"Hulk: Code Red"

 

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

                Doctor Robert Bruce Banner had finally been cured of being the Hulk. Karla Sofen/Ms. Marvel learned this fact and brought it to her boss Norman Osborn, Director of H.A.M.M.E.R. Osborn decided to test this information and sent out Ares, Greek god of war, to confirm if the Hulk truly was gone for good. Bruce and his ally Rick Jones/A-Bomb were discovered by Ares, who tried to force Bruce to turn into the Hulk by threatening A-Bomb’s life. Bruce managed to save A-Bomb and the two escaped from Ares. Ares confirmed to Osborn that the Hulk was no more.

                Neena Thurman/Domino was on an assignment when she accidentally saw the transformation of the Red Hulk from his human identity and was able to escape. General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross and Doctor Leonard Samson compiled a list of individuals to hire a team to help the Red Hulk find and eliminate Domino to prevent her from spreading the identity of the Red Hulk. This list included Wade Wilson/Deadpool, Frank Castle/Punisher, Boris Turgenov/Crimson Dynamo, Thundra, and Elektra Natchios. Team Code Red cornered Domino in a bar, but Domino brought backup in the form of X-Force (James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine, Laura Kinney/X-23, Warren Worthington III/Archangel, James Proudstar/Warpath, and Josh Foley/Elixir. Wolverine blinded the Red Hulk and the two teams clashed. A Red She-Hulk arrived on the scene and led Red Hulk away from the battle. Samson also turned up, and double-crossed Red Hulk, turning Team Code Red against Red Hulk. Thundra, however, was loyal to Red Hulk and fought Samson. Red Hulk’s sight returned, and he fought Red She-Hulk. Red She-Hulk threw Red Hulk off the top of the Empire State Building. Red Hulk survived and tracked down Domino and X-Force, who had tracked down Silver Sable, who revealed Sable was paid by Samson and that Sable was the one who tipped off Domino and that Advanced Idea Mechanics was involved, convincing Red Hulk Domino was in the wrong place in the wrong time. Red Hulk paid Team Code Red their promised payments and prepared to forge and alliance against Samson to protect his secret.

                Samson was struggling with his identities as Leonard, Doc Samson, and Samson as A.I.M. continued to try to control him.

                Bruce Banner returned to New York City to meet with Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic to receive information about the Hulk’s son Skaar, a half-Hulk/half-alien creature who blamed Hulk for the death of Skaar’s mother and wanted to kill the Hulk. Banner then teleported to the Mojave Desert and located Skaar and offered to train Skaar to prepare to kill the Hulk if ever Hulk were to return, as Skaar had no interest in killing Bruce Banner. Skaar agreed to this proposal. Banner angered Cain Marko/Juggernaut to give Skaar a challenge, and Skaar succeeded in defeating Juggernaut. Wolverine tracked down Banner and Skaar, and Skaar beat Wolverine. Skaar went looking for Wolverine’s son Daken. Daken was on Osborn’s Avengers team and suggested offering Skaar a place on the team. Banner and Wolverine watched their sons’ conversation but got involved when negotiations went sour. In the end, both dysfunctional families parted with the sons promising to one day end their father’s existence. Samuel Sterns/Leader had been spying on Bruce and Skaar’s bonding.

                H.A.M.M.E.R. scientists were attempting to siphon the Old Power of the Shadow People of Planet Sakaar that had been gifted to Doctor Kate Waynesboro, despite the fact that doing so could kill her in the process. Skaar and Banner infiltrated a H.A.M.M.E.R. laboratory in New Mexico and rescued Kate. Norman Osborn had a list of people he wanted taken care of, and Bruce Banner was on that list. Osborn sent someone “expendable” to take Banner off that list, so he sent his personal assistant Victoria Hand. Hand brought Karla Sofen/Ms. Marvel as muscle. Banner and Skaar went to take out another Old Power facility, and Hand and Ms. Marvel confronted them. Ms. Marvel and Skaar made a deal. Banner and Skaar destroyed the facility, which was also a gamma facility, once again exposing Bruce to gamma radiation, bringing him one step closer to becoming the Hulk again and allowing Skaar to complete Skaar’s desire to kill the Hulk, which was Osborn’s plan the entire time.

                Banner and Skaar played football against Korg, Kate, and A-Bomb. Bruce and Kate had begun to form a romantic attachment. Following the game, Bruce and Kate went to the Leader’s laboratory to try to find in the Leader had any data on Skaar in the Leader’s files. While there, Bruce and Kate were attacked by a flesh and blood Harpy, who had the appearance of Bruce’s wife Elizabeth “Betty” Ross-Banner. Bruce, Skaar, Korg and A-Bomb fought Harpy until they were able to defeat her and force her to revert to a human form, but it turned out not to be Betty. The Leader returned to his laboratory and discovered Kate there and destroyed it, preventing Kate from discovering if the Leader had any information on Skaar, but Kate was able to escape the lab before detonation. The Mole Man attempted to invade New York City with monsters who were refugees from the planet Sakaar. The Fantastic Four attempted to hold them back. Bruce and Skaar teleported to New York and Bruce set up a gamma dome to contain the monsters. The monsters worshipped Skaar, recognizing him as the monsters’ king since the Hulk had ruled Sakaar, and since the Hulk was no more and Skaar was the Hulk’s heir, Skaar was the next in lineage. Tyrannus attempted to kill Skaar in order to control the monsters, but Skaar was able to defeat him. The world saw Skaar in action and got to meet its new Hulk.

                Lyra was the genetically engineered daughter of Bruce Banner from an alternate future, and an agent of the Alternate Reality Monitoring and Operational Response agency, along with her AI companion Boudicca and the all-new savage She-Hulk, trying to honor the mantle of Jennifer Walters, who had gone missing. However, when she got angry, she lost her strength instead of gaining it like other gamma powered beings. She battled Phinn Mac Mram, who hailed from her world and attempted to corrupt the computer networks of her new home.

