"Iron Man: The New Iron Age"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Iron Man: The New Iron Age” as presented in Mavel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Jun Shan was an award-winning filmmaker. On the night of winning a Golden Dragon for best film, he and his wife Chuntao were abducted by the supervillain, the Mandarin. The Mandarin gave Jun no choice but to make a film about the life of the Mandarin. As Jun interviews the Mandarin for details of his life, the Mandarin told lies in order to conceive what he thought would make the most award-winning film of all time. Jun went out to do research to learn the truth of the Mandarin’s life. Jun and the crew of the film secretly conspired behind the Mandarin’s back to show the true story of the Mandarin. The Mandarin wanted the villain of the film to be his archnemesis Tony Stark/Iron Man, and decided the film would end with the death of Tony Stark by the Mandarin’s hands, an event that did not actually happen. Jun shot the film as the Mandarin instructed, planning to humiliate him at the premiere and escape with his life and his wife.

            Tony Stark had recently erased his memory and got most of it back. In 2011 he turned to former Stark Industries employee Peter Parker/Spider-Man for help finding stolen plans for a Stark weapon. The two had been working on it before Tony fired Peter, and Tony did not have the memory of what it did. Peter was able to trace the weapon to the anti-super hero anarchist techno-terror cell the Bastard Sons of Wilbur Day. Iron Man and Spider-Man teamed up and found out that the terror cell had actually built the weapon and fought to take them and the weapon down. In 2052, Lord Mandarin was Emperor of Earth and Tony Stark was his personal valet. The Mandarin was on the verge of purging the Earth of the human race. Tony’s children, Ginny Stark/The Black Widows and Howard Anthony Stark/War Machine were humanity’s last hope.

            Tony went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to discuss the state of his life. He hoped to have dinner with his former secretary/current CEO of his company Stark Resilient, Virginia “Pepper” Potts, only to find out that he already had his chance with her before he lost his memories and that she wasn’t willing to give him another chance.

            Stark Resilient was preparing to pitch a proposal for a new home to the Asgardian Gods. Tony was attacked by Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus, who was dying. Octavius threated to detonate a nuclear bomb over Manhattan if Tony didn’t cure him and had his associates Electro and Sandman hold Tony’s employee Tim Cababa hostage and instructed them to kill Tim if Octavius didn’t check in with them every five minutes. Pepper came looking for Tim and fought Electro and Sandman but was unable to defeat them. Another Stark Resilient employee, Leonard Pimacher came looking for Tim and startled off Sandman and Electro, and Pepper was unable to prevent the villains from escaping. Tony was unable to cure Octavius and admitted it to him, and Octavius confessed there was no bomb, and he only wanted Tony to humiliate himself to Octavius and admit that Octavius was smarter. The Asgardians accepted Stark Resilient’s pitch to build a new Asgard.

            A time of fear and uncertainty gripped the world. Seven mysterious objects entered Earth’s atmosphere, cutting fiery trails as they crashed down all over the planet. Unbeknownst to Oron Man, these are artifacts called down by the Serpent, an Asgardian deity of evil newly freed from his ancient imprisonment. Seven devastating weapons to arm and empower his chosen servants, the Worthy. One crash site was Paris, France, and one of the Worthy was Paul Pierre Duval/The Grey Gargoyle. With his newly strengthened powers, the Grey Gargoyle froze everyone in Paris he made direct eye contact with in stone. Tony hired Bethany Cabe to be the head of Security at Stark Resilient. After finding a lack of life signs in Paris, Iron Man investigated and found the superpowered Grey Gargoyle. The two fought, and Tony was overpowered. He was joined by Doug Johnson/Detroit Steel from Hammer Industries, but Johnson was defeated and turned to stone and crumbled, and Tony barely managed to escape. Tony realized to win this fight, the heroes needed stronger weapons. Tony decided to make a sacrifice in order to draw the attention of Odin: his sobriety. Odin brought Tony to the workshops of Svartalfheim to work with the dwarves to craft weapons for the heroes of Earth in their battle against the Serpent. Sasha Hammer and her crew in mechanized armor were given the mission of recovering the Detroit Steel armor from Paris and were instructed to kill anything that moved. Pepper flew to Paris in her Rescue armor to try to save any survivors that might still be roaming the streets unfrozen. The Serpent had a dwarf snatch hair from Tony in order to empower the Golem. Tony continued to get drunk with the dwarves. Tony was attacked by a Mud Sprite and was able to defeat it with the help of the dwarves. Rescue and the Hammer Corps fought the Grey Gargoyle, but Sasha Hammer abandoned Rescue in the middle of the fight. Tony finished building the weapons and he and Thor returned to Earth to aid the Avengers in defeating the Serpent and saving all of reality.

            Okay, that’s the synopsis of this book in a way I feel is the best I can describe it at this particular point in time, so now let’s move on to my personal input segments of this review. As always, we’ll start by my answering the question of: did I like this book? In general, I enjoyed it. But those first two words are key words. I enjoyed most of this book, but there were a few things about it I didn’t like. Let’s break it down story by story. I loved the “Mandarin: The Story of My Life” issue. It was interesting getting a huge section of the book devoted directly to the villain, and his displays of narcissism and egotism throughout the course of the issue were highly entertaining to me, I was hoping through the whole issue to watch it all unravel around him, and I will say, the ending had quite a twist, and I was satisfied. “The New Iron Age” was not my favorite story, I feel like it could have done without the whole future section, it didn’t have any impact on the rest of the book and felt unnecessary after finishing the issue and continuing to read the book. The Iron Man/Spider-Man story was fine, I had no problem with that, and if Matt Fraction had just published the issue as only that story, I feel like that would have sufficed. But I get that this was issue #500 and they had to make a big deal out of it and include extra content to make it all kinds of special, but it honestly was meaningless as Ginny Stark was not featured any further in the book, and forcing investment in her felt like a waste and a disappointment. And as for the time jump, the future dated was 2052, meaning in twenty-seven years from the point of my posting this, this future will be outdated, but I know that seemed like quite a long time away back in 2011. “What it Was Like, What Happened, and What it’s Like Now” resonated with me, being a recovering alcoholic myself, and the flashbacks of Tony’s life in his speech were informative to read and furthered my knowledge of Tony Starks’s history. “Fix Me” was actually my favorite story in the book. Doctor Octopus is a Spider-Man villain, so seeing him taunting, blackmailing, belittling, manipulating and humiliating Iron Man was actually rather refreshing. I don’t mean it was a good thing, I just mean it was interesting to see a villain who is usually consistently pitted up against one hero being given the chance to menace a different hero for a change. And it was shocking that Iron Man actually couldn’t beat Doctor Octopus because of the mind game that Doc Ock played against Tony Stark, and that this was a totally different kind of antagonism that Doc Ock has with Spider-Man, so this makes me curious to see Iron Man take on more of some other heroes’ nemeses in future installments, just to see the dynamics a foe swap has on their super battles. “How I Met Your Mother” was something that I felt was also unnecessary as it supposedly explained the first meeting of Howard and Maria Stark, but it honestly just seemed preposterous the way it was written. And “Fear Itself” was a story I enjoyed. Granted back in 2011 I was not an active current reader of Marvel Comics, so “Fear Itself” is an event I can’t claim to know much about, so what I understand of “Fear Itself” comes from surrounding series as I have never actually read the main limited series, but I have read some tie-ins. What I read of the event in this collection was enjoyable. I will say that I take offense with the title of this volume. The editors decided to call this “Iron Man: The New Iron Age,” which was actually just a one issue story. Compared to the three issue “Fix Me” story arc and the six issue “Fear Itself” and “Fear Itself #7.3: Iron Man,” I feel like it was the wrong title. I honestly don’t know why the editors didn’t choose to call this “Iron Man: Fear Itself,” that actually being the majority of this collection, it would have been a more sensible title. “The New Iron Age” honestly didn’t grab me when I first heard it, and I would much rather purchase a book called “Fear Itself,” that’s actually a much more appealing title in my opinion, but I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection regardless of the title, that’s just my devotion to Marvel. I don’t know if Marvel is planning on giving another Modern Era Epic Collection a “Fear Itself” title in the future and didn’t want to give two volumes the same title or something like that. And as for the artwork, I enjoyed the work of Salvador Larroca in this book, but the other artists just didn’t do it for me. I’ve actually been an admirer of Larroca since 2001 from “X-Treme X-Men,” and I felt like his work in this book was adequate. Some of the human faces had unnatural features, but his action sequences and superhero and supervillain portrayals were stellar. Overall, this book was an enjoyable read, and I actually got so into it that once I started it, I actually couldn’t put it down and read the book straight through in about three hours.

