"Star Wars: Yoda's Secret War"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Star Wars: Yoda’s Secret War” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                It was a time before the Clone Wars, during the twilight of the Old Republic. Jedi Master Yoda had just rescued a young boy strong in the Force when he heard a calling. It led him to a planet that didn’t appear on any of his star maps. Upon landing and disembarking from his ship, he found himself surrounded by a group of children warriors called the Muckwhackers. They accused him of being a monster sent by their adversaries the Rockhawkers and attacked him. Yoda protected himself using the Force, and the children believed him to have strong Stonepower and to be the Deliverer. The Muckwhackers took Yoda to their home of Mucktown and showed him their Skyscreamers, who had used their Stonepower and their minds to scream for help. The Muckwhackers explained that the blue mountains granted the people of that world their Stonepower, but greed caused division and a war started, and all of their parents had lost the war and been cast into the mud. Two Muckwhackers got into a fight, and when the blue stones of their spears touched, Yoda felt a disturbance, as if the planet wanted to tear itself apart. The Muckwhackers had captured a Rockhawker scout. The Muckwhackers let him go with Yoda to return to the other Rockhawkers. Yoda was surprised to find that they were also all children. The Rockhawkers attacked Yoda and abducted him, then ordered him to go into a cave to find the Heart of the Mountain. While in the cave, Yoda found the missing parents, who had abandoned their children. Deeper in the cave, Yoda found a young Rockhawker named Garro, who had been exiled for his perceived weakness for not killing in battle. Yoda asked Garro to teach him the ways of Stonepower and for Garro to become Yoda’s Master. Garro agreed to train Yoda. During their training, Yoda and Garro discovered that the mountain wasn’t really a mountain but actually a barely living creature, and the Heart of the Mountain was the creature’s actual beating heart. Yoda awakened the creature, and he and Garro departed. The Rockhawkers asked Yoda what the secret of the mountain was, but Yoda refused to tell. Garro, however, revealed that the mountain was not really a mountain but a living thing and told Yoda that Yoda was no longer Garro’s student. Yoda returned to the Muckwhackers to ask them to help them wake the sleeping world, and together, they battled the creature. He then left this world and told no one of this adventure except for fellow Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi so he could pass on the lesson he learned, and Kenobi recorded it in his journal.

While searching for answers in his quest to become a Jedi, Luke Skywalker uncovered a journal written by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The journal detailed Kenobi’s adventures during the time he was in hiding on Tatooine—including when Obi-Wan rescued a young Luke from Jabba the Hutt’s thugs during the Great Drought. Luke’s Uncle Owen Lars ordered Obi-Wan to stay away from Luke. A year after the Great Drought, Luke crashed Owen’s speeder, and Owen vowed Luke would never fly again. Obi-Wan, who was watching over Luke from afar,  believed Luke would have to fly one day and tried to sneak the parts to Luke through a group of Jawas that he assisted against Tuskan Raiders, but only succeeded in angering Owen, who returned the parts. Jabba hired Wookie bounty hunter Black Krrsantan to find the person responsible for defeating his water tax collectors during the Great Drought. Owen decided to renege on his vow and bought the parts to repair the speeder. As Owen was returning home, Luke was running away. Owen was abducted by Black Krrsantan. Luke sensed his uncle was in trouble and returned home. Obi-Wan came to try to rescue Owen from Black Krrsantan, and while Obi-Wan was the one who defeated the Wookie, it was Luke who saved Owen.

It was an era of renewed hope for the Rebellion. The evil Galactic Empire’s greatest weapon, the Death Star, had been destroyed by the young rebel pilot, Luke Skywalker. But Imperial forces still stood strong. Rebel spy Eneb Ray had infiltrated Coruscant, working under an Imperial guise and the name Tharius Demo. He quickly learned that some missions prove to be much more complicated than others. Princess Leia Organa informed Ray that Senator Nadea Tural and the Anti-Imperial Senators were about to be executed and instructed him to extract them from Arrth-Eno Prison Complex. During the breakout attempt, Ray learned that the Emperor was coming to witness the executions. He asked Leia to quickly assemble a team of Rebel agents to eliminate the Emperor. The assassination attempt failed, and in retaliation, the Emperor blew up Arrth-Eno, then broadcast a propaganda video, blaming the Rebels for the destruction of the prison.

After narrowly escaping another frightening encounter with Darth Vader, rebel heroes Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo took the evil Sith Lord’s secret ally, droid and weapon specialist Dr. Aphra, captive aboard the Millenium Falcon. Their mission to free the galaxy from the grasp of the Emperor continued as the Princess teamed with smuggler Sana Starros, while Luke and Han paired together on a secret mission for the Rebellion. Dr. Aphra was transported to secret Rebel jail Sunspot Prison and placed in Cell Block Nine. Sana was trying to hide her secret past with Aphra from Leia. Han got caught cheating at Sabacc and lost the Rebellion’s money, and he and Luke had to run away. A group of raiders infiltrated Sunspot Prison to kill the prisoners and to force Leia into killing some of the prisoners herself. Luke and Han tried to make money back for the Rebellion by transporting Nerfs. Leia released Aphra to help her and Sana survive and retake control of the prison. Sana and Aphra butted heads every step of the way, with Sana unable to trust Aphra given their shared history. Han and Luke arrived at Sunspot Prison but were knocked out. Leia confronted the mastermind behind the infiltration and stopped him. Leia and Sana then had to decide what to do with Aphra.

Kreel was assigned as Sergeant to the Imperial Scar Squadron. The planet Tureen VII, which had been providing aid to the Rebellion, was under siege by the Empire. The Rebellion wanted to destroy the Imperial bases set up on the planet’s twin moons, but they couldn’t risk sending their fleet to assist, so they needed something big, such as a Star Destroyer. The Millenium Falcon and Red Squadron battled Imperial Star Destroyer Harbinger. The Rebellion won and the Imperials abandoned the Star Destroyer, and the Rebellion took over the Harbinger. Leia and Han argued over who should be Captain. Ultimately, Leia won the argument. Luke and Sana investigated a shuttle that appeared near the Harbinger, and Sana blew it up. Scar Squadron snuck aboard the Harbinger. Luke and Sana went to investigate the break-in, and Luke was attacked by Kreel. Luke and Kreel had a Lightsaber duel. Darth Vader personally came to attack the Harbinger. The Harbinger was destroyed, but the Rebels were able to escape, except Rebel droid C-3PO was captured by Imperial forces.

Luke and R2-D2, who had a strong attachment to C-3PO, decided to recue him from the Imperials. While Luke was on the way, he started to read the journal of Ben Kenobi, which Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi had left for Luke, as Luke hoped it would make him a better Jedi. Luke read about Yoda’s secret war. Luke figured out which planet Yoda had been to and decided to see it for himself but arrived on the planet before he finished reading the story. Luke was confronted by Garro, and the two fought. The fight ended when Garro realized he had learned his final lesson from Yoda.

It was a pivotal moment in the galaxy. As the Empire continued to exert its oppressive force, the Rebel Alliance stood strong against their tyranny for the good of all. While heroic Rebellion agents like Princess Leia of Alderaan strove to undermine Imperial strongholds, the Galactic Empire continued to dominate and had doubled it efforts to eliminate anyone who would stand against its rule. Some chose to fight against waves of Imperial stormtroopers, while others chose the relative safety and security of obedience-and then there were those who refused to take a side at all. On the planet Skorii-Lei, Pash Davane, who had once been an underwater engineer, had been forced to become a janitor. She discovered an injured Princess Leia, and against her better judgement, chose to nurse her back to health. However, when Leia woke up, the two did not get along, but still Pash chose to help Leia to escape. They had to face several perils along the way, such as stormtroopers, before Leia could rejoin the Rebellion, and Pash had to rethink her life.

