"The Ultimates: Super-Human"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “The Ultimates: Super-Human” as presented in Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection format.

            In 1945, the Nazis had created a super-weapon that was aimed at Washington, D.C. that would potentially bring an end to World War II. The United States Army sent in a platoon to try to disable the weapon, led by a super-soldier named Steve Rogers, codenamed Captain America. Along with his teenage friend James “Bucky” Barnes, and the rest of the platoon, they charged on Germany. Not all of the platoon survived the assault, and they were unable to stop the weapon from being launched. Captain America jumped on the missile and detonated a grenade that knocked the missile off course and prevented it from hitting its target, and Captain America disappeared into the waters of the North Atlantic, leaving behind his fiancé Gail Richards.

            In 2002, newly posted Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. General Nicholas Fury reignited the Super-Soldier Program with the hopes of preventing super-powered threats from becoming a problem for the United States of America. He met with Doctor Robert Bruce Banner, who had attempted to recreate the serum that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America and had instead turned Bruce into a creature called the Hulk. Bruce had been leading the Super-Soldier Research Facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but when hired by S.H.I.E.L.D., the condition behind his substantial paycheck was he was demoted to number two, behind his prior assistant Henry “Hank” Pym. Hank was married to Janet “Jan” Pym, a mutant with the ability to shrink in size and gifted with wings, who also had some unfortunate bug-like qualities. Jan called herself the Wasp. Hank, using Jan’s DNA, had created a serum that allowed him to grow in size to almost sixty feet in height, the maximum height the human body can support. Hank took on the codename Giant Man. S.H.I.E.L.D. also hired tech genius businessman billionaire Anthony “Tony” Stark, who had an advanced technological suit of armor and assumed the identity Iron Man. Bruce’s ex Betty Ross was hired as the Director of Communications for the Super-Soldier Program. As they were preparing to move forward with the project, Captain America’s body was found frozen in the Arctic Ocean. Miraculously, Steve Rogers had survived frozen in ice for fifty-seven years and was able to be revived. At first, Steve was unaccepting of his new surroundings, and it took some convincing to acclimate him to now living in the 21^st Century. Nick Fury brought Steve to the house of Bucky Barnes, now an old man and now married to Steve’s ex-fiancé, Gail. While Steve and Bucky had a tearful reunion, Gail refused to come see Steve. Steve also found out most of his family had passed away in the fifty-seven years he had been in suspended animation. The Ultimates were announced at the Triskelion in the Upper Bay of Manhattan, their new headquarters. While Giant Man, Wasp, Iron Man and Captain America were introduced as the faces of the Ultimates, Fury was also attempting to recruit a man claiming to be Thor, Norse God of thunder, a protestor and former mental patient who was gaining notoriety in Norway and gaining a group of followers. Thor, however, refused to join Fury’s little gang. Held back from the launch were Clint Barton/Hawkeye and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, who were awaiting rewritten histories to cover up past indiscretions, and in the background were Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, children of the mutant terrorist Magneto and former members of his Brotherhood of Mutants, who were unable to be shown as public faces due to their genetic statuses. Time went by after the launch of the Ultimates, but the team had no threats to face. While Betty began to move on from Bruce with Freddie Prinze, Jr., Bruce made the drastic decision to inject himself with Captain America’s blood and the Hulk serum. This created an even more powerful version of the Hulk, who went on a destructive rampage through Manhattan, fixated on finding Betty and winning her back for Bruce and removing Freddie Prinze, Jr. from the picture. Captain America, Iron Man, Giant Man, and the Wasp were dispatched to stop the Hulk, and Thor joined in to aid in the fight. The team was able to calm the Hulk and revert him back to Bruce Banner, and Bruce was put in a holding unit, while his identity as the Hulk was withheld from the public and the Ultimates were hailed as the heroes who saved Manhattan. As the Ultimates were invited to Tony’s penthouse for a black-tie dinner, Hank and Jan got into an argument that turned horribly violent. While Thor refused to accept a S.H.I.E.L.D. paycheck as a member of the Ultimates, he agreed to come to the aid if ever the need arose. Jan was taken to the hospital, and Hank was wanted for spousal abuse charges. Jan was quickly transferred back to the Triskelion, but her assault went public. Steve went out on a hunt for Hank. Clint, Natasha, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were introduced to Tony and Thor, who were all briefed on the presence on Earth of an alien race called the Chitauri since 1777, who were able to assume human form and had been in part responsible for the rise of the Nazis during World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D. had believed them to have been completely annihilated after World War II, but several Chitauri had then been discovered to be hiding on Earth. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Psi-Division recovered the location of a Chitauri base near Micronesia. Before Fury could order against it, Steve found Hank in a bar in Chicago and had a S.H.I.E.L.D. team bring him to Hank’s location. Steve put the beat down on Hank, and Hank was apprehended. While in his holding unit, Bruce and Betty began to reconnect. Steve visited Jan in the Triskelion infirmary, but Steve’s actions against Hank and butting into Hank and Jan’s personal business only served to upset Jan. While Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow and Fury flew with a S.H.I.E.L.D. Unit to Micronesia to assault the Chitauri base, Jan discovered that S.H.I.E.L.D. had already been infiltrated by the Chitauri, and their leader Kleiser was already on the Triskelion. Jan was caught by Kleiser and brought to the Chitauri base in the Arizona desert, while the Chitauri base in Micronesia was just a decoy base and was detonated, killing most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Unit, but Thor had managed to teleport several of the Unit to safety, including Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow and Nick Fury, and they arrived at the Arizona base. The Chitauri began their full-scale assault of Earth, with the intention of destroying the Earth. Captain America fought Kleiser, Iron Man and Thor flew in to stop the weapon, Black Widow came to rescue Jan, and Hulk was unleashed to destroy the invading ships and the Ultimates battled to save the Earth from the threat of Chitauri destruction.

