"Carnage: Carnage U.S.A."

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Carnage: Carnage U.S.A.” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Tech billionaire Michael Hall recovered the body of Cletus Kasady/Carnage from space after Carnage had been ripped in half by the superhero the Sentry. Francis Barrison/Shriek, Carnage’s lover and a supervillain patient at Ravencroft, a sanitorium bought over by Hall Industries, was being transported to a Hall Industries facility. The Spider-Doppelganger, who thought of her as its mother, sensed her presence and attacked the truck carrying her. Shriek’s psychiatrist, Doctor Tanis Nieves, tried to use her car to run the truck off the road. Tony Stark/Iron Man and Peter Parker/Spider-Man came to stop the creature, but Shriek used her mind control powers to incite an angry mob against the heroes. Two tech powered employees for Hall Industries, Royal Blue and Firebrick, joined the fight and shot the Spider-Doppelganger, hitting Nieves as well. The truck got away, and the mob quieted down. Nieves was outfitted with a high-tech prosthetic arm from Hall Industries that was laced with a piece of the Carnage symbiote. Spider-Man visited Nieves in the hospital, suspicious of Shriek’s part in the riot, and Nieve’s confirmed she was Shriek’s doctor but did not implicate Hall Industries. Stark found traces of the Carnage symbiote left behind from the skirmish with Royal Blue and Firebrick and told Spider-Man, who had a long history with symbiotes. Nieves demanded to see Shriek during the middle of an experiment, and the symbiote in her prosthetic arm took over and attacked. Stark pieced together that Hall was involved, and Iron Man and Spider-Man went to Hall Industries, where they were attacked by the tech soldiers Paris Green, Firebrick, Royal Blue, Burnt Orange, and Gun Metal. Nieves freed the Carnage symbiote, and the symbiote attached to her. The tech soldiers were called in to fight Carnage. Iron Man and Spider-Msn joined the fight. As Shriek was being moved, the Spider-Doppelganger tried to rescue Shriek. The Hall employees moving Shriek fought the creature, and Shriek attacked the guards to save the creature. Carnage found its way to the cell where Cletus Kasady was secretly being kept alive. The symbiote left Nieves and rejoined with Kasady. Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Hall tech soldiers fought Carnage, but Carnage pulled the symbiote tech from the soldiers and added it to himself. Shriek found Nieves and informed her she was carrying Carnage’s baby. Tanis cut off her prosthetic arm to try to prevent bonding with a symbiote. Shriek attached the arm to herself, then joined Carnage in the fight, mind controlling all the civilians to her side, along with the Spider-Doppelganger. The tide turned against the heroes, and as it looked like the heroes were losing, Nieves became the symbiote hero Scorn. Scorn forced Shriek to use her sonic powers to destroy Carnage’s armor, but Carnage himself was able to escape. Nieves was then placed under Stark’s care.

                Carnage escaped to Doverton, Colorado, where he took over the entire town. Kasady sent the sheriff out with his demands. The Avengers, Spider-Man, James Howlett/Wolverine, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Steve Rogers/Captain America, and Ben Grimm/Thing were called in to rescue the town. Upon arriving, they encountered Kasady, who expanded the symbiote and corrupted the Avengers, except for Spider-Man. The government, in response, sent in two contingency plans, all symbiote powered agents, Contingency A was Scorn. Contingency B was soldiers Marcus Simms/Lasher, James Murphy/Agony, Rico Axelson/Phage, and Howard Ogden/Riot. Spider-Man was rescued by the citizens of Doverton who were able to escape from Carnage and were hiding on the Ralsby Estate outside Doverton. Carnage sent the wife and children of one of the escapees to the Ralsby Estate to kill their family. They were unable to go through with their mission. Carnage briefly lost control over Captain America, and Cap called in a third contingency plan: Eugene “Flash” Thompson/Venom. Spider-Man and Contingencies A and B fought Carnage and the symbiote civilians of Doverton and the symbiote Avengers until Venom arrived. Scorn set up a trap that separated symbiotes from their hosts and plowed Carnage into it, but unintentionally also drove Venom into it as well. Flash and Cletus fought without their symbiotes. The government fired on a localized area of Doverton to destroy the symbiote mass, and Cletus Kasady was arrested and detained.

