, the Emperor blew up Arrth-Eno, then broadcast a propaganda video, blaming the Rebels for the destruction of the prison.

After narrowly escaping another frightening encounter with Darth Vader, rebel heroes Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo took the evil Sith Lord’s secret ally, droid and weapon specialist Dr. Aphra, captive aboard the Millenium Falcon. Their mission to free the galaxy from the grasp of the Emperor continued as the Princess teamed with smuggler Sana Starros, while Luke and Han paired together on a secret mission for the Rebellion. Dr. Aphra was transported to secret Rebel jail Sunspot Prison and placed in Cell Block Nine. Sana was trying to hide her secret past with Aphra from Leia. Han got caught cheating at Sabacc and lost the Rebellion’s money, and he and Luke had to run away. A group of raiders infiltrated Sunspot Prison to kill the prisoners and to force Leia into killing some of the prisoners herself. Luke and Han tried to make money back for the Rebellion by transporting Nerfs. Leia released Aphra to help her and Sana survive and retake control of the prison. Sana and Aphra butted heads every step of the way, with Sana unable to trust Aphra given their shared history. Han and Luke arrived at Sunspot Prison but were knocked out. Leia confronted the mastermind behind the infiltration and stopped him. Leia and Sana then had to decide what to do with Aphra.

Kreel was assigned as Sergeant to the Imperial Scar Squadron. The planet Tureen VII, which had been providing aid to the Rebellion, was under siege by the Empire. The Rebellion wanted to destroy the Imperial bases set up on the planet’s twin moons, but they couldn’t risk sending their fleet to assist, so they needed something big, such as a Star Destroyer. The Millenium Falcon and Red Squadron battled Imperial Star Destroyer Harbinger. The Rebellion won and the Imperials abandoned the Star Destroyer, and the Rebellion took over the Harbinger. Leia and Han argued over who should be Captain. Ultimately, Leia won the argument. Luke and Sana investigated a shuttle that appeared near the Harbinger, and Sana blew it up. Scar Squadron snuck aboard the Harbinger. Luke and Sana went to investigate the break-in, and Luke was attacked by Kreel. Luke and Kreel had a Lightsaber duel. Darth Vader personally came to attack the Harbinger. The Harbinger was destroyed, but the Rebels were able to escape, except Rebel droid C-3PO was captured by Imperial forces.

Luke and R2-D2, who had a strong attachment to C-3PO, decided to recue him from the Imperials. While Luke was on the way, he started to read the journal of Ben Kenobi, which Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi had left for Luke, as Luke hoped it would make him a better Jedi. Luke read about Yoda’s secret war. Luke figured out which planet Yoda had been to and decided to see it for himself but arrived on the planet before he finished reading the story. Luke was confronted by Garro, and the two fought. The fight ended when Garro realized he had learned his final lesson from Yoda.

It was a pivotal moment in the galaxy. As the Empire continued to exert its oppressive force, the Rebel Alliance stood strong against their tyranny for the good of all. While heroic Rebellion agents like Princess Leia of Alderaan strove to undermine Imperial strongholds, the Galactic Empire continued to dominate and had doubled it efforts to eliminate anyone who would stand against its rule. Some chose to fight against waves of Imperial stormtroopers, while others chose the relative safety and security of obedience-and then there were those who refused to take a side at all. On the planet Skorii-Lei, Pash Davane, who had once been an underwater engineer, had been forced to become a janitor. She discovered an injured Princess Leia, and against her better judgement, chose to nurse her back to health. However, when Leia woke up, the two did not get along, but still Pash chose to help Leia to escape. They had to face several perils along the way, such as stormtroopers, before Leia could rejoin the Rebellion, and Pash had to rethink her life.

