"Avengers: Under Siege" by Roger Stern, Bill Mantlo, Danny Fingeroth, Steve Englehart, Jim Shooter and Mark Bright

            The following is a review of the Marvel Epic Collection “Avengers: Under Siege” graphic novel by Roger Stern, Bill Mantlo, Danny Fingeroth, Steve Englehart, Jim Shooter and Mark Bright.

            Hey, guys, you’ve now entered From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! I am Tim Cubbin, and I hope you will stay and enjoy the next few minutes with me. Well, for you, it’s a few minutes; for me, I’ll probably be writing for the next hour.

            Anyway, my previous readers know I read something and I just have to review it, and if you are a previous reader you obviously like me because you’re reading another post of mine. If you’re new, I hope you come back again.

            So I just finished reading “Avengers: Under Siege” last night, and was unable to review it because I just got too tired to type this up, so I’m doing it today.

            Now, I try to use a relatively standard review format which, if you’ve read two or more of my reviews before, you know basically how I work. For those of you who are new, I write an elaborate introduction, as I have just done. The first thing I’m covering are the primary characters because some of you have no idea who the Avengers are, and most of these characters are obscure, so even if you’re a devoted Marvel Cinematic Universe watcher, you may not know some of these characters, so establishing the characters is especially essential. For those of you who have read some of my Marvel Epic Collection reviews before, or have even read some yourself, you’re aware that they are massive books with tons of issues in them and cover several storylines, so I’ll break down each story for you. Then I’ll share some of my personal thoughts about what I read avoiding spoilers as much as possible. Then I’ll give each of the storylines a numeric score individually before giving a complete score of the book as a whole. After that, I’ll tell you if I recommend this book and to whom I think should consider reading this book. Then I’ll wrap it up, give my boring spiel, tell you what else you can expect to find on my blog, then you are free to go back to browsing the internet. So, I know, I’ve bored some of you so much you’ve stopped reading this already and if you have, you aren’t reading this, but I totally left that up to you, I can’t force you to stay for an entire review, but if you have stayed, you are THE BEST and if you read this entire review, I will be saying that again, so I hope you read those words again. Well, I’ve said all I needed to establish this piece, so let’s get to something actually interesting and I apologize for the past five paragraphs.

            First off, let’s talk about exactly who the Avengers are. I’m actually going to use a quote from the comics as I think it explains this perfectly. “And there came a day unlike any other when Earth’s mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were born, to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand.” Well, something like that, it wasn’t actually used in this book, but I’ve read hundreds of Avengers comics and they often start with that quote or something similar to that. The Avengers roster is constantly changing, gaining new team members, members quitting the team, members dying or coming back from the dead, even splitting up into multiple teams. There are six primary members to the Avengers in this book, so I’m just going to tell you their real names, their code names, and their powers so that this doesn’t take you too long to read or me to type.

            Janet Van Dyne/Wasp: Avengers chairperson, can shrink and grow, gains wings when shrinking, and fires “Wasp Stings.”

            Steve Rogers/Captain America: Super soldier of World War II, found frozen in ice and revived. Super strength, speed, and armed with an almost unbreakable shield.

            Monica Rambeau/Captain Marvel: Can transform into any form of energy and light, able to fly.

            Heracles/Hercules: Greek God, “Prince of Power.”

            Dane Whitman/Black Knight: Wielder of the Ebony Blade.

            Namor/Sub-Mariner: Prince of Atlantis, enhanced strength, can fly due to wings on his feet.

            This book also features:

            Thor Odinson/Thor: Norse God of Thunder.

            Scott Lang/Ant-Man: Can shrink and grow and can communicate with ants and other insects.

            Anthony Druid/Doctor Druid: Mystic Doctor.

            Edwin Jarvis: The Avengers’ butler.

            The West Coast Avengers: One of the other Avengers teams.

            Freedom Force: The former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, now on conditional pardons to work for the United States Government.

            The Beyonder: Basically a cosmic God.

            Nathaniel Richards/Kang the Conqueror: Time traveler who wants to conquer all of the timestream.

            Alpha Flight: Canada’s premier super hero team.

            The Masters of Evil: Twelve super villains led by Baron Helmut Zemo.

            Okay, that’s a lot to take in, so now let’s talk stories:

            “Stings & Sorrows:” As romance buds between Wasp and Black Knight, the costume Hank Pym/Yellowjacket (Wasp’s ex-husband) used to wear and its size changing formula is stolen.

            “Secret Wars II:” The Beyonder decides he wants to experience being a human while still retaining powers, and tons of bad things happen due to it. (This is actually part of a crossover event, this graphic novel only contains two tie-in issues of the story).

            “The Once and Future Kang:” Kang the Conqueror decides that he wants to be the only Kang in the multiverse and the timestream and goes on a quest to eliminate all the other Kangs.

            “Wild in the Streets:” The news of the Sub-Mariner’s induction into the Avengers is broken and not received well by the general public.

            “Breakaway:” Wasp and Black Knight team up with Paladin to battle Grey Gargoyle, Yellowjacket and Screaming Mimi.

            “Assault on Atlantis:” The Avengers and Alpha Flight unite with Namor to battle the Atlantean warlord Attuma.

            “Betrayal:” The Avengers, both East Coast and West Coast are betrayed by one of their former members and arrested by Freedom Force and try to clear their names.

            “Under Siege:” Baron Zemo leads a new, larger group of the Masters of Evil in an invasion on Avengers Mansion, the headquarters of the Avengers.

            Those are all the stories in this book. I hate to say it, but I was highly underwhelmed. Especially since the back cover says this is “one of the greatest comic-book epics of all time.” “Stings & Sorrows” was a fill-in connection piece while Marvel got the Avengers set for “Secret Wars II,” and let’s face it: fill-ins are often weak efforts for comic books. As far as “Secret Wars II,” I have NEVER actually read it, so I honestly got nothing out of it. Yes, the editors left a previously page, but it was nowhere NEAR adequate enough for me to even begin to comprehend the event. “The Once and Future Kang” was mildly entertaining for me, but it gets extremely complicated when the same character appears with themselves from alternate realities and points in the timestream at the same time, especially when fighting for dominance is involved. It reeked of narcissism and self-loathing, and I just got so confused reading the story. “Wild in the Streets” was a one part fill-in. Seeing how Namor has been considered both as hero and as villain, the debate on whether he should or shouldn’t be allowed on the Avengers was hypocrisy on both sides. Yes he spent time with Magneto, but he fought with Captain America during World War II. And the Avengers line-up was for Wasp to decide, and the team has previously included Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye, all of whom were villains before they joined the Avengers and have gone on to have distinguished careers on the team. Why couldn’t Namor be accepted in the same way? “Breakaway” was yet another one part fill-in and to me the villains were hard to take as serious threats. I mean, come on, “Screaming Mimi?” “Assault on Atlantis” was an Alpha Flight/Avengers crossover, and as I am not well informed on Alpha Flight in 1986, this was confusing for me, and I felt that this was an attempt to gain new Alpha Flight readers by crossing the two series into one story, and I found it a subpar attempt at that. But “Betrayal?” Now THAT was a story I enjoyed! This two-part story was a crossover, of an Avengers Annual and a West Coast Avengers Annual, and I felt it was done right. Both teams having been Avengers wasn’t a stretch to actually work well together. That’s not to say perfectly incompatible team-up don’t work. I mean, Captain America has teamed up with the Punisher and still made a great team, but a whole Avengers reunion totally satisfied me. Look at how many X-Men teams there have been and the situations calling for reunions and crossovers made sense and in some cases were absolutely imperative. And in a situation where the Avengers were under arrest? I felt the start with an East Coast/West Coast Avengers baseball game was perfect. And by page six with the former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants showed up working for the United States government, I was hooked for the rest of the two annuals. That said, the betrayer didn’t come to me as a big surprise since they were practically shown on the cover, but their resentment to their own comrades was something that I had never even thought of before. Now we go on to “Under Siege.” I was so disappointed. In this story, the Avengers failed to beat the Masters of Evil at the beginning, then regrouped and reformed to take the fight back to them. But I think that the villains should be stronger than the heroes, as it makes the victories that much more substantial. If a villain were too easy to beat, buying that comic book would just not be worth the price. But to me, the story progression dragged on a bit. BUT! It’s a comic book. A comic book should have a good story, but that’s not the only reason it’s a comic book. It has to have good art. Some of my previous readers know how I feel about that, and that it can COMPLETELY impact my score. Longtime comic book readers know the importance of artwork. Now, the comics featured in this book were originally released between the years of 1986-1987. 1980s artwork had a specific standard. Generation Z would probably not appreciate the style. 1980s comic books were hand-drawn, not digitally like comics and cartoons today, and had a very unique style. I’m a millennial myself, and my favorite comic art style is from the 1990s due to the hand-drawn penciling and digital colors. Still, 1980s artwork had a technique all its own, and I felt that this graphic novel had the quintessential art style of the period. In some storylines, I enjoyed the art more than the script.

