Batman has had his origin story told many different times over the years. His Year One comic is one of the most famous retellings, but who can forget the original one that came out decades ago? Earth One gives the origin another shot, but it fails to capture the heart that we saw in the original or in the DCAU.

The comic starts with Thomas Wayne preparing to become mayor. It isn’t official yet, but the stats indicate that he will definitely win. Naturally, he decides to party, but he knows that there could be some danger. He’d been receiving threats and he’s not sure who they’re from. He quickly hires Alfred to come and save the day once more. Unfortunately, Wayne decides not to put him on duty until he goes to watch a film….

Years later, Bruce Wayne is now grown up and he wants to strike fear into the hearts of many. He wants to change the world and avenge his parents. Along the way he’ll also make the city a better place and end (Lower) the vast amounts of crime once and for all. The side plot involves Harvey Bullock who has just joined the police force. Commissioner Gordon has lost the will to fight, so it’s all up to Bullock now. Bullock quickly learns that Gotham can be a tricky place, but he can hold his own and decides that he will stop all of the corrupt villains.

Batman was a solid protagonist, even if he did make some rookie mistakes. He can definitely take a shot and he won’t go down easily. I didn’t like him before the time skip, but as an adult, he’s a good character. Alfred is a pretty good character as well. He reminded me of his incarnation in Beware The Batman. He can actually fight, which is always a good thing.

Harvey Bullock is a pretty brave cop and this is one of the few comics that explores that. Usually he isn’t portrayed in a very positive light, but that changed here. He’s one of the only people in Gotham who is willing to fight the corrupt villains of Gotham. He’s also a pretty good street brawler and he had a pretty successful show. Commissioner Gordon isn’t the greatest character as he falls for the hostage situation. He should have just called in Superman..but I’ll go into that a bit more in a second.

The Penguin is a pretty laughable villain for the most part. He’s a villain who masquerades as a noble business owner so it’s hard to take him seriously. He actually gets some shots in against Batman, but that wasn’t his skill, but Batman’s error. Penguin hired “The Birthday Boy” to wreck havok on the people of Gotham and kidnap/destroy as many as he could. The Birthday Boy isn’t very tough, but he does give Batman a decent fight. He’s essentially a weaker Bane. The Birthday Boy is one of those characters that is virtually impossible to like and you just wait for him to be defeated so that you can move on.

One thing that I always have against stories in Gotham is that Gotham doesn’t make sense. Gotham is feared because crime runs rampant and the place is so corrupt. Why doesn’t Superman come to save the day? It’s only about a 5 second commute from Metropolis to Gotham and Superman should want to help. There are also many other heroes who should go to Gotham and help out as well. Now, ignoring that (Or being in an alternate world where Batman is the only hero) then it’s more acceptable.

Batman Earth One was a modern take of Batman’s origin, but it was only all right. Batman had to share a lot of his screen time with Bullock and there were no notable villains. The art was pretty off the whole time and reminded me of the Adam West show. The art usually wouldn’t be bad, but it’s a little nerve wrecking to see Adam West in the old suit again. There is a lot of set up for future comics, but since this is essentially a one-shot graphic novel, you’ll just need to look for the next closest thing in the main universe. If you’re a huge Batman fan then I’d recommend this title. Otherwise, while it is an acceptable DC comic, you’d be better off checking out the Batman/Superman series.

Overall 6/10

Cable is a pretty popular character and after his bold move in X Sanction, I was wondering when he would appear again. In this series, Cable gets the spotlight once again. He is getting visions of the future for some reason and he decides to assemble a team to stop the threats before they happen. They won’t be working with the law, so he can’t choose someone who’s well known like Wolverine or Captain America. I doubt they would be his first choice anyway. He picks Forge, Domino, Dr Nemesis, and Colossus. (Who I was surprised about. He’s pretty big on following the law after all)

The plot isn’t very deep in this group of comics as it’s more of a case by case plot. When Cable gets a premonition, then the team goes out to stop the threat. He prefers to keep them in the dark about everything, which can annoy some of the members. Hope wants to help them out, but Cable makes sure that she stays out of it, since he doesn’t want her to become a fugitive. The Uncanny Avengers come in to stop them, but they didn’t have enough prep time. Cable finds out that an anti mutant person is going to put something in the food that the company sends out so that everyone will become blob monsters. It may not seem like a big threat, but apparently there would be a lot of collateral damage. The team goes in to stop this before it happens, but things may not go according to plan.