            Okay, next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. Essentially what I mean by this, for you people who have never read one of my reviews before, is this, if you know absolutely nothing about Iron Man or Marvel Comics, can you pick up this book, read it, and understand everything you’ve read by the conclusion of the book. I will say that this is a hard no. This collection is marketed as Vol. 5, and right now, as of my compiling this post, the only available volumes are 3 through 5, and if you haven’t read the previous two volumes, you’re missing so much of the story as this is a continuation out of the previous two volumes. Granted Vol. 4 was not a “To Be Continued…” kind of ending, this volume picks up after the events of it and continues threads begun in the past two collections. And if you’re not a regular reader of Marvel from 2010-2011, you don’t know “Fear Itself,” and that is a bit of a problem. Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections will often occur around events, but they won’t usually actually have the main limited series of the event collected in its entirety in that volume (with an upcoming volume of “Annihilation” being the only current exception on the horizon). In this volume, only “Invincible Iron Man” comics were collected, and “Fear Itself” was not included, so if you don’t know about “Fear Itself,” the editors did include a couple of “Previously in Fear Itself…” blurbs, but they honestly don’t complete the story, and if you want to know how the story ends, you’re going to have to get your hands on “Fear Itself” somewhere else. This book is not self-contained, and I would not recommend this as a starting point if you have never read a Marvel Comic book before.

            Okay, I’ve really been going on for quite a while now, I think it’s time we moved on to what is, essentially, the reason we’re all here; to find out just how good I thought this book was. Now, for those who don’t know how I work, it’s really quite simple. I give the book a numeric score on a scale of one to ten. One means that this book is a pile of trash, and every copy should be pulled off the shelves, burned, and Marvel should never reprint it. Ten means that this book is a mountain of gold and every copy should be bought off the shelves, read multiple times, and Marvel should reprint it on a regular basis. My score is based on a few factors. The two main ones are of course how I feel about the story and the art contained in the book itself. There are a few mitigating factors that fall outside of those as well that are sometimes outside the control of the editors, but include accuracy of the title, effectiveness of explaining the story within the book itself, my understanding of the storylines occurring at the same time outside of this volume, and the ability to meet my expectations of what the book will be based on the title the editors slap on the book. So for our factors on this, I mostly enjoyed the story, the art was hit and miss, the title was a misnomer, the book wasn’t self-contained, I don’t know “Fear Itself,” and this wasn’t quite what I was expecting based on the title, we are looking at point deductions, but it’s not a total hate party on this book. So, if I have to give this book a score in all fairness, and since this is a book review, I obviously do, I’d take all of these listed factors, chuck them into my metaphorical blender, push the blend button and mix them until they’re a pile of liquid goo, then take my metaphorical cup, pour the goo out into it, look at it, and it is… a six. This book falls on the side of slightly above average in my own personal opinion. It was a positive experience, one I will not mind going through again should another volume come out, since when a new volume comes out, I read all the connecting volumes to it, so if Vol. 2 or Vol. 6 come out, I will reread this book, and I do look forward to that.

            Okay, again, I’ve been blathering on for quite a while now, let’s get on with this. Next up on the docket is the recommendation paragraph. This paragraph is dedicated to answering three questions: do I, myself, Tim Cubbin, actually personally recommend this book? Who do I think is the best audience for this book? And do I think you should read this book now that you’ve read my review? The first question has the answer of yes. I do actually give this book my own personal recommendation. To answer question number two is a little trickier. Yes, if you are an Iron Man fan and a Marvel fan and a fan of Matt Fraction or Salvador Larroca, this book is probably a book you might be interested in, but I don’t know if you should read it unless you understand some outside knowledge. If you’ve read the earlier issues of Fraction’s run on “Invincible Iron Man,” then you are the perfect audience for this book. If you’re interested in reading the tie-in stories of “Fear Itself” then this is absolutely the right book for you. I think those two groups are the “ideal” audience, but for fans of the character, the universe, or the creators, this book is a good read for you. As for question number three, if you’ve read my review and now want to read this book, I would tell you that you would probably do best to read all of Matt Fraction’s run of “Invincible Iron Man” before reading this (conveniently collected in the Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections “Iron Man: World’s Most Wanted” and “Iron Man: Stark Disassembled,” if you want to read them most efficiently), but I wouldn’t tell you not to read this book ever, even if you’ve never read Iron Man or any other Marvel Comic books before, despite them having tie-ins to other Marvel characters and storylines. Fraction did a brilliant job crafting these stories and I feel they are well worth the read to anyone who wants to be a reader of the Marvel Universe or Iron Man.

