"The Incredible Hulk: Crossroads" by Bill Mantlo

            The following is a review/critique of the graphic novel “The Incredible Hulk: Crossroads” by Bill Mantlo as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format.

            Doctor Brian Banner worked as an atomic researcher. His wife Rebecca Banner and Brian conceived a child together. Brian figured that this baby would take the focus of their marriage, being rather narcissistic, turning Rebecca’s attention to the baby and no longer to Brian. This created Brian to have great resentment towards the baby. Rebecca had a difficult pregnancy, and had to have a C-section to birth the baby, a situation where Brian would rather have his wife survive than the baby. Fortunately, Rebecca survived, and named the baby Robert Bruce Banner. Brian, having been exposed to radiation, believed this baby to be a monster and gave Bruce absolutely nothing but contempt. Brian hired Nurse Meachum to babysit Bruce, but Meachum was too strict. Bruce perceived Nurse Meachum to be a goblin. Bruce had a stuffed toy that was Bruce’s only friend, a guardian. He also had a star mobile, which emitted a glow, Bruce’s only light as a child. Brian grew to resent not just Bruce, but also Rebecca, who, as Brian predicted, turned her attention more to Bruce than Brian. A family tragedy turned custody from Bruce to Rebecca’s sister. As Bruce grew up he developed an aptitude to science, but at school paid little attention to his classmates, absorbed in his schoolwork. When he was an adult, he was hired to Desert Base to build the gamma bomb for the United States military, answering to General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Bruce met Ross’ daughter Betty and immediately fell in love with her. The General, however, thought little of Bruce as a human, but as his ticket to give the United States military an advantage in world power and respect. Bruce gained the assistance of Igor Sklar, who disliked Bruce and became rather ambitious to gain Ross’ approval. When Bruce completed the gamma bomb, Ross wanted to see a test in its application. During the countdown, teenager Rick Jones decided to impress his friends but sneaking into the military compound and unknowingly entered the test area. Bruce saw Rick and rushed to his rescue, instructing Igor to hold the countdown. Igor saw his opportunity and did not follow Bruce’s orders. Bruce was able to push Rick into a trench, but took the full brunt of the gamma explosion. Because Bruce had a genetic mutation, he was able to survive the gamma radiation, a fact that none but Brian Banner knew. However, the gamma radiation saturated Bruce, and triggered a transformation, becoming the monster Brian predicted. Bruce’s transformation was somewhat temporary. Bruce would be a dominant personality, but in times of stress, fear, or anger, this transformation turned Bruce into a creature who would come to be called “Hulk.”

            Over the years, the Hulk caused a lot of destruction, both in property and living creatures. Ross would go on to issue a manhunt against the Hulk. Banner grew to fear the Hulk, seeing him as a curse. Bruce always wished to be free of the Hulk, but never succeeded. Then, the demon called Nightmare struck. Hulk went up against Nightmare, who offered separation. Bruce took the demon up on the deal, but instead, Nightmare purged the Bruce Banner persona entirely, eliminating Bruce and turning the Hulk savage. Savage Hulk became a true menace, and a danger to the world. Feeling that there was no other choice, Doctor Stephen Strange used a spell to banish Hulk from the mainstream reality into an interdimensional place called the Crossroads. This gave Hulk access to many other worlds, except for the one he was born in, giving him free range to travel to a place where the Hulk could not harm other people and could not be harmed by other people. Doctor Strange enacted the fail-safe spell. If Hulk came to a world that scared or dissatisfied Hulk, he would be returned to the Crossroads to try again to find a new world to visit. In the Crossroads, Hulk encountered the Puffball Collective, a being exiled to the Crossroads, but unlike Bruce, the Puffball Collective was unable to leave the Crossroads. The Puffball Collective did all it could to befriend the Hulk, but Hulk was unable to return the desire for friendship being totally savage and uncomprehensive. The Puffball Collective tried to restore a sense of self into the Hulk, trying to bring back memories and changing form to try to please the Hulk and create a friendship, with the ulterior motive of finding some way to escape the Crossroads, but each attempt ended in failure.

            Hulk traveled to many worlds, never finding satisfaction. He found himself embroiled in all kinds of situations, siding with and against other beings. The super villain team the U-Foes, comprised of Ironclad, Vector, X-Ray and Vapor, were unexpectedly sent to the Crossroads. Hulk had had several battles with the U-Foes in his original reality, and attempted revenge against the Hulk.