            Okay, so now we have the synopsis out of the way, let’s get on to my own personal take on this graphic novel. Essentially the Ultimates are the Marvel Ultimate Universe version of the Avengers, but I will say that this is a vastly different take on their story, and I will also say that I found that to be a good thing. When Stan Lee created the Avengers back in 1963, they assembled by happenstance, all joining in to fight against a common threat and then realizing that working together as a team was beneficial. In Mark Millar’s Ultimates, the team is assembled by S.H.I.E.L.D. as a combat unit to fight threats ordinary units couldn’t. This is a completely different origin story. And I feel that it actually worked. I liked the idea of the Ultimates being a military unit. I thought the Hulk story was great, I loved Millar’s choice of hooking up Betty with Freddie Prinze, Jr., I thought that joke was pretty funny. I liked how Bruce and Betty’s relationship played out after that while Bruce was in a holding unit, it was actually quite humorous. I liked how Millar made Wasp secretly a mutant, but I wish he would have taken a little more of an opportunity to play up on that more than he actually did, it was just mentioned once and it was never brought up again throughout the rest of the graphic novel. I liked the concept of having a black ops unit within the Ultimates, keeping Black Widow, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in the shadows because of their statuses keeping them from being public faces. I especially liked Quicksilver’s comments of how he and Scarlet Witch had actually been helping if you looked at the tapes and slowed them down, those gave me a good chuckle. I liked the Chitauri as the enemy that was the true test of the Ultimates as a team. I liked that Thor wouldn’t join S.H.I.E.L.D. on principal but would aid anyway because it was the right thing to do, and his characterization as a former mental patient now messiah activist was, in my opinion, rather brilliant, rather than just outright saying that this was truly the God of thunder. What I didn’t like was the spousal abuse story. I felt like Millar went a little too far with that one and that it was rather unnecessary with how graphically it was illustrated. I felt that it negatively portrayed mental illness, and I honestly did not approve of that storyline. I did enjoy Brian Hitch’s work as the artist, I thought he did an amazing job illustrating this graphic novel, I really like his artistic style. I loved how I read that Millar had told Hitch to make Nick Fury look like Samuel L. Jackson and that when Disney finally made the movies, they actually did contract Jackson to play Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I actually totally geeked out the first time I saw the post-credits scene in “Iron Man” when they introduced Jackson as Fury, having read this comic series after it was originally published back in 2002-2004 prior to the release of the “Iron Man” film and there was actually a scene in this graphic novel where the group discuss who would play them in films and Jackson was named as Fury. In general, I rather enjoyed this graphic novel.