            Okay, we’re at the point where I’m close to signing off. I do have a few things I need to say first. I’ll start with the fact that this blog has over 160 posts on it, over six dozen of them are reviews just like this one. I post on a very frequent basis, I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection after they are released as early as I can and if possible I write a review as early as I can after reading it, so you can usually expect at least one post a month. I can tell you there is another Modern Era Epic Collection coming out in five days from the composition of this post, so you can expect to see a review of that likely sometime within the next three weeks. For those of you who enjoyed this post and have more time to kill right now, keep browsing on timcubbin.blogspot.com for more reviews and content, and if you don’t have the time right now, feel free to come back another time. While the majority of this site is book reviews, there is other content on this site as well, including short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. I’ve been doing this blog for almost five years at this point, and I will keep doing this until I am no longer able to do it, so you can expect that to be for quite some time. Feel free to keep checking back regularly, there’s often going to be something new, and there’s already plenty to see as it is. If you want to, leave a comment, retweet, like, share, do whatever you can on this site, spread the word about me. Feel free to reach out to me and tell me what you think of this post or of my site in general if there’s anything you like, dislike, want to see in the future, or want changed, I’d love to hear from you, and if you read this book, I’d love to hear your opinion. I will state that I admit that everything on this blog is my own personal opinion as I interpret it and you have your own personal opinions and views on everything I post, and I welcome you to feel differently from me and say that I am totally off base with my assessment, whether I have information wrong, or if you feel like I’ve somehow misinterpreted what’s in the stories, or if you just disagree with anything I’ve said, like if you didn’t like the story or the art, or if you did like other things that I specifically said I disliked, or if you think “The New Iron Age” was a great title, or if you think this book was completely awful and a six was way too good of a score, or maybe a six wasn’t a score that was high enough, or you can just let me know if you agree with me about anything, I welcome to hear anything from all my readers and will take it all with complete acceptance and respect as you are entitled to your opinions on anything, I just ask you to respect that I have a right to have an opinion, too, so do not get hostile or openly attack me, just politely state you disagree with me and explain why you feel the way I do or respectfully explain what I have interpreted wrong as I would like to fully understand this story as it is. And that is all I have to say to you at the moment, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"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!

"Iron Man: Stark Disassembled"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Iron Man: Stark Disassembled” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Tony Stark was injured in a jungle in Vietnam and taken into captivity. He had shrapnel close to his heart. With the help of Professor Ho Yinsen, Tony was able to create a magnet to prevent the shrapnel from reaching his heart, and a suit of armor that allowed him to escape captivity. With the help of James Rhodes, Tony was able to return to the United States, where Tony became the superhero Iron Man.

Many years later, Norman Osborn became the leader of the corrupt government organization H.A.M.M.E.R., formerly S.H.I.E.L.D., which Tony Stark had been in charge of. Tony felt he couldn’t let Osborn obtain the database of the superhuman secret identities and the secrets of the Iron Man technology, so he did the only thing he could do; deleted the data. But that included wiping his own mind. It put him into a persistent vegetative state. He left Pepper Potts, his right-hand woman, with a suit of iron and a repulsor generator of her own before this. He also had his second-in-command at S.H.I.E.L.D. Maria Hill obtain a hard drive with the assistance of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. Pepper, Hill, and Widow gathered with Bucky Barnes/Captain America and Doctor Donald Blake/Thor to revive Tony.

Tony Stark was trapped in a repeated simulation in his own mind with his parents Howard and Maria Stark. In the real world, Tony’s allies watched a video which instructed them on how to prepare to revive Tony. Pepper, having lost her husband Happy Hogan, was hesitant about this, wondering why it was Tony who got to come back from the dead. Meanwhile, Osborn, who had placed a bounty on Tony Stark with a consortium of supervillains, called it off. Madame Masque, however, refused to let this go since her grudge with Tony went deeper, so she called on the supervillain Ghost to finish Tony Stark completely. She arranged a “Ghost Phone” which would allow Ghost to teleport to Tony’s location simply by making a phone call. Steve Rogers/Captain America returned from the dead and arrived in Broxton, Oklahoma, where Tony and his allies were hiding. The repulsor unit in Pepper had to be removed and implanted into Tony’s chest. The data drive Hill had obtained kept a backup of Tony’s memories, and they had to be implanted back into Tony. However, Thor’s attempt to revive Tony with a lightning bolt failed. Ghost was able to locate Tony at the Sooner Inn. Hill, Pepper, Doctor Lisk, and Mrs. Sooner moved Tony to the basement of a middle school to escape Ghost, where they called in Doctor Stephen Strange to perform a mystical surgery on Tony. Rhodey arrived but was immediately attacked by Ghost. In Tony’s mind, Doctor Strange tried to convince Tony that he had a life worth returning to but was pulled away from the surgery to fight Ghost, who defeated Strange. As Hill was losing to Ghost and Ghost was about to finish off Tony, Pepper made a phone call to H.A.M.M.E.R. to report on Ghost’s illegal activities, and as Ghost was about to attack Pepper, Tony returned to consciousness and defeated Ghost. However, Tony’s backup drive was not recent, and there were many things that Tony didn’t know.

Pepper imagined a conversation with her deceased husband Happy, where she recalled her time as the armored hero Rescue. Her suit wasn’t made to fight, but it was made to help save lives. Tony gave it to her while she had the repulsor technology in her and she used it while she was on the run from H.A.M.M.E.R.

Mother and daughter business team Justine and Sasha Hammer pitched the idea of a new mechanical force called Detroit Steel to the United States Army but were turned down. Tony Stark learned that he had given his company Stark Industries to Pepper before he erased his mind and that he was essentially broke. Tony decided to plan his new business venture, one that no longer involved making weapons. The Hammers bought decommissioned H.A.M.M.E.R. technology to plan their move against Tony Stark. Tony founded Stark Resilient and pitched making his proprietary repulsor tech available to the everyday consumer to replace fossil fuels. The Army got back in touch with the Hammer girls. Tony partnered with carmaker Carson Wyche to build a new car that ran on repulsor power and not fossil fuels. Pepper told Tony she wanted the repulsor disc Tony had removed from her replaced back into her. Tony agreed. Bambi Arbogast, a former Stark Industries employee, signed on with Stark Resilient. During Pepper’s surgery, the Hammer girls staged a terrorist attack in Shibuya, Tokyo in order to promote Detroit Steel. Iron Man and War Machine flew in to help fight, but were made to look like fools, especially since the tech the terrorists used were old Stark Industries technology. Stark Resilient hired Cababa, Macken and Pimacher to help build their new car. The Hammer girls build drones to assist Detroit Steel, and created a “game” app, tricking players into thinking they were assisting Detroit Steel in a game, when in actuality they were flying these real drones and assisting the actual Detroit Steel. Tony created a new Rescue armor for Pepper. Stark Resilient planned to debut their new car at the 21-Green International Expo in the following six weeks and had to build two cars within that time limit. Rhodey pitched placing War Machine under military supervision as liaison to Stark Resilient, but General Babbage refused, preferring Detroit Steel. Stark Resilient held a Gala, inviting the Hammer girls. Tony took Sasha Hammer on a private ride, where she attacked him with cybernetic upgrades. Iron Man and Rescue fought her, but Sasha was still able to escape. Tony’s Alpha car was sabotaged and exploded during its test run, and only Tony’s implanted Iron Man armor was able to save his life. Because of the attack, the 21-Green Expo was cancelled. Tony decided to have the Betty car tested at their factory. As the test began, Detroit Steel and the drones attacked. Tony, Pepper and Rhodey suited up as Iron Man, Rescue and War Machine and fought the drones. Tony’s team discovered that the drones were being controlled by the gamers and that they were locking on to repulsor signatures, so Rhodey and Pepper powered down. It would take twenty minutes to shut down the cellular transmissions, but Pepper and Rhodey could only survive for fifteen minutes without repulsor power. Tony had to race against time to defeat Detroit Steel, survive the drones, and save Rhodey and Pepper.

