"Astonishing X-Men: Gifted"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted” by Joss Whedon as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Mutants are humans born with a genetic quirk that give them abilities that ordinary humans do not. Because of this, regular humans fear and even hate mutants. Charles Xavier formed the X-Men on the hope that one day, humans and mutants will one day live together in peace and harmony. He founded the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning as a home for the X-Men and as a school to teach mutants how to use their gifts properly. However, he left the school to reside on the devastated mutant island nation of Genosha to help rebuild and left the Xavier Institute and the X-Men in the hands of Scott Summers/Cyclops and Emma Frost.

Cyclops assembled a team of X-Men consisting of himself, his lover Emma Frost, James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine, Henry “Hank” McCoy, and Katherine “Kitty” Pryde as a public face for mutants aiding humanity. However, the team had not been gelling right away. Kitty met Emma Frost the day she first met the X-Men, Emma having formerly been the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, an organization that the X-Men clashed with for many years, and Kitty was apprehensive about a former villain now leading the X-Men. Logan had been unaccepting of Scott and Emma’s new relationship, Scott having just lost his wife Jean Grey, the woman both Scott and Logan loved.

The day for the X-Men to go public arrived when an alien named Ord led a team of mercenaries to an art preservation gala. They came wielding stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. technology. (S.H.I.E.L.D. is a world peacekeeping organization led by Colonel Nick Fury.) Scott led the team against Ord and the mercenaries. Though the X-Men were able to safely evacuate all the hostages and take out the mercenaries, they were unable to defeat Ord. It took Kitty’s alien dragon companion Lockheed to drive Ord away. While the X-Men were on their first mission, a scientist named Doctor Kavita Rao dropped a major bombshell at a press conference. She had been working with a young mutant subject named Tildie Soames, who was able to physically manifest her nightmares. She announced to the world that the laboratory Benetech had developed a “cure” for mutation, a vaccine that would permanently turn a mutant into a normal human being.

The students at the Xavier Institute were highly divided. Some wanted the cure, wanted normal lives. The X-Men were tasked with holding the students together. Wanting to know if this cure was legitimate, Hank broke into the main Benetech laboratory in New York in an attempt to steal the cure. He was caught by Doctor Rao, who agreed that Hank should, in fact, test the cure and gave him a sample. This led to a conflict between him and Logan that Emma had to resolve telepathically. While testing the cure, Hank noticed that the cure had traces of DNA from a mutant in the Xavier Institute files, and he went to Scott, who gathered the X-Men to break into the Benetech laboratory to investigate. Scott and Hank were under the assumption that the was being done on a corpse, as the mutant on file was believed deceased. While investigating, Kitty used her phasing powers to pass through a metal that gave her difficulty. Upon arriving in a subbasement, Kitty discovered Piotr “Peter” Rasputin/Colossus, the mutant who was the test subject, who was believed to be deceased, and was Kitty’s former lover.

While the X-Men were investigating Benetech, Ord went to the Xavier Institute, looking for the X-Men. Upon learning that the X-Men were not at home, he decided to “leave a message” by using the cure on a student who called himself Wing, a young mutant whose wish upon graduating the Xavier Institute was to join the X-Men.

The X-Men encountered the government organization Sentient Worlds Observation and Response Department, led by Special Agent Abigail Brand, who informed the X-Men that Ord’s people were actually the ones behind the cure and not Benetech. A mutant, probably an X-Man, was destined to destroy the Breakworld, Ord’s home, sometime within the following three years, and the cure was a preventative measure to avoid a war between Earth and the Breakworld. Ord returned to Benetech and attempted to escape with the cure and Tildie, and it was up to the X-Men to prevent Ord’s escape and rescue Tildie.

The X-Men then teamed up with the Fantastic Four to drive a giant monster out of Manhattan. The Xavier Institute had a training facility called the Danger Room. It was equipped with alien Shi’ar technology that could replicate enemies and environments. It also had sentience. Its artificial intelligence tricked the depowered Wing into helping it break its programming. It then used a frequency pulse that incapacitated all the psychics in the Xavier Institute and took over all the electronics in the school. It also brought a Sentinel (a robot programmed to hunt and destroy mutants) to the school to attack the X-Men. The X-Men herded all the students into the Danger Room where they thought the students would be safe, but Kitty discovered that the Danger Room was now attempting to gain form. She was unable to prevent the other X-Men from destroying the Danger Room’s power core, which inadvertently freed the Danger Room’s programming and created a new threat: Danger. The X-Men then confronted Danger but were all taken down quickly. Danger knew all the X-Men’s moves, powers, and strategies, having trained with them for years. But defeating the X-Men wasn’t enough for her. She decided that to attain fulfillment, she had to take out her “father” and captor: Charles Xavier. She then set off for Genosha to complete her mission. Scott revealed to the other X-Men Xavier’s location, which had been kept secret from them, and the X-Men then set off for Genosha to save their mentor.

Okay, so some of you may remember from way back when that I did a review of the prose novelization version of “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted,” right when I started this blog. The book in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format just came out last week. So some of you may already know some of this story if you’ve read that review, and this current review does have spoilers to the previous review, having a second story arc contained in it, so sorry if you’ve been with me an still haven’t read either version of this story. Anyway, you probably want to know my thoughts. I opted not to go into detail about all of the individual X-Men’s powers and histories, I thought that might take too long and really would have no true impact on this particular review, so if you couldn’t follow this review because you had no idea who the heck I was talking about, I apologize. If this were just an individual character, I would have gone into more detail, but seeing as how this is a team, I felt that just explaining the point of the team itself should suffice as background information. Besides, it gets boring when I yammer on forever, which I am doing right now, so let’s just move on. Now, the issues in this book were released between 2004-2005. I remember it from back then. I remember getting “Astonishing X-Men” #1 in 2004 and reading “And now, at last… we have found a cure.” And thinking “HOLY (word I’m not using; this blog is G-rated)!” It was a HUGE shocker. Joss Whedon handled this series so well. He had so many good twists and turns in his narratives. Bringing Colossus back wasn’t my favorite choice at the time. Colossus died curing the Legacy Virus, which was basically Marvel’s allegory for superhuman AIDS, and I did feel like it was an affront to both the character and the writer who made the choice to kill him off to bring him back this way, but I did eventually get over it as he proved useful in future storylines. Grant Morrison was the one who decided to ship Scott Summers and Emma Frost, which, at the time, I thought was bizarre, but Joss Whedon made it work. “Dangerous,” the second story arc, also had its surprises. The Danger Room becoming sentient was actually an interesting concept, especially making this a villain who knew everything the X-Men were going to do before they did it, having studied them for years, the only one she didn’t know was Charles Xavier. I know some AI stories can come across as rather cheesy, but I have to say I didn’t feel like this was one of those. I also have to give great praise to the artist, John Cassaday. His artwork, to me at least, was BRILLIANT! I know a lot of my regular readers hear me moan about the artwork a lot in my reviews, especially my reviews from this year, 2024. I don’t think I’ve yet been able to say I consistently liked the artwork in any of the Modern Era Epic Collections I’ve reviewed, so me saying that is a big deal. Also, this has been the only one with only one artist, so that’s another reason, but kudos to Cassaday, both to his talent and to his dedication to the series, ultimately penciling twenty-five consecutive issues of the series, so if Marvel releases a second consecutive Modern Era Epic Collection of “Astonishing X-Men,” you can expect to see my praise for him again. I just thought he had such amazing talent, I loved his style, his details, it was just so appealing to me, and I really appreciated it. Hopefully Marvel does release a second Modern Era Epic Collection of the series, I would love to review it.

Anyway, if you know my reviews, you always see me write about accessibility. For those of you who are new and have no idea what I mean, let me explain. My use of accessibility means how easy it is for casual or new readers to be able to pick up this book and understand it. I have to say, if you’ve never even HEARD of the X-Men but saw this book on the shelf in a bookstore or found it browsing online or if someone told you about it and you still want to read it, I wouldn’t say it’s a PERFECT jumping on point, but it’s a GOOD one. What I mean by that is, to me, it feels like I think you should have SOME background knowledge of the X-Men, but I don’t 100% feel like it’s a necessity. It helps to know about it, sure, especially since this follows the works of forty years, but this book is very self-contained and doesn’t crossover with any other series or storylines from the time period like many other Epic Collections and Modern Era Epic Collections do. I felt like the main characters were all adequately explained, their names and powers established. There are also a bunch of characters that debut in this volume, so they have no prior backstories. I feel like if you want to start reading X-Men comics, this is a good place to start. Again, not perfect, but good. There are other points you could start at that would be better for sure, but this is also the first X-Men Modern Era Epic Collection published, so if you’re planning on starting there, you really have no other choice at the moment of my posting this review.