Forge is basically insane in the comic. Something happened to his brain and he decided to fix it. (With help from Cable) After that, he’s all right, but he’s a pretty bland character. Dr Nemesis is there, but he doesn’t get much of a role either. He’s supposed to be the “funny” character I suppose. He’s all right and at least he doesn’t take everything so seriously.

Colossus isn’t a very good character. He’s constantly getting suckered or beaten up and he makes a bold move at the end. Some may call it heroic, but it’s not a very recommended move. He has a very forced one night stand with Domino and it didn’t exactly help his character. (Or Domino’s) Domino was good for the most part, but the ending wrecked her character as well.

I guess that leaves Cable and Hope. Both of them are pretty strong characters and are definitely a lot cooler than the other heroes. Hope wants to help out and with her powers, that would be pretty easy. Unfortunately, Cable leaves her out of the loop for the most part, but I’m sure that she’ll get to appear more in future comics. Cable is still as intense as ever and he’s a pretty good leader. It reminds me of the old days when he was with the X Force. He may not be a complete hero, but he believes that he’s doing everything for the right reasons, which is better than nothing.

On the negative side, the comic was pretty slow paced. It took the whole collection to avert one disaster and it wasn’t a very big one. The cast is pretty uninteresting as well. The art is pretty good, but it did take a pretty big dip during one of the middle comics.

This comic was a decent start to the series. There wasn’t a lot of action, but they are setting things up for future arcs. I’m hoping that they add in some new members and shake some of them out of the lineup. The comic will need better characters if it is to succeed. All in all, I’d recommend this collection. The action can get a bit intense, (In a zombie way) but this is Cable, so what would you expect? Although, I do hope that things get more exciting in the next volume.

Overall 6/10

20 years ago, I’m sure that nobody would have wanted Wolverine to be the leader of an Xmen school. He’s better as a loner right? Well, he may be the Principal at the school, but he’s still a bit of a loner as well. For the most part, he’s not with the school until the end, but on his own hunting for the Hellfire Club.

After Broo was defeated in the last issue, Wolverine has decided to track down his assailant, no matter what the cost. Unfortunately, the kids have psychically shielded themselves and can erase their scents thanks to nano machines. In another plot, Beast is talking to several geniuses about how they can help Broo. Reed Richards and Tony Stark offer solutions, but Beast is always one step ahead of them. I think the author may be overestimating his intellect, or underestimating Stark and Richard’s. It was an interesting subplot, but I always wince when they have to resort to asking someone else. Between Stark and Richard’s, they should know just about everything.

In another plot, Angel decides to go and find some mutants. The first one on the list is Shark Girl. Mystique and Silver Samurai 2 randomly show up and decide to fight. Angel has some new abilities so he does pretty well and Shark Girl has the upper hand against Mystique. For once, things are looking good for the heroes. Finally, in another subplot, Shadow Cat is trying to hire a new teacher, but it becomes difficult when Deadpool and Spiderman appear to shake things up.

Later on, the Xmen get mind controlled by a witch and she forces them to perform circus stunts. I have to say that I don’t agree with this at all. Wolverine has plenty of mental blocks in his head and Rachel Summers is an incredibly powerful telepath. There’s no way that the Witch could overpower that. It was definitely sad for the Xmen and they had to wait for the Xkids to come to their rescue.

Meanwhile Frankenstein’s monster is also on the loose. He’s after the last of the Frankenstein lineage, but can he defeat the kid? The kid has his pet robots, but they aren’t very powerful. The kid must team up with one of the Xmen (Oya) to take him down. Will it prove to be too much for them?

