"Young Avengers: Dark Reign"

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

                The Young Avengers are a group of teenagers united by the Avengers Failsafe Program, a protocol designed to assemble the next wave of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The team consists of Eli Bradley/Patriot, Billy Kaplan/Wiccan, Teddy Altman/Hulkling, Kate Bishop/Hawkeye, Cassie Lang/Stature, Tommy Shepherd/Speed, and Vision. After the destruction of Stamford, Connecticut in a televised superhuman battle, the Superhuman Registration Act was passed, that required anyone possessing paranormal abilities to register with the government, divulge their true identities to the authorities and submit to training and sanctioning in the manner of federal agents. Anyone with superpowers who refuses to register is now considered a criminal. Some heroes, led by Tony Stark/Iron Man, see this as a reasonable request. Steve Rogers/Captain America leads an underground movement in resistance to the Act. The Young Avengers were recruited to Cap’s team. In California, there was another team of superhuman teenagers, the Runaways, who had discovered their parents were a group of supervillains known as the Pride and had stolen weapons and resources from their parents, then ran away from home, and eventually went on to defeat their parents, who chose not to take a side in the superhero Civil War and instead tried to fly under the radar. Their team consists of Nico Minoru, Chase Stein, Molly Hayes, Victor Mancha, Karolina Dean, Xavin and Old Lace. While at a Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles, the Runaways witnessed a fight between the supervillain Flag Smasher and a group of government Cape Killers and stepped in to defeat Flag Smasher, but were then forced to flee from the Cape Killers, and during their escape, Victor was badly injured. The battle made the news all the way in New York on a station the Young Avengers were monitoring. Vision received a painful feedback watching Victor’s injury. The Young Avengers decided they wanted to help, and asked Captain America if they could go to L.A., but Cap told them no. The Young Avengers went behind Cap’s back and stole a Quinjet to fly to L.A. Molly, who had been upset by Chase and had gone outside the Runaways’ hideout, encountered the Young Avengers. Molly had a misunderstanding with the Young Avengers and attacked them, but Molly was defeated. The Young Avengers brought Molly back to the Runaways’ hideout, where Vision and Victor had an adverse reaction to being in proximity to each other. Meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill visited the Supervillain prison the Cube, where she asked the Warden for an asset to find the Runaways. The Warden offered the Kree super-soldier Noh-Varr/Mavel Boy, who specialized in tracking, particularly since one of the members of the Runaways, Xavin, was a Skrull. The Young Avengers and the Runaways had a fight until Patriot and Nico were able to talk and the Runaways realized they were all on the same side. They discovered that because both Vision and Victor were built by the android Ultron, the two had a connection. Noh-Varr found the two teenage teams and attacked them. During the fight, Vision’s arm was detached in Noh-Varr’s chest, and Xavin, Karolina, Wiccan and Hulkling were captured during Noh-Varr’s extraction and brought to the Cube, where the Warden performed experiments on Hulkling, interested in his mixture of Kree/Skrull DNA. The two teenage superhero teams had to team up to infiltrate the Cube and rescue their abducted teammates.

Following the Civil War, which Iron Man’s team won, Captain America surrendered and was assassinated. Iron Man was promoted to Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Stature decided to register and join Iron Man’s Fifty-State Initiative and submitted to training at Camp Hammond, while the rest of the Young Avengers continued on fighting crime without Stature, despite their outlaw status. Patriot witnessed Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier leaving his grandparents’ home, and curious to find out what the conversation was about, enlisted Wiccan and Hawkeye to help track him down. Patriot, Hawkeye, and Winter Soldier had a team-up against Advanced Idea Mechanics, then Winter Soldier told Patriot about the legacy of the superhero name “Patriot.” Hulkling found out his father, Mar-Vell/Captain Marvel, had returned from the dead and decided to meet with him and tell Captain Marvel about their familial relationship. Wiccan and Speed went looking for the woman they believed to be their mother Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, who had disappeared following the House of M. In Cresskill, New Jersey, they encountered the villain Master Pandemonium, who gave them the answers they sought. Vision, who was still trying to sort out having the brainwave patterns of both the android Avenger Vision and the Young Avenger Nathaniel Richards/the future Kang the Conqueror, sought out Stature, whom Nathaniel had feelings for when he was a human. While Vision and Stature talked, they were attacked by A.I.M. and had to team up to defeat the villains, and the two were left to sort out their feelings. Cassie was in a battle against the supervillain the Growing Man. Though she defeated him, her stepfather Blake was injured and hospitalized, fighting for his life. Cassie felt horrible guilt, and the Young Avengers had to support her through it. Hawkeye and Patriot went on a non-date, which was interrupted by Clint Barton/Ronin, the former Hawkeye. He challenged her and won, taking back both his name and his bow. Kate and Speed decided to break into the Secret Avengers’ hideout so Kate could steal Clint’s bow back.

The Skrulls initiated a Secret Invasion of Earth, which a group of Skrull religious fanatics believed belonged to them due to a prophecy after the loss of the Skrull homeworld. Skrull Commander Chrell had been tasked with killing the Skrull Prince, Dorrek VIII, A.K.A. Theodore Altman/Hulkling. The Runaways were in New York with their new member Klara, whom they had rescued from the year 1907, when the Skrulls attacked Manhattan. Xavin turned against his/her team and knocked the Runaways out. Nico and Victor woke up and were able to escape with their unconscious teammates. The Young Avengers and the Fifty-State Initiative kids also fought the Skrulls. Xavin decided to try to help Hulkling escape from the Skrulls sent to kill Hulkling, despite having been trained to kill Hulkling. Wiccan and Speed joined up with Xavin and Hulkling. They were attacked by Skrull agent X’iv but managed to escape. The Runaways revived and saw the Young Avengers were in trouble. X’iv captured Speed and Wiccan, and Chrell captured the Runaways, but they were able to break free. The two teenage teams had to join forces again to protect Hulking and survive the Skrull Secret Invasion.