Okay, I’ve probably bored you long enough, you just want to know my numeric score. It’s very simple, all my prior readers know it, but I have to say it again for the newbs, so bear with me. I score on a scale of one to ten. One means it’s such a failure it didn’t even deserve to be published; ten means sheer perfection. Now, since this is a graphic novel, I have to take EVERYTHING into consideration, story AND art. Some of my prior readers know that artwork has actually knocked points off some of my reviews and added points to others. John Cassaday’s artwork deserves a ten, but there was just something about “Dangerous” that detracts from me calling Joss Whedon’s story perfection. So, you can probably guess that that means that this book is receiving a… NINE! Hey, that’s still pretty darn good! I’m a hard scorer, I don’t just go around handing out perfect scores.

Now, I’m obligated to tell you if I recommend this book to you or not. If you’re reading this review and have ANY interest in reading this book whatsoever, then I TOTALLY feel like you should go for it! I’ve always thought this was stellar work for twenty years now and still holds up to this day. If you’re an X-Men fan, this is, in my opinion, a must-read, and I honestly DO NOT say that often, so if I say it, then there must be SOME meaning to it.

Well, I feel like I’ve rambled on long enough. There’s plenty of other content on this blog, I’ve posted literally dozens of other book reviews, I’ve posted short stories, poetry, editorials, articles, all kinds of content, so please, feel free to continue browsing. And you can expect another post from me within the next couple of weeks, so be sure to be back for that if you liked this review. And I leave you now and say until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Daredevil: Underboss"

 

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

            When Matthew Murdock was a boy, he was blinded in an accident involving radioactive chemicals. Though he could no longer see, his other senses were heightened. He then had a radar sense, allowing him to “view” the world in a way no one else could. Seeking justice, he studied hard and became a lawyer, but not satisfied enough, he used his gifts to become the vigilante Daredevil. He tried to keep his identity secret, but several people found out, including his law partner, Franklin “Foggy” Nelson; reporter for the Metropolitan newspaper the Daily Bugle, Ben Urich; and his greatest enemy, the Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk.

            When first blinded, Matt trained with a blind man called “Stick.” Stick was the one who taught Matt how to hone his gifts and become a fighter. When Stick died, all Matt had left of him was a staff. But there was another master, Stone, who trained with Stick. Stone was in a war with the ninja organization the Hand and required Daredevil’s assistance. He sent his apprentice to steal the staff, then drug him and bring him to Japan to fight in this battle.

            Ben Urich was following up on a story involving one of Daredevil’s foes the Vincent Patilio/Leap Frog, who mysteriously disappeared. His son Timmy witnessed the battle between Daredevil and Leap Frog, which traumatized him causing him to create a fictional world where Daredevil fought a villain, the Fury. Despite the publisher of the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson’s protests that this was not a story, rather the Kingpin going blind and going on trial, the story Jameson intended to assign Urich, Ben felt this was the story that needed his particular attention most. Ben wanted to find out just what happened between Daredevil and Leap Frog that caused the mysterious disappearance and maybe bring young Timmy out of his catatonic state.

            Matt and Foggy hired an investigator for their law firm Nelson & Murdock, Elaine Kendrick. Elaine was eager to please. Samuel Griggs arrived at Nelson & Murdock with an unusual proposition: he wanted to sue Daredevil. He claimed that Daredevil destroyed his greenhouse recklessly and wanted compensation and for super humans to be held accountable for the damage caused in their fights. Matt, who did not believe that he was involved in this conflict, encouraged Foggy to accept the case so he could investigate just what exactly happened. Griggs, a very rich man, also promised to donate to the Foundation for the Junior Blind if Matt and Foggy took the case through. Griggs and Elaine got eager and decided to publicize the case, going so far as to make a publicized serving of the subpoena to Daredevil. Daredevil needed a lawyer, but Matt wanted a lawyer that would not ask for his secret identity. To that end, he found Kate Vikonur to represent him. Matt and Daredevil had to play to the media circus to prove Daredevil’s innocence, but the difficulty lied in getting both Matt Murdock and Daredevil in the same courtroom at the same time.

            Following this trial, Sammy Silke, and underling for Wilson Fisk, decided to be ambitious and take Fisk down. Silke learned Daredevil’s secret identity from Fisk’s crew and decided to place a hit on Matt Murdock, hiring several super villains to go after the blind vigilante. Meanwhile, the family of Wilson Fisk had to deal with the former Kingpin’s takedown and decide how to move on from there.

            Okay, now that you know the main point of the story, you get to know my personal opinion. This book had two writers, Brian Michael Bendis and Bob Gale. Bendis is actually one of my favorite comic book writers. He’s done a lot of work for Marvel in the 2000s, and I really loved it. His run on Ultimate Spider-Man has been one of my all-time favorites. So of course, learning he had worked on this book, I got very excited. And yet, oddly, his stories were not my favorites in the book. Gale’s story “Playing to the Camera” the story of Daredevil on trial was actually my favorite in the book. I thought it was brilliantly crafted, with plenty of twists and turns. I didn’t know what to expect there, how Matt would be able to prosecute Daredevil and be defendant at the same time, and I really enjoyed that one. The Ninja storyline was just okay to me, didn’t really grab my attention all that much. The Leap Frog storyline was well thought out. I enjoyed the concept, investigative reporting. As some of you may know, I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, which is one of the main reasons I write this blog, and I loved the idea of Ben Urich taking this “fluff” story and running with it. The whole mystery of what happened to the Leap Frog and trying to bring Timmy out of his traumatized state was compelling. I also must state that I have seen a movie exactly like this, I can’t remember what it was called for the life of me, but I remember enjoying it, so this story was a little too redundant to me. Yes, the story of exactly what happened to the Leap Frog was interesting, and trying to cure Timmy was interesting, but I’ve seen it before. As for the titular storyline Underboss, I found it to be highly enjoyable. I have to say, I did not see then ending coming, and it definitely leads into the next volume, which I now can’t wait for, but I’m warning you, you may have spoilers if you read another “Daredevil” review, and I apologize for it, so I am not going to reveal the title in an attempt not to spoil the ending because it probably will spoil the ending if I give you the title. Anyway, as much as I enjoyed the stories, I did have issues with a few of the artists. Rob Haynes, David Mack, and Alex Maleev are not artists I enjoy, sorry to say. I’m particularly familiar with the work of Maleev from my many years of reading comics. His gritty style just doesn’t appeal to me. However, Phil Winslade and Dave Ross blew me away. Their work on “Playing to the Camera” was visually pleasing to me and saved a lot of my opinion of the book. In my opinion, they drew what a comic book is supposed to look like. Maybe that is my problem with some comic artists is my expectations to see a “comic book” and that creates bias, but we all have our preferences, and I enjoy seeing a comic book that actually LOOKS like a comic book more than stylization artwork. I’ve had this issue a lot, and many of my prior readers will know this, so if you’re new to my blog, you now know.

            Now, I have to say who I think will find this book accessible to read. I think this is actually very accessible. I found the book to be standalone and self-contained. If you’ve never read a comic book before and never even heard of Daredevil or know anything about Marvel but want to pick up a book and start, I wouldn’t say this is the PERFECT book to pick, but I think you would probably be able to follow it pretty well. If you know a little about Marvel or Daredevil that will of course help, but this is a fairly good jump on point. It really doesn’t continue directly from any prior storylines. Yes, there are connections, such as the Kingpin’s blindness, which is a storyline even I’m not totally familiar with, but I didn’t find that to be a hindrance, and I don’t think it would be to new readers either. But I don’t think it really digs on from past storylines directly, so following it shouldn’t be too hard, in my opinion.

            Now, of course, we have to go to the main reason just exactly why we’re here: my numeric score. If you’ve been here before, you know the drill, but if you’re new, you don’t, so I have to give the rundown, but if you know, just bear with me for a few sentences. I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest score, meaning this is a total piece of garbage and not worth reading. Ten means this is one of the best books I’ve ever read and you should make every effort to read this upon finishing reading this review, or even don’t need to finish, just get the darn thing already. Based on reading all I’ve written so far, you can probably guess I’m not giving this a ten, and that is mostly due to the artwork. Also, I didn’t feel the stories were to perfection. If this were just a novel alone with no pictures, I would give this book an eight, but this is a GRAPHIC NOVEL, and everything has to be taken into consideration. If it were just art alone with no pictures, I’d score this at a five. Winslade and Ross’ artwork saved the entire book in my opinion. So, you can now guess that as I score this book, it falls at a point between this. So, put together, all in, I score this book at… seven. I feel there was just enough of a balance in there to score it at this rating. The stories were good enough, the art by Winslade and Ross appealed to me, so despite Haynes, Mack and Maleev, I feel that I don’t need to dock too many points off of my score, so I think seven is very fair.

