"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!

"Captain America: Death of the Dream"

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Captain America: Death of the Dream” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Soviet general Aleksander Lukin and the Nazi villain Johann Schmidt/Red Skull had been sharing a body due to Lukin murdering the Skull and his use of the Red Skull’s device the Cosmic Cube. Steve Rogers/Captain America and his S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison/secret girlfriend Sharon Carter/Agent 13 arrived in London in an attempt to bring down Lukin at his company Kronas’ London Headquarters Opening Gala. The met up with British superheroes Joseph Chapman/Union Jack and Jacqueline Falsworth/Spitfire to achieve this goal. Meanwhile, Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier planned to assassinate Lukin, while villains Brock Rumlow/Crossbones and the Red Skull’s daughter Synthia Schmidt/Sin planned to attack the Gala. Cap and the British heroes snuck onto a Kronas ship and battled the Skull’s minions the Master Race. The Skull has planted a bomb on the ship planned it out to implicate Cap and Union Jack in the explosion. Sharon got clearance for Cap and Union Jack to investigate the Master Race with S.H.I.E.L.D. All parties converged on the Gala, where the Skull activated his sleeper robot to cause mass destruction on London and the Kronas Building. The heroes and the Winter Soldier teamed up to battle the robot, and Crossbones and Sin’s attempt to assassinate Lukin was thwarted, and the villains escaped, and Red Skull revealed his association with Lukin to the pair of villains to plan a new attack on Captain America.

            The Superhuman Registration Act was enacted after a battle between superhumans caused the deaths of hundreds in Stamford, Connecticut, requiring all heroes to register their identities and submit to training and oversight. Heroes such as Tony Stark/Iron Man saw this as a natural evolution of the role of superheroes in society. Captain America was called to hunt down heroes who defied the law, but he refused and became Public Enemy #1, leading the anti-registration resistance, while Iron Man led the pro-registration front. Maria Hill, the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. became aware of Sharon’s relationship with Steve and attempted to use it to capture Cap, but Sharon misled S.H.I.E.L.D. and allowed Steve to escape. Hill submitted Sharon to counseling with S.H.I.E.L.D. psychiatrist Doctor Benjamin, who had been killed and replaced by mind-controlling villain Doctor Faustus, who was working with the Red Skull to condition Sharon and several other S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents to his cause. Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury went underground, and his absence was covered by a Life Model Decoy, a robot replica programmed to replace Fury. Fury asked the Winter Soldier to break into a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility to hack into a Fury L.M.D. to give Fury access to S.H.I.E.L.D. information. The Red Skull paid a visit to Latverian Dictator and supervillain Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom to upgrade his sleeper robot which had been destroyed during the battle in London. Maria Hill tasked Sharon into the force dedicated to finding the real Nick Fury. Cap infiltrated a Hydra base, where he was almost apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents tasked with bringing Cap in, but Sharon helped him escape. The Red Skull formed an alliance with evil genius Arnim Zola in an attack on Captain America.

            The Winter Soldier, now free from his conditioning, spent his first Christmas back in the world. Nick Fury learned the unregistered superhero team the Young Avengers were about to attack a Hydra base he had been spying on, the teenage heroes thinking it was one of Tony Stark’s secret factories, and asked the Winter Soldier to protect both his source of information and the young heroes who were about to bite off more than they could chew. After the battle, the Winter Soldier visited the grave of Jack Monroe/Nomad, a hero the Winter Soldier had killed while he had been programmed as a weapon by Lukin, where he was tailed by the Young Avengers, who learned the Winter Soldier’s true identity. The Winter Soldier recalled the last Christmas he remembered, from 1944, and met up with Namor, who was present for this same Christmas to learn of the life of fellow war hero Thomas Raymond/Toro.

            Cap realized that the Superhuman Civil War was causing more harm than good and surrendered to Iron Man, ending the War. As Cap was being brought in for his arraignment, Crossbones fired a shot at Cap. During the commotion, someone snuck in and fired three more shots at close range at Cap. Cap’s former superhero partner Sam Wilson/Falcon and the Winter Soldier were able to apprehend Crossbones. Though he was rushed to the hospital, Steve Rogers did not survive.