Phew, that was a lengthy synopsis. Now we can get on to my own personal part of a Tim Cubbin review. First off, we’re going to start with my reflections on this book. I’ll start by saying that I found the stories in this book to be highly entertaining. I will also say that this felt very “Star Wars,” which is what I was hoping for when I purchased this book. I would hate to have bought a book branded “Star Wars” that didn’t feel like it fit in with the source material, but I feel like Jason Aaron, Kieron Gillen, and Kelly Thompson really respected the “Star Wars” canon. I can actually say that I feel like the writers of the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” Disney+ series disrespect Aaron by contradicting the “From the Journals of Old Ben Kenobi” issues, as these issues actually came out several years before the show. But that’s just my opinion. Anyway, I constructed this review chronologically rather than by the way it was printed in the book to avoid storyline confusion, so what you read in my review was not actually the way the book was published, I just structured it this way as a courtesy to you. I grew up loving “Star Wars,” I watched the original trilogy with my Grandpa when I was a kid, and I’m actually currently watching “Star Wars” in timeline order on Disney+ (I’m currently on Season Three of “The Mandalorian” if you really want to know). So, I liked all the stories. Let’s go over them in the order I’ve discussed them. So, we’ll start with “Yoda’s Secret War” earlier past. I found it clever that Aaron wrote the children as not knowing about the Force and calling it “Stonepower.” It was interesting to me how the children had taken up the parents’ war and exiled their parents. I loved how the mountain was actually a living creature. I liked Yoda choosing to become Garro’s student. Next, we’ll talk about “From the Journal of Old Ben Kenobi.” I felt like the first part was a little slow and uneventful, but I did find the second part to be a lot more enjoyable and action-packed, and it really picked up the story. Annual #1 was particularly interesting because it introduced a new character to the “Star Wars” universe, and he actually turned out to be more important that I originally would have thought him to be. I enjoyed the ending of the Emperor using the spin on the Empire’s evil deed with their propaganda video, I thought that was a brilliant stab in the heart ending, and the bitterness really hit. “Rebel Jail” was actually my favorite story in the book. I enjoy the character of Dr. Aphra and always love seeing her on the pages. The story had a lot of action and was very intense, and the villain was a great surprise, but I refuse to give the spoiler, I want you to actually need to read this book to find out the ending so you can be surprised, too, but I thought it was a great twist. “The Last Flight of the Harbinger” was also enjoyable, but I felt like there were a few periods where there were dull moments, but there were a lot of good moments to enjoy that made up for the slight periods of boredom. As for “Yoda’s Secret War” later past, I liked how the two periods connected and the importance of Yoda’s story was felt in Luke’s story, and I felt like it really worked. Next up, we’re going to talk about the art. I was highly disappointed by the artwork in this graphic novel. I found it to be extremely unenjoyable. It was exceptionally visually displeasing, and I hated looking at the art as I read this book. Ironically, one of the artists was Salvador Larroca, who I complained about in my last review, “Iron Man: The New Iron Age,” for those of you keeping score, and once again, I will gripe about his artwork in this book as being unlikeable, although I will say that I feel like he was better suited for “Star Wars” than “Iron Man” based on his art style and I actually feel like he was my favorite artist is this Collection, which is extremely unfortunate, and I’m not trying to be hostile to the other artists, I just really disliked their styles, I’d never mean to be truly disrespectful while posting a book review. I think the final thing I need to reflect on is the title. The title of an Epic Collection can be a make-or-break factor with me. If I feel like the title is inappropriate for the volume, I will deduct from the score. When I heard about the title, I thought for sure this would be a break. After all, I knew this to take place after “A New Hope” but before “The Empire Strikes Back” and at that point, Yoda was not part of the story. Fortunately, there was the extensive series of backstory, and his backstory tied into Luke’s story in a later point in the timeline, and this was one of the two longest stories in this Collection, so I will not fault this book for the title, I find it to be absolutely appropriate for this book.

Moving on from this point, the next topic on our agenda is accessibility. Now, I know I’ve said this over six dozen times, but I have to say it once again for anyone who has never read one of my reviews before: what the heck do I mean by “accessibility?” To put it quite simply, accessibility means how easy it is to pick up this book and read it and understand everything you’ve read in this book, even if you have no prior knowledge of the source material. So, I feel like if you want to read this book and basically understand it, all you need to have seen is “Star Wars: A New Hope” and you must have read the content in the previous collected volume of the series. Having seen “The Phantom Menace,” “Attack of the Clones,” and “Revenge of the Sith” will help with more of the background knowledge, but not having seen them shouldn’t be too much of an inhibition. However, “A New Hope” and first fourteen issues of “Star Wars (2015)” and the “Star Wars: Vader Down” event are all you truly need to have consumed before embarking on partaking in this book.

Next up, we’re going to the bread-and-butter section of my review: the numeric score. Once again, I’ve explained my system over six dozen times now, but I am compelled to do it once again, so here I go. So really, it’s quite simple; I score on a scale from one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and that means that this book is complete, unreadable trash that should all be collected in one pile and burned from existence. Ten is the best possible score I can give, and that means that this book is sheer perfection and one of the best reading experiences I’ve ever had. I don’t give tens very often because I very rarely find a book to fit my definition of perfection. And as you can tell from my description of this book from the past several paragraphs, it is not perfection. So, let’s talk about what it actually is. So, we have stories that, while entertaining, had several moments of dullness and were, at best, mediocre. And we have artwork that was substandard and a visual nightmare. Those two factors do not look promising. But we have a few other things we can add. We have a title that is appropriate. And we have a book that is from a film franchise source that was truly respectful to its source material and felt like it fit in perfectly with that created universe. So those are a few other things I’m taking into account while giving a score to this book. So, all said and done, all cards on the table, everything thrown into the blender, turned on, mixed until completely liquified, we’re taking the score out and what we’re looking at is… a seven. There’s a good chance I could have gone lower, but I feel like a seven is actually very appropriate for this book and stand by my decision when doling out this score and that it is actually a very good score.

Finally, we’re going to talk about if I personally recommend this book and who I feel should be reading this book. So, in answer to if this book gets the personal Tim Cubbin seal of approval and recommendation, yes, it does. As for who should be reading it, I feel like if you are a fan of “Star Wars,” you should definitely make every effort to read this book, I think it will be an interesting read for you and hope you will find enjoyment in the story like I did, and if you actually like the art unlike me, I think that would be great for you.