Luna Inc. created Luna City, a community on the moon. They used an old Stark Industries machine that could control the weather, and it was having a negative effect upon the earth. Iron Man and Thor had to team up, fly to the moon, and stop Luna Inc.

Okay, so now we’ve done the synopsis, let’s get down to the Tim Cubbin part of this review. Obviously, you want to know if I liked this book or not and what I thought about it. While I did find this book to be somewhat enjoyable, I honestly can’t rave about it. I found it to simply just be mediocre. There honestly wasn’t anything special about it. The stories really didn’t stand out. While it was readable, it just didn’t have a super high level of enjoyability. We start off with a reprint of the first Iron Man story and a classic Iron Man story that got severely retconned and was actually somewhat offensive that I really couldn’t go into much detail about it in this review since I’m a nice guy and I don’t want to offend anyone who reads this blog, I want people to keep coming back for more, so I don’t want to do anything to scare people away. The story of Tony Stark trapped in a self-imposed simulation and needing to be rescued and revived really didn’t grab me, and I couldn’t find the suspension of disbelief required to believe in Tony’s revival. The way he deleted his memories and had them reimplanted just wasn’t plausible enough for me to accept. I can say, however, that I do enjoy reading about Pepper as Rescue. As far as the “Stark Resilient” storyline went, however, that at least saved the book for me a little bit. I enjoyed the concept. I liked how Tony had to start a new business venture, and I thought that the car was an interesting idea. I liked Sasha Hammer as a villain. I liked the drones being piloted as a gaming app, and while I thought the idea was brilliant, I also found it to be slightly predictable, as soon as they started talking about the drones, I knew exactly how they were going to be used, but it was still a great idea to include. I enjoyed the dynamics between Tony, Pepper, and Hill throughout the course of the book, their grudge against Tony for a reason I can’t talk about in a G-Rated blog, but I thought it brought good humor and drama to the stories. As far as the Iron Man/Thor “Fair Weather” team-up, I found that to be entertaining. As far as the main artist Salvador Larroca goes, he’s an artist that I love to hate and hate to love at the same time. His artwork is inconsistently good and bad. There are times when he totally nails it, and there are times when he totally fails it. There were points where his artwork was just totally amazing, and there were times when I just thought it was awful. Usually when I give a bad art review on an Epic Collection, it’s because there are a lot of different artists, and while this book did have several artists, Larroca was the main artist, and he was the one who disappointed me the most. As far as this book goes all around, this was not one of my favorites.

Next, I’m going to talk about accessibility. I’ve literally said this at least three dozen times at this point, but I always have to do it again for my new readers since I know some of you have never read a Tim Cubbin review before and have no idea what I mean when I say “accessibility.” So here goes: Accessibility means if a person who has little or no knowledge about Iron Man or Marvel can pick up this book, read it, and fully comprehend what they are reading. In this case, I will say this book is highly inaccessible if you have not read the previous volume “World’s Most Wanted” as this book directly continues out of the storyline from that which was not finished in the previous volume, so if you have not read it, you have missed a significant chunk of the story and will have no idea what is going on at the start of this book. The entire story of Tony erasing his memories was told in the previous volume and he was left in a vegetative state, and that’s where this volume picks up. There are also many other threads that carried over from the previous volume that not having read it will have negative impact on a reader’s ability to fully comprehend what they are reading, including Pepper’s original run as Resue, why Tony had to be kept hidden, the fall of Stark Industries, Tony’s disconnection from Extremis, and the start of the dynamic between Tony, Pepper and Hill which I can’t talk about in a G-Rated blog, just to name a few, and one I can’t discuss that would spoil the ending of “Stark Resilient.” This book is marketed as Vol. 4, and while Vols. 1 and 2 have not been released at the moment of my writing this review, Vol. 3 is an essential read prior to reading this book.

I’ve been going on for quite a while now, and I’m sure you’re starting to get bored of me, so let’s move on to the most imperative part of a Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. I score on a very basic scale: one to ten precisely. One means this book is a flaming piece of trash. Ten means this book is one of the best things I’ve ever laid eyes upon. Now, you can obviously guess at this point that this book is nowhere near getting a ten, and you would be absolutely correct. However, I wouldn’t completely call this book a flaming piece of trash, either. So, of course, we must take into account that this is a GRAPHIC novel, so art is just as important as story when I write my reviews. So, we have a mediocre story and inconsistent qualitied art, so you can imagine this score is going to be on the low side. So, imagine no further, as I am now going to tell you my score. Taking everything into consideration, I throw it all together and spit out… four. This book was readable, but it is not going to be on the list of one of my favorite graphic novels.

Next up, I’m going to tell you if I give this book my personal recommendation, and regardless of that, to whom do I recommend this book. Okay, so this book does not get my recommendation as it honestly really did not stand out to me. If I were to recommend this book to anyone though, I would say it would honestly mostly be for Iron Man fans of the comics from 2000 on, but the origin story that went on to be retconned is a huge turn off to fans from said period, and writer Matt Fraction even writes into the story that it was retconned just to redeem the change. Honestly, though, I do have a hard time recommending this book to anyone.

Well, I think we’re at the point where we should be parting ways, but first I do have a few things I have to say first. First off, this website has dozens of reviews just like this if you enjoyed it, so feel free to keep browsing timcubbin.blogspot.com, check out my “Iron Man: World’s Most Wanted” review, too, you’ll probably find that enjoyable. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, editorials, essays, articles, and several other kinds of content that you can check out, I’ve done quite a variety of work on this over the past four and a half years. There are almost 150 posts now, I’m sure you’ll find something else you can enjoy. My reason for doing this blog is because I have a degree in English with a concentration in journalism and currently remain unemployed in the field but still wish to remain active in it. I post on a very frequent basis, literally any time a new Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection comes out, I buy it, and I will review it. There are a few I haven’t reviewed due to the lack of having a laptop at the time, but they will probably eventually receive reviews. I have another review coming up, expect it sometime within the next two weeks. I guess that’s really all I have to say for now, so I’ll finish with just a few more words: Tim Cubbin… out!

"Iron Man: World's Most Wanted"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Iron Man: World’s Most Wanted” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Anthony Stark is a billionaire playboy technology philanthropist genius. He ran the company Stark Industries, where he created weapons for the United States military. While in captivity, he was gravely injured and invented a suit of armor that saved his life. He quit the weapons business and secretly became the armored superhero Iron Man. He was a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers. He eventually bonded with Extremis, a technologic substance that interfaced him with his armor. Following the superhero Civil War, where every superhuman must register with the peacekeeping agency S.H.I.E.L.D. or face imprisonment, Tony was appointed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and in charge of the database of all registered superhumans. Maria Hill, former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., was demoted to Deputy Director, a position Hill was not particularly happy with. During the Civil War, Tony also went public with his dual identity as Iron Man.