                Earth’s superhumans were able to defeat the Skrulls, and former supervillain Norman Osborn shot and killed the Skrull Queen, but Tony Stark was blamed for failing to stop the infiltration and Osborn was selected to replace Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. became H.A.M.M.E.R. and Osborn became Iron Patriot and the leader of the “Dark Avengers.” A new team of young vigilantes, Enchantress, Executioner, Melter, Big Zero, Egghead and Coat of Arms were going around New York City, fighting crime and calling themselves the Young Avengers. Their methods of fighting crime were extreme. They had a base in the Invisible Manor in Central Park. The real Young Avengers, using Wiccan’s magic, found the imposters, and the two teams fought. Team leaders Patriot and Melter began to talk, and Enchantress ended the fight. Patriot told the imposters if they wanted to be Young Avengers, they had to earn the name and they would watch them and see if they deserved to be called “Young Avengers.” Executioner was getting advice from his mother, who, unbeknownst to him, was actually the supervillain Princess Python. Executioner also figured out Hawkeye’s secret identity of Kate Bishop and tried to use this information to force his way onto the team. The Young Avengers staged a fight and had Kate Bishop with Executioner in public and Vision impersonated Hawkeye so as to cast doubt on Kate’s secret identity. The Young Avengers decided to accept Coat of Arms and Enchantress onto their team on a provisional basis, while the rest of the other team had to take a new name. Melter did not take this well and contacted Norman Osborn. Osborn immediately planned to take advantage of the youths. Hawkeye informed Executioner his mother was a supervillain, and he put her out of his life permanently. Vision received a download from Egghead, revealing Enchantress’ connection with Norse Goddess/supervillain Loki, and Enchantress was thrown off the Young Avengers. In revenge, the youths teamed up with Osborn’s Dark Avengers and fought with the Young Avengers in a battle to decide just what makes one worthy of the name “Avenger.”

                Osborn, intent of invading the city of Asgard floating over Broxton, Oklahoma, fabricated a tragedy reminiscent of the explosion that ignited the superhero Civil War. Blaming the Asgardian, Osborn began a mad Siege of their city that resulted in its fall and destruction. Patriot and Hawkeye were buried under rubble, while Wiccan, Speed and Hulkling were left to battle the Wrecking Crew.

                Okay, so now that we have an overview of the plotlines handled, let’s get on to my personal part of this review. So, the first thing we’re going to discuss is my personal feelings about this book. What I’m going to start with is that I genuinely loved this book. I thought it was fantastic. I found the stories to be exciting, fun, well-written, engaging, and interesting. I enjoyed reading all of them. I will say going in I was a little skeptical. I was predicting this to be an editorial nightmare. What I mean by this is the content. At the times of the original publication, between 2006-2010, there were no ongoing Young Avengers series, so this volume is made up entirely of four limited series and a one-shot. This book also crosses through four events, Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, and Siege. I was expecting a total mess as Epic Collections focus on characters rather than events, so this only includes the Young Avengers issues of these four events. For the most part, the stories were self-contained. They generally fit into the events but were mostly their own separate stories that were self-explanatory and didn’t usually require mastery-level knowledge of the events to understand the stories contained in this book. The one exception is Siege, which continues from the starting point of Siege and leaves off with “Continued in Siege.” Having been out of touch with the comics during the times after Civil War, most of this was new content for me. I have read Secret Invasion, but I have not totally mastered the storyline. However, I found this book to be relatively navigable, despite jumping between events and not having a linear storyline. I just felt like not having read Siege was truly detrimental to my enjoyment of this book, but it wasn’t too much of a hurt. But I’m getting totally ahead of myself here. Let’s talk about what I liked. I thought their team-ups with the Runaways were great, the two teams were compatible and worked together well, their conflicts and dynamics and their resolution together were absolutely perfect. Both teams having Skrull team members made for an excellent pairing between the two teams, and Vision and Victor both being the “children” of Ultron made for a great connection. As some of you know, Civil War is one of my favorite comic storylines, so watching the teenage heroes trying to make it through the War was entertaining for me. I think my favorite series in this book was “Young Avengers Presents,” it was an opportunity to examine each character individually and I found it to be fascinating to read. Dark Reign was interesting as well, seeing a new team parallel to the Young Avengers was enjoyable, comparable to Dark Avengers, which I have previously read and enjoyed, so reading the “Young Masters” storyline was entertaining. Siege was the one part I had a slight problem with as I felt like it really didn’t do much in the way of a story. It essentially was a filler, and that’s what it felt like, and that was detrimental to my enjoyment of this book. It was just a way to put the Young Avengers into Siege, and it really didn’t feel necessary. It was mostly Patriot and Hawkeye trapped in rubble, which really isn’t entertaining, and even Wiccan, Speed and Hulkling battling the Wrecking Crew felt dull. It was my least favorite story in the book. But I guess that’s all you can expect out of a one-shot. I think the character I enjoyed reading the most in this book was Stature. She was very complex and conflicted. I liked watching her change from the Young Avengers to the Fifty-State Initiative back to the Young Avengers. I especially enjoyed her “Young Avengers Presents” issue where she was dealing with the guilt of almost killing her stepfather. I loved the depth of character development that she went through, and I felt she was the character to watch in this graphic novel. The romances also enhanced the storylines as well, particularly Patriot and Hawkeye’s will-they-won’t-they? Vision’s conflict and trying to identify as Jonas was also interesting to read, and his relationship with Stature made for an interesting issue. I also liked the theme of family, both biological and as a team, I found the emotional depth between the characters to be very moving. I feel like this book had great writers, and it sure had a lot of them, but I feel like all of them did an exceptional job working with the stories they got. What truly surprised me about this book was the art. This book has a plethora of artists, and I feel like every single one of them actually drew visually appealing artwork. As many of my previous readers know, sometimes books with one artist meet my dismay, but a book with nine different artists seems likely that there would be an artist I would take umbrage with. Alas, every artist in this book impressed me. I found all the art to be brilliant. I think the last thing I would like to talk about is the title. Modern Era Epic Collections have to use titles that will sell. Unfortunately for me, sometimes that feels like a misnomer, and I really do not like that. So, the editors of this book went with “Dark Reign.” This book was comprised of four limited series and one one-shot and carried through four events. The longest series in this book was “Young Avengers Presents” which was six issues, each one being standalone. The longest storyline in this book was “Dark Reign” which lasted for five issues. So, I am compelled to believe that “Dark Reign” is an appropriate title for this book. New Avengers has already taken “Civil War” and plans to take “Secret Invasion” anyway, so there really isn’t a better title that they can choose for this book without causing a redundancy, and I do not believe Marvel wishes to cause that, so this title works. Even Dark Avengers was given the title “Osborn’s Reign,” so the title wasn’t used before. All-in-all, I thought this book was superlative and an excellent effort by the writers and artists at Marvel from the time periods. Despite not having an ongoing series and no linearity and spanning over the course of five years, this book still worked and was extremely cohesive. It was entertaining and had it all: action, drama, humor, and romance, pretty much everything you could ask for in a comic book. Yes, there was the one flaw of Siege, but I feel like the rest of the book mostly made up for that, and I thought this book was great.