            Next up on our agenda of things to discuss, we’re going to talk about accessibility. For those of you who know what I mean, please bear with me while I explain this to my new readers who have never read one of my reviews before and don’t know what I mean by using the word “accessibility.” So, what I mean by that is, if you know nothing about the Ultimates or Marvel Comics at all, can you pick up this book, read it, and understand what you’re reading? This is the first volume of the series from a universe that was relatively new at the time and had very little background history. It has no direct ties to any other series published by Marvel. There are no crossovers or events occurring during this graphic novel. It has a self-contained origin story. So, yes, this book is extremely accessible. If you’re new to Marvel and are looking for a good place to start, this is an exceptionally enjoyable book to pick up and begin your Marvel journey.

            Okay, now we’re going to get to the point that you’ve all been waiting for: my numeric score. So, my scoring system is extremely basic. I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest score and means this book is complete trash and is not even worth reading. Ten is the highest score and means this book is perfection. On principal, I generally don’t give out tens very often because perfection is extremely hard to publish, but there have been occasions where I felt that this score is appropriate. As far as this book goes, I do not feel like a ten is an appropriate score for this book. I found some faults with the story, especially the spousal abuse storyline that highly detracted from my enjoyment of the story. And while I generally enjoyed Hitch’s art, there were moments where I felt like his artwork had a few mishaps. Unfortunately, there was also some content that doesn’t hold up over twenty years later, especially the inclusion of President Bush. But overall, I found this book to be high-quality and extremely enjoyable, so when I give it a score, I am compelled to score it at… an eight. It was entertaining to read, and the art was, for the most part, nice to look at. I feel like it deserves a particularly good score, but it’s not quite near perfection, so a minor deduction is required, but it shouldn’t be impacted harshly for the few problems I had with this book.

            Next up, we’re going to discuss if I give this book my personal Tim Cubbin recommendation, and then, regardless of that fact or not, whom do I think should be reading this book. If you’re guessing that I give this book my own personal recommendation, you would be absolutely correct. This book does, in fact, get my seal of approval. Moving on to whom do I recommend this book to, the answer is to anyone who likes the Avengers and wants to see a different take on what the team could be like. So, if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and have an interest in the Avengers, I highly recommend you read this book, this is a totally interesting twist on their origin and worth the read. If you’re already a Marvel Comics fan and have never read this, I recommend this book to you, this is a whole new reimagining of what the Avengers could be, and I think you will enjoy this. If you’re just reading this review and have gained any vested interest in reading this graphic novel based solely on what you’re consuming right now, I’d recommend you get out there and pick up this book, if you enjoyed my review, you will definitely enjoy actually reading the entire story as there is obviously so much more than what I can describe on this blog and I think you should make the effort to get the complete story and enjoy this work for yourself.

            Well, I think we’ve gotten to the point where I’ve said pretty much all there is to say at the moment. There is a little more to add in conclusion, however, so don’t quite give up on me yet. First off, if you liked this post, there are over four dozen other reviews like this one to read, so keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my work. I am a huge collector of Marvel Epic Collections, I buy every Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after they are released and if possible, I try to put up a review right after I finish reading them. So, obviously, I am going to be working with a lot of potential content. I currently have a Modern Era Epic Collection in my possession I am preparing to read, so you can expect to see a review of that one coming up some time in the next couple of weeks after this post, I have to finish reading it first, then find a day where I can actually sit down and write a review of it, but I will promise you it is coming soon. I have 160 other posts on this blog and there is no end in sight, so keep checking it out for more content if you’re interested. If you go really far back on my blog, I’ve actually written short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials, but right now my main focus is on writing reviews. If you think these seem highly professional, it’s because I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, so writing this kind of thing is what I should professionally be doing, but due to circumstances, it’s not something I’ve actually been able to secure, so I currently work in a grocery store and work for free on a blog in my spare time. But it’s in my nature and I don’t mind doing it, it is the job I honestly should be doing but just can’t actually manage to get hired for due to the situation in my life that I don’t want to talk about and you honestly don’t care about. But enough about that. Keep checking back regularly for more, as there will definitely be plenty of upcoming content on the way, I’ll be doing this blog until I am physically unable to do it anymore, so that’s probably going to be a long time. I’ve already been doing this for five years at this point. And at this point, I’m just rambling on unnecessarily and boring you with useless details about my personal life that you really don’t want to know, so I’m going to let you go now and move on with your life while I move on with mine. But I will be back soon, and I hope you come back with me. And so, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Black Widow: The Itsy-Bitsy Spider"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Black Widow: The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Super spy Natalia Romonova/Natasha Romanov/Black Widow was sent to Rhapastan by both the Russian and American governments to kill French scientist Doctor Didier Ines, who had invented a bio-toxin he called the Deathless Frenzy. While on her mission, she encountered Yelena Belova, a student from the Red Room, the agency that trained Natasha. Yelena claimed to be the Black Widow and Natasha’s superior. The two fought, but their fight was interrupted by Rhapastani soldiers. The Russian and American governments also argued over who should keep the bio-toxin upon Natasha’s completion of the mission. Natasha decided not to kill Ines and instead have him work on an antidote to his serum. Both the Russian and American governments decided to eliminate Natasha for her double-cross. Natasha brought Ines to Zurich to work on the antidote but was followed by Yelena. The two fought again, but Natasha was shot by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. Matt Murdock/Daredevil informed Yelena that the Rhapastan military intended to use the Deathless Frenzy. Yelena went to Rhapastan to prevent this but was captured. Natasha was able to rescue her and complete the mission.