            Tony is made aware of terrorist bombings involving technology like Tony’s own Iron Man technology. The perpetrators of these crimes are Advanced Genocide Mechanics. The technological mastermind behind all this is Ezekiel Stane, son of Obadiah Stane, former business rival and Tony’s nemesis the Iron Monger. Stane has upgraded himself with biotechnology, effectively becoming a living weapon, enough to rival Iron Man himself.

            At the Starkdynamics Gala, a bombing occurs, leaving Tony’s former secretary and love interest Pepper Potts gravely injured. Tony gives Pepper the same treatment that saved his life.

            Stane plans to take down Stark Industries and Tony Stark himself by bombing key Stark Industries locations in the hope Tony will be present at one at the time of an attack. Tony and Stane meet for a decisive battle, and Tony must take drastic action to ensure his technology is not used to cause more harm in the world.

            In the aftermath, Front Line Newspaper Managing Editor calls in photographer Peter Parker for assistance with a story. Peter is secretly the unregistered superhero Spider-Man and used to work for Tony Stark. Spider-Man swings into action, but Tony is reluctant to team-up due to him being Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Spider-Man being an unregistered superhuman, and this causes Tony to doubt in his abilities as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

            This doesn’t last long. The shape-shifting aliens known as the Skrulls launched a Secret Invasion on Earth. During the Invasion, the Skrulls unleashed a virus in Stark technology, causing catastrophic worldwide failure of all Stark tech, including Tony’s Extremis armor. Tony was stripped of his role as leader of the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. was made defunct. Norman Osborn, formerly the supervillain the Green Goblin, then Director of the government-sponsored supervillain rehabilitation team the Thunderbolts, was the hero against the Skrulls, and was promoted to Director of the new peacekeeping agency H.A.M.M.E.R., S.H.I.E.L.D.’s replacement. Maria Hill was also fired from her position as Deputy Director. Osborn hoped to gain access to the superhuman registration database, but Tony unleashed a virus wiping it out of H.A.M.M.E.R.’s computers, but there is an existing copy… implanted in Tony’s head. Tony decides he can’t let Osborn get access to this database, and out of fear of getting captured and having it forced out of his head, and not wanting termination, he feels the only way to prevent Osborn from gaining what he desires is to wipe his memory and start his life over. Maria and Pepper object, but Tony tricks Hill into initiating the process that will destroy Tony’s memories. Osborn, unaware of this turn of events, issues an order for the arrests of Tony Stark and Maria Hill, making them the world’s most wanted fugitives. Tony asks Maria to infiltrate a Stark Subsidiary facility in Texas called Futurepharm to obtain a hard drive, which Hill finds out has been taken over by the supervillain the Controller. Meanwhile, Pepper has been left in charge of Stark Industries in Tony’s place. She discovers an armor Tony left behind for her and dons it to become Rescue. At the same time, Osborn has been making deals with supervillains such as Namor, the Hood, and Madame Masque to put a bounty on Tony Stark. Tony makes a deal with Russian superhero the Crimson Dynamo to try to get access to a Stark workshop. The Iron Man technology he has been left with after the Secret Invasion is substandard, and the Crimson Dynamo armor is a bit more advanced. Pepper locates Tony, whose memory is direly failing him. Hill, desperate to uncover the content of the drive, attempts to find Captain America, and turns to Natasha Romanova/Black Widow, superspy and former S.H.I.E.L.D. ally. Black Widow and Hill are captured and brought to Avengers Tower, Norman Osborn’s base of operations. Pepper and Madame Maque have a face-off… literally. Pepper steals Masque’s mask and infiltrates Avengers Tower to rescue Hill and Black Widow. Tony heads back to Iraq, the birthplace of Iron Man, to lure Osborn/Iron Patriot into a fight that will defame Osborn publicly and may also be the end of Iron Man.

            Okay, so let’s discuss how I felt about this book. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I wasn’t expecting it to be all that good, but I found that I highly enjoyed it. I thought it was very well written. I will say, however, that I wasn’t all that fond of the Extremis concept. A long time ago, I reviewed to prose novelization of “Iron Man: Extremis.” I never really understood how Extremis worked, so the fact that Matt Fraction, the writer of this book, so heavily used Extremis in the plot did get a little confusing for me. There were times past when the whole Extremis storyline seemed to have been forgotten, so Extremis being relied on in this book detracted from my enjoyment slightly. That said, I found the concept of Pepper becoming the superheroine Rescue to be highly enjoyable. Ezekiel Stane was also an interesting villain because he was more powerful than Iron Man, so the conflict resolution of their decisive battle was highly anticipated as I had no idea how Tony could possibly win. Also, Norman Osborn as the villain in the “World’s Most Wanted” storyline but not as the Green Goblin was refreshing. His masterminding the scheme of bringing down Tony and Maria Hill in an extensively long story arc was something I enjoyed as it continued and expanded. I also found that the story didn’t feel like it went on too long, either. It was a twelve-part story, and it felt right to me. Sometimes those seem too excessive, but this worked. It’s just like a movie that is three hours long and there’s thirty minutes of expository content that’s not needed. Were there moments that felt like they could have been done without? Yes. A comic is a certain length, it must be filled, so in twelve parts, there are going to be moments that feel like they don’t need to be there, but those moments for me were not particularly common. And I have to say, Salvador Larroca is an artist I have been a fan of for over twenty years, and his artwork in this book did not disappoint me. However, I must fault the colorists. Some of the characters’ skin tones looked all wrong and the colors seemed a little dull, faded and toned down in my opinion. I also must complain about the use of the acronym H.A.M.M.E.R. Fraction never explains why it’s written as an acronym, what it means, or if it even means anything at all. And why would it change from S.H.I.E.L.D. to H.A.M.M.E.R.? There is literally no similarity there. And there was a moment with Tony and Maria that I felt was highly unnecessary, but it’s kind of inappropriate, so we’re not going to go there in this review, we’re keeping this G-Rated. But honestly, I can’t complain too much about anything else.

            Okay, now we’re going to talk about accessibility. If you’ve read my work before, you know what I’m talking about. I’ve literally written dozens of reviews before, but if you haven’t read one and don’t know what I mean, I guess I’ll have to explain it to you. I mean how if you’re a person who, for some unbelievable coincidence, has never heard of Iron Man would be able to understand this book if you were to just pick this book up and try to read it. In this case, I would have to give a resounding don’t. This book really is for experienced Marvel fans. At the start of the book, we’re in a period where Tony Stark was Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Superhuman Registration Act was still in effect. Then we get to a point that spins out of Secret Invasion. If you know nothing about Secret Invasion, this book will get confusing. This also requires knowledge about Norman Osborn as Director of H.A.M.M.E.R. and that knowledge is not contained in this book. Honestly, if you don’t know about the aftermath of Secret Invasion, you’d be scratching your head trying to understand this book. This book is not for Marvel beginners. I don’t care if you’ve seen all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and shows but have never read the comics and are reading this now and are saying “Oh, Iron Man, I want to read this!” It’s not the right book for you. It has absolutely no similarity to the MCU at all. There are no common threads to pick up on, the MCU did not adapt any of these storylines, so you won’t be able to just be an MCU fan and try suddenly to be a comic fan, I’m sorry to say. Now, on the other hand, this is all just MY opinion, take it or leave it, if you want to try this book, you’re welcome to it. I mean, I understand it because I’ve been reading Marvel Comic Books on and off for twenty-three years now, and these issues were originally published in 2008-2009, which was even a lapsed period for me, but I’ve read comics published since then and know about the time, so that’s all just me. I’m just giving you the caution that I don’t think this is an entry level Marvel book. This is even listed as Vol. 3. Granted the comics in this book are “Invincible Iron Man” #1-19, that still doesn’t make it a jump on point. I believe more background knowledge is required if you are to get optimal enjoyment out of this book. But again, I also invite you to try if that is what you so desire, as I found reading this book to be an enjoyable experience. I’m not going to totally warn you away for that. I leave that to your capable hands to decide.