Phew, that was a lengthy synopsis. Now we can get on to my own personal part of a Tim Cubbin review. First off, we’re going to start with my reflections on this book. I’ll start by saying that I found the stories in this book to be highly entertaining. I will also say that this felt very “Star Wars,” which is what I was hoping for when I purchased this book. I would hate to have bought a book branded “Star Wars” that didn’t feel like it fit in with the source material, but I feel like Jason Aaron, Kieron Gillen, and Kelly Thompson really respected the “Star Wars” canon. I can actually say that I feel like the writers of the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” Disney+ series disrespect Aaron by contradicting the “From the Journals of Old Ben Kenobi” issues, as these issues actually came out several years before the show. But that’s just my opinion. Anyway, I constructed this review chronologically rather than by the way it was printed in the book to avoid storyline confusion, so what you read in my review was not actually the way the book was published, I just structured it this way as a courtesy to you. I grew up loving “Star Wars,” I watched the original trilogy with my Grandpa when I was a kid, and I’m actually currently watching “Star Wars” in timeline order on Disney+ (I’m currently on Season Three of “The Mandalorian” if you really want to know). So, I liked all the stories. Let’s go over them in the order I’ve discussed them. So, we’ll start with “Yoda’s Secret War” earlier past. I found it clever that Aaron wrote the children as not knowing about the Force and calling it “Stonepower.” It was interesting to me how the children had taken up the parents’ war and exiled their parents. I loved how the mountain was actually a living creature. I liked Yoda choosing to become Garro’s student. Next, we’ll talk about “From the Journal of Old Ben Kenobi.” I felt like the first part was a little slow and uneventful, but I did find the second part to be a lot more enjoyable and action-packed, and it really picked up the story. Annual #1 was particularly interesting because it introduced a new character to the “Star Wars” universe, and he actually turned out to be more important that I originally would have thought him to be. I enjoyed the ending of the Emperor using the spin on the Empire’s evil deed with their propaganda video, I thought that was a brilliant stab in the heart ending, and the bitterness really hit. “Rebel Jail” was actually my favorite story in the book. I enjoy the character of Dr. Aphra and always love seeing her on the pages. The story had a lot of action and was very intense, and the villain was a great surprise, but I refuse to give the spoiler, I want you to actually need to read this book to find out the ending so you can be surprised, too, but I thought it was a great twist. “The Last Flight of the Harbinger” was also enjoyable, but I felt like there were a few periods where there were dull moments, but there were a lot of good moments to enjoy that made up for the slight periods of boredom. As for “Yoda’s Secret War” later past, I liked how the two periods connected and the importance of Yoda’s story was felt in Luke’s story, and I felt like it really worked. Next up, we’re going to talk about the art. I was highly disappointed by the artwork in this graphic novel. I found it to be extremely unenjoyable. It was exceptionally visually displeasing, and I hated looking at the art as I read this book. Ironically, one of the artists was Salvador Larroca, who I complained about in my last review, “Iron Man: The New Iron Age,” for those of you keeping score, and once again, I will gripe about his artwork in this book as being unlikeable, although I will say that I feel like he was better suited for “Star Wars” than “Iron Man” based on his art style and I actually feel like he was my favorite artist is this Collection, which is extremely unfortunate, and I’m not trying to be hostile to the other artists, I just really disliked their styles, I’d never mean to be truly disrespectful while posting a book review. I think the final thing I need to reflect on is the title. The title of an Epic Collection can be a make-or-break factor with me. If I feel like the title is inappropriate for the volume, I will deduct from the score. When I heard about the title, I thought for sure this would be a break. After all, I knew this to take place after “A New Hope” but before “The Empire Strikes Back” and at that point, Yoda was not part of the story. Fortunately, there was the extensive series of backstory, and his backstory tied into Luke’s story in a later point in the timeline, and this was one of the two longest stories in this Collection, so I will not fault this book for the title, I find it to be absolutely appropriate for this book.

Moving on from this point, the next topic on our agenda is accessibility. Now, I know I’ve said this over six dozen times, but I have to say it once again for anyone who has never read one of my reviews before: what the heck do I mean by “accessibility?” To put it quite simply, accessibility means how easy it is to pick up this book and read it and understand everything you’ve read in this book, even if you have no prior knowledge of the source material. So, I feel like if you want to read this book and basically understand it, all you need to have seen is “Star Wars: A New Hope” and you must have read the content in the previous collected volume of the series. Having seen “The Phantom Menace,” “Attack of the Clones,” and “Revenge of the Sith” will help with more of the background knowledge, but not having seen them shouldn’t be too much of an inhibition. However, “A New Hope” and first fourteen issues of “Star Wars (2015)” and the “Star Wars: Vader Down” event are all you truly need to have consumed before embarking on partaking in this book.

Next up, we’re going to the bread-and-butter section of my review: the numeric score. Once again, I’ve explained my system over six dozen times now, but I am compelled to do it once again, so here I go. So really, it’s quite simple; I score on a scale from one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and that means that this book is complete, unreadable trash that should all be collected in one pile and burned from existence. Ten is the best possible score I can give, and that means that this book is sheer perfection and one of the best reading experiences I’ve ever had. I don’t give tens very often because I very rarely find a book to fit my definition of perfection. And as you can tell from my description of this book from the past several paragraphs, it is not perfection. So, let’s talk about what it actually is. So, we have stories that, while entertaining, had several moments of dullness and were, at best, mediocre. And we have artwork that was substandard and a visual nightmare. Those two factors do not look promising. But we have a few other things we can add. We have a title that is appropriate. And we have a book that is from a film franchise source that was truly respectful to its source material and felt like it fit in perfectly with that created universe. So those are a few other things I’m taking into account while giving a score to this book. So, all said and done, all cards on the table, everything thrown into the blender, turned on, mixed until completely liquified, we’re taking the score out and what we’re looking at is… a seven. There’s a good chance I could have gone lower, but I feel like a seven is actually very appropriate for this book and stand by my decision when doling out this score and that it is actually a very good score.