            Now, let’s get down to business. I’ve been at this awhile and have been assaulting your eyes for a few minutes now, so let’s just do the scores. I feel I’ve said all I need to say, so I’ll just tell you the title of the stories and my scores, then I’ll give the score of the book as a whole and say a few extra words on it, then tell you if I recommend this book and who would be the perfect audience. I score on a scale of one to ten, one being garbage, ten being every page should be framed and on my wall. ”Stings & Sorrows:” six. “Secret Wars II:” four. “The Once and Future Kang:” seven. “Wild in the Streets:” six. “Breakaway:” five. “Assault on Atlantis:” six. “Betrayal:” eight. “Under Siege:” six. Now, previous readers will know I am VERY hard to please, so my scores don’t represent other peoples’ points of view and are, in fact, my opinions only and I cannot possibly force you to agree with me, I leave that up to you. This is my blog, after all, I’m just telling you how I feel, not how you should feel. Now, the book as a whole; this is not actually the average based on my individual scores combined then divided, this is based on how I feel the stories in the book gelled together. So, I give it a six. Was I disappointed by some of the stories? Yes. But I wasn’t disappointed by the book as a whole, if that’s understandable? I purchased this book and I don’t regret doing so, and in all likelihood I’ll read it again, and maybe I might even feel differently about it afterwards, I don’t know. This is, at this exact moment, how I feel.

            Okay, as far as recommendation goes, I do recommend it. But this Avengers team is relatively obscure, and if you only know Marvel by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I don’t recommend this book to you. In this book, the team was established in prior stories and there are no backstories on any of the characters’ origins as solo heroes or as a team. So if you’ve never picked up a Marvel comic book before, I can’t, in good faith, tell you to start here. This book is NOT self-contained, and seeing as I knew nothing about “Secret Wars II,” which was a crossover event, the two tie-in issues would be lost to you. But if you are a long term Avengers fan but have yet to read this book, I think you should sneak a peek.

            Okay, I’m almost done now, so if you’re still reading this, you are THE BEST! This blog is mostly made up of book reviews, but I do short stories (both fiction and nonfiction), poetry, essays and editorials, so if you liked what you read, feel free to browse my works. I would love it if you would comment, share, like, retweet; whatever you want to say, I want to hear. I’ll say goodbye for now, but I hope you’ll come back soon, I have so much more planned, so keep popping in from time-to-time, and leave you with three more words: Tim Cubbin… out! 

"X-Factor: Genesis & Apocalypse" by Roger Stern, John Byrne, Bob Layton, Bob Harras, Louise Simonson, Tom DeFalco, Chris Claremont, and Jackson Guice

 

            The following is a review of the Marvel Epic Collection “X-Factor: Genesis & Apocalypse” graphic novel by Roger Stern, John Byrne, Bob Layton, Bob Harras, Louise Simonson, Tom DeFalco, Chris Claremont, and Jackson Guice.

            Howdy, one and all, and welcome to another review From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! As is most often the case here, I am myself Tim Cubbin!

            Okay, so, if you’ve been here before, you know that I review every Marvel comic event, Marvel Epic Collection, and Marvel prose novel I read, as well as some other books I read. If you’ve never been here before, now you know. If you’ve ever been here before, you will know how I usually structure my reviews, but if not, I’ll tell you how this review is going to work. After I finish the lead-in to this review, I will briefly tell you a little bit about the main characters in this book. It will be brief because the following paragraph will be about the story and the characters’ roles will be self-explanatory during it, so dilly-dallying on the individual characters would be pointless. After that, I will share some of my personal thoughts about the book, what I liked, what I disliked, and a few other things I feel like typing about the book. After that, I will give this book a numeric score, which, if you’ve been here before you know the deal, and if not, I’ll explain when we get there. Upon finishing that, I’ll say if I recommend this book and who I think the best audience would be, based on the knowledge I feel is required to fully understand and appreciate the story. Then I’ll finish things up with our boring goodbyes and then you can be on your way. So, I hope we’re good on that, so, let’s go!

            Scott Summers/Cyclops: Fires optic beams uncontrollably.

            Jean Grey/Marvel Girl: Telekinetic.

            Bobby Drake/Iceman: Can lower temperature and create ice.

            Warren Worthington III/Angel: Flight due to natural wings.

            Hank McCoy/Beast: Blue fur, claws, enhanced strength, speed and agility.

            Cameron Hodge: Public relations manager.

            Rusty Collins: Pyrokinetic.

            Arthur “Artie” Maddicks: Pink skin, large eyes, mute, communicates by projecting images.

            Tower: Able to grow and shrink.

            Joanna Cargill/Frenzy: Super strength.

            Vera: Beast’s sort-of girlfriend.

            Freedom Force: Mystique, Destiny, Pyro Avalanche, Blob, Spider-Woman. Former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, now government employees.

            Trish Tilby: Reporter.

            Tony Stark/Iron Man: High-tech suit of armor.

            Peter Parker/Spider-Man: Enhanced speed, strength, and agility, can stick to walls and ceilings, precognitive “spider-sense,” self-created web shooters.

            The Avengers: Captain America, Namor, Black Knight, Hercules, Wasp, Captain Marvel. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

            The Fantastic Four: Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, She-Hulk. Team and family.

En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse: Nearly immortal, shape-changer, super strength, stamina and durability.

Okay, I think that’ll do it for character description, now on to the story. A plane crash in Jamaica Bay leads the Avengers to investigate and they discover a cocoon. They take it to the Fantastic Four, and they discover it contains the body of Jean Grey, who had been believed deceased. The cosmic force the Phoenix copied Jean’s body during a shuttle crash in Jamaica Bay and replaced her, leaving her body to heal at the bottom of the Bay. Jean has lost her telepathic powers. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic calls Warren to inform him that Jean has been found alive. In the time since the Phoenix’s demise, her lover Scott Summers has married Madelyne Pryor and had a son Nathan. Their former team, the X-Men are now led by their greatest enemy, Magneto, and the five original X-Men band together to form X-Factor, a mutant hunting team, which is actually a front for taking in new mutants and training them in the use of their powers. While X-Factor are believed to be humans to the public, as mutants, they call themselves the X-Terminators. They hire publicist Cameron Hodge as their public relations manager. X-Factor take in young mutants Rusty Collins and Artie Maddicks. They go up against evil mutants Frenzy, Tower, Apocalypse, and former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants now government agents Freedom Force and have team-ups with Iron Man and Spider-Man and meet young mutant Skids. The male X-Terminators originally neglect to tell Jean of Scott’s marriage to Madelyne and of his son Nathan. Madelyne, now furious over Scott’s return to being a superhero, takes Nathan and flees, removing every communications to Scott. Beast’s furry form is reverted to appearing passably human. Backstories explore Jean’s connection with the Phoenix.

I think these are all the highlights of the story, so I’ll move on to my thoughts. First off, when I first got into X-Men comics as a regular reader, I had bought a graphic novel containing the first issues of X-Men and read of this team. I had known X-Factor was a reunion of the original X-Men, but I honestly knew nothing about the story, having never read the start of the series, so this was a treat. I mean, this was from 1986, before I was born, but I didn’t pick up the original X-Factor comics series starting that year. The posing as mutant hunters was to me an amazing ploy. I’d also never read of the first recovery of Jean, and, spoiler alert, there was a panel suggesting she and Phoenix weren’t as separated as the X-Terminators had been led to believe. The showdown between Jean and Scott upon Scott fessing up to his marriage and child totally thrilled me to see Jean’s fury not as Phoenix, but as Jean Grey herself. To me, Artie was a fascinating character, and I felt the writers did an amazing job of him while being silent being such a useful character. And reading the earliest Apocalypse appearance was great, BUT! I feel like the writers could have extended the story a bit more, and the Alliance of Evil were a bit bland to me. And I loved the story of J. Jonah Jameson hiring X-Factor to destroy Spider-Man. I found Freedom Force to be an interesting reunion of Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants which I felt totally appropriate considering the reunion of the original X-Men and I thought was a great parallel. I personally loved the bond Rusty and Artie formed, their becoming best friends. I wish more mutants could have been included, though, and Bulk and Glow Worm just made me think they were pathetic and their story did not interest me. I enjoyed the backstories of the connection of Jean and Phoenix and found them totally fascinating. As for the artwork, there’s been many different styles of art, and some were characterizations of the time. I personally loved the mid-to-late 90’s, the colorizations of the time always satisfied me. As far as art went for the 80’s, I felt it was top notch and the epitome of art for the time. I mean, when it comes to comic books, the art is just as important as the story itself as it tells half of the story, and I felt this was amazing art for the time.

So, my score. This is very hard for me to decide. There was so much I liked about the book, but I did have disappointed moments as well. By the way, I score my reviews on a scale of one to ten. One is I wish I’d never read this book, ten I loved it and will definitely read it again. First, I will tell you that I will totally read it again someday, BUT! I still have to score it as an eight. For a start of a series, I felt this was a good introduction, but, like I said, I do have complaints.

Now, the biggest question on any of my reviews: do I recommend this book? I say… YES! And I feel it is an excellent jumping-on point for a comic series. If you have never read a Marvel comic before and are considering starting, I feel this would be a good book to begin with. I feel the story is very self-contained and knowing nothing about X-Factor would still be easy to pick up and read. And it you’ve read this review and are intrigued by my description, I totally think you should pick this up. And if you’re a fan of X-Men from the 60’s to mid-70’s and never read X-Factor, I think this is a good book for you. And if you’re a fan of the villain Apocalypse and have never read his first appearance, you may enjoy this book, but, like I said, I would have liked to see more En Sabah Nur. All-in-all, I totally recommend this book.