                Alex Erde, Agent of A.R.M.O.R., invited Lyra to look for Jen in Death Valley, against Director Little Sky’s orders. Norman Osborn wanted Boudicca for her information of the future. He had Ryker of the Origins® Corporation send out Aberration, Morass and Axon, three genetically enhanced convicted killers, pardoned in exchange for their services to the Corporation, to retrieve Boudicca. The Origins® killers shot Lyra and Erde’s plane out of the sky, fatally injuring Erde. Lyra swore vengeance on these three women and fought to protect Boudicca.

                Okay, we’ve got our synopsis out of the way, let’s move on to the Tim Cubbin part of this review. We’ll start, as usual, with my personal opinions on the book. I will say I found it to be mildly enjoyable. If you go back over a year and a half ago to my review of “Hulk: Who is the Red Hulk?” you will recall my disdain for the previous volume in the series. So, I will say that once again, we have a “Hulk” graphic novel starring the Red Hulk that does not reveal his true identity. Now, I’ve been reading Marvel for almost twenty-five years now, I’ve known who the Red Hulk is for fourteen years now, but still, I’m once again disappointed that I still don’t have an origin for the character. His whole background is shrouded in secrecy, and I just wish this book would have unclouded it. During the whole “Code Red” storyline, I kept hoping for the big unveiling and was highly disappointed that a year and a half later I still don’t have my answer. Plus, now they throw in the Red She-Hulk (who I also know who she is), who also gets no identity or origin reveal, just to rile me up even more. I also found that storyline to be highly confusing as there’s a scene where Red Hulk and his human form actually both appear on panel at the same time and Samson is in that same panel as a witness, so a lot of that story made no sense to me based entirely on that scene alone. I know the Red Hulk’s identity is a lot more well-known now also due to last year’s film “Captain America: Brave New World” which had not been released when I did my last “Hulk” review, so I know some of my readers may be familiar with him, and if you read this review extremely carefully, you might catch my confusion, but I don’t want to give spoilers to those who don’t know, although some of my other reviews have his identity already, so if you might have come across it if you’re a previous reader of mine, but I shall not give his identity in this particular review since it was not actually contained in this particular book. I also didn’t particularly like the Samson dissociative identity disorder issue as it did not further the story being placed in this volume and just succeeded in confounding the story even further. However, I did think team Code Red was an interesting gathering of characters, and I also enjoyed seeing them come up against X-Force. I also enjoyed seeing Bruce bonding with his son, I thought it was actually quite humorous how Bruce was training his son with the promise to one day kill the Hulk. I thought the “Dark Reign” issue was actually relatively good, I liked the twist ending of how Osborn accomplished his machinations. I found the All-New Savage She-Hulk storyline to be slightly interesting; I liked the paradox of her anger sapping her strength instead of increasing it. But this book failed to meet expectations. I think my biggest problem with this book was the dual focus. Most Modern Era Epic Collections I’ve read thus far really didn’t focus full-time on two separate ongoing series, and this split the attention from both the Red Hulk and Bruce Banner, and I feel like this didn’t work very well, it just slowed the progression of both stories by mixing both of them into one Collection. I feel like focusing on just the Red Hulk would have been a better option, but I honestly can’t officially say this until there’s another volume to say if compiling both Hulks’ stories is necessary to tell the narrative of the Red Hulk. And if telling Bruce’s story was unnecessary, then Lyra’s story was also unnecessary, and in all honesty, to me, it did feel like it was unimportant to the other stories. But again, I’m going to need another volume to confirm the necessity of all the included content. Moving on in my input, we’re going to discuss the artwork. I liked the artwork from Ed McGuiness, Ian Churchill, and Michael Ryan, but the rest of the artists failed to impress me. Churchill actually holds great sentiment for me as he was the artist for the first Marvel Comic book I purchased back in 2001 when I became a regular Marvel reader, and I enjoyed his work then, so seeing him lend his hand to this collection was a great privilege to me. But the other art just wasn’t as appealing. Next up, we’re going to discuss the title. I feel like “Code Red” was a relatively good choice for the title. It was the longest storyline in the volume, and I feel like it’s an adequate capturing of the essence of the book. We’re also going to discuss the cover. The cover depicts both the Red Hulk and the Incredible Hulk, which I feel is not completely appropriate for this volume as we never see Bruce Banner Hulk out over the course of this book, but when looking through the collection, the rest of the covers feature either the Red Hulk or Skaar with other characters that honestly wouldn’t appropriately represent the content in this volume, so it probably was the best if not only choice for a cover and I respect it as a choice. But overall, the internal content was relatively dissatisfying, and I was highly disappointed.

                Next up, we’re going to discuss accessibility. Now, I know there are some of you who are familiar with my reviews and know what I mean by this, and I have explained it over six dozen times at this point, but I always have new readers every time I do a review, so I have to explain myself to them every time, so to those of you who have been here before, please bear with me while I explain to the newbs. Accessibility means the ability for someone who knows absolutely nothing about the source material to see this book on a shelf or online and obtain it, read it, and understand everything as written with no outside knowledge of the characters or the story. I will say that it does draw on knowledge from other points in the Marvel Universe, such as “X-Force,” “World War Hulk” and “Dark Reign,” but it remains relatively standalone as far as content goes. This volume contains “sister series,” so they are connected to each other without straying into other characters aside from the Hulks. Also, the “Dark Reign” issue is self-contained. It does continue storylines from the previous volume, but it’s not a direct continuation and doesn’t rely on reading the previous “Hulk” storylines as being a necessity. I wouldn’t say it’s the best book to start with if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before, but if you really want to read it, it’s not a point that’s impossible to jump on at.