Hulk, meanwhile was learning to comprehend basic instincts, particularly friendship, but his friendships always failed to last.

Hulk teamed up with a space pirate team against the energy devouring Klaatu and joined the crew aboard the Andromeda.

Hulk was soon joined by the Triad, the creatures Goblin, Guardian and Glow, the beings from Bruce’s childhood personified. From then on, they attempt to restore the Bruce Banner persona and to get Bruce back to his home world.

 

I have to say, I found read this book to be a relatively enjoyable experience. I found the story to be mostly interesting. It has coherent and cohesive and consistent. I feel this is mostly due to the fact that this book only had one author, which doesn’t happen very often in Marvel Epic Collections. I have read other works by Bill Mantlo before, and his work usually satisfied me. I will say, however, that this book felt a little too drawn out. I felt like some stories were longer than needed, and some stories should have been given more time to develop. Savage Hulk at times felt dissatisfying, as there was little character development, and as the character was unintelligent, to me it rubbed off a little bit much in the story. The complexity of the Jekyll and Hyde theme and the Bruce Banner and Hulk dual personas not coexisting made Hulk feel two-dimensional to me. There have been times where Hulk and Bruce had been merged, and to me that held up pretty well, but Savage Hulk didn’t feel complex enough to me. Also, the lack of superhero/super villain conflict, replaced by minor opposition felt a little flat to me. All that said, I was still able to enjoy reading it. Also, lest we forget, this was a graphic novel, and the artwork is just as important as the story. An amazing story in a graphic novel can be ruined by shoddy artwork, but stellar artwork doesn’t hold up as well if the story is just not compelling. We have to remember that comic book art has changed style over the decades. Each time period seems to have relative standards. I must acknowledge that the issues contained in this collection ranged from the years of 1984-1985. I have to say that while I felt this was top quality artwork at the time, I don’t feel it holds top quality anymore. I particularly disliked Hulk’s facial expressions. I know he was supposed to be unintelligent, but to me it just seemed to be taken too far. I’m not saying I thought the artwork was bad, it just didn’t consistently appeal to me. Also, consider that the issues contained in this collection were released before I was born and I didn’t become a regular comic book reader until 2001, so my likings of art styles are somewhat tainted. That’s not to say I don’t like retro comic book art, but this book didn’t stand out to me.

But all said and done, I was still able to read and enjoy it, despite all of my perceived flaws. I know I’m expected to give this book a numeric score, so I’ll do that. When I score a prose novel, graphic novel, or comic book event, I work on a scale of one-to-ten. One means I felt like this book was terrible, ten means that I felt like this book was outstandingly incredible, I score it at a seven. I think if he story and art could have been tinkered with a little by today’s standards, I could possibly have given this a nine. As it was, I felt like this was a good effort at an incredible Hulk story, but it just wasn’t incredible enough for a higher score.

Now, some of you might be intrigued by this book just by reading this review. But, it should be taken into consideration that I’ve been reading Marvel comics for twenty-one years, so my knowledge might not align with yours. But, I think if you’re a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but have never read a Marvel comic book before and are looking for a place to start, and you really like the Hulk, I feel like this might be a good jump on point for you. To me, it seemed very self-contained and the narrative was consistent and linear, all just one continuous story progressing with each issue. Like I said, the issues in this book were released before I was born, and my Hulk knowledge doesn’t go back that far, so this was new territory for me. I also liked the issue where Bruce Banner’s origin was discussed as it was a story I didn’t know of prior to reading this book, so that was worth it right there. If you’re a long-term Marvel comics reader and haven’t read this book but like the Hulk, I’d say this might be worth a read for you. (It should be noted that everything in this post is my own personal opinion and I will not outright expect you to agree with me, and even welcome disagreement, and if you want to discuss this with me, I invite you to contact me by commenting on this blog page or on Twitter. I’m not giving you my personal e-mail however, so reach out to me on social media.)

So now I’m going to wrap this post up. I usually post on a frequent basis, I’ve had to take some time off because of an injury, but keep checking back, see what else I post. While one of the primary focuses on this blog are book reviews, I also write short stories (I’m going to write one in a few days and will post it when I’m satisfied with how it turns out), I write editorials such as my continuing complain series B’ings (which I’m in the process of writing one now), I write poetry, and I write essays, and other kinds of content, so if you read this post and like it, I’ve done over one-hundred posts, so I think you might find something else you might like, so feel free to keep browsing this page and come back for more. And so, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out! 

