"Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Sitting in a Tree"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Sitting in a Tree” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Miles Morales was having difficulty with his dual life as both a student at Brooklyn Visions Academy in New York and as the superhero Spider-Man. He couldn’t keep a date and his grades were slipping. Miles didn’t have a lot of people he could confide in about his secret identity, just his best friend Ganke Lee, his father Jefferson Davis, and a few of his fellow superheroes. Miles’ declining grades were becoming a concern to Miles’ mother, Rio Morales, who was becoming suspicious that something was going on in her son’s life. Blackheart, Prince of the Underworld, came to Earth, intent on laying claim to it. The Avengers all fell in battle with the demon. Miles left school to fight the demon. Miles chased off Blackheart and was left standing alone over the defeated Avengers. Peter Parker/the Amazing Spider-Man found the scene and misread the situation. Peter expressed he wished to rethink giving Miles Peter’s blessing for Miles to go by the name “Spider-Man.” Blackheart returned and knocked Peter unconscious. Miles then fought and defeated Blackheart singlehandedly. The revived Avengers kept the cops from apprehending Miles, and Peter gave Miles Peter’s renewed blessing for Miles to be Spider-Man. Miles went to his parents’ house to find that Rio had called Miles’ grandmother Gloria to straighten Miles out. Gloria confiscated Miles’ phone, saying Miles could have it back when Miles earned it. Miles’ friend and fellow teenage superhero Lane Baumgartner/Bombshell came to visit Miles, but Gloria turned her away, convinced her presence there involved illegal substances. Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, concerned that Miles missed a meeting with their superhero team the Champions, came to visit Miles, and was almost caught by Gloria. Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, looking the secure her place as a leading crime boss, formed an alliance with fellow New York crime boss Hammerhead to go eliminate the new Spider-Man. Brooklyn Visions Academy welcomed a new student, former X-Men trainee Fabio Medina/Goldballs. Ganke was a huge fan of Goldballs, and Ganke told Fabio that Miles was Spider-Man, hoping to build a bridge between Miles and Fabio. This angered Miles, and Miles left to go web-swinging. Ganke invited Fabio to room with Miles and Ganke, and Fabio accepted. Black Cat and Hammerhead sent missiles after Miles and shot Miles down, then kidnapped Miles. Gloria, determined to find out Miles’ secret, hired private investigator Jessica Jones to investigate Gloria’s grandson. Black Cat and Hammerhead tried to learn Miles’ secret identity by scanning his fingerprints but were unable to due to S.H.I.E.L.D. placing a restriction on Miles’ personal information in case anyone was to ever try to identify Miles in exactly such a way. Miles broke loose from being tied up and took down and webbed up Hammerhead and left Hammerhead for the police, but Black Cat escaped. S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill talked Jefferson into returning to his position as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

            Tony Stark/Iron Man called Miles to talk to him about Ulysses, a newly emerged Inhuman with the ability to allow people to view a potential future. Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel wanted to use Ulysses’ power to take action to prevent crimes from happening, which Tony viewed as profiling, something that Miles sympathized with. Rio went to Jessica Jones, feeling that Gloria had gone too far by hiring a private investigator to follow Miles, and offered to pay Jessica to give up the investigation, but Jessica refused, saying she would only give up the investigation if Gloria called it off. Ulysses showed a vision of Bruce Banner/Hulk losing control and killing all the superheroes. Jessica Jones and her husband Luke Cage came to Miles to tell Miles that Jessica had figured out Miles was Spider-Man, but as a profession courtesy would not tell Gloria, but did tell Miles that Miles needed to be more careful with guarding Miles’ secret identity because Jessica had a very easy time figuring it out, and if Jessica could find out this easily, the wrong person could do so as well. Miles was called to the Triskelion with a gathering of superheroes by Captain Marvel to confront Bruce Banner. On the mission, Clint Barton/Hawkeye put Banner down. Ulysses had a vision of Miles killing Steve Rogers/Captain America on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Intent on proving this vision would not come to pass, Miles hopped a train to Washington, D.C. Miles’ teammates in the Champions Ms. Marvel and Sam Alexander/Nova came to Miles’ parents’ apartment looking for Miles and ran into Jefferson. Ms. Marvel and Nova informed Jefferson that Miles was missing. Goldballs went to Bombshell, concerned about Miles, but Bombshell told Goldballs that Bombshell was not worried about Miles. Ganke went to Spider-Man obsessed social media poster Danika Hart to inform Danika that Spider-Man was missing, hoping Danika’s influence could help locate Spider-Man. Jefferson went to Maria Hill to ask Hill about Miles’ location, worried that Hill may have already arrested Miles, but Hill informed Jefferson that Hill did not know where Miles was. After the climax of the second superhuman Civil War, Miles returned to Brooklyn Visions Academy and relayed the events of the final confrontation to Ganke, Fabio and Ms. Marvel.

            Hill called Jefferson in for a simulated S.H.I.E.L.D. test to see if Jefferson had the resolve to go back in the field. Jefferson passed, and Hill sent Jefferson on a real mission. Rio, concerned when Jefferson did not return home, called Miles to share her fears.

            Hill contacted Miles to tell Miles that Jefferson had been sent on an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. operation to obtain a piece of tech that allowed travel between dimensions but was now missing in another dimension. Hill told Miles that Hill needed Miles to rescue Jefferson because the mission Hill had sent Jefferson on was unsanctioned and Hill could not send any S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives because of this fact. Hill gave Miles a dimensional transporter that would get Miles to the dimension that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s science division last tracked Jefferson’s location to. Miles traveled to that dimension and ran into that dimension’s version of the supervillain the Ringer. Miles defeated the ringer and ran into that universe’s Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman, whom he had previously met in another interdimensional crisis. Miles told Gwen his situation. Miles and Gwen were confronted by Matt Murdock/Kingpin and the Hand. Murdock had been supplying Gwen with the serum that gave Gwen spider powers, courtesy of the evil organization S.I.L.K. Murdock told Miles and Gwen that Jefferson was causing problems for S.I.L.K., which also caused problems for Murdock and gave Gwen a VIP pass to Club Scorpion where Jefferson was known to be, instructing Miles and Gwen to bring Jefferson to Murdock. Gwen went to Club Scorpion, where an auction for the tech that former head of S.I.L.K. Cindy Moon had stolen when she traveled to another dimension. Gwen was recognized at the auction and was attacked. Miles came to Gwen’s rescue, and ran into this dimension’s version of Jefferson Davis, who was the crime boss called Scorpion. Miles called Scorpion “dad,” but Scorpion did not acknowledge Miles as Scorpion’s son and attacked Miles. Miles and Gwen defeated Scorpion and webbed Scorpion up. The police arrived and arrested Scorpion. Miles tried to go back for his father, but Gwen webbed Miles up. The cops came after Miles and Gwen, and Gwen activated Miles’ dimensional teleporter to travel to another dimension to escape the cops, then return back to Gwen’s dimension in a safe location. Miles got a signal of his dimensional transporter to return to origin point, so Miles and Gwen traveled back to Miles’ universe. Peter Parker had already webbed up a group of S.I.L.K. agents who had been attempting to steal batteries for Scorpion. Miles and Gwen came across the S.I.L.K. agents, who suddenly teleported away. Scorpion was trying to make his own teleportation technology and used it to help his agents escape and needed the batteries for Scorpion’s device. Scorpion was enraged his agents failed to obtain the batteries and sent another group to steal batteries. Miles gave his dimensional teleporter to Gwen and followed the S.I.L.K. agents through their portal, telling Gwen to follow Miles using Miles’ teleporter. Miles fought Scorpion until Gwen arrived, and Miles and Gwen were sucked through a portal. Miles and Gwen traveled through several more universes together, until they were separated. Miles arrived in Gwen’s universe, where he found his father. Gwen arrived in a universe where Gwen and Miles had been married for twenty years and had two children, Max and Charlotte, who were being babysat by Peter Porker/Spider-Ham while Miles and Gwen were celebrating their anniversary by going on a second honeymoon. Gwen had to return to her universe to have the ultimate team-up to stop Scorpion, save the multiverse, and help Miles rescue Jefferson. Miles and Gwen then had to decide where they wanted to take their relationship, seeing that there was a potential future for Miles and Gwen as a couple.

            Okay, we have the plot synopsis out of the way, let’s get on with my own individual bits of this review. We’re going to start with, as we always do, my personal opinions about this graphic novel. First off, let’s talk about the stories. I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories in this book. As many of my regular readers know, I am a huge fan of the work of Brian Michael Bendis, and I feel like he was once again on the ball with writing these stories. I also enjoyed Jason Latour’s work in the Spider-Man/Spider-Gwen crossover. I will address some of my highlights from this collection. I loved Gloria, the nightmare grandmother. I actually thought she was the greatest villain in the whole book. Gloria’s extreme tough love that went too far could have been a true threat, and I like the resolve of how Jessica Jones extended Miles the professional courtesy of not ratting him out. I liked the addition of Goldballs to the cast. Ganke wanting to unite his two heroes by outing Miles was not well thought out, but it did give Miles a new confidante, so it balanced out in the end. Black Cat is one of my favorite Spider-Man costars, and her first meeting with Miles was entertaining. I enjoyed the “Civil War II” storyline with Miles trying to disprove Ulysses’ power. I loved that Miles’ father was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. And I loved the titular “Sitting in a Tree” story arc Spider-Man/Spider-Gwen crossover. Some of my longtime readers may recall seeing this story reviewed in “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Weapon of Choice” a couple of years back, although admittedly I didn’t go into as much detail back then, and also back then I wasn’t as big a fan of it, possibly due to not having the same context then as I do now, because two years ago, I had not read the Spider-Man issues leading up to this storyline, so I didn’t have the same details then as I do now, so now that I know both sides of the story, I think I appreciate it better. Oftentimes when I revisit stories after a great length of time, I find my opinions on them change, and it’s been over two years since the release of “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Weapon of Choice” and almost a year since the last time I visited this story, so that’s plenty of time for opinions to vary. Next up to discuss my opinions on is the artwork. I will say I enjoyed the majority of the artwork in this collection. My dislike comes from the three “Spider-Gwen” issues illustrated by Robbi Rodriguez. For the rest of the book, the artwork was adequate. It wasn’t the best artwork I’ve ever seen in a comic book, but it wasn’t visually off-putting and was still tolerable to the eyes. Next, I have to talk about my opinion on the title. Yes, for those of you who have never read one of my reviews before. I critique the title and cover and how appropriate it is for the collection. There were really only two obvious choices, “Civil War II” or “Sitting in a Tree,” and “Sitting in a Tree” was the only storyline in this entire volume given a title, so it seemed like the only real option. This storyline also took up six issues, which was over a third of the book. Given these facts, I won’t dispute “Sitting in a Tree” as an adequate title for this collection. However, I do find fault with the cover. The cover features Miles Morales/Spider-Man in the foreground, with an assortment of other superheroes in the background, including Iron Man, Captain Marvel, both Captains America, Thor, Ms. Marvel, Quicksilver, Deadpool, Medusa, and Spider-Woman. While most of these characters don’t play a significant role in the stories, some don’t even grace these pages at all. Therefore, I do not feel this cover delivers on what it depicts and cannot say it was a good choice for this collection. That said, I have more of a positive opinion of this book.