                Next up, we’re going to move on to one of the primary reasons we’re here: for me to give a numeric score. Now, I know it’s not the single most important part of my reviews, the synopsis is also key, and my own opinions are crucial, but a review would not be complete without giving an evaluation of exactly how good I feel like the book is, so I give a numeric score to asses the quality of the content. My scoring system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of exact integers ranging from one through ten. The worst score I can possibly give is a one, and that means that this book is so awful and unreadable that every remaining unpurchased copy of this book should be rounded up off the shelves or pulled out of storage and collectively obliterated, then Marvel should destroy the plates containing any possible ways of reprinting this book so it can never be reproduced again and be completely wiped out of history. Okay, I know that’s a little extreme, that’s just a joke, I don’t condone destroying books. On the other hand, if I score a book at a ten, that’s my best score, and that means this book is sheer perfection and I will not understand how it is not a bestseller and how any copies could possibly be on the shelves or in stock because it’s so good it should just be bought, then it should have to be reprinted because all the copies are just out of stock and the book is still in demand. Now, I’m not a guy who likes to give out tens unless I feel like the book truly is perfection. That means the story has to be engaging and compelling with no possible flaws that I can find and nothing for me to complain about, the art has to be consistently visually pleasing and appealing and I have to enjoy looking at every panel, the title has to be an exact representation of the book, and the cover has to sell the content contained within the book, all wrapped up in a perfect package. And that is very hard to find. On the other hand, I’m not in the business of giving out ones unless the book is absolute garbage with a story that is unreadable, uninteresting, and not understandable, the art has to be an eyesore and I don’t even want to look at the book because the art is so awful, the title has nothing to do with the content of the book, and the cover is completely misleading to the story contained within. Now, I did relatively dislike this book, but I did feel it was almost average. There were things I liked about the story, and there was some art I liked, and the title was an adequate description of the book, and the cover was relatively appropriate to the content contained within, so it wasn’t complete garbage. So, when I consider my score for this Collection, all cards shuffled and dealt on the table, the score I’m looking at is… a four. It wasn’t completely horrible, but it didn’t meet my expectations or fulfil my desires for what I was hoping to come from this book, but all-in-all, I didn’t completely hate it.

                Moving on in this review, we’re going to go to my recommendation segment. In this segment, I answer two questions: the first question is, would I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend for anyone within the view of my words or the sound of my voice to read this book just based solely on what I just said? The second question is, regardless of if I would tell anyone to read this book or not, whom do I feel should be reading this book, beyond the obvious of Marvel or Hulk fans or fans of the creative team? To answer the first question, no, I do not personally recommend this book to you. If you are reading this and on the fence about reading this or not, I would tell you not to read this book. As for the second question, the best audience is action fans who like stories about dysfunctional families, and for readers who like paramilitary stories, and for people who like stories with characters who struggle with their identities.

                I think I’m at the point where I’ve said just about all I really need to say about the content, so let’s just get to the wrap-up. So, I can tell you that I’ve been working on this blog for over five years at this point. I’ve done over 180 posts. In addition to over six dozen reviews of Epic Collections, I’ve reviewed prose novels, manga, and comic book events. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials. If you liked this post and want more “Hulk” content, feel free to check out my review of “Hulk: Who is the Red Hulk?” and keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for plenty more content, there’s plenty more on here you might find you’ll like. I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after they are released and put up a review as soon as I can after I have finished reading them, so you can expect a lot of posts from me. I usually post at least once a month. My next review will be “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Revivals and Revelations” and you can expect to see that within the next month after this post, probably in a lot less time than that, so keep checking back for that. I’m going to keep on doing this blog for as long as I possibly can, until my eyes or hands are unable to function, so you can expect to see this blog continuing for a long time. So, I say goodbye for now, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Deadpool: Magnum Opus"

 

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

                Wade Wilson/Deadpool was hired to hunt down and take out James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine. Their encounter began when Deadpool attacked Wolverine in a restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown. After a prolonged fight that caused havoc and destruction through a department store, a coffee shop, and the streets of San Francisco, Deadpool was able to render Wolverine unconscious and abduct him. While Deadpool threatened to end Wolverine, Wolverine’s son Daken arrived, and Daken tried to kill Wolverine. Deadpool and Daken got into a fight. The fight was ended when Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier came to Wolverine’s rescue.

                The shape-shifting alien Skrulls began their invasion of Earth through infiltration, assuming positions in government, the military, and even the superhero community. They possessed highly advanced technology, a massive armada of warships, enough soldiers to occupy the planet and Super-Skrulls, which could imitate the powers of multiple superheroes. Deadpool fought a battalion at a baseball stadium, but when he was unable to defeat the Skrulls, he offered to join them. The Skrull scientists, impressed with his regenerative healing factor, decided his genetics would be perfect to implement in their next generation of Super-Skrulls. Deadpool offered the Skrull head scientist to train the Deadpool Super-Skrulls, which the scientist begrudgingly accepted. In their first training session, the Deadpool Super-Skrulls took out an entire squadron of previous Super-Skrulls. Deadpool’s training caused erratic, unstable, and insane behavior in the Deadpool Super-Skrulls. Deadpool called the man who hired him to infiltrate the Skrulls, former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury, but he was caught by a Super-Skrull while making the call and exposed as a traitor. Deadpool managed to defeat the Super-Skrull but was caught by the Skrull head scientist and the Deadpool Super-Skrulls. However, Deadpool had thought of a contingency plan to defeat the Deadpool Super-Skrulls. Deadpool stole Skrull bio data, specifically how to kill a queen, which he tried to send to Fury, but the data he sent was intercepted by Norman Osborn.