            James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine was not convinced that the assassinated body belonged to the actual Steve Rogers, so he had Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, cast a spell so he and Matt Murdock/Daredevil could sneak aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier to examine the body. Wolverine and Daredevil took a detour to interrogate Crossbones to learn the identity of the actual killer of Steve Rogers, only to find out that Crossbones knew nothing, and Wolverine confirmed Rogers’ death. The Mighty Avengers fought to stop supervillain Tiger Shark from using the Horn of Gabriel to destroy a top-secret nuclear warhead installation while the New Avengers met for a game of poker. Peter Parker/Spider-Man was having a tough time dealing with his grief and got into a fight with Wolverine. The newly revealed returned from the dead hero Clint Barton/Hawkeye called for Iron Man’s attention at the destroyed Avengers Mansion. Iron Man knocked him out and revealed that he was going to keep Captain America’s actual shield and donate a fake one to the Smithsonian and bury a fake one in Rogers’ coffin, then asked Clint to pick up Cap’s shield and be the new Captain America, but Clint insisted there is no Captain America without Steve Rogers. Iron Man and Clint teamed up with the Young Avengers, one of whom called herself “Hawkeye,” to fight supervillain Firebrand. Clint donned the Captain America costume and took up the shield to stop the threat, then Iron Man asked Clint to apprehend the young unregistered heroes, but Clint allowed them to escape and gave the shield back to Iron Man. Peter Parker went to the cemetery to visit the graves of his deceased parents and Uncle Ben, where he ran into Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino, who was there to visit his mother, and mistakenly got into a fight with the supervillain. A funeral was held for Steve Rogers, but the body buried in Arlington Cemetery didn’t actually belong to Steve Rogers, and Tony Stark thought of the perfect place and person to ensure Steve’s body rested in peace forever.

            Sharon in her grief quit S.H.I.E.L.D. The Winter Soldier learned S.H.I.E.L.D. was moving Cap’s actual shield, and tailed it, only to learn it was being moved by his former lover Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. The two fought, and the Winter Soldier made off with the shield. Natasha revealed to Tony Stark that Stark was the Winter Soldier’s next target, and Sharon and Falcon took it upon themselves to secretly protect Stark. Sin formed her own team of supervillains, the Serpent Squad. Tony Stark received a letter from Steve Rogers. Sin and the Serpent Squad learned of Crossbones’ transfer to supervillain prison the Raft and disguised themselves as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and broke him out. The Winter Soldier went after Lukin but was defeated by Sin and Crossbones and held hostage by Doctor Faustus. Falcon and Black Widow went to talk to Sharon, but Sharon took them out. Tony Stark tried to contact Black Widow after deducing Sharon was under the control of Doctor Faustus, but this attempt failed, and Iron Man was forced into action.

            Okay, some of you may remember from three years ago that I wrote a review of the prose novel “The Death of Captain America” by Larry Hama if you’ve been with me for that long. If not and you’re reading this post, please feel free to check that one out. Anyway, this is not a graphic novel with the exact same content, and I was actually very secretive in my previous review, so the reviews are nothing alike and this one is full of spoilers that my previous review did not have, but there are a few details I chose to leave out in order to surprise you. I’ve gotten a lot more thorough in my reviews over the past few years, so my style is quite different than it used to be. Anyway, I will say that I highly enjoyed this book. Yes, it was extremely depressing, and surprising that they would kill off so major a hero as Captain America, but I felt like the writing was well done. I enjoyed the whole concept of Lukin and Red Skull sharing a body. Some of you may know I am partial to Civil War, so reading the Captain America Civil War issues again was enjoyable. Winter Kills had an interesting concept. Fallen Son was particularly entertaining to me, seeing all the ways the Marvel characters reacted to Captain America’s death, especially seeing how hard Spider-Man took it and the rage it caused in him, and Iron Man trying to reason with Clint, saying if there can be a Hawkeye without Clint Barton, there can be a Captain America without Steve Rogers. And I loved all the big plot twists with Sharon, I never saw any of them coming. I loved the artwork in this book, I thought it was all superb. I will say, however, that this book did end in the middle of the storyline and left so much hanging, so that was disappointing, but I’m getting used to Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections doing that at this point, I’ve noticed several of the volumes have done that. The inclusion of “Twenty-First Century Blitz” and “Fallen Son” prevented this volume from being able to contain the complete storyline, which is a little unfortunate, but I found those stories to be highly enjoyable, so that fact is forgivable. But overall, I found the experience of reading this book to be a pleasant one and I hope for another volume, which Marvel better do as this left so much in the ar.