Finally, we’re going to talk about if I personally recommend this book and who I feel should be reading this book. So, in answer to if this book gets the personal Tim Cubbin seal of approval and recommendation, yes, it does. As for who should be reading it, I feel like if you are a fan of “Star Wars,” you should definitely make every effort to read this book, I think it will be an interesting read for you and hope you will find enjoyment in the story like I did, and if you actually like the art unlike me, I think that would be great for you.

Anyway, it’s been a long while that I’ve been going on for, we’re all ready to be getting on with our lives, but there are a few things I do need to say first before I begin the process of posting this on my blog site and then promoting it. I’ve been doing this blog for five years now and have done over 160 posts. If you liked this book review, there are tons of other reviews of Marvel Epic Collections, Modern Era Epic Collections, Ultimate Epic Collections, Marvel Comics Events, Marvel prose novels, and several other book reviews that are not Marvel, but the majority of this website is reviews of Marvel works. I’ve also done other content, such as short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. If this review seems extremely professional to you, it’s because I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, so I am qualified to be doing this professionally, but due to circumstances in my life, I’m relegated to working in a grocery store, but I honestly don’t mind that that’s what my life is. Anyway, I post on this blog on a very frequent basis, as I collect every single Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection when they are released. Right now, we won’t have another Ultimate Epic Collection until March 2026, but there are plenty of upcoming Modern Era Epic Collections. I usually try to review every one of these books after I read them, I pretty much have succeeded in doing that, there are a few I’ve missed due to circumstances such as not having a laptop or just having an inconvenience, but I’ve reviewed almost every Modern Era Epic Collection except for four of them, hopefully that can be remedied someday, but I’ve reviewed all four Ultimate Epic Collections released at this point in time. There’s another Modern Era Epic Collection being released two weeks after the day after I am posting this review, so you can expect to see a review of that coming up sometime in the next six weeks. I just have to procure it and read it and then I can post a review of it. For those of you “Star Wars” fans, there are two other “Star Wars” Modern Era Epic Collection reviews on this site, “Star Wars: Skywalker Strikes” and “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets,” so if you are interested, feel free to check those out, too, I think you will find those entertaining, and there will be another “Star Wars” Modern Era Epic Collection review coming up sometime in the next two months, so be ready for that, and feel free to keep exploring timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. That’s all for now, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Iron Man: The New Iron Age"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Iron Man: The New Iron Age” as presented in Mavel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Jun Shan was an award-winning filmmaker. On the night of winning a Golden Dragon for best film, he and his wife Chuntao were abducted by the supervillain, the Mandarin. The Mandarin gave Jun no choice but to make a film about the life of the Mandarin. As Jun interviews the Mandarin for details of his life, the Mandarin told lies in order to conceive what he thought would make the most award-winning film of all time. Jun went out to do research to learn the truth of the Mandarin’s life. Jun and the crew of the film secretly conspired behind the Mandarin’s back to show the true story of the Mandarin. The Mandarin wanted the villain of the film to be his archnemesis Tony Stark/Iron Man, and decided the film would end with the death of Tony Stark by the Mandarin’s hands, an event that did not actually happen. Jun shot the film as the Mandarin instructed, planning to humiliate him at the premiere and escape with his life and his wife.

            Tony Stark had recently erased his memory and got most of it back. In 2011 he turned to former Stark Industries employee Peter Parker/Spider-Man for help finding stolen plans for a Stark weapon. The two had been working on it before Tony fired Peter, and Tony did not have the memory of what it did. Peter was able to trace the weapon to the anti-super hero anarchist techno-terror cell the Bastard Sons of Wilbur Day. Iron Man and Spider-Man teamed up and found out that the terror cell had actually built the weapon and fought to take them and the weapon down. In 2052, Lord Mandarin was Emperor of Earth and Tony Stark was his personal valet. The Mandarin was on the verge of purging the Earth of the human race. Tony’s children, Ginny Stark/The Black Widows and Howard Anthony Stark/War Machine were humanity’s last hope.

            Tony went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to discuss the state of his life. He hoped to have dinner with his former secretary/current CEO of his company Stark Resilient, Virginia “Pepper” Potts, only to find out that he already had his chance with her before he lost his memories and that she wasn’t willing to give him another chance.

            Stark Resilient was preparing to pitch a proposal for a new home to the Asgardian Gods. Tony was attacked by Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus, who was dying. Octavius threated to detonate a nuclear bomb over Manhattan if Tony didn’t cure him and had his associates Electro and Sandman hold Tony’s employee Tim Cababa hostage and instructed them to kill Tim if Octavius didn’t check in with them every five minutes. Pepper came looking for Tim and fought Electro and Sandman but was unable to defeat them. Another Stark Resilient employee, Leonard Pimacher came looking for Tim and startled off Sandman and Electro, and Pepper was unable to prevent the villains from escaping. Tony was unable to cure Octavius and admitted it to him, and Octavius confessed there was no bomb, and he only wanted Tony to humiliate himself to Octavius and admit that Octavius was smarter. The Asgardians accepted Stark Resilient’s pitch to build a new Asgard.