            S.H.I.E.L.D. abducted Yelena and performed a facial swap between her and Natasha. Yelena was placed in New York City as Natasha where she was hired to kill Yelena Belova. “Natasha” gunned down “Yelena” at the Museum of Natural History, but “Yelena’s” death was fake. “Natasha” became a fugitive, and “Yelena” was hired by Russian General Stelyenko to obtain five nukes that had been cached in the Hudson Valley during the Cold War, but Stelyenko knew that the Black Widow he had hired was not really Yelena and ordered his men to kill her. After his men failed to kill “Yelena,” Stelyenko arrived at the scene where “Natasha” learned how Stelyenko planned to betray Yelena. The two took down Stelyenko, then Natasha had to save Yelena from herself before the two swapped faces again and went back to their own lives.

            Yelena was sent to investigate the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Pyotr Starkovsky at a club. Starkovsky had trained Yelena and had been like a father to her. Her personnel files, which were top secret, had also gone missing, leaving the suspicion he was either selling or giving away information about the Black Widow. While on her mission, she found the murderer to be Petra, a woman who wanted to be the Black Widow herself.

            After retiring to Arizona, Natasha had a hit placed on her by the agency North Institute. She turned to her old contact Phil Dexter to identify the man who tried to kill her. Natasha learned of the murder of Stacy Matheson, a KGB deep-cover operative whose real name was Stefanya Melnikova and decided to attend her funeral and ordered Phil to come along for the ride. While at a gas station, Natasha rescued Sally Anne Carter from motorists. After the funeral, Natasha and Phil investigated Stacy’s house and found a hormone called Medusagen and military-issue medications. Natasha called Stacy’s friend Sergeant Will Forester to find out how Stacy was getting the medications, but a shootout killed Forester before Natasha could get the information she was looking for. Natasha learned the man who tried to kill her wore a ring that came from the Red Room. Meanwhile, North Agents Hunter and Kestrel were trying to track down Natasha and Phil. From Martin Ferris, Natasha learned of a liaison between the cosmetics company Gynacon and the Red Room and that she had to go to Moscow. While there, Natasha learned of her conditioning, and that some of her memories were false. Natasha met Lyudmila Kudrin, the woman in charge of the Red Room. Hunter and Kestrel found Phil and Sally Anne and shot them. Natasha returned to America with Lyudmila. She learned about North and went after the people who were following her, killing Hunter, and having a final faceoff with Vassily Ulyanov and Ian McMasters, the CEO of Gynacon, from whom she learned Sally Anne was alive and Natasha made it her mission to find the girl.

            Natasha traveled to Cuba to find Sally Anne. She hooked up with Yelena to get in. Kestrel wanted revenge for Hunter’s murder and recruited Ferris in her vendetta. Natasha sent Daredevil a tape to inform him she was fighting crime, which made the blind vigilante turn to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury for assistance in aiding his ex, which led them to Cuba. Meanwhile, Sally Anne woke up in a concentration camp for young girls in Cuba. Natasha attempted to come to her rescue but was herself held captive and tortured by Kestrel and Ferris. Natasha then had to escape with Sally Anne, along with the help of Daredevil and Yelena.