            Okay, now we’re moving on to accessibility. Bear with me if you know what I mean by this because there are some people here who have never read a Tim Cubbin review before. So, when I say accessibility, I mean if you can know little or nothing about Captain America and read and understand this book. I found this book to have a huge accessibility flaw. Now I have to tell you, this book is a Vol. 2 and reading Vol. 1 really helps understand this book, but what makes this book have especially low accessibility is the fact that this takes place before, during, and after Civil War, and knowing Civil War is absolutely essential to understanding this book. So, if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic Book before, I’m expressly saying this is not a book for you. Yes, the book does give a brief summary of the events of Civil War, but a paragraph can only do so much. And no, I’m not talking about the film “Captain America: Civil War,” that will not prepare you to read this book, the storyline and characterizations are completely different. I honestly think that this book is highly inaccessible if you’ve never read Civil War, and if you know nothing about Marvel’s Civil War, this book is just going to be so difficult to get into and properly understand.

            Okay, I’ve gone on for long enough, you’re probably getting antsy and want to move on with your life, so I’m just going to move on and get to the single most important part of a Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. Now, some of you know the drill by now, but I know some of you are newbs who need an explanation, so I’m going to give you one. I score on an extremely basic scale, a solid one to ten. One means this is a stinky pile of trash that should never have been printed, ten means this is one of the best graphic novels I have ever read. Now, if you’ve read one of my reviews before, you know I’m not in the business of handing out tens. I give this book extremely high praise. However, there are some things holding me back from scoring this book higher. It’s not perfect, and it has flaws. I can’t quite put my finger on all of these reasons, but I feel like I must give some point deductions. Now, as this is a graphic novel, I must take both story and art into consideration when I give my score. The story was particularly good, and the art was excellent, but there were just a few hiccups here and there. So, taking everything, putting it in the blender, and turning out the score in the mix, I must give this book a score of… eight! I have my reasons for not being able to give this book a higher score, but I just can’t quite put them exactly into words, I don’t know why.

            Okay, we’re going to move on now to my recommendation. This is just a simple matter of do I personally recommend this book, and regardless of that, to whom do I recommend this book. As far as my personal recommendation goes, yes, I do personally recommend this book. However, I will say that if you want to read this book, read Civil War #1-7 first. If you’re a fan of Steve Rogers, this book is going to be difficult for you, but I think there’s so much you’d enjoy from these last moments and the aftermath of his untimely passing. There are many plot twists and shockers, I left a few things out for you to discover when you read it, like exactly who pulled the trigger. I would particularly recommend this book to any fan of the Winter Soldier, he has some really good story arcs in this book, especially Winter Kills. I recommend this book to anyone who read Civil War and enjoyed it, this had good tie-in and follow-up story arcs.

            Okay, I think I’ve gone on for way too long at this point, I’ve kept you for a while and you want to go on with your life, you have more important things to do, and quite frankly, I’ve been at this for over three and a half hours, I need to move on with my life. Anyway, as usual, I will tell you I have literally written dozens of reviews just like this one, you can browse through the archives and see if there’s anything else here you like. If you want, you can check out my review of “The Death of Captain America” by Larry Hama for comparison purposes, although that review is extremely vague. I’ll be back with you in less than a month for another new Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection review, and I might have something else to sneak in in in the meantime between, so keep an eye out. I post on a very frequent basis, so there’s often more to see. I make it my mission to collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection released, so you can always expect lots of content here. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s plenty more to see, keep on browsing. And I will sign off now, and simply finish with a few more words. They are Tim Cubbin… out!