Well, a lot happened in this collection and we learned that you should never trust the Circus. Some characters weren’t handled so well like Mystique and Silver Samurai 2. I usually like the new Silver Samurai, but I couldn’t stand him in this one. His character personality seemed pretty weird and he was very weak. Mystique also seemed to lose most of her intellect and started a battle that she shouldn’t have. She usually has a plan to fall back on, but not this time.

Wolverine is decently good for the beginning, but seeing him get brainwashed was pretty sad. I still don’t buy it. Wolverine tries to stay strong and even resists the beer, (With help) but the ending was pretty rushed. The romance with Storm at the end wasn’t really needed and wrecked both characters. What happened to professionalism? Storm also wasn’t that good in this comic.

So who was a good character? Deadpool and Spiderman were pretty epic, but they were guest stars so I guess they wouldn’t really count. Blade also had a (Very out of character) cameo, which was pretty intense. I have to say that Angel may have been the best character. In this comic, he finally set a goal for himself and he’s using his new powers to their full potential. Now, he doesn’t need to just keep dodging until the opponent gets tired, but counter attack and win with raw power.

I still can’t say that I like the Hellfire Club. None of the kids are very interesting and while they all talk really tough, (Get ready for two kids threatening each other, over and over and over..) I can’t take them seriously. Frankenstein’s Monster isn’t a really interesting villain either.

The art in the comic was decently good. This artist is a “splasher” so when someone gets punched, he’ll immediately have little webs of blood on him. I never fully understood the concept, but the art is still pretty solid for the most part. Not the greatest art, but still a bit higher than average.

Overall, this is a pretty good Xmen comic. It may not be extremely high on action, but you’ll at least get references to AVX and past comics. Angel gets a fight and I’m sure that more fights are around the corner. Contrary to what the cover may suggest, Frankenstein’s monster doesn’t do so well against Wolverine. The character cast may not have been my favorite, but you don’t need to enjoy the characters to like the comic right? Thanks to the art and the fast pacing of the story, you’ll find yourself reading through until the end.

Overall 7/10

Justice League will always be known as the greatest superhero show of all time. There’s no superhero show that is even close and I doubt that any will ever pass the series. Justice League had awesome animation and character designs, which led to great fights. Was the comic able to live up to the show? Let’s find out!There are six segments in the comic, so we’ll go through them one at a time.

First up was a comic about Girder breaking out of jail. It was around the holidays and most of the JLA members were happily at home. I feel bad for the ones that are forced to stay on monitor duty. What about their Christmas Parties on Earth? Possibly a little out of character for the JLA, but ignoring that, we have a pretty solid comic. The team of Supergirl, Powergirl, Atom Smasher, Star Girl, Firestorm, and Hawkgirl go to confront Girder. Should be a peace of cake right? Unfortunately, Girder is actually defeating them pretty easily which didn’t make much sense. Atom Smasher may be their only hope, but since when is he stronger than Supergirl and Power Girl? They were definitely very depowered in this comic, but it was still pretty fun to read.

The next comic was probably the most exciting. The Government gets Uncle Sam and his Freedom Fighters to infiltrate the Justice League headquarters. They go up there, but the Freedom Fighters throw a sucker punch at the Atom, which leads into a big fight. The Justice League should have mopped the floor with the Freedom Fighters, but they are pretty under powered in this comic. Seems like a running error in this collection right? It was still epic because it felt like the JLA vs Avengers comic, but the fight was a lot shorter.

The next comic was about a cab driver from the future. He goes through time, giving people rides through space. One day he sees a red light and sees Superman on a planet…dying! The Cab Driver is pretty intense and he manages to get Superman into the cab. We find out that he’s the best driver out there and he’s able to dodge many lasers. Superman and the Cab Driver definitely make a good team, I don’t think I’d agree these aliens could defeat Superman. They’re very weak, but they have kryptonite lasers! The art is definitely the most sketchy in this story, but it’s pretty fun to look at.

One comic involved time travel and was one of the weaker comics. Wonder Woman, The Vigilante, and Elongated Man head into the past, where they help some “Old” heroes take down a guy who has stolen some tech from the future. There weren’t any real action scenes and the comic was a bit boring. Not awful, but it definitely didn’t feel like a Justice League comic.