            Our next topic of discussion is accessibility. Some of you newbs who have never read one of my reviews before may be wondering what exactly do I mean by the word “accessibility?” I’ve explained this to my readers over seven dozen times by this point, but I shall do it once again because of said newbs who don’t know what I mean by my usage of the word “accessibility” in application to a graphic novel. Simply put, accessibility is how easy it is for someone who knows nothing about the source material (Miles Morales, Spider-Man, and Marvel in general) to obtain this book, read the book from cover to cover, and comprehend everything they have just consumed. This book is not easily accessible. There are a few things about this book that cause this. This volume is marketed as Vol. 4, but it is the first volume to take place in the 616 Marvel Universe, whereas the previous three volumes took place in the 1610 Ultimate Universe. However, this book ties in to “Civil War II,” a major event at the time, and has issues from a crossover with “Spider-Gwen,” a whole separate ongoing series. These require extensive outside knowledge of Marvel Comics outside what is just contained within these pages to understand the event, and the crossover expects knowledge of Spider-Gwen’s stories as well as Miles,’ which makes this book highly inaccessible. If you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and are looking for a place to start, I would very much not recommend this volume as your first introduction into the Marvel Comics universe.

            It’s about time we moved on to one of the most essential segments of a Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. I know this is not the only reason people come to read my reviews, but it is a very important part of my reviews to feature as it illustrates exactly how good I think what I am reviewing is. I’ll start off by explaining the system I use when I score media. It’s a fairly simple scale, exact whole numbers ranging from one through ten. One is my lowest score, and that means that this book is one of the worst things I have ever read and that this book deserves to be removed from circulation and never reprinted so no one else can purchase this atrocity and suffer the way I suffered by spending the money I did purchasing and reading this book. Ten, on the other hand, is my highest score, and that means that this is one of the best things I’ve ever read and if it’s not a comic bestseller, I will never understand that. I only give a book a ten if I feel like it is absolutely perfect. I can find no flaws in the story, no complaints in the art, and the title and cover fit the book adequately. So, when we take all my opinions about this book into consideration, the score I am going to give this book is… an eight! While I loved the story, there were a few issues where the artwork was not visually pleasing, and the cover just did not deliver on the prospect of what it depicted actually happening inside the pages of this book. Still, I genuinely found reading this book to be an enjoyable experience.

            Moving on, the next segment is the recommendation segment. This segment focuses on two major points, answering two key questions. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers? The second question is, regardless of if I would recommend this book to you or not, who is the best audience, and this goes beyond fans of Marvel, Miles Morales, Spider-Man, or the creators, I mean what qualities, characteristics, values, interests or types of readers would find this book to be interesting? In answer to the first question, yes, I absolutely recommend this book. If you’re reading this review and now, based solely on the words you’ve spent the past few minutes reading, you want to read this book, I would now tell you to hop onto your favorite online retailer, or head to your local bookstore, comic shop, or library, or try to find a friend or family member with this book, just somehow get your hands on a copy of this book and give it a read. I think if you enjoyed reading my words, you’ll enjoy reading the book even more. As for the best audiences for this book, Miles is African American and Latino, so those demographics can find Miles to be a relatable character. Also, Miles is a teenager, so that’s another demographic that might see themselves in Miles. This book may also be interesting to readers who enjoy spy/espionage stories. This book may be appealing to readers who like stories about interdimensional travel and alternate universes. This book could hold the interest of readers who enjoy stories about prophecies or predicting the future. And this is a book that might appeal to readers who enjoy stories where heroes fight other heroes.

            Okay, we’re nearing the end of this review. There are a bunch of more things I have to say before I hit publish. If you have more time right now, or if you want to come back another time, feel free to keep exploring timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my posts. I am nearing the six-year anniversary of starting this blog. This is also my 200^th post. This blog features several types of content, including short stories, poems, essays, articles, editorials, and over nine dozen reviews. These reviews include prose novels, manga, graphic novels, comic events, and over seven dozen other Epic Collection reviews. The current focus of this blog is to review Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase all of these said graphic novels as soon as I can after they are published and at my earliest availability, I post a review on this blog. Since I do this, I post on a very frequent basis, at least once every two months. If you enjoyed reading this particular review and want more similar content, feel free to search for my posts “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Hero in Training” “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Spider-Man No More” and “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Revivals and Revelations” for more Miles Morales content. As a heads-up, I’m announcing that my next post is going to be “The Ultimates: Gods and Monsters” which you can expect to see within the next three weeks following the posting of this review. I will tell you that I love doing this blog and will keep doing it for as long as I can, so don’t expect this to be done anytime soon. That’s really all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Spider-Girl: Comes the Carnage!"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Spider-Girl: Comes the Carnage!” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            After nearly perishing in a battle with the supervillain Roderick Kingsley/Hobgoblin, young superhero May “Mayday” Parker/Spider-Girl was convinced by her mother Mary Jane Parker to give up the webs and live a normal life. As a result, her grades went up, she had more time with her friends and even found a boyfriend in Eugene “Gene” Thompson, son of Coach Eugene “Flash” Thompson, high school rival-turned friend of Mayday’s father, former Spider-Man now forensic scientist, Peter Parker. With the support of her best friends Courtney Duran and Davida Kirby as her campaign managers, Mayday was running for student council at Midtown High School against the popular Simone DeSantos. Fellow Midtown High students Jimmy Yama and Reynard “Wes” Westin were drawing and illustrating a Spider-Girl comic book. Mayday and Courtney were volunteering at St. Andrews Shelter under the supervision of Caitlan Leiber. One of the women staying at the shelter, Mona Carlo, was sought out at the shelter by her ex, Charlie Kurkle, but Caitlan turned him away. Mona had an item that Charlie was sent by the Hobgoblin to obtain. It was a disk that contained information on all the people that the deceased Wilson Fisk/Kingpin had ever paid off, information that would boost whoever possessed it to the status of the new Kingpin of Crime. Fabian LaMuerto/Black Tarantula, current Kingpin who was hiding out in South America, also wanted that disk. Unhappy that Charlie did not possess the disk, Hobgoblin sent one of his stooges to take out Charlie. Mayday was on her way to Café Indigo to meet her friends, including Gene, when she came upon the scene of Charlie about to be put down. Covering her face, Mayday sprung into action and saved Charlie. Charlie returned to St. Andrews, where Mayday had to prevent Charlie from starting a fire in an attempt to lure Mona out. Mona, knowing she was at risk for carrying the disk, went on the run. Mayday then joined her friends at Café Indigo. Hobgoblin went to St. Andrews and attacked Caitlan looking for both Mona and a list of Caitlan’s teenage volunteers, under the impression that Spider-Girl was secretly volunteering at St. Andrews and was the daughter of Hobgoblin’s archnemesis Spider-Man. The police were called to the scene, including Detective Vincent Drasco, who was secretly in the employ of the Hobgoblin. Hobgoblin planned to send two of his stooges, Rudy and Barney, after the teenage volunteers, aided by a battle armor Hobgoblin had come into possession of. On her school lunch break, Mayday went to St. Andrews looking for clues and ran into Hobgoblin’s stooges. Mayday barely escaped, but the stooges were not under the impression they had just battled Spider-Girl. Mayday returned to school late for class, where she was caught by assistant principal Slattery, who gave Mayday detention and Simone leverage in the student council election. While in detention, both Peter and Mary Jane attempted to call Mayday to warn Mayday that Hobgoblin was looking for the teenage volunteers, which only irritated Slattery, but when Slattery answered Mayday’s phone and spoke to Mary Jane, Mary Jane was infuriated Slattery dared to answer Mayday’s phone and sprung Mayday from detention. Mary Jane returned Mayday’s Spider-Girl costume, telling Mayday that Mary Jane could not accept it if Spider-Girl were prevented from saving lives because of Mary Jane, but to keep this a secret from Peter. Spider-Girl returned to battle Rudy, now called Reverb, to save Courtney. Following Reverb’s arrest, Mary Jane took back possession of the Spider-Girl costume.

Former St. Andrews refugee Betty Forest/Bitter Frost returned to St. Andrews, intent on revenge against Caitlan, who failed Betty when Caitlan first started as a social worker years before. Mona contacted Handsome Richie Valentine, attempting to find a buyer for the disk. Bitter Frost went after her abusive ex-boyfriend Wayne, intent on ending him. Caitlan and Drasco went after Bitter Frost to prevent her from succeeding, but their lives were put in danger. Mayday stole the Spider-Girl costume and swung in to save the day. Mona came into contact with Chesbro, representative of the Black Tarantula.

“Mad Dog” Rassitano, reality television bounty hunter, announced his intention to catch Hobgoblin, a task he had done once before. Mayday’s return as Spider-Girl was beginning to have an impact on her school and social life. Jimmy and Wes made a deal with Deacon, owner of Deacon’s Den, a local comic book show, that if Deacon sole Jimmy and Wes’s Spider-Girl comic book, Spider-Girl would come to the release day event herself. Jimmy intended to have his girlfriend Heather Noble dress the part of Spider-Girl since Jimmy was not convinced Jimmy and Wes could get the real Spider-Girl to promote the comic book. Mad Dog went to Hobgoblin’s brother Daniel Kingsley for information on Hobgoblin’s location. Daniel, who was hiding his brother, sold Mad Dog a location the Hobgoblin was going to be at. However, this was an ambush, and Hobgoblin was not really going to be there. Spider-Girl helped Mad Dog take down the thugs who ambushed Mad Dog, and Mad Dog promised not to televise Spider-Girl’s presence on the scene, mostly because Mad Dog thought being rescued by Spider-Girl on national television would look bad for his reputation. This skirmish caused Mayday to miss a date with Gene.