            A time of fear and uncertainty gripped the world. Seven mysterious objects entered Earth’s atmosphere, cutting fiery trails as they crashed down all over the planet. Unbeknownst to Oron Man, these are artifacts called down by the Serpent, an Asgardian deity of evil newly freed from his ancient imprisonment. Seven devastating weapons to arm and empower his chosen servants, the Worthy. One crash site was Paris, France, and one of the Worthy was Paul Pierre Duval/The Grey Gargoyle. With his newly strengthened powers, the Grey Gargoyle froze everyone in Paris he made direct eye contact with in stone. Tony hired Bethany Cabe to be the head of Security at Stark Resilient. After finding a lack of life signs in Paris, Iron Man investigated and found the superpowered Grey Gargoyle. The two fought, and Tony was overpowered. He was joined by Doug Johnson/Detroit Steel from Hammer Industries, but Johnson was defeated and turned to stone and crumbled, and Tony barely managed to escape. Tony realized to win this fight, the heroes needed stronger weapons. Tony decided to make a sacrifice in order to draw the attention of Odin: his sobriety. Odin brought Tony to the workshops of Svartalfheim to work with the dwarves to craft weapons for the heroes of Earth in their battle against the Serpent. Sasha Hammer and her crew in mechanized armor were given the mission of recovering the Detroit Steel armor from Paris and were instructed to kill anything that moved. Pepper flew to Paris in her Rescue armor to try to save any survivors that might still be roaming the streets unfrozen. The Serpent had a dwarf snatch hair from Tony in order to empower the Golem. Tony continued to get drunk with the dwarves. Tony was attacked by a Mud Sprite and was able to defeat it with the help of the dwarves. Rescue and the Hammer Corps fought the Grey Gargoyle, but Sasha Hammer abandoned Rescue in the middle of the fight. Tony finished building the weapons and he and Thor returned to Earth to aid the Avengers in defeating the Serpent and saving all of reality.

            Okay, that’s the synopsis of this book in a way I feel is the best I can describe it at this particular point in time, so now let’s move on to my personal input segments of this review. As always, we’ll start by my answering the question of: did I like this book? In general, I enjoyed it. But those first two words are key words. I enjoyed most of this book, but there were a few things about it I didn’t like. Let’s break it down story by story. I loved the “Mandarin: The Story of My Life” issue. It was interesting getting a huge section of the book devoted directly to the villain, and his displays of narcissism and egotism throughout the course of the issue were highly entertaining to me, I was hoping through the whole issue to watch it all unravel around him, and I will say, the ending had quite a twist, and I was satisfied. “The New Iron Age” was not my favorite story, I feel like it could have done without the whole future section, it didn’t have any impact on the rest of the book and felt unnecessary after finishing the issue and continuing to read the book. The Iron Man/Spider-Man story was fine, I had no problem with that, and if Matt Fraction had just published the issue as only that story, I feel like that would have sufficed. But I get that this was issue #500 and they had to make a big deal out of it and include extra content to make it all kinds of special, but it honestly was meaningless as Ginny Stark was not featured any further in the book, and forcing investment in her felt like a waste and a disappointment. And as for the time jump, the future dated was 2052, meaning in twenty-seven years from the point of my posting this, this future will be outdated, but I know that seemed like quite a long time away back in 2011. “What it Was Like, What Happened, and What it’s Like Now” resonated with me, being a recovering alcoholic myself, and the flashbacks of Tony’s life in his speech were informative to read and furthered my knowledge of Tony Starks’s history. “Fix Me” was actually my favorite story in the book. Doctor Octopus is a Spider-Man villain, so seeing him taunting, blackmailing, belittling, manipulating and humiliating Iron Man was actually rather refreshing. I don’t mean it was a good thing, I just mean it was interesting to see a villain who is usually consistently pitted up against one hero being given the chance to menace a different hero for a change. And it was shocking that Iron Man actually couldn’t beat Doctor Octopus because of the mind game that Doc Ock played against Tony Stark, and that this was a totally different kind of antagonism that Doc Ock has with Spider-Man, so this makes me curious to see Iron Man take on more of some other heroes’ nemeses in future installments, just to see the dynamics a foe swap has on their super battles. “How I Met Your Mother” was something that I felt was also unnecessary as it supposedly explained the first meeting of Howard and Maria Stark, but it honestly just seemed preposterous the way it was written. And “Fear Itself” was a story I enjoyed. Granted back in 2011 I was not an active current reader of Marvel Comics, so “Fear Itself” is an event I can’t claim to know much about, so what I understand of “Fear Itself” comes from surrounding series as I have never actually read the main limited series, but I have read some tie-ins. What I read of the event in this collection was enjoyable. I will say that I take offense with the title of this volume. The editors decided to call this “Iron Man: The New Iron Age,” which was actually just a one issue story. Compared to the three issue “Fix Me” story arc and the six issue “Fear Itself” and “Fear Itself #7.3: Iron Man,” I feel like it was the wrong title. I honestly don’t know why the editors didn’t choose to call this “Iron Man: Fear Itself,” that actually being the majority of this collection, it would have been a more sensible title. “The New Iron Age” honestly didn’t grab me when I first heard it, and I would much rather purchase a book called “Fear Itself,” that’s actually a much more appealing title in my opinion, but I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection regardless of the title, that’s just my devotion to Marvel. I don’t know if Marvel is planning on giving another Modern Era Epic Collection a “Fear Itself” title in the future and didn’t want to give two volumes the same title or something like that. And as for the artwork, I enjoyed the work of Salvador Larroca in this book, but the other artists just didn’t do it for me. I’ve actually been an admirer of Larroca since 2001 from “X-Treme X-Men,” and I felt like his work in this book was adequate. Some of the human faces had unnatural features, but his action sequences and superhero and supervillain portrayals were stellar. Overall, this book was an enjoyable read, and I actually got so into it that once I started it, I actually couldn’t put it down and read the book straight through in about three hours.