Anyway, it’s been a long while that I’ve been going on for, we’re all ready to be getting on with our lives, but there are a few things I do need to say first before I begin the process of posting this on my blog site and then promoting it. I’ve been doing this blog for five years now and have done over 160 posts. If you liked this book review, there are tons of other reviews of Marvel Epic Collections, Modern Era Epic Collections, Ultimate Epic Collections, Marvel Comics Events, Marvel prose novels, and several other book reviews that are not Marvel, but the majority of this website is reviews of Marvel works. I’ve also done other content, such as short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. If this review seems extremely professional to you, it’s because I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, so I am qualified to be doing this professionally, but due to circumstances in my life, I’m relegated to working in a grocery store, but I honestly don’t mind that that’s what my life is. Anyway, I post on this blog on a very frequent basis, as I collect every single Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection when they are released. Right now, we won’t have another Ultimate Epic Collection until March 2026, but there are plenty of upcoming Modern Era Epic Collections. I usually try to review every one of these books after I read them, I pretty much have succeeded in doing that, there are a few I’ve missed due to circumstances such as not having a laptop or just having an inconvenience, but I’ve reviewed almost every Modern Era Epic Collection except for four of them, hopefully that can be remedied someday, but I’ve reviewed all four Ultimate Epic Collections released at this point in time. There’s another Modern Era Epic Collection being released two weeks after the day after I am posting this review, so you can expect to see a review of that coming up sometime in the next six weeks. I just have to procure it and read it and then I can post a review of it. For those of you “Star Wars” fans, there are two other “Star Wars” Modern Era Epic Collection reviews on this site, “Star Wars: Skywalker Strikes” and “Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets,” so if you are interested, feel free to check those out, too, I think you will find those entertaining, and there will be another “Star Wars” Modern Era Epic Collection review coming up sometime in the next two months, so be ready for that, and feel free to keep exploring timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. That’s all for now, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Iron Man: The New Iron Age"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Iron Man: The New Iron Age” as presented in Mavel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Jun Shan was an award-winning filmmaker. On the night of winning a Golden Dragon for best film, he and his wife Chuntao were abducted by the supervillain, the Mandarin. The Mandarin gave Jun no choice but to make a film about the life of the Mandarin. As Jun interviews the Mandarin for details of his life, the Mandarin told lies in order to conceive what he thought would make the most award-winning film of all time. Jun went out to do research to learn the truth of the Mandarin’s life. Jun and the crew of the film secretly conspired behind the Mandarin’s back to show the true story of the Mandarin. The Mandarin wanted the villain of the film to be his archnemesis Tony Stark/Iron Man, and decided the film would end with the death of Tony Stark by the Mandarin’s hands, an event that did not actually happen. Jun shot the film as the Mandarin instructed, planning to humiliate him at the premiere and escape with his life and his wife.

            Tony Stark had recently erased his memory and got most of it back. In 2011 he turned to former Stark Industries employee Peter Parker/Spider-Man for help finding stolen plans for a Stark weapon. The two had been working on it before Tony fired Peter, and Tony did not have the memory of what it did. Peter was able to trace the weapon to the anti-super hero anarchist techno-terror cell the Bastard Sons of Wilbur Day. Iron Man and Spider-Man teamed up and found out that the terror cell had actually built the weapon and fought to take them and the weapon down. In 2052, Lord Mandarin was Emperor of Earth and Tony Stark was his personal valet. The Mandarin was on the verge of purging the Earth of the human race. Tony’s children, Ginny Stark/The Black Widows and Howard Anthony Stark/War Machine were humanity’s last hope.

            Tony went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to discuss the state of his life. He hoped to have dinner with his former secretary/current CEO of his company Stark Resilient, Virginia “Pepper” Potts, only to find out that he already had his chance with her before he lost his memories and that she wasn’t willing to give him another chance.

            Stark Resilient was preparing to pitch a proposal for a new home to the Asgardian Gods. Tony was attacked by Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus, who was dying. Octavius threated to detonate a nuclear bomb over Manhattan if Tony didn’t cure him and had his associates Electro and Sandman hold Tony’s employee Tim Cababa hostage and instructed them to kill Tim if Octavius didn’t check in with them every five minutes. Pepper came looking for Tim and fought Electro and Sandman but was unable to defeat them. Another Stark Resilient employee, Leonard Pimacher came looking for Tim and startled off Sandman and Electro, and Pepper was unable to prevent the villains from escaping. Tony was unable to cure Octavius and admitted it to him, and Octavius confessed there was no bomb, and he only wanted Tony to humiliate himself to Octavius and admit that Octavius was smarter. The Asgardians accepted Stark Resilient’s pitch to build a new Asgard.

            A time of fear and uncertainty gripped the world. Seven mysterious objects entered Earth’s atmosphere, cutting fiery trails as they crashed down all over the planet. Unbeknownst to Oron Man, these are artifacts called down by the Serpent, an Asgardian deity of evil newly freed from his ancient imprisonment. Seven devastating weapons to arm and empower his chosen servants, the Worthy. One crash site was Paris, France, and one of the Worthy was Paul Pierre Duval/The Grey Gargoyle. With his newly strengthened powers, the Grey Gargoyle froze everyone in Paris he made direct eye contact with in stone. Tony hired Bethany Cabe to be the head of Security at Stark Resilient. After finding a lack of life signs in Paris, Iron Man investigated and found the superpowered Grey Gargoyle. The two fought, and Tony was overpowered. He was joined by Doug Johnson/Detroit Steel from Hammer Industries, but Johnson was defeated and turned to stone and crumbled, and Tony barely managed to escape. Tony realized to win this fight, the heroes needed stronger weapons. Tony decided to make a sacrifice in order to draw the attention of Odin: his sobriety. Odin brought Tony to the workshops of Svartalfheim to work with the dwarves to craft weapons for the heroes of Earth in their battle against the Serpent. Sasha Hammer and her crew in mechanized armor were given the mission of recovering the Detroit Steel armor from Paris and were instructed to kill anything that moved. Pepper flew to Paris in her Rescue armor to try to save any survivors that might still be roaming the streets unfrozen. The Serpent had a dwarf snatch hair from Tony in order to empower the Golem. Tony continued to get drunk with the dwarves. Tony was attacked by a Mud Sprite and was able to defeat it with the help of the dwarves. Rescue and the Hammer Corps fought the Grey Gargoyle, but Sasha Hammer abandoned Rescue in the middle of the fight. Tony finished building the weapons and he and Thor returned to Earth to aid the Avengers in defeating the Serpent and saving all of reality.