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format. It IS NOT a review of the film “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”

            Nazi supervillain Johann Schmidt/Red Skull and Soviet General and CEO of Kronas Corporation Aleksander Lukin were at a race for a device called the Cosmic Cube, a device that grants the wishes it’s holder, a race that the Red Skull had won. The Skull had plans to cause great destruction with the Cube when it was fully charged, and use it to take down his greatest enemy, Steven Rogers/Captain America, Super Soldier, and Living Legend of World War II.

            Captain America had been working with S.H.I.E.L.D., the U.N. Peacekeeping Taskforce on missions pertaining to the United States. Director Nicholas Fury had assigned Sharon Carter/Agent 13 as his liaison, which caused awkwardness as the two used to be romantically involved.

            Just when the Red Skull was about to enact his plan, he was taken out of the picture by a mysterious assassin working for General Lukin, and the Cosmic Cube was stolen.

            Steve started having dreams, memories, and flashbacks about his time in WWII with his sidekick James “Bucky” Barnes, but the details were not completely accurate. Steve was unsure both what had been causing them and why he was remembering them wrong. He then got the phone call about the Red Skull’s demise and was called in by S.H.I.E.L.D. as the secret to the Skull’s longevity came from the fact that he lived inside a clone body of Captain America’s. Cap especially did not believe that his long-time enemy could really be gone. He and Sharon were sent in to stop the Red Skull’s agents Advance Ideas in Destruction (A.I.D.) from conducting the Skull’s planned attack in Manhattan but lead henchman Brock Rumlow/Crossbones managed to escape. This mission started to rekindle something between Steve and Sharon.

            Back in the 1950s, when Steve Rogers had been frozen in ice after WWII and Bucky Barnes had died, there had been a replacement team as the United States government felt there had to be a Captain America and Bucky. The replacement Bucky was a man named Jack Monroe, who also teamed up with Steve Rogers over the years and had been both the hero Nomad and the villain Scourge. Monroe had been given an attempted recreation of the Super Soldier Serum that gave Steve Rogers his powers as Captain America, and it caused problems in his immune system that was killing him at a slow rate. This had led to him taking up the mantle of Nomad again, to do some good in the world before he died. This ending came quicker because the same assassin who took out the Red Skull also put down Monroe and implicated him in the Skull’s assassination. He then abducted Sharon. S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to identify the assassin as the Winter Soldier, and when Steve came to her rescue, Sharon told Steve she thought his identity was Bucky Barnes, right before the Winter Soldier bombed Philadelphia. Steve had a face-to-face encounter with the Winter Soldier before the assassin was able to escape in the chaos he created. Back aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Nick Fury confirmed Sharon’s suspicions with photographic evidence, another piece of news Steve refused to accept. Fury also got the tip that the Winter Soldier was working for Lukin and authorized an unsanctioned operation to apprehend Lukin, but the mission went south when Cap burst in on Lukin in the middle of a meeting with dignitaries.

            Crossbones infiltrated an American government re-education facility to bust out Synthia Schmidt, the daughter of the Red Skull, who was being brainwashed.

            Steve was delivered files that explained Bucky’s history as the Winter Solder. He was revived from death by Soviets towards the end of WWII, with no memory of his previous life. After it was discovered that he was not a Super Soldier like his partner Captain America, he was placed into stasis. He was reprogrammed into a Soviet assassin during the Cold War, but he started to prove not to be the total blank slate he was initially believed to be. He was kept in stasis between missions in the hope this would prevent him from becoming rebellious, but after several problems, he was eventually put away for what was forever, but he was eventually discovered by Lukin.