            Okay, next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. Essentially what I mean by this, for you people who have never read one of my reviews before, is this, if you know absolutely nothing about Iron Man or Marvel Comics, can you pick up this book, read it, and understand everything you’ve read by the conclusion of the book. I will say that this is a hard no. This collection is marketed as Vol. 5, and right now, as of my compiling this post, the only available volumes are 3 through 5, and if you haven’t read the previous two volumes, you’re missing so much of the story as this is a continuation out of the previous two volumes. Granted Vol. 4 was not a “To Be Continued…” kind of ending, this volume picks up after the events of it and continues threads begun in the past two collections. And if you’re not a regular reader of Marvel from 2010-2011, you don’t know “Fear Itself,” and that is a bit of a problem. Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections will often occur around events, but they won’t usually actually have the main limited series of the event collected in its entirety in that volume (with an upcoming volume of “Annihilation” being the only current exception on the horizon). In this volume, only “Invincible Iron Man” comics were collected, and “Fear Itself” was not included, so if you don’t know about “Fear Itself,” the editors did include a couple of “Previously in Fear Itself…” blurbs, but they honestly don’t complete the story, and if you want to know how the story ends, you’re going to have to get your hands on “Fear Itself” somewhere else. This book is not self-contained, and I would not recommend this as a starting point if you have never read a Marvel Comic book before.

            Okay, I’ve really been going on for quite a while now, I think it’s time we moved on to what is, essentially, the reason we’re all here; to find out just how good I thought this book was. Now, for those who don’t know how I work, it’s really quite simple. I give the book a numeric score on a scale of one to ten. One means that this book is a pile of trash, and every copy should be pulled off the shelves, burned, and Marvel should never reprint it. Ten means that this book is a mountain of gold and every copy should be bought off the shelves, read multiple times, and Marvel should reprint it on a regular basis. My score is based on a few factors. The two main ones are of course how I feel about the story and the art contained in the book itself. There are a few mitigating factors that fall outside of those as well that are sometimes outside the control of the editors, but include accuracy of the title, effectiveness of explaining the story within the book itself, my understanding of the storylines occurring at the same time outside of this volume, and the ability to meet my expectations of what the book will be based on the title the editors slap on the book. So for our factors on this, I mostly enjoyed the story, the art was hit and miss, the title was a misnomer, the book wasn’t self-contained, I don’t know “Fear Itself,” and this wasn’t quite what I was expecting based on the title, we are looking at point deductions, but it’s not a total hate party on this book. So, if I have to give this book a score in all fairness, and since this is a book review, I obviously do, I’d take all of these listed factors, chuck them into my metaphorical blender, push the blend button and mix them until they’re a pile of liquid goo, then take my metaphorical cup, pour the goo out into it, look at it, and it is… a six. This book falls on the side of slightly above average in my own personal opinion. It was a positive experience, one I will not mind going through again should another volume come out, since when a new volume comes out, I read all the connecting volumes to it, so if Vol. 2 or Vol. 6 come out, I will reread this book, and I do look forward to that.