            Okay, that’s the synopsis of this book in a way I feel is the best I can describe it at this particular point in time, so now let’s move on to my personal input segments of this review. As always, we’ll start by my answering the question of: did I like this book? In general, I enjoyed it. But those first two words are key words. I enjoyed most of this book, but there were a few things about it I didn’t like. Let’s break it down story by story. I loved the “Mandarin: The Story of My Life” issue. It was interesting getting a huge section of the book devoted directly to the villain, and his displays of narcissism and egotism throughout the course of the issue were highly entertaining to me, I was hoping through the whole issue to watch it all unravel around him, and I will say, the ending had quite a twist, and I was satisfied. “The New Iron Age” was not my favorite story, I feel like it could have done without the whole future section, it didn’t have any impact on the rest of the book and felt unnecessary after finishing the issue and continuing to read the book. The Iron Man/Spider-Man story was fine, I had no problem with that, and if Matt Fraction had just published the issue as only that story, I feel like that would have sufficed. But I get that this was issue #500 and they had to make a big deal out of it and include extra content to make it all kinds of special, but it honestly was meaningless as Ginny Stark was not featured any further in the book, and forcing investment in her felt like a waste and a disappointment. And as for the time jump, the future dated was 2052, meaning in twenty-seven years from the point of my posting this, this future will be outdated, but I know that seemed like quite a long time away back in 2011. “What it Was Like, What Happened, and What it’s Like Now” resonated with me, being a recovering alcoholic myself, and the flashbacks of Tony’s life in his speech were informative to read and furthered my knowledge of Tony Starks’s history. “Fix Me” was actually my favorite story in the book. Doctor Octopus is a Spider-Man villain, so seeing him taunting, blackmailing, belittling, manipulating and humiliating Iron Man was actually rather refreshing. I don’t mean it was a good thing, I just mean it was interesting to see a villain who is usually consistently pitted up against one hero being given the chance to menace a different hero for a change. And it was shocking that Iron Man actually couldn’t beat Doctor Octopus because of the mind game that Doc Ock played against Tony Stark, and that this was a totally different kind of antagonism that Doc Ock has with Spider-Man, so this makes me curious to see Iron Man take on more of some other heroes’ nemeses in future installments, just to see the dynamics a foe swap has on their super battles. “How I Met Your Mother” was something that I felt was also unnecessary as it supposedly explained the first meeting of Howard and Maria Stark, but it honestly just seemed preposterous the way it was written. And “Fear Itself” was a story I enjoyed. Granted back in 2011 I was not an active current reader of Marvel Comics, so “Fear Itself” is an event I can’t claim to know much about, so what I understand of “Fear Itself” comes from surrounding series as I have never actually read the main limited series, but I have read some tie-ins. What I read of the event in this collection was enjoyable. I will say that I take offense with the title of this volume. The editors decided to call this “Iron Man: The New Iron Age,” which was actually just a one issue story. Compared to the three issue “Fix Me” story arc and the six issue “Fear Itself” and “Fear Itself #7.3: Iron Man,” I feel like it was the wrong title. I honestly don’t know why the editors didn’t choose to call this “Iron Man: Fear Itself,” that actually being the majority of this collection, it would have been a more sensible title. “The New Iron Age” honestly didn’t grab me when I first heard it, and I would much rather purchase a book called “Fear Itself,” that’s actually a much more appealing title in my opinion, but I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection regardless of the title, that’s just my devotion to Marvel. I don’t know if Marvel is planning on giving another Modern Era Epic Collection a “Fear Itself” title in the future and didn’t want to give two volumes the same title or something like that. And as for the artwork, I enjoyed the work of Salvador Larroca in this book, but the other artists just didn’t do it for me. I’ve actually been an admirer of Larroca since 2001 from “X-Treme X-Men,” and I felt like his work in this book was adequate. Some of the human faces had unnatural features, but his action sequences and superhero and supervillain portrayals were stellar. Overall, this book was an enjoyable read, and I actually got so into it that once I started it, I actually couldn’t put it down and read the book straight through in about three hours.

            Okay, next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. Essentially what I mean by this, for you people who have never read one of my reviews before, is this, if you know absolutely nothing about Iron Man or Marvel Comics, can you pick up this book, read it, and understand everything you’ve read by the conclusion of the book. I will say that this is a hard no. This collection is marketed as Vol. 5, and right now, as of my compiling this post, the only available volumes are 3 through 5, and if you haven’t read the previous two volumes, you’re missing so much of the story as this is a continuation out of the previous two volumes. Granted Vol. 4 was not a “To Be Continued…” kind of ending, this volume picks up after the events of it and continues threads begun in the past two collections. And if you’re not a regular reader of Marvel from 2010-2011, you don’t know “Fear Itself,” and that is a bit of a problem. Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections will often occur around events, but they won’t usually actually have the main limited series of the event collected in its entirety in that volume (with an upcoming volume of “Annihilation” being the only current exception on the horizon). In this volume, only “Invincible Iron Man” comics were collected, and “Fear Itself” was not included, so if you don’t know about “Fear Itself,” the editors did include a couple of “Previously in Fear Itself…” blurbs, but they honestly don’t complete the story, and if you want to know how the story ends, you’re going to have to get your hands on “Fear Itself” somewhere else. This book is not self-contained, and I would not recommend this as a starting point if you have never read a Marvel Comic book before.

            Okay, I’ve really been going on for quite a while now, I think it’s time we moved on to what is, essentially, the reason we’re all here; to find out just how good I thought this book was. Now, for those who don’t know how I work, it’s really quite simple. I give the book a numeric score on a scale of one to ten. One means that this book is a pile of trash, and every copy should be pulled off the shelves, burned, and Marvel should never reprint it. Ten means that this book is a mountain of gold and every copy should be bought off the shelves, read multiple times, and Marvel should reprint it on a regular basis. My score is based on a few factors. The two main ones are of course how I feel about the story and the art contained in the book itself. There are a few mitigating factors that fall outside of those as well that are sometimes outside the control of the editors, but include accuracy of the title, effectiveness of explaining the story within the book itself, my understanding of the storylines occurring at the same time outside of this volume, and the ability to meet my expectations of what the book will be based on the title the editors slap on the book. So for our factors on this, I mostly enjoyed the story, the art was hit and miss, the title was a misnomer, the book wasn’t self-contained, I don’t know “Fear Itself,” and this wasn’t quite what I was expecting based on the title, we are looking at point deductions, but it’s not a total hate party on this book. So, if I have to give this book a score in all fairness, and since this is a book review, I obviously do, I’d take all of these listed factors, chuck them into my metaphorical blender, push the blend button and mix them until they’re a pile of liquid goo, then take my metaphorical cup, pour the goo out into it, look at it, and it is… a six. This book falls on the side of slightly above average in my own personal opinion. It was a positive experience, one I will not mind going through again should another volume come out, since when a new volume comes out, I read all the connecting volumes to it, so if Vol. 2 or Vol. 6 come out, I will reread this book, and I do look forward to that.

            Okay, again, I’ve been blathering on for quite a while now, let’s get on with this. Next up on the docket is the recommendation paragraph. This paragraph is dedicated to answering three questions: do I, myself, Tim Cubbin, actually personally recommend this book? Who do I think is the best audience for this book? And do I think you should read this book now that you’ve read my review? The first question has the answer of yes. I do actually give this book my own personal recommendation. To answer question number two is a little trickier. Yes, if you are an Iron Man fan and a Marvel fan and a fan of Matt Fraction or Salvador Larroca, this book is probably a book you might be interested in, but I don’t know if you should read it unless you understand some outside knowledge. If you’ve read the earlier issues of Fraction’s run on “Invincible Iron Man,” then you are the perfect audience for this book. If you’re interested in reading the tie-in stories of “Fear Itself” then this is absolutely the right book for you. I think those two groups are the “ideal” audience, but for fans of the character, the universe, or the creators, this book is a good read for you. As for question number three, if you’ve read my review and now want to read this book, I would tell you that you would probably do best to read all of Matt Fraction’s run of “Invincible Iron Man” before reading this (conveniently collected in the Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections “Iron Man: World’s Most Wanted” and “Iron Man: Stark Disassembled,” if you want to read them most efficiently), but I wouldn’t tell you not to read this book ever, even if you’ve never read Iron Man or any other Marvel Comic books before, despite them having tie-ins to other Marvel characters and storylines. Fraction did a brilliant job crafting these stories and I feel they are well worth the read to anyone who wants to be a reader of the Marvel Universe or Iron Man.

