"New Avengers: Secret Invasion"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “New Avengers: Secret Invasion” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format. It is NOT a review of the Disney+ series “Secret Invasion.”

            The Illuminati is a secret organization comprised of several of the world’s most powerful heroes: Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange; Black Bolt, king of the Inhumans; Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men; Reed Richards, founding member of the Fantastic Four; Namor, the Sub-Mariner, ruler of Atlantis; and Iron Man, founding member of the Avenger. These six men worked together to shape the superhuman world. To keep the trust between the group members, the Illuminati’s existence had been kept secret from everyone, including the members’ teammates and families. Years ago, after the Kree-Skrull War, the group traveled to the Skrull homeworld to let the Skrulls know that Earth would not tolerate any more attempts at Skrull invasion. Things did not go well.

            Years ago, on Skrull World Satriani, Skrull King Dorrek had Princess Veranke exiled for preaching the Skrull prophecy that a devourer of worlds would destroy the Skrull Homeworld and that the Skrulls would find a new homeworld on a blue world. Dorrek had his scientists working on clones of Earth’s heroes based on the samples they were able to acquire when they held the Illuminati prisoner. Years after Veranke’s exile, Galactus, devourer of worlds, did indeed come and consume the Skrull Throneworld. Years after that, Veranke was found and brought out of exile and coronated as Queen. The Skrulls believed in the ancient prophecy Veranke believe, and the Skrulls believed the blue world they were promised was Earth, and so the Skrulls planned an invasion of Earth using Super-Skrulls. Over the years, Skrull technology had grown so advanced that the Skrulls were able to create Super-Skrulls so perfect a Super-Skrull could copy a person’s powers and have if the Super-Skrull remained in the form of the person that the Super-Skrull was copying, the Super-Skrull would be completely undetectable, and anyone would believe the Super-Skrull was indeed the person the Super-Skrull was impersonating. Queen Veranke did not wish to just order the invasion of Earth; she wished to be part of it. And the person she chose to impersonate in the invasion of Earth was Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, once an agent of Hydra, once an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. And now an Avenger.

            As far as the Avengers knew, Jessica had lost her powers, and Hydra had offered to get them back for her if she would act as a double agent. She went directly to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury and told him the truth, but Rury surprised Jessica by telling her to take the deal. She was working in secret with Fury until he quit S.H.I.E.L.D. and went underground. Since then, she had been a double agent, reporting only to Fury, but Fury was no longer in charge. As far as the Avengers knew, every day had been a death-defying double cross for Jessica. And then Captain America made her an Avenger, putting her in even more danger. Putting her in a horrible position. The Avengers agreed to work with her and Fury to find out who was behind all the mysterious goings-on. But what really happened was when Jessica accepted to undergo Hydra’s operation that would restore her spider powers, the Hydra agents performing the operation were actually Skrulls. The Skrulls abducted Jessica, and Veranke took Jessica’s place. Veranke planned to destabilize S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, eliminate the mutants, and turn the superheroes against each other. Veranke had Jessica placed at the Raft, and Veranke was at the Raft the night of the breakout which brought about the formation of the New Avengers. She had also had former Avenger Hank Pym/Yellowjacket replaced with a Skrull agent. Veranke told Viper/Madame Hydra that now that Spider-Woman was an Avenger, Spider-Woman deserved a better payment than before for now being a triple agent. Fury’s replacement as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Maria Hill informed Spider-Woman/Veranke that Hill was not happy that there was a New Avengers and that Hill would be keeping an eye on the newly formed team. The Yellowjacket Skrull informed Veranke of a joint Avengers/X-Men operation on Genosha to confront Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, who had lost control of Scarlet Witch’s reality altering powers and had been the reason for the disbanding of the original Avengers. Both Skrull agents were in attendance of this operation.