The next comic was about Mary Marvel. After saving the Justice League from possible annihilation, she heads to the watchtower. Martian Manhunter says that Shazam is welcome back on the team, but I don’t see why he would want to come back. Mary Marvel wanted to talk to Wonder Woman, but she’s busy battling a super villain. Supergirl takes Mary Marvel to go see the fight, but they are shocked to see…The Justice League are losing! Once again, the JLA seem pretty under powered, but I can’t say that I was very surprised. Mary Marvel stops Supergirl from joining the fight (Which I don’t agree with) so that they can win the fight using their wisdom. They would have won either way though.

The next comic was about the Justice League trying to stop a natural disaster. The disaster wasn’t as normal as you might have guessed and the Justice League are taken down pretty easily. Gone are the days when Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Vixen teaming up are enough to stop Killer Frost and her partner. After a while, they use the villains’ infighting to their advantage and make this a real fight. This was the worst comic of the batch, but it was still all right. The dialogue was really boring, which is what hampered the comic and I didn’t like Any of the characters.

Finally, the last comic was about the Gypsy. She’s pretty happy to be a member of the Justice League and now she’s a Gypsy in name only. She finds out about a group of villains storming warehouses and alerts the JLA. Unfortunately, the villains claim that they are heroes and tell the JLA that they’ll sue. The Justice League gets out of there very quickly, but Gypsy isn’t entirely convinced. It was an all right comic, but it definitely lacked the action that the first 4 had.

Overall, this was a pretty decent collection of Justice League stories. It’s good to see the DCAU back in action and it was pretty nostalgic. The art could have been better, but at least the fight scenes were definitely epic. For the most part, all of the characters were pretty solid, or about as good as their DCAU counterparts. I’d recommend giving this comic a read if you are a comic fan. Who doesn’t like some solid DC fights right?

Overall 7/10

Green Lantern has been a pretty great comic book series for as long as I can remember. I can’t think of a single “bad” arc that has come out in the last decade. Maybe even longer! The GL franchise (Because it has spawned other stories about the Corps) always has solid art and great fight scenes. It’s also a blast to read because space battles are very enjoyable.

This collection covers the Agent Orange arc (Hence the title) and the final few pages lead into Blackest Night. The collection (Or Hal Jordan’s part of it) starts off with Hal Jordan still trying to get rid of his Blue Lantern Ring. (Personally, I’d keep it, since it amps up his GL ring and constantly recharges it. Likewise the GL ring does the same to the BL ring.) The Blue Lanterns are actually pretty mean…or not very understanding of the whole situation. They are attacked by Manhunters which is always a cause for concern, because this usually leads to intergalactic wars or very complicated situations.

Meanwhile, a group of really “tough” characters have infiltrated a cave. They have found the orange light of power and wish to claim it for themselves. With this power at their disposal, they can finally defeat the Red, Yellow, and Green Lanterns and conquer the galaxy! Their plans are quickly foiled and the leader of the Orange Lanterns, Larfleeze, declares war on the Green Lanterns. After all, these cave infiltrators were once affiliated with them. The Guardians respond by assembling the full might of the GL Core and attacking Larfleeze’s home planet (And they search the rest of the sector for fugitives)

Larfleeze is the main villain of the comic, but I can’t say that he’s one of my favorite characters. I didn’t really care for him and while his constructs are powerful, I’d take Hal over him in a fair fight. Luckily it wasn’t a fair fight for either of them. Hal Jordan had his BL ring to amp up his GL ring, and Larfleeze had his Orange power battery so that he could keep on charging his OL ring.(Keeping track of all the abbreviations?) Like him or not, Larfleeze is still a formidable foe and should be regarded as such.

Hal Jordan is still the main character and it’s definitely for a reason. He seems to be the most competent out of the Green Lanterns and he quickly takes the fight to Larfleeze. He single-handedly gives him a good fight, while the rest of the core are struggling against his constructs. His uniform also looks the coolest and the mask is pretty cool. I prefer when it’s hard/sharp as opposed to the Lone Ranger/Robin type of mask from the old days. Jordan was definitely my favorite character from the comic.