            Okay, we’re at the point where I’m close to signing off. I do have a few things I need to say first. I’ll start with the fact that this blog has over 160 posts on it, over six dozen of them are reviews just like this one. I post on a very frequent basis, I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection after they are released as early as I can and if possible I write a review as early as I can after reading it, so you can usually expect at least one post a month. I can tell you there is another Modern Era Epic Collection coming out in five days from the composition of this post, so you can expect to see a review of that likely sometime within the next three weeks. For those of you who enjoyed this post and have more time to kill right now, keep browsing on timcubbin.blogspot.com for more reviews and content, and if you don’t have the time right now, feel free to come back another time. While the majority of this site is book reviews, there is other content on this site as well, including short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. I’ve been doing this blog for almost five years at this point, and I will keep doing this until I am no longer able to do it, so you can expect that to be for quite some time. Feel free to keep checking back regularly, there’s often going to be something new, and there’s already plenty to see as it is. If you want to, leave a comment, retweet, like, share, do whatever you can on this site, spread the word about me. Feel free to reach out to me and tell me what you think of this post or of my site in general if there’s anything you like, dislike, want to see in the future, or want changed, I’d love to hear from you, and if you read this book, I’d love to hear your opinion. I will state that I admit that everything on this blog is my own personal opinion as I interpret it and you have your own personal opinions and views on everything I post, and I welcome you to feel differently from me and say that I am totally off base with my assessment, whether I have information wrong, or if you feel like I’ve somehow misinterpreted what’s in the stories, or if you just disagree with anything I’ve said, like if you didn’t like the story or the art, or if you did like other things that I specifically said I disliked, or if you think “The New Iron Age” was a great title, or if you think this book was completely awful and a six was way too good of a score, or maybe a six wasn’t a score that was high enough, or you can just let me know if you agree with me about anything, I welcome to hear anything from all my readers and will take it all with complete acceptance and respect as you are entitled to your opinions on anything, I just ask you to respect that I have a right to have an opinion, too, so do not get hostile or openly attack me, just politely state you disagree with me and explain why you feel the way I do or respectfully explain what I have interpreted wrong as I would like to fully understand this story as it is. And that is all I have to say to you at the moment, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Daredevil: The Devil in Cell-Block D"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Daredevil: The Devil in Cell-Block D” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Blind lawyer/vigilante Matt Murdock/Daredevil had been arrested on suspicion of being the vigilante Daredevil. He was being held on Ryker’s Island in the Protected Custody Wing awaiting trial. He was kept out of General Population due to the fact that he was blind and was deemed unable to defend himself should he have any trouble with the other inmates. Meanwhile, someone else was running around Hell’s Kitchen, New York City dressed as Daredevil and fighting crime. Matt’s best friend and law partner Franklin “Foggy” Nelson was working on Matt’s defense, along with his assistant Becky Blake, and their investigator Dakota North was working on the case. The Federal Government decided that since Matt was Daredevil, he would be able to defend himself and moved to transfer Matt to Gen Pop. After being approached by gang leader Carlos LaMuerto/Black Tarantula in the prison infirmary, Matt was being walked back to his cell when he was attacked by Hammerhead and his thugs. Matt was able to defend himself but was placed in solitary confinement. Foggy and Dakota went to visit Matt in prison to inform him of the Feds’ plan, and while they were leaving, Foggy and Dakota were attacked, and Foggy was killed. After Foggy’s funeral, Matt and Becky went before the judge, and the Feds’ motion to have Matt placed in Gen Pop was granted due to Matt placing several of Hammerhead’s thugs in the infirmary, showing that he could defend himself and placed in Cell-Block D. Matt was approached by another prison gang leader named Morgan, who offered Matt to join his crew, but Matt declined. Tabloid Newspaper the Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich, and friend of Matt and Daredevil offered to help Dakota clear Matt’s name. Serial killer Bullseye was brought to Ryker’s, and every precaution was given to prevent him from harming any of the guards, fellow prisoners, or from escaping. Matt confronted Hammerhead to try to learn who stabbed Foggy, but Hammerhead didn’t know. Dakota and Ben got a lead on a lawyer named Alton Lennox, who was working with the imposter Daredevil, who was also involved in Foggy’s attack. Wilson Fisk/Kingpin was transferred from solitary confinement to Cell-Block D. After reading of Matt’s exploits at Ryker’s in The Daily Bugle, Frank Castle/Punisher turned himself in so he could get sent to Ryker’s. Fisk asked for a meeting with Matt. LaMuerto left Matt a shiv should things go bad. Matt confronted Fisk and accused Fisk of being behind Foggy’s attack, but Fisk denied Matt’s accusations. Hammerhead, LaMuerto, and Morgan planned to start a riot and take out Matt and Fisk. Matt was visited by his wife Milla Donovan, who tried to appeal to Matt’s gentler side. Becky told Matt about Ben and Dakota’s lead. Fisk prepared for the riot and attempt on his life by having Turk Barret and his gang get Bullseye freed and supplied with weapons. Matt, Fisk, and Bullseye were able to survive the riot, and Matt defeated Fisk and Bullseye. Matt turned to the Punisher, who faked kidnapping Matt, and the two were able to escape Ryker’s. Matt found the imposter Daredevil and engaged him in combat, but once the imposter unmasked, the fight came to an end. Both Daredevils, Ben and Dakota found their way to Lennox’s office, which was abandoned, but Dakota was able to reprint an e-ticket to Monaco from Lennox’s fax machine. Matt dyed his hair, bought contact lenses, got a fake passport as Michael Murdock, and flew to Monaco to find Lennox and the person behind Foggy’s attack.

            Matt learned Lennox’s only client was a mob-boss named Tybold Lucca, who lived on an estate in Monte Carlo, and Matt took on the identity Ray Mallory and booked passage to Monte Carlo. Matt did his best to get noticed in the casinos, hoping to get an invite to Lucca’s estate. One night, he caught the attention of Lily Lucca, Tybold Lucca’s daughter, who invited Ray to a party at Lucca’s estate. Matt was entranced to her due to her scent, which reminded him of his former lover Karen Page, who tragically died in his arms. Matt went to Lucca’s party, which was featuring a Matador. After putting on a performance, the Matador killed Lucca. Daredevil fought and defeated the Matador, and Alton Lennox and Lily were able to escape during the fight. Matt tracked down Lennox in Portugal, only to find he had been killed by Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone, who had now taken Lily. Matt followed them to Paris, where he learned Tombstone, the Matador and Lily were all working for the woman who ordered Foggy’s attack. Matt defeated Tombstone and the Matador and learned from Lily who was behind Foggy’s attack. Matt made his way to Zurich, Switzerland and confronted the mastermind, who confessed to Foggy’s attack and offered to clear all of Matt’s legal troubles if he represented Fisk. Matt declined her offer, but when he turned on the television, he found that the charges against him were being dropped. Matt returned to Hell’s Kitchen and to his life with Milla and had a surprise reunion. Following this, Matt decided to uphold the deal he made and got the charges against Fisk dropped and Fisk was released from jail.

            Matt was fighting as Daredevil while battling the flu. Carlos LaMuerto was released from prison on parole. LaMuerto was given a corrupt parole officer who demanded money from him, so LaMuerto went to Matt looking for a job. Matt agreed to allow LaMuerto to work with Dakota. LaMuerto had a run in with Little Loco, a former underling of LaMuerto’s from when he was a gang leader, who was now in charge of a gang of his own. Daredevil and Black Tarantula teamed up to take down the Yakuza. Dakota and LaMuerto worked on a case that led to Little Loco and led to a fight between Daredevil and Black Tarantula.