            Next off, you probably want to know if I recommend this book to you. This book gets a high recommendation rating. If you’ve read the entire review to this point and are interested in the whole story as I’ve presented it, I would say you should definitely make every effort to read this book. The quality of the stories was relatively high, so reading it would be enjoyable to Marvel fans like myself, even new readers would possibly find this appealing. So, this book DEFINITELY gets a recommendation from me, which as prior readers may know, does not always happen, so if I say this, you should know that this is probably a good read.

            So now, if you’re still reading this, I have to say, you are THE BEST! I know my droning on can be boring sometimes, sometimes even I get bored with myself, but seriously, thanks for sticking with me for this long. So now, I release you from your mortal bonds with just three more words: Tim Cubbin… OUT!

"Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Weapon of Choice":

 

            The following is a review of “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Weapon of Choice” as presented in Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            On Earth-65, teenager Gwen Stacy was bitten by a mutated spider. The bite transformed her, granting her amazing powers: a precognitive awareness of danger, adhesive fingertips and toes, and the proportional speed and strength of a spider. She uses those powers to fight supervillains as Spider-Woman and keep the multiverse safe.

            When she first got her powers, she tested them out wrestling to make money. She learned right from wrong when Ben Parker stopped a thief from robbing the box office. But it was the death of Peter Parker that turned her into a true hero. She has fought a myriad of villains over the years, some rather forgettable, like the Koala Kommander, teamed up with Captain America, joined and left the band the Mary Janes several times, and met Spider-Heroes from many other universes.

            Gwen Stacy of Earth-65 and Laura Kinney/Wolverine of Earth-616 woke up one morning to find their consciousnesses had been swapped. Gwen had to travel to Earth-616 to team up with Wolverine to solve the mystery of how their bodies were swapped, or their consciousnesses would deteriorate and leave them both mindless.

            After a battle against on Earth-616 against a villain, Gwen had her powers stolen. She needed to take a serum to use her powers, and the serum only granted them temporarily. Police detective Frank Castle had previously discovered Gwen’s secret identity as Spider-Woman. He teamed up with Kraven the Hunter to try to capture Spider-Woman. To that end, he sent dangerous animals after former police captain and Gwen’s father George Stacy at his house. During the fight, Gwen’s power injector was destroyed, and Kraven was able to steal the serum. Super genius Reed Richards was able to repair and enhance the device for Gwen. Gwen battled Castle again, and at the end of the fight, George Stacy turned himself in to the NYPD for aiding and abetting Spider-Woman. Following this, out of desperation, Gwen made a deal with the Kingpin of Crime, Matt Murdock: she would serve him as Spider-Woman in exchange for him to serve as her father’s lawyer.

            On Halloween, the Mary Janes went to the abandoned Cursed Carnival of Mysterio. As it turned out, Mysterio still haunted the carnival and forced the Mary Janes to face some of their greatest fears through the powers of his illusions.

            For Thanksgiving, Gwen invited the Spider-Woman of Earth-616, Jessica Drew, her partner Roger Gocking/Porcupine, and Jessica’s infant son Gerry over for dinner.

            The Kingpin brokered a deal with Cindy Moon, the imprisoned former director of the evil agency S.I.L.K. and manufacturer of Gwen’s spider-power-up serum, granting the Kingpin access to a continuous supply of the serum.

            On Earth-616, Miles Morales/Spider-Man’s father went on a mission for the peacekeeping agency S.H.I.E.L.D. into Earth-65 but went missing. S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill sent Miles to Earth-65 to find and rescue his father. Miles teamed up with Gwen, where Miles found this reality’s version of his father, who was actually a mob boss. Much more dimension hopping was involved over this caper, including where Gwen travelled to a future world where she and Miles were married with children. At the end of the adventure, Miles and Gwen felt a romantic attraction, but chose not to pursue it.

            Elsa Brock discovered an isotope for the serum that transformed Gwen’s friends Peter Parker and Harry Osborn into the Lizards that would essentially be a cure for Harry, but would also give Gwen her powers back. Gwen reluctantly accepted the mission and the symbiote. Harry’s location had been tracked to the island of Madripoor. However, Gwen wasn’t the only person interested in locating Harry. S.H.I.E.L.D. had also sent out two agents, Logan/Wolverine and Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat to locate Harry and bring him in. However, Wolverine and Shadowcat weren’t sharing the same mission and conflict broke out between the two. After the fallout of the mission, Gwen returned home to find out her father was in a coma after being attacked in prison. This caused the symbiote to overreact and created the birth of Gwenom.

            Okay, so I do have to say, I was slightly disappointed with this book. Last week I reviewed “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Edge of Spider-Verse” which precedes this book. I stated multiple times in that review that Earth-65 is “unique,” and that’s one of the things I love most about Spider-Gwen. I never know what to expect. But some of the changes were a little too unwelcome. In every other reality, George Stacy dies, so having a reality where he’s still alive is very unusual, especially with him in such a huge capacity supporting role. But him quitting the police force is just so out of character. Doing anything to protect Gwen isn’t, of course, but going to jail was a bit extreme. Frank Castle teaming up with Kraven the Hunter was also out of character. Gwen selling her soul to the Kingpin was extremely out of character, almost to the point of unbelievability. I could never see a Spider-Hero actually making a lasting deal with the Kingpin, even if the Kingpin is Matt Murdock. And the whole book with Gwen not naturally having her spider powers and getting them through artificial means just didn’t work for me. On top of that, the Miles/Gwen multiverse crossover just wasn’t as appealing to me as the Spider-Women crossover. This one was a little sloppy, with too many universes visited, and it was also a little stale having Miles’ father turning out to be a villain on Earth-65, just like Cindy Moon-65 was a villain. It just seemed a little too cliché at the point, like if you have a Spider-Gwen crossover someone heroic on Earth-616 has to be a villain on Earth-65. My biggest issue, however, was the art. I just did not like the artwork in Spider-Gwen at all. “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Edge of Spider-Verse” and “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Weapon of Choice” shared some artists, and in my prior review I said the stylized artwork didn’t appeal to me. Once again this was true. I mean no offense to the artists, but in the most case, this just wasn’t my kind of artwork. I appreciate what the artists were attempting to do, but for me, it just didn’t work.

            Okay, so let’s talk about accessibility before we go any further. Honestly, if you didn’t read “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Edge of Spider-Verse” you definitely should not read this book. This is a direct continuation and if you didn’t read the previous volume, it will be extremely difficult to pick up on the story. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s not easy. Also, you should know a bit about Miles Morales since the crossover is really not self-explanatory for the “Spider-Man” series of the time period. I don’t feel that this is a starter Marvel graphic novel. What I mean is if you’ve never read a Marvel comic before and are looking for a place to start, this is not it.

            Okay, I’ve gone on long enough, you probably want to hear just how good I thought this book was, giving it a numeric score. If you’ve read any of my reviews before, you know how this works, but for you newbs, I’ll explain. I score on a scale of one to ten. One means this is a terrible book, do not by any means read this. Ten means this book is one of the best books you’ll ever read, go out of your way to read it. My regulars know I’m a pretty harsh scorer, I don’t just go around giving tens, and you can tell by now this book does not get a ten from me. I have to take everything into account, the story and the artwork when I give my score, so, all cards on the table, I score this book as… drumroll please… six. To me the book was mediocre story wise, and the art just didn’t do it for me.

            Next, I’ll tell you if I recommend this book or not. In all honesty, I don’t generally recommend it, but if you are a Spider-Gwen fan, I would say you should give it a read, especially if you’re newer to Ghost-Spider and want to read the earlier stories, this does fill in a lot. I would just say you have to read “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Edge of Spider-Verse” in the Modern Era Epic Collection format first or you’ll have a difficult time picking it up. Other than that, I think you might enjoy it. I’m not saying you shouldn’t read it, especially if you’ve read this review and have met all my prerequisites and are interested in reading it, because I say in that case you totally should read this book, but if you don’t meet the prerequisites or are on the fence, I wouldn’t tell you to rush out and read it.

            Well, I feel as if I’ve gone on long enough. I really don’t want to bore you any further. So, I say to you if you’re reading this at this point, you are THE BEST, I appreciate you! I can also tell you to expect more content sometime in the next couple of weeks, so I really hope you’ll come back for that, and I will say that until then, Tim Cubbin… out!

“Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Edge of Spider-Verse”

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Edge of Spider-Verse” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            We all know the story. Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and gained spider powers and became Spider-Man. Well, on Earth-65, Gwen Stacy was bitten by a radioactive spider and became Spider-Woman. She has adhesive fingertips and toes, the proportional speed, strength and agility of a spider, and a precognitive awareness of danger. She also created web shooters. She uses her powers to fight crime.