                Next up on our agenda, we’re going to talk about accessibility. Now, I know I’ve been over this over six dozen times at this point, but I know that I always have new readers every time I make a post, so I have to explain myself each and every time, so here we go. Some of my new readers may not get what I mean when I use the word “accessibility.” So, allow me to explain myself yet again. When I say “accessibility,” I mean is this a book that a person who has never heard of the Young Avengers before can pick up, read this book, and understand what they’ve read. I feel like this book borders on the line of being extremely inaccessible and having a slight sense of accessibility at the same time. I already explained the fact that this book crosses over into four events. Now, if you’ve never read a Marvel comic book before in your entire life, I will tell you not to read this book. Yes, it does feature blurbs that partially explain the story, but it’s just not enough for someone who has no experience with the Marvel Universe to understand. I don’t care if you’ve seen every Marvel movie, cartoon, and television series, and played every Marvel video game, it’s just not going to be enough to prepare you to read this book. However, the stories are all standalone from the event with the exception of Siege, so they touch on the event without actually following the main story of the event, rather just feeling like another Young Avengers story than part of an event, with the exception of Siege, so there is the possibility of being able to understand this book. That said, I feel like this book requires extensive background knowledge of Marvel to completely be understood, and even I didn’t fully understand Siege, especially since it ends with “Continued in Siege,” so you’re not even getting a complete story in this book. This book is definitely not for Marvel beginners, it should not be the first book you pick up if you’re trying to get into Marvel Comics.

                Okay, I’ve been blathering on for a very long time at this point, I feel like we’re at the junction of when I should move on with this review and just get to the moment we’ve all been waiting for when we started with this review, and that would be my numeric score of this graphic novel. My scoring system is extremely simple. I score on a scale of one through ten. One is the score I reserve for horrible pieces of trash books that should be removed from the shelves, and have every copy be destroyed, and then never have that book be reprinted again. Ten is a score that means this book is perfection and every copy should be bought off the shelves, read multiple times, and be reprinted every year because more people need to buy this book. Both one and ten are my rarest scores. Very rarely do I find a book to be so bad that it should be considered a one, I can usually find something in a book to boost the score to a two or a three. Likewise, ten is reserved for perfection, and a book very rarely meets my standards of perfection. Usually when I write a review, the best score a book can usually hope for is a nine, I’m usually going to automatically deduct one point for some reason. I essentially score on how good the narrations of the graphic novel are. I usually deduct points for factors such as disliking art, as this is a graphic novel after all, and that has to be taken into account when reviewing this book, as well as grievances with stories, and title misnomers. Now, this book had a relatively good selection of narratives, but there was one issue I did find a flaw with. As it was, I don’t feel that this book was perfection. But the art was astonishing, so I have no reason to deduct points for that, that even boosts the score. And I have no problem with the title. So, I’m taking everything about this book into consideration to do my score. I’m taking the entirety of this book, story, art, and title, throwing them all into my metaphorical blender that I save for mixing book review smoothies in. I’m going to turn it on now and blend it until the mixture is completely liquid. Then I’m going to grab a nice cup, empty my blender into the cup and I’m going to look at this score. And when I look at this score, it’s… an eight! That’s actually an exceptionally good score. I found very few problems with my enjoyment while reading this book. I generally found this to be a delightful read and visually stunning. The efforts of the writers and artists were excellent, and I feel like they did an extremely commendable job working with what they had to work with in the Marvel Universe at the time they were producing the issues contained in this graphic novel.

                Wow, I’ve been going on a long time, you’re probably getting really bored with me, so I think it’s time to move on to the final topic we have to discuss in one of my Tim Cubbin reviews, and that would be the recommendation. Now, when I do the recommendation segment of my review, I always answer two questions. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to anyone who I tell about this book? The second question is, regardless of the answer of question number one, who would I recommend this book to, or who would I say is the target audience, or who should be reading this book? So, I think the answer to the first question is probably relatively obvious, but I have to officially answer it anyway. Yes, this book gets my personal recommendation. Now, moving on to question number two, I feel like the perfect audiences for this graphic novel would be youths or LGBTQIA+ individuals. This book has characters that represent these identities, and I feel like reading this book if you fall into one of both of those categories would be extremely empowering as you can easily find characters in this graphic novel that you can identify with. Of course this book also has characters from other Marvel media that’s out there, if you’re a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and know characters such as Kate Bishop/Hawkeye from “Hawkeye,” or Billy Kaplan/Wiccan from “Agatha All Along,” or Cassie Lang from “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” or Eli Bradley from “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, ”or Vision from “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” or if you watched “Runaways” on Hulu, you’ll find characters in this book you’ll enjoy reading the exploits of. If you’ve ever read any comics of “Young Avengers” before and had any level of enjoyment in them, this book is definitely for you. If you’re a fan of any of the events in this book, Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, or Siege, I would absolutely recommend picking up this book and giving it a read as it expands those stories. And if you’re just a diehard Marvel fan like me, I’d tell you to add this book to your collection as well, I feel this book would be a welcome addition.