            Okay, that sums up the story, now it’s time for me to put in the review bits. We’re going to start with my personal reflections on this book. First off, I will say that I felt like I was missing a piece of the background before reading this book. For some reason, Marvel decided to release the Volumes of Daredevil Modern Era Epic Collections out of order. They published Vols 2 through 4, then skipped to Vol 6, and I feel like this gap impacted my enjoyment of this particular Volume, so through no actual fault of its own, I had a dislike to this Collection, and I do feel bad about that, but I have to be honest here. The story in this book did not begin at what I consider a proper starting point, there I background context missing, and I have no prior knowledge of it, so it really harms my opinion of this book. As it stands, I found some level of enjoyability to this book, but it wasn’t exceedingly high. I was rather disappointed. I just found that I couldn’t fully get excited about the stories. The whole concept of the book just fell flat for me. All-in-all, I didn’t really like the story. I can say that there were plot twists I didn’t see coming, but they honestly didn’t help me enjoy the book to any further extent. If anything, the biggest one only just made my already low opinion fall even lower. Also, I was expecting something different based on the title and my prior knowledge of the Marvel time period, which I honestly shouldn’t have made the assumption I did, but it just happens. The issues contained in this Volume were originally published between 2006-2007, so I was expecting the incarceration to have something to do with the Superhuman Registration Act from “Civil War,” which was kind of dumb for me to just preconceive it to be and get disappointed by it not being what I wanted it to be, and if you read my review of “Daredevil: Out” I did the same thing, so my preconceived notions have hurt my enjoyment of reading what the book actually is, and it’s really not fair to the writers or editors, but it’s just how things happen, I guess, I can’t help it. And when we go into the other consideration of a graphic novel, the graphic part itself, I also found myself disappointed. The artwork completely failed to appeal to me throughout this entire book, I did not like the way this book visually appeared. This book entirely failed to hit the mark for me.

            Next up on our docket, we’re going to discuss accessibility. I know I’ve said this over six dozen times at this point, and I know there are some of you who already know what I mean when I say this because I know I have some readers who have been with me for awhile now, but there’s always new readers with every post I do, so I have to include an explanation of my meaning every time I do a new post for you newbs, so here I go. When I say the word “accessibility” I mean if this book can be picked up and read and be completely understood by any reader, even a reader who knows nothing about Daredevil or Marvel Comics. As you can tell from the previous paragraph, I feel like the accessibility rating is low as it is due to the missing background. There are also plenty of threads that pick up from past Daredevil stories that new readers would have difficulty picking up on. I really would not say that this is a book for a person who wants to start reading Marvel Comic books to begin with.

            Okay, I’ve prattled on for a while now, I think we’re getting to the point where we’re ready to discuss my numeric score. So, my system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest score I can possibly give and that means that this book is not worth reading at all. Ten is the highest score that I could possibly give and that means that this book is sheer perfection. Now my regular readers know how picky I am and that I don’t like just handing out tens to books, and that to get a ten, the book has to be really special, with a flawless story and stunning art. This book did not deliver on either. The story was not engaging to me, I couldn’t find myself enjoying myself to the extent that I hope to hit while reading a graphic novel, and the visuals did not appeal to me at all, so obviously we’re talking an exceptionally low score here. So, putting all the ingredients into my metaphorical blender, the story I wasn’t too thrilled with, and the art I found to be atrocious, turning the blender on, mixing it until it is completely smooth, then stopping it, pouring it out into a cup and looking at it, the score I see is… a two. This book was a huge letdown for me, and I really did not enjoy it.

            Well, I think it’s time we moved on to the next point, the recommendation. This segment has two questions. Do I personally recommend this book? And who do I think should read this book? As for the personal recommendation, this book does not receive that from me. I cannot, in good faith, tell you to read this book. However, if you are a diehard Daredevil fan, I think you’re the target audience for this book. And if you like prisonbreak stories in comic books, this book is for you. Or if you’re a fan of Ed Brubaker’s work, this isn’t, in my opinion, his best work, but you might find this enjoyable. Otherwise, I honestly really don’t recommend this book to many readers.

            Okay, we are approaching my signoff point. I have a few end of post announcements first. This blog has over 160 posts on it. I’ve written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, as well as about six dozen book reviews like this one, so if you enjoyed this post, there’s plenty more content to explore, just check out timcubbin.blogspot.com for other posts. I post on a very frequent basis. The current focus of this blog is reviews of Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Marvel Ultimate Epic Collections, but I might shake things up and add something else in soon, you never know. I collect every Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after their release and try to post a review when I’m finished reading them if possible, so you can usually expect at least one post a month, if not more. I’ve done a review of almost every Modern Era Epic Collection with the exception of four volumes that I couldn’t review due to the lack of having a device to draft the posts on at the time, but that could eventually change, we’ll have to wait and see on that, and I have reviewed every Ultimate Epic Collection released so far. At the time of my drafting this post, there is a new Modern Era Epic Collection coming out in one week, so you can probably expect another review upcoming sometime in the next four weeks. If this review seems professional, it’s because I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, but alas, I don’t get paid for this, I just do this as a side project on my days off from my actual job where I work in a grocery store, but you honestly don’t care about what I do for a living, so that’s enough said about that. Anyway, keep checking back for more, I will keep doing this until either I can no longer see or type, so expect this to keep going for quite a while. If you’re still reading at this point, you are THE BEST! I appreciate your support. Feel free to like, retweet, comment, share, leave something behind for me to let me know what you think, that would be greatly appreciated, I would honestly love to hear from you, my readers, feedback would be very much enjoyed. Anyway, I think that’s all for now, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Ultimate Fantastic Four: The Fantastic"

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Annihilation: Annihilation Day"

 

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

                The Prison Transport Vessel Dredge 01 was carrying galactic criminals, including the Blood Brothers, Lunatik, Paibok, and Drax the Destroyer en route to the Kyln prison station at the Universal Crunch when it crash landed onto the planet Earth in Coot’s Bluff, Alaska. The Blood Brothers, Lunatik and Paibok formed an alliance and planned to find a way off of Earth and enjoy their newfound freedom, but Drax remained separate, and fought the Blood Brothers. Drax, who had been known to be mentally dull, seemed to get smarter and more coherent with every hit he took from the Blood Brothers. Elementary school students Cammi and Dex saw the crash on television and went to the woods to investigate the crash and found the aliens. Drax, whose daughter Heather had been killed by the Mad Titan Thanos, mistook Cammi for his daughter, and came to protect her, a mistake Cammi took advantage of. Paibok and Lunatik went into Coot’s Bluff and forced the inhabitants to go to the crash site to aid them in building a way off the planet. As Cammi and Dex returned to town, Drax fought Lunatik and Paibok, and Paibok shape-shifted into Thanos to throw Drax off his game, then killed Drax. Cammi asked Paibok for ownership of Drax’s body, to which Paibok agreed. As Cammi watched Drax’s body, Drax hatched a new, smaller body out of the deceased body. Drax merged minds with Cammi and learned she was not actually Heather, and Drax explained his history to Cammi, and Cammi chose to accompany Drax. Lunatik and the Blood Brothers learned that the transport they were on was damaged beyond repair and that they were unable to leave Earth. Drax returned to fight Lunatik and the Blood Brothers, ending Lunatik and allowing only one Blood Brother to survive, feeling that was the worst form of revenge he could dish out. Paibok summoned a prison transport, and Cammi and Drax were taken into space about the Prison Transport Vessel Dredge 02.