John Stewart gets a decently large role in the comic as well, but he just doesn’t seem as skilled as Hal. He ends up getting some help from one of his old enemies, but he still manages to take out a lot of Orange Lanterns. I can’t really say that I liked his character a lot, but I didn’t dislike him. He just didn’t leave a big impression.

Agent Orange is a pretty solid arc that I believe you will enjoy. All GL fans will certainly get a kick out of it and it’s very fun and easily accessible. New fans to the series shouldn’t be confused and the art is spectacular. The Guardians make a pretty controversial call towards the end, but they never were heroes now were they? The lead into Blackest Night is definitely epic and we see that some characters may be getting a role in the upcoming battles (Star Sapphire). You definitely won’t want to miss this collection!

Overall 7/10

Superman’s always gotten a lot of different comic series over the years, but what about his cousin? While Supergirl is a pretty major character of DC, she’s usually more of a supporting character than the main one. When the Supergirl comic series started, it was definitely a good move on DC’s part and I had some really high expectations. Did it meet them? Time to find out!

The comic starts off with Supergirl crashing into earth and government agents quickly surround her. They’re inside of robots so that they’ll be (heh) “Protected” in case Supergirl is hostile. She’s definitely hostile and punches one of them far enough that he’s instantly out of sight. The robots were partially responsible for starting the fight, but Supergirl’s always quick to go into action. Supergirl is taking them apart pretty easily and she’s still indecisive about the battle. It’s not like she wants to pulverize the robots upon first waking up. Luckily…The Man of Steel arrives to calm things down.

Superman doesn’t do a great job of calming things down and he even refuses to give out his name until Supergirl says hers. It’s a classic “Superman” move that you would have seen a lot of, back in the 60’s. It was good to see him acting retro, but it didn’t really help the situation. After Superman claims that he’s Supergirl’s cousin, (Which I doubt anyone would really believe at that point) Supergirl nails him with a solid shot that sends him flying. They don’t really get to have a long fight, but Supergirl definitely lands in a lot of good shots. Superman flies off to do heroic things, while Supergirl heads into space as she follows a flying object.

It leads her to a spaceship where she meets up with..The Brain! He’s actually pretty powerful, but I’m not sure if I agreed with the fight. I think Supergirl would crush him, but at least DC tried to make him as a big threat. I definitely won’t be forgetting The Brain anytime soon.

Finally, the last group of comics involves the Worldkillers. They’re a team of immensely powerful individuals. Individually, they are already powerful, but together, they form one of the strongest teams in comics. Their group is small, but each of their members is pretty tough, Reign, being the strongest by far. The arc was pretty great and it definitely had the most action from the Supergirl comics. There was finally an enemy who could give Supergirl a good fight.

Supergirl makes for a pretty solid protagonist and I’m glad to see that she’s quick to fight in this version. She’s had many incarnations, but this one is probably the best that I’ve seen aside from the DCAU. She’s already mastered her powers to a degree and they are hinting that she’s stronger than Superman, or that she will surpass him. Reign mentions that Supergirl is the only threat on the planet. (I guess the Justice League won’t be able to help this time) Supergirl’s costume is pretty good, it’s very similar to Superman/Superboy’s in the New 52, but I miss the cape. The cape was always one of the best parts of the uniform.

The Worldkillers make for a pretty good villain group. Reign is a great villain and she’s the perfect adversary for Supergirl. She’s basically Supergirl’s version of Black Adam or Bizarro. Reign wields a sword, which is pretty cool. Beyond that, she has most of the same powers as Supergirl, but to a slightly lesser extent. She may have been defeating Supergirl in space, but they were far from the sun. On Earth, I think that things would go differently. The only member of the group that I didn’t like was Deimax. She’s basically a lizard creature who has super strength. Not very original and she didn’t have much in the way of character. One of the opponents could fire energy blasts and appeared to almost be made of light. (The character reminded me of Soul Saver Dragon.) There was also a plant type creature who seemed to have less super strength and long range combat abilities, but made up for it with her long reach.