And now that I’ve ranted for so long, I’m just going to say a few more sentences. And if you are still here and still reading, you are THE BEST and I appreciate your support. Now, I’ve done literally dozens of reviews and I feel you should keep browsing my blog, especially since I have other content as well, including essays and editorials (I am a certified journalist) and short stories both fiction and nonfiction, mostly nonfiction (I have a bachelor’s degree in English, so some may say I’m a great writer), as well as some poetry, and I post fairly regularly, so you can totally keep an eye out for more posts in the near future. And with that, I have three more words: Tim Cubbin… out!

"Civil War" Prose/Graphic Novel Comparison

            The following is a comparison of the Marvel Comics Event “Civil War” and the prose novel “Civil War” by Stuart Moore. This is not talking about any actual war.

            Hey, guys! Welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! I’m your dude, Tim Cubbin!

            Okay, first off, before you go any further, let me stop you for a second! DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE READ MY “Civil War” AND “Civil War” by Stuart Moore POSTS PRIOR TO READING THIS! If you haven’t, GO BACK, READ THOSE, then come back here and THEN read THIS! Are we clear? Good, let’s get started!

            Well, this is going to be a little difficult for me considering that my review of the “Civil War” by Stuart Moore prose novel was over a year ago and that the prose novel was based on seven issues and the event presented on Marvel Unlimited is ninety-seven issues, but let’s see how I do. I’m going to limit myself to five points of differences in the narrations of the adaptations, whichever of the first five that pop into my head.

            One: In the comic book of “Civil War,” Peter Parker was married to Mary Jane Watson, and Peter’s identity was known to the Avengers, and he, Mary Jane, and his Aunt May all lived in Avengers Tower. In the prose novel, Peter and Mary Jane had never married, the Avengers didn’t know Peter Parker was Spider-Man, and while Aunt May knew Peter was Spider-Man, she said nothing.

            Two: While Nitro was responsible for the Stamford, Connecticut explosion is both narratives, in the prose novel, Nitro died in the explosion, while in the comics he survived, escaped to California in the back of a pickup truck, and was chased by both Wolverine and a faction of Atlanteans.

            Three: In the prose novel, Robbie Baldwin/Speedball died in the explosion. In the comics, Robbie survived, lost his powers, and was thrown in jail as an unregistered combatant.

            Four: The teams in the comics and prose novels were inconsistent. Some characters on the two teams were on different sides between the two adaptations, and some from the comics weren’t even in the prose novel.

            Five: At the start of the final showdown in the comic book, the battleground started at Ryker’s Island then transferred to New York City, while in the prose novel, the battle started in the Baxter Building (headquarters of the Fantastic Four) and then traveled outside.

            Now, I know some of you may be wondering which adaptation I preferred better, prose or graphic. In this case, I can’t give you an answer. Having been an expanded and comprehensive comic event when compared to a four-hundred page novel just makes it impossible to compare. The comics event impacted the entire Marvel Universe, and almost every character, team, or series had tie-ins to the main event, so to be fair, I can’t give you a comparison. I mean, there was so much I liked in the comics, but the comparison is unfair to Stuart Moore, and his work on the prose novel was amazing, and I get many of his changes, since he didn’t want to write a book longer than a George R.R. Martin book, but if you look at the main event, he told the same story framework just not the outer workings.

            And that will do it for now. I know I told you to read my two prior “Civil War” posts, but feel free to read some more of my work. Believe me, I have done plenty. I have a bachelor’s degree in English/journalism and have been published, so I know how to write. I’ve done dozens of reviews, as well as short fiction and nonfiction, poetry, essays, editorials, and other writing formats, so please keep looking at other posts. If you do, you are THE BEST and your support is most appreciated! So, now all is said and done, so I only have three more words for you: Tim Cubbin… out! 

"Civil War"

            The following is a review of the Marvel Comics Civil War the Complete Event. This is NOT based off of any actual REAL Civil Wars, or the feature film “Captain America: Civil War.”

            Howdy, one and all, and welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! I’m your host, Tim Cubbin!

            Okay, if you’ve been to one of my reviews before, you know I review pretty much everything I read, and here we have no exception. The first review I ever did for this blog was the “Civil War” prose novel by Stuart Moore which was adapted from this comic event’s main series. However, this comic event impacted pretty much every character and series in the Marvel Universe at the time, and much of these stories were not included in the prose novel. So usually I give a brief introduction to the primary characters from the books I review, but, like I said, pretty much every character in the Marvel Universe, that’s just not possible. What I will do, however, is tell the main premise of the event and then break each story down into a brief description of the role in the grand design. After that, I will share with you my personal thoughts about the event AS A WHOLE as ninety-seven comics is way too much to nitpick on. Then I will give you a numeric score, again AS A WHOLE. After that, I’ll tell you if I recommend this event and who I think the best audience should be. Then I’ll wrap this review up and tell you something so that you’ll need to read the whole review to get to a final piece of information. Following this, I will share with you more about the content of my blog so that you may want to read more of my work and what to look for. Then I’ll leave you free to do whatever you like to do on the internet.

            Okay, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty, what this “Civil War” is. The start of this mess is the New Warriors, a team of C-List superheroes and reality television stars. In the quest for ratings, they get involved with villains who are way out of their league, including the explosive Nitro. As Nitro is cornered, he activates his power: explosions. But this explosion results in the deaths of over six-hundred citizens in the now devastated Stamford, Connecticut, including a school full of children. As a result, the United States government passed the Superhuman Registration Act. Now, to operate as a superhero, one must register their names, identities, and powers with the government and submit to proper training and taking part in sanctioned superhuman activity. Failure to do so will make one a criminal and be arrested if one uses their powers without being registered. Tony Stark/Iron Man feels that this is a natural evolution of the role in superhuman activity in society and a reasonable request and gathers the heroes in support of the act. Steve Rogers/Captain America disagrees with the act and gathers an underground faction in opposition of the act. This causes a split in superhumanity and a war between the two groups ensues.

            Well, let’s begin discussing the individual series and their parts in the superhuman Civil War.

            Amazing Spider-Man: Peter Parker/Spider-Man comes out in support of the act and becomes Tony’s protégé, and unmasks on live television. Now the whole world knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man and his whole life is now changed.

            Fantastic Four: Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic comes out in support of the act and registers his wife Susan Richards/Invisible Woman, her brother Johnny Storm/Human Torch, and his best friend Ben Grimm/Thing without asking first. This creates friction between Reed and Sue after Johnny is beaten into a coma, and Sue and Johnny leave the Fantastic Four and join Captain America’s underground, while Ben, a patriot, won’t take either side and leaves the country to France to avoid taking part in the war.

            New Avengers: Illuminati: A history is revealed that Mister Fantastic, Iron Man, Doctor Stephen Strange, Black Bolt, Namor/Sub-Mariner, and Charles Xavier/Professor X had, for years, secretly been meeting to discuss superhuman activity without their families or teammates knowing.

            She-Hulk: Lawyer Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk takes the case of defending the former New Warriors after a website reveals the Warrior’s true identity on the internet.

            Wolverine: Mutant James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine picks up Nitro’s trail and chases after him to bring Nitro to justice, but he’s not the only party involved in the search for Nitro.

            Front Line: Reporters Ben Urich and Sally Floyd try to get to the truth about the Civil War, surviving New Warrior Speedball denies his guilt in the Stamford disaster and must survive in jail, and an Atlantean sleeper cell is awakened.

            Thunderbolts: Former villains are called upon to hunt down other villains and recruit them to Iron Man’s cause.

            X-Factor: A mutant detective agency takes a stand against the Superhuman Registration Act and take in former mutant Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver.

            New Avengers: The Avengers find themselves divided over the Superhuman Registration Act as each member must decide whose side they’re on.

            X-Men: Scott Summers/Cyclops, Warren Worthington III/Angel, Bobby Drake/Iceman, and Hank McCoy/Beast try to track down the 198 and prevent the world from losing half of its mutant population.

            Cable & Deadpool: Wade Wilson/Deadpool is deputized by the government and finds himself pitted against his best friend Nathan Summers/Cable.

            Young Avengers & Runaways: The next generation of Avengers travel to California to protect the Runaways, children of the super villain team the Pride.

            Ms. Marvel: Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel is tasked with bringing Julia Carpenter/Arachne while training fledgling super hero Anya Corazon/Arana.

            Heroes for Hire: Misty Knight leads a team of heroes who work for a price to uphold the Superhuman Registration Act.

            Captain America: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson/Falcon, Sharon Carter/Agent-13, and Nick Fury work behind to scenes to aid Captain America.

            Choosing Sides: Mac Gargan/Venom, Danny Rand/Iron Fist, John Walker/U.S.Agent and Howard the Duck decide which side they are on during the Civil War.

            The Invincible Iron Man: Tony Stark/Iron Man learns about his new powers, goes public about his identity, and is considered to be Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. the world peacekeeping task force.

            Punisher War Journal: Frank Castle/Punisher joins Captain America’s anti-registration underground.

            Black Panther: Newlyweds T’Challa/Black Panther and Ororo/Storm travel to the United States and are drawn into the conflict after a hero is slain during combat.