                Having spent all his money and used up all his munitions, Deadpool was desperate for a job. He called his old contact Zeke. Zeke’s wife had been into a zombie by a plastic surgeon named Doctor Druek Lovosno, who had created other zombies as well. Zeke hired Deadpool to kill Lovosno. Deadpool was to contact Zeke with the location of Zeke’s wife so Zeke’s men could rescue her, and Zeke could hopefully find someone to reverse the procedure. Zeke flew Deadpool to Grodke in Eastern Europe. Deadpool was believed to be a zombie and was shot and detained by the local police. After escaping with the help of one of Zeke’s men, Deadpool made it to Lovosno’s castle. Lovosno’s servant took Deadpool in, then poisoned Deadpool. When Deadpool came to, Zeke’s wife told Deadpool that Zeke was broke. Lovosno had made an arrangement with Zeke’s wife to pay for the procedure. Lovosno was then going to feed Deadpool to Lovosno’s patients. However, the patients did not want to eat Deadpool. Deadpool talked Lovosno into letting Deadpool go, promising Lovosno food for Lovosno’s patients, then called Zeke. Zeke and his men arrived, and Deadpool blew up Lovosno’s castle, betraying everyone.

                Tiger Shark was hired to kill Deadpool. Deadpool survived their first encounter and was found washed up on a beach near San Diego. He woke up at a homeless shelter, but as he tried to leave, Tiger Shark arrived. Tiger Shark attacked Deadpool at the homeless shelter, and the police came and shot Deadpool. Deadpool was found by his friend Bob, who helped Deadpool fight Tiger Shark. Bob and Deadpool went to hide out in a motel, where Deadpool figured out the Bob had also been hired to kill Deadpool. Bob revealed to Deadpool that Bob and Tiger Shark had both been hired by Norman Osborn, who had used the data Osborn intercepted from Deadpool to kill the Skrull Queen and assume leadership over S.H.I.E.L.D., now renamed H.A.M.M.E.R., and the Avengers. Deadpool ended Bob and faxed Osborn, demanding $100,000,000 in the following twelve hours or else Deadpool would expose Osborn for his theft.

                Deadpool infiltrated Avengers Tower, looking for Osborn. Osborn was at the Oscorp Building when Deadpool came looking, but Osborn’s Thunderbolts (Yelena Belova/Black Widow, Ghost, Ant-Man, Headsman, and Paladin) were at Avengers Tower. Deadpool and the Thunderbolts fought, and Deadpool escaped with a teleportation device he stole from an Avengers laboratory. The Thunderbolts were able to track Deadpool down, but Deadpool defeated them all except for Black Widow, who he flirted with. Paladin revived, and Deadpool escaped again. Deadpool retreated to a hideout with his associate Taskmaster, who agreed to be a decoy Deadpool. Deadpool took on the Thunderbolts while Taskmaster, disguised as Deadpool, went after Black Widow. Black Widow turned the tables on Taskmaster and abducted Taskmaster. The Thunderbolts were going to kill Taskmaster, who they thought was Deadpool, but Deadpool came to Taskmaster’s rescue and Deadpool and Taskmaster battled the Thunderbolts, but the fight only ended when the Thunderbolts thought they had killed Deadpool.

                When Norman Osborn found out Deadpool was still alive, he sent Bullseye, now posing as Hawkeye, to remedy the situation. After the two got into a fight, Deadpool took an arrow to the head. Deadpool survived and the two resumed fighting, and Deadpool beat Bullseye. The two once again resumed their fight until Bullseye talked Deadpool into disappearing from Osborn’s life.

                Okay, we’ve got our synopsis out of the way, it’s time to move on to my input for the rest of this review. We’re going to start, as always, with my own personal opinions about the book. I found this book to be, for the most part, enjoyable. My biggest complaint with this graphic novel is the balance between story and action. There was a huge focus on action that highly overshadowed the amount of space on the pages for story. That said, I did like what was readable. There was a good amount of comedy in this book, including some laugh out loud moments. I always liked Deadpool’s clever ways of outsmarting all of his opponents at the end of each story. “The Deep End” storyline with Wolverine had an interesting plot twist at the end with Daken I didn’t see coming. “One of Us” was the “Secret Invasion” storyline, and it actually turned out to secretly be one of the most important tie-in stories to how the heroes managed to beat the Skrulls as it was how Norman Osborn learned the information on how to kill the Skrull Queen. “Horror Business” also had a bunch of plot twists of everyone double-crossing everyone else. “How Low Can You Go?” also had double-crossing, and Bob and Tiger Shark both vying to take down Deadpool was amusing as obviously Bob was outclassed by Tiger Shark but still tried to succeed anyway. “Magnum Opus” was my favorite storyline, I enjoyed the Thunderbolts crossover, and seeing Norman Osborn fighting Deadpool was great. “Bullseye” was entertaining as well as both Deadpool and Bullseye wanted to kill each other and yet at the same time they really didn’t want to kill each other, so seeing the conflict was amusing. As far as the artwork is concerned, I did enjoy most of it, with the exception of Steve Dillon’s work on Wolverine: Origins #21-25. There’s just something about the way Dillon draws faces that doesn’t appeal to me. However, I greatly enjoyed the work of Paco Medina. I thought it was fantastic to look at, I really loved the style. I also appreciate the artwork from Carlo Barberi and Bong Dazo, I thought they produced excellent visuals as well. When thinking about the choice of a title, I feel like “Magnum Opus” was a good pick. There were six storylines in the book, giving the editors six already given choices, or they could have made a new one up, but I think they went with the best option that would work for this particular volume. However, I will say that I don’t feel like the editors picked the best cover for the front of this volume. They chose a cover from Deadpool #1, the “One of Us” storyline, depicting Deadpool and the Skrull invasion superimposed around him. I do feel like there were other covers from the issues contained in this graphic novel that would represent this volume better as a choice for the front cover as this storyline only spanned for three of the nineteen issues contained in this volume and is only a small part of the book as a whole when there were storylines in this book that ran longer. That said, ultimately, I was generally pleased with this book.