The Supergirl comic series is definitely off to a solid start and I’ll be looking forward to seeing how things play out from here. The art is definitely solid and the action scenes feel pretty streamlined. There was one typo in the comic, which is pretty rare. I won’t hold it against the comic, but it’s something that you may want to watch out for. (To test your analyzing skills) I definitely recommend picking up this series if you like cool action scenes or just like to look at the art for battle scenes. Not to mention that the character roster is better than most and things are moving at a good pace.

Overall 8/10

Iron Man 2020 takes place in the slight future (Of Earth 8140), but most of the current generation of heroes are gone. The new Iron Man is Tony Stark’s cousin, Arno. It’s interesting to see how they depicted the future back in the ole days. Things have definitely changed a lot over the years.

The first comic deals with Arno attempting to stop a bomb from detonating. It would destroy just about everyone around so the stakes were pretty high. The only person who could diffuse the bomb was dead, so Arno was forced to go to the past and find him. Unfortunately, Arno ran into Spiderman and doesn’t handle the situation well. After he injures a innocent bystander, Spiderman is forced to go all out. It’s a very one sided fight and I guess that’s what we can expect. This issue was definitely the best from the collection and it also contained the best fight.

In the next few issues, Arno is hired to take down the Machine Man. Since the Machine Man’s tech is so old, it should be no problem to defeat him right? Well, it’s not the armor that makes the man, but the other way around. Arno is a really bad fighter and every fighter he makes contact with, tend to mop the floor with him. This mini series is really about the Machine Man and Iron Man doesn’t even get to fight until the final two comics of the arc. It’s good to see the Machine Man getting his props, but it was basically filler. In the next comic, Arno takes on Death’s Head since he was told to do so. He doesn’t ask any questions and he just wants money….he gets less heroic by the comic.

In the 6 issue mini series, Arno hosts a party with a lot of rich people, but he’s attacked by one of his old enemies. Iron Man scrambles his fighters and he goes out to fight the robots. They’re mostly cannon fodder and the head of the villains is an average human, so he can’t fight. The collection of comics ends with a What If comic. It was good to see Iron Man take him down a couple of pegs and he was in his cool 90’s design.

Well, Arno Stark is a pretty bad protagonist. The comic shows his decline from (Arguable at best) hero to downright villain. He starts out by trying to save his planet and then he becomes a mercenary for hire. He drops one guy off of a roof and blasts another guy straight out of this life. He’s basically a twisted Tony Stark, but not quite as cool as the former. His armor is also laughably weak. He loses to robots from decades ago and one good hit is usually enough to weaken his armor. I also can’t say that I’m crazy about the design. Especially in the six issue mini series, it was very bulky.

Spiderman gets a pretty good role and he’s probably the best hero in the comic. He shows us what a real hero is and he gets the job done. Once he enters rage mode, he makes short work of his opponents. Iron Man 2020’s armor never stood a chance against those punches. War Machine looks pretty bad, (Granted that it’s a What If comic) but I think that we’ve come to expect that much. The real Iron Man looks pretty good and his armor definitely holds up to the times.

Death’s Head was an interesting villain. It’s always good to see a Transformers character make his way into the marvel universe and he definitely gave Arno a good fight. His sidekick definitely seems like an interesting character and a comic series about their exploits could be fun.

This is a pretty solid collection of comics. I’d recommend it thanks to the classic art and generally quick moving storyline. It’s never boring and it’s always good to expand your marvel knowledge. There aren’t a lot of popular characters in the book, but Spiderman and Iron Man guest star appearances will have to do.

Overall 7/10

Booster Gold has always been a pretty fun character to read about. Usually his fans have to be satisfied with just seeing him in a supporting role, but this time he’s the main character. The comic looked like a lot of fun and early on I could confirm my guess. The stakes may not be world shattering (Well, some may argue that the threat is very real) but the villains are decently tough.

Booster Gold is back in the modern world and he’s ready to join the Justice League. They remember some of his past exploits and are pretty happy to welcome him on board, but he learns that a time traveler is on the prowl. He plans on destroying the league by means of time travel and altering the past. Booster Gold must sacrifice his reputation and go stop the villains. Usually my plot analysis is a little longer, but that’s basically the plot.