            Her best friend Peter Parker became obsessed with Spider-Woman. He wanted to be “special” too, so he created a serum intended to give him powers, and he became the Lizard. Spider-Woman battled the Lizard, not knowing it was her best friend. At the end of the battle, Peter sustained a fatal injury. He reverted back to his human form. Spider-Woman was seen then and was blamed for the death of Peter Parker and became a wanted fugitive. Gwen’s father, George Stacy, is the police captain and lead the hunt for Spider-Woman.

            Gwen and her friends Mary Jane Watson, Glory Grant and Betty Brant formed the band the Mary Janes, for which Gwen became the drummer. On the night of the Mary Janes’ big gig, Captain Stacy was in attendance. Captain Stacy was responsible for putting away the former Kingpin of Crime in New York City, Wilson Fisk, but the new Kingpin, Fisk’s lawyer Matthew Murdock, planned to take down both Spider-Woman and Captain Stacy, so he hired a thug name Aleksei Sytsevich, also known as the Rhino, to attack the concert. Spider-Woman defeated the Rhino, but was cornered by Captain Stacy. Out of desperation, Gwen unmasked. Captain Stacy let Gwen go.

            A new villain soon appeared, Adrian Toomes, the Vulture, equipped with a flight suit. Captain Stacy found himself taken off the Spider-Woman case and was replaced by Frank Castle, a cop with a more aggressive approach at policing. Gwen found herself at odds with the Mary Janes after disappearing during their big break. Gwen sought the Vulture down, engaged him in battle and was defeated badly. The Kingpin made a deal with the Vulture to try to do the job the Rhino failed to do and attacked Captain Stacy in his own house. The Vulture struck just when Gwen and her father were attempting to reconcile. During the climax of the confrontation, Frank Castle arrived and fought Spider-Woman. Gwen won, but not before being unmasked by Castle, who was surprised to see that Spider-Woman was “just a girl.” Following this, on a guilt trip, Gwen paid a visit to May and Ben Parker, Peter’s Aunt and Uncle. May was becoming convinced the Spider-Woman may not have been responsible for Peter’s death, giving Gwen a confidence boost. She was then able to reconcile with the Mary Janes and perform with them again. Detective Jean DeWolff was then put on the Spider-Woman case. The Mary Janes got another big gig staged, opening for Felicia Hardy and the Black Cats. Felicia was also a high profile burglar on the Kingpin’s radar, and Murdock thought this was a perfect opportunity to take Felicia out, so he sent a squad of Ninjas after her, prompting Spider-Woman’s presence and a face-to-face between the Kingpin and Spider-Woman, revealing to Gwen just who her true enemy was.

            Gwen tried to be responsible and got a job at the Dollar Dog, which was regularly held up by Gwen’s “nemesis” the Bodega Bandit, but the Bodega Bandit got more than he bargained for when the store was attacked by reptilian humans, similar to Peter Parker’s Lizard form. This led Gwen to an investigation, where she encountered Samantha Wilson, the legendary superhero Captain America. The encounter did not go well for Gwen as Captain America believed Spider-Woman to be a murderer. The two battled both each other and more Lizard creatures, and Gwen was able to escape. Gwen and the Mary Janes went on a retreat to a lake house owned by Mary Jane’s Aunt Anna, where Gwen reunited with her old friend Harry Osborn. Harry, Peter and Gwen had played role-playing games, and Harry had earned the nickname “the Green Goblin,” for being rich, a name Peter loved to use but Harry hated. Harry had been blaming himself for Peter’s death. Harry had made a romantic advance on Gwen before prom when Peter used the serum to become the Lizard. Still, Harry swore revenge against Spider-Woman and used his father’s company’s technology to become the super villain the Green Goblin. During the battle between Spider-Woman and the Green Goblin, Harry took the Lizard serum. Captain America arrived on the scene, and the three battled, leading Cap to realize that Spider-Woman just might not be so bad after all. And tired of all the hypocrisy, George Stacy quit the police force.

            Gwen travelled to Earth-616, where her fellow Spider-heroes Jessica Drew, that reality’s Spider-Woman and Cindy Moon, also known as Silk, lived. They just wanted to have a regular breakfast, so Gwen suggested a nice place on Earth-65, Clowntown. Jessica was a brand-new mom. Cindy had been locked away in a bunker for ten years to hide from a group of evil beings who would have killed her if they had been able to locate her, and her parents had passed away and her brother had gone missing. Despite trying to have a normal girl’s breakfast, the Spider-Women were called into battle when a robot called the Super-Adaptoid attacked. While suiting up, the evil organization known as S.I.L.K. watched and stole Gwen’s dimensional transporter, trapping the three Spider-Woman on Earth-65. Cindy’s curiosity got the better of her and she decided to see if her family existed in this reality. In fact, they did, but it turned out that in this reality, Cindy was the director of S.I.L.K. She was rich, she was evil, but she didn’t have superpowers. Jessica went to search for the transporter and found out it had been taken by Earth-65’s version of her, Jesse Drew, who was a high ranking Agent of S.I.L.K. Cindy-65 used the transporter to go to Earth-616 and steal technology from Stark Tower, Alchemax and Parker Industries to try to gain powers of her own. Cindy-65 was able to use her technology to rob Gwen of her spider powers, powers that she claimed she had responsibility for. It all came down to a final battle between the heroic Spider-Women and the evil Cindy Moon of Earth-65.

            Okay, I haven’t done one of these in a long time, my laptop died last year, and I moved and haven’t been able to settle down and post on this website. I’m probably going to be doing these a little differently than I used to because of that, so my regular readers will have to forgive my changes, but I hope they’re welcome changes. So, let’s start with my opinion on the book. First off, I remember reading “Edge of Spider-Verse” #2 in 2014 and I was floored. What a unique concept! Taking a character who is ill-fated in just about every other universe and making her the hero was just brilliant! We’re all just so used to Peter Parker being Spider-Man that we never stopped the think that, what if maybe it was Gwen Stacy who got bitten by the spider? I will, however, say that the title of this book is a misnomer. If you’re looking to get a “Spider-Verse” graphic novel, this is NOT one. “Spider-Gwen” was introduced in “Edge of Spider-Verse” #2, and that issue is in this book, but none of the other issues have anything to do with Spider-Verse, unless you want to consider the “Spider-Women” storyline a “Spider-Verse” story, which I guess you technically could, but it’s officially not. And the “Edge of Spider-Verse” issue is also the first issue in the book. I think the title was chosen simply as a marketing ploy as they thought that would sell, especially since this graphic novel was released around the same time as “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was getting ready for its theatrical release. This book also contains the original five issue limited series “Spider-Gwen” which was tested and actually succeeded, as well as the first eight issues of the “Spider-Gwen” ongoing series, and the crossover issues of the “Spider-Women” story arc. Okay, getting back on track, having Peter Parker die as an origin story is pretty rare, it’s only ever happened a few times, but in this way, for Gwen, having Peter being her best friend, it means more. It did bother me, however, that “with their great power comes an even greater responsibility” was said by J. Jonah Jameson. Jameson is such a minor character in this book, he has such little panel time, and his presence rarely means much, so for him to say such an iconic line, it takes away from the meaning a bit, in my opinion. We all know Uncle Ben said it originally, and Uncle Ben is alive on Earth-65, couldn’t he have imparted it to Peter and have had Peter say it to her? That would have had so much more meaning in my opinion. I say “in my opinion” all the time because I respect that you may or may not agree with me, and I actually invite you to disagree with me, that’s the beauty of the human mind, we can think what we want, I’m just saying what I feel. I also liked how the writers made Earth-65’s Captain America an African American female. Now THAT is unique. I also felt like the villain choices for Gwen’s first outings were adequate. None of them were too overpowered that it made it unbelievable that a novice could beat them. I liked the Kingpin twist, too. Having Matt Murdock, who we all know as Daredevil and we all know always battles the Kingpin, actually BE the Kingpin was (again) unique. I know I’m using that word a lot in this review, but let’s face it, this reality IS unique, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, there’s really no other word for it. Now, of course, we have to talk about the costume. The costume design is interesting, not going to lie, but there’s just something about it I don’t quite like, I just can’t quite say what it is. It doesn’t look like any other Spider-hero costume, so it really stands out, but I don’t think I will ever call it iconic. As for the stories themselves, I thought they were well written, I highly enjoyed them, I would give this book a near perfect score… except for the art. Hate to say it, but I’m just not a big fan of the artwork in this book. I’m not saying I think the artwork is bad, I see that some of the artists are going for a kind of stylization, and it just doesn’t appeal to me.