                Carnage managed to bust out of custody from the Thunderbolts Mountain Maximum Security Prison. Venom was called in to hunt him down. On the footage of Carnage’s escape, Venom saw a small creature. Venom called his contact, Daily Inquisitor reporter Katy Kiernan, who sent him a report about the Prometheus Pit in Houston, Texas. Kaine Parker/Scarlet Spider, who operated in Houston, found a survivor of a crime scene, who seemed to be afraid of him. Katy flew to Houston to investigate the story and met with Doctor Ketola, who had built a version of the Prometheus Pit at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Carnage attacked the Space Center, and Scarlet Spider swung in to try to stop him. A group of small creatures joined the fight and forced Ketola to activate the Prometheus Pit. Carnage grabbed Katy and stepped through it. Venom arrived at the scene and lost control of the symbiote and attacked Scarlet Spider. After a brief fight, Flash regained control of the symbiote, and Scarlet Spider and Venom stepped through the Prometheus Pit. The two arrived in separate locations in the Microverse. Venom was discovered by the Enigma Force. Scarlet Spider arrived in front of the Redeemer. Carnage was brought to the Body Banks. Enigma Force traveled through the Microverse with Venom to fight Marquis Radu. The Redeemer brought Scarlet Spider to Marquis Radu’s location, where they were attacked by Carnage. The Redeemer was endangered, and Scarlet Spider broke off the attack. Marquis Radu abducted Venom, the Enigma Force, Katy, and Carnage and brought them to the Body Banks. Marquis Radu used the Venom and Carnage symbiotes to create an army of symbiote soldiers. The Enigma Force and Katy managed to break free. Carnage escaped from the Microverse. The Redeemer used his powers to return Scarlet Spider, Venom and Katy to Houston, but they did not arrive full-sized. Scarlet Spider and Venom battled the symbiote soldiers until they returned to regular size. Venom detonated a sonic bomb, destroying the symbiote soldier and knocking out Carnage. Scarlet Spider then lobotomized Cletus Kasady. Carnage was apprehended and sedated.

                Bentley Whitman/Wizard staged a prison break to recruit Carnage for his Frightful Four, along with Ulysses Klaw and Karl Malus. Wizard was dying due to dementia caused by a fight with Black Bolt and wanted to impress his estranged clone/son Bentley-23 before he passed away. However, Wizard was unable to bend Carnage to his will. Wizard decided to control Carnage, Wizard would have to change Carnage’s host. Wizard performed a blood transfusion between Cletus Kasady and Malus. Wizard decided the Frightful Four would stage an attack on City Hall in New York City and take down Mayor J. Jonah Jameson. As the Frightful Four attacked City Hall and entered the mayor’s office, they were greeted by Otto Octavius/Spider-Man and his Spider Patrol. The Superior Spider-Man then had to fight the Frightful Four and the Superior Carnage to save City Hall.

                Okay, I think that’s a good enough synopsis summary. Now it’s time for my personal input for the review. We’re going to start, as always, with my own personal opinions on the book. Some of my longtime readers may recall that Carnage is my favorite supervillain. So, of course when I found out Marvel was putting out a “Carnage” Modern Era Epic Collection, I was super excited. And I will say that I loved this book. Mind you that I did read these stories years ago, but it’s been at least twelve years on parts of this book, so the refresher was needed. But I thought these stories were excellent. I’ve always been a fan of Carnage, and I also enjoyed Flash Thompson/Venom and Kaine Parker/Scarlet Spider, so having all three of these characters featured in one volume was a huge thrill for me. Some of my longtime readers may recall that the “Minimum Carnage” storyarc was also featured in “Venom: The Savage Six,” so the story has been reviewed before in my review of that graphic novel, if you would like to compare them. Anyway, “Carnage” was interesting to me, I liked how Hall made his technology out of the Carnage symbiote, and Scorn was an interesting new character in my opinion. “Carnage U.S.A.” was highly enjoyable to me, the whole concept of Carnage taking over a whole town was highly entertaining. I loved “Minimum Carnage,” the Scarlet Spider/Venom crossover event was a great idea, in my opinion, taking these two vastly different characters and forcing them to try to achieve the same goal was genius. “Superior Carnage” was compelling, watching the Wizard making a last-ditch effort to impress his son almost made me root for the villain, which I actually felt was quite a brilliant twist. While I loved the stories, the art presents a little bit of a problem. For the most part I enjoyed it, but I have a few complaints. While I enjoyed Clayton Crain’s work on “Carnage” and “Carnage U.S.A.” I will say that I felt that his coloring was a little too dark. Also, I was not a fan of Declan Shalvey’s work on “Venom” in “Minimum Carnage.” That said, the rest of the art was, in my opinion, fantastic. But the biggest problem I have with the art is Cletus Kasady’s legs. Crain drew Kasady as he had been torn in half by the Sentry, with a prosthetic lower body. This lower body was destroyed during his fight with Flash Thompson during “Carnage U.S.A.” However, all the other artists who drew Kasady in human form gave Kasady flesh and blood legs. This inconsistency greatly bothers me. I feel it is something the editors should have noticed. Otherwise, I felt this book was a stellar Modern Era Epic Collection and hope to see more “Carnage” Modern Era Epic Collections in the future. Also, I felt that the title “Carnage U.S.A.” was highly adequate.