            Steve teamed up with Sam Wilson/Falcon and Tony Stark/Iron Man to infiltrate an A.I.D. facility to learn the location of the Cosmic Cube, and Steve and Sam flew to West Virginia for a confrontation with the Winter Soldier for the possession of the Cosmic Cube.

            Crossbones managed to undo the reprogramming done to Synthia/Sin and the two launched into a terrorism spree, taking over an Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) laboratory. Steve and Sharon came to the rescue, but Crossbones and Sin got away. In the process, Steve and Sharon’s romance reignited.

            During WWII, Steve, Bucky, Nick Fury, and the Howling Commandos had gone on a mission and battled a giant robot, something that decades later would still prove of interest to Aleksander Lukin.

            Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch used her powers to rewrite reality into a world where mutants are the dominant species and run the culture and rule over all existing countries, religions, and politics, while humans are the oppressed minority. In this new reality, Captain America was never frozen towards the end of WWII, and in 1945 he captured Adolf Hitler himself and ended the Great War. In 1946, he married Peggy Carter. Because of his friendship with Namor the Sub-Mariner and the anti-mutant hysteria in 1951, he stepped down as Captain America. In 1955 he became the first man to walk on the moon. His marriage fell apart in 1957. He went on to grow old and live his life in the House of M.

            Okay, so that’s what the book is about, now I’m going to talk about how I felt about the book. First off, I have to say, I really enjoyed this graphic novel. I thought it was great. I found it to be very well written. I thought the plot was excellent. I found the artwork to be enjoyable. The Captain America 65^th Anniversary Special was not visually pleasing to me, however. Overall, though, I really don’t have any complaints. Now, I know some of you are saying “hey, Tim, is the book better than the movie?” That is something that is difficult to answer because they are just vastly different. There are almost no recognizable similarities between the two, so comparison is hard to make. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to tell you that they are both good in their own way and should be enjoyed as two separate mediums.

            Next, I’m going to discuss accessibility. If you’re new to a Tim Cubbin review, you might not know what I mean when I use this word. By accessibility, I mean how easy it is to just pick up and read if you know little to nothing about Captain America or Marvel Comics. So, let’s say that by some odd way you’ve never heard the name “Captain America” but decided to read this review anyway out of say curiosity to the name “Captain America” or you’re just reading this post out of loyalty to me because you personally know me, or you just love reading my blog. You’ve now read this far into my review and are saying “hey, this Captain America dude sounds cool, I might want to read this book now. Will it be a problem that I don’t know Captain America?” I will tell you that it could be a bit of a problem, but not a mountain of one. I think it’s self-explanatory, I don’t think you need to know all the background information to fully understand it. The House of M issue is the problem because it’s part of an event, but it doesn’t cross over into the main story arc of the event, it doesn’t rely on you knowing the full story, so I don’t think it will ruin your enjoyment too badly. That’s the big problem with Epic Collections is that they don’t contain any issues of actual events, they just contain the issues of specific characters or teams from around that period and compile them, so often if you don’t know the event, reading an Epic Collection can be difficult. That said, I don’t feel that this will be the case in this Epic Collection in particular. Now, I will say if you’ve seen the movie “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and decide you want to read this book, that would be a huge help as you would understand the characters a little better and have a better appreciation for them, but the story is vastly different, so don’t think you’ll be reading the same thing as the movie. If you’ve ever read Captain America comic books at any point, this book will be no problem for you to just pick up and read as it’s self-explanatory to Cap canon, just beware of House of M, that’s the only hiccup. And for those of you looking to start reading Marvel Comic Books and not knowing a good place to start, this is a good first read, it’s the start of a new series, this is listed as Vol. 1 and it isn’t a direct continuation of any other storylines (except House of M, and if you honestly needed to, you could try to get your hands on a copy of “House of M” for context, but I honestly don’t feel that’s necessary in this instance).