                Next up on our agenda of topics to cover, we’re going to discuss accessibility. I’ve been over this over six dozen times before, I know, but for every review I write, I know I always have my new readers, so I do feel obligated to explain myself again every time I write a new review. If you’re familiar with how this works, please be patient for a couple of sentences while I explain for the newbs what I mean when I throw out the word accessibility like this. So when I use the word accessibility, what I mean is, can someone who, in this case, has never heard of Deadpool or knows nothing about him obtain this book, read it, and understand everything they’ve just read with absolutely no prior knowledge on the subject? I will say that this is definitely not an easy book to get into if you are unfamiliar with Marvel Comics. This graphic novel has a tie-in story to “Secret Invasion” which, honestly, you don’t need to know everything about to follow this particular graphic novel, but it would help to have some knowledge about the basic concept of the Skrulls to understand this book. It also has a tie-in “Dark Reign” crossover with Thunderbolts, and these are some relatively obscure characters, but not knowing about them isn’t too damaging to understanding this graphic novel, just as long as you understand that they’re working for Norman Osborn. This book really doesn’t explain the purpose of the Thunderbolts very well, but they’re actually “reformed” villains working for Osborn in exchange for a governmental pardon, but this fact is never stated in this volume. The “Dark Reign” storyline itself also isn’t well explained in this collection, and knowledge about Osborn’s ascendance with H.A.M.M.E.R. and the Dark Avengers is required to understand this volume, particularly Bullseye being rebranded as Hawkeye. There are a lot of factors that make this book inaccessible to anyone but people who have experience with Marvel from the late 2000s. Even I wasn’t a regular reader at the time of “Dark Reign” and I honestly really didn’t know much about these Thunderbolts going into reading this book. Though this book is marketed as Vol. 1, it’s not an easy book for people with no prior Marvel Comics experience to get into.

                Next up, we’re going to move on to my numeric score. This is one of the most essential components to a Tim Cubbin review. Now I know some people come here because they want to know about the story, but it is very important to express just exactly how high of a quality standard the book left an impression of on me. First off, I’m going to explain my scoring system. It’s actually extremely simple: I score on a scale of exact integers ranging from one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and if I give it a one, then this book deserves to have every copy pulled off the shelves and collectively incinerated, then the prints should be destroyed by Marvel so this horrible pile of trash shall be wiped out of existence forever. If I give this book a ten, then this book is sheer perfection and if every Marvel and Deadpool fan doesn’t buy this book, I will seriously think there is something horribly wrong with them. Now, my longtime readers know that I don’t like to give tens very often. I have to actually be able to find no flaws with the book at all to give it a ten, and that includes story, art, title, and cover. That said, I’m not an ogre either and I don’t like giving low scores unless the book actually really deserves that. I honestly have not given a lot of ones over the five plus years I’ve been doing this blog. So, taking all the components of this book and mixing them all together: the story I enjoyed with lots of plot twists but a little too much focus on action and not enough on dialogue; the mostly good art with the exception of one artist; the title which I feel worked well for this book; and the cover that I don’t feel represented this book adequately, we’re looking at a score of… a seven. I found this book to be, for the most part, a pleasurable reading experience, and I enjoyed taking the journey through it., but I wish there had been a little more dialogue, and we already established how I felt about Steve Dillon, but overall, this was an enjoyable read.

                Next up on our list of things to cover is my recommendation segment. The point of this segment is to answer two questions. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, who have just spent the past few minutes reading my words, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught up in a conversation with me about this book? The second question I answer is, regardless of if I would actually tell you I’d recommend this book personally, who is the best audience for this graphic novel, besides fans of Marvel and Deadpool and the creative team? The answer to my first question is yes. If you’re reading this review and now, based solely on what you’ve just read me post, you want to read this graphic novel, I will tell you to go read this book now. Check your local bookstore, or your favorite comic book store, or your preferred online retailer, or if you’re lucky, your nearby library to find this book and read it as soon as you can. I think if you’re intrigued by what I’ve described, you’ll enjoy reading the entire story. As for the target audiences, I think readers who like stories full of plot twists and double crossings would find this book will check off that list many times over. Readers who enjoy stories about mercenaries would probably like this book. Readers who enjoy stories about alien invasions could find something to like in this book. And if you like comic books with humor, this book might tickle your funny bone.

                Okay, I’ve been going on for long enough now, I think we’re at the point where we’re all about ready to move on with our lives. I do have a few end of term notices to hand out before I sign off, though. First off, like I said before, I have been doing this blog for over five years now. I have done over 180 posts now. In addition to over six dozen Epic Collection reviews just like this one, I’ve done other kinds of reviews as well, such as prose novelizations, manga, and comic book events. I have also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so if you want a variety of content, feel free to keep checking timcubbin.blogspot.com for more posts, you might find something else to like. If you want more content like this, I’ll recommend specific posts for you: feel free to check out “Deadpool: In Wade We Trust” “Deadpool & Cable: Ballistic Bromance” “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Isn’t it Bromantic?” “Spider-Man/Deadpool: ‘Til Death Do Us…” and “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Road Trip” for more reviews about our favorite Merc with the Mouth. My next new post will be “Hulk: Code Red” you can expect to see that coming up within the next month from my posting of this review. I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released and if possible, put up a review right after I am done reading it. I’m going to keep doing this blog for as long as I can, and you won’t expect an end to it anytime soon, as my eyesight and handiness seem to currently be in good order. I wish you goodbye for now, but I shall be back, but I say to you until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"The Amazing Spider-Man: The Life and Death of Spiders"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “The Amazing Spider-Man: The Life and Death of Spiders” as collected in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Peter Parker/Spider-Man returned to New York from California after failing to reconcile with his estranged wife Mary Jane Watson-Parker. After being forced into a state of slumber, Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, informed Peter that due to his actions on the Astral Plane during his battle with the supervillain the Shade, Peter had attracted a totemic enemy from another plane of existence and told Peter to check a page in his book on etymology to prove their meeting wasn’t a dream. This page was about the spider wasp, the natural killer of spiders. Three nights later, while out of patrol, Spider-Man encountered a creature calling herself Shathra. The two fought, but Spider-Man was unable to defeat Shathra, and Shathra escaped following their spar, but Shathra revealed during their encounter she was aware of Spider-Man’s secret identity. Shathra went to the media in the guise of Sharon Keller to lure Spider-Man to her, claiming to be Spider-Man’s lover, that many of his battles were staged so he could make money, and that he made fun of other superheroes behind their back., and that if he came forward to refute her claims, she would reveal his secret identity to the media. At first, Peter was hesitant to come forward, but after calling Mary Jane and hearing the hurt in her voice, Peter couldn’t let it slide. Spider-Man swung to the television studio where he exposed Shathra as the creature she was and took the battle to the streets. Shathra stung Spider-Man with a paralyzing agent, and Spider-Man was barely able to escape to the Musuem of Natural History’s spider exhibit enclosure to hide. He was found by Ezekiel Sims and brought to a ruins site in Ghana watched over by the people of the Ashanti tribe, who first told the story of Kwaku Anansi, the original spider-man. Shathra followed Spider-Man to Ghana, where to two engaged in their final battle. Mary Jane decided she wanted to see Peter in person, so she booked a flight to New York. Ezekiel booked Peter a flight back to New York, but Peter decided he wanted to see Mary Jane and switched the reservation from a one-way first class ticket to New York for a coach ticket to Los Angeles with an open-date return flight to New York. Both Peter and Mary Jane got to the other’s apartment and waited for the other, but after both were left unable to meet, they decided to let each other go and move on with their lives. Mary Jane’s flight to Los Angeles had a stop-over in Denver. Peter’s flight to New York was grazed by lightning and had to land in Denver for inspection. While at the airport, Peter saw Mary Jane, and the two began to talk. While they were talking, Peter noticed Latverian dictator and supervillain Doctor Victor Von Doom being escorted by two Denver International Airport security guards. A bomb went off in the middle of the airport, and Peter sprang into action. He realized that one of the security guards was actually Steve Rogers/Captain America. Peter quickly changed to Spider-Man and fought to save Doctor Doom from being assassinated. Captain America joined the fight, and the two protected Doctor Doom and the people in the airport. Peter and Mary Jane talked, and Peter told Mary Jane he needed her, something Mary Jane didn’t know Peter felt anymore, and Mary Jane agreed to reconcile their marriage.