                Well, I’d say we’re up to the point where I’ll begin signing off. There’s still a few more things I have to say before I log off. First off, I’ve been doing this blog for almost five years now and have done over 160 posts. I’ve done over six dozen book reviews just like this one, so if you liked this one, feel free to check out more of timcubbin.blogspot.com for more, even look up “Young Avengers: Not What You Think” if you want more Young Avengers content. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s plenty of other types of content for you to see here too. I post on a very frequent basis, I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after their release and if possible, throw up a review on this blog just for all of you guys to check out. At the moment, I just got a new book about an hour ago, so you can expect to see a review of that within the next two weeks, this I actually a Vol. 3, so I have to reread Vols. 1 and 2 first, then read the new collection, then I need to find a day when I’m free to sit down and write a review for you guys, so that might not be for a little bit, but it should definitely be sometime during the following week from my posting of this review, so keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com until it’s ready. I’m going to keep posting on this blog for as long as I can, so that’s going to be until I go blind, lose control of my hands, or pass away, so expect this blog to keep going on for quite some time, as I’m still only thirty-seven and still have plenty of life left in me. If you think this looks extremely professional, it’s because I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism but due to life circumstances have been unable to pursue it as an actual career, but I keep this blog going anyway just to honor my years of sacrifice in college. So, I guess that’s really all there is to be said at this point. I’ll be back soon, but until then, Tim Cubbin… out!

"New Avengers: The Initiative"

 

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

            And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth’s mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat! On that day, the Avengers were born – to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand!

            Years ago, a war between the Kree and the Skrulls, two interstellar races with unimaginably advanced technology, raged not only across the stars, but on the surface of the Earth itself. The mighty Avengers were able to keep the threat at bay, eventually disabling the Skrull attack fleet and bringing the conflict to an end. The Illuminati is a secret organization comprised of several of the world’s most powerful heroes: Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, King of the Inhumans, Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men and mutant rights activist, Reed Richards, founding member of the Fantastic Four, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Ruler of Atlantis, and Iron Man, founding member of the Avengers. These six men have worked together to mold and shape the status of the superhuman world and the world around it. To keep the trust between the group members, the Illuminati’s existence is a secret to everyone including their teammates and family. How and what they have done together has remained a mystery… until now…

            Following the Kree-Skrull War, the Illuminati travelled to the Skrull Homeworld to inform the Skrull Emperor that they would not tolerate another invasion attempt on the Earth, something the Skrulls were planning on doing since it had been foretold that their world would be destroyed and they would overtake the Earth as their new Homeworld. As they attempted to leave, the Skrulls apprehended the Illuminati and performed rigorous tests on the organization. Though they were able to escape captivity using their vast abilities, the Skrulls were able to harvest samples from the Illuminati for future plans of attack upon the planet Earth.

            The Infinity Gems grant cosmic-level abilities to their wielders. There are six Infinity Gems: Power, Mind, Space, Time, Soul, and Reality. The Mad Titan Thanos constantly quested to obtain all six Gems in his insane quest to bring “balance” to the universe. Reed Richards decided the best way to stop the Gems from ending up in the wrong hands was for the Illuminati to obtain all six Gems. They were successful, but the temptation of the Infinity Gauntlet almost overtook Reed Richards, so he gave one Gem to each member of the Illuminati for safekeeping.

            The Beyonder had once gathered an assortment of thirty-seven heroes and villains from Earth and forced them into a Secret War to fight to the death for whatever they deeply desired. Charles Xavier used his telepathic abilities to discover that the Beyonder was a mutant Inhuman and tracked his location to a planetoid named Ceres. Black Bolt did not remember a mutant going through the Terrigen Mists to obtain his Inhuman abilities, and the Illuminati believed that his presence was a threat to the universe and traveled to Ceres to convince the Beyonder to leave.

            A young Kree soldier named Noh-Varr who called himself Marvel Boy attacked Earth. He was overwhelmed by Earth forces and imprisoned, but the Illuminati visited him in the super villain maximum security penitentiary the Cube to try to convince him of human-Kree coexistence and to earn his way out of his imprisonment.

            After being reborn during the “House of M”, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, who died when Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch lost control of her powers and caused the original Avengers to disband, went to Doctor Stephen Strange, hoping to find Wanda and obtain the closure he felt he needed. Doctor Strange warned Clint that he probably would not find either Wanda or the closure he was looking for. Clint traveled to the foot of Wundagore Mountain in his search and stopped a woman from having her purse snatched. Upon meeting her, he passed out. When he woke up at her home, the woman introduced herself as Wanda Maximoff, but this woman did not have either the powers or the memories of the woman Clint was looking for. They connected, but Clint left afterwards, having not found the closure he was looking for.

            Following the passing of the Superhuman Registration Act, the superhero Civil War and the assassination of Steve Rogers/Captain America, Tony Stark/Iron Man, now Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. set the Initiative into motion, a plan for training and policing superheroes. While taking down the supervillain Paul Duval/Grey Gargoyle, Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, who did not register and was now considered a criminal, encountered registered superhero Carol Danvers/Ms. Mavel. Ms. Marvel informed Spider-Woman that Captain America was alive and was being kept on the Raft, a maximum-security prison for supervillains, then allowed Spider-Woman to escape. This angered Iron Man as Captain America was, in fact, dead and not being kept on the Raft.

            Maya Lopez/Ronin sent an email to Matt Murdock/Daredevil, informing him she was in Japan fighting the Hand, a group on Ninja assassins led by Matt’s ex-girlfriend Elektra Natchios. During their confrontation, Elektra slew Maya in combat but the Hand resurrected Maya to use for their own purposes. Matt, however, was in jail and did not get the email.