Drasco and Black Tarantula both obtained Mona’s location. Drasco and Chesbro both went to attempt to get the disk. Spider-Girl swung to Mona’s rescue but needed an assist from Mad Dog. Spider-Girl managed to obtain the disk. Mayday almost missed her campaign speech, but in a turn of events, dropped out of the race and nominated Davida in Mayday’s place, saying Davida would be a better candidate. Hobgoblin learned that Spider-Girl was scheduled to appear at a launch event at Deacon’s Den.

Mayday turned to her confidante Felicity Hardy/Scarlet Spider to try to crack the information on the disk, but Felicity was unable to get past the decryption. At the launch event, Hobgoblin abducted Heather, but realized Heather wasn’t the real Spider-Girl. Spider-Girl saved Heather and lied to Hobgoblin, saying that Spider-Girl had destroyed the disk. Hobgoblin believed Spider-Girl. Spider-Girl was saved from Hobgoblin by Chesbro and one of Black Tarantula’s snipers. Spider-Girl gave the disk to Drasco, unaware Drasco was in the employ of the Hobgoblin. Mayday told her parents that she had returned to being Spider-Girl and intended to keep being a superhero.

Rosetta Morgan/Ladyhawk sought revenge on the Hobgoblin for ending the heroic career of Rosetta’s sister Regina Morgan/Ladyhawk. Harlem crime lord Morgan arranged a meeting with Hobgoblin. Spider-Girl and Ladyhawk came to Morgan to get information on the Hobgoblin. Morgan gave Spider-Girl and Ladyhawk a fake address to the meeting between Morgan and Hobgoblin. Morgan’s meeting with Hobgoblin was actually an attempt to take Hobgoblin out of the picture. Drasco heard shots, and Drasco and the police prevented Hobgoblin’s demise, and Hobgoblin escaped. Mayday realized how much strain being Spider-Girl put her parents through and promised to stop being Spider-Girl until Mayday’s parents said otherwise.

Mayday’s fellow Midtown High classmate Sara Hingle manifested her mutant powers in class. Sara was taken into custody. Mary Jane and assistant principal Slattery visited Sara’s parents Duane and Cindy Hingle. Duane was not handling the fact that his daughter was a mutant very well. Duane decided to send Sara to a mutant boarding school, despite Cindy wanting Sara to stay with Duane and Cindy. Sara escaped custody and tried to return home. Mary Jane tried to talk Duane out of Duane’s decision, saying Duane should love Sara no matter what Sara was. Mayday revealed to Sara that Mayday had powers and promised to try to help Sara live a normal life. Sara’s parents decided to let Sara stay at home. Slattery was impressed with Mary Jane’s empathy and offered to discuss a position for Mary Jane at Midtown High as a guidance counselor. Peter and Mary Jane decided that Mayday was ready to be Spider-Girl and gave Mayday back the Spider-Girl costume.

S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill came to government special agent Arthur Weadon and his team of rehabilitating convicted supervillains (Earthshaker, Mr. Abnormal, Killerwatt, and Kaine) with the mission of guarding an item code-named Specimen 297. Kaine turned to Reilly Tyne/Darkdevil for assistance in watching the transfer of the bioweapon that was being transferred to a government lab because it was believed the specimen might have medical benefits. Courtney’s boyfriend Maurice “Moose” Mansfield, whose father was in a hospital dying of cancer, was staying in New Jersey and not getting in touch with Courtney. Courtney learned Moose was coming to Midtown Medical Center to see Moose’s father and Courtney decided that Courtney wanted to see Moose to see where their relationship stood. Slattery offered Mary Jane a job at Midtown High. Courtney arrived at Midtown Medical and found Moose with another girl. The transfer of Specimen 297 was attacked by a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents led by Contessa Valentina Allegro De Fontaine. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team obtained Specimen 297. Spider-Girl attacked the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, and in the confusion, Specimen 297 escaped. Specimen 297 was one piece of the Carnage symbiote, which had been broken apart and was held in government custody. It was now believed that the symbiote could cure cancer. The escaped symbiote bonded with Moose, and a new Carnage was born. Moose was insistent on trying to curb Carnage’s murderous tendencies. Carnage attacked Café Indigo and scared Courtney and Davida, but Mayday fought Carnage until Carnage decided to leave. Weadon tasked his team with apprehending Spider-Girl. Kaine and Darkdevil contacted Spider-Girl to warn her about Carnage. Mary Jane went to school with Mayday to speak with Slattery about the guidance counselor position. Slattery offered the position to Mary Jane. Mary Jane said she would get back to Slattery with her decision. Carnage came to the Parker’s home and abducted Peter and Ben, Mayday’s baby brother. Spider-Girl went after Carnage and fought the symbiotic being. Peter managed to escape from Carnage’s imprisonment. Carnage went to Midtown Medical Center to find Moose’s father. Spider-Girl fought Carnage, and Carnage fled. During their fight, Carnage infected Ben with a piece of the symbiote. Ben attacked Spider-Girl. Hill and Weadon’s team tried to apprehend Spider-Girl but failed. Carnage took Ben back to Midtown Medical. Kaine and Darkdevil found Val and her agents and learned the truth about Specimen 297. Courtney found out the woman she saw Moose with was Moose’s cousin Donna Mansfield. Peter came to Midtown Medical with the Reverb armor, which fired sonic blasts, Carnage’s weakness. Peter faltered when he realized Carnage had infected Ben, so Spider-Girl took the sonic blaster and shot the symbiote off of Ben, causing Ben to have hearing loss. Mayday defeated Carnage before Carnage could infect Moose’s father, causing Moose, a huge Spider-Girl fan, to hate Spider-Girl, saying if Moose’s father died, it would be Spider-Girl’s fault. The doctors told Peter they had to run more tests to determine if Ben’s hearing loss was permanent.

Mayday felt overwhelming guilt over Ben’s predicament, but Peter and Mary Jane did not blame Mayday. Peter and Mary Jane brought Ben to the doctor. Hobgoblin disguised himself as his brother Daniel and locked up the real Daniel Kingsley. The day of the student council election came. Hobgoblin turned to William Turner/Mindworm to form an alliance against Spider-Girl. Gene, feeling neglected in his relationship with Mayday, broke up with Mayday. Ben began to manifest spider powers in front of Mayday. Gene moved on with Simone DeSantos. Hobgoblin went searching for Madame Web, hoping to learn a way to defeat Black Tarantula, and found Anya Corazon/Araña, disguised as a priestess. Araña told Hobgoblin the “heart of the spider” was the only weapon that could defeat the Black Tarantula. Moose announced he would be coming back to Midtown High, accompanied by his cousin Donna. The Parker family’s observed “May’s Special Day” arrived. Mindworm began to psychically implant illusions of Spider-Girl’s enemies into Mayday’s mind. Normie Osborn helped the Parkers arrange an appointment with Dr. Milton Kaplan, one of the nation’s top ear, nose and throat specialists. Mindworm learned Ben had an appointment with Dr. Kaplan, and Hobgoblin kidnapped the doctor. Mindworm attempted to manipulate Spider-Girl to learn about the “heart of the spider.” Hobgoblin abducted Spider-Girl and tried to force her to reveal the “heart of the spider.” Spider-Girl’s allies Darkdevil, Ladyhawk, Jack Jameson/The Buzz, the Fantastic Five, Mad Dog, Weadon’s team, the Avengers, Green Goblin, and more came to Spider-Girl’s rescue and fought off Hobgoblin and Mindworm. Mayday returned home to celebrate her special day with her family.

Okay, now that we have that lengthy plot summary out of the way, let’s move on to my individual bits of this review. As always, we’re going to start off with my own personal opinions about this book. I will say that I loved this book. I thought the stories in it were fantastic. Let’s talk about what I enjoyed the most. I loved watching Mayday trying to find her identity as both Mayday Parker and Spider-Girl. Her conflict between wanting a normal life and wanting to be a superhero was explored in a phenomenal way. Mayday tried to get her grades up and run for student council and because of Spider-Girl ended up in detention and her best friend had to take Mayday’s place in the election. Mayday tried to have a boyfriend, and Spider-Girl led him into the arms of her rival. I also loved how Mayday had to face the consequences of her battle with Carnage. Spider-Girl turned her greatest supporter into a Spider-Girl hater, and caused hearing loss in her baby brother, and then had to deal with the guilt of her actions. I enjoyed watching the Hobgoblin’s war against Black Tarantula with Spider-Girl caught in the middle, and that Spider-Girl wasn’t even Hobgoblin’s main concern, just an annoyance on the side. I enjoyed Mary Jane’s developments, from not wanting her daughter to be a superhero, to encouraging her daughter to be a superhero, then confronting the Hingle’s on how they should love their daughter no matter what she was and being offered a position as a guidance counselor at Mayday’s school. I enjoyed seeing the villains double-crossing with fake meeting locations and ambushes. I liked watching Slattery being an antagonist and assistant to Mayday and Mayday’s family, and particularly when Mary Jane stood up to Slattery after Slattery put Mayday in detention and answered Mayday’s phone. There was so much about this book that I thoroughly enjoyed. However, I will say that I do feel like the artwork did go wrong a lot. For the most part the art was relatively good, but there were just moments where the faces and bodies just didn’t look right. Now, I’m also very nitpicky about the title and cover being appropriate for the content of the book itself. Every issue in this book had a different title, and there were fifteen issues in this book, so including each individual issue title and the option to make an original title not taken from the title of any issue in the book, there were sixteen potential choices for a title. The title “Comes the Carnage!” was the title of an issue in this collection. The Carnage storyline was an ongoing storyline in this volume, and while I don’t particularly feel it was “the best” title for this book, I will say that I will approve this as an appropriate title. As for the cover, it very simple portrays Spider-Girl web-swinging through New York City. I feel like this simple cover is perfect. It offers the promise of seeing Spider-Girl swing into action in this book, and this book delivers on that promise. So, I will say that all in all, this book was an amazing production, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time going through it.