                In 1957, mob boss Morris Forelli had six mob bosses and seven mob lieutenants killed in a hit in Las Vegas and had the bodies dumped in a desert in Nevada. In 2003, the United States military decided to test weapons in the Nevada desert, beginning with a gamma bomb. The bomb created a creature called Digger, an amalgamation of the Vegas Thirteen. Digger traveled to New York to get revenge on Forelli. New York Police Department Lieutenant Lamont got Spider-Man’s attention about Digger, revealing that Digger had fingerprints from different people on the same hand and that he was green. Digger went to the Starlight Club and came into conflict with the clubgoers. Spider-Man arrived and fought Digger, but Digger was able to escape. Forelli sent one of underlings to fetch Spider-Man. Forelli offered to pay Spider-Man $10,000 to be his and his daughter Lynne’s bodyguard. Spider-Man agreed, and Forelli gave Spider-Man a pager. One of Forelli’s ships was sunk, and he sent Spider-Man to Nevada to confirm if the Vegas Thirteen were still where Forelli had left them forty-six years before. Spider-Man went to the Nevada desert, where he discovered a government test site where Forelli sent him. Peter returned to New York where he continued reviving his marriage to Mary Jane. Spider-Man fought Digger again, and Forelli’s men unloaded on Digger. This left Spider-Man with a blood sample from Digger and an anger with Forelli. Spider-Man then used this blood sample to learn the secret to defeat Digger, and after ending his association with Forelli, Peter put the money he made as Forelli’s bodyguard to a worthy cause.

                While running late for a faculty meeting, Peter found a student with a broken leg named Melissa Coolridge planning to play hooky, and convinced Melissa to come to school with Peter. Peter found that despite being smart, Melissa was in remedial reading and pulled strings to get Melissa into Peter’s honors biology class. After class, Peter walked Melissa home, where they found Melissa’s apartment being burglarized. Peter was able to stop the burglars from stealing from Melissa’s apartment, but the burglars were able to return to their corrupt landlord Hugh Muller, who was having his tenants steal to make him money. Peter discovered that as Spider-Man, he had gotten Melissa’s older brother Joshua arrested for carjacking. Spider-Man had an encounter with Ezekiel where Spider-Man discussed his guilt in ruining Melissa’s family. After Joshua got out of jail, he disappeared. Melissa began searching for him, and Spider-Man kept tabs on Melissa as she searched for her brother out of guilt, hoping he could help her reunite her family.

                After a go around with administrative assistant Julie, Peter’s Aunt May Parker, who recently found out her nephew was Spider-Man, gave sage advice to calm him down. While enjoying a night with Mary Jane, Peter saw red lightning and swung into action as Spider-Man. New York City was being overrun by the Mindless Ones, who were entering the city through a portal, and New York’s heroes were attempting to stem the invasion. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, of the Fantastic Four, created a device that would pull them back into whatever dimension they escaped from. Doctor Strange had dispersed his foe Dormammu through multiple dimensions during their last encounter, and Mister Fantastic’s device inadvertently reconstituted Dormammu. Doctor Strange used a spell to try to remove Dormammu, but Spider-Man got caught in it, and was brought outside of time and space, where they could see the past and a future where Dormammu had killed all the superheroes during the battle. Spider-Man saw his ending and had a chance to stop himself from ever becoming Spider-Man in the first place. Thought severely tempted, Peter could not bring himself to alter the course of his past. Spider-Man had to travel through his timeline to reach the present so he could prevent Mister Fantastic from activating the device and freeing Dormammu. Peter fought through the pain of his past back to the present day, to his birthday, where he was presented with a very special gift by Doctor Strange.

                A man stole a military-grade prototype mining suit and took on the name the Shaker. Spider-Man had to battle him. Meanwhile, Aunt May went to the park to talk to her passed loved ones as she continued to cope with her nephew being a superhero.