Following the Civil War, a group of former Avengers and currently unregistered superheroes, Luke Cage, Logan/Wolverine, Danny Rand/Iron Fist, Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Spider-Woman were hiding out at the Sanctum Sanctorum, home of Doctor Strange, which the Sorcerer Supreme was using his magic to make look like an abandoned building and future Starbucks. Following her encounter with Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman informed the group of Captain America’s imprisonment, and the team decided to rescue their friend. The team teleported to the Raft, where they were almost arrested. They returned to the Sanctum Sanctorum, which Iron Man tried to track the team down at, but Doctor Strange’s magic was so powerful that even with the aid of sorcerer Brother Voodoo, Iron Man and his Avengers were unable to locate the resistance team’s secret base. The team received Maya’s email and decided to go to Japan to come to her aid. Clint Barton arrived at the Sanctum Sanctorum. Luke was resistant to letting Clint join the team, but Doctor Strange performed a spell to convince Luke of Clint’s pure intentions and his identity as Clint Barton, but Clint refused to return as Hawkeye. Spider-Man informed Clint the team was costumes only, and Clint joined the team as the new Ronin. The team teleported to Japan, where they fought Elektra and the Hand. During the fight, Maya killed Elektra. Upon her death, the Ninjas left, but Elektra turned out to be a Skrull in disguise. This revelation that a Skrull had infiltrated the Hand and achieved the status as the organization’s leader led to distrust among Luke’s team, leaving them all to believe that anyone could be a Skrull in disguise. Spider-Woman suggested bringing the Elektra Skrull’s body to Tony Stark, who may have been a Skrull himself, to see his reaction, and if Stark were a Skrull, now the Skrulls knew the heroes were on to them. While flying in Iron Fist’s plane home from Japan, the plane lost power and crashed. The team was all knocked out except for Spider-Woman. Spider-Woman then took the Elektra Skrull’s body and left the team.

Parker Robbins/The Hood, a supervillain who shared a body with a demon, began an organized crime ring, employing the greatest supervillains in the underworld with promises of great wealth and protection and setting them against the superheroes. The Hood obtained Luther Manning/Deathlok and planned to unleash him upon Avengers Tower. A Symbiote bomb was dropped on New York City, turning everyone it touched into Symbiote monsters. Luke’s team was infected except for Luke, who aided Iron Man’s Avengers team, who remained unaffected, in stopping the crisis. Following the end of the Symbiote invasion, Stark allowed Luke and his team to leave as a sign of gratitude. During the situation, Luke discovered that Spider-Woman had switched sides and was now allied with Tony’s team. Luke’s team went to Avengers Tower to warn the Avengers of Deathlok’s impending attack but discovered that Deathlok had already been stopped. Luke’s team found the Hood’s organization and came into conflict with them. The heroes were successful, and several of the Hood’s crew were apprehended. The Hood, who promised protection, was true to his word and sprung his crew from custody, and the crime ring then turned their sights on revenge against Luke’s team.

Iron Man called the Illuminati together to show them the Elektra Skrull’s body to inform the group of a possible Skrull invasion, and the group discovered that they had already been infiltrated by the Skrulls and were attacked. The Skrulls had been so well insinuated that they were undetectable, even by telepathy. They uncovered that a Secret Invasion by the Skrulls was already underway and that no one, not even their friends, family, teammates, or each other could be trusted.

Okay, now that the lengthy synopsis has been taken care of, let’s move on to the personal Tim Cubbin part of my review now, shall we? Okay, first things first, I have to complain about the title of the book itself. This book was given the title “New Avengers: The Initiative.” I found this to be a complete misnomer. Following Civil War, there was, in fact, a series titled “Avengers: The Initiative” but not a single issue of that series was collected in this volume. The closest thing this Modern Era Epic Collection had to that was the one-shot “Civil War: The Initiative,” but that was just one issue. The entire rest of this collection had absolutely nothing to do with the Initiative at all. I will say that this had tie-ins to “The Mighty Avengers,” but calling this “The Initiative” to me felt like the wrong title as Tony’s team was not itself the Initiative. I feel like the proper title of this book should have been something like “The Secret Defenders,” which is a quote of what Clint Barton asked Luke if this was what his team was called. That would have, in my opinion, felt like a more appropriate title for this book. As far as the story goes, I was not a fan. When “Civil War” came out, I was a freshman in college. The Superhuman Registration Act had such a negative impact on the Marvel Comics, and I actually fell out of regularly reading comics for several years following this. I just hated what the Superhuman Registration Act did to some of my favorite heroes, turning them into fugitives, despite that fact that during “Civil War” I found myself supporting the Superhuman Registration Act and Iron Man’s team, but it really bothered me that it turned some of the focus away from heroes fighting villains and into heroes running from other heroes while sometimes fighting villains. And this book only collected issues of the team that was against Registration and spent most of the book trying to evade the Registered heroes, so that also detracted from my enjoyment of this book. And don’t even get me started on how “Civil War” eternally ruined “Spider-Man” in the Marvel Universe, you do not want to go there. So, this whole book, with the team being on the run from Iron Man, the Avengers, and S.H.I.E.L.D. really didn’t appeal to me. The “New Avengers: The Illuminati” limited series also held minimal appeal to me. The fact that each issue was from a different point in the timeline and was not continual just felt fractured and the inconsistency just didn’t do it for me. I also disliked how the story was not presented in timeline order and that there were jumps back and forth in the story, so it wasn’t told linearly. The disjointedness just made it hard to follow and was frustrating to put together. I feel like the decision to make reveals of what happened as past events just didn’t work and was very confusing and made it difficult to find a sense of enjoyment while reading this book. Also, Spider-Man was wearing his black costume in this book. I know a little bit about the situation myself from having read some of the issues of the multiple “Spider-Man” ongoing series around that time, but this book offered no explanation as to that, and honestly would be confusing to anyone who hadn’t read any of those stories. And the artwork also was mostly not to my liking. The art in every issue of “New Avengers” in this book was just so unlikeable to me. I found looking at it to be an eyesore. Having artwork that was so visually displeasing and a disjointed story that really didn’t appeal to me, plus a title that didn’t fit the story just made this book so unenjoyable. I was highly disappointed by this book. And I am usually a big fan of the work by writer Brian Michael Bendis, but this book was, to me, not on par with my usual expectations of his standards of writing. Granted, he had to work with what Mark Millar and the other writers did to the Marvel Universe at the time, so this isn’t entirely his fault, but what he put out in these stories was just not his best work.