                Annihilus, Lord of the Negative Zone, unleashed his monstrous Annihilation Wave upon the universe. The Dredge 02 arrived at the Xandar Spaceport near the Xandar Cluster, Xandar being the home planet to the Nova Corps. Drax was released upon a technicality. Because he was reborn, his current genetic matrix readings didn’t match those the Nova Corps had on file and thus they could not prove this was the same Drax the Destroyer who destroyed two hundred thousand beings and were left with no choice but to let him go. As the Annihilation Wave hit Xandar, the Nova Corps were having a meeting. All the Nova Corps was wiped out, save for Richard Rider, a Nova Corpsman from the planet Earth. Drax and Cammi were able to evade the Annihilation Wave from the Xandar Spaceport in an escape pod. Ronan, the Kree Accuser, was arrested for crimes of sedition against the Kree Empire. Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer felt the Annihilation Wave. Kl’Rt/Super-Skrull learned of a super-weapon called the Harvester of Sorrows that was taking down entire Skrull planets. Annihilus planned to infest the entire universe.

                Richard Rider was awakened on the ruins of Xandar by Worldmind, the Artificial Intelligence collection of all Xandarian culture and possessor of the Nova Force. As Richard was the last surviving Nova Corpsman, there was no one except for him left to carry on Xandarian culture as all life on Xandar had been eliminated by the Annihilation Wave. Worldmind downloaded itself and the entirety of the Nova Force into Richard. Richard attacked a ship of the Annihilation Wave and destroyed it, but the power of the Nova Force overwhelmed him and began to corrupt him. Annihilus became aware of Richard’s power. Drax and Cammi came across Richard and suggested joining together to find a ship and a way off the decimated Xandar, but Richard was afraid he was a liability due to his powers making him mentally unstable. Worldmind instructed Richard to find a way off of Xandar, but Richard was resistant to team up with Drax, due to his criminal reputation, a history Drax denied. Richard was afraid to use the Nova Force, afraid he would lose control when he, Drax and Cammi were attacked by Annihilus’ forces. Drax eliminated them. Drax communed with Worldmind. Worldmind instructed Drax to help Richard keep control of himself while Richard used the Nova Force. Richard, Drax and Cammi boarded a ship, and Richard used the Nova Force to create a stargate to escape Xandar. The trio arrived at Nycos Aristedes, where they were rescued by Wendell Vaughn/Quasar, a human from Earth who gained powers from the Quantum Bands. Quasar was attempting to aid the Aakonian fleet in helping 18.6 million Aakonian Colonists escape from the Annihilation Wave. Richard, Cammi, and Drax agreed to help Quasar in the mission. Richard opened a stargate, then Richard and Quasar teamed up and took the fight to Annihilus, while trying to give the Aakonian fleet time to help the colonists flee to safety. Annihilus used his Cosmic Control Rod to drain Quasar’s powers and take control of the Quantum Bands. Richard was left by himself to fight Annihilus and buy the Aakonian fleet, Cammi, and Drax time to allow the colonists to escape and hold back the Annihilation Wave.

                Silver Surfer came upon Gabriel Air Walker, an android from Xandar and former Herald of Galactus, who was being attacked by Seekers, servants of Annihilus. Silver Surfer himself was once a Herald of Galactus, who had been discharged by the Devourer of Worlds. The Seekers were attempting to abduct those with the Power Cosmic imbued by Galactus upon his Heralds in order to give Annihilus their Power Cosmic. Being a machine, Annihilus would not be able to take the Power Cosmic from Gabriel Air Walker but had successfully rooted out Silver Surfer. Silver Surfer was able to help Gabriel Air Walker escape the Seekers, by Gabriel was too damaged and Silver Surfer had no choice but to destroy him and swore vengeance upon Annihilus. Thanos sent out his current servant and former Herald of Galactus, the Fallen One, to find the Beyonder. Thanos and Annihilus met, and the two found common ground. Silver Surfer was attacked by Seekers and was aided by Firelord and Red Shift, both former Heralds of Galactus. The Seekers were able to abduct Terrax, another former Herald of Galactus. The Fallen One found the Beyonder dead, and became indentured to Tenebrous and Aegis, two mythological beings. Firelord suggested an alliance with Silver Surfer against the Annihilation Wave, and current Herald of Galactus Stardust asked to join. Stardust informed Silver Surfer that Galactus wished to have an audience with Silver Surfer. Galactus reinstated Silver Surfer as a Herald of Galactus. The Seekers attempted to abduct Galactus for Annihilus, but Silver Surfer fought them off. Silver Surfer was then forced back into service of helping Galactus find worlds to consume. Thanos met with Tenebrous and Aegis and discovered all three sought out Galactus.

                Super-Skrull learned the Harvester of Sorrows was aimed at the planet Zaragz’na, the planet his son lived on. He asked Skrull Baroness S’Bak for a small force of Skrull warriors to seek out and destroy the super-weapon, but due to his history of failure as a warrior, he was denied his request. In his anger, he attacked the Baroness and was forced to flee her squadron. He was rescued by a Skrull mechanic named R’Kin, who grew up idolizing Super-Skrull. R’Kin’s father fought with Super-Skrull in the Battle of Harkoon and Super-Skrull was a hero to R’Kin. Super-Skrull was branded an enemy of the Skrull Empire and was wanted captured alive. R’Kin agreed to help Super-Skrull destroy the Harvester of Sorrows. The two traveled to Earth to the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four, to ask Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic to open a portal to the Negative Zone for them so Super-Skrull could recruit an army to destroy the super-weapon. Super-Skrull learned from one of Annihilus’ soldiers that the scientist who built the Harvester of Sorrows was Hawal, who had a laboratory on a prison planet in the Nexus of Igoa, then Super-Skrull killed the soldier in front of R’Kin, whose faith in his hero was shaken. R’Kin revealed to Super-Skrull that R’Kin’s father died fighting in the Battle of Harkoon. The two traveled to the UX-73 Prison Planetoid and found Hawal, who informed Super-Skrull the Harvester of Sorrows was a living being and could only be killed with a virus, and under torture agreed to make a virus for Super-Skrull. The prisoners escaped and sought revenge on their jailer, but Super-Skrull defeated the prisoners, and the prisoners agreed to serve Super-Skrull. R’Kin asked Super-Skrull to be the one to pilot the missile ship into the Harvester of Sorrows and be worthy of being called a Skrull. Former prisoner Praxagora fell in love with her new master, but Super-Skrull refused the return her affections. As the army went to fight the Harvester of Sorrows, Super-Skrull was betrayed by a member of his army, and Super-Skrull’s plans to destroy the super-weapon went wrong.