"X-Men: Second Genesis" by Chris Claremont, Len Wein, Bill Mantlo, and Bonnie Wilford

 

            The following is a review of the “X-Men: Second Genesis” graphic novel by Chris Claremont, Len Wein, Bill Mantlo, and Bonnie Wilford.

            We’ll begin this review with a look at the characters, then an examination of the plot synopses of the book, then move on to my personal thoughts in reflection to the graphic novel, my accessibility reference, and finally my numerical score and recommendation of the book. Unfortunately and regretfully this will contain spoilers, and I apologize, but they are necessary for the point of reviewing the graphic novel as a whole, but these spoilers are not completely major, mostly minor, no it shouldn’t ruin the book by being revealed.

            We’ll start with talking about the X-Men in general. The X-Men are a team of mutant “super heroes.” A mutant is a person with powers that people don’t usually have. This is caused by a genetic mutation at birth. These powers typically manifest upon puberty. The “scientific” term of a mutant is homo superior. Because “normal” humans don’t have these powers, many are afraid of mutants, and a large faction hate mutants and want them all dead (the only good mutie is a dead mutie) or arrested and contained. The X-Men were brought together to learn to use their powers to benefit all mankind, with the vision of peace between mutants and “normal” humans. They often come up against “evil” mutants who wish to overtake “normal” humans and establish mutant dominance and superiority. Their base is Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, located in Westchester, New York (ironically where I live). This is where they live and train to use their powers and as a cover so their location is a secret. The X-Men are Scott Summers/Cyclops, Bobby Drake/Iceman, Jean Grey/Marvel Girl, Warren Worthington III/Angel, Alex Summers/Havok, Lorna Dane/Polaris, and their leader is Charles Xavier/Professor X. Professor X has a device called Cerebro, which can locate mutants all around the world. Cerebro detects a powerful mutant on the island of Krakoa, so strong it defies classification. Professor X sends his X-Men on a mission to locate this mutant. However, only Cyclops comes back, the other X-Men missing somewhere on Krakoa, potentially held kidnapped. Professor X feels he needs more mutants to go to Krakoa to find the mutant and rescue the X-Men, so he recruits a new group of mutants to do the task.

            We’re now going to talk about the team that goes to the rescue, but we’re only going to talk about three of the aforementioned X-Men before we talk about the rescue team.

            We’ll start with the founder and leader of the X-Men, Charles Xavier/Professor X. Professor X is considered the most powerful telepath on the planet. An accident has left him in a wheelchair.

            Scott Summers/Cyclops: he has powerful optic blasts, but has no control over them and must always wear glasses or visors made out of ruby quartz, the only thing that can hold them back.

            Jean Grey/Marvel Girl: she is a telekinetic and has minor telepathic abilities.

            Now we’ll talk about the rescue team in order of their recruitment.

            Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler: a teleporter with blue fur, three fingers, two toes, and a tail who in Germany is considered a demon and is about to be killed before Professor X arrived to rescue him.

            Logan/Wolverine: he has a skeleton coated in the unbreakable metal adamantium, three claws in in this hands, and a healing factor than can help him recover from any wound. He is also called “Weapon X” and is an agent of the Canadian super team Alpha Flight before Professor X recruits him and Wolverine offers his resignation.

            Sean Cassidy/Banshee: he is an Irish man who has been with Interpol, the NYPD, and even been a villain before Professor X recruits him. He has a sonic scream which he can use to fly with.

            Ororo Munroe/Storm: she controls the weather and in Africa she was considered a goddess before Professor X recruits her.

            Shiro Yoshida/Sunfire: a Japanese man who can fly and generate and control fire.

Peter Rasputin/Colossus: a Russian farmer before recruited by Professor X, who can turn his body into organic steel.

            John Proudstar/Thunderbird: an Apache with super strength and tracking skills.

            So, anyway, this group of mutants travel to Krakoa to find the mutant and rescue the X-Men and are surprised to find out the mutant is actually the island itself. Upon defeating it, the X-Men and the new group of mutants return to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. All of the new recruits except for Sunfire decide to stay and be the “New” X-Men. However, the “Old” X-Men decide they have stayed at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters long enough and are grown enough to move on with their lives and decide to leave. The only X-Man who decides to stay is Cyclops, who must say goodbye to Marvel Girl, the woman he loves.

            The “New” X-Men go on to train in the use of their powers, and are called to NORAD base in Valhalla when Count Nefaria and his Ani-Men have taken over and plan to unleash the nuclear missile upon the world, the Doomsmith Scenario. The X-Men are able to defeat the Ani-Men, but Count Nefaria attempts to escape in a plane. Thunderbird destroys the plane, but unfortunately does not survive the crash.