Next up, we’re going to discuss accessibility. Now, if you’ve never read one of my reviews before, you may not know what I mean when I use this word, and if you have read any of my reviews before, you already know what I mean, but bear with me anyway. So, when I say “accessibility” I mean if you can just pick up and understand the entire book without any outside context. So basically, I’m answering the question: can I know nothing about the previous story and still be able to understand this story? My answer to that is no. This book is highly reliant of outside information. So much of this book spins out of “Civil War” there are parts that tie-in to “The Mighty Avengers” from the time period that not knowing other Marvel stories from the time makes this book extremely difficult to follow. If you never read “Civil War,” I do not recommend trying to read this graphic novel. There are many moments that pick up from points where the previous volume of “New Avengers” in Modern Era Epic Collection format left off, as well, particularly the entire “Ronin” story arc. Not having read previous stories is very detrimental to the consumption of this book, and I really do not recommend this book to new readers.

Okay, I think I’ve gone on long enough at this point and you’re starting to get tired of me, so I’m just going to move on to the main event of my personal part of the review: the numeric score. So, the system I score on is pretty simple: one to ten. One means this book is a flaming pile of trash and should be avoided at all costs. Ten means that this book is perfection. Tens are very rare for me to give. So, there are several factors that I’m deducting points for. First off, the story was disjointed and unappealing to me. Second, the art was just a visual eyesore and looking at it was impossible to enjoy. Third, this book had the wrong title. So, factor all those problems in and we’re taking off a lot of points. So, yes, we’re going to throw everything into my metaphorical blender, the story, the art, and the title, all of which I take fault in, we’re going to turn it on and thoroughly let it all blend together, leaving it on for quite some time, then we’re going to pour it out into my metaphorical cup, and as we look at it, we are looking at the number… three. This book was just not one that I enjoyed, and honestly, that is hard for me because I usually love Bendis’ work, so him writing this dud is just disappointing to me, and I hope that if Marvel continues to release Modern Era Epic Collections of “New Avengers” there is improvement on the dynamics of the storylines and a better balance of superheroes actually being superheroes and not superheroes being turned into fugitives trying to evade other superheroes as was the focus of this book. I also hope for a different assortment of artists, as much of this book was just not enjoyable for me to look at.

Next on the docket is my recommendation. This segment is me telling you two things. The first is if I, myself, Tim Cubbin, recommend this book to readers. The second thing I’m going to tell you is, regardless of the fact if I tell you that you should or shouldn’t read this book, who the best target audience for readers of this book would be. So, let’s start with the first question of do I recommend this book personally. My answer to you is no. This book does not get my recommendation at all. I read this book, and I cannot, in good faith, tell you, my readers, that you should now read this book. Now, if you do actually want to read this book, that is up to you, I cannot stop you, you can read this book and totally disagree with everything I’ve just said in these past four paragraphs, and I leave that up to you, that is the beauty of being a human being, we all have our own opinions, and if you read this book and feel different than I do, I would totally love to hear from you, feel free to leave some form of communication to me to say “Tim Cubbin, I think you’re wrong, I think this was a good book because…” and that would be totally great. Now, as far as who the target audience would be, I would say it is for fans of the Avengers comics who have a particular interest in villains such as the Hand, the Skrulls, and any of the Hell’s Kitchen underworld, as well as fans of Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Doctor Strange and Echo and would like to see them in association with the Avengers. Other than that, I find it hard for me to actually give a recommended audience.

Okay, I’ve rambled on for long enough, it’s time for all of us to move on with our lives. Now, before I go, there are a few final notices I must give. First off, this site has over 150 posts on it, I’ve been doing this for five years now, there’s plenty more to see. If you liked this review, feel free to look for “New Avengers: Assembled” and “New Avengers: Civil War” for more New Avengers content, as well as any of my other over four dozen reviews. I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection at my earliest convenience and try to get a review out if possible. I currently have two more volumes in my possession, so expect another review coming up in the next week or so. I post very often, so there’s always plenty of content to read as I usually get about three books a month, and I am usually able to get a review of every one of those books up right after I’ve read them. I do have a few I haven’t reviewed because at the time of reading I had no computer and couldn’t compose a post, so there’s a chance those could eventually come up, and there’s one book I didn’t review that I hope will eventually be able to receive a review on this blog. I also have composed other kinds of posts than book reviews, but those are my primary source of content. But if you keep looking at timcubbin.blogspot.com and From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin, there’s also other types of posts, such as short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so I’m not limited to being a one-trick pony. Granted I mostly just have book reviews as my focus, I do have a few other ideas I am considering working on, so there’s a chance you could see a short story eventually pop up, or I might write another one of my B’ings, which are just total ways to waste everyone’s time, it’s just me going on for several minutes finding a totally pointless topic and complaining about it, but it’s actually usually pretty amusing, so if you’re interested in that, you can search for those as well. You can also make requests for me on what you would like to see on this blog, and I will try to take that into account as well and attempt to satisfy you. I want to keep you guys coming back, after all. So, I think for the moment I’ve said everything there is to say, really, so I’m just going to sign off now. It’s been a pleasure. Tim Cubbin… out!