Next up on the list of topics we need to discuss is accessibility. I know I’ve explained my definition of this over seven dozen times at this point, but I feel obligated to explain myself again because I know that there are some readers here who have never been to this blog before to experience a Tim Cubbin review. So, for you newbs here, when I use the word “accessibility,” what I’m saying is how easy it is for someone who knows absolutely nothing about Spider-Girl or Marvel Comics to obtain this book, read it, and understand it as it is written with no outside knowledge on the source material. So, when asking if this book is accessible, I will say that, yes, it is. This book contains the first fifteen issues of one new series, and contains a recap issue (which I did not discuss, I only cover actual comic-style material and not expository-style material when reviewing a graphic novel, so since that issue was not written in a comic narrative style, I didn’t include that in my review), and it does not pick up directly off of any previous stories, crossover into any other series, or tie into any events. As such, getting into this book is actually pretty easy. If you’re looking to get into reading Marvel Comics and are looking for a good place to start, this book offers an excellent jump-on point.

Okay, moving on, we’re going on to the numeric score. I know that some people consider this section the most important segment in my reviews because it cements exactly how good I feel a book is. I also know that some of my readers come to these reviews primarily so they can read about the stories. I know that to different people, every segment in my reviews is the most important to some readers. But this is one of the primary segments of my reviews. So first, I will explain exactly how I score graphic novels. I work on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and if I give that score, I felt like this book is not even worth reading. If, however, I give a book a ten, that is my highest score, and that means that this book is sheer perfection and should be the top seller at all the retailers. To get a ten, a book has to have a story that is enjoyable all the way through, artwork that is consistently visually appealing, a title that fits the content of the book, and a cover that delivers on what it shows on the front of the book. So, when I take all these factors into consideration, the score I’m giving this book is… a nine! I loved almost everything about this book, and while I do feel the art could use some improvement, I thought this was a great effort.

Next up is the recommendation segment. This segment answers two separate questions. The first is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers? The second question is, regardless of whether I approved of this book or now, whom do I think would be the best audience, aside from the obvious fans of the characters, Marvel Comics, or the creative team? To answer the first question, yes, I do recommend this book. If you are reading this review, and now, based solely on the words you’ve just spent the past few minutes reading you’ve decided you want to read this graphic novel, I would tell you to go to your favorite bookstore or online retailer, or your local comic book shop or library, or your Marvel obsessed friend or family member, and try to get your hands on a copy of this book at your earliest convenience, you will definitely enjoy it. As for the best audience, I would recommend this book to teenagers or people who like reading stories about teenagers, females or people who enjoy reading about heroic female protagonists, people who like stories about characters trying to discover who they are, and people who like soap operatic stories.

Well, we’ve come to the ending paragraph of my review. There are still things that need to be said before we move on with our lives. If you have any spare time, please continue checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my content. I’ve been doing this blog for six years now. In that time, I’ve published over 190 posts. Some of these posts are short stories, some are poems, some are essays, some are articles, some are editorials, but the majority are reviews. You will find a few reviews of prose novels, manga, and comic book events here. Primarily, you will find over seven dozen other reviews of Marvel Epic Collections just like this one. The current focus of this blog is on Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase every one as soon as I can after it is released and post a review of it as soon as I possibly can. As such, I post on a very frequent basis, so expect to see plenty of content from me pretty often. If you liked this post and have some spare time, please feel free to check out my reviews of “Spider-Girl: Legacy” “Spider-Girl: Keeping the Faith” and “Spider-Girl: Family Ties” for more Spider-Girl content. As for the future of this blog, keep checking back because sometime in the next four weeks, you can expect my next review “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Sitting in a Tree” to be published. You can also keep expecting to see more content coming from me for a long time, I intend to keep doing this blog for as long as I can, and I don’t think anything is going to stop me soon. If you have anything you’d like to say, feel free to leave a comment, please like, share, retweet, reply, spread the word, do whatever you can to get me out there and let me know what you think of what I’m doing. I’d really love to hear from you guys. That’s really all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Venom: Sting of the Scorpion"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Venom: Sting of the Scorpion” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Eddie Brock’s mother died giving birth to Eddie, something that Eddie’s sister Mary and father Carl struggled to get past as Eddie grew up. As a child, Eddie was a pathological liar, making things up to seem more impressive to others, particularly girls. Eddie always had an interest in the news, and one night, Eddie’s father joked that Eddie should report the news, something that Eddie took to heart. To appear impressive to the Director of Admissions at Empire State University, Eddie lied about an internship at the San Franscisco Chronicle, which helped him get into college. While on a walk at night, Eddie and a female co-ed named Ann Weying, whom Eddie was trying to impress, were attacked by muggers. Ann was knocked unconscious during the struggle. Spider-Man was in the neighborhood and swung to their rescue and knocked out the muggers, then left the scene, leaving Eddie to falsely take credit for protecting Ann when Ann came to. After college, Eddie and Ann got married, and Eddie got a job as an intern at the Daily Globe, but Eddie lied to Ann and said he was a reporter. While going through mail for the letters column, Eddie found a letter to the editor from a man calling himself the Sin-Eater, taking credit for the murder of New York Police Department Captain Jean DeWolff and leaving a date and location of where the killer next planned to make contact. Rather than deliver the letter to the editor, Eddie went to the payphone the Sin-Eater called, and Eddie interviewed the Sin-Eater. The editor would not run Eddie’s interview unless the Sin-Eater killed again, and when the Sin-Eater struck again, Eddie made the front page. Sin-Eater liked the sensitivity Eddie portrayed to the Sin-Eater’s plight in the article and Sin-Eater asked to meet Eddie at a church. Eddie met the Sin-Eater, who told Eddie the Sin-Eater’s next target would be Reverend Bernard Finn, and that the Sin-Eater’s true identity was Emil Gregg. After Reverend Finn’s murder, Sin-Eater contacted Eddie again and told Eddie Sin-Eater’s next target would be J. Jonah Jameson, published or rival newspaper The Daily Bugle. The NYPD found out Eddie had become Sin-Eater’s contact, and the police arrested Eddie as an accessory to murder. While awaiting trial, Eddie’s father made contact with Eddie to voice Carl’s disappointment in Eddie protecting a murderer. This led Eddie to publish Gregg’s identity as the Sin-Eater. Gregg was arrested attempting to assassinate Jameson, but with the help of Spider-Man, Stan Carter was arrested as the Sin-Eater, and Eddie’s source was revealed to be a copycat and not the actual Sin-Eater. The Globe had to recall the edition Eddie’s story broke out on and Eddie was fired. Following this, Ann filed for a divorce from Eddie. At a total low, Eddie went to the church he met Gregg in, and the alien symbiote that had previously been attached to Spider-Man bonded with Eddie. Hearing Eddie, the priest called the police. The police suspected Eddie to be on drugs and attempted to apprehend him, but the symbiote reacted and the two police officers did not survive the encounter while Eddie and the symbiote walked away. Eddie signed the divorce papers and ended Eddie’s marriage to Ann. The symbiote revealed to Eddie that the symbiote’s former host Spider-Man’s true identity was Peter Parker. Both Eddie and the symbiote nursed a hatred for Spider-Man and vowed revenge on Spider-Man. Eddie and the symbiote went to Peter Parker’s apartment and attacked Peter’s wife Mary Jane and told Mary Jane that Eddie was going to kill Spider-Man. Spider-Man fought Eddie and the symbiote, who now called themselves Venom, but this battle only the beginning of Spider-Man and Venom’s war.

            Years later, Carnage, the result of the bonding between the symbiote offspring of Venom and serial killer Cletus Kasady, was going to give birth. Carnage was not happy that he was going to reproduce and was planning to eliminate his offspring. Symbiote fathers never had loving relationships with their children. Following the birth of the symbiote, NYPD officer Patrick Mulligan had come to the scene of a disturbance caused by Carnage, and the symbiote attached to Mulligan. Mulligan, not knowing he was hosting a symbiote, went home to his pregnant wife Gina. Venom went to Mulligan’s apartment to protect Mulligan and Gina from an attack by Carnage. Spider-Man also came to the fight, and saved Gina, who went into labor. After pulling off a successful art robbery, Felicia Hardy/Black Cat came to Mulligan’s rescue. Venom vowed an allegiance with his grandson, whom he dubbed Toxin. Edward Mulligan was born. Mulligan was informed of the art robbery and recognized Black Cat in the surveillance photograph. Mulligan arranged a meeting with Black Cat, where the two were attacked by Carnage. Mulligan became Toxin and fought off Carnage. Mulligan was horrified that he had become a monster but decided to keep this fact a secret. Toxin went back to fight Carnage but held back on causing a fatality. Venom and Carnage realized Toxin was on the path of becoming a superhero and decided to team up to end him. Toxin stopped an armed robbery, and almost went fatal on the robbers, but with the help of Spider-Man, got the situation under control. Venom and Carnage attacked Toxin and overpowered Toxin, but Spider-Man and Black Cat came to Toxin’s rescue. After the villains were defeated, Mulligan realized that for his whole life, he would now be a target of Venom and Carnage and left Gina and Edward for their own protection while he went on the run.

            Peter’s Aunt May Parker had been abducted by a supervillain and was possibly dead. The Daily Bugle was offering a five million dollar cash prize for a photo of Spider-Man’s secret identity. Eddie received a cancer diagnosis and found religion. Eddie decided to get rid of the Venom symbiote and let the cancer do its work, so Eddie went to Phineas Mason/Tinkerer to hold an auction, the lot being the Venom symbiote. An assortment of super criminals and mob figures, including crime boss Don Fortunato, attended the auction. Spider-Man stopped at a diner where he met a waitress named Ramona, who had a sick grandson. The child’s grandfather was Adrian Toomes/Vulture, and Spider-Man had just stopped the Vulture from committing a robbery that Vulture would have given the money to Vulture’s grandson. To take Peter’s mind off of Aunt May, Mary Jane suggested Peter and Mary Jane attend Peter’s high school reunion. Don Fortunato won the Venom symbiote auction and gave the symbiote to Fortunato’s weakling son Angelo Fortunato. The new Venom attacked Spider-Man at Peter’s high school reunion. After taking it to the streets, Venom tried to kill Spider-Man, succeeding in killing an impersonator seeking to make the five million dollar prize. This only angered Spider-Man further, and Angelo proved to the symbiote that Angelo didn’t have what it took to be Venom, so the symbiote abandoned Angelo. Eddie had a bad reaction to Angelo and Venom’s split up. Peter found a way to end the Spider-Man secret identity photo contest and settle things with Ramona. Mac Gargan/Scorpion contacted Peter, revealing he was Aunt May’s kidnapper. He demanded that Spider-Man would break Norman Osborn/Green Goblin out of prison or Aunt May would face the consequences. Spider-Man agreed, and with Black Cat’s help, was able to break Osborn out of jail. Osborn double-crossed Spider-Man with an attack by an army of Spider-Man’s worst enemies. Scorpion was supposed to appear. Osborn had sent Gargan a new Scorpion suit. The Venom symbiote found Gargan, and Gargan attended Osborn’s attack on Spider-Man and Black Cat not as Scorpion, but as Venom. Osborn was not happy with Venom’s appearance, but continued Osborn’s plan of revenge on Spider-Man by going after Mary Jane as Spider-Man fought Spider-Man’s enemies. Just as Spider-Man and Black Cat were losing, a group of Spider-Man’s allies, summoned by Mary Jane, joined the fight. Spider-Man attempted to go after Osborn but was halted by Venom. Spider-Man was able to defeat Venom, but Osborn had already reached Mary Jane. Spider-Man was able to prevail, Peter was reunited with Aunt May, Gargan was apprehended, and Eddie was hospitalized.