            War Crimes: Wilson Fisk/Kingpin plans his move against the heroes from behind bars.

            The Return: The supposedly deceased Mar-Vell/Captain Marvel polices #42, a prison in the Negative Zone for superheroes who refuse to register.

            The Initiative: Fifty superhero teams are put together to protect each state in the United States.

            The Mighty Avengers: Following the Civil War, a new front-running Avengers team is formed.

            The Confession: After the war is over, Captain America and Iron Man reflect on their intentions for the Civil War and must decide where to go from here.

            Fallen Son: The Marvel Universe is sent reeling after the death of a major superhero.

            Well, that’s the Civil War in a nutshell. Now, as promised, here is my opinion. Honestly, if I were a superhero myself, I’d side with Iron Man. A superhero is trained as an individual and as a team, gets support from the government, gets paid, benefits and vacation time to do what they were going to do for free anyway. Does being on call by S.H.I.E.L.D. to just drop what I’m doing and come assist seem like a pain? Sure. But it sure beats rotting away in a prison in another dimension. Do I see Captain America’s point of view, though? Absolutely. Anonymity as a superhero is important to many heroes, and public knowledge of their identities and abilities is undesirable, and changing the paradigm of being a superhero in society is something difficult to accept. But the law is the law, and I don’t want to break the law. But I totally get each point of view, where Iron Man and Captain America are coming from, the motivations behind each hero. As far as the story itself, I found most of the stories to be highly interesting. Front Line held the greatest interest to me, having multiple stories and firsthand accounts of documents from actual wars. I also enjoyed Amazing Spider-Man, the decisions Peter made and the consequences of his actions totally kept me going. However, the X-Men story had nothing to do with the Civil War, and the events of Young Avengers & Runaways were inconsistent to the rest of the story. Still, overall, as far as everything goes, when all is said and done, all cards on the table, I felt extremely satisfied.

            Now the point I figure you’ve been anticipating the most is here: my numeric score. I score based on a scale of one to ten. One means drop it in the toilet bowl and flush it as fast as you can. Ten means this should be considered a masterpiece and I want to frame every page. Well, if you’ve read several of my reviews before, you know how I am VERY hard to please, especially if the story drags on for so long or if it’s cut short way too soon. The ninety-seven issues on the list containing as many stories as it did never felt stale to me. Yes there were things I didn’t like and some things I wanted to read more of that weren’t there, so, I have to score the event, soup to nuts, at an eight.

            Next is one of the most important aspects of this review: do I recommend this event? Surprisingly enough, I don’t recommend it unless you are a diehard Marvel fan. Some of the characters aren’t well known, and a lot of intimate knowledge of the prior storylines is required, so if you’re not a Marvel-breathing guy like me, steer clear. This is not meant for new readers and is not a good jump-on event.

            Well, if you’re still here at this point, you are THE BEST! So, I promised you a nice surprise, so here it is: some of my regular readers know I will compare and contrast stories with multiple adaptations, and in this case, I am going to do that with this story as well. So, within a few hours of this post being uploaded, you can expect to see a comparison piece up on this page as well. So, if you haven’t read my review of the prose novel, I highly recommend you check it out in the meantime and then read the piece comparing both to see my major appreciation and complaints between both adaptations, so don’t miss it!

            In the meantime, this blog may contain dozens of reviews, but I write short fiction and nonfiction, I write poetry, I write essays and editorials, there’s just so much to see on this blog, and I post relatively frequently, so you can always expect to see more posts relatively soon. Well, I leave you free to do whatever you feel like doing on the internet for now, but you be back, I’ll be back, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out! 

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling

 

            The following is a review of the novel “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” by J.K. Rowling and NOT the film adaptation.

            Hey, all, welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! I’m your guy, Tim Cubbin!

            Okay, if you’ve been here before, y’all know how this works. If not, I’ll explain a little about how this review works. I review pretty much everything I read, and I’ve just reread the novel “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” for, in all seriousness, like the twentieth time. I love this book, I love all the “Harry Potter” books, and having started this blog over a year ago and having read the book within this parameter of running this blog, reviewing this book is a must. I have also, in fact, reviewed “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone” and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” so reviewing this book is basically a must. And yes, this book was written in 1999, over twenty years ago, but it still holds great entertainment value. And if you’ve read my other two “Harry Potter” reviews and are here now, you are quite a “Harry Potter” fan and just want to read an honest review by a true “Harry Potter” fan himself and someone who is not a professional critic (however I am an certified journalist, but that’s not the point) and will actually give a fair review.

If you’ve read one of my reviews before, you know I try to keep several consistencies in how I style my reviews, many of the same basic things. So, here’s how THIS particular post shall work. I know, you’re bored with me at this point and are saying “Tim Cubbin, get to the review already,” but stay with me for a few more sentences, but once we get past this, first off, I’ll tell you the synopsis of the book with as few spoilers as possible, then I’ll give you my own personal opinions on the book, then I’ll give the book my numeric score of the book (if you don’t know my scale score, we’ll get to that when… well, when we get to that), then I’ll say goodbye and then you are free to go about your merry way and break the chains of our bond to this post. Now, I’ll stop boring you and actually get to the reason I’m writing this review.

Okay, Harry Potter is a thirteen-year-old wizard and student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His best friends are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and fellow students at Hogwarts. A wizard mass murderer, Sirius Black, has escaped from the “inescapable” wizard jail Azkaban. He betrayed Harry’s parents to the evil wizard Dark Lord Voldemort and is the reason they are dead, and he is now after Harry to finish Voldemort’s job and return Voldemort to full power. Harry lives with his despicable Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley. After inflating his “Aunt” Marge, Harry flees the Dursleys and comes face-to-face with the Grim. Harry stays in the wizard shopping street Diagon Alley before starting his third year at Hogwarts. Hermione purchases a cat named Crookshanks who takes a mad-on against Ron’s pet rat Scabbers. On the Hogwarts Express train, Harry, Ron and Hermione meet their new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Lupin and learn that creatures called Dementors, the guards of Azkaban, are now stationed at Hogwarts. They feed on happiness and cause Harry to recall the deaths of his parents. Harry, Ron and Hermione attend their classes, such as the new class Divination, taught by a fraud psychic named Sybil Trelawney and Care of Magical Creatures taught by Rubeus Hagrid, groundskeeper and ally of Harry, Ron and Hermione, but Hermione has double-booked classes and seems to disappear and reappear at odd moments. In Hagrid’s first lesson of Care of Magical Creatures, he introduces his students to creatures called Hippogriffs, and Harry’s nemesis Draco Malfoy is attacked by the Hippogriff Buckbeak, who is then sentenced to execution. Professor Lupin begins to try to teach Harry to create a Patronus to defend himself against the Dementors. Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, is in his last year at Hogwarts and is determined to win the Quidditch Cup before he graduates. Fred and George Weasley, Ron’s twin older brothers and mischief-makers bequeath to Harry the Marauder’s Map to help Harry sneak into the wizard village, Hogsmeade, to which Harry does not have permission to travel to. These are all the basic plot points to the novel I can disclose without spoilers, but I will say that not all is as it seems.

Okay, my own personal thoughts. While it is not my favorite “Harry Potter” book, I still love it. Rowling truly knows how to build mysteries, excitement, humor, fun and action into her works, and I have never been disappointed by her works. I will say my favorite scene is where Professor Lupin has his third year students face off against a Boggart, a creature that can shapeshift into the nearest living thing’s worst fear and can only be defeated by laughter, and Neville Longbottom, a blundering Hogwarts student who is most afraid of Hogwarts’ Potions Master Professor Severus Snape, forces to Boggart Snape into Neville’s grandmother’s clothes. I also loved the plot twists, most of which I NEVER saw coming. As an aspiring novelist myself, I hope I can create such a sense of surprise in my readers that Rowling placed upon me as I ingested this book.

Alright, now to my numeric score. I score my subjects on a scale of one to ten. One means I barely managed to force myself into reading this book once, ten meaning I will totally read it again. You probably know where I’m leaning towards at this point, considering how many times I mentioned I have read this book. Some of my prior readers who have read reviews of mine on stories other than “Harry Potter” know I am very hard to please, and I don’t just give out great scores like candy on Halloween, so if I give a good score, then this book is probably pretty darn good. So, all said and done, I give this book a nine. This book was almost perfection for me, but I just can’t quite give it a ten. There were points that I lost interest in, and some of the major things Harry gets away with are just unrealistic considering the little things I got in trouble for when I was in school at the age of thirteen. But I thoroughly enjoy this book every time I read it, and I will totally read it again in a few years I just love the “Harry Potter” franchise that much. I will say that you ABSOLUTELY, SHOULD NOT read “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” if you have not read the books or seen the movies “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone” and “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” or else you will totally not be able to follow everything, this is a SERIES and EVERY book or movie in the series MUST be read in order in this series, it’s VERY important!

Well, I think I’ve bored you long enough. This review has been longer than some of the articles I wrote in my journalism classes I had that much to say, and if you’ve read this WHOLE review, seriously, you are THE BEST! And, yes, I will review the other “Harry Potter” books in time, so keep a lookout for them soon. Feel free to look at more of the content on this blog, I am an aspiring writer and certified journalist, I write all kinds of things on this blog and I promise I will keep on churning out new material in time. I’ll say goodbye for now, but until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga" Prose/Graphic Novel Comparison

 

Hello, one and all, and welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! I’m your guy, Tim Cubbin!