            Okay, so now that we have the synopsis out of the way, let’s get to my own personal part of this review. I will say that I found this book to be highly disappointing. When I bought this book, I looked at the size of it and saw how big it was and thought that so much would happen in it, but the stories were pretty stale and never went very far. The dialogue and action just never really progressed as a story. Yes, there was a lot, but it just never went anywhere. I found it to be relatively boring. And as far as the art goes, I found it to be mostly unenjoyable. The first three issues had art that I enjoyed, but after that, I just really wasn’t visually pleased. All in all, this book was just not a book that I liked.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. Now, I’ve said this about three dozen times already, but I know I always have to say it again for my new readers, so I’m going to do it. When I say accessibility, I mean just how easy it is for a person who has little to no experience with the subject matter to just pick up this book and fully comprehend everything they are reading. I will say that this book is highly accessible. It’s marketed as Vol. 1, and it honestly has no direct tie ins with any other stories and is completely standalone and self-contained, so I think even someone who has never touched a Marvel Comic Book before could just pick this us, read it, and follow the storylines with no real confusion.

            Next up, we’re going to get to the most important part of a Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. I score on an extremely basic scale: one to ten, one being the worst and that this is absolute garbage, ten being this is one of the best books I have ever read. Obviously this book is not going to get a very good score from me based on the fact that I found the stories to be bland and the art to be unenjoyable. So, if I had to put this all in a blender and turn it on and churn out a numeric score, it would have to be a three. There was some enjoyability to this book, but honestly not much.

            We’re going to finish off on if I give this book a recommendation personally and regardless of that, to whom do I recommend this book? This book does not get the Tim Cubbin recommendation, and I honestly really don’t think I can recommend this book to too many people other than people who really are fans of Yelena Belova and want to read her earliest stories. Otherwise, in good faith, I can’t tell anyone to read this.

            Okay, I think we’ve said all that needs be said at this point. I will say that I have literally authored dozens of reviews just like this, and there are sure to be plenty more coming soon. Expect another one coming up in the next couple of weeks. I’ve also written short stories, essays, poetry, articles, and editorials, so there’s plenty more to see on this blog if you liked this post. Keep checking back for more, and if you come back again, you are THE BEST! I appreciate your support. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Black Widow: Chaos"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Black Widow: Chaos” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow is a superspy. She was trained in the Russian program the Red Room, which prepared young girls to be ruthless and dangerous operatives. She defected to the United States and assisted the government organization S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as serving as a member of the superhero team the Avengers. She has a lot of red in her ledger.

            After suffering from great guilt, she established the Web, a fund to benefit the families and friends of people she felt she wronged from her days traveling the wrong path. She hired a lawyer named Isaiah Ross to manage the transfer of the funds. To earn the money, Natasha went on missions, involving finding information, apprehending dangerous people, and occasionally taking out some bad guys. These missions brought her onto S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar. Director Maria Hill, who had many trust issues, called in Natasha on a case. S.H.I.E.L.D. received a communication about “Chaos,” what they believed to be an organization, entity, or individual, and Hill felt Natasha was the person best suited for the job.

            The search for Chaos first led Natasha to a religious fanatical criminal named Molot. After their first encounter, which ended in Natasha’s defeat, Natasha needed information, so she turned to Tori Raven, an espionage expert. This information helped lead to Molot’s defeat but did not lead Natasha any closer to Chaos.

            Raven then gave Natasha info that led her to the Montenegrin Coast, where she found a moored freighter. Aboard the freighter was a man named Damon Dran. Natasha and S.H.I.E.L.D. were able to apprehend Dran, but Chaos ensured Dran could not provide S.H.I.E.L.D. with the information they were seeking.

            On a mission to rob a train in Prague, Natasha ran into Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier, Captain America’s sidekick turned Russian agent, who was on a mission to prevent the robbery. The two got into conflict, but ultimately realized they were on the same side.