            After Peter unmasked as Spider-Man on live television, Aunt May was shot and clung to life in the hospital. Eddie was still residually haunted by Venom, despite no longer being physically bonded to the symbiote. Eddie discovered that Peter’s Aunt May was dying in the same hospital Eddie was dying in. Venom saw this as a perfect opportunity for revenge on Spider-Man. Peter wanted to reach Aunt May on the astral plane and bring May back to consciousness. Peter went to the clairvoyant Cassandra Webb/Madame Web to ask for Madame Web’s help in contacting May. With the aid of Mary Jane and Aunt Anna Watson, Peter was able to reach Aunt May. Aunt May told Peter she was ready to die. Eddie could not go through with Venom’s plan to get revenge on Spider-Man.

            Carmilla Black debuted as the new Scorpion. Venom was not happy that his former namesake had been taken and wished to defend his trademark by eliminating Scorpion. Scorpion had to defend herself with her power to absorb toxins to survive Venom’s assault.

The Cape Killers came after Venom in violation of the Superhuman Registration Act. After Venom took them out, Songbird and Radioactive Man, representing the Thunderbolts, came to Gargan with the offer of joining the team. Venom accepted the offer.

While the Thunderbolts battled Biohazard, Venom was pulled aside by Whirlwind, who arranged Gargan to be able to leave Thunderbolts Mountain without consequence. Gargan met with Whirlwind, Tiger Shark, Boomerang, and Mister Hyde, who blackmailed Gargan into arranging a meeting between the quartet of villains and Norman Osborn. Gargan agreed. The villains found out what it was like to cross Norman Osborn.

Okay, we have that rather lengthy plot summary out of the way, now it’s time to move onto my individual bits in this review. Let’s start where we usually do, with my own personal opinions on the book. For the purposes of making this review make sense, I arranged the stories chronologically, they were not presented in this order in the collection itself. So, the verdict is… I loved the stories in this book. The “Venom Vs. Carnage” storyline was great, I loved the debut of Toxin. I enjoyed the “Venomous” segments, I liked how Spider-Man made good with Vulture’s ex. “The Last Stand” segments were enjoyable, Gargan’s debut as Venom was a great start. “The Last Temptation of Eddie Brock” was brilliant, with Eddie struggling with the remnants of being Venom, and the ending was so touching, with Eddie trying to be a better person, and Peter reaching Aunt May and what May told Peter. “Switching Sides” was a fun little bit with Venom fighting the Cape Killers and surprising Songbird and Radioactive Man by accepting the Thunderbolts offer. “Namesake” was entertaining, seeing Venom trying to defend his Scorpion trademark, and the fight was rather unexpected. “Reason in Madness” was enjoyable, seeing Norman Osborn in action as a human and not as the Green Goblin and still kicking butt was exciting. “Dark Origin” was my favorite story in the book, getting to look back at Eddie’s history and seeing what led him on his path to being who he was as both Eddie Brock and Venom was so much fun. Overall, I thought this book was very well written. Now, since this is a graphic novel, we also have to look at the artwork as well as the story. For the most part, I enjoyed the artwork. I thought most of it was relatively good, if not better. My favorites were Terry Dodson, Frank Cho, and Angel Medina, and I also enjoyed the work of Leonard Kirk. I generally enjoyed the work of Clayton Crain, but there were moments when Crain’s work did go wrong. Lee Weeks, Rick Hoberg and Ben Oliver did decent work, sometimes it was a little gritty, but I still found it enjoyable. And I did not care for the art from Leinil Francis Yu on “Switching Sides” at all. Now, I know this is being nitpicky, but I also evaluate the appropriateness of title and cover applied to graphic novels as well. And I will say that I don’t feel that “Sting of the Scorpion” was the perfect title for this book. It’s true that this book does involve Mac Gargan, the former Scorpion, but he’s not active as Scorpion in this book at all, and he also doesn’t hold as much of a majority of appearance as Venom as Eddie Brock did in this collection. I feel like a better title for this collection would have been “Dark Origin,” which would have been more fitting to the overall content for not only having the five issue “Venom: Dark Origin” limited series, but for featuring the birth of Toxin, and Angelo Fortunato and Mac Gargan both becoming Venom. As for the cover, this collection is fronted with Spider-Man perched on a building in the rain with Angelo Fortunato as Venom standing menacingly behind him. I feel like this was poor representation as Angelo appeared as Venom in only two issues in this entire book. As far as marketing goes, I feel the branding is not proper for the majority of the content in this particular collection.

Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve done over seven dozen reviews like this at this point, and in each one, I’ve been obligated to explain the usage of that word every single time. I know some of you have been to these reviews before and know what I’m about to say, so if you do, bear with me while I explain it to the newbs who are reading a Tim Cubbin review for the first time. So, essentially, accessibility means how easy it is to understand the material contained in this volume with no outside or prior knowledge of the characters or storylines. So, when asking the question of if this book is accessible, I will say that it really isn’t. This book has issues of “Marvel Knights Spider-Man” that are part of a twelve-issue storyline, but this book only contains excerpts and three entire issues, with only blurbs explaining the pieces that are missing. I feel like this book is extremely incomplete in that particular story. It also has tie-ins to other events like “Civil War” and “Back in Black,” detracting from making this easily accessible to beginners. I feel like if you are looking to get into reading Marvel Comics for the first time and are looking for a place to start, this book is not a good choice for you.

We’re up to the point where I give this book the ultimate evaluation: my numeric score. To some people, this is the key reason they come to read my reviews: to find out exactly how good I feel a book is. My scoring system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one through ten. The lowest score I can give is a one. That score means that this is one of the worst things I have ever read in my entire life, and the money I spent buying it and time I spent reading it were such a colossal waste and I totally regret all of it and wish I could go back and undo it. My highest score is ten. That score is reserved only for sheer perfection. That means that the story was exciting and engaging and entertaining the whole way through; the art was consistently visually appealing; the title fits the main theme of the book; and that what is shown on the cover is actually a proper representation of the content of this book. It also means that the time I spent reading this book was some of the best time of my life while consuming a form of entertainment. I’m not in the business of just handing out a ten to a book that doesn’t deserve it, and I am very hard to please. But in terms of what I’m looking for when I evaluate a book, the story was an enjoyable read, the art was, for the most part, relatively decent, but the title and cover, while are delivered upon in the book itself, don’t capture the totality of the essence of this book. So, when taking all the ingredients that make up the book, pouring them into my metaphorical blender, and blending them until they are completely fluid, then pouring the liquid out into a cup, the liquid represents a score of… an eight! This book was an enjoyable read, but the marketing does seem a little off in my opinion.

Our next stop on our journey through this review is the recommendation segment. This segment focuses on two topics. The first is to answer the question of, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in a conversation with me about this book? The second topic is to discuss what aspects of this book would appeal to specific readers, based on the content and what a person looks for when they read a book, and not looking at the obvious of fans of Venom, Marvel, or the creative team. In answer to the question, if you are reading this review, and now, based solely on the words you’ve just spent the past few minutes reading and my personal recommendation that you want to read this book, I would tell you to definitely read this book. Hop onto your favorite online retailer, head over to your favorite bookstore, your local comic book shop, your local library, or hit up a friend or family member with this book and get your hands on a copy as soon as you can. As far as the content that readers might find appealing, if you like stories about aliens, you’d probably find this book appealing. This book is also appealing to fans of horror comics. Also, fans of stories about people dealing with depression and other psychological issues might find something to relate to in this book. And people with an interest in journalism could be interested in this book.

Okay, we’re at the point where we’re just about ready to say goodbye for now. There are a bunch of things I do have to say first. If you liked this post and want to check out more of my work, keep looking at timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. I’ve been doing this blog for almost six years now. During that time, I’ve published over 190 posts. While I have posted short stories and poetry, this blog favors a journalistic approach, and I’ve also featured articles, essays, and editorials, but my primary focus is reviews. I’ve reviewed some prose novels, manga, and comic book events, but the majority of the reviews have been of graphic novels, particularly Marvel Epic Collections. I have done over seven dozen such reviews. I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released, and if possible, put up a review of it. At the moment, there are only four Modern Era Epic Collections I haven’t reviewed, three because I didn’t have a laptop to type a review on at the time, and one due to scheduling issues that made writing a review a problem and by the time I got around to being able to write a review I wasn’t able to properly recall the book to do an accurate review, but that should be amended by around the start of next year. I have reviewed every Ultimate Epic Collection released thus far. If you liked this review and want to read more similar posts, feel free to search for my reviews of “Venom: Shiver” “Venom: Agent Venom” “Venom: The Savage Six” and “Venom: Space Knight” for more Venom content. I post on a very frequent basis, at least once every two months, but usually more often than that, depending on releases of books to review and my scheduling. Just so you know, my next review is going to be on “Spider-Girl: Comes the Carnage!” You can expect to see it posted within the next two months following the publication of this post. Everything I say on this blog is strictly my opinion. I respect that you might not agree with what I have to say, and if you have ever read anything I’ve reviewed or have anything you’d like to say, like you disagreed with anything I’ve posted, or if you agree with me, or if you just want to let me know what you think of my post, feel free to leave a comment or a response or a post of some kind. I’d love to hear from you guys as I value all my readers and their opinions. Please follow, like, share, retweet, do something to spread me around the internet to your friends, that would be greatly appreciated. I’ll be doing this blog for as long as I can, so don’t expect me to stop anytime soon. I’m looking forward to posting again and hope you’ll come back to join me. That’s all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"The Amazing Spider-Man: Sins Past"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “The Amazing Spider-Man: Sins Past” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Following a battle with the heroes of earth and the other-dimensional being Dormammu, Sorcerer of Chaos Morwen awakened on earth in the body of Tess Black, mortal daughter of the Asgardian god Loki. This caused Loki to feel a pain he could not identify, so he traveled to earth to investigate it. Peter Parker/Spider-Man, whose actions in the battle with Dormammu led to Morwen’s freedom, became Morwen’s target. The sorceress came to Spider-Man with an offer of power which Spider-Man had to accept, or else Morwen would destroy Spider-Man. Morwen gave Spider-Man a night to ponder her offer. Seeking mystical guidance, Spider-Man went to the home of Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Stephen Strange, but Doctor Strange was unavailable. Instead, Loki greeted Spider-Man. Loki and Spider-Man fought, but Loki emphasized he wished to stop Morwen. Spider-Man agreed to work with Loki in defeating Morwen as long as they were able to save Morwen’s human host. When Morwen returned to Spider-Man to hear Spider-Man’s decision, Loki recognized Tess, and Loki had to use his sorcery to reach Tess, banish Morwen, and save Tess.