            Okay, at this point, you’re bored of me going on and on like this, you want to know just how good I thought this book was. So yes, for those who don’t know, I give every review a numeric score on a scale of one to ten. One means this is a piece of stinky garbage that should stop being published right away, ten means this is perfection and should be given awards just for existing and a copy should be in every comic book fan’s bookshelf. Now I’m not usually one who gives out a lot of tens, so if it gets a ten, then it’s spectacular. This book is not a ten, I will start with that. But I will also say it’s not a nine. I’m settling on giving this book an eight, simply because of the couple of issues with the art I was not a fan of. If the artwork in those two issues I took offense with were to my liking, then this book would have been a nine, but there is just no way I could give it a ten. So, to reiterate, this book is an eight.

            Next up, I have to say if I recommend this book or not. I think it’s obvious that I do. I would recommend this book to any fan of Captain America comics; I feel it is a work that truly stands out and is worth the read. If you are a fan of the film “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and want to read comics, I totally recommend this book to you. If you’re a fan of espionage stories, I recommend this book to you.

            Okay, now I’m sure you’re tired of me by this point, so if you’re still reading here right now, you are THE BEST! Thanks for sticking with me this long, I honestly do appreciate it! I have written dozens of book reviews already; you can expect to see another one posted in about a week. I also write short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials, I write tons of content for this website. I know right now I’ve just been focusing on reviews, but I will totally get back to other content soon, you can expect to see plenty more from me. So, I guess I will say that this is all for now, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Captain America: The Coming of... The Falcon" by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and Marie Severin

 

            This is a review of the Marvel graphic novel, “Captain America: The Coming of… The Falcon” written by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas and Marie Severin.

            Some of you have read this blog before and know I review graphic novels in as concise and cohesive style. I have a little trouble with this graphic novel review as there were several different stories contained in this book, so I’ll instead talk about the characters and their stories rather than as a narrative.

            Obviously this is a Captain America book, so we have Steve Rogers/Captain America. For those unfamiliar with Cap’s history (and this was NOT contained in this book, but I’m giving this anyway to clear this up for those living under a rock), Steve Rogers was a frail, sickly kid who wanted to join the army to fight in World War II, but was denied because, like I said, he was frail and sickly. He joined a super soldier program and was made into Captain America and could fight in the war. At the end of the War, Cap and his sidekick James “Bucky” Barnes were thought killed in action, but Cap was frozen in ice for twenty years, and was found by the Avengers and was revived and joined the team of costumed adventurers. Okay, we got that out of the way.

            We also had Agent 13/Sharon Carter, who in most stories is the niece of Cap’s love interest Peggy Carter during WWII, but in this original story she was described as Peggy’s sister (I honestly don’t know why they changed this, but obviously the future writers didn’t side with Stan in his own story).

            Cap’s main nemesis is the Red Skull, a Nazi remnant who is bent on world domination. He was prominent in this graphic novel, doing heinous crimes against Cap, including a body swap with the power of the Cosmic Cube, a device that does pretty much everything the holder wants, so yeah, we clearly did not want that happening… but it did.

            Another villain featured in this graphic novel is Batroc (the Leaper), but he really didn’t have all that much of a story, just was there to have Cap kick his backside in a rather gratuitous subplot.

            Another story featured T’Challa/Black Panther, again, not really there for all that much of a reason.

            We also had a teenage boy named Rick Jones who tried to be a replacement for Bucky as Cap’s sidekick, but was very easily discouraged in this role, particularly after the body switch. He even wore the same costume as Bucky from WWII, which I feel essentially painted a target on his back.