As some of you may know, I recently wrote a review for the Marvel Epic Collection “X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix” graphic novel by Chris Claremont. I also posted a review for the “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga” prose novel by Stuart Moore several hours ago. I am here now to compare the prose adaptation from 2019 to the original comic storyline from 1980. In this essay, I will provide a synopsis of the story in general to start with. Then I will point out several of what I found to be the biggest differences between the graphic novel/prose novel. I’ll then talk to you about my personal preference of which version I liked better.

Jean Grey, a founding member of the X-Men, has been imbued with the Phoenix Force, a cosmic power of immense proportions. Jean had been using those powers benevolently. The X-Men learn of young Kitty Pryde, a newly manifested mutant with the power to pass her molecules through other solid molecules and visit her house in Illinois to invite her to join their school and train to be an X-Men. However, the X-Men are not the only ones aware of Kitty’s ability. Emma Frost, the White Queen of the nefarious Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club (pardon my language) had discovered Kitty and attempted to recruit Kitty to study at the Massachusetts Academy, Frost’s school to train young mutants for villainous purposes. Frost abducts the recruiting party from Xavier’s. Kitty contacts the other X-Men, who are able to rescue their teammates and Jean “convinces” Kitty’s parents to allow Kitty to study at Xavier’s. Jason Wyngarde, who wishes to ascend to the high seat of the Inner Circle has been seducing Jean with his illusion casting abilities, causing what Jean believes to be “time slips” to a romance between one of her ancestor’s and one of Wyngarde’s. The X-Men clash with the Inner Circle, but in the process, the seduction to evil the Inner Circle instills leads to Jean losing control of the Phoenix Force, and Jean is now corrupted into the evil Dark Phoenix. Dark Phoenix defeats the X-Men in battle and travels into space. The Phoenix is hungry, and feeds on the star of an inhabited solar system and obliterates it. The alien Empire of the Shi’ar, who thus far had been allies to the X-Men decide that the Phoenix must be destroyed. The X-Men are able to subdue the Dark Phoenix, but are abducted by the Shi’ar. The X-Men are then forced into battle with the Shi’ar Imperial Guard to decide the fate of Jean Grey.

Alright, now I’m going to explain some points of difference between the two adaptations of “The Dark Phoenix Saga.” When the prose novel starts, in the year following Jean’s transformation into the Phoenix, the X-Men are believed dead, Charles Xavier is in space as the royal consort to Shi’ar Empress Lilandra Nerimani, and Jean has been living in Kirinos, Greece. In the graphic novel, the X-Men are a team and Charles Xavier, on Earth, is the one who discovers Kitty Pryde. In the prose novel, the X-Men find Kitty on their own. At the start of the graphic novel, Xavier actually finds two mutants, one being Kitty Pryde, the other Alison Blair/Dazzler. Dazzler was completely excluded in the prose novel. The prose novel also has Emma Frost featured with the Inner Circle, but in the graphic novel, Frost was believed dead after her first battle with the Phoenix. In the graphic novel, when the X-Men stay with Warren Worthington III/Angel in New Mexico, Xavier is with the X-Men. Xavier stays behind with Angel when the X-Men battle the Inner Circle, but right before the Shi’ar abduct the X-Men, the two arrive and are taken with the rest of the X-Men. After Dark Phoenix defeats the X-Men in the graphic novel, former X-Man/current Avenger Hank McCoy/Beast develops a device to scramble Jean’s powers so she can be subdued and is with the X-Men when they are abducted by the Shi’ar. In the prose novel, several of the X-Men develop the device. Xavier’s part in the prose novel mostly featured him in space, returning to earth shortly before the X-Men are abducted by the Shi’ar, and Angel and Beast are not involved in the final battle with the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, while they were in the graphic novel. Also cut from the prose novel is Uatu the Watcher, whom Wolverine encounters in the final battle with the Shi’ar Imperial Guard. Most of the rest of both narratives are pretty much similar and honestly don’t warrant any further attention.

So, as to my preference. In my review, I scored the prose novel at a nine out of ten. I gave the graphic novel “X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix” an eight… BUT! Take into consideration that this book features several other stories, which detracted to my score of the book as a whole. Were the graphic novel to just have been “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” I honestly would give it a ten. I felt the graphic novel to be better than the prose novel. And in all seriousness, I’ve literally read “The Dark Phoenix Saga” graphic novel dozens of time, and I am NOT exaggerating and in a few years I will probably read the prose novel again, but my preference goes to the graphic novel. I still feel Stuart Moore wrote an exceptional narrative and am glad that this was written as a prose novel and glad that Stuart Moore wrote this prose novel. Stuart Moore also wrote the prose novel adaptation of “Civil War” which I reviewed early on in the existence of this blog and gave it a nine out of ten, so I feel like Moore has good consistency.

As a note here, I am currently reading the comic event “Civil War” on Marvel Unlimited and you can expect both a lengthy review of the event as a whole AND a comparison piece of the prose/graphic novels, so keep a look out for that. Also, “X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix also features “Days of Future Past” which has also been made into a prose novel, and this also warrants a review and comparison piece, so keep your eyes out for these over the next couple of months. (Yeah, I’m going to be busy.) This blog has plenty of other reviews of things I’ve read, as well as short fiction and nonfiction, free verse poetry, essays, editorials, and more, so feel free to check them out. If you’re still here, you are THE BEST! For now, I release you from the bonds of this post. So, yeah, feel free to go about your day, keep coming back, I need the support, share, like, follow, retweet, whatever you can do on the site you found the link on, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga" by Stuart Moore

The following is a review of the prose novel “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga” by Stuart Moore. It is NOT a review of the graphic novel “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga” NOR a review of the film “Dark Phoenix.”

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to another review From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! I am your guide, Tim Cubbin!

So, if you’ve been here before, you know I write a review of everything I read. Therefore, you know that I must have just read the “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix” prose novel. Prior to this post, I reviewed the graphic novel “X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix” and within a few hours of posting this… well, post, I will be posting a comparison piece comparing the graphic and prose novels of “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga” so feel free to check them all out if you want, that’d be great, and I will tell you if you read all three of these posts, you are THE BEST!

Anyhoo, when I write a review, I keep a similar format for each post, which you will know if you’ve read a few of my reviews before. If not, you’re about to learn it. So, yes, I start with my boring, useless, blah, blah, blah thing where I set everything up (which you are reading now, if you’re still here, and if you are still here, you are THE BEST!). Next, I will tell you a little about the characters since some of you may not even know who the X-Men are but decided to read this post anyway. Or you might not know the characters. I mean, this is based on a story originally published in 1980, which, at the time of this posting was over forty years ago, so the roster has changed since them. Granted the characters in this book are all well-known and highly popular, but I’m doing this anyway, for your benefit. And, oh, my gosh that was boring! Following this, you obviously want to know just what this book is about, so I’ll tell you the story and try to avoid spoilers as much as possible. Then I’ll tell you some of my thoughts about the book, which will be a little difficult for me, actually, because of my upcoming graphic novel/prose novel comparison and I have to pretend to have never read the graphic novel in order to write a fair review (and this comic is actually one of my all-time favorite comic storylines and I’ve read it literally dozens of times). After that, I’ll tell you if I think casual or non-regular readers would understand this book. Then I’ll give a numeric score (if you don’t know my scale, I’ll explain when we get there). I’ll then tell you if I recommend this book, and to whom I think would enjoy this best. Then we wrap up with another blah, blah, blah where I tell you a little more about my blog, the content, what’s there to read, the works. Then I say goodbye and you can do whatever you feel like doing now that I’ve given you freedom (or, y’know, you COULD check out more of my blog posts, such as, I dunno, maybe my review of “X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix” and my graphic novel/prose novel comparison of “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga” if you have a little bit more time, which would be great and you’d totally be THE BEST!) Okay, you ready? Good (if you thought “yes”)! Let’s go!

Alright, let’s start with who the X-Men actually are. So, the X-Men are mutants. Through genetic mutation, they have powers that (I hate this word, but…) normal humans don’t have. We’ll get to those powers over the next few paragraphs. Normal humans hate and fear mutants for being different, and this often leads to violence since this IS based on a comic book. Some mutants (such as the X-Men) just want to be accepted by the normal humans and live in peace and harmony between baseline humans and the mutant population. Other mutants want to establish mutant supremacy and fight anyone, even other mutants (namely the X-Men), who stand in their way. Now, let’s examine these mutants.

Scott Summers/Cyclops: Team leader, cursed with optic blasts he can’t control and can only safely open his eyes when they are covered with ruby quartz.

Jean Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix/Dark Phoenix: A powerful telekinetic/telepath, empowered by a cosmic force. The love of Cyclops’s life.

Peter Rasputin/Colossus: Former Russian farm boy. Can turn his body into steel, which grants him super strength and a relative invulnerability.

Ororo Munroe/Storm: Can control the weather.

Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler: Covered in blue fur, with three fingers on each hand, two toes on each foot, and a tail. Able to teleport.