            Peter’s wife Mary Jane Parker, an aspiring actress, had an audition for a role in a movie and had to fly to California for the audition. When she arrived to audition, she found out the director had been replaced and the new director had offered the role to another actress, believing that Mary Jane had no talent. Spider-Man witnessed a young boy trying to steal a bike. When caught by the cops, the boy pulled out a gun. Spider-Man swung in to peacefully settle the situation and protect everyone involved.

            Ezekiel Sims returned to New York, seeking Peter. Peter’s Aunt May Parker encouraged Mary Jane not to give up Mary Jane’s dreams of acting and tried to steer Mary Jane towards the stage. Ezekiel warned Peter that following Spider-Man’s last two supernatural battles, a third one with the Gatekeeper was coming, and this one was going to be the most dangerous. The Gatekeeper attacked New York City, unleashing a horde of spiders. Spider-Man fought the Gatekeeper, who revealed the reason Peter had been chosen by fate to be Spider-Man, and that Spider-Man’s true enemy was the pretender, Ezekiel, who had been using Peter to ensure Ezekiel’s own survival against the threats to the spider totems. Ezekiel abducted Peter and brought Peter to South America, where Ezekiel intended to sacrifice Peter to satisfy the forces that had been beset against the two spider totems, and the two battled for the final time.

            Mary Jane auditioned for the lead role in an off-Broadway play and got the part. While celebrating at Aunt May’s, a letter arrived for Peter. The letter was from Gwen Stacy, Peter’s girlfriend who had died during a fight between Spider-Man and Norman Osborn/Green Goblin. The letter was written in Paris before Gwen died, and Gwen was going to tell Peter something in the letter. However, this was only the first page of the letter, and there was more than one page. The letter had also just been sent days before from New York City. Peter went to Gwen’s grave, where he was attacked by two costumed assailants. Not wanting to reveal his secret identity, Peter fought back and escaped. Mary Jane helped Peter realize that Gwen had written a second page on top of the first page. Peter received photos of Aunt May and Mary Jane from his assailants with a threatening note included. Spider-Man went to his police contact Lieutenant Willaim Lamont, asking him to have forensics see if they could decipher what Gwen had written on the second page by analyzing the latent impressions. Peter received a phone call from the assailants, saying the assailants had Aunt May and that the assailants were aware Peter was Spider-Man and that Peter had ten minutes to save Aunt May. Spider-Man swung to the address the assailants provided, but it was a trap and they didn’t really have Aunt May. The assailants, Gabriel and Sarah, defeated Spider-Man, but let Spider-Man live, saying the two intended to hurt Spider-Man personally before ending him for good. Spider-Man received what forensics was able to recover of the second page of Gwen’s letter. Gwen revealed she had given birth to twin children Gabriel and Sarah shortly before she died. Peter recovered DNA from Gwen and the letter to test the DNA to try to determine if the assailants were Gwen’s children. The twins attacked Spider-Man as Spider-Man was running the tests, and Spider-Man unmasked Sarah, who looked identical to Gwen. The twins escaped, and the tests revealed an almost exact match. Peter came home to find Mary Jane had read Gwen’s letter. Peter told Mary Jane that Peter couldn’t be the twins’ father, and Mary Jane revealed that she already knew about Gwen having children and that the twins’ father was Norman Osborn. Spider-Man held a press conference, calling the twins to the site of Gwen’s death. Gabriel told Spider-Man the twins wanted to hurt Peter because Norman had raised the twins and had told the twins that Peter was the twins’ father and that Peter had abandoned the twins after Spider-Man caused Gwen’s death. When Peter told the twins Norman was the twins’ father, Gabriel didn’t believe Peter, but Sarah did, citing Peter taking DNA from Gwen to run the test rather than using DNA from Peter. Peter also told the twins Norman was the Green Goblin and was the one responsible for Gwen’s death. The police arrived at the scene of the conversation and shot at Spider-Man, Gabriel, and Sarah. Gabriel escaped, but Sarah was hit. Spider-Man got Sarah to a hospital. Gabriel retreated to a laboratory Norman had left for Gabriel and Sarah, where Gabriel discovered a recorded message from Norman and Goblin costumes Norman left for the twins to continue Norman’s work. The doctors were having difficulty treating Sarah due to the Goblin formula Sarah inherited from Norman. Spider-Man offered a blood transfusion to attempt to save Sarah’s life, knowing Peter and Gwen were the same blood type and hoping Peter’s mutated blood would save Sarah. Gabriel attacked Spider-Man, who was weakened from the blood transfusion, but an unexpected person stepped up to save Spider-Man and stop Gabriel’s threat.

            Charlie Weiderman, an old friend of Peter’s from high school who had also been bullied like Peter had been as a teenager, returned to ask Peter for a favor. Charlie was determined to earn a military contract on a chemical body armor that would make the wearer invulnerable and needed vibranium for his formula, something he couldn’t afford, but Tony Stark could provide it. Charlie hoped Peter held enough clout with Stark to earn Charlie a grant, but Charlie lied and said Peter would be supervising the project so Charlie could secure the grant. When Peter found that his name had been attached to the project, Peter told Charlie Peter was going to go to Stark with the truth. Charlie rushed to test his formula, and it literally blew up on him. Charlie survived and became invulnerable. When the first responders came to the scene, Charlie attacked them. Charlie came to Peter for help, asking Peter to access Charlie’s bank account to get Charlie’s money from Stark Industries out before the account got frozen or else Charlie would go after Peter’s loved ones. Peter went to Mary Jane and told Mary Jane to go to a hotel with Aunt May for their safety. Spider-Man fought Charlie, but Charlie was able to escape. Feeling Peter had betrayed Charlie to Spider-Man, Charlie went to Peter and Mary Jane’s apartment and set it on fire. Spider-Man fought Charlie again but lost the fight. Spider-Man then turned to Tony Stark and his technology to defeat Charlie and protect his family, but not before Aunt May suffered a devastating loss.

            Okay, now that we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, let’s move on to the personalized segments of this review. If you know the formula for these reviews, you know we’re going to start with my own individual opinions about this graphic novel, and if you didn’t know, now you do. Previous readers of my “The Amazing Spider-Man” Modern Era Epic Collection reviews will recall that I am a fan of J. Michael Straczynski’s run on “The Amazing Spider-Man.” This volume, however, didn’t hold up as well when compared to the previous two volumes. I’m not saying I didn’t like this book, but it wasn’t as enjoyable for me as Straczynski’s prior works for certain reasons. The Morwen story was entertaining, I did enjoy seeing Spider-Man team up with Loki. “Vibes” was a one issue story, and it was a good setup for Mary Jane’s character development throughout the course of this volume. “The Book of Ezekiel” was a little hard for me because I didn’t like how Ezekiel turned from being an enigmatic ally to being a devious backstabber. All the previous times he appeared, he’s been enjoyable to read, and it just was character assassination to watch him turn out to have been scheming against Peter this entire time in order to save himself. But if you want to talk about character assassination, let’s discuss “Sins Past.” Gwen having kids with Norman Osborn has to have been the low point of Straczynski’s run on “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Why on earth would Gwen Stacy ever have kids with Norman Osborn? That made zero sense at all. I know Gwen wasn’t a saint, but come on, that’s a bit of a stretch. And this also reflected poorly on Mary Jane, keeping something like this for so many years. Yes, her character is supposed to be good at keeping secrets, but this kind of secret is cruel. However, looking past the concept of Gwen having children with Norman Osborn, the story was intriguing. “Skin Deep” was interesting, seeing someone who had it almost as bad as, if not worse than, Peter growing up, seeing their friendship, and seeing how he reacted to finding himself with powers. As far as the story goes, it’s a little bit of a mixed bag of things to like and things to dislike, but in general, I found most of the stories to be at least moderately, if not relatively, enjoyable. Now, of course, this is a graphic novel, so we’re required to evaluate the quality of the art in this book as well. I am a big fan of the work of John Romita Jr., I think his work is exceptional, I love his style. I was a little dismayed that he didn’t illustrate this entire volume, but Mike Deodato Jr. is another fantastic artist in my opinion, and I loved Mark Brooks’ work on the flashback sequences in “Skin Deep,” the flashbacks had a throwback comic book look and I really enjoyed those. This collection is actually a rare occasion for me, where there were multiple artists that I found consistently visually appealing that I enjoyed better than the story. Coming up next, we’re going to discuss my opinion on the title. I thought “Sins Past” was a completely appropriate title for this particular collection. It was the longest running storyline in the collection, and it even fits well with the themes of the other stories in this volume, with sins of the past coming back to haunt Peter’s present. I also discuss if I feel the cover is appropriate for the content contained inside the volume. This book has a cover of Spider-Man web-swinging. In my opinion, this cover is adequate for this book. It doesn’t hint on any of the themes inside the book, but in all honesty, that doesn’t really matter, it’s a nice cover and it is sufficient for this book. Sometimes, simple is best. In fact, some of the other choices of covers would not have been perfect representations of the core essence of the book, so I applaud the editors for picking the simple option. I feel like the editors had a good marketing style for this book.