            And now, we’re going to talk (last and not least) about Sam Wilson/Falcon. Okay, if all you know of the Falcon is from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, throw that away as Falcon’s portrayal in the graphic novel is nothing like on the screen. First off, Falcon was NOT in the military. He did NOT originally have wings. He actually has the power to communicate with birds, particularly a falcon named Redwing and THAT is why he was called the Falcon originally. I said before that Cap and the Red Skull had switched bodies a few paragraphs ago, to let’s revisit that because it was the whole focus of Falcon’s storyline. Okay, well, if you go to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Red Skull’s red skull was ACTUALLY his face. In this graphic novel, the red skull is a mask. The Red Skull really ticked off a group of who were originally his loyalists who came to be called the Exiles because Skull left them stranded on an island. Again, body switching and Cap/Red Skull was now a target of the Exiles’ rage and they wanted him dead. This island was actually the home of Sam Wilson (conveniently). Cap removed the mask, used clay to change his features, and trained Sam to become the Falcon. The two then teamed up to battle the Skull, who in Cap’s body tried to ruin Cap’s good reputation, but it was actually Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) who were able to nullify the Cosmic Cube.

            Okay, this is actually becoming a pretty good synopsis of the book after all. There was a point where Steve wanted to cover up his identity as Captain America. The whole world knew that Steve Rogers is Captain America. Steve actually faked his own death as Steve Rogers so no one now knows Steve Rogers and Captain America are actually the same person.

            Okay, you’ve stuck with me this far, so now to the important part: my review. My regulars know how this works, but for you first-timers, I give three points: my opinion, the accessibility (what you need to know prior to the book before reading it), and of course, my number score. I actually rather enjoyed the book for what it was. Yes Stan always wrote corny stories, and yet they were actually still good stories. BUT! And there is a HUGE but here! I felt as “The Coming of… the Falcon” there was a major fail. There were twenty-five issues in this book, and yet Falcon was only in three issues. Also, the inclusion of two issues of a satire comic called “Not Brand Echh” was not needed. This actually took away just a wee bit of enjoyment out of this book.

            Okay, now for accessibility. I have very rarely said this (in fact, I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually said this), ANYONE can understand this book, even if you know nothing about Cap or have never even touched a Marvel comic book before. BUT! Another but! Knowing about Cap only from the Marvel Cinematic Universe does actually cause a minor hiccup. The history is slightly different (as I have described) and may off-put you very slightly, but just go with it, it’s easy enough to get past. Just get used to Nick Fury being white.

            Finally, the moment you have been waiting for as I drone on: my number score. It’s on a scale of one to ten. One being this book is garbage (stay away), ten being this book is awesome and I recommend it to you. As a whole, from everything I previously described, I score it an eight. BUT! As “The Coming of… the Falcon” I give it a five. If you get this book hoping for a lot of Falcon, you would be TOTALLY disappointed. If you get it as a Captain America book or as a Stan Lee book, I think you would be satisfied. Some of you may know Stan was my personal hero. I wouldn’t be the man I am if not for all he did for the world of comics, cartoons, and movies, I might not even be alive if not for him. It was on my bucket list to meet him, which I never got the chance to do, but if we meet in the afterlife, I would not leave him alone. But that has nothing to do with my point of writing this review.

            Anyway, I think I’ll sign off for now, as I have droned on incessantly. Be sure to look out for more reviews and editorials as I have PLENTY lined up. Tell your friends about me, follow me on Twitter, spread the word, and till next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"The Death of Captain America" by Larry Hama

            The following review is for the novel “The Death of Captain America” by Larry Hama and not of the graphic novel by the same name, which is the basis of the novel.

            Writing a review of this novel is very difficult. I say this as since Captain America is killed very early in this novel, a follow-up review would be fraught with spoilers. As such, I will mostly give my reaction, telling very little of the plot so that if you wish to read this novel, I won’t ruin it for you.

            I’ll start off by saying this novel is an immediate continuation from “Civil War.” In fact, the start of the story coincides with events from “Civil War.” I reviewed this novel at an earlier date, so I’ll have to talk about the ending briefly with a spoiler to “Civil War.” Steve Rogers/Captain America has turned himself in as the leader of the anti-registration superhuman faction and Tony Stark is now director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate (S.H.I.E.L.D.). As Rogers is being brought in to court, he is shot by a sniper, and soon dies.

            There are many players, human and factions, involved in this novel, so I’m going to touch on them a little bit.

            There’s Sharon Carter/Agent-13 in S.H.I.E.L.D., Steve’s liaison (the novel never uses the word “girlfriend”). She has become the unwitting pawn of Doctor Faustus.