                Next on our list of things to discuss, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve explained this at least six dozen times at this point, but I know I always have new readers every time I do a post who don’t know what I mean when I use the word, so I shall explain myself once again. When I say “accessibility” I mean if a person who knows nothing about Marvel Comics can pick up this book, read it, and completely understand what they have just read. I will say this book does have some accessibility factors, but there are some details that are off-putting to readers who are unfamiliar with the comics. First off, Flash Thompson is not the best-known Venom, Kaine Parker is not the most well-known Scarlet Spider, and readers who don’t know Marvel would have difficulty with Otto Octavius being the Superior Spider-Man. But it does have a standalone kind of feel to it, particularly the fact that most of it is limited series. This volume is comprised of three limited series, two one-shots, and four regular issues from two ongoing series. Would I recommend it as a first read for someone who wants to start getting into Marvel Comics? Not particularly, but it’s not the worst place a new reader can start.

                Okay, now that I’ve been prattling on for a long time, I think it’s high time I move on to the point that is one of the key components of my review: the numeric score. I’m not going to say it’s the single most important part of my review, everyone reads my reviews for different reasons, but the score is a very integral part of any of my reviews. So, I score on a very basic system, on a scale of one through ten. One means this book is smelly garbage that should be avoided at all cost. Ten means this book is sheer perfection. People who have read my reviews before know I’m very particular about what I consider perfection and I’m not in the business of just posting every book I read is a ten. And I will say this book is just not perfection. While yes, the stories were fantastic, the art had its problems, with the color pallet being a little dark in Crain’s work, and Shalvey’s work didn’t appeal to my visual tastes, and yes, there was the forgetting of Cletus Kasady having been cut in half. However, I still thought this was an excellent book, and I feel like the score I give should reflect on that. So, when I put the book into my metaphorical review-mixing blender and turn it on and mix this book until it’s a fine liquid, taking everything in this book into account, the fantastic story, the relatively decent art, the adequate title, and I pour it out into my metaphorical cup, this score is… an eight. I felt like this book had an exemplary story, and if a different artist had been selected for “Venom” and if the artists had remembered to follow continuity on Kasady’s body, the score could have been higher, but for what it was, this book was a phenomenal effort.

                Next on our list of things to do is the recommendation. In this segment I do two things. The first is I tell you, my readers, if I personally recommend this book to you, or if I were to talk to anyone about this book, would I recommend it to them? The second thing I do is say regardless of if I would recommend the book or not, whom do I think would be the best audience to read this book. So, to answer the first question, you can probably already guess at this point based on the excellent review I’ve given that this book gets my personal recommendation. And if you guessed that, you would be absolutely correct. I do recommend this book to anyone within the sound of my voice and anyone reading this review who is interested in reading this review based solely on what I am writing right now should definitely make every effort to try to obtain this book, either going to your favorite online retailer, or bookstore, or if you’re really lucky your local library might have it, just do whatever you can to get your hands on it, I think this is an exceptional book and well worth the read. As to whom I think the best audience for this book is, I would say anyone who is a fan of Carnage or any symbiote storylines. I would also say people who like horror comics would really enjoy this. And I would also say people who like psychological comics would definitely be a target audience.

                Okay, we’re getting to a point where we are just about ready to part ways. There are a few things I have to say before I go. The first is that I have been doing this blog for five years now and have done over 170 posts. Over seven dozen of them are book reviews just like this. I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after publication and post a review as soon as I possibly can after I read them. I post on a very frequent basis because of this, usually at least one post a month. You can expect to see my next post “Annihilation: Desperate Measures” within the next week after my publishing this post. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s plenty of other content on this blog to check out if you enjoyed this post. I’ll be back soon, but until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Fantastic"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Fantastic” as presented in Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection format.