            Then the world burned away to white. Wanda transformed the entire world into a utopia where mutants were the dominant species and most everyone was given their heart’s true desire. Her fathers dream had become a twisted reality – he was lord and master of the ruling class, the House of M. Only Wolverine seemed to remember the world as it was and gathered his fellow heroes to try to bring reality back. When reality was restored, Wanda stripped most of Earth’s mutants of their X-genes. This act, the realization of part of the Skrulls’ plans coming to fruition, coupled with the destruction of the Skrull homeworld, brought Veranke and her agents to believe that Earth would indeed become their new homeworld and their invasion would succeed.

The New Avengers learned that the shape-shifting aliens known as the Skrulls had invaded the Earth. And, since they could not tell who was really a Skrull, they could not trust anyone to be who they seemed to be, including each other. This sent the Avengers into a tailspin of mistrust. Recently, the Avengers stopped the Hood’s newly organized gang of super villains, but the Hood broke his cohorts out of S.H.I.E.L.D. custody and took them right back to the Avengers. The attack at the Sanctum Sanctorum was fierce, and though the Avengers won the day, they did so at the cost of Doctor Strange, who lost both his mastery of the Mystic Arts and his home. Luke Cage’s wife, Jessica Jones, fled the battle in mortal fear for their child’s safety. Jessica found asylum with the registered Mighty Avengers, even though she betrayed her husband’s beliefs by doing so.

            When Parker Robbins/The Hood rescued Whitney Frost/Madame Masque from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, the pair discovered the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents interrogating Madame Masque were Skrulls. The Hood and Madame Masque brought a Skrull agent back to the Hood’s organization’s hideout to interrogate the Skrull. The Skrull revealed that the Skrulls had planned to replace Madame Masque and revealed the Skrulls’ plans of the secret invasion to the Hood’s organization before the Skrull passed away from injuries inflicted upon the Skrull by the Hood and Madame Masque. The Hood also realized that one of the members of his organization, the Slug, was actually a Skrull in disguise. The Hood took out the imposter Slug and burned the building and the evidence of the Skrull invasion. During the battle in the Sanctum Sanctorum, the Hood had realized his namesake hood was trying to take possession of him and wanted to learn more about the demon behind the hood. Parker threatened the demon, saying Parker would dispose of the hood if the demon did not reveal itself to Parker. The demon revealed itself to Parker to be Dormammu, ruler of the Dark Dimension.

Luke called Jessica, who informed Luke Jessica was at Avengers Tower, and Jessica had signed the Superhuman Registration Act. Luke went to Avengers Tower to talk to Jessica face-to-face. Jessica told Luke he could see their baby Danielle if Luke registered, and that she didn’t believe the New Avengers’ theory about a Skrull secret invasion. The Mighty Avengers joined the confrontation, and Luke accused them of potentially being Skrulls, which they all both denied and claimed they had no idea what Luke meant by the accusation, save for Spider-Woman, a former member of the New Avengers who switched sides. Spider-Woman told the Mighty Avengers that the Skrull reference was classified S.H.I.E.L.D. information and Director Tony Stark/Iron Man was the one who should explain this to the team. Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel decided to let Luke go. Danny Rand/Iron Fist obtained a new hideout for the New Avengers following the loss of the Sanctum Sanctorum.

            Maya Lopez/Echo had a conversation with James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine. Echo was not completely convinced that there was a Skrull secret invasion occurring. Echo went out on patrol one night and ran into someone whom she believed to be Matt Murdock/Daredevil, but who actually turned out to be a Skrull. The Skrull told Echo it was going to kill Echo and replace Echo in the New Avengers. The Skrull then attacked Echo, but Wolverine had followed Echo and was able to aid Echo in the fight and the two New Avengers were able to force the Skrull to retreat. Echo and Clint Barton/Ronin became romantically entangled.