                Tailor Leo Zelinsky, who designed outfits for both superheroes and supervillains, overheard Killshot, one of his clients, planning a hit. He had to guarantee the privacy of his clients, but under the urging of his grandson Michael, Leo went to Spider-Man with this information and painted a target on his own back.

                Okay, we’ve been through quite a lengthy summary of the stories from this Modern Era Epic Collection, it’s time to move on to my input on this graphic novel. For those of you who don’t know, I’m going to start with my own personal thoughts and opinions about this book, including if I liked the book, what I liked and disliked about the book, what I thought about the stories and the art, if I thought the title was appropriate, and if I feel like the cover fit the book. So, for starters, I will say that I personally loved this book. J. Michael Straczynski is one of my all-time favorite “The Amazing Spider-Man” writers. These stories were originally published between 2002-2003, which was during my early days collecting comics, so I read these relatively close to their original release dates, I actually didn’t get the issues individually, I got the trade paperbacks, my individual comics were strictly “X-Men” series at the time. Regardless of that, I still enjoyed reading Spider-Man. Spider-Man was my childhood favorite cartoon Marvel hero, but I entered comics with the X-Men in middle school. Anyway, I enjoyed reading the developments with Ezekiel, I just like the enigmatic-ness of him, just how and when he shows up and what he does when he enters Peter’s life. I enjoyed seeing Spider-Man’s battle with Shathra, which tested the limits of Peter’s restraint, both in fighting a female and how far he would go to defeat an enemy. I was so happy when Peter and Mary Jane reunited. Their missing each other at their homes then meeting in the airport was great. I loved how Mary Jane complained that Peter never introduced her to Peter’s friends, and the Peter’s response with Captain America was humorous. I enjoyed the Digger storyline, particularly the resolution at the end, I really thought that was great. I enjoyed the storyline with Melissa, the conflict Peter felt over sending Melissa’s brother to jail and trying to make amends was very humanizing and it was a very touching and emotional story. I loved the “Happy Birthday” storyline, the war with Julie was actually very entertaining and I loved her second appearance in the story. I loved how Spider-Man had to relive his past, and some of the greatest moments from Spider-Man’s early history were relived, including his most devastating moments with Betty Brant and Gwen Stacy, although I will say that Straczynski did write these scenes incorrectly, the special features in this collection compare the original scenes to Straczynski’s scenes and they are vastly different, but I still enjoyed seeing these scenes. Peter’s struggle with seeing his demise and then having a chance to end all the pain caused by him becoming Spider-Man and having to make the choice was a very strong moment, and the ending with Peter’s birthday gift from Doctor Strange was very emotional. I enjoyed the “Saturday in the Park with May” issue, seeing Aunt May coping with her nephew being Spider-Man after years of hating the vigilante was fun to see, and the scene in the cell phone store was hysterical, I love the moments when Aunt May doesn’t take stuff from anyone and proves just how strong a woman she is. The “You Want Pants with That?” issue was great as well, I loved the character of Leo Zelinksy, even though I doubt we’ll ever see him again, and the scene with the waiter was great, particularly since the same waiter appeared twice in this book at two different restaurants, and Peter gave him sass both times, I thought that scene was really funny. All-in-all, I thought this book was extremely well-written. There really weren’t too many things I could find to dislike in the stories. There were a few small moments that weren’t great, but they really didn’t ruin my enjoyment of this book all that much. I do have a few complaints about Straczynski’s continuity issues. In the scene where Spider-Man relives the Gwen Stacy bridge scene in the “Happy Birthday” storyline, Gwen is awake when she is knocked off the bridge, but if you read “The Amazing Spider-Man” #121, she was unconscious when the Green Goblin knocked Gwen off the bridge. Straczynski states in his flashbacks that Peter was seventeen when he was bitten by the spider, but other writers have made the claim Peter was fifteen, so I honestly don’t know who to believe. Also, Straczynski made a contradiction in Melissa’s brother’s name. In “Amazing Spider-Man” #55, Melissa’s brother is called “Jack,” but in #56, he is called “Joshua.” This same mistake also happened in the previous volume, so I’ve noticed a pattern of Straczynski forgetting his sub-characters’ names, which is very bad in a writer. I thought Straczynski was a good writer for “The Amazing Spider-Man,” but he did make a few mess ups here and there. Next up, we’re going to discuss the art. I personally love the work of John Romita, Jr., I think he is a fantastic artist. With him and his father being the only artists in this book, I found the art in this collection to be exceptional. I have absolutely no complaints about the artwork inside this graphic novel. As far as the title goes, there were a lot of options from the fact that most of the stories had different titles in this book, the only story that was broken into parts was “Happy Birthday,” which was given three parts. Honestly, the only titles that I feel could have worked were “Unnatural Enemies,” “The Life and Death of Spiders,” “A Spider’s Tale,” “Unintended Consequences,” or “The Revolution Within,” or they could have just made up an original title and that could have worked as well, but I do think that “The Life and Death of Spiders” was a choice that was catchy, but I’m not completely sold on it being the correct title for the entire book. I feel like this was actually the weakest choice for the title and that a different choice would have represented this book better. Moving on to the cover, the editors of this book decided to use a cover depicting Spider-Man swinging with Mary Jane holding onto him and an assortment of his villains following in the background. I feel like this was a perfect cover for this book as this book focused on Spider-Man and Mary Jane’s relationship and all of these villains battled him in the “Happy Birthday” storyline. Overall, though, I was extremely satisfied with this graphic novel.