"Young Avengers: Not What You Think"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Young Avengers: Not What You Think” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Following the disbanding of the Avengers, four teenagers took to the streets in the fashion of their icons: Nathaniel Ricards/Iron Lad, with a suit of advanced technological armor; Elijah “Eli” Bradley/Patriot, super soldier; William “Billy” Kaplan/Asgardian, able to generate lightning and spellcasting; and Theodore “Teddy” Altman/Hulkling, shapeshifter with super strength. The New York newspaper dubbed them the “Young Avengers.” Editor in Chief J. Jonah Jameson tasked reporter Kat Farrell and private investigator and former teenage superhero Jessica Jones with finding out everything they could about these young “heroes.” Former Avengers Steve Rogers/Captain America and Tony Stark/Iron Man decided that they couldn’t endanger any young children and intended to shut the teenagers’ team down. A hostage situation occurred at a wedding at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and the young heroes crashed into the rescue. One of the hostages, Kate Bishop, assisted the team in stopping the crisis, but the teenagers almost burned the Cathedral down in the process of taking down the bad guys. Following this, the team retreated to the destroyed Avengers Mansion to discuss the goal of the founding of the team: to stop Kang the Conqueror when he returned, since there were no adult Avengers to combat him. After Asgardian, Hulkling and Patriot left, Iron Lad was discovered by Captain America, Iron Man, and Jessica Jones. Iron Lad revealed to the adult heroes that he himself was actually the person destined to become Kang the Conqueror and that he had travelled back from the thirtieth century to prevent himself from the fate of becoming the villain. He had tried to contact the former Avengers so they could unite against Kang when he came looking for Iron Lad, but his attempts failed, so he found the one Avenger who could help, one who had perished during the ending of the original Avengers: the synthezoid the Vision. Iron Lad download the Vision’s operating system and data files into his armor, which activated the failsafe, informing Iron Lad of just whom he had to contact and unite should the Avengers ever become unavailable. Meanwhile, Cassie Lang, daughter of deceased Avenger Scott Lang/Ant-Man, wanted to look for the Young Avengers with the intention of joining. She wished to use the Pym Particles that powered her father to aid the team, so she and Kate Bishop both went looking for the heroes. Kate and Cassie took their search to Avengers Mansion, where they were confronted by Asgardian, Hulkling and Patriot. During the confrontation, Cassie got angry and discovered her previous exposure to the Pym Particles had actually given her size changing powers, but the shock of using her powers caused her to pass out, and her crashing from giant form alerted Captain America, Iron Man and Jessica Jones to the presence of the teenagers on the grounds of Avengers Mansion. The teenagers introduced themselves to the adults, then the gathering of heroes was attacked by the Growing Man, who had come looking for his master, Kang. The heroes battled Growing Man, who multiplied into smaller versions of himself, but they Growing Men sent a signal to alert Kang they had found his young counterpart. For their safety, the adults locked the teenagers in the Avengers Mansion’s training room with the intention of contacting the teenagers’ parents. The adult Kang arrived from the future and revealed that if Iron Lad did not come back with him and fulfil his destiny of becoming Kang the Conqueror, reality as it currently was would cease to exist. As reality began to change, the adults realized that Kang was correct, and that Iron Lad would have to go forward in time with the adult Kang. The teenagers escaped from the training room, and wanted to protect their friend. During the conflict between the teenagers and Kang, Iron Lad slew his adult counterpart. As reality began to change, Iron Lad realized that he had no choice but to go back to the future to set everything right. Following this, the adults informed the teenagers that if they ever put their uniforms on again, the adults would shut the teenagers down, unless they had parental consent and training. The teenagers refused the parental consent request, got new uniforms, and decided to embrace the name “Young Avengers.” Cassie decided to be called Stature, and Asgardian changed his codename to Wiccan, while the others tried to get Kate to be either Hawkeye or Hawkingbird.

            As the Young Avengers decided not to come out to their parents, Patriot investigated a Mutant Growth Hormone operating ring. He discovered it was being operated by supervillain Calvin Zabo/Mister Hyde. Meanwhile, Captain America went to Eli’s grandparents and Jessica Jones went to Cassie’s mother to inform them of the teenagers’ activities as superheroes. Both the Young Avengers and Captain America discovered that Eli’s powers didn’t come from a Super Soldier Serum blood transfusion from his grandfather Isiah Bradley like he claimed, but rather that Eli was taking MGH. The Young Avengers defeated Mister Hyde, but Patriot quit the team.

            Jessica Jones investigated the histories of each of the Young Avengers and encouraged them to give an exclusive to Kat Farrell.

            The Young Avengers tracked down Eli and encouraged him to rejoin the team, saying he was the only one who could lead them. Right after he refused the offer, the team was attacked by the Super-Skrull, who claimed he was there to bring Teddy home to the Skrull Empire. The Young Avengers fought to protect Teddy and retreated to Billy’s parents’ apartment, where Teddy’s mother was waiting. The group was attacked by the Super-Skrull, who revealed to them that Teddy’s mother wasn’t actually his mother, rather a Skrull agent. The Super-Skrull then killed “Mrs. Altman” and abducted Teddy and informed him he was really Dorrek VIII, Heir to the Skrull Empire, and had been sentenced to death as an infant upon the discovery of the identity of his father. Teddy and the Super-Skrull were then attacked by the Kree Imperial Armada. Meanwhile, the Young Avengers decided they needed more help and went to recruit the Vision to find more Young Avengers from the failsafe program. They learned of Thomas “Tommy” Shepherd, who was a speedster and able to blow things up. Unfortunately, he was in a juvenile detention center for enhanced individuals. While the Young Avengers broke him out, they noticed his uncanny resemblance to Billy. As the Young Avengers and their new recruits Vision and Tommy came to rescue Teddy, Teddy learned his father was Kree Imperial Officer Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel. The Young Avengers rescued Teddy and the Super-Skrull from the Kree, and the Super-Skrull informed Billy and Tommy they were the sons of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and Vision, a possibility Vision confirmed and Billy believed due to Billy and Tommy having the same powers as Wanda and her twin brother Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver. The Young Avengers and adult New Avengers then found themselves caught in the middle of another Kree/Skrull war over the custody of Teddy.