            James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes/Winter Soldier fought with Captain America in World War II and was believed dead in an explosion disabling a device of the Red Skull’s which would do massive damage on United States soil, but found frozen and used to become a Russian hitman who recently broke his programming and is now attempting to redeem himself.

            Sam Wilson/Falcon had a long history of partnering with Captain America against villains. He has a friendship with Sharon as well. He has a psychic connection to a bird named Redwing and can view what the bird sees and even able to partially control it.

            Natalia “Natasha” Romanova/Black Widow works as a S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison and works with Sam and Bucky.

            Tony Stark is director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and led the registration force during the superhero Civil War. He is involved in trying to solve the death of Cap.

            Doctor Faustus has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., posing as a psychiatrist. He has been using hypnotism to mind control several agents to do his dirty work, including Sharon. He has implanted control words or phrases to initiate his influence. Doctor Faustus has been working with the Johann Schmidt/Red Skull.

            Red Skull is the leader of Hydra, a terrorist organization established during World War II under Schmidt’s leadership. Schmidt was a Nazi. However, Schmidt had been killed, his essence placed in a Red Skull mask, which has been connected to Aleksander Lukin.

            Lukin is a Russian oligarch and head of the Kronas Corporation. He now shares a mind link with Schmidt whenever he dons the Red Skull mask.

            Schmidt has a daughter named Synthia/Sin. Sin is highly unhinged, a nihilist who only wants to please her father, who resents her for not being a son. She leads a group called the Serpent Society, a group of terrorists who model themselves out of snakes.

            Sin has a boyfriend named Brock Rumlow/Crossbones, who is proficient with weaponry and also a terrorist.

            Arnim Zola is affiliated with the Red Skull and does some of his dirty work. He is in control of robot bodies which he can switch consciousness between, so killing him is basically impossible.

            The other terrorist factions include Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) and Radically Advanced Ideas in Destruction (R.A.I.D.).

Red Skull has also worked on a device with Doctor Doom, but the device’s purpose would involve a spoiler, so I won’t go there.

Cap’s death has left a deep void in the superhuman community, so a new Captain America seems definitely needed.

Now we’ll discuss my opinion. First off, my rating on a scale of one-to-ten, one being the lowest, ten being the highest. I will give it a seven. The title guarantees that Captain America dies, and delivers this. Of course, the question of how, when, and why he dies is unclear, and what will follow his death also seems unclear based on the title. The assassination of Captain America is rather early in the book, so the further events of the novel really can’t be predicted, so it kept me going. However, the ending was not truly conclusive, so while I thoroughly enjoyed the meat of the story, an up-in-the-air ending detracted from my score. Also, the narrative was slightly difficult, as it was told in present tense in both first- and third-person. The first-person narrative was always Sharon’s, but Faustus’s control over her mind made changes the narrative quite often, making it slightly difficult to follow. Sometimes the wording about Bucky also changed depending on his state of his mind at the moment, which was not to my taste. Also, Hama used very short chapters, so this book was a very easy read. You might think this would be good, but one-page chapters were rather frustrating because it suffers from lack of description.

As for giving recommendation, my regular readers know I give accessibility ease. I give it a very low recommendation rating to readers who have never picked up a comic and only read this book because they like Captain America from the movies. This is firstly given because it is an immediate continuation to “Civil War.” Not reading “Civil War” is a definite negative as details from this novel coincide with “Civil War” and will detract from picking up some early details. If you read my “Civil War” review, you know I gave it a relatively low accessibility rating to casual readers, so this like watching a second movie in a series without watching the first movie. However, if you read “Civil War,” you might potentially enjoy it, as I did, but again, there are the flaws I discussed, but a fan of Cap can find something to like. I know the abundance of spoilers made this review very weak, but I’m just not going to ruin the surprises for you should you choose to read this book. All-in-all, I will say this was worth my time to read, so if this review interests you, it might also be worth yours.