            Natasha then went on a mission to a mobile tanker near Costa Rica, which being used as a satellite communications relay by the mercenary called Crossbones. As it turned out, she wasn’t the only one interested. Frank Castle/the Punisher had infiltrated Crossbones’ operation. But Crossbones wasn’t stupid and was covering his tracks and had set explosives throughout the tanker. The two managed to escape, but Natasha still had no new intel on Chaos. Then Natasha got a phone call from a man named Rashid, a man she had rescued years back, and who now had kidnapped Isaiah. To rescue Isaiah, Natasha teamed up with Laura Kinney/X-23, the clone of the mutant X-Man Wolverine, and went to a casino in Macau. The rescue was successful, but Rashid did not provide the info Natasha was after.

            Natasha’s life then became difficult after her dirty laundry was aired on national television while she was on a S.H.I.E.L.D. operation in Somalia. While at the same time, Isaiah was hospitalized.

            Tori Raven provided Natasha with information on Chaos. She had been working for them, and revealed Chaos was a financial organization. She provided Natasha with a list of their top accountants and told Natasha she had serious doubts Natasha could succeed without help. Natasha gave the list to Isaiah, instructing him to give it to Maria Hill. She then went on a hunt after the names on the list. This hunt reunited her with the Winter Soldier, and Natasha found Prophet, who showed her what could be her future, and Prophet revealed exactly what Chaos was. After finding what she was looking for, Natasha cut all ties, with her home, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Isaiah, and went off to find herself.

            Now, let’s talk about this book. When I purchased it, I wasn’t expecting it to be the greatest, and I was not surprised to find that I felt my assessment was correct and my expectations were met. I just felt like the story was so convoluted. I’ve never been a huge fan of spy novels or espionage movies. I’m not a fan of “James Bond” or “Mission Impossible” or anything else in that genre, so this book really was not going to be my cup of tea. I’m sorry to the writer Nathan Edmondson, I know you worked hard on this series, and I appreciate all the hard work and effort you put into this, but I just knew this wouldn’t appeal to me. You, my readers, may be wondering why, if I felt like I wouldn’t like this book, did I buy it? Honestly, I’m just buying all the Modern Era Epic Collections, so I wouldn’t pass on even a single one. I will say, however, that I was a fan of the art. I thought Phil Noto’s work was genius. The medium he used was watercolor paints, which was incredibly unique for a comic book. Traditionally when you think of comic book colors you think of ink, so this change was brilliant in my opinion, I was incredibly pleased by it. It was rather refreshing, so my hat is off to Mister Noto. I say it in my reviews of graphic novels that story and art are a partnership. A graphic novel is a union. You can have an exceptional story but have awful artwork and it totally ruins the book. Or you could have a horrible story, but the art is pleasant to look at. I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, but I do feel like that while the story didn’t appeal to me (I’m not saying I HATED the story per se), the artwork made me appreciate the book enough to find some enjoyment in it.

            Now, I always talk about accessibility when I write my reviews. What do I mean by that you may ask if you have never joined me before (and if you’ve graced this page before, bear with me for a few sentences)? Simple. If you’ve never heard of Marvel Comics before, or know nothing about Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, can you still pick up this book and enjoy it? Now, the back of this book credits it as Vol. 3. I have to say to you: IGNORE IT! This could easily be Vol. 1. Marvel doesn’t always release their Modern Era Epic Collections chronologically, as you shall come to know as my reviews on these continue. Right now, the line is relatively new and there are not a lot of options, but the graphic novels are not published in order all the time. (I do have a few Modern Era Epic Collections in my possession I have yet to review, give it time, they will be there eventually). The first volumes of some of the titular series are not actually Vol. 1. “Daredevil: Underboss,” which has been previously reviewed, was the first collection published, yet it was Vol. 2. (We’ll get around to “Venom” around August, that will start with Vol. 4.) But let’s get back to “Black Widow.” This collects a complete twenty-issue series that was published between 2014-2015, plus a lead-in story and an issue of “Punisher.” I feel as if you know absolutely nothing about Mavel Comics, you could still follow this book. This book is completely standalone. It has no tie-ins to any other stories. Some Modern Era Epic Collections coincide with events and storylines that were ongoing at the time  and don’t actually contain any issues of the main event, just the issues focusing on one character/team from around that time period (take “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Edge of Spider-Verse” for example, and I promise you there will be more, I already have a few volumes in my possession that crossover with events). You may have seen it with my reviews of the original Epic Collection formatted books. But again, I digress. This book focuses on just one narrative, and that’s it. I don’t find it to draw on knowledge of any previous Marvel storylines or storylines going on at the time, with the slight exception of the Punisher issue, but even that was a one-and-done. Yes, there are Avengers that pop up over the course of the book, but it doesn’t focus on any of their storylines. This book doesn’t dredge up any old Black Widow storylines either, it just focuses on the current story of Natasha and her mission to discover the truth about Chaos. I feel like it’s a perfect gateway Marvel graphic novel.