            Twenty-one years ago, Reed Richards was born. Eleven years ago, Reed was a young genius. He was bullied in school for his smarts, and his father was not understanding of his son’s intellect, so Reed only had his mother and best friend Ben Grimm in his corner. One day, Reed discovered another plane of existence. He began to try to breach the barrier, attempting to send some of his toys to this other dimension. He made it his Middle School Science Fair project, and he succeeded. A recruiter for the United States Director of Mainland Technology Development was in attendance and saw Reed’s project and came to Reed’s family, offering to take Reed to a “think tank” for young geniuses called the Baxter Building in New York City. Reed was introduced to Professor Franklin Storm, who informed Reed that although they were aware of this other dimension, which they called the N-Zone, Reed was the first to break through to it. Professor Storm had two young children, Sue and Johnny. Sue was also part of the think tank program. Five years ago, Reed was working on using the N-Zone as a transporter. One night, fellow Baxter Building Student Victor Van Damme snuck into Reed’s room to look at Reed’s formulas for the N-Zone. Though originally mad, Reed and Victor agreed to work together to further both Reed’s work in teleportation, and Victor’s work in robotics. General Ross of the United States Army fired Baxter Building scientist Arthur Molekevic for trying to create life through bio-technological methods. Five years later, the teleporter was ready for its first test. Reed invited his old friend Ben to view the test. Reed, Sue, Johnny, Ben, and Victor were all on the platform to watch an apple be teleported from the Nevada Desert to Guantanamo Bay. However, the teleporter did not teleport the apple, and Sue, Johnny, Ben, and Victor all disappeared, and Reed was able to elongate his body. Ben reappeared in Mexico City; his body transformed into rock. Johnny reappeared in France and could catch on fire. Susan reappeared in the desert, but was taken by Doctor Molekevic’s ani-men, with the ability to turn invisible. After being fired, Doctor Molekevic discovered an underworld 1.4 miles directly below the Baxter Building and had access to the Baxter Building mainframe and had been watching over its activities since he was fired with his creations. Johnny tried to learn to get his combustion powers under control. Ben was furious at Reed for mutating him, and Reed promised Ben he would fix them. Doctor Molekevic sent one of his creations, a giant monster, to the surface in order to bring Johnny down to him and Sue. Reed, Ben, and Johnny defeated the monster, then went below to rescue Sue. While fighting the monster, Johnny learned that while he was on fire, he had the ability to fly. Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny were reunited, and Sue learned she could create force fields that she was able to manipulate and move.

Reed determined that before the test, Victor must have changed the coordinates in the teleporter, and that it had instead sent them through the N-Zone and came out of it with these new powers. Reed and Sue grew romantically involved. Victor had reappeared in Copenhagen and had transformed into a metallic form. He had set up a Keep, where he used a mind-controlling tattoo to keep his own community. He sent a swarm of killer robot bugs to attack the Baxter Building. Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben were able to destroy his swarm, and Reed recognized this work as Victor’s and was able to reverse-trace Victor’s location. The United States Army was going to go to Copenhagen to arrest Victor for attacking the Baxter Building. Reed wanted to get to him first so he could get the codes he used for the transporter so he could attempt to reverse the effects of the transporter before they lost their only opportunity. Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben flew in Reed’s old invention, the Fantasti-car, to get there before the Army did. Victor reviewed the cameras from his robots and saw Sue, Ben and Johnny now had powers, but did not realize that Reed had also had powers since he had no abilities to use that aided in destroying the swarm. Victor shot down the Fantasti-Car, and he and his community fought Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben. Reed was unable to get the codes from Victor.

Reed continued to try to understand how to recreate the conditions of the accident, but Sue and Johnny decided they didn’t want to change back to the way they used to be. Reed decided the best way to get the information would be to actually go into the N-Zone himself. Sue, Johnny, and Ben agreed to go with him. Reed got the Army to agree and had a space shuttle decommissioned and refitted with his technology to make it able to travel through the N-Zone. The shuttle was renamed the “Awesome.” The four took the Awesome into the N-Zone. While in the N-Zone, they picked up a transmission. The four flew to investigate and Reed made contact with a lifeform in the N-Zone. The four arrived at a space station and were invited aboard. The lifeform was called Nihil. He used a special translator to communicate with the four, and Reed told Nihil that they hailed from another universe. During their conversation, Johnny’s skin turned to ash, and the four had to return to the Awesome to get back to their universe to treat Johnny. Reed and Ben went back to offer Nihil a way to establish communication between his universe and the N-Zone, but Nihil didn’t want that. The N-Zone was a dying universe, and he wanted to conquer a living one. Nihil tried to eliminate Reed and Ben, and Reed and Ben fought Nihil and his minions. Reed and Ben managed to retreat to the Awesome, and the four flew back to their universe. Unfortunately, they were unable to close the portal before Nihil and his minions could fly through. Nihil shot out the Awesome’s engines, and the Awesome crashed in Las Vegas. Reed, Sue, Ben, and the United States Army then had to fight Nihil and his minions in the streets of Vegas, and the existence of a new team of superheroes became known.