            The “New” X-Men continue their training and face several more threats, including the demon Kierrok, Eric the Red, the corrupted Havok and Polaris, the Sentinels, Steven Lang, and the X-Sentinels, and are brought to space during a solar storm. Marvel Girl was taken with the X-Men and uses her powers to land a space shuttle in Jamaica Bay. In the process, Marvel Girl becomes Phoenix and her powers are amplified, and gains several new powers.

            The X-Men travel to Cassidy Keep in Ireland that Banshee has just inherited, but are forced to battle villains like Black Tom Cassidy (Banshee’s evil cousin), Juggernaut, and Magneto.

            The X-Men are sent into another galaxy where the battle against the Shi’ar Imperial Guard to save the universe.

            Upon their return, the X-Men and Iron Fist clash out of a misunderstanding after Iron Fist faces off against Sabre-tooth.

            The X-Men also travel to New Mexico and team up with Spider-Man against a group of humans who believe they are reincarnations of Hindu gods.

            Finally, Spider-Man, Havok, and Thor team up to battle the Living Monolith.

            Yeah, okay, I know, that’s a lot of stories we covered. Now I’m sure you want to hear my thoughts and score, so I won’t disappoint you any further. Ever since I started reading comics regularly in 2001, I have ALWAYS been a fan of Chris Claremont’s work, and his early work did not disappoint me. I found these stories amazing, and did not want to stop reading the book, didn’t want to put it down, and I finished it in three days (which is actually slow for me, but I wanted to savor it, so I spaced it out). I liked the Easter eggs where Claremont snuck several Marvel staff (like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) into the panels, which some people would totally miss, but I didn’t. The stories excited and thrilled me. I just LOVED the book. I thought the team-up issues were great, and reading the first appearance of Sabretooth was a total treat for me. And “Iron Fist” was my favorite Marvel Netflix show, so I thought his issues were awesome, they did not disappoint. And the “Phoenix Saga” has always been a favorite of mine ever since I was a little boy and watched the “X-Men” animated series in the 1990s (I was born in 1988, by the way, so I was basically a ‘90s brat, and we had THE BEST animated superhero series’ back then, and don’t try to tell me otherwise because you WILL NOT win).

            Still with me? Have I bored you yet? If you’re still here, you are THE BEST (expect to see that again in a few paragraphs). Okay, my previous readers know when I review books and graphic novels, I give you my accessibility rating. In other words, if you’ve never read ANYTHING pertaining to these series, teams, and characters or haven’t seen any of their movies, can you just pick it up and read it without being confused? Well, let’s explore briefly the circumstances that led to the “New” X-Men. Stan Lee’s first X-Men story was released in 1963. Claremont took over X-Men in 1975. Prior to that, the “X-Men” comic series was literally dying. The stories were just not interesting readers and new issues were stopped, with just rereleases of older issue that they continued numbering from before the “fall” of the X-Men. Then, in 1975, Giant-Size X-Men #1 came out, with new characters who were older and of all different nationalities rather than just the white American characters. We had a German “Demon,” a Russian farm boy, an African “Goddess,” a Canadian, an Irish, a Japanese, a Native American warrior, and a Scottish scientist/housekeeper, such a variety. These characters were seen as more “interesting” and BOOM! X-Men was saved, and we all know now where THAT led to, the spin-offs, the cartoons, the movies, the video games, the trading cards, the action figures, and I’m sure I haven’t just named everything. So if you know nothing about X-Men, that’s fine, the history of the first ninety-three issues really doesn’t matter, it’s a perfect jump-on point, and if you ever want to start reading X-Men, this is where to start.

            So, now the important part: my score. For those who don’t know how I roll, I score on a scale of one to ten. One means don’t go anywhere near this book, ten being if you read this book we could be best friends. Hello new best friends! For the first time ever! I score this book at a ten! I felt this book was perfection! Comic book gold! Seriously, if you read this review and are even MILDLY interested, I want you to go out and READ! THIS! BOOK! Seriously, if you’ve read any of my previous reviews, you know I am VERY stingy with my scoring. So if I say it’s a ten, well, that means A LOT!

            So I’m going to sign off for this review, and paraphrase the late, great Stan Lee, face front, true believers, excelsior, Tim Cubbin… out!