Logan/Wolverine: In love with Jean. Often butts heads with Cyclops. Has a skeleton coated in adamantium, an indestructible metal, with three retractable claws in each hand, and a healing factor allowing him to recover from almost any injury.

Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X: Founder of the X-Men and headmaster of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, the X-Men’s secret base. The most powerful telepath on the planet.

Kitty Pryde: A young mutant girl with the ability to pass through solid objects and walk on air. Soon to be an X-Man.

The Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club (pardon my language): A clandestine group of evil mutants who want to rule the world.

Jason Wyngarde/Mastermind: Evil mutant, able to create illusions. In love with Jean and manipulating her with psychic flashes of their love.

Emma Frost/White Queen: Member of the Hellfire Club, telepath, headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy, the evil counterpart of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning who tries to recruit Kitty Pryde to her school.

Sebastian Shaw/White King: Can absorb any form of kinetic energy and release it as super strength. Member of the Hellfire Club.

Harry Leland: Member of the Hellfire Club. Able to control mass.

Donald Pierce: Cyborg, member of the Hellfire Club.

Lilandra Nerimani: Empress of the alien Shi’ar. Xavier is her royal consort.

The Imperial Guard: Assortment of aliens. Protectors of the Shi’ar Empire.

Alright, now we’ll touch on the plot. While piloting a doomed space shuttle to the earth, Jean Grey dies and is reborn as the Phoenix. The X-Men battle Magneto, an evil mutant, in a volcano and Phoenix is believed to be the only survivor. Over the next year, Xavier goes to space with Shi’ar Empress Lilandra, and Jean moves to Kirinos and attempts to form a new life without using her mutant powers. There she meets the dashing Jason Wyngarde, who creates “time slips” to manipulate Jean to fall in love with him. Jean discovers the X-Men are still alive and joins them while they battle Emma Frost when the X-Men travel to Illinois to recruit the newly discovered mutant, thirteen-year-old Kitty Pryde to the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. The X-Men learn of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, who intend to mold Jean into their Black Queen. When their plan fails, Jean loses control of the Phoenix and becomes Dark Phoenix. She defeats the X-Men and absorbs the sun of the D’Bari system, destroying the inhabited solar system. The Shi’ar then decide that the Phoenix must be destroyed and bring the X-Men into space, where Xavier invokes a duel of honor between the X-Men and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard to decide the fate of the Phoenix.

Okay, that sums the book up nicely. Now for my own personal thoughts. I found this book to be AMAZING! I thought it was very well written. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Unfortunately, though, that is my only opinion I can give without comparing it to the comic.

Now, yes, I know there are some of you who have never read X-Men before. You might not know the characters and history. Well, I found this book to be very much self-contained. I felt the character descriptions were well fleshed out in the book. The inclusion of Jean becoming the Phoenix at the start of the book was a good ease-in point. I think that any non- or casual X-Men fan could easily pick up this book and follow and enjoy it.

All said and done, let’s just hop right on over to our numeric score! So I put it on a range of one to ten. One means this book is a piece of garbage and should be thrown in the trash, it was not worth the money I spent on it, ten means that this book is the best book I ever read, I give it a nine. This was easily the best “X-Men” prose novel I have EVER read. Mind that I have posted a review of a book also written by Stuart Moore which also garnered a nine, so in my opinion, he is consistent and a very good writer of Marvel comic book prose novels. It should also be noted that I am VERY hard to please and have given other books very poor scores, so a nine is pretty darn good.

Now, we’ll move on to another important part; do I recommend this book? Honestly, do you have to ask? I gave this book a NINE! I don’t think this is just a good X-Men novel, or a good comic prose adaptation novel, but a good science fiction novel. If you’ve never read X-Men before but love science fiction novels, I say give this book a read. And if you’ve read X-Men before and found my review to be compelling, I think you should check this book out. If you love the X-Men, I think this might be the right book for you. And if you’ve ever read “The Dark Phoenix Saga” graphic novel and enjoyed it, I totally think you should read this book. And if you saw the film “Dark Phoenix” and were highly disappointed (as I was), this book is a TOTAL redemption. So, yes, this book gets a glowing recommendation.

Alright, if you’re still here, you are THE BEST! Before I free you from the captivation of my spell over you from reading this review, I’ll tell you that, while reviews are totally one of my major subjects, I do write other kinds of topics, such as short stories (both fiction and nonfiction), I do dabble in free-verse poetry from time-to-time, I write essays and editorials, and my B’ings series where I complain pointlessly about pointless topics that bother me due to me just being me. So, now, you can go do whatever you want to do now (and you would be THE BEST if you went on to look some more at my blog), I just posted this and am now working on a comparison piece between “The Dark Phoenix” graphic novel/prose novel, which will be up in a few hours, it might even be up by the time you’ve read up to here, so I hope you’ll totally check it out. And until you enter From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin again, I say to you, Tim Cubbin… out! 

"X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix" by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Jo Duffy, and Scott Edelman

            The following is a review of the Marvel Epic Collection “X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix” written by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Jo Duffy, and Scott Edelman. This is NOT a review of the film “X-Men: Dark Phoenix.”

            Howdy, all, welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin. I am, myself, Tim Cubbin.

            So, this is one of my reviews. Prior readers of my reviews will be familiar with my structure, but for those of you who are only reading my blog for the first time after being intrigued by hashtags on Twitter, I’ll be nice and map it out for you. Now, I know some of you have had absolutely no interaction with the X-Men; never picked up a comic, never watched a cartoon, never seen a movie, never played a video game, never collected trading cards, so I feel like I should introduce the major characters for you. That would be prudent. Then, of course, I’ll give you a synopsis of the stories. Following that, I’ll give you my own personal thoughts about the book. After that, I’ll give you a numeric score of the book as its individual stories and then the book as a whole. Then I’ll tell you if I recommend this book and to whom I would recommend this book to. Then I’ll say goodbye and we can both be on our merry way. Some of my previous readers will notice the structure of this review is slightly different, but I feel this would be more efficient to write it this way and for you to read it this way. So, are we good on that? Good! Let’s begin!

            So, let’s talk about who the X-Men are. The X-Men are a group of mutants, born with genetic super powers. Regular human beings are jealous for and afraid of their powers, and mutants are hated and feared and often wanted imprisoned or killed. There are mutants, such as the X-Men, who want peace between mutants and baseline human beings. Other mutants, such as the Hellfire Club (pardon my profanity, I hate to use this word, but it’s essential to say) and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants want to establish mutant supremacy. The X-Men fight the evil mutants and the humans who want to eradicate mutants to try to establish human/mutant peaceful relations.

            So, obviously, you’ll want to hear about our prime mutants. First off is the founder and mentor of the X-Men, Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X, confined to a wheelchair but one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet. Scott Summers/Cyclops, X-Men field leader with uncontrollable optic force beams. Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, blue furred, three fingered, two toed, prehensile tailed, teleporter. Piotr Rasputin/Colossus, Russian farm boy with the ability to transfer from flesh and blood to organic steel skin, granting him super strength. Ororo Munroe/Storm, able to control the weather. Logan/Wolverine, able to heal from any wound and with an adamantium skeleton and claws. Kitty Pryde/Sprite, young mutant with the ability to turn intangible. Warren Worthington III/Angel, able to fly with natural wings. Jean Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix/Dark Phoenix, a cosmic powered telepathic and telekinetic woman. The Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club (including Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost, Donald Pierce, Harry Leland, and Jason Wyngarde/Mastermind), a group of mutants who want to enslave the world. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (including Raven Darkholme/Mystique, Fred Dukes/Blob, John Allerdyce/Pyro, Irene Adler/Destiny, and Dominic Petros/Avalanche), a group of mutant extremists who want to establish mutant supremacy. We also have some other major players. Senator Robert Kelly, an antimutant presidential candidate. The Sentinels, mutant hunting robots. Lilandra Nerimani, alien empress of the Shi’ar. The Imperial Guard, super powered protectors of the Shi’ar Empire.

            Phew, that’s a large cast. Now, let’s talk about the stories. Unfortunately, this will have to include the fate of the Phoenix spoiler in order to be effective. First off is “The Dark Phoenix Saga.” The X-Men’s mutant detecting device, Cerebro tracks two new mutant signatures. The X-Men teams split up. Xavier, Logan, Ororo, and Peter head to Illinois to try to recruit Kitty Pryde to Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters (the X-Men’s base of operations) while Scott, Jean, and Kurt go to New York City to try to recruit Allison Blaire, the mutant singer Dazzler. Kitty goes to a malt shop (which we really don’t have anymore, and some of you might not even know what a malt shop is) with Peter, Logan, and Ororo, who inform Kitty that she is a mutant and they are the X-Men. The X-Men are attacked and kidnapped by agents of the Hellfire Club, under orders of Emma Frost, the telepathic White Queen. Kitty is able to save the team. Allison turns down Scott and Jean’s offer to join the X-Men. Jean, meanwhile, is having “time slips,” seeing what she thinks is an ancestor, and her romance with Jason Wyngarde, but in actuality it is Wyngarde seducing Jean to become the Black Queen and to up his bid for a higher position in the Hellfire Club. This turns Phoenix into Dark Phoenix when Mastermind’s plan fails, who then wishes to destroy the X-Men, despite having spent years on-and-off with the team. She then soars to space and destroys the D’Bari star system, killing five billion lives and destroying a Shi’ar star cruiser, thus changing their peaceful standing with the X-Men, who now wish to destroy the Dark Phoenix. With the aid of former X-Men/now Avenger Hank McCoy/Beast, Xavier is able to suppress the Dark Phoenix. But the Shi’ar abduct the X-Men and Beast to destroy Jean/Phoenix. However, Xavier challenges the Shi’ar Imperial Guard to a duel of honor over the fate of the Phoenix. As the X-Men fall, Jean feels the Dark Phoenix returning, and, rather than turning evil again, ends the threat of the Dark Phoenix ever returning. Following this, Scott leaves the X-Men as he feels he has no place with the team. Storm is made leader, and Kitty Pryde becomes the youngest member of the X-Men.