            Next up on the agenda of my personalized topics, I’m going to tell you how accessible I feel this book is. Now I know I’ve been over this over seven dozen times at this point, but every time I do a review, I always have readers who have never read one of my reviews before and have no idea what I mean when I throw around the word “accessible,” so once again, I am compelled to explain myself, so to my readers who already know what’s coming, please just bear with me. Anyway, the accessibility of a book I review is how easy it would be for someone who, for example, by some seemingly impossible way, has never heard of Spider-Man, to see this book available to them and then say “oh, hey, this looks cool, I want to read this,” then do so, and understand what is written with no outside information about Spider-Man or Marvel Comics. This volume is marketed as Vol. 3, and it relies on following stories begun in the previous two volumes, so not having followed Straczynski’s run on “The Amazing Spider-Man” thus far is detrimental to following “The Book of Ezekiel,” where Ezekiel’s story has been told over the past two collections. Also, knowledge about the history of Gwen Stacy is necessary for understanding “Sins Past.” I will not say that not knowing your Spider-Man history makes this an impossible read, but being out of the loop will lead to an amount of difficulty following these particular stories. I will say, though, this book contains issues from only one series, all consecutive issues, with no events or crossovers, so the flow of the story is smooth, and the narrative is perfectly linear. If you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and are looking for a place to start, I would not recommend this volume as your first choice.

            Okay, we’re at one of my most crucial segments of my reviews: the numeric score. Now, I know that all my readers come to these reviews for different reasons, some come mainly just to read about the story, but knowing just how good I think a book is when I review it is essential to writing an effective review. So, we’ll start off by discussing my scoring system. Some of you probably know it by now, it is extremely basic. I score on a scale of whole numbers ranging from one through ten. One is my lowest score, and that means that every remaining copy of this book that has yet to be sold should be removed from the shelves or pulled out of the warehouses or factories and obliterated, and the original plates should be erased so that this abomination can never be reprinted and will be removed from living memory entirely. Okay, I know that’s really extra right there, I’m just trying to emphasize a point. Ten, on the other hand, is the highest score I can possibly give, and that signifies that this book exemplifies sheer perfection in every way and is one of the best things I have ever read and I will not shut up about it until I have read my next book that I am going to review. For me, giving out a ten is extremely rare because to be a ten, I expect there to be no identifiable flaws in either the story, the art, the title, or the choice of cover, which is a lot of things to expect to be flawless, and if I do find even a single thing to complain about, I can’t in good faith give a book a score of a ten. Now, we’ve established based on my review so far that this book has aspects that I have found to complain about, which means you already know this book is not getting a ten. That said, there was a lot in this book I found to enjoy, there were parts of the stories I liked, I loved the art, and the marketing strategy was adequate. So, all of those factors are taken into account when I dole out my score. So, all cards on the table, when I deal out my score, what we’re looking at is… a seven! It was, for the most part, enjoyable, but the character assassinations were a bit much and the stories were not as good as some of Straczynski’s previous storylines in his run on the series.

            Coming up next on our docket, we’re doing the recommendation segment. This segment is to answer two independent questions. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers, or even to anyone who is unfortunate enough to get caught in a conversation about this book with me? Question two is, regardless of my personal recommendation or not, whom do I think is the perfect audience for this book, going beyond the obvious of fans of Spider-Man, Marvel Comics, or the creative team. So, to answer the first question, yes, I do recommend this book. If you read this review and now based solely on the words you have just spent the past few minutes reading you want to read the book I wrote about, I would tell you to get out there and find some way to get your hands on this book, either your favorite online retailer, bookstore, comic book shop, library, or someone else who has this book, and read it as soon as you possibly can. To answer question number two, I think the best audiences for this book are people who enjoy reading stories about supernatural threats, and people who enjoy suspense stories about things from the past coming back to have repercussions on the present.

            Okay, I think we’re just about ready to wrap things up. There are a few things I have to say before I hit the publish button. I’ve been doing this blog for over five and a half years now. I’ve posted over 180 times, so keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for plenty more content. I’ve written short stories, poems, articles, essays, editorials, and over seven dozen other reviews just like this one. I’ve reviewed prose novels, graphic novels, comic book events, and manga. My current focus is mainly Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase every new one as soon as I can after it is released and post a review at my earliest convenience after finishing reading it. I post on a very frequent basis. If you liked this post, feel free to check out “The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home,” “The Amazing Spider-Man: The Life and Death of Spiders,” and “The Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time” for more “The Amazing Spider-Man” Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection content. Keep checking back regularly for my next review, which will definitely be up within the next two months after this post. I use two months as an oversimplification, you can probably expect it a lot sooner than that, I just don’t want to rush the gun or anything. My next review is going to be “New Avengers: Secret Invasion” in case you’re interested, so you know what to look for. Feel free to drop a comment, and share, like, and retweet, get me out there however you like or can. That’s all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Ultimate Spider-Man: Hunted"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Ultimate Spider-Man: Hunted” as presented in Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection format.

            Accidentally bitten by a genetically altered spider, teenager Peter Parker now finds he had the proportionate abilities of a spider. This includes strength, agility, a spider-like sixth sense warning him of personal danger. And, most amazing of all-Peter can walk on walls. When Peter learns through the recent tragedy of his Uncle Ben’s death that with great power there must also come great responsibility, he fearlessly dons the costume of: Spider-Man. After two rousing trials by fire in the form of his first two conflicts as a real-life super hero, Spider-Man came out victorious over the misshapen monstrosity of the Goblin and the underworld overboss the Kingpin of Crime. Peter had many unanswered questions about his powers and how he got them. One thing he knew was that by running around as Spider-Man, he had been hurting the feelings of the only true friend he has, the beautiful Mary Jane Watson. After defeating the Kingpin, the first thing he did was call Mary Jane over for a serious talk-where he revealed his secret identity to her.

            In an effort to help the students study the environment around them from another perspective, Peter’s social studies teacher at Midtown High School assigned her class an oral presentation to come to class in character as a superhero and explain why they were the way they were and what their powers meant to them. This assignment caused great dissent among the students, who were unhappy with the prospect of coming to school in costume. Kenny “Kong” MacFarlane worried that the advent of the supers was the end of the normals, but new student Gwendolyn Stacy just shared her perspective that what everyone does best is their superpower. Doctor Otto Octavius awoke in a S.H.I.E.L.D. medical facility after being in a coma for three months following an explosion at Osborn Industries. His apparatus he wore for lab work, four mechanical arms, were now fused to his body, and he could control them telepathically. He had no memory of the accident. After a show of violence, Otto escaped the facility. He returned to his old home to find a new resident living there and took his anger out on her. Kong, who had been present when Peter was bitten by the spider that gave Peter spider powers, and had witnessed several changes in Peter’s reflexes, surmised that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. He shared his theory with Fred “Flash” Thompson and Liz Allan, who did not agree with Kong’s opinion. To try to prove his theory, Flash told Kong to attack Peter from behind, rationalizing that is Peter were Spider-Man, Peter would be able to prevent the assault. Although Peter’s spider sense warned him of Kong’s impending attack, Peter allowed Kong to get his attack in order to hide his identity. In anger of Peter being bullied, Gwen pulled a blade on Kong, threatening him should he ever bully Peter again. Gwen was pulled out of school. Gwen’s father, New York Police Department Captain John Stacy, was pulled off of a homicide case to deal with his daughter. Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich came to Editor in Chief J. Jonah Jameson with insider information about Otto Octavius. Though skeptical, Jameson told Urich to look into this story. Octavius mistakenly blamed Justin Hammer for the accident at Osborn Industries. Hammer was a businessman and rival to Norman Osborn, head of Osborn Industries, missing since the accident in the laboratory. Octavius swore revenge on Hammer for turning Octavius into a freak. Octavius broke into Hammer’s residence, but Hammer was no present at the time. Reality television star Kraven the Hunter announced he would be coming to New York City for his greatest hunt yet. Urich tipped Captain Stacy off to the possibility that Octavius was involved in the recent murder right before S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrived to ask Stacy about the case. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents interrogated Hammer about his knowledge of Octavius, warning Hammer that Octavius was targeting Hammer. Kraven arrived in New York and announced that the creature he intended to hunt and kill in the City was Spider-Man. Hammer unveiled the Big Apple Energy Dome Project, a facility that would provide New York was an abundance of affordable and alternative energy sources as a distraction from the secret illegal genetic experiments he was performing in his laboratory. Octavius attacked the project. The Midtown High School student body was informed Kraven the Hunter would be filming a segment of his show at the High School, location of one of the first Spider-Man sightings. Peter heard the report of an attack on the Dome Project and swung in as Spider-Man. Octavius defeated Spider-Man and fled the scene, and Spider-Man was only able to escape S.H.I.E.L.D. agents by leaving behind a piece of Spider-Man’s costume. Mary Jane patched Peter up after Spider-Man’s beating and promised to help repair Peter’s costume. Peter barely managed to hide his injuries from his Aunt May. Peter went to school, where Gwen’s attention to Peter drew jealousy from Mary Jane. Mary Jane gave Peter Spider-Man’s costume piece replacement in time for Spider-Man to tail Hammer. Hammer received a summons from Octavius to Hammer’s laboratory, and Spider-Man rode on top of Hammer’s limo. Kraven received word of Spider-Man’s location and began his hunt. Octavius intended to expose Hammer’s illegal experiments. Spider-Man swung into action to protect Hammer and Hammer’s assistant. Spider-Man confronted both Otto Octavius and Kraven the Hunter but was unable to save the life of Justin Hammer. Peter returned home at three o’clock in the morning to find Aunt May awake waiting for Peter to return home. Peter was caught in a lie as to his whereabouts and was grounded. S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to obtain Spider-Man’s secret identity.