            Okay, again, I’ve been blathering on for quite a while now, let’s get on with this. Next up on the docket is the recommendation paragraph. This paragraph is dedicated to answering three questions: do I, myself, Tim Cubbin, actually personally recommend this book? Who do I think is the best audience for this book? And do I think you should read this book now that you’ve read my review? The first question has the answer of yes. I do actually give this book my own personal recommendation. To answer question number two is a little trickier. Yes, if you are an Iron Man fan and a Marvel fan and a fan of Matt Fraction or Salvador Larroca, this book is probably a book you might be interested in, but I don’t know if you should read it unless you understand some outside knowledge. If you’ve read the earlier issues of Fraction’s run on “Invincible Iron Man,” then you are the perfect audience for this book. If you’re interested in reading the tie-in stories of “Fear Itself” then this is absolutely the right book for you. I think those two groups are the “ideal” audience, but for fans of the character, the universe, or the creators, this book is a good read for you. As for question number three, if you’ve read my review and now want to read this book, I would tell you that you would probably do best to read all of Matt Fraction’s run of “Invincible Iron Man” before reading this (conveniently collected in the Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections “Iron Man: World’s Most Wanted” and “Iron Man: Stark Disassembled,” if you want to read them most efficiently), but I wouldn’t tell you not to read this book ever, even if you’ve never read Iron Man or any other Marvel Comic books before, despite them having tie-ins to other Marvel characters and storylines. Fraction did a brilliant job crafting these stories and I feel they are well worth the read to anyone who wants to be a reader of the Marvel Universe or Iron Man.

            Okay, we’re at the point where I’m close to signing off. I do have a few things I need to say first. I’ll start with the fact that this blog has over 160 posts on it, over six dozen of them are reviews just like this one. I post on a very frequent basis, I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection after they are released as early as I can and if possible I write a review as early as I can after reading it, so you can usually expect at least one post a month. I can tell you there is another Modern Era Epic Collection coming out in five days from the composition of this post, so you can expect to see a review of that likely sometime within the next three weeks. For those of you who enjoyed this post and have more time to kill right now, keep browsing on timcubbin.blogspot.com for more reviews and content, and if you don’t have the time right now, feel free to come back another time. While the majority of this site is book reviews, there is other content on this site as well, including short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. I’ve been doing this blog for almost five years at this point, and I will keep doing this until I am no longer able to do it, so you can expect that to be for quite some time. Feel free to keep checking back regularly, there’s often going to be something new, and there’s already plenty to see as it is. If you want to, leave a comment, retweet, like, share, do whatever you can on this site, spread the word about me. Feel free to reach out to me and tell me what you think of this post or of my site in general if there’s anything you like, dislike, want to see in the future, or want changed, I’d love to hear from you, and if you read this book, I’d love to hear your opinion. I will state that I admit that everything on this blog is my own personal opinion as I interpret it and you have your own personal opinions and views on everything I post, and I welcome you to feel differently from me and say that I am totally off base with my assessment, whether I have information wrong, or if you feel like I’ve somehow misinterpreted what’s in the stories, or if you just disagree with anything I’ve said, like if you didn’t like the story or the art, or if you did like other things that I specifically said I disliked, or if you think “The New Iron Age” was a great title, or if you think this book was completely awful and a six was way too good of a score, or maybe a six wasn’t a score that was high enough, or you can just let me know if you agree with me about anything, I welcome to hear anything from all my readers and will take it all with complete acceptance and respect as you are entitled to your opinions on anything, I just ask you to respect that I have a right to have an opinion, too, so do not get hostile or openly attack me, just politely state you disagree with me and explain why you feel the way I do or respectfully explain what I have interpreted wrong as I would like to fully understand this story as it is. And that is all I have to say to you at the moment, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Daredevil: The Devil in Cell-Block D"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Daredevil: The Devil in Cell-Block D” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Blind lawyer/vigilante Matt Murdock/Daredevil had been arrested on suspicion of being the vigilante Daredevil. He was being held on Ryker’s Island in the Protected Custody Wing awaiting trial. He was kept out of General Population due to the fact that he was blind and was deemed unable to defend himself should he have any trouble with the other inmates. Meanwhile, someone else was running around Hell’s Kitchen, New York City dressed as Daredevil and fighting crime. Matt’s best friend and law partner Franklin “Foggy” Nelson was working on Matt’s defense, along with his assistant Becky Blake, and their investigator Dakota North was working on the case. The Federal Government decided that since Matt was Daredevil, he would be able to defend himself and moved to transfer Matt to Gen Pop. After being approached by gang leader Carlos LaMuerto/Black Tarantula in the prison infirmary, Matt was being walked back to his cell when he was attacked by Hammerhead and his thugs. Matt was able to defend himself but was placed in solitary confinement. Foggy and Dakota went to visit Matt in prison to inform him of the Feds’ plan, and while they were leaving, Foggy and Dakota were attacked, and Foggy was killed. After Foggy’s funeral, Matt and Becky went before the judge, and the Feds’ motion to have Matt placed in Gen Pop was granted due to Matt placing several of Hammerhead’s thugs in the infirmary, showing that he could defend himself and placed in Cell-Block D. Matt was approached by another prison gang leader named Morgan, who offered Matt to join his crew, but Matt declined. Tabloid Newspaper the Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich, and friend of Matt and Daredevil offered to help Dakota clear Matt’s name. Serial killer Bullseye was brought to Ryker’s, and every precaution was given to prevent him from harming any of the guards, fellow prisoners, or from escaping. Matt confronted Hammerhead to try to learn who stabbed Foggy, but Hammerhead didn’t know. Dakota and Ben got a lead on a lawyer named Alton Lennox, who was working with the imposter Daredevil, who was also involved in Foggy’s attack. Wilson Fisk/Kingpin was transferred from solitary confinement to Cell-Block D. After reading of Matt’s exploits at Ryker’s in The Daily Bugle, Frank Castle/Punisher turned himself in so he could get sent to Ryker’s. Fisk asked for a meeting with Matt. LaMuerto left Matt a shiv should things go bad. Matt confronted Fisk and accused Fisk of being behind Foggy’s attack, but Fisk denied Matt’s accusations. Hammerhead, LaMuerto, and Morgan planned to start a riot and take out Matt and Fisk. Matt was visited by his wife Milla Donovan, who tried to appeal to Matt’s gentler side. Becky told Matt about Ben and Dakota’s lead. Fisk prepared for the riot and attempt on his life by having Turk Barret and his gang get Bullseye freed and supplied with weapons. Matt, Fisk, and Bullseye were able to survive the riot, and Matt defeated Fisk and Bullseye. Matt turned to the Punisher, who faked kidnapping Matt, and the two were able to escape Ryker’s. Matt found the imposter Daredevil and engaged him in combat, but once the imposter unmasked, the fight came to an end. Both Daredevils, Ben and Dakota found their way to Lennox’s office, which was abandoned, but Dakota was able to reprint an e-ticket to Monaco from Lennox’s fax machine. Matt dyed his hair, bought contact lenses, got a fake passport as Michael Murdock, and flew to Monaco to find Lennox and the person behind Foggy’s attack.