All right, I do have some issues with time travel. It’s the ultimate cop out that a writer can pull so that he can change anything. Let’s say that someone wanted it so that Superman never died against Doomsday. Pull a Flashpoint or a Superboy Prime reality punch and you can erase it. No matter what excuses the heroes make for altering time, once you’ve done it there is no turning back. Well, actually there is. Once again, we’ve got time travel for that. (Age of Ultron pulled it off twice in a row after all) The thing is, if you’ve altered time once, then you may as well continue to alter it. Make it so that a lot of the negative things never happened. Instead the heroes tend to play favorites.

There were also some time theories in this comic that I didn’t agree with. There are parts of time that were meant to happen…Destiny if you will. I don’t believe that for a second. Booster Gold goes back in time and repeatedly tries to stop one of DC’s big turning points. He keeps on failing and Rip (The Time Hunter) tells him that he will never succeed. Why? Because it’s a solid space in time and it cannot be altered. See, I have multiple problems with this. Now, I could believe that if the time were so sturdy that time travelers simply couldn’t enter through it, (Of course you could just go further in the past and wait until you hit that day) but to actually go to the past, but you keep on losing because of destiny? I just don’t believe it. Booster Gold gets beaten by humans and he loses in ways that just don’t work. Destiny definitely can’t stop him, or at least not in the ways that it happens.

Another thing, when you change the past, you usually just create an alternate future. It won’t affect the future that you are from, which is why time travel is ultimately meaningless in solving one’s problems. (Of course Marvel also forgot that when they made the Age of Ultron event soooo…) The book doesn’t really address any of that so I thought that the overall time travel was a little sloppy. Of course, if you ignore the specifics of the time travel it can still be fun to look at. Sometimes things just don’t need to make sense. The universe is massive so there are bound to be things that just don’t work.

Booster Gold was a solid lead and he showed us that he can actually be a pretty deep character. He’s decently tough, but the comic didn’t portray him to be as powerful as he normally is. His buddy Skeets was also pretty cool. He definitely keeps Booster Gold at the ready and he’s a fun addition to the cast. Rip, The Time Hunter, helps him through the comic as well. He’s pretty good for the most part, but I didn’t care for his interrogation. Good guys should never resort to using such a violent style. A couple of Blue Beetles also appeared and they did all right. I think Jaime was a little under powered to match the other guys, but they still did good.

I’m a little skeptical that the Justice League didn’t suspect anything. I don’t know, Superman and Batman can be pretty smart. Also, Barry Allen and Wally West appeared. They didn’t really look that good though and I’m calling plot hax. Supernova also appeared in two different versions. The first guy was pretty cool and he’s definitely a good video game player. The 2nd guy had a pretty big plot twist, but it came out of left field. I still think that the 2nd Supernova makes for a pretty good villain, but his character is pretty generic.

Now, I may have had a lot of criticisms with this comic, but that’s just because I have very specific time travel laws that I think most media should follow. Especially if they’ve already picked a time travel theorem, then they should stick to it. Also the comic is a DC comic so I tend to be a little more skeptical than usual. (Since DC’s awesome!) It’s definitely a pretty solid comic and I recommend checking it out. The art is also consistently good for the comic and it’s one of DC’s better showings. The comic is actually a decent jumping on point for new DC readers. It’s fun, the stakes aren’t too high, and you’ll get to meet a lot of DC’s finest characters. Of course, if you’re already a big DC fan, it could help you to appreciate the comic even more.

Overall 7/10

The Mighty Thor is easily one of Marvel’s most popular characters and his comics have been published and republished in many different collections. The Marvel Masterworks lineup includes some insight from Stan Lee which Marvel fans will be especially happy to see. The quality level in which the comics were printed is pretty good and they did a good job choosing the cover for the collection. A very nice piece of art!