            Okay, I’ve blathered on for quite a while. I think you’re at the breaking point where you want me to stop typing and wasting your time and just give you my numeric score. That is, of course, if you know what to expect from one of my reviews. If not, you still probably want me to stop typing and get to a point where you can just stop reading and go back to doing whatever you were doing on the internet before you started reading this. So, let me just explain my scoring system to any of you who may be newbies. I score on a scale between one to ten. One means this book was absolute trash and not worth reading at all, ten means that anyone who reads this review should read this book regardless of that I warned you off. You can guess that this book does not fit on either of the extremes in my opinion and falls somewhere in between, and you would be right. So, I do have to take everything into account as I score this. As I’ve been writing this, I’ve been thinking about the score the whole time, just how exactly I’m going to score it. It’s been an extremely hard thought, but I’m going to give it a final settle on an eight. I’m a hard scorer and I don’t just go giving out tens, even nines can be difficult for a book to obtain, and although this book exceeded my expectations, it was not perfect enough to get a nine either. The unexplained use of Extremis was a huge detraction from my score. The colors are also wonky, I feel like it could have benefited if they were a little brighter. But overall, I felt like it was an enjoyable book and I give it exceedingly high praise.

            Finally, I must tell you if I recommend this book to you or not. I think I explained it well in the accessibility section, but I feel like it’s imperative to reiterate it here. I don’t recommend it to non-fans. But I’m not saying I’m not recommending it, either. In other words, I don’t recommend it to EVERYONE, BUT I DO recommend it. I hope that’s clear enough.

            Well, I honestly do feel like I’ve gone on for long enough at this point, I feel like I should set you off to go back to doing whatever else you may want to do, and I’ve been sitting here typing for over three hours, I think it’s time I moved on to something else, too. So, I’m just going to tell you that this blog has plenty of other enjoyable content on it. I’ve written short stories, poetry, articles, essays, editorials, and dozens of other reviews. You can expect another review in the next couple of weeks as there is another book about to be released that I intend to buy, so be on the lookout for that. I’m also toying with the idea for a short story, I’ve been saying it for months now, I just keep getting sidetracked and doing other things instead and never actually gotten around to just sitting down and typing it, but you can expect it in the next couple of months too. Well, I think I’ve said all I need to say now, so let’s all just move on after I say Tim Cubbin… out!

"The Darkhold Saga"

 

            The following is a review of the Marvel Comics Event “The Darkhold Saga” as presented on Marvel Unlimited.

            The Darkhold is a cursed book. Its origins are pretty gruesome, but it has held the elder-God Chthon in Other-Realm for centuries. Its magic is corruptive. Reading from the Darkhold will drive any reader insane.

Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom has been searching for the Darkhold for many years, and has finally unearthed it. He has sent his herald Victorious to Abysmia to retrieve it. In the meantime, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch has a haunting dream of chaos caused by Chthon as a warning that he will soon be released. Arriving in Abysmia, Wanda finds that Doctor Doom has already read from the book, believing himself above the standards of “normal men.” Wanda discovers that Chthon had been sealed into the Darkhold by a group of five heroes called the Darkhold Defenders. They all had specific roles in the creation of the seal. Wanda decides to build her own team of Darkhold Defenders: Tony Stark/Iron Man-The Dreamer, Eric Brooks/Blade-The Hunter, Janet Van Dyne/Wasp-The Artist, Blackagar Boltagon/Black Bolt-The Stoic, and Peter Parker/Spider-Man-The Fool. To reinforce the seal, the heroes are to read from the Darkhold, but only enough so as not to be driven insane. The heroes, however, read too far, and their histories are now changed.

Tony Stark created the Iron Man armor as a defense to escape from captivity after being abducted on a routine weapons test. He had to create an electromagnet to save his life. He worked on an update of the armor to use to heal its wearer. Unfortunately, the plan failed and the armor became his skin with no way to safely remove it.

Eric Brooks is Blade, a unique vampire also called the Daywalker due to his immunity to sunlight. He is also a vampire hunter. Unfortunately, a vampire plague has been released, and now almost everyone on earth is now a vampire. Blade must now struggle to keep himself and his friends alive in this new world.

Janet Van Dyne is married to scientist Hank Pym. Their marriage is rather complicated, almost completely one-sided. Hank is more married to his lab work than Jan. He often ignores her and stays in his lab for days at a time. When Hank does pay attention to her, he is verbally abusive to Jan. Finally, Jan has had enough being ignored.

Black Bolt is the King of the Inhuman race. His brother Maximus the Mad has tried to stage several coups over the years to dethrone Black Bolt, and has now had an Inhuman scientist create a device that can make him look like anyone else. Black Bolt must now try to find the wolf in the fold.

Peter Parker is Spider-Man. A plague called the unravelling has struck the world, destabilizing everything. Spider-Man does as much webbing as he can to hold people, animals, and structures together, but it is nowhere near enough.

After all the former heroes escape the Darkhold, they are not the Darkhold Defenders, but the Darkhold Defiled. Doom has been defeated by Chthon, and now it rests solely upon Wanda to stop Chthon’s escape and save the world.

Looking at this event as a whole, I found it relatively interesting. The different histories of the Darkhold Defiled entertained me. And all the issues had a surprise twist ending, and that made me feel the story was worthwhile. However, I must complain about the gruesomeness contained in this event that I can’t talk about on this blog, especially the endings of Iron Man and Spider-Man. Blade’s story, however, was relatively cliché, a vampire apocalypse. I did feel that Wasp’s story got a bit stale in the middle, but I figured out how it would end relatively early on. Black Bolt’s story was my favorite. But in all honestly, I can’t say much about the stories to prevent spoilers. Despite all of it, though, I wasn’t disappointed. I enjoyed the read, and the event didn’t feel overextended like some comic events can be. The seven issues felt just right to me. The focus on all the new histories were interesting, but in all honesty, there were only two issues of importance, the other five just making it an event, but all being one-shots sufficed it for me, especially since it felt like expanding on each character’s story would be unnecessary and even possibly ruin the enjoyment of the story. Plus, hitting the end of each one-shot solidified the story just fine.