            Now, I usually talk about accessibility, or how easy it is to just pick up a book if you know nothing about the characters. Yes, this is a first appearance book, and I do think it’s accessible to new readers. I know Silk is a relatively obscure character, her story in “Spider-Women” might be a little hard to pick up on if you don’t know anything about her, but I don’t think it’s a true obstacle. There are details that are missing because Epic Collections don’t actually contain events, because again, this is NOT a “Spider-Verse” book, but it’s relatively self-contained. I think if you’ve never read a Marvel comic book before and are looking for a place to start, this one is decent enough to pick, as it’s the start of a new reality, but I’m not saying it’s the best pick.

            Okay, I know I’ve been going on for a while, so I’ll get to the most important part: my numeric score. My regulars know how this works, but for my new readers, I’ll explain. I score on a scale of one to ten. One means it’s trash and don’t go within five feet of it, ten means run out and buy it the second after you read the word “ten.” You’ve probably gathered by now, though, that ten isn’t going to happen. I have to take EVERYTHING into account when I score. So, put it all together, story and art, I give this book… drumroll please… EIGHT! Like I said, the story would have been near perfect, but I had to detract due to art.

            Next, I’ll tell you if I recommend this book. Yes, I recommend this book. If you’re a Marvel fan of any kind, comics or film, and want a unique, fresh, new kind of read, this is your book. But again, this IS NOT “Spider-Verse,” so don’t go expecting that.

            Okay, I’ve totally droned on for way too long now, it’s time to end this. If you’re still here reading this, you are THE BEST! But until next time, which will be soon, I guarantee it, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Carnage: Web of Carnage"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Carnage: Web of Carnage” as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format, written by J.M. DeMatteis, Larry Hama, David Michelinie, Warren Ellis, Dan Jurgens, Tom DeFalco, Howard Mackie, Todd Dezago & David Quinn.

            Cletus Kasady was a criminal who was about as worse as they could come, a prisoner on Riker’s Island serving twelve life sentences. His cell mate Eddie Brock claimed to have been bonded to an alien called a symbiote and was the super villain Venom. The symbiote broke Eddie out of prison, but left a piece of itself behind during the escape. That excess symbiote bonded with Kasady and gave birth to the psychotic super villain Carnage. Kasady had been locked away in Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane for the crimes he committed as the Carnage.

Peter Parker was arrested for the worst of all crimes, which were actually committed by Kaine. The mysterious Judas Traveller transported Peter/Spider-Man and Kaine to a fictional courthouse where Traveller placed Spider-Man on trial to prove if his actions as a super hero were as beneficial as Peter has been led to believe or if they had unintended consequences that made things inadvertently worse for other innocent people, placing Carnage as prosecutor of the case.

            A video game called “Carnage Unleashed” has been created, starring Carnage as the villain and Venom as the hero. This game featured online capabilities. While unable to actually make the money he technically deserved for having been made the star of the video game, the staff at Ravencroft allowed Carnage screen time. He was allowed to play the game. Wary of this fact, Eddie decided to travel to New York to pay Kasady a visit. Kasady was subjected to inhibiters which prevented him from becoming Carnage. Kasady learned a new trick while playing this game. Kasady sent his symbiote through the internet to bond with a player of the game. This possessed player was then able to hack the security systems of Ravencroft and release Kasady/Carnage from his cell. Fortunately, Venom’s arrival in New York was timely, as he was able to defeat Kasady/Carnage, place him in a coma and return him to Ravencroft.

            After an encounter with Spider-Man, Eddie decided he had had enough with the symbiote and enough with being Venom and cast out the symbiote. The symbiote was not happy about this and sent out a distress call to other symbiotes, which led to a symbiote invasion of earth. Eddie found himself in an alliance with Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider to fight back against the symbiotes with sonic cannons (symbiotes are weak against loud sonic frequencies and fire). Ben had accidentally picked up the Venom symbiote along the way, which decided to bond back with Eddie again, dismayed about seeing what it’s species was doing to it’s adopted planet. Unfortunately at this point, Kasady emerged from his coma, releasing Carnage, who then absorbed several of the invading symbiotes, creating a giant symbiotic monster. The combined might of Venom, Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider were able to defeat Carnage and force back the symbiote invasion.

            Ravencroft head psychiatrist Doctor Ashley Kafka invited world renowned psychiatrist Doctor Matthew Kurtz to Ravencroft in an attempt to rehabilitate the recaptured Kasady/Carnage. During the course of the interviews and treatments, Carnage dragged Kurtz into Kasady’s memories, making Kurtz actually live the moments in Kasady’s life that led to Kasady becoming the criminal he grew up to be, and this mind bombing drove Doctor Kurtz completely insane.

While Kasady was in Ravencroft, a Carnage impersonator was terrorizing New York City. Ben Reilly/Spider-Man went to investigate and found that Kasady had been separated from his symbiote and had little time left to live, while the symbiote was attached to Ravencroft head of security John Jameson. Ben Reilly/Spider-Man engaged Jameson/Carnage, and the symbiote decided it wanted a stronger host, and left Jameson and attached itself to Ben, giving birth to Spider-Carnage. Spider-Carnage went on a rampage through New York City, ruining Spider-Man’s reputation. Peter Parker confronted Spider-Carnage at the risk of his own life. Spider-Carnage instinctively went to Ravencroft, where the symbiote left Ben Reilly/Spider-Man and rejoined with Cletus Kasady.

Kasady’s treatment continued, but Carnage attempted another mind bomb by dragging Doctor Ashley Kafka and John Jameson into his own made up, insane, twisted, pocket reality, turning John into his Doctor Kafka into an insect metamorphic creature and Jameson into the Man-Wolf.

Eddie Brock was placed on trial for his crimes as Venom, represented by Matt Murdock/Daredevil. Eddie was given a serum that prevented him from becoming Venom. Kasady, being Eddie’s former cell mate, was called to testify. Kasady was given the same serum as Eddie, yet still transformed into Carnage, and Daredevil, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and Venom had to team up again to take Carnage down once again.

 

Some of you may recall I am a huge fan of Carnage. I’ve previously reviewed the “Maximum Carnage” event as presented on Marvel Unlimited and “Carnage: Born in Blood” as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format on this blog site and gave high scores, so if you’ve read either of those, you probably know. If you didn’t know, well, now you do.

So, let’s talk about my reactions. First off, I will say I liked most the stories in it. But here is where we have the problem: these issues are not all consecutive and were gathered from points between 1994-1997, and only included issues with Carnage. It really jumped around. For example, it included two issues of “Amazing Spider-Man,” but they were #403 & #410. On top of that, most of this book took place during “The Clone Saga” and the little previously blurbs just aren’t enough if you don’t know the story. I have reviewed “Spider-Man: The Clone Saga” as presented on Marvel Unlimited on this blog site, but the list ended when Ben Reilly became Spider-Man, and this graphic novel goes past that point, so even I don’t know the full story. Some of you who have read previous posts know this has also been a problem before, such as in “Moon Knight: Bad Moon Rising” and “Hawkeye: The Avenging Archer” in particular, which I have previously posted on this blog site. I will say that Marvel Epic Collections have singular focuses, such as how “The Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet” didn’t actually have any of the six issue limited series “The Infinity Gauntlet,” just the issues of “Silver Surfer” from around the time. Also, the titles of Marvel Epic Collections are the ones Marvel thinks will sell best, such as “Captain America: The Coming of… the Falcon” who only appeared in three issues of the book. “Web of Carnage” was only four parts, and there are eighteen issues in this book, but Marvel clearly thought that “Web of Carnage” was the catchiest and slapped it all over the book. But I TOTALLY digress, terribly sorry. Let me emphasize my point. The start of the book was “Amazing Spider-Man” #403, which was part of a four issue crossover story, but since this issue was the only issue with Carnage in it, that was the only one they included. And even “Venom: On Trial.” It was a three issue limited series, but Carnage wasn’t in #1, so only #2-3 were included. When reading a comic book storyline, I feel like two issues are most important: the first issue and the last issue. I’m not saying that I don’t think that everything in between isn’t important, but I like to know how a story starts so I get a feel of what’s going on. The exclusion of #1 made the graphic novel kind of confusing. The fact that this whole book was selections from an extensive event only including minimal amounts just makes it hard to fully follow. I will also say that one of the number one reasons I purchased this graphic novel was because it contained “Amazing Spider-Man” #410, which was actually the first Marvel comic book I ever got, so it was rather sentimental to me, plus it was part two of a four part crossover story I never read the other three parts of and have wanted to read the others for twenty-seven years, so when I heard about this book I had to get it. I really enjoyed that storyline, Ben Reilly is a favorite character of mine, so him becoming Spider-Carnage was pretty cool. And I enjoyed the “Venom: Carnage Unleashed” limited series, especially the irony that Cletus would have been rich over his use in the video game if he weren’t a prisoner. I thought that was a good joke. The psychological issues just didn’t do it for me, though. I’ve been a mental patient (not a serial killer), but I didn’t feel the depictions were right. I felt like the writers needed to do better research there. As far as Planet of the Symbiotes, I really enjoyed rereading this (since it was in “Spider-Man: The Clone Saga”) in context now. And let’s discuss the artwork. Previous readers may know how I feel about mid-to-late ’90s and early ’00s artwork, but if you’ve never read a post from me before, that is my favorite period of comic book art. There was just such a quality to it that wasn’t there before and isn’t followed anymore, and I totally miss that standard. Just like all art, there a periods that have distinct features, and I just loved that period. I will say that the artists of “Carnage: Mind Bomb” and “Carnage: It’s a Wonderful Life” let me down a little, but not too badly.