            A Skrull ship crash-landed in the Savage Land. When both Iron Man’s public Mighty Avengers team and Luke Cage’s underground New Avengers arrived there, Luke opened the door of the ship, only to be met with a gathering of Earth’s heroes from a more innocent time. From out of the pod came Captain America, Spider-Man, Hawkeye and others who declared that they had been held captive by the shape-shifting Skrulls and had only now returned to Earth. The standoff between the Avengers of yesterday and today burst into violence. The battle upset the natural balance of the Savage Land, and a giant Tyrannosaurus rex scattered the fight.

            Peter Parker/Spider-Man found himself face-to-face with Kevin Plunder/Ka-Zar, Shanna the She-Devil, and Zabu. Ka-Zar told Spider-Man that Skrulls had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and were mining the Savage Land’s resource, Vibranium. The New Avengers had stumbled onto the operation on their first mission, and the Skrulls had tried to kill the New Avengers. Spider-Man didn’t believe Ka-Zar’s story, or that Ka-Zar was a human. Suddenly, Spider-Man, Ka-Zar and Shanna were attacked by Steve Rogers/Captain America. Ka-Zar’s allies were able to shoot Captain America with a dart, which revealed that this was not really Captain America, but a Skrull in disguise. Shanna then tested to prove if Spider-Man was the genuine article, and Spider-Man passed the test as human.

            All looked lost, but the Skrulls’ plans quickly unraveled when the mighty Thor summoned both the humans and Skrulls to a battle on the fields of Central Park: for the first time in years, the original Avengers were united, and Nick Fury was back on the battlefield. And for the first time ever, with the help of the super villain kingpin the Hood, heroes and villains fought as one. The turning point came when Norman Osborn, once the villainous Green Goblin and recently the leader of the Thunderbolts, stepped up and made the kill shot that took out the Skrull Queen. The humans prevailed, barely, over the alien army. In the aftermath, the international peacekeeping organization, S.H.I.E.L.D. was dismantled. Its director, Tony Stark, took the fall for the invasion and was ousted from his position while Norman Osborn came out a hard-as-nails media hero and was put in charge of the Initiative and all it encompassed. Secretly, Norman had called a meeting of controversial figures: Namor, the king of Atlantis; X-Men leader Emma Frost; ousted Latverian monarch Doctor Doom; Loki, the God of Mischief; and the Hood.

            Osborn proposed an alliance between himself, Namor, Emma Frost/White Queen, Doctor Victor Von Doom, Loki, and the Hood. They would all get whatever they wanted, their kingdoms and immunity, so long as they publicly endorsed Osborn and agreed to sign up with his Initiative. Secretly, Doctor Doom believed Osborn’s plans as head of the Initiative would fail and Osborn would implode and was just waiting for it to happen.

            During the battle in Central Park, Jessica Jones had left baby Danielle Cage with a Skrull impersonating the Avengers’ butler Edwin Jarvis. Amidst the chaos, the Skrull fled with Danielle. The Mighty and New Avengers and the Fantastic Four united to find baby Danielle. Reed Richards tried to use his Skrull detecting technology to find the Skrull Jarvis, but the tech would not work on the Super-Skrulls. The Avengers found a Skrull impersonating a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, but the Skrull expired before it could give Jessica Jones information on the location of the Jarvis Skrull and Danielle. Luke Cage, in desperation, turned to Norman Osborn for help. Osborn agreed to aid Luke as long as Luke registered. Luke agreed to Osborn’s deal. Osborn, who had taken several Skrulls into custody following the battle in Central Park, had Mac Gargan/Venom assist Osborn in interrogating the Skrulls, and Osborn, Venom, and Luke learned of a Skrull meeting place. Luke went to the Skrull meeting place, and Bullseye aided Luke in insuring the safe return of Danielle. Luke confronted Osborn at Avengers Tower and told Osborn he was breaking the deal. Back at the New Avengers’ hideout in the Bronx, the team witnessed Osborn come out in public as the Iron Patriot and unveiled his new team of Avengers, supervillains disguised as previous heroes from the original and New Avengers teams. Ronin, who had just reunited with his ex-wife Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird, was furious with the Avengers rebrand, and wanted to take the Avengers name back from Osborn and his Avengers lineup. Spider-Woman went to Avengers Tower to lead Osborn and his Avengers into a trap set in the abandoned Hellfire Club. However, instead of being attacked by Osborn’s Avengers, the New Avengers were confronted by the Hood and his organization. The New Avengers were barely able to escape the assault. Ronin went public on television speaking against Norman Osborn and Osborn’s Avengers team, vowing that the New Avengers would take Osborn down.