"The New Mutants: Renewal" by Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo

 

            This is a review of the graphic novel “The New Mutants: Renewal” by Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo. This review does not have anything to do with “The New Mutants” film.

            This book was about the formation and early and early adventures of the team The New Mutants. I feel that a brief description of the characters will enhance this review to people unfamiliar with The New Mutants, not knowing the characters or storylines and mostly only reading this out of obligation of me and this blog.

            Xi’an Coy Manh/Karma. Powers: Mental possession.

            Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane. Powers: Metamorphosis from human to lupine form.

            Danielle Moonstar/Psyche. Powers: Able to mentally projects a person’s deepest fears or desires.

            Samuel Guthrie/Cannonball. Powers: Ability to transform into an invulnerable projectile.

            Roberto DaCosta/Sunspot. Powers: Ability to draw energy from the sun which gives him super strength.

            Amara Aquilla/Magma. Powers: Geokinesis and control over fire and magma.

            Illyana Rasputin. Powers: Sorcery.

            Charles Xavier/Professor X. Powers: Telepathy and mind control.

            The story begins when geneticist Moira McTaggert brings her charge Rahne Sinclair to Charles Xavier. Xavier was the mentor to the mutant team the Uncanny X-Men, who have disappeared and pronounced dead. A mutant is a person with powers caused by a genetic mutation which usually emerge during puberty. Xavier has a device called Cerebro which can detect mutants. His base is his School for Gifted Youngsters where he taught mutants both scholastically and in the use of their mutant powers. Xavier is reluctant to take on any new students due to the danger it leaves to his students. Xi’an is discovered as a mental possessor and Xavier takes her in, giving her a job and a home. Dani is also discovered, the granddaughter of an acquaintance to Charles Xavier and also taken in after predicting the murder of her grandfather which comes to be. Roberto is discovered when he transforms during a soccer/football game. Sam’s powers emerge during a mine collapse where he saves himself and his supervisor by blasting out.

            A group called the Hellfire Club discover these newly empowered mutants as well as Xavier and attempt to capture and possibly destroy them. They use Sam as a pawn and convinces him that mutants must be destroyed. By circumstances, the young mutants are all gathered together, convince Sam of the Hellfire Club’s true mission and come together as a group. Reluctantly, Xavier accepts all the kids to his school, but refuses to call this new team X-Men out of his legacy to the original team. The kids are then dubbed “The New Mutants.”

            They do battles with foes such as the Sentinels, robots designed to kill mutants; the Brood, an alien species bent on universal domination; Viper/Madame Hydra; the Silver Samurai; and Selene Gallio, a mutant vampire who attempts eternal life by draining the life essence out of a person. The original X-Men are discovered alive when they return to the School. The New Mutants arrive in Nova Roma/New Rome, where the team discover Amara, a newly emerged mutant who takes on the codename Magma. The book also features the story of Illyana’s time in Limbo where she is held for seven years by the Demon Lord Belasco, but seconds pass between her entrapment and escape from the dimension.

            This book contained several storylines, what I described were mostly just my highlights. Now to the important parts, my scoring. First I’ll start with the ever important accessibility rating. If you go to read this book, you should be able to pick it up with little to know knowledge of any Marvel history pretty easily is this is the start of the series. If you saw “The New Mutants” film (and you were probably very disappointed) and want actually good stories, this is for you. The origins of the characters were clearly displayed in this book, and the book is labeled Volume 1, so, yeah, you can start your introductions to the characters with ease. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, which was mostly written by Chris Claremont, who is a favorite writer of mine. He was definitely on top of his game here. I’m a fan of the current “New Mutants” comic book series, and this was actually quite a good bit better. The history was assembled well. I do complain about the “Magik” limited series being included, as Illyana was not in any other part of the book and a flashback scene was featured from an issue not contained in this volume. Do I recommend this book to you? Absolutely. Now, what you’ve really been waiting for; my numerical score. For those who don’t know my system, the score is from one to ten, one being stay the heck away from this book, ten being go out and read this because I will not shut up talking about it and you will, too, I give it a nine. Again, “Magik” didn’t feel appropriate in this volume and I might have given this book a ten if it wasn’t actually included in it. Another factor in lowering the score is not including “The Uncanny X-Men” issue titled “PROFESSOR XAVIER IS A JERK!” where Xavier tried to demote X-Man Kitty Pryde/Sprite to the New Mutants felt like an important piece was left out. Otherwise, I felt this was a rather good read.

            Now I leave you with my signoff: Tim Cubbin… out!