Okay, we’ve covered the synopsis. That’s just the first part of a Tim Cubbin review. Believe me, there’s plenty more content coming. Anyway, I start of my critiquing segments with my personal thoughts about the book. So, I’ll start off by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. As some of my regular readers know, I have been reading Marvel Comics regularly for nearly twenty-five years now. The issues in this Collection were originally published between 2004-2005, and I read them pretty close to the time of original publication, but it’s been over fifteen years since I last read these issues, so experiencing them again was a genuine pleasure. Now, for context, this is my fourth review of a Marvel Ultimate Epic Collection, the Ultimate Universe was created back in 2000 to attract new readers by throwing away forty years of history and starting fresh with new stories for the classic characters, like Spider-Man and the X-Men. This eventually led to the Ultimates, which was a reimagining of the Avengers. Marvel eventually decided to move on to Fantastic Four in the Ultimate Universe. “Ultimate Fantastic Four” actually really was my introduction into Fantastic Four comics. I never really went for the classic Fantastic Four too much, even as my tenure reading Marvel went on. My only true foray into the classics was “Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” two years ago, so if you want to compare original “Fantastic Four” to “Ultimate Fantastic Four,” please check out that review after completing your read of this review. But anyway, that’s enough history, let’s get on to what actually matters. So, yes, I really enjoyed the stories. I found this origin story of the Fantastic Four to actually be more compelling than any other I’ve read or viewed. I found Mark Millar’s take on having them gain their powers through a joint through the N-Zone to actually be more interesting than any others, which pretty much all involve something to do with space. Mind you, this was my first real Fantastic Four origin, too, but I don’t think any other origin has been as ambitious or as original as Millar’s was. I think pretty much every other writer has tried to do something similar to what Stan Lee did back in 1961, so something different is actually welcome. I remember seeing “Fantastic Four” in 2005 and being slightly disappointed with seeing them get their powers from a solar flare. As far as 2015, I honestly don’t remember how that one went, it was so bad I’ve tried to completely block it from my memory. Now we have “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” coming out in less than a month, I don’t know how that’s going to compare. But once again, I digress. That said, I support Millar’s choice with going with something different. I also like how he, Brian Michael Bendis, and Warren Ellis didn’t rush in with names, either. Nowhere in this book do they call themselves “Fantastic Four,” “Mister Fantastic,” “Invisible Woman,” “Human Torch,” or “the Thing,” although Johnny is attempting to shop names for them, but never do those original names actually get spoken in this entire volume. I liked that they weren’t rushing into being superheroes. I also liked Millar’s/Bendis’ idea to call the character Victor “Van Damme” and not “Von Doom” or “Doctor Doom.” I hate to say it, but I always found “Doctor Victor Von Doom” to sound kind of cheesy. I liked how Victor actually became metallic rather than just wearing a suit of metal, I thought that was really cool. I liked that Victor was a descendant of Dracula, even though I honestly feel like it serves no purpose, I just thought that was interesting. I liked the decision to call the other dimension the “N-Zone” rather than the “Negative Zone,” and I liked Ellis’ version of Annihilus, “Nihil.” I actually thought I caught a lapse in continuity with the inclusion of General Ross, but that did get addressed in this book, so I was happy Ellis included the line he did about Ross, or I might have been rather disappointed. And I must say, Adam Kubert and Stuart Immonen did a fantastic job illustrating this book. I felt that the quality of the artwork was consistently exemplary. All-in-all, I found this book to be outstanding and thought all the writers and artists did an amazing job with producing this book.