Now, again, looking at this as a whole, I must give a numeric score to enforce just how I felt about the story. I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest, ten is the highest. Prior readers will know I’m very hard to please when it comes to reviewing books, so a high score probably means it’s good, but this is just all my opinion. So, let’s not mince words here, get right to the score. Again, as I said, the event as a whole, all cards in, I give it a seven. Despite the gruesome endings of Iron Man and Spider-Man, the endings of Wasp and Black Bolt were good twists, but the Blade issue was mediocre. But the main two issues felt like good bookends. Fortunately, the ending of the last issue didn’t disappoint me. Some events’ finales can be very disappointing, making me feel like reading the whole thing was a waste of time. “The Darkhold Saga” had a conclusive ending that made sense and I didn’t feel like it was forced upon me. I actually read it twice, as each was originally posted on Marvel Unlimited and then as a binge of the event, and reading it twice wasn’t a chore.

Okay, so, let’s talk about if I recommend it. I do. I found this event to be very much self-contained. If you’ve never read a Marvel comic book before, I think this will be intriguing, there could definitely be worse starts. If you’re into the supernatural, and want a supernatural comic storyline, I’d recommend it to you, Marvel veteran or not. I didn’t think it was too off-putting in the gruesomeness, but if you have a weak stomach, this isn’t one to read. Still, I recommend it to you, regular comic reader or newbie reader, pretty much to everyone. And it is very rare that I give an almost completely unconditional recommendation, so you might want to read it for yourself.

Now, to wrap up, I’ll tell you this blog has many reviews on it, mostly Marvel, but I also write essays, editorials, short stories and poetry, so if you like this post, feel free to keep looking at this blog. I post frequently, so you don’t have to wait too long for new posts. And until next time, I say to you, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Civil War II"

            The following is a review of the Marvel Comics event “Civil War II” as presented on Marvel Unlimited. It is not about any real war. It is not about the 2006-2007 Marvel Comics event “Civil War.” It is not about the feature film “Captain America: Civil War.”

            Hey, all, welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! I am your host, Tim Cubbin! I usually give a whole big introduction when I write a review, but as this is a long event and will probably take me about three hours, and I have a busy day, so we’ll just stick to the review. I will use a format similar to my other reviews which prior readers of at least two of my reviews will know, but with a few differences. First, I will take each individual story on the reading lists in order as they appear. I’ll give a brief description of each. Then, I will take into account the entire event, share my thoughts, and give it a numeric score. Then I’ll say if I recommend this to readers. I’ll finish off by saying who I think the best audience would be based on what accessibility is required for optimal enjoyment. Then I’ll give a brief signoff and then we will be finished. So we are going to get right to it.

            Prequel Reading: Tony Stark/Iron Man hires Mary Jane Watson to be his personal assistant and life coach. Laura Kinney/Wolverine, her clone Gabby and Old Man Logan/Wolverine from an alternate future find out how different their lives are. Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales/Spider-Man, and Sam Alexander/Nova, all from different schools take on a science competition. The Ultimates prepare for an attack from Thanos. Ulysses Cain, a college student, is exposed to the Terrigen Mists and discovers he is an Inhuman.

            Main Event: Ulysses discovers his Inhuman power is to predict the future and is able to alert the heroes of earth about an alien assault that would have been very catastrophic. Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel decides to use Ulysses’ powers to use predictive justice to prevent devastating events before they happen and stop them from ever occurring. Tony Stark/Iron Man feels that this is profiling, and that Ulysses can only predict A future but on necessarily THE future. The heroes must now decide: Change the future? Or protect the future.

            Amazing Spider-Man: Peter Parker/Spider-Man has his company Parker Industries. Peter tries to take Ulysses under his wing. Ulysses predicts that one of his employees Clayton Cole, the “reformed” super villain Clash will return to his villainous ways.

            Choosing Sides: This series focused on several “B-List” super heroes deciding where the fall in the ensuing Civil War between the super heroes. Nick Fury, Jr. embarks on a mission after Ulysses predicts a Hydra cell that will bring about the end of S.H.I.E.L.D.

            Gods of War: Hercules feels that he was once earth’s greatest hero, but now with new super heroes emerging, he is feeling useless. A group of evil Gods called The Uprising Storm arrives on earth, planning to discredit the Gods, so Hercules assembles a team of forgotten Gods from several pantheons to defeat the Uprising Storm and reclaim their legends as true heroes of earth.

            Kingpin: Wilson Fisk/Kingpin negotiates with Tony Stark/Iron Man to provide information on super villains to ensure his early release from prison.

            X-Men: Ororo Munroe/Storm and Eric Lensherr/Magneto find themselves on opposite sides over the Civil War of super heroes and have their own mutant Civil War.

            A-Force: Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk is gravely injured during a super hero conflict and lies in a coma. Ulysses predicts that Runaway Nico Minuro will commit a murder, and A-Force makes a play so that this murder does not occur.

            Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Phil Coulson goes against S.H.I.E.L.D. protocol and Maria Hill, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. relieves Coulson of duty and hires Elektra Natchios to replace his as leader of Coulson’s team.

            All-New Wolverine: Ulysses predicts that Laura Kinney/Wolverine’s clone Gabby will be murdered by Old Man Logan.

            Ant-Man: Scott Lang/Ant-Man, reformed criminal, is accused of a crime and sent back to jail.

            Avengers: Vision, Nadia Van Dyne/Wasp and Jane Foster/Thor must decide where they fall in this Civil War.

            Captain America: Sam Wilson: Sam Wilson/Captain America and several black super heroes gather together to mourn the death of James Rhodes/War Machine.

            Captain America: Steve Rogers: Steve Rogers/Captain America tries to keep peace between Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel and Tony Stark/Iron Man, while secretly reprogrammed by a sentient Cosmic Cube named Kobic as a prominent agent in the evil organization Hydra.

            Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel and the Alpha Flight Space Program find their program in jeopardy of disbandment after Carol is accused on an account of insubordination.

            Deadpool: Wade Wilson/Deadpool’s team the Mercs for Hire turn against him.

            Guardians of the Galaxy: The Guardians of the Galaxy are called by Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel to aid her in the super human Civil War.

            Iron Man: Tony Stark/Iron Man fakes his death and upon return finds himself in danger of being removed from his own company, while Riri Williams is able to obtain part of the Iron Man armor and reverse-engineers it.

            Mockingbird: Bobbi Moorse/Mockingbird goes on a cruise that goes horribly wrong.

            Ms. Marvel: Kamala Kahn/Ms. Marvel finds herself disagreeing with the stance her idol Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel has taken in the Civil War.

            New Avengers: Roberto Da Costa/Sunspot and Avengers Ideas Mechanics find themselves under assault from S.H.I.E.L.D.

            Nova: Sam Alexander/Nova returns to space after finding out his father may be alive and in captivity.

            Patsy Walker, Hellcat (pardon my language): Patsy Walker/Hellcat finds that her best friend Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk is fighting for her life after being knocked into a coma after a battle against Thanos.