            Dormammu planned to have the Hood find and eliminated Doctor Strange, and Dormammu told the Hood that the Hood was meant to be the next Sorcerer Supreme. Simon Willaims/Wonder Man also went on television and had a public meltdown. Doctor Strange found Billy Kaplan/Wiccan and told Billy that Billy was potentially going to be the new Sorcerer Supreme, but that there was a list of other potential candidates, including Doctor Doom. Doctor Strange would have to bequeath several ancient artifacts to the next Sorcerer Supreme. The New Avengers decided that Ronin would be assuming the role of team leader, and that Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel would be second in command. However, the New Avengers were uneasy with Spider-Man, not knowing his secret identity. Ronin told Spider-Man if Spider-Man didn’t unmask for the team, Spider-Man could no longer be a New Avenger. Reluctantly, Spider-Man unmasked as Peter Parker. Jessica Jones had gone to high school with Peter and revealed that she had been in love with Peter back in ninth and tenth grade. Peter, however, did not remember Jessica Jones at all, which made Jessica angry. The Hood attacked Wiccan and Doctor Strange, and Strange managed to teleport to the New Avengers’ new hideout, Bucky Barnes/Captain America’s apartment in Brookyln. Doctor Strange told the New Avengers he had to find the next Sorcerer Supreme. With the Hood being a potential candidate, the New Avengers decided to go with Doctor Strange on his quest, against Doctor Strange’s wishes. Ms. Marvel and Captain America revealed they had taken an Avengers Quinjet before the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. Doctor Strange used the Eye of Agamotto to search for the next Sorcerer Supreme. The Eye led the New Avengers and Doctor Strange to New Orleans, Louisiana. The Hood and Madame Masque also followed to New Orleans. The Hood attacked Daimon Hellstrom, who might potentially have been the next Sorcerer Supreme. Madame Masque shot the New Avengers’ Quinjet out of the sky. Dormammu took control of the Hood. The Eye of Agamotto went to Jericho Drumm/Brother Voodoo, who became the next Sorcerer Supreme. The New Avengers and Brother Voodoo fought Dormammu to save Hellstrom and end the threat of the Hood once and for all. Norman Osborn went on television to discredit Ronin. Ronin decided the only solution now was to end Norman Osborn’s life.