Now, I’m going to alter the order I do my reviews in a little and say that I only recommend this book to Spider-Man fans who know about “Spider-Man: The Clone Saga” or else I feel like you will have NO idea what is going on and the previously blurbs are just not enough to guide you through it. I feel like this book is just NOT a point for new comic book readers to start with, even if you are a Carnage fan from any of the cartoons, movies, or video games. Back in 1996, I read “Amazing Spider-Man” #410 and had no idea what I was reading, I just didn’t have the background and context at the time, especially the whole who is really Peter Parker and who is the clone, it did feel a bit convoluted. Did I like this book? Personally, yes, but still, it’s not an easy book for me to recommend, but hey, what do I know? If you like this review and want to read this book, go right ahead. I know I always say that, but it’s true. We all have our own thoughts and opinions, I can’t tell you what to do. It’s just a really expensive book and I hope I don’t lead you to disappointment, so buyers beware.

Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty: my numeric score. Some of you know the deal: one to ten, one’s the worst, ten’s the best. Simple as that. I’ve been going on for quite some time now and I hope you’re still here because I’ve been writing this for almost three hours and I hope I haven’t wasted my time, so if you’re still reading this, you are THE BEST! So, here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for. I give it… an eight. When you look at a graphic novel, you have to take everything into account: story and art. It can have a story that’s amazing but the art is just an eyesore, or the story is awful but the art is just spectacular. So in this case, I liked most of the stories, I liked most of the art, so, yes, the score is an eight.

Okay, I’ve been ranting for almost 2000 words, you probably want to do other things on the internet, so I’m letting you go. As you could tell, I’ve done reviews before (actually literal dozens), mostly Marvel stuff, but I write short fiction and nonfiction, free-verse poetry, essays, editorials, and several other types of content, so feel free to keep browsing my blog site. I post frequently, I actually get an Epic Collection every month, so keep an eye out for that. Tell your friends. And now, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"X-Force: Zero Tolerance” by John Francis Moore & Joseph Harris with Jay Faerber

 

            The following is a review of “X-Force: Zero Tolerance” graphic novel by John Francis Moore & Joseph Harris with Jay Faerber as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format.

            X-Force is a mutant strike team, organized by Nathan Summers/Cable, to fight for mutant rights in a world that hates and fears them. Recently, the United States government has instated Operation: Zero Tolerance to arrest mutants to be held in a detainment facility. It is headed by Bastion. The Sentinels are giant mutant hunting robots, but Bastion has become deceptive and created the Prime Sentinels, robots that either look like or are partially ordinary human beings, so effective that telling a human being or Prime Sentinel apart by looks alone is almost impossible. X-Force has now found themselves in the crosshairs of Operation: Zero Tolerance.

            Gloria Munoz/Risque finds herself on the run from the mutant Caliban, who is able to locate other mutants. Risque had been romantically involved in the past with X-Force member James Proudstar/Warpath, but the relationship ended after Risque’s betrayal to X-Force, and since Warpath’s romantic feeling for X-Force deputy leader Theresa Rourke/Siryn, who only thinks of Warpath as a best friend. Risque escapes, but X-Force is able to subdue Caliban and bring him to their base, the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, where Cable takes care of Caliban’s fractured, childlike psyche. Meanwhile, Risque has forced Warpath into working for the mutant Sledge, whose friend the teleporting mutant the Vanisher has been stuck between dimensions. X-Force associate Domino, who goes by many different aliases, has been taken in by the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistic Directorate (S.H.I.E.L.D.), where she finds out that former New Mutants member Danielle “Dani” Moonstar is actually an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

            Dani has infiltrated the Mutant Liberation Front (M.L.F.), a mutant terrorist organization founded by evil mutant Stryfe, a clone of Cable, believed to now be vanquished. Zero Tolerance has found the location of the M.L.F. and sent in a task force to apprehend the extremist mutants.

            In the past, Warpath and his now deceased older brother John Proudstar (the mutant who would go on the be called Thunderbird) along with fellow Apache Native American Michael Whitecloud had encountered twisted geneticist Doctor Edwin Martynec, who has purposely mutated himself into a monstrous being in his illegal genetics laboratory where he was attempting to create a race of warped super beings.

            Back in the present, X-Force is assaulted by Zero Tolerance commander Ekaterina Gryaznova, a Prime Sentinel with a grudge against Domino. X-Force members Tabitha Smith/Meltdown, Julio Richter/Rictor, and Shatterstar are all apprehended, and Zero Tolerance launches an assault upon the Xavier Institute, forcing Cable and Caliban to escape. Domino is apprehended as well, and Gryaznova placed in implant into Domino, which negates Domino’s probability powers and slows down her movements. Once all the members of X-Force are reunited, Cable sets up the members with false identities, but this causes a schism, and X-Force decides to cut their ties with Cable and hit the road on their own.

            Roberto DaCosta/Sunspot, finds his trust fund blocked and X-Force realize they are broke, and between stops they must stay at cheap, seedy motels. At one stop, X-Force rescue Richie Alegria, a young man from a rich family, who offers to hire X-Force to be his bodyguards. Dani, Sunspot, and Meltdown agree, but they discover Richie to be less than savory, and the team again leaves.

            Meanwhile, Siryn and Warpath hunt down Michael Whitecloud, who has information about the massacre of Warpath’s tribe. Also, Reignfire starts his evil machinations to torment Sunspot, who are believed to be the same entity, but Reignfire was actually an escaped lab experiment. On the trail of information, Siryn and Warpath have an encounter with Edwin Martynec, who is also searching for the same information that Warpath is. Martynec then sends Warpath to the underworld where he has an encounter with Stryfe. Dani, who has had a connection with the Valkyries, is able to lead the rest of X-Force to rescue Warpath.

            The team then travels to Texas during the Exploding Colossal Man Shindig and Hullaballoo, an eclectic yearly festival. Unbeknownst to X-Force, this is also during a convergence, which evil mutant Selene wishes to take advantage of the event to gain incredible, godlike powers. Warpath is able to intercept this, but accidentally gives powers to the Exploding Colossal Man effigy. At the festival, Sunspot and Meltdown start to feel a mutual attraction, but exploration to these feelings is interrupted by the arrival of Samuel Guthrie/Cannonball, former member of X-Force, current member of the X-Men, Sunspot’s best friend, and Meltdown’s current long-distance boyfriend.

            Villains Mojo and Arcade attempt to defeat Domino by setting up a trap, forcing her to enter into gladiatorial battles to save the life of Rictor.

            Cannonball accidentally discovers Meltdown and Sunspot kissing and leaves X-Force, which he was considering rejoining, but leaves after the betrayal of his best friend and girlfriend.

            X-Force stop at the town of Almost Reno, New Mexico and investigate a series of mysterious deaths.

            X-Force stops at the home of old friend, Sally Blevins/Skids, who wishes to stay out of the super hero gig and goes to college.

            Reignfire then takes Siryn, Dani, Sally, Meltdown, and Sunspot hostage in Las Vegas, but doesn’t take into account the absence of Warpath, who comes to his friends’ and teammates’ aid, forcing a major confrontation between X-Force and Reignfire. Sunspot, whose trust funds had been frozen due to the belief that Sunspot and Reignfire were the same person, gets his fortune back and purchases a warehouse in San Francisco to serve as X-Force’s new base, but first, the team takes a vacation to Hawaii, where the find themselves in conflict with Risque, Sledge, and Vanisher to prevent the species known as the Deviants from setting off every volcano in Hawaii and destroying the islands, teaming up with Hawaiian goddess Pele.

            Upon returning to their base, they find that a mutant named Jesse Aaronson has found his way in. Jesse is looking for his missing brother. Jesse had been aiding Domino to get her revenge on Gryaznova in exchange for her aid in finding his brother. Gryaznova now goes by the name Gryphon. X-Force reluctantly agree to accept Jesse as a probationary member of the team.