            Okay, now that we have my professional synopsis out of the way, let’s get to the point where I give my personal opinion on this graphic novel. I will say that I found this book to be highly enjoyable. I honestly thought the stories were great. I found them to be engaging, well-written, and exciting, with good plot twists. Right off the bat from issue number one, with the Iron Lad/Kang the Conqueror reveal, I thought it was great. I especially loved the first battle between the Young Avengers and Kang where reality was changing and young Iron Lad had to make the impossible choice of embracing his villainous destiny. I thought that was superb writing. I was shocked when it was revealed that Eli really wasn’t a super soldier and that he was actually getting his powers from a drug. That was just a brilliant surprise. And Teddy being the Skrull Emperor/Kree Imperial Officer and Billy and Tommy being the sons of the Scarlet Witch and Vision were surely great shockers at the time, but twenty years later I already knew all this, but still, I thought that was a great way to tie the Young Avengers to the previous teams of Avengers. And as far as the artwork goes, I thought it was great, excellent work. I was consistently visually pleased the entire time I viewed this graphic novel. I just have to say I thought it was a fantastic job all around, both story and art, and I thoroughly enjoyed perusing this graphic novel.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve said this about thirty times by this point, but I know I have to say it again because I know some of you have never read one of my reviews before and don’t know what I mean when I use the word “accessibility” like this. I mean it very simply: how easy is it to just pick up and read this book and understand completely what you are consuming, even if you have absolutely no prior knowledge of the Avengers or Marvel Comics? I am incredibly pleased to say how accessible this book is. I think if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic before and have never seen any Marvel films or television shows or played any Marvel games or have absolutely any kind of prior knowledge of Marvel at all, you could still pick up this book and completely follow the storyline. It has no direct connection to any other Marvel Comic series prior or during it. Yes, there are plenty of other references, obviously, but this introduces a slew of new characters with a new origin story that is told totally independently of any other Marvel series. There are no events or crossovers, so this doesn’t have any missing pieces in the narrative. I feel like if you’re brand new to Marvel and want to start with something and are totally just for some bizarre reason reading this review on a whim because you personally know me and feel a commitment to me and read everything I post regardless of knowing nothing about Marvel, this is actually a perfect pick to start your experience with. And if you do know Marvel, which, if you’re reading this, you probably do, but have never actually touched a comic book before, the same thing applies in this case. In my opinion, it’s not going to be contradictory to what’s established in other Marvel media, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so if you’re a fan of the MCU and want to get into comics but don’t know where to start, I would definitely say this book is a fantastic choice. I just feel like this book is perfect Marvel Comics entry level. And if you are a lapsed reader of Marvel, say from like any time prior to 2005 when this series started, this book will still be understandable. It’s pretty self-explanatory once you start reading it, so it really shouldn’t give you a problem. And if you’re a regular Marvel reader from any time post 2006 when these issues were originally published, this will be a total breeze to read through and understand and will probably even fill in a lot of gaps.

            Okay, I feel like I’ve gone on about that long enough, you probably want to move on to the single most important part of this review and the reason why we are actually here: my numeric score of this book. I score on a very simple scale: one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and that means that this book is a flaming pile of trash that should be avoided at all costs. Ten is the best score I can give, and that means that this book was sheer perfection. Now with me, basically every book starts at a nine and goes lower, I’m really not in the business of giving out tens. It’s just exceedingly rare for me to feel that a book is a perfect ten. Now, we’re looking at this book, which I found to have exceptional stories and astonishing art and no actual complaints from me. But the question is, is this a ten? I would honestly love to say it is, but it’s not what you think. There is just something holding me back from scoring this book at a ten. It’s just not quite perfection. Yes, it’s amazing, the whole book was just a joy to go through, but I can’t claim it to be perfect. I don’t know exactly what’s holding me back, I really just can’t quite say it, I can’t pinpoint it, I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s just something going on here that makes me say that this book just isn’t a ten. Now, this raises another question, of course: is this a nine, instead? So now, I’ll stop teasing you and just give you a numeric score of the book because I feel like I’ve rattled on long enough on how it’s not perfect. So, we’re going to take everything in this book, the stories and the art and throw it in a blender and turn it on to mix out a score. I’ve turned it on… I’m pouring it out… and it’s… yeah, it’s a nine. I honestly can’t find any further reason to deduct points from my score, so if I can’t give it a ten, then no duh, it’s got to be a nine. That’s still really darn good. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading the stories and looking at the artwork and I consumed this book and I really have nothing I can complain about here from this graphic novel, so yeah, I give it a solid nine and say that’s about as good a score as it could hope to get.

            Finally, I’m going to tell you two more things: One: do I give this book my personal recommendation? Two: regardless of the answer to question one, to whom do I recommend this book to. So, as you can imagine my answer to question number one, in this case, it is what you think. Yes, I most certainly do, one hundred percent, absolutely, positively, for sure give this book my personal recommendation. As far as to whom do I recommend this book to, that’s actually a very broad group of people. First off, if you’re a teenager interested in Marvel Comics, this book is perfect for you. If you are LGBTQ+ and interested in Marvel Comics, I would absolutely say you would love Wiccan and Hulkling’s relationship. If you’ve watched Marvel movies and shows such as “WandaVision,” “Hawkeye,” or “Agatha All Along,” you already know some of the characters and I feel you would enjoy reading more about them in this graphic novel. And, of course, if you’re a fan of “Young Avengers” from any point or a fan of any of the characters featured in this graphic novel and have yet to read these essential issues, I will tell you this is the perfect book for you. Oh, and if you’re reading this review and are interested in reading this book now, I will tell you to go for it. I found it to be highly enjoyable, and I am a very picky person, so if I can rave about it this much, it probably really is good. And I will say, if you do read this, feel free to leave a comment or a tweet or whatever to tell me what you thought of this book, I would really love to hear your opinion from you. Of course, this entire review is all my opinion, I leave you free to completely have your own opinions, you do not have to agree with me on this, I even welcome dissent, I’m honestly not telling you what to think, I leave everything up to you. That’s the beauty of life; we all have our own opinions on things, and I love that you have yours, so please, if you feel different about anything I said, let me know, again, I’d love to hear from you.

            Well, I think we’re at the point where I’m going to say goodbye to you. I’ve been doing this for a while now, and I’m sure you’re getting bored of me and want to get on with your life, so let’s just move on now. I will say a few more things before I sign off first. I post on this blog very often. I have made over 150 posts on this blog, so there is plenty more content you could see if you liked this. I’ve done about thirty reviews at this point, so if you liked this review, feel free to check out some more. I can tell you that you can expect another review to get posted sometime in the next three weeks, so keep an eye out for it, it’s definitely coming. I actually purchase every single Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection that’s released and try to review it if possible. There are a few I’ve yet to review, hopefully that can change, but at the moment I’ve done almost all of them. I’ve also done other kinds of content on this blog, such as short stories, free verse poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. If you’re looking for a laugh and a pointless read for several minutes, check out my B’ings series, they’re actually quite entertaining. They’re just me rambling on for a few minutes about a topic that really doesn’t mean anything and yet I make a big deal out of it anyway somehow. I hope to post more short stories and poetry in the future, I do have a few ideas in mind, I just need to find the time to get them down on my laptop. Well, I guess I’ve said all I have to say at this point, so I’ll end it with just a few more words, and they are: Tim Cubbin… out!

"New Avengers: Civil War"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

"New Avengers: Assembled"

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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