                Next up on our agenda of topics to go over, we’re going to discuss accessibility. Now, I know some of you have never read one of my reviews before and are wondering just what the heck I mean throwing out the word accessibility like this, so I shall explain it to you. I’ve been over this over six dozen times before in my previous reviews, so I know there are people who already know what they’re about to read, but I have to write it again for the newbs, so if you’ve read my reviews before, please bear with me for a few sentences. So when I say accessibility pertaining to any media I’m reviewing, I’m saying if a person who, in this case, has somehow never heard of Spider-Man before, sees this book anywhere they get books and decides that they want to now read this book based just on looking at the title or cover, then obtains it and reads it, will be able to comprehend the entire story based solely on the content contained in this book and this book alone. In this case, I would say that is a definite no. The content in this book is a direct continuation of the previous storylines written by J. Michael Straczynski, which can conveniently be purchased in Modern Era Epic Collection format as “The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home.” Prior reading is essential in understanding the status of Peter and Mary Jane’s relationship, as well as the presences of both Shathra and Ezekiel, and Aunt May’s struggles with Peter are established in the previous volume as well. I would say not having read “Coming Home” is extremely detrimental to understanding this particular volume. Also, the “Happy Birthday” storyline brings up Spider-Man’s past struggles without context, something than people not acquainted with Spider-Man would recognize. If you are looking to start getting into reading Marvel Comics, I would not say this is a good first volume for you. For those people who do know things about Spider-Man, whether from movies, shows, or video games, I still wouldn’t recommend reading this book without reading “Coming Home.” And for current or lapsed readers of Marvel Comics, again I would still say read all of Straczynski’s previous storylines before attempting to read this book. As a book for accessibility, this one isn’t the greatest. I will say, however, that this does only contain issues from one series and it does not include any tie-in issues to any events, so the narrative is consistent and doesn’t deviate from the one focus, so if you have read “Coming Home,” reading this book won’t present difficulties with following the story.

                Continuing on with this review, as I have been going on for quite a long time, we’re going to get on to a key segment of my review: the numeric score. I know that some people come to my reviews solely to know just how good I score these books I read, but this isn’t the only thing in my reviews that is important to everyone, the story is the most important thing to some readers, but there are readers who come to just read everything I have to say because for some reason they enjoy reading these reviews, and to those people, I say you are THE BEST! I know some people who read these reviews do actually personally know me as well, and read these reviews because of that, so I say “hi” to all of you, and thanks for reading my long-winded review, as this one is particularly long today. But moving one, I’m going to explain my scoring system. I’ve been over this over six dozen times in my previous reviews, and I know some of you already know it, but they newbs don’t, so I have to explain it again. It’s a very simple system, running on a scale of exact integers from one through ten. One is the lowest score I can possibly give, which means this book is not worth reading, and if you really want me to be extreme, in my opinion, every copy of this book should be removed from the shelves or storage and collectively obliterated in a massive fire, then Marvel should go and delete all the plates containing the contents of this book so it can never be reprinted again (honestly that is extreme and I don’t really mean that, that’s just a joking example of saying that it’s bad and shouldn’t be read). Now, if on the other hand, I score anything at a ten, that means that this book is perfection, one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life, and if you get stuck in a conversation with me about it, I will probably rave about it nonstop for ten minutes, and if anyone reads this and doesn’t like it, I will probably think they need to have their head examined because they don’t know what a good story looks like (again, that’s extreme, I actually welcome everyone to have their own opinions on anything I write in my blog as this blog is strictly my opinion and I cannot control what anyone else thinks and I wish you to formulate your own opinion if you read it so we can have a thorough discussion about it, but I still will have a hard time comprehending how you can’t possibly enjoy this book). Now I am extremely strict about giving out tens, I will not give a ten out unless I can find absolutely no flaws with the book at all. That said, I also don’t like giving low scores unless I feel the book actually really deserves it. If you’ve actually been paying attention to my words two paragraphs ago, you’ve probably gathered that this score is going to be relatively high, and I will tell you that you are correct. I did think the story was excellent, but there were a few moments that weren’t spot on, and yes, there were a bunch of continuity mistakes. I thought the art was consistently exceptional throughout the whole book, I find no visual things to complain about. I feel like the title was a little weak. I thought the cover was an adequate representation of the content within the book. So, putting all of that together, the score that I’m going to give this book is… an eight! There were flaws with the writing and the title, but they weren’t too overpowering, and the art was great, so I feel like my score is fair for this book.

                Next up on the docket is my recommendation segment. This section always answers two separate questions. The first question is: do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers of this review, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught up in conversation with me about this book? The second is, regardless of if I recommend this book or not, whom do I think, beyond the obvious answers of fans of the character or the publisher, should be reading this book? So, to answer the first question, you probably don’t need me to say this, but yes, I do recommend this book to anyone who is reading this review and is now interested in reading this book based solely on the words I have typed in this post. As for the second question, I think the best audience for this book is people who enjoy the story of lovers trying to make their romance work through many obstacles in the path of their relationship. It’s also good for people who like reading mob stories. It’s also got a story good for readers who enjoy trying to reunite a family. Finally, it’s also good for readers who enjoy a character forced to face their past, present and future with the option to change all three.

                Okay, we’re at the point where we’re just about ready to wrap this all up and move on with our lives. I’ve been working on this for several hours now, and you’ve been reading this for several minutes now, and we now have other things to do. Maybe some of those other things you have to do is continue browsing timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content from me? If you liked this post and want more “The Amazing Spider-Man” content, I’ve posted reviews of two other “The Amazing Spider-Man” Modern Era Epic Collections, so feel free to check out “The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home” and “The Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time” if you liked this and want to read more of my work. I’ve also written over six dozen other reviews, including Epic Collections, Modern Era Epic Collections, Ultimate Epic Collections, prose novels, and comic book events, so there are plenty of other reviews you can check out as well. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. I’ve done over 170 posts, so there’s plenty of other content you can check out if you want to read more from me. I’ve been doing this blog for five years, so there’s plenty more to read. I post on a very frequent basis, I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released, so you can usually expect at least one post a month. My next post will be “Deadpool: Magnum Opus” which you can expect to see within the next three weeks after the posting of this review, so keep checking for it, it’ll be up soon. I’ll be doing this blog for as long as I can, until I can no longer see or type, so expect this to be going on for a long time. That’s all I have to say for now. I’ll just leave you with the words: Tim Cubbin… out!