            Cannonball returns to his hometown of Cumberland, Kentucky to visit his family, reconsidering his membership in the X-Men and ends up aiding Deviants to escape from the Sword. Arcadia, a Deviant, accidentally teleports X-Force into the heat of the battle, and after the successful rescue mission, Cannonball asks to rejoin X-Force.

 

            If you’ve never read a review of mine, I will inform you that this was a synopsis of a Marvel Epic Collection, a graphic novel which contains a rather large amount of content. As you can tell by my more than 1,000 words that a lot happened in this book.

            I have to say that I really enjoyed this graphic novel. I’d never really read much of the original run of X-Force, so I thought upon purchase that I may have some difficulties reading something I know nothing about, especially since this book was only one side of a comic event called “Operation: Zero Tolerance” which I have never read before, but I picked up on the story right from the beginning. I will say, don’t confuse this graphic novel with the graphic novel “Operation: Zero Tolerance” because the content of that graphic novel has very little connection with this graphic novel I am reviewing, pretty much aside from the title. Also, the entire graphic novel was not reserved to “Operation: Zero Tolerance,” there was a lot of other content as well, as you could probably tell if you’re still actually reading this (and if you’re still here and plan to keep reading this, you are THE BEST!). It’s somewhat rare for me to enjoy every story in an Epic Collection, but I will say I enjoyed pretty much the entire graphic novel’s stories. And, of course, this is a GRAPHIC novel, which means that the stories are accompanied with art. I’ve talked about that with almost every Epic Collection I’ve reviewed. I always think of a graphic novel as half-and-half: half of the book is the story, half is the art. You could have a graphic novel with the most amazing story you’ve ever read, but the artwork was a complete eyesore, or one with a horrendous story, but the artwork just makes up for it slightly. I found the artwork in this graphic novel to be amazing. I’ve said before that comic book art has standards depending on the time period of the penciling. I’ve also said I love comic book art from the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s, and the content of this book were published between 1997-1998, which was basically why I picked this Epic Collection to purchase. Let me tell you, this book did not disappoint with the artwork. I’ve also said that because of comic book art changing over the years that it is good artwork for the time or just good art. I have to say in my opinion that the artwork in this graphic novel still holds true today. I feel that this was just good art, period. My eyes were very pleased to look at the artwork in this graphic novel. So, I loved the stories, I loved the art, I just loved the graphic novel, one of my better purchases, I have to say. Some of my reviews have talked about how dismal I found the graphic novel to be, whether story, art, or both. Nothing in this book disappointed me.

            I will say that if you are considering reading this book, I feel like you should have some background knowledge about the characters before you read this, whether you’ve read Marvel X-Teams graphic novels either before this was published or from more recent years, but otherwise, I feel that this is easy enough to pick up with little knowledge. To me, the book felt pretty much self-contained and doesn’t require you to have read the entire series before this, but I still feel you might need a little background knowledge if you’re considering reading this book based on just this review, this might not be the perfect jump-in point or to start reading this even if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before, but I still think first timers should be able to pick it up easily enough.

            Next up is, in my opinion, the most important part of the review, but feel free to disagree with that statement: my numeric score. It’s simple enough to explain. It’s based on a scale of one to ten, one being the worst score, ten being the best score. In this case, I have to take everything about this graphic novel into consideration, the story and the art. Now, you can expect a great score based on how I ranted and raved for so long. BUT! I just can’t quite call this perfect. Sadly, I have to give this a nine. There’s just something, I don’t know what, but there’s something preventing me from giving this graphic novel a ten. I felt this was a great graphic novel, but it’s just not perfect. There must have been a little flaw in one of the stories, I can’t quite place its exact location.

            Anyway, you probably want to know if I recommend reading this graphic novel? Now, if you’ve read this entire review and are now curious about if you should read this or not, then just read it. I wasn’t disappointed, and if you read the actual graphic novel, I have a hunch that you’ll probably like it. I hope that I didn’t give too many spoilers in this review, there’s possibly a chance of it, but I hope I didn’t ruin too many surprises, I tried to be as vague as I could. Still, if you liked this review and are interested in reading this graphic novel, I say go for it.

            Now, before I let you go after 2,000 words, I will tell you that this blog has dozens of reviews, mostly Marvel prose novels, Marvel comic events, and Marvel Epic Collections, but you might find some other things here and there. I am an unsuccessful journalist, so I do this blog to feel like I’m doing something in the field I have a bachelors’ degree in, and I do this for free, so I hope you appreciate it, but I also write editorials, essays, short fiction, short nonfiction and poetry on this blog as well, so please feel free to keep browsing, I’ve done over 100 posts, you might find something else you like. Please feel free to like, comment, or share this or whatever you do on these websites, and I leave you with the words: Tim Cubbin… out!

"X-Men: Mutant Genesis"

 

            The following is a review for the graphic novel “X-Men: Mutant Genesis” by Fabian Nicieza, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio Chris Claremont, & Peter David with Len Kaminski, as collected in Marvel Epic Collection format.

            The X-Men are a team of mutants, those born with a genetic anomaly that grants them powers beyond those of ordinary humans. They were gathered by telepath Professor Charles Xavier, who dreams of peaceful coexistence between mutants and baseline humans. The X-Men pledge to try to make this dream a reality. The roster has changed many times over the years. The original X-Men reunited many years after leaving the X-Men to create X-Factor. Professor Xavier founded the New Mutants after the presumed deaths of the X-Men, but the New Mutants left Charles Xavier’s tutelage to study under the mutant Cable to become X-Force.

In Kuwait City, Freedom Force (formerly the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, now government agents) is assigned to transfer German physicist Reinhold Kurtzmann from a resistance safe house to allied forces and not allow the Iraqis to get him. This transfer is interrupted by a super powered Iraqi team calling themselves Desert Sword.

            The terrorist organization Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) schemed to recreate Proteus, a powerful reality warping mutant who the X-Men vanquished several years past. To that end, A.I.M. hired mutant mercenaries Harness and Piecemeal. Superhero team the New Warriors and X-Force traveled to Muir Island, home of the original Proteus’ mother, geneticist Doctor Moira MacTaggert to warn her of the plan, but Moira had been possessed by the psychic mutant entity, the Shadow King. Moira has her assistants Multiple Man, Siryn, Legion and Polaris intercept the two arriving teams. A skirmish ensues, and all parties fail to prevent Piecemeal from merging with Kevin MacTaggert’s essence and resurrecting Proteus. The New Warriors and X-Force are able to contact X-Factor to help defeat Proteus once and for all. Meanwhile evil mutants Toad and Gideon literally play a game of chess, plotting against the mutant heroes in the X-Men, X-Factor and X-Force.

            X-Factor’s greatest nemesis, evil mutant En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse resurfaces and uses X-Factor’s sentient headquarters, Ship, in an all-out assault upon Manhattan. X-Factor teams up with fellow super hero teams the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. X-Factor arrives on the moon and teams up with the Inhumans, a race of super beings created long ago by the alien race, the Kree. Apocalypse abducts X-Factor leader Scott Summers/Cyclops’ infant son Nathan Christopher and infects him with a techno-organic virus that the present has no cure for, and Cyclops made the difficult decision of sending Nathan with the mysterious mutant the Askani, Nathan’s only hope for survival, with the possibility Cyclops may never see his son again.

            Meanwhile, the Shadow King has invaded Muir Island, enslaving the X-Men to lure Charles Xavier, who cost the Shadow King his corporeal body many years past to enact his revenge. Xavier contacts X-Factor to help defeat the Shadow King and free the X-Men from the Shadow King’s control.

            Following this battle, the mutants of X-Factor decide to rejoin the X-Men at their mansion headquarters Professor Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in Salem Center, New York. However, this grouping is considered too big and the X-Men divide into the Blue Team and the Gold Team. They X-Men are contacted by the global peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D. to inform them that their old enemy Magneto has established a haven for mutants called Asteroid M, hovering in orbit by Magneto’s magnetic powers over Russia during the height of the Cold War, kidnapping several human astronauts and risking the threat of nuclear retaliation. A new group of mutants the Acolytes pledge themselves to Magneto’s cause of mutant supremacy. Upon hearing of the nuclear threat, Magneto returns to earth in an attempt to disarm the planet of their nuclear weaponry, but the X-Men Blue engage Magneto. After his defeat, Magneto retreats to Asteroid M and to the supposed care of Fabian Cortez, who is actually planning to eliminate Magneto and usurp control of the Acolytes and the mutant supremacy cause. During his attempted recuperation, Magneto discovers an anomaly in his system. Several years past, Magneto had been reduced to infancy. During this time, Moira MacTaggert had been entrusted with the care of the baby Magneto. Moira attempted to prevent Magneto from being corrupted by his power by genetically tampering with his genetics. Magneto and the Acolytes again returned to earth, where the X-Men Blue Team was abducted. Magneto also abducted Xavier and Moira, and brought them all to Asteroid M. He then used the powers of the Acolytes to subvert the X-Men Blue Team to his cause. Meanwhile, the powers that be upon earth all globally agree to enact the Magneto Protocols and obliterate Asteroid M. The X-Men Gold Team then must mount a rescue effort to save the X-Men Blue Team and evacuate Asteroid M.