            Okay, now that we’ve got all that out of the way, you probably want to know my score of the book. Some of you may have noticed that this book hasn’t evoked as much of a discussion from me as some of my other prior Modern Era Epic Collection reviews. As I said, it has a singular storyline, and Natasha faces a lot of dead ends, so there’s really not a lot to mention, and if I did talk about that it would probably get a little boring. Plus, there is a lot of content that my blog site doesn’t allow me to discuss, so I had to leave that out. On top of that, there is a definite lack of dialogue and a surplus of action in this book, so there’s not a ton of story to discuss. There are several factors that kept this review slightly shorter than others, and I’d just be boring you explaining them, so I’m just going to move on. Now, my score. I score on a very simple scale, one to ten. One is the lowest, that means this book is trash and should be burned from existence and not reprinted, ten is the highest, that means this book is perfection. Now this score is, of course, my opinion. I don’t expect you to agree with me on my opinions. I highly invite you to disagree with me. Please feel free to leave a response in any of the proper formats possible if you’ve read this and have any opinions on this book, I’d love to hear them. I’m also a hard scorer, I don’t just go around handing out tens, but I’m also not an ogre and say everything is a one either. So, let’s balance this out here. So the story really didn’t interest me, there were a lot of false leads, it got confusing, there were points where what you were led to believe weren’t really what was going on, there was convolution, not a lot happened, there was a distinct lack of dialogue, all these factors detract from my score. And yet I really enjoyed the art, so the score is going to come up from there. Now, I’d hate to just throw out a low score, so I’m not going to do that. And I didn’t hate the book, but it just didn’t wow me. It was a little underwhelming, sure, but it was about what I expected. So, all cards on the table, story, and art combined, everything all in, I score this book at… five. Usually, I go on a little bit after about why I scored as I scored, but I think I’ve done enough already, so I don’t feel like I need to give any more reasons why I gave this book the rating I did.

            Next before I begin to wrap this up, I’ll tell you if I recommend the book. Honestly, I don’t. Not generally, anyway. If you’re not a regular reader of Marvel comics or even comic books in general, I’d really tell you not to go out of your way to get this. I really love Black Widow, I think she’s a fantastic character, but I still don’t feel like this was her at her best and I can’t just tell you to go out and buy this book, even if you are a huge Black Widow fan. I mean, if you ARE a HUGE Black Widow fan, then, yeah, you COULD read this book and YOU might like it, you’re entitled to your own opinion, this blog is all just mine. We’re all entitled to think whatever we want, so don’t let me stop you from potentially enjoying what you might think is a phenomenal book just because I didn’t like it. And, if you are into the whole spy/espionage genre, then yeah, I’d say this could potentially be a good read for you. But in general, I don’t recommend this book.

            Okay, I think it’s about time we wrapped this up. I’ve spent a lot of time digressing in this post, and for that I highly apologize, I honestly don’t mean to waste your time. If you’re still reading this review at this point, you are THE BEST! I really appreciate you! I hope you enjoyed this review. If you did, I’ve posted several dozen other book reviews on this site, feel free to check those out. I don’t have any more reviews planned for this month, unfortunately, but I will have one next month, so keep an eye out for it. I’ve also posted original short stories and poetry on this site, so feel free to check those out too if you have some time to kill. If you really want to waste time, I write B’ings, I haven’t done one of those in a long time, I feel like I’m overdue for some new ones. I write editorials, essays, and articles. I write other things, I just write what comes into my mind, as my blog site title implies. I have so much stuff planned, so keep coming back. And so, I say to you until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!