            Peter had to get swing time in as Spider-Man during the day due to being grounded, which made him late for school. Peter informed Mary Jane she would be unable to come over to the Parker residence. Harry Osborn returned to Midtown High School. Harry informed Peter that Norman Osborn wished to have dinner with Peter. Peter was surprised, as he believed the Goblin that attacked Midtown High School was Norman. Peter told Harry that Peter was grounded. Norman sent a limo to the Parker house, and Aunt May relented and allowed Peter to go to the Osborn residence. Norman met with Peter in private, where he induced a transformation into the Goblin and informed Peter that Spider-Man worked for Norman Osborn or else Peter’s friends and family would pay the price. Peter quickly fled the Osborn residence before dinner and returned home. Aunt May decided to lift Peter’s grounding. Peter tried to call Mary Jane to inform her about what happened, but the call was interrupted by the arrival of Gwen Stacy at the Parker residence. Gwen’s mother had run off to Chicago with a new boyfriend, and John was at work, and Gwen had been left home alone. Aunt May watched over Gwen until John was able to come pick Gwen up. The next day at school, Peter tried to tell Mary Jane about the previous night but was interrupted by both Gwen and a page by Doctor Bradley. Doctor Bradley was secretly an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Peter was introduced to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, who informed Peter S.H.I.E.L.D. was aware Peter was Spider-Man and Norman was the Goblin. Fury told Peter that Osborn was going to have Peter kill Fury. Fury also informed Peter that S.H.I.E.L.D. would be unable to act against Osborn until Osborn actually did something illegal. Upon returning home, Peter found a limo waiting to take both Peter and Aunt May to the Osborn residence for dinner. Peter told Aunt May that Norman might be a criminal, and Aunt May turned down the dinner invitation. Spider-Man confronted the Goblin and told the Goblin that Spider-Man would not do the Goblin’s bidding. In retaliation, the Goblin abducted Mary Jane. The Goblin led Spider-Man to the Queensborough Bridge. The Goblin threw Mary Jane off of the Bridge. Spider-Man shot a web and caught her and returned to ground level, but Mary Jane was unresponsive. Now that Osborn had crossed the line, S.H.I.E.L.D. could act against Osborn. Peter’s rage against Osborn was now increased, and Spider-Man joined S.H.I.E.L.D.’s fight against the Goblin. Goblin tried to flee to the Osborn residence, where Goblin used code words Doctor Warren, the psychiatrist Norman hired in order to for Norman to control Harry, had programmed into Harry to render Harry unconscious. Goblin injected himself with more of the Goblin serum and Spider-Man faced the fury of a souped-up Goblin.

            Okay, now that we’ve got a rather lengthy summary out of the way, let’s move on to my perspective parts of this review. My previous readers know I always start with my own personal opinions on the book when I do a review, and I will do the same once again. I will say that I thoroughly loved this book. I’ve actually read the issues collected in this book both individually and in other collection formats many times before, and the original “Ultimate Spider-Man” is very much a favorite of mine. This series began right before I started regularly reading Marvel Comics, so this series was an entry point for me into Spider-Man comics as this was a new universe where all of Spider-Man history had never happened. I could really relate to fifteen-year-old Peter Parker, being thirteen years old myself at the time I started reading the series. This series also came out before the first “Spider-Man” movie, so there weren’t a lot of retellings of Spider-Man’s origin story available at the time. I have been a fan of Brian Michael Bendis’ work since “Ultimate Spider-Man,” I think he is a brilliant writer. I thought the stories in this book were phenomenal. I love Ultimate Gwen Stacy, I think she is absolutely a bad (word I’m not going to use on this blog). I loved how she stood up to Kong for bullying Peter, and then friction she caused between Peter and Mary Jane was great drama. I will also say I enjoyed that Bendis didn’t make Aunt May a sweet doting old lady like Stan Lee created, rather a strict woman who exerts authority. I enjoyed that change. Aunt May grounding Peter actually made the story more entertaining for me because it impacted Peter’s activities as Spider-Man and gave him limitations. I also liked Bendis’ interpretation of the Goblin, being an actual monstrosity who could fly and shoot energy blasts, rather than just being a man in a costume flying around on a glider throwing out weapons. I liked how Bendis made Kraven the Hunter a reality television star, but I will say that Kraven has never really been one of my favorite Spider-Man villains, and I will say I feel Bendis totally nerfed him. I think Doctor Octopus was done perfectly in this book. I enjoyed the amnesia and the derangement and the desire for revenge. And to top this off on things I liked about this book, Mark Bagley is my favorite comic book artist, I love his work, I think he has a fantastic artistic style and his work in this book was nothing short of amazing. If there is something I didn’t like about this book, it was that is didn’t include “Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special” #1, which concluded the story about the “be a superhero” assignment. The fact it was left out made the whole plotline feel like it was for no reason and that it went nowhere. I know the previous formats didn’t include it, and I was hoping the Ultimate Epic Collection might fix this, but alas, it didn’t, so I was slightly disappointed by that. I will also say I found the choice of title odd. None of the other formats have ever used the title “Hunted” before, so this kind of came out of left field. This book had fourteen issues in it, each with a different title, and the previous formats used two titles, and the choice they used was one that I don’t feel was ideal for this book. “Hunted” just doesn’t capture the essence of the book as a whole, in my opinion. I’m not going to speculate on what would have been the best title for this book as I think that very few of them would be perfect representations of the book as a whole, and I think they all have their flaws when it comes to being the ideal title for this particular collection. What I found very interesting was the cover. Usually, the cover of an Epic Collection is the cover of one of the issues contained in the book. This collection uses a panel from one page inside one of the issues as the cover. I actually approve of this choice. While, yes, there are covers inside this book that would have worked as a cover for this collection, I think this choice works perfectly. It was a bold choice, in my opinion, and they didn’t have to do it and there were plenty of other options to choose from, but I thought choosing a panel instead of an individual issue cover fits this book just fine. Overall, I found this book to be an enjoyable read and I loved experiencing it again.

            Next up on our list of topics to cover while doing this review, we’re going to discuss accessibility. If you’ve read more than one of my reviews before, you know exactly what’s coming next because I’ve been over this over seven dozen times already, but every time I write a review, I always have new readers who have never consumed a Tim Cubbin review before and might not know what I mean when I use the word “accessibility.” So, what I’m asking here is, is this book accessible? And what I mean is, can a person who knows absolutely nothing about Spider-Man at all, or have no knowledge of the plotlines outside this book, decide to read this book and then completely understand the whole story in its entirety based solely on what is contained in this volume alone. I will tell you this book is relatively accessible. It does continue directly out of the previous volume, picking up on its stories and continuing where it left off, that is true, but to me, I don’t feel like having read the previous stories is an absolute necessity to read this volume. Having read the previous volume makes this volume fully accessible. This is marketed as Vol. 2, so there is a little bit of backstory. But the issues in this book are all consecutive issues of one series and don’t tie-into any other series or storylines or crossover or rely on knowledge of other series or characters outside of this volume. And the stories in this book don’t pick up from an unfinished ending of the previous volume and don’t leave an unresolved conclusion hanging directly into the next volume. Yes, it continues from the foundation of Vol. 1, but I don’t feel like reading it is absolutely essential to enjoying this volume.

            Moving on, we’re going to move on to the scoring. I know some people feel that a numeric score is the most important part of my reviews. I can’t completely agree with that. It’s beneficial for me to discuss the story as well, and talking about my personal opinions establishes a lot, even saying if the book is accessible helps, and it’s key to know if I’d give the book a personal recommendation, so I think each part of my reviews are important in their own way. But I will say that the score is a very essential point in my reviews. So obviously it would help if I explained my scoring system first. I know if you’ve read more than one of my reviews before, you know the gist of what I’m about to say, but again, I have the newbs who don’t know how this works, so I have to explain the system to benefit them. Well, my scoring system is extremely simple. I score on a scale of whole numbers ranging from one through ten. If I score the book at a one, that is the lowest score, and that means this book is absolute trash and not worth reading. However, if I score the book at a ten, that means the book is sheer perfection and one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life. Let us not forget that this is a graphic novel, so we have to take several things into consideration when scoring this book. Obviously we’re going for story, that’s a very key thing to look at when scoring, but we also have to take into consideration if the art is actually at peak, too; and on top of that, we have to look if the title lives up to what its name implies it will give us. And yes, I even look at the cover, if what it shows us on the front of this book is actually accurate to the essence of the book. I loved so much about this book, and while I would love to score it at a ten, I just can’t. The title just doesn’t feel right to me, and the exclusion of “Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special” #1 just makes the “be a superhero” assignment storyline feel like it goes nowhere and would make anyone who hasn’t read the “Super Special” wonder why these scenes are even included in this collection at all, so deduction on the score is imperative. However, I don’t feel like being harsh on this book either. So, when all is said and done and I give out my numeric score, the number we are looking at is… a nine! I feel like this book exceeded expectations and highly excelled and while it did have a few flaws, they were only minor. This book was close to perfection for me, and I really would love to have given it a ten, but there were just a few things holding me back, the title being one of the biggest ones. All-in-all though, I thought this was an excellent book.

            Continuing on with our agenda of topics to discuss, we’re going to do the recommendation segment. This segment answers two separate questions. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers, and if you are reading this review and are intrigued by what I’ve written, should you now try to obtain this book and read it as well, based solely on the words I’ve just spent the past several hours typing? The second question is regardless of the answer to my first question, and it is, whom do I think would be the best audiences for this book, besides the obvious answers of Spider-Man fans, Marvel fans, or fans of the creative team? I could probably skip the first question as it’s pretty obvious what I’m going to say, but the answer is yes, I recommend this book to anyone reading these words or who is unfortunate enough to find themselves caught up in a conversation about this graphic novel with me. If you’re interested in reading this book now just because of me, I’d highly recommend going to a bookstore, or your favorite comic book store, or your preferred online retailer, or your local library, or (if you’re lucky enough) from a Marvelite friend or relative, and get a copy as soon as you can. In answer to question number two, I feel like the best audience is teenagers who want to read a comic book as they will find the characters most relatable. I also feel like if you like soap operas and are interested in print medium, this book captures the essence of a daytime drama in an action and science fiction format.

            Well, we’re just about ready to part ways for this review. There are a few things I do have to say first before I hit publish. First off, I’ve been doing this blog for five and a half years now. I’ve published over 180 posts. A lot of them are reviews just like this. I’ve reviewed a lot of Marvel Epic Collections, particularly Modern Era Epic Collections, and right now, the main focus of this blog is reviewing Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I have reviewed comic book events, prose novels, and manga as well. I’ve also posted short stories, poems, articles, essays, and editorials, so there’s plenty of other content to check out, so keep browsing timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my work. If you liked this post and have some more free time, please check out my review of “Ultimate Spider-Man: Learning Curve” for more “Ultimate Spider-Man” content. My next post is going to be “Black Widow: Widowmaker” which will be posted within the next two months following this post, so keep checking back for it if you liked this post and want to continue reading my new works. I post on a very frequent basis as 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 the earliest day I have free after I’ve finished reading the Epic Collection. I’m going to keep this blog going as long as I can, so you can expect to see this going on for a while as my doctor yesterday told me I’m healthier than she is. I love doing this blog and even though I don’t get paid for it, I still do it as professionally as I can. I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, so doing this blog puts me in the field, since my actual job is working in a grocery store. Anyway, if you read all the way to this point, you are THE BEST! I appreciate you. Feel free to like, share, retweet, comment, and tell your friends about me, and please keep coming back for more, as I’ll keep dishing out plenty more content on this blog. That’s all I have to say for now, but until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!