 

            I figured this Epic Collection would be a huge joy for me, it has been on my radar for several years. Unfortunately, I was relatively disappointed. When I first started collecting Marvel Comic Books, I went to a comic book store and bought the first three issues of X-Men (1991) from a three for a dollar bin, which were contained in this graphic novel, but I never read the issues leading up to the X-Men (1991) premier, which is why I picked to purchase this book. The first three issues of X-Men (1991) were arranged at the conclusion of this graphic novel. Now, I love those three issues, I’ve read them literally dozens of times I kid you not, so I figured that this would be a great book. And that is where my complaints begin. During the late 1980s and early 1990’s, Marvel published their Annuals as crossover events (if you’ve read my posts before, you might recall this). The problem is, the Epic Collections only feature the Annuals for the titular characters. This Epic Collection again followed suit. The main crossover was “Kings of Pain.” This Epic Collection featured an excerpt from New Mutants Annual #7, but not the “Kings of Pain” story, which I felt made no sense. This Epic Collection contained the entirety of X-Men Annual #15 and the “Kings of Pain” story from X-Factor Annual #6, but it still felt very out of context, leaving out two parts of the story from other Annuals from that year (every issue in this book were originally published in 1991). I will give credit that this contained Annuals aside from X-Men, but it still didn’t give the whole story, which was highly disappointing. I will also say that I figured this would be mostly Uncanny X-Men, which is the series that X-Men Epic Collections mainly follow. The majority series in this Epic Collection, however, was X-Factor. Also, X-Men Annual #15 really didn’t feel like X-Men story as there was literally no appearance of the X-Men, aside from a revisited origin and a Wolverine short story that I found to be rather flat. Otherwise, X-Men Annual #15 belonged to X-Force and the New Warriors. The original New Warriors are one of my Marvel weak points, I really have not read much of their run. Another thing that bothered me was the appearance of both Cable and Nathan Christopher Summers in the same point in time since (spoiler alert) Cable is Nathan returned from the future. That just seemed weird to me, but Marvel time travel has very different rules when compared to time travel in other written and visual works. He was both an infant boy and an older man at the same time. Like I said, weird. I will say I found the X-Factor “Endgame” storyline to be enjoyable and a good Apocalypse storyline. Yes, there have been good and poorly written Apocalypse stories (don’t get me started on the “X-Men: Apocalypse” film, ugh) and I felt that this one was pretty good, especially the heartbreaking sacrifice of Nathan Christopher at the end. I thought that was a great ending. The “Muir Island” saga, however, felt mediocre to me. The saving grace for me though, was X-Men #1-3, which I’ve already talked about, so we can move on from there. This graphic novel just didn’t live up to my expectations. And X-Men #3 was supposed to be Chris Claremont’s final issue, but his retirement didn’t last, which was a relief for me because he has been my favorite X-Men writer and I think his work is brilliant. And now, let’s turn to the “graphic” part of “graphic novel.” I felt like the art was high quality. Previous readers of my reviews know how I feel about artwork in comic books, but I still have to say it to you newbies. The art styles of time periods has certain common traits. As I said earlier this paragraph that every issue in this book was from 1991. I love late ’80s-early ’90s artwork, there was just something about it that just stood out. I have also previously mentioned in my blog that there is art which reflects on either good/bad art of the time or good/bad art period. In other words, some artwork may be good for the time it was released, but it can’t be considered good art by the standards of other times of art. To me, I feel this artwork is good in general, and not just for 1991, and the artwork in this book felt to me like the epitome of art of the time. The art in this book totally stands out to me and even now, thirty-two years later, I still feel it is great. And now, I want to talk about the costumes. The original X-Factor and the Uncanny X-Men had mostly generic outfits that all looked pretty identical. That lack of individuality just didn’t make the characters stand out. Yes, military, police, and other organizations have standard uniforms for their profession, but I just feel like it doesn’t work for mutant teams in visual form. Look at the original X-Men from 1963. You could only tell them apart from Cyclops’ visor, Angel’s wings, Iceman being covered in ice, Beast not wearing gloves and shoes, and Marvel Girl being female. Now, you can counter me with the Fantastic Four all wearing the same costume, and that works, and I will agree with that. But look at the Avengers: they all wear different costumes and you immediately know who everyone is because of that, and viewers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe like that, the representation of the characters. You can counter me again by saying the X-Men in the films all had the same outfit. But think about supervillains; they all wear different costumes and you know Magneto when you see him, or Doctor Doom, or Thanos; you just see them and know who they are. In my opinion, the X-Men, all being different, deserve to look different, to show off who they are. And again, there have been times where the X-Men in the comics have all dressed the same, but there were customizations that made them stand out. But, when X-Factor joined the X-Men and the X-Men Blue Team and X-Men Gold Teams were created, the costumes changed and I just totally loved that visualization. The X-Men Blue Team and X-Men Gold Teams were drawn with some of the most iconic appearances of the X-Men in all of Marvel history. If you watched the “X-Men” animated series from 1992-1997, these were the costumes you know. I grew up with that, so the appearances of the costumes in the new teams were familiar to me and I enjoyed those costumes. Seeing these just felt right. So I must give a shout out to Jim Lee for creating these iconic costumes, I thought they were brilliant, so thank you for contributing to my childhood!

            So we have a few more pieces of subjects to consider. What do I think you should know about Marvel history in order to understand this book? First off, if you have never read Marvel Comics before, especially from the 1970’s-1980s, this is not the right book for you. It is absolutely not an introductory point to start at. I barely know the New Warriors and the Annuals’ story is incomplete, so it’s easy to get confused by just that (heck, even I was confused). Also, almost every character had been established before and none of their backgrounds were explained and it continues almost directly from storylines that had already started prior to this book. It is not at all a jump-on point.

            Next, we’ll do the ever important and pretty much only reason that you’re still here after over 2,000 words: (and if you are here still, you are THE BEST!) my numeric score. As some of you may already know, I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the worst, ten is the best. In this case, I have to take in everything about the graphic novel before I score it, which means both story and art are considered. I was highly disappointed by some of the story. BUT! The artwork did not fail to impress. So, all the eggs in one basket, I give it a score of… (drumroll please!)… seven. There were stories I disliked, but it had several stories I really enjoyed, and the artwork just amazed me, so I scored it at a balance. If it were just a story as a prose novel, I would have given it a lower score, but the artwork totally upped it, so the score went higher. I will say that I didn’t think it was a bad book, I just didn’t quite get what I was hoping for. I should also be said that Marvel published another graphic novel called “X-Men: Mutant Genesis” which actually does NOT contain the same stories. If you read my review of “The Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet” you may recall that I said it was not “The Infinity Gauntlet,” but only the issues of “The Silver Surfer” from the year around it, and this is much the same. Epic Collections only contain specific stories from mostly a singular point of view. Were you to get the other edition of “X-Men: Mutant Genesis,” you would be reading X-Men (1991) #1-7, so if you are actually interested in reading this book, check the contents first to make sure you are actually getting the right book (it will have the words “Marvel Epic Collection” on the top of the cover). And I have an upcoming review about to sit on my desk called “X-Force: Zero Tolerance” which surrounds the “X-Men: Operation: Zero Tolerance” crossover event, but only features the X-Force issues. If you want to read more of my work, at the moment it should be posted in about a week, so keep an eye out for it.

            Next, I will tell you if I recommend this book. I totally don’t know what to tell you. I can’t quite say I recommend it, but at the same time I can’t tell you to just completely avoid it. All I can really say is if you want to read it, then go for it, but if you don’t feel like reading this book, then I say you should follow that instinct. It’s all totally up to you. In all my reviews, this has never truly happened before, which is weird for me, but I leave the decision up to you.

            As I said before, I have the “X-Force: Zero Tolerance” Epic Collection getting close to being on my desk, so keep an eye out for it. Otherwise, I have literally written dozens of reviews, I’ve made over 100 posts, I write short fiction, short nonfiction, poetry, essays, editorial, reviews and plenty of other content, so if you liked this post, I totally say you should read more of my posts, you may find something else you like. If you read to this point, you are THE BEST, and all I can say is, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!