            Kitty is resistant to accept Nightcrawler as a friend. In “Nightcrawler’s Inferno,” Kurt and the X-Men fight the evil witch Margali, who blames Kurt for a crime Kurt did not commit.

            After this is “…Something Wicked This Way Comes!” where Logan and Kurt head to Canada to cure a man turned into a demon called the Wendigo.

            Next up is “Days of Future Past!” In this, the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants assassinate presidential candidate Senator Kelly in 1980. Soon after, the Sentinels are reactivated and in time, mutants are eradicated. The survivors are placed in concentration camps, and inhibitors are created to suppress their mutant powers. In 2013, a nuclear assault is planned for the United States in an effort to end the threat of the Sentinels. Logan, Piotr, Ororo, Kate Pryde-Rasputin, Franklin Richards, Rachel, and Magneto plan to stop this world from ever coming to be. The mutants are able to jam the inhibitor powers, and Rachel uses her power to swap Kate and Kitty, sending Kate Pryde-Rasputin back in time to 1980, and Kitty Pryde to 2013. The choice is made as Kitty is the newest member of the X-Men and not as psychically resistant and most likely to be believed. Kate must now convince the X-Men, who head to Washington, D.C. to try to save Charles Xavier, X-Men ally Doctor Moira MacTaggert, and Senator Kelly from the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

            Following this is “Demon.” Kitty is left alone at Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters on Christmas Eve, where a demon is able to enter the School and Kitty, by herself, must fight the demon to save her life.

            There are also mini-stories “At the Sign of the Lion,” “Joyride into Jeopardy” “Cry—Vengeance!” and “Phoenix: The Untold Story” a director’s cut of “The Fate of the Phoenix,” the final issue of “The Dark Phoenix Saga” with different dialogue and a different ending.

            Okay, I know this was a lot to take in, and if you are still here at this point, you are THE BEST! So, now for my thoughts. “The Dark Phoenix Saga” is, at the moment, my FAVORITE X-Men story. To me it is just PERFECTION! The film “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” just DID NOT do it justice. BUT! I felt that “Nightcrawler’s Inferno” and “…Something Wicked This Way Comes” were just mediocre stories, but I did like how it shined a spotlight on Kurt. BUT! “Days of Future Past!” I thought it was such an AMAZING story! Granted the future has passed, but in 1980, 2013 seemed like such a long time away and the ages of the surviving mutants had to be believable in order to still be fighting the Sentinels. And I guess that meant that the X-Men were able to change this future from happening. (Kidding! Or am I?). And “Phoenix: The Untold Story” having different dialogue and a different ending was rather interesting, but this just would not have worked out if it had been published as the originally published ending.

            Okay, I know you’ve been waiting for this! My numeric score. I’ve said all I needed to say, so now I’m going to give my scores. In this case, I won’t justify my scores because I’ve probably bored you slightly, so if you’re still here, you are THE BEST! Just going to say, I score on a scale of one to ten, one being amazingly awful, while ten being simply amazing. And I am a VERY hard to please reviewer as my prior readers will know, so a high score from me, well… Anyway! “The Dark Phoenix Saga” Ten! “Nightcrawler’s Inferno” Eight! “…Something Wicked This Way Comes!” Seven! “Days of Future Past!” Ten! “At the Sign of the Lion” Six! “Joyride into Jeopardy!” Six! “Cry—Vengeance!” Six! “Phoenix: The Untold Story” Ten! And finally, “X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix” as a whole book! Nine!

            Now, finally, do I recommend this book? YES! If you like X-Men comics and have never read this, I totally say you should pick up this book! I thought it was AMAZING! (Hmm, that’s Spider-Man’s thing, but I feel “Uncanny” just isn’t enough.) If you’ve never read any X-Men comics or never even heard of the X-Men but want a good place to start, this is definitely my recommendation for you! I felt that prior knowledge of the X-Men is not required and that this book is very much self-contained. So if this review has whet your appetite, totally check this book out!

            Okay, so I’ve been typing for a while now, and you’ve been reading this for a few minutes, so now I free you. BUT! First, I will say that I’ve done so many reviews on this blog, so if you liked this post and want to read more, and I haven’t bored you, please feel free to browse the rest of this blog. I also write short fiction and nonfiction, poetry, editorials and essays, including my “B’ings” series, and some other stuff I feel you might find interesting, so browse ‘til your heart’s content. I am a certified journalist, but unemployed due to my disabilities, so this is how I get my ideas out there to you (for free, I must add), so your support is greatly appreciated. Feel free to retweet, follow, like, share comment, whatever you can do on the platform you found me on, and if you do, you are THE BEST, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out! 

"The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages - Legendary Edition" by Akira Himekawa

            Hey, all, welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin. I’m your reviewer, Tim Cubbin. The following is a review of “The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages Legendary Edition” Manga by Akira Himekawa. It is NOT a review of the video games.

            Okay, so here’s how this is going to work. I write reviews all the time, as some of you will know. This Manga is a two title adaptation of the video games “The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons” and “The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages” as well as a bonus story “The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons – Short Edition.” This review will break down each story separately. This is going to be a little different than usual compared to my other reviews. After each story review, I will share my thoughts on the specific story. Then I’ll give a numeric score for each story individually. After all three stories have been rated, I’ll rate this book as a whole. I’ll talk a little more after that as to if I actually recommend this book to other readers and who would be best suited to read it. Then I’ll give the blah blah blah closing and send you on your way to whatever else you feel like doing the moment after you finish reading it. Of course, some of you may opt out of finishing this review, but if you stay all the way to my last three words, you are THE BEST! Okay, I know I’m boring you now and you’re thinking “Tim Cubbin, get on to the reviews already,” so you know what…? I will.

            First we’ll discuss “The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons.” The story starts with a young boy named Link. He comes from a family of Knights for the Kingdom of Hyrule. Note that while the series is called “The Legend of Zelda,” our hero is Link, while Zelda is the Princess of Hyrule. Oddly enough, Zelda plays a very little part in the story, but it’s still “The Legend of Zelda” and not “The Legend of Link” for some reason I don’t think I’ll ever understand. Anyway, Link. Link does not want to follow in the family tradition of being a Knight. Link is purported to go on to be a true hero as he was born with the mark of the Triforce on the back of his left hand, a sacred relic, but he just doesn’t want to be one. He is content to farm on the land of his grandma and grandpa, but grandpa has been grooming him to be a Knight for his entire life. He is sent to Hyrule to take part in the Knights’ Trial. Link is greatly overlooked. He decides to sneak off into Hyrule Castle. In the basement, he finds the three golden pyramids that make up the Triforce. Curious, he touches one and finds himself transported to the land of Holodrum. He lands in a troupe with a dancer named Din, a cook named Impa, and a group of other performers. Link joins the troupe and now thinks he has found his calling in life. But his contentment is not to last. The evil General of Darkness Onox discovers the troupe and it is revealed that Din is the Oracle of Seasons. She controls Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn in Holodrum. Onox kidnaps Din (this is based on a video game, so of course SOME woman has to get kidnapped, it’s just how it works), sinks the Temple of Seasons, and locks up Din in a magic crystal enchantment. This now throws the seasons out of whack. You can be in one spot and it will be snowing, but if you take two steps in another direction, the sun will be beaming down. Link meets his new best friend Ricky at a boxing gym, and the two begin to travel together. Ricky is a kangaroo and Link now realizes he can talk to animals and even the Maku Tree. Link must discover the Rod of Seasons so he can temporarily stabilize the seasons so he and Ricky can travel to Onox’s castle and then set Din free. Unfortunately, upon Link and Ricky arriving at the Temple of Seasons, the BFFs meet the “Great Witch” Maple, who is after the Rod of Seasons herself to grant her powers so she actually CAN become a “Great Witch.” Of course Link finds it first, but Maple tags along with Link and Ricky, planning to steal it when Link isn’t looking. Link arrives at Onox’s Castle and battles Onox in his true form and rescues Din. What Link doesn’t know is that upon defeating Onox, he inadvertently lights the Flame of Destruction that the evil witch sisters the Twinrova have been trying to ignite for a very long time. I know, spoilers, but you obviously know that Link will defeat his enemies because this is, after all, an adaptation of a video game and the protagonist always defeats the main antagonist at the end of the game (if you’re actually a good player and make it to the end, of course). Link is able to return to his homeland and is now given Knighthood and becomes a Knight of Hyrule, a role he now willingly accepts, making his grandpa proud.