Next up on the agenda is the ever-important issue of accessibility. Now, I say this every single time, but I know I always have new readers with every post I do, so I have to say I again every single time, so if you already know my next sentence, please bear with me. When I say the word “accessibility,” it may sound a little odd, so to clarify what I mean, when I use the word, I am saying if this book is has the ability to be picked up by a person who knows absolutely nothing about Marvel Comics or the Fantastic Four and still be completely understood by that reader. Like I said before, this is a new universe and a new origin, so the answer to the question of whether this book is accessible is a definitive yes. You can know absolutely nothing about anything Marvel or the Fantastic Four and still be able to completely follow this entire book with no problems. It is one hundred percent self-contained. There are a few references to other characters and occurrences in the Ultimate Universe, including the Ultimates, but not knowing who or what they are does absolutely no damage to understanding the content of this particular book. If you now want to start reading Marvel Comics because of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” this is a perfect place to start, in my humble opinion, as there’s no other real history there, and it’s a more modern take than the one done by Stan Lee back in 1961, and it has banger art.

Okay, now we’ve finally come to the central point of this review: the numeric score. My scoring system is a very simple scale. I score on a scale of one through ten. One is the lowest score I give and that means that this book is not worth being taken off the shelf at all. Ten is the best score I could possibly give and that means that this book is absolute perfection and should be purchased off of every shelf and have to go into reprints every two years due to the need to restock. My regular readers will know that I very rarely give books a ten because I find it extremely hard to consider something perfection. There have to be absolutely no flaws. Sadly to say, this book is not a ten. While I thoroughly enjoyed consuming this book, I just don’t feel it meets the standard of perfection. That said, I’ll choose not to keep you in suspense like I usually do and just tell you that I do feel like this book is worthy of a nine. There were a few points in the story that just weren’t the greatest, and some of the panels of art did come out a little off but not enough to take away from my enjoyment of this book like some artists do. And I will say, when a graphic novel has multiple writers and artists, that is muddy waters because of the varying level of talent. However, I will also say I found every creator of this book to be on pretty much the same level.

Moving on, since I have been blathering for quite a while now, I will move on to my recommendation segment. In this segment, I say two things. The first is if I personally recommend this book. The second is whom I think is the best audience for this book. As for the first, that is a resounding yes, this book definitely gets this recommendation. And to the second, if you’re a neophyte fan of the Fantastic Four, I feel this is a perfect book for you. If you’re a longtime fan of the Fantastic Four and are looking for a fresh new take on an origin that has always been told in a similar manner, I feel like this book is for you. If you’re a fan of the original Marvel Ultimate Universe, I recommend this book to you. And if you’ve never had any vested interest in reading the Fantastic Four but for some odd reason are reading this review and are now interested in reading this book based solely on the words I’m typing now, I say you should not hesitate to try to read this book.

Okay, I’ve been at this for quite a while now, and I think we’re all about ready to just move on with our lives. First, though, I’ll talk a little about me. I’ve been doing this blog for five years now and have done over 160 posts. I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, but due to disability, I am unable to get a job as a professional journalist and instead work at a grocery store. This blog is my unpaid second job that I do on days when I’m not working at the grocery store. Would I love to be a professional blogger? Yes! But that just doesn’t seem to be in the cards, and honestly, I’m okay with that. Is this what I wanted when I graduated high school nineteen years ago? No. But my life isn’t super horrible right now. Anyway, you really don’t care about all that. What you do care about is that I have a lot of content you can view on this website. I’ve done over five dozen book reviews like this one at this point, and I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials as well as these reviews, so if you like my work and are in the market for something different from me, keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for all of my work, there’s plenty more to enjoy. I’m a very avid Marvel Comics collector; I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as early as I can after publication and attempt to get a review up if possible. I think at the moment there are only four Modern Era Epic Collections I haven’t reviewed due to not having had a laptop at the time of reading three of them. and not being able to get a review done promptly enough after one other and felt I would not do an accurate review of that one, and not having had the need to reread those four books yet. But since I purchase so many books, you can expect me to have a lot of content for you. Marvel always puts out at least one Modern Era Epic Collection a month. There are no further upcoming Ultimate Epic Collections at the moment of my drafting this post. There’s another Modern Era Epic Collection coming out five days from the point of my drafting this review, and I’m going to purchase it as early as I possibly can, and hopefully I can get a review of it up for you, so you can probably expect to see that in the next three weeks, so keep checking timcubbin.blogspot.com for that one. I might try to get some other kinds of work up here and there too, so check back for that, too. Follow me on X if you don’t already so you know when I’ve done a new post. Tell your friends and family about me if you think they’ll be interested in my work. Feel free to leave a comment for me, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Like, share, retweet, do whatever you can on the site you’re on. And I say to you until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!