            Okay, that plot synopsis was rather lengthy. Let’s move on to my own individual input for this review. For those of you who have never read a Tim Cubbin review, I’ll begin by telling you my segments following the plot analysis starts with my own personal opinions about the graphic novel. So, we’ll start with the basics, kicking off with what did I think of this book. I found this book to be relatively enjoyable for what it was. The big problem with this book is that while it is called “New Avengers: Secret Invasion,” it doesn’t actually contain any of the main issues of the “Secret Invasion” limited series, instead just collecting issues of “New Avengers” and the “Secret Invasion: Dark Reign” one-shot that came out around the time of the release of the “Secret Invasion” event. I will say there were a lot of expository pages explaining the story going on around the time of the event, which were enough to suffice reading through this book. I enjoyed the drama throughout the book, with the strain on Luke Cage and Jessica Jones’ marriage and watching them try to save their relationship was a key point throughout the book. I particularly liked how she revealed she had a crush on Peter Parker back in high school, with Peter barely remembering her as “Coma Girl.” This was, of course, following Spider-Man’s “One More Day” storyline where everyone forgot Peter Parker was Spider-Man, including the New Avengers. I enjoyed the backstory of how Luke first fell in love with Jessica. The “Secret Invasion” story arcs themselves were interesting to me, despite being presented out of order. When I did this review, I arranged the storyline chronologically, so the order of the story in this review is not actually the order the story was contained in in the book itself. Because of the disjointedness of the main storyline and the fact that the whole story of “Secret Invasion” is not actually in this book, this was a little difficult to piece together. I have read the whole “Secret Invasion” event many years ago and I hate to say it, but I really don’t remember it all that well. I feel like the purpose of this series was to give background information on the “Secret Invasion” event as a lot of the stories of the event were about the history behind the invasion, with a little bit of new stories to further the New Avengers’ storyline. I also enjoyed the conflicts with Norman Osborn, and his duplicity of sending the Hood’s army after the New Avengers instead of his Dark Avengers. The Sorcerer Supreme storyline was also entertaining, and I enjoyed the battle with Dormammu and Daimon Hellstrom. Next, we have to talk about the art. The artwork in this book was a mixed bag of opinion for me. While I enjoyed the work of Jim Cheung and Billy Tan, and the stylings of Chris Bachalo, I can’t say I’m a fan of Michael Gaydos, David Mack, or Alex Maleev. Some of these artists have come up on this blog before, so some of my regular readers already know how I feel about these artists. However, a majority of this book was on the enjoyable side, so there was more artwork that I liked compared to artwork that I disliked, so that’s a plus at least. Next up, we’re going to discuss my opinion about the title. I’ll simply just say calling this book “Secret Invasion” was a perfect title for this book as that is what the majority of this book is comprised of and I honestly don’t think any other title would suffice to fit this book. The final component I’m going to voice my opinion on here is going to be the cover. The cover depicts a group of Skrull Avengers battling the founding members of the Avengers. I will say that I thought this was a horrible cover for this book. The battle shown does not actually happen in this book and I feel like it was wrong to use to represent this particular book, and I don’t even know why it was used as a cover for an individual issue when the event portrayed on the cover never actually occurred within the pages. However, overall, I had a relatively positive opinion about this graphic novel.

            Okay, now that I’ve gone on for quite some time, let’s move on to my next individual segment, which is discussing accessibility. In this segment I answer the question of is this book accessible. I’ve been over this word over seven dozen times now in so many of my reviews, but I know that every time I do a review, I have readers who have never been to this blog before, so I have to explain myself in using this word once again. So when I ask if this book is accessible, I mean, can a person who knows nothing about the Avengers, Secret Invasion, or Marvel obtain this book by whatever means they use to get their hands on it, and then read the main story of this book, can they understand the story as written based solely on just what is contained within the pages of this book. I will say that answer is a resounding no. As I said before, this book doesn’t actually collect the “Secret Invasion” limited series, and it has stories that tie in to “Dark Reign” as well, so that’s two events in one book that are touched on but the main storyline is not actually included. And this book is Vol. 4, and it continues directly from where Vol. 3 left off, so not having been a regular follower of the “New Avengers” series is highly detrimental to following this volume. If you’re a person who has never read a Marvel Comic book before, you will not be able to properly follow these stories as they are presented in this volume without experiencing some areas of difficulty. An odd side note on accessibility is even if you have followed “New Avengers” from the beginning, you will find a spot of confusion if you did not follow the Spider-Man comics from around the time, as when Spider-Man joined the New Avengers, the team knew his secret identity, but following “One More Day,” Spider-Man’s secret identity was wiped from everyone’s minds, including the New Avengers, so not knowing that storyline will leave a reader scratching their head, thinking why do the New Avengers not know Peter Parker is Spider-Man now when they knew his identity from the start of the series. All around, I would say this book has very low accessibility to new readers and if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and are looking for a place to start, I would tell you that I highly do not think that this book is the right one for you to begin with.