            Okay, now, as promised, my thoughts. I’ve actually played and finished the video game, and unfortunately, this is just NOT the video game AT ALL. I mean, yes, it must be compressed since this IS a Manga after all, but the comparisons are VERY minimal. The video game DID NOT put such an emphasis on Ricky and Maple, and the video game DID NOT have the plot of Link being raised by his grandparents, or any backstory of Link prior to discovering the Triforce, the video game DID NOT have any content of Link joining Din’s troupe, the book DID NOT have ANY scenes in the land of Subrosia that Link travelled to in the game, and this book DID NOT spend much time with Link fighting enemies as he does in the game. This is VERY MUCH unrecognizable to the game, and I rather enjoyed this game, so I was pretty disappointed.

            Okay, now for the score; I always base this score on a scale of one-to-ten, one being this book was a waste of time and I regret spending my time reading it, ten being this was awesome and I’m totally going to read it again. So I said that this Manga was unrecognizable to the game that I enjoyed the game, and I was disappointed. BUT! This is NOT a review scored on a comparison to the game, this is a review about the Manga. I have to accept the Manga on face value. I felt that the Manga on its own was actually an interesting story. I enjoyed the development of the characters, except for the lack of Subrosia. And the video game spent no time on Link’s history nor Link’s growing from a farmer to a Knight, so I found Link’s personal story to be compelling, and the story of Link’s friendship with Ricky and “alliance” with Maple actually interested me and I got to actually KNOW the characters as compared to the video games, so I felt that this was a plus. SO! ON ITS OWN, ignoring that this was based on a video game, I give it a seven. I felt that the story itself was good, and I did enjoy it, especially my investment with the characters.

            Now, I’ll move on to “The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages.” This continues from where “Oracle of Seasons” left off. Players of the games will know that there was a feature that united the video games and you could play “Oracle of Seasons” or “Oracle of Ages” in either story and actually connect the story and items together and then go on to the final ending after both games connected are completed. We’ll get back to this feature in a little while, I still have to review “Oracle of Ages” first. In this story, the Twinrova send out Veran, the Sorceress of Shadow out to fight Link to ignite the Flame of Sorrow to resurrect Ganon, the King of Evil. Princess Zelda sends out Link and Impa on a quest to find Nayru, the Oracle of Ages and bring her back to Hyrule Castle after Zelda has a premonition of great evil approaching, namely the return of Ganon. Unfortunately, Veran can possess people. She sets out to possess Impa in order to obtain the powers of Nayru, the Oracle of Ages. Nayru has the Harp of Ages and can travel through time. When Veran makes her way to Nayru, she possesses the Oracle of Ages and now controls her. Veran travels back in time to influence Queen Ambi of Labrynna into building a tower to the heavens. Ambi forces the male citizens of Labrynna into constructing the tower. Link and Nayru’s old friend Ralph travel back in time to fight Veran. Link allies with Sir Raven, a double agent who claims to kidnap and kill traitors for Queen Ambi while actually rescuing them and bringing to the safe haven of Lynna. It turns out Raven is actually an ancestor of Link, forcing Link to provide extra protection for Raven to ensure Link is not erased from history in the event of Raven’s death. Ralph is also unwilling to kill the evil Queen Ambi as she is an ancestor of Ralph and killing her will erase Ralph from history as well. Link, Ralph and Raven are able to separate Veran from Nayru and fight Veran in her true form. Upon her death, the Flame of Sorrow is lit and Ganon is resurrected. Fortunately, the Twinrova’s spell is not completed properly and Ganon does not possess intelligence, leaving Link, Ralph and Raven to fight a ferocious beast.

            Okay, that’ll do for that. As I said before, the connectivity feature of the games makes it so that the two games are actually one story and completing both games unlocks the final ending where Link must save Zelda by killing the Twinrova and Ganon. If you have read one of my other two “The Legend of Zelda” Manga reviews, or actually read the Manga separately yourself and are just reading this review for my opinion, or even have ever played a “The Legend of Zelda” video game, you may be familiar with Ganon by now. I have played the game “Oracle of Ages” prior to writing this review, and I’ll say that this had more similarities to the game than the “Oracle of Seasons” Manga. However, the game DID NOT have Sir Raven AT ALL! In the game, Ralph wasn’t prominent in the defeat of Veran. In the game, more time travel was involved. And in the final ending, Link faced the Twinrova in battle and their fight interrupted the spell that resurrected Ganon.

            Again, taking this Manga at face value, I actually really enjoyed it. The character of Sir Raven was a welcome addition for me, and I felt it really helped with character development that actually compelled me as I read the Manga. As far as giving this a score, I actually have to give it an eight. And prior readers of one of my review posts know I am a VERY difficult scorer, so an eight on a video game Manga is a REALLY good score, especially since I enjoyed the game and there were a substantial amount of inconsistencies. Still, I thought it was a good effort and I have to applaud Akira Himekawa for what I felt was a job well done.

            Finally, we have “The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons – Short Edition.” Yes, in this, Din was captured by Onox, yes Link had to come and rescue her and get the Rod of Seasons, but in this he had to fight the Great Moblin and another monster from the game and battle Maple for the Rod of Seasons.

But taking a story of considerable length such as the full-length Manga of one-hundred-eighty-six pages and condensing it into twenty pages just DID NOT work. If I said the full-length Manga was not the game, this version was nothing like the game. I thought it was rather pitiful. It even almost seemed that Akira Himekawa just did it as a joke. Granted seeing monsters from “The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons” the video game was slightly a perk, but it wasn’t enough for me.

So now that I put down the little story, I have to give my numeric score. I hate to do this, to say this, I really do, but I have to score it as a two. I’d totally say you’d probably not miss much by getting this book and not reading “Oracle of Seasons – Short Edition.” It was a weak attempt, and reading it was totally a waste of six minutes or however long it took (I totally didn’t time it). The score was only a two and not a one because of the Great Moblin and the giant lizard dragon that made me have a slight appreciation, and without them I probably WOULD have given this story a one.

Alright, now we’re up to my score for the book as a whole. Linking (no pun intended) the two stories from the separate titles and having the final ending was fun for me to read. It’s been twenty years since I played the games, so revisiting the stories in a new interpretation was welcoming for me. I know I dissed this due to the Manga not being the games, but I appreciated it as the adaptation it was. And speaking of appreciating the adaptations, I’m giving my score of the entire book. I have to give it a (drumroll please!) six. Look, I liked “Oracle of Seasons” and “Oracle of Ages” quite a bit, but “Oracle of Seasons – Short Edition” had to bring it down. I’m sorry Akira Himekawa, you did a good job at most of the book, but there was so much for me to dislike. I don’t regret reading this book, that’s for sure, and, hey, maybe I’ll end up reading it again someday, but ultimately this book was rather flawed for me.

Okay, finally, do I recommend this book to you? I say this every time, but for you newbs, I can’t tell you if the book was a good book. I can tell you to me it was a fun book, but you don’t think the same way I do, you won’t have the same opinions as me. You might read this and think it’s trash and say “Tim Cubbin, how could you like this piece of garbage?” but you may also think it was so good and say “Tim Cubbin, what is wrong with you, this is an awesome book, how could you find flaws in this epic, great Masterpiece?” that’s all you. I’m just telling you in MY opinion, how I feel about it, but leave everything else to you. If you want to read this, go right ahead. I would recommend this book to you, but if you played and loved the games, you might love this new interpretation or you might hate that it’s not the game, that’s a tricky gray area, but not knowing anything about “The Legend of Zelda” could welcome you to Link’s world or just totally turn you off and not want to get involved, again, tricky gray area, I leave the opinion up to you. This makes telling a demographic audience impossible. We’ll leave it as that I played the games and loved them, then read the Manga of those same games and fairly enjoyed it, there’s nothing more I can say. BUT! I do have a warning for those of you who have never read a Manga before. A Manga is a Japanese comic book. There’s a consistent look to them, the art style (which, I didn’t mention before, but I personally loved it), in black and white, the exaggerated sound effects, the quirky little words appearing a points. The BIGGEST THING I can tell you is how to read it. I’m American, I’ve been reading comic books since I was five years old, and getting into my first Manga was an effort. That might sound strange to say… until you actually look at one. A Manga is read from back to front, from right to left. In other words, to American comic book readers like myself, it’s backwards! It will take some practice to get into a Manga, but once you get the hang of it, it’s actually kind of cool. And yes, you may have slips in learning it, mastering a Manga to regular comic book readers is an effort, but for “The Legend of Zelda” fans like myself, I think it is worth the work.

And now, I will bid you adieu. First, though, know that I am a rather frequent blogger. I don’t work on a schedule, I just post when I have something to post. I’m rather busy right now, so my posts won’t be as frequent as they were in the past, but keep looking for me in the future. I also do reviews of other graphic or prose novels I read (almost entirely Marvel, I am a die-hard Marvelite), I do editorials and essays and articles (as a certified, currently unemployed journalist), I have a complaint series B’ings, I write short fiction and nonfiction stories, I do poetry, I do a lot of stuff other than just this, so check out some more of my posts if you’ve enjoyed this review (and you’re still here, you are THE BEST!). I hope you come back for more, but for now, Tim Cubbin… out!