            Matt learned Lennox’s only client was a mob-boss named Tybold Lucca, who lived on an estate in Monte Carlo, and Matt took on the identity Ray Mallory and booked passage to Monte Carlo. Matt did his best to get noticed in the casinos, hoping to get an invite to Lucca’s estate. One night, he caught the attention of Lily Lucca, Tybold Lucca’s daughter, who invited Ray to a party at Lucca’s estate. Matt was entranced to her due to her scent, which reminded him of his former lover Karen Page, who tragically died in his arms. Matt went to Lucca’s party, which was featuring a Matador. After putting on a performance, the Matador killed Lucca. Daredevil fought and defeated the Matador, and Alton Lennox and Lily were able to escape during the fight. Matt tracked down Lennox in Portugal, only to find he had been killed by Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone, who had now taken Lily. Matt followed them to Paris, where he learned Tombstone, the Matador and Lily were all working for the woman who ordered Foggy’s attack. Matt defeated Tombstone and the Matador and learned from Lily who was behind Foggy’s attack. Matt made his way to Zurich, Switzerland and confronted the mastermind, who confessed to Foggy’s attack and offered to clear all of Matt’s legal troubles if he represented Fisk. Matt declined her offer, but when he turned on the television, he found that the charges against him were being dropped. Matt returned to Hell’s Kitchen and to his life with Milla and had a surprise reunion. Following this, Matt decided to uphold the deal he made and got the charges against Fisk dropped and Fisk was released from jail.

            Matt was fighting as Daredevil while battling the flu. Carlos LaMuerto was released from prison on parole. LaMuerto was given a corrupt parole officer who demanded money from him, so LaMuerto went to Matt looking for a job. Matt agreed to allow LaMuerto to work with Dakota. LaMuerto had a run in with Little Loco, a former underling of LaMuerto’s from when he was a gang leader, who was now in charge of a gang of his own. Daredevil and Black Tarantula teamed up to take down the Yakuza. Dakota and LaMuerto worked on a case that led to Little Loco and led to a fight between Daredevil and Black Tarantula.