            So, now we’re going to move on to one of the core elements of my review: the numeric score. I would love to say it’s the reason we’re all here, but the fact of the matter is that every segment in my reviews is the most important to some people and everyone has a different favorite segment to read when they come to my reviews and a different reason to keep coming back if they are a regular reader. But the numeric score is one of the key sections of my reviews and is one of my most crucial segments. So, I will start off by explaining my scoring system. It’s actually extremely simple. I score on a scale of whole numbers ranging from one through ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and if you want to be really dramatic and extra, that means that this book was so awful that every remaining copy not sold should be rounded up off the shelves and out of the warehouses and put through the worlds biggest shredder and be completely destroyed, then Marvel should go find all the original prints for these issues and wipe them clean so this abomination can never be reprinted again and can be extinguished from living memory except in the hands of true collectors who for some reason don’t want to give them up and I shall dub them as weirdos. On the other hand, ten is the highest score I can give, and that’s a sign of sheer perfection, and I will do everything I can to promote this book until I can get all my comic book reading friends to read this book too so we can have discussions about it for hours, and if they don’t like this book, I won’t be able to understand why but I will give a good argument on why I think this is one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. When I review a graphic novel, I am considering four main factors: story, art, title, and cover. In order to get a ten, a graphic novel needs to have an exciting and engaging story that I enjoy from beginning to end and can find nothing to complain about, consistently visually pleasing artwork that looking at enhances the already excellent story, a title that accurately represents the majority of the story contained in the book, and a cover that perfectly depicts the majority of the content contained inside and what is shown on the front of this volume is actually delivered within the pages of this book. So, when considering this particular volume, we have a story that was enjoyable but was incomplete, artwork that for the majority was enjoyable, a title that was a perfect representation of the book, and a cover that failed to deliver on what it promised. So, when all the factors are put together and thoroughly assessed, the score I have to give this book is… a seven! Overall, for what it was, I found it to be relatively enjoyable, but this book is a companion volume for “Secret Invasion” and should not be considered as the only book in your collection if you want to read the “Secret Invasion” event.

            Next up on our list of topics is our recommendation segment. In this segment, I answer two separate questions. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this graphic novel to you, my readers, or to anyone else unfortunate enough to get caught up in a conversation with me about this graphic novel? The second question I answer is, regardless of if I would actually personally tell anyone directly to read it or not based on my preferences, whom do I think would be the kind of person who would find this graphic novel most enjoyable, and I don’t mean fans of Marvel, the Avengers, Secret Invasion, Brian Michael Bendis, or any of the artists, I mean the characteristics that a person likes that would get a high level of entertainment out of this book? To answer my first question, in general, I would recommend this book to people who want to read it, but the caveat is that this book requires outside knowledge, so I wouldn’t recommend this book to people who have no experience with Marvel Comics, but if you really want to read it now, based solely on the words I’ve just spent the past six hours typing, I’d tell you to go for it, just go to your favorite online retailer, preferred bookstore, favorite comic shop, local library, or hit up your friends who have this book and read it. If you do read this book, please feel free to let me know what you think. Leave a comment on this blog itself, or on Facebook, Threads, or X, I would love to hear your opinion. Everything I post on this blog is my own personal opinion, I don’t expect everyone to agree with my opinions and I respect the beauty that every human has a right to feel how they do, so if you agree or disagree, I’d love to know. I don’t usually get comments, so I’d really appreciate it if you’d drop a few words for me. Anyway, as for the audience I feel most inclined to enjoy this book, I’d say it would be people who enjoy stories about alien invasions, stories about deception among friends, stories about magic, and stories where the roles of friends and enemies are blurred.

            Okay, I’d say we’re at the point where we’re close to wrapping up. I do have a few things I’d like to say before I click publish. First off, I have been doing this blog for over five and a half years. I’ve posted on this blog 190 times already. In addition to having done over seven dozen reviews, I’ve also written short stories, poems, articles, essays, and editorials. My reviews extend beyond just graphic novels, I’ve reviewed prose novels, entire comic book events, and manga as well. I will say I post on a very frequent basis. I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after its release and post a review on this page as early as I can after reading it, so you can figure I post a lot. If you enjoyed this post, feel free to check out my reviews “New Avengers: Assembled” “New Avengers: Civil War” and “New Avengers: The Initiative” for more New Avengers content. My next post is going to be “Annihilation: Conquest Prologue” you can expect to see that within the next two months after the posting of this review. Keep checking back for it if you’re interested. I guess that’s really all I have to say for now, so I’ll just leave you with the words, Tim Cubbin… out!