                Okay, I feel that this summarizes the graphic novel well enough, so let’s move on to my personal part of the review. Now, if you’ve ever read enough of my reviews of Epic Collections to see me complain about how Epic Collections never contain the actual events, they share the title with, you’ll come to understand just how significant this Modern Era Epic Collection is to me. For example, last year, I reviewed “New Avengers: Civil War” and mentioned how not a single issue of “Civil War” was actually contained in it, or you can look further back to other reviews, such as “Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet.” Epic Collections may share titles with events, but they don’t actually contain any issues of the main event itself. So here we have “Annihilation: Annihilation Day.” According to the back of this book, “Annihilation” was an event originally released in 2005-2006. This Modern Era Epic Collection actually is an Epic Collection of an event. I received this book two days ago and saw that the six issue limited series “Annihilation” is not actually contained in this volume, and I figured “oh, great, we have a Modern Era Epic Collection about an event that doesn’t actually contain the main series,” but upon further research, I found “Annihilation” #1-6 will be republished in the second volume of “Annihilation” which will be released later this year, so my fears of not understanding what I would be reading were alleviated, as I have never actually read “Annihilation” before and was afraid that reading the issues around it would mean that this book would make no sense. So, what we have here is the first volume of something unique among Epic Collections, this has never actually been done before, so for me, this is a pretty big deal. And I have to say, I loved it. This experience was very enjoyable. Like I said, I never read “Annihilation,” so this is new content for me, and it was fun to read. I feel like the editors of this book assembled it well. The chronology of the issues made sense, it was very coherent, and it was easy to follow the timeline. This book mainly focused on four characters: Drax the Destroyer, Richard Rider/Nova, Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer, and Kl’Rt/Super-Skrull, and I found myself invested in what the characters were going through. They were written so well I cared about their character arcs. Drax’s death and rebirth and partnership with Cammi was touching. I felt for Richard Rider as he found himself to be the last surviving member of the Nova Corps. Silver Surfer’s alliance with the Herald’s and his deal with Galactus was engaging. Super-Skrull’s betrayal was certainly unexpected. I felt that all-in-all, the authors did an excellent job writing these stories. As far as the artwork goes, I generally found it to be enjoyable. When a graphic novel has six artists, I often find myself expecting to find some source of disappointment. But I have to say, I pretty much can’t complain. Overall, I found the art to be visually appealing. Even the grittiness of the “Annihilation: Silver Surfer” series wasn’t a turnoff, which is a little odd because usually I find that to be a source of dissent, but in this case, I found it to be acceptable. Was it perfection? No. I’ve seen art that has been a lot more appealing, but in this case, the art was adequate. In total, this book was a pleasurable consumption. It wasn’t my favorite, but I found it to be entertaining.

                Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I know some of you have been through this with me before, I’ve done it about five dozen times now, but I have to go over it again. When I use the word “accessibility,” my meaning is if it’s possible to know nothing about Marvel Comics and still be able to pick up this book from a store or library, read it, and understand all the content in the book. I will say that this book is easily accessible. I feel like this book is very well self-contained and self-explanatory. I feel like not knowing anything about Marvel isn’t a hindrance in this case. In my view, knowing the history of the characters isn’t mandatory to understanding this Modern Era Epic Collection. You can never have picked up a Marvel Comic book before and still be able to follow the story just fine. Does knowing about these characters help? Yes. But if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and are looking into picking a starting point, this isn’t necessarily a perfect jump-on, but it is fine for a first foray into the Marvel Universe anyway. This can be the first Marvel graphic novel you’ve ever read, but it won’t necessarily prepare you for further ventures into other series because this book is a complete event of limited series that didn’t cross over into ongoing series, so there’s no direct continuation from this graphic novel into other graphic novels, but if you want to read something Marvel and you’ve never touched a comic book before, feel free to read this.

                Next up, we’re coming to the most important part of my review: my numeric score. I’ve done this over six dozen times at this point, but I have to explain it again to you newbs who have never read one of my reviews before. I score on a very simple scale: exact integers between one through ten. One is the worst score I can give and means that this book is trash and should stop being published and every existing copy should be burned. Ten is the best possible score I can give and means that this book is sheer perfection and every copy on the shelves should be bought and then reprints should be done frequently to replace the out-of-stock books. So, I have to say that it is extremely hard for me to give something a ten. Finding a book to be perfection is something that is extremely hard for me to accept, the story has to be completely engaging, and the artwork has to be consistently visually appealing, and that is a rarity. But at the same time, I don’t give ones very often either, that means that the story has to be boring, confusing, pointless, stupid, predictable, or unengaging, and the art has to be visually displeasing and not something I want to look at. I can usually find something to like in every graphic novel I read and can give it some points above a one, I’ve only given ones at a rate you can count on one hand at this point in time. Now this book is definitely nowhere near being a one, the story was engaging, the characters were well-written, the plot was well thought out, and the artwork was, for the most part, acceptable. But, at the same time, this book is a bit far off from being a ten. It wasn’t total perfection, and it just isn’t my favorite read. Now, my score is going to come as a surprise, considering I gave it such high praise, but it’s just not going to be a high score. The score I give when I take every factor in this book, the story and the art, combine all of it, throw it into my metaphorical blender, then turn it on and blend it to the point where it’s completely liquid, then pour it out and put in in a cup is… seven. I honestly don’t quite know why I can’t give this book a higher score, but there’s just something inhibiting me from doing it. It just doesn’t feel right to give it a score any higher than seven, but at the same time, it’s not possible for me to consider me going any lower with a score.

                Next up, we’re going to talk about recommendation. In this segment, I discuss if I, myself, personally recommend this book to anyone who has any prospective interest in reading this book, and then regardless of this fact, to whom do I feel should be reading this book. So, when it comes to my personal recommendation, I will say that yes, I will genuinely say that I feel like anyone interested in reading this book should definitely do so, and if you’re not already interested in reading it, I feel like you should be if you have any kind of interest in Marvel Comics. As to whom I feel should be reading this book, I feel like this is for anyone who enjoys cosmic adventures. This book should be appealing to people who are fans of space series such as “Star Wars” or “Star Trek” or other similar space action/adventure series. And if you enjoy Marvel Comics such as “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “Fantastic Four,” this book will hold interest for you. At the moment “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is not yet in theaters, and I have not seen it, so I can’t tell you if you see the movie and enjoy it that you’re the target audience, but if you enjoyed the “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy, I feel like you’d find enjoyment in this graphic novel, especially if you like Drax, his story was entertaining to me. I’ve been reading Marvel Comics for twenty-five years now and I feel like if you have any kind of investment in Marvel space odysseys, this is the perfect book for you.

                Okay, the end is now in sight. I’ve been rambling on for quite a while now and I’m ready to move on with my life and I think you’re probably ready to do something else. Maybe that something else is to continue exploring timcubbin.blogspot.com? I’ve got over 160 posts at the moment, there’s plenty more to read. I’ve written over five dozen other book reviews like this, and I’ve also written short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials, so there’s tons of other content to peruse if this post was to your liking. I will tell you that I purchase every new Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection released as early as I can after its release and try to post a review after I read it if possible. I do have a few Modern Era Epic Collections I haven’t reviewed because at the time I purchased and read them, I didn’t have a device to compose a review on, and I do have one I didn’t review because I couldn’t get to my laptop soon enough after reading it to write an accurate review, but maybe someday, those might be remedied, but it is not likely for me to purchase one and not review it. Marvel always puts out at least one Modern Era Epic Collection every month, and I get them as soon as I possibly can, so the possibility of more content coming up is highly likely to be frequent. I just have to find a day where I’m home all day to be there when the book arrives as I live in a house with three units and the delivery people sometimes have a hard time finding my correct door, and also the weather has to be good because I order from Amazon and those envelopes are not waterproof and I have had damaged books before and these books are very expensive and I pay for one day shipping, so I’d like to avoid having my sizeable investment ruined by water, so sometimes it takes a little while after release for me to obtain the book, but I get it at my earliest possible convenience. Anyway, that is probably too much information that you honestly don’t care about, but I threw it out there anyway, so hopefully you took it and accepted it. As it is, there is a book coming out this following week, so you can probably expect to see a new review upcoming sometime in the next four weeks, this is based entirely on if I’m off from work, don’t have therapy, doctor’s appointment, or other engagement, and if the weather is good, I’m not sure when these events will align, but they should happen soon. So, check back for it soon, and keep browsing what’s already here, there’s plenty of existing content to like at the moment. Anyway, I’m going to let you go now, all I have left to say at present is Tim Cubbin… out!