            Okay, that sums up the story, now it’s time for me to put in the review bits. We’re going to start with my personal reflections on this book. First off, I will say that I felt like I was missing a piece of the background before reading this book. For some reason, Marvel decided to release the Volumes of Daredevil Modern Era Epic Collections out of order. They published Vols 2 through 4, then skipped to Vol 6, and I feel like this gap impacted my enjoyment of this particular Volume, so through no actual fault of its own, I had a dislike to this Collection, and I do feel bad about that, but I have to be honest here. The story in this book did not begin at what I consider a proper starting point, there I background context missing, and I have no prior knowledge of it, so it really harms my opinion of this book. As it stands, I found some level of enjoyability to this book, but it wasn’t exceedingly high. I was rather disappointed. I just found that I couldn’t fully get excited about the stories. The whole concept of the book just fell flat for me. All-in-all, I didn’t really like the story. I can say that there were plot twists I didn’t see coming, but they honestly didn’t help me enjoy the book to any further extent. If anything, the biggest one only just made my already low opinion fall even lower. Also, I was expecting something different based on the title and my prior knowledge of the Marvel time period, which I honestly shouldn’t have made the assumption I did, but it just happens. The issues contained in this Volume were originally published between 2006-2007, so I was expecting the incarceration to have something to do with the Superhuman Registration Act from “Civil War,” which was kind of dumb for me to just preconceive it to be and get disappointed by it not being what I wanted it to be, and if you read my review of “Daredevil: Out” I did the same thing, so my preconceived notions have hurt my enjoyment of reading what the book actually is, and it’s really not fair to the writers or editors, but it’s just how things happen, I guess, I can’t help it. And when we go into the other consideration of a graphic novel, the graphic part itself, I also found myself disappointed. The artwork completely failed to appeal to me throughout this entire book, I did not like the way this book visually appeared. This book entirely failed to hit the mark for me.

            Next up on our docket, we’re going to discuss accessibility. I know I’ve said this over six dozen times at this point, and I know there are some of you who already know what I mean when I say this because I know I have some readers who have been with me for awhile now, but there’s always new readers with every post I do, so I have to include an explanation of my meaning every time I do a new post for you newbs, so here I go. When I say the word “accessibility” I mean if this book can be picked up and read and be completely understood by any reader, even a reader who knows nothing about Daredevil or Marvel Comics. As you can tell from the previous paragraph, I feel like the accessibility rating is low as it is due to the missing background. There are also plenty of threads that pick up from past Daredevil stories that new readers would have difficulty picking up on. I really would not say that this is a book for a person who wants to start reading Marvel Comic books to begin with.

            Okay, I’ve prattled on for a while now, I think we’re getting to the point where we’re ready to discuss my numeric score. So, my system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest score I can possibly give and that means that this book is not worth reading at all. Ten is the highest score that I could possibly give and that means that this book is sheer perfection. Now my regular readers know how picky I am and that I don’t like just handing out tens to books, and that to get a ten, the book has to be really special, with a flawless story and stunning art. This book did not deliver on either. The story was not engaging to me, I couldn’t find myself enjoying myself to the extent that I hope to hit while reading a graphic novel, and the visuals did not appeal to me at all, so obviously we’re talking an exceptionally low score here. So, putting all the ingredients into my metaphorical blender, the story I wasn’t too thrilled with, and the art I found to be atrocious, turning the blender on, mixing it until it is completely smooth, then stopping it, pouring it out into a cup and looking at it, the score I see is… a two. This book was a huge letdown for me, and I really did not enjoy it.

            Well, I think it’s time we moved on to the next point, the recommendation. This segment has two questions. Do I personally recommend this book? And who do I think should read this book? As for the personal recommendation, this book does not receive that from me. I cannot, in good faith, tell you to read this book. However, if you are a diehard Daredevil fan, I think you’re the target audience for this book. And if you like prisonbreak stories in comic books, this book is for you. Or if you’re a fan of Ed Brubaker’s work, this isn’t, in my opinion, his best work, but you might find this enjoyable. Otherwise, I honestly really don’t recommend this book to many readers.

            Okay, we are approaching my signoff point. I have a few end of post announcements first. This blog has over 160 posts on it. I’ve written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, as well as about six dozen book reviews like this one, so if you enjoyed this post, there’s plenty more content to explore, just check out timcubbin.blogspot.com for other posts. I post on a very frequent basis. The current focus of this blog is reviews of Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Marvel Ultimate Epic Collections, but I might shake things up and add something else in soon, you never know. I collect every Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after their release and try to post a review when I’m finished reading them if possible, so you can usually expect at least one post a month, if not more. I’ve done a review of almost every Modern Era Epic Collection with the exception of four volumes that I couldn’t review due to the lack of having a device to draft the posts on at the time, but that could eventually change, we’ll have to wait and see on that, and I have reviewed every Ultimate Epic Collection released so far. At the time of my drafting this post, there is a new Modern Era Epic Collection coming out in one week, so you can probably expect another review upcoming sometime in the next four weeks. If this review seems professional, it’s because I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, but alas, I don’t get paid for this, I just do this as a side project on my days off from my actual job where I work in a grocery store, but you honestly don’t care about what I do for a living, so that’s enough said about that. Anyway, keep checking back for more, I will keep doing this until either I can no longer see or type, so expect this to keep going for quite a while. If you’re still reading at this point, you are THE BEST! I appreciate your support. Feel free to like, retweet, comment, share, leave something behind for me to let me know what you think, that would be greatly appreciated, I would honestly love to hear from you, my readers, feedback would be very much enjoyed. Anyway, I think that’s all for now, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!