"New Avengers: The Initiative"

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"New Avengers: Civil War"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

"New Avengers: Assembled"

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"New Avengers: Breakout" by Alisa Kwitney

            This review is of the prose novel “New Avengers: Breakout” by Alisa Kwitney, not the graphic novel.

            The book starts off as Natasha Romanova/Black Widow invades the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, catching the attention of Agents Clint Barton/Hawkeye and Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman. Upon her capture, Commander Maria Hill and current head of S.H.I.E.L.D. tasks the agents to bring Natasha to the maximum maximum security prison for super villains or other prisoners who can’t be contained in a regular prison, the Raft, off of Ryker’s Island in New York City. Hill gives Clint the nuclear option of hitting the kill on Natasha should she try any resistance. Clint and Jessica meet with S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison Luke Cage, a man with unbreakable skin and super strength, as Jessica’s powers are currently inactive. As they attempt to bring Natasha to her cell, super villain Max Dillon/Electro stages a breakout. Steve Rogers/Captain America, Tony Stark/Iron Man, and Peter Parker/Spider-Man all head to the Raft in an attempt to contain the prisoners. The heroes all fight together, but forty-two super villains and Natasha are able to escape.

            Commander Hill demotes Clint and Jessica, Jessica secretly discovering her powers are not as inactive as she had been made to be believed. Steve is reminded of the assemblage of the original Avengers, the original team having disbanded following Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch’s breakdown, and decides a new team is needed. Commander Hill is not happy with this and does not recognize the New Avengers’ status as a superhero team, but Steve defies her wishes.

            The New Avengers assess the damage caused by the Raft breakout and get a lead on the true mastermind behind the breakout, the super villain Karl Lykos/Sauron, now in the surprisingly tropical region in Antarctica the Savage Land, populated by Mutates (artificial mutants) and dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. The team heads to the Savage Land and meets opposition and a few surprises S.H.I.E.L.D. has been attempting to keep secret.

            As far as the novel goes, I rate this as a 6/10. Having read the graphic novel, I had slight disappointment with the adaptation. The rewrite of history of Clint as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and having erased any story with Natasha was an interesting choice, but still I felt it detracted from my enjoyment, having been a fan of the graphic novel, which had no inclusion of Clint and Natasha, and lacked the inclusion of Logan/Wolverine, who was a surprise but welcome addition. During the breakout scene, I felt that some of the villains, such as my favorite super villain Carnage, were perhaps defeated too easily. Some of the story in the Savage Land, to me, felt a little drawn out. As far as accessibility to casual readers of the comics or those who have never picked up a comic in their entire life may have difficulties reading this novel. Several of the super villains have never been presented in any other form of medium such as film, and even before this graphic novel, I had no idea there was a Spider-Woman, whose prominent storyline may seem perhaps hard to accept. Luke Cage had his own Netflix series, but his storyline in the novel has no correspondence to the series, so it may seem alien to inexperience readers. Some of the humor was a little dull or lacking. The slightly unrequited love triangle between Clint, Jessica, and Natasha didn’t detract from the story, but it perhaps just didn’t add too much to it. If you are a fan of the graphic novel, I really can’t exactly recommend it directly, but you may want to pick it up. The changes with Clint and Natasha were interesting, but purists may find offense to it. All-in-all, it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t stellar either. It was a good effort, though, and I appreciated it enough, but I still feel that the graphic novel was better, but again, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read the novel, but it was relatively interesting, so I can recommend it to you if you have knowledge of the comics, but if you don’t, this book might not be for you.