The collection starts out with a bang as the Absorbing Man attacks Thor with his signature wrecking ball. His abilities are pretty potent and by making contact with Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, The Absorbing Man’s power skyrockets and he becomes virtually indestructible. His abilities are definitely risky though and if he were to touch glass before getting hit, it would be the end. The battle between Thor and The Absorbing Man is pretty good and it’s closer than you may have figured. Of course just having strength is not enough to win a battle against the Prince of Asgard!

This comic was one of my favorites from the collection. It’s always nice to see an opponent who can actually give Thor a good fight, since his battles are always epic. Unlike the modern comics, Thor shows off his super speed a lot in the comic and uses his combat experience to aid him in the battle. It was definitely a well written battle/comic.

Later on, Loki brings the Absorbing Man to Asgard where he wrecks havok upon the realm. Unfortunately, without Thor, the Asgardians go down pretty quickly. Finally the only opponent left to defy the Absorbing Man is the legendary Odin! Thor heads to Asgard, but will he make it in time to save Odin!?

Well, this comic was also pretty good. We got to have a pretty high stakes battle between Odin and the Absorbing Man. Some fans may be skeptical as to how the Absorbing Man could give Odin any sort of fight. (Much less an evenly matched one) The comic has a good explanation for this at the end so it was believable.

In the next part of the comic, which lasted the rest of the collection, Hercules comes down the Earth and starts causing some trouble. Thor had finally wrapped up all of the various problems and obstacles that had kept him from Earth, so he wasn’t exactly thrilled to see Hercules already there. Jane Foster isn’t particularly welcoming about the whole thing, but before she can talk things out with Thor, Hercules slams into him from behind with a solid hit. Thor has been ignoring him and he didn’t like that. Thor is never a fighter to stay on the ground and he immediately retaliates.

Hercules and Thor is pretty similar to the Thing and Hulk rivalry. Hercules is definitely a powerful opponent, but his level of power is nothing close to Thor’s. There were many times during the comic that Thor could have finished him off, but he didn’t. Thor knew that a single full powered hit could end up destroying Hercules and he was also hoping that Hercules would learn not to always resort to fighting right away. In his youth, Thor had also been pretty hotheaded, but he has learned to try and talk things out more through the years. Hercules will hear none of it and the fight continues. The fight becomes less one sided once someone intervenes and wrecks the honor of the battle.

In the next part of the Hercules saga, he goes to the movies and gets easily tricked by Pluto into signing a contract. Now, Thor must fight in Hercules place and defeat all the legions of Pluto. It’s a pretty solid way to end the collection and we see Thor go up against many powerful adversaries. Even the Crusher appears, but he learns that his unstoppable grip may be stoppable after all!

After each comic, there would be a mini segment about Thor’s adventures back in the olden days. He looks pretty much the same (Since he’s an immortal) and his friends are still present. The comics are pretty fun and the Warrior’s Three gets a much bigger role. They aren’t quite as action packed or as high stakes as the main comics, but they’re pretty fun to read. They also deal with the end of the universe as we know it!

All of the comics were pretty fun to read and this is currently my favorite Thor collection. We got two pretty great fights in the form of Thor vs Absorbing Man and Thor vs Hercules. Thor was a very good protagonist and I can see why he acquired such a large fan base right away. I much prefer this portrayal of him to his recent incarnations. Thor never backs down from a fight, but he also knows when to turn away and attend more pressing matters. Even if it means defeat, Thor will end up doing what he feels is right. There are several times where Thor knows that he cannot win, but he fights until the bitter end anyway. Unfortunately, Thor is probably the only character that I really enjoyed a lot. I can’t say that I liked Odin (He made some pretty iffy calls) and the rest of the Asgardians were all right. Balder was decently good and Volstagg definitely had some good lines as well. Loki pulls a lot of tricks as per usual, but he’s not supposed to be a very likable character. At most you can sympathize with him a little bit. Hercules and the Absorbing Man can be interesting characters, but I definitely wouldn’t be putting them on my really good characters list for now.

This is certainly the Marvel Masterworks volume to purchase if you are a Thor fan or if you enjoy Marvel Comics. The page count is pretty good and the price is definitely worth it considering how much fun the comics are to read. I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out.

Overall 8/10