            Power Man & Iron Fist: Luke Cage/Power Man plans a jail break after his best friend Danny Rand/Iron Fist is arrested for assaulting a police officer.

            Rocket Raccoon & Groot: Rocket Raccoon and Groot attempt to make a score as bounty hunters but find Gwen Poole/Gwenpool is after the same score.

            Scarlet Witch: Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and her brother Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver find themselves on opposite sides of the Civil War.

            Spider-Man 2099: Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man travels through time and finds himself in two different Civil Wars.

            Spider-Man, Miles Morales: Ulysses predicts that Miles Morales/Spider-Man will murder Steve Rogers/Captain America on the steps of Capitol Hill.

            Spider-Woman: Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman finds herself against her best friend Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel after not agreeing with Carol’s predictive justice.

            Squadron Supreme: A member of the Squadron Supreme is replaced by a villainous version of herself from an alternate reality and attempts to resurrect their foe Namor/Sub-Mariner.

            Totally Awesome Hulk: Amadeus Cho/Hulk attempts to reconcile himself with the murder of Bruce Banner/Hulk by Clint Barton/Hawkeye.

            Thunderbolts: After Ulysses’ prediction of Miles Morales/Spider-Man murdering Steve Rogers/Captain America, James “Bucky” Barnes/Winter Soldier targets Miles to prevent the murder.

            Ultimates: The Ultimates attempt to contain Thanos in a prison cell in their base the Triskelion but fail.

            Uncanny Avengers: The Avengers Unity Squad is disbanded after the mutants attempt to find a cure for the M-Pox, a mutant disease caused by the release of the Inhumans’ Terrigen Mists.

            Uncanny Inhumans: After Ulysses is abducted by Tony Stark/Iron Man, Queen Medusa and the Inhumans of New Attilan destabilize Tony’s holdings but are accused of destroying Stark facilities by rogue Inhumans, claiming to be doing it in the name of Queen Medusa.

            Venom: Space Knight: Eugene “Flash” Thompson/Venom returns to earth and must convince Spider-Man that they are not the same villainous Eddie Brock/Venom that he has battled in the past.

            Conclusion: Following the Civil War, a new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is chosen.

            All-in-all, I have to say I mostly enjoyed the event. However, there were points that I feel could have been done without, namely Ant-Man. And there were also several side stories that I felt had absolutely nothing to do with the event, such as Gods of War, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., All-New Wolverine, Deadpool, Mockingbird, Nova, and Venom: Space Knight. Despite that, most of those stories were relatively enjoyable to be. I happened to dislike Patsy Walker, Hellcat, Power Man & Iron Fist, Squadron Supreme, Thunderbolts, and Ultimates, but I did love the Amazing Spider-Man, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Spider-Man, Miles Morales stories. Could it have been better? Yes. But it could have been a lot worse if you look at some of my other negative reviews.

            So, now I’ll give it a numeric score. I go on a one to ten scale, one being the worst, ten being the best. By taking everything into account, I score this at a six.

            The big question is if I recommend it. I wouldn’t not recommend it, but it is highly inaccessible if you plan to read the whole thing as I did. Pretty much every Marvel super hero at the time had a tie-in to it, so if you are not fully acclimated with Marvel, these new characters are unknown, such as Squadron Supreme (an obvious and blatant garbage rip-off of D.C.’s Justice League) and the Thunderbolts. There were many well-known characters from the Marvel movies and series, so if you know these characters, I’d suggest you read only those, because there were a lot of B- and C-List characters that most casual Marvel fans would not know. So if you live and breathe Marvel like I do, you might want to give it a look, but for those fans who only know the movies and series, I totally say do not read it. I’m also a very harsh judge, so you might want to table this review, read this, and see if you agree with me, I leave every review I ever write up to you. We have different tastes, I respect that, so everything in this review is my opinion and my opinion only, I let you feel if you agree or disagree with me, I can’t force you to like or dislike what I like and dislike.

            So I do believe that this is it for now (after writing for two-and-a-half hours), but I will leave you with four things. First, I write lots of reviews, mostly Marvel, but I do write short stories, poetry, essays and editorials. Second, I post very frequently, so finding new content on this blog is sure to happen. Third, if you liked this review, I’m about to write a comparison piece to “Civil War” and “Civil War II,” it’ll be up in a few hours. And four, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Iron Man: Extremis" by Marie Javins

            This is a review for the “Iron Man: Extremis” prose novel by Marie Javins and not the graphic novel of the same name.

            Maya Hansen and Aldrich Killian created a new serum called Extremis, designed to evolve the recipient with enhanced strength, speed, senses, and even superhuman abilities. A dose goes to a homegrown would be terrorist named Mallen. Mallen is not pleased with the way America is currently run and wishes to make a drastic change. Mallen takes fault in the death of his family by the FBI and his bitterness spurs him on to take down a corrupt government. Upon seeing just what his work has done, Killian commits suicide, prompting Maya to call upon her old connection, Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man to investigate the situation. Tony had been spending weeks at Stark Enterprises’ facility on Coney Island as a shut in while trying to assess his life,

After visiting Sal, an eccentric scientist, Maya and Tony consider the evolution concept. As Mallen discovers just how powerful he is, he attacks FBI headquarters in Texas, killing dozens of innocent civilians.

Tony takes it upon himself to stop Mallen, who now has Maya’s life’s work running through his veins. Upon confrontation, Mallen’s new abilities prove more than a match for Iron Man. Gravely injured, Tony returns to Maya for an upgrade. Tony now wishes to take a dose of Extremis to evolve into an Iron Man who is strong enough to defeat Mallen.

As a reviewer, on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the worst, 10 being the best, I rate this novel at a 7. The story was gripping and exciting, never having a dull moment. It was obvious that Iron Man will be able to defeat Mallen by the climax of the novel, which brings me to feel slightly disappointed. Upon their first confrontation, Mallen proves beyond powerful, too powerful even, and the final altercation between Iron Man and Mallen did not please me. Tony also developed a new dose of Extremis to expand his connection to both the Iron Man armor and his control over technology in general. I did not feel that both Mallen’s and Tony’s new abilities, particularly Tony’s, were ever properly explored satisfactorily. That said, the reveal of Mallen’s source did surprise me and make me wonder how I could not have seen it all along. The epilogue to the novel gave it a nice touch, adding a bow to the wrapping.

As far as accessibility goes, I found this very easy for a casual reader to understand. The history was covered cut and dry, so non-Iron Man fans could easily digest this novel. I think if you know little or nothing about Iron Man, watching the 2008 “Iron Man” film is literally all you need to have a masterful grasp on the plot and history of Tony Stark/Iron Man prior to the point of the beginning to the story.

As far as the difficulty level of reading the book, it is a very easy read. The chapters are relatively short, and the book is only a meagre 266 pages, so diligent readers will be able to quickly digest this novel.

As for my recommendation to readers, I give it a reference. If you want to read a sci-fi novel, particularly geared towards super heroes, I think there is a chance this is a book for you.