The Amazing Spider Man The Complete Alien Costume Saga Book 1 Review

Posted on July 26, 2015 by dreager1

It’s time to look at another volume which shows Spider Man how he was in the classic days of Spiderman. The Alien Costume Saga is certainly long as it spans two rather large collections. This volume was about 500 pages so it was like reading an essential collection. This is mainly due to the fact that Spider Man was regularly appearing in Marvel Team Up as well as the Peter Parker series so his costume got to appear quite a lot back in those days. He handles himself pretty well for the most part, but the comic is slightly hurt by his relationship with Black Cat in this collection.

The series constantly intermingle so the plot is all over the place. Let’s start with one series at a time as that will make things easier. Marvel Team Up tends to be fairly stand aloneish so let’s lead off with those issues. The first Team Up issue dealt with a case that Daredevil and Spiderman had worked on a while back before Spiderman vanished. Spiderman came back and decided to help, but found out that Daredevil struck a deal with the Kingpin. It’s an intriguing one and it allows the villains to escape so Spiderman questions Daredevil’s heroics. The hero will likely have to deal with that in his own comics. There wasn’t a lot of action in this story, but the guest stars were fun and Black Widow even had a minor role.

Spider Man then met up with Captain Marvel for a two part adventure as he got to go to another world to fight for her freedom along with Star Fox. I definitely still don’t care for that guy, but the space adventure was fun. Spider Man also got to team up with Moon Knight and Iron Man in other issues. Each comic was interesting and I’ve always liked the Marvel Team Up comics. It was a good way for heroes to meet up back in the day before there were guest stars in just about every issue.

The issues in The Spectacular Spider Man mainly dealt with the Black Cat plot. She made a deal with the Kingpin that she doesn’t think Spiderman would approve of so she has kept her new powers a secret from everyone. She can manipulate luck so that’s a very easy power to keep hidden as no one can simply find it out without some kind of complex plan. The drama continues as the heroes fight opponents like the Blob. (The Blob’s ending is actually quite tragic and even Spider Man couldn’t save his friend this time) Black Cat’s power saves Spider Man more than once so the abilities have come in handy.

That being said, Kingpin certainly has an angle here. He sends The Answer to test the heroes and the guy actually manages to get the upper hand on Spiderman and Black Cat. Granted, Spiderman was exhausted and Black Cat hadn’t mastered her abilities yet. Still, I’m really liking The Answer at the moment and he’s definitely an underrated Spiderman villain. I’m looking forward to seeing more of him in volume 2. They just don’t make villains like this one very often. He always talks tough and fights strategically since he’s basically just an average joe. There’s also a two part issue where Spiderman helps Cloak and Dagger out, but that wasn’t the most thrilling adventure.

Finally, we have the stories in the main series. Spider Man fought a whole lot of villains in these stories. The Puma was sent by the Rose to take down Spider Man and it made for a pretty even fight. That guy is definitely no pushover and that’s why they say that he’s never failed a mission yet. Luckily, the guy is honorable so he decides not to finish the Wall Crawler off yet since Spider Man was so weakened. He seems like a good villain and definitely a likable opponent for Spiderman. (I keep alternating between Spider Man and Spiderman, but that’s because both spellings work for me and it’s also tough to just choose one at times)

Due to how Spiderman is constantly fighting, he’s almost always tired, which is too bad. Not to mention that the symbiote also likes to take him for a spin every night so Peter Parker can’t enjoy his sleep. The Rose plots in the background, but he hasn’t really done anything yet. Jack O Lantern and the Red Ghost also make appearances, but they are seriously outmatched against Spiderman in his new attire.

In the final comic, Spiderman finally realizes how deadly the Venom costume is and the Fantastic Four help him get rid of it. Spiderman had to use the old Paper Bag costume to leave, but at least he could be himself again. After all, while the Spiderman part of the plot may have sounded simple, the Parker Luck ensured that there was still a lot of human drama to deal with. For the most part, it’s always handled well in these issues and is typically why Spiderman’s comics were always so interesting. There were always so many plots present and things were always happening.

Peter finally found out that Mary Jane already knew that he was Spiderman. This definitely came as a shock to him since he thought that he had done such a great job of keeping that under wraps. I’m sure that this is a plot which will be more prevalent in future issues. Aunt May is also very upset with Peter at the moment since our daring hero decided to drop out of college. It was definitely a dicey move, but it makes sense since Peter would be late to every class anyway. Of course, explaining that without revealing his identity proved to be very difficult and Aunt May isn’t even on speaking terms with him anymore. In that plot, things continue to go from bad to worse. Robbie is also letting his new position as Editor get to him. Power corrupts after all and he’s slowly drifting away from Peter. Of course, you can’t blame him completely since Peter apparently doesn’t know how to shoot pictures very well. With no formal training, Black Cat is already better than him in that area.

The only plot that I wasn’t a big fan of was the Black Cat one. It’s good that she is actually trying to turn over a new leaf and you will feel bad for her since she went to all the trouble of getting some powers to help Spiderman out, but they also got her into a sticky situation with the Kingpin. I wouldn’t mind this plot at all if it wasn’t for the whole romance between the characters. Black Cat still won’t acknowledge Peter as Spiderman’s alter ego and Peter can’t really take a hint as he keeps on bringing up his human life to her. Naturally, this means that the two of them are constantly disagreeing about this and it gets old fast. Also, Spiderman’s not quite as reserved as you would expect as he and Black Cat are constantly acting like a couple on various rooftops instead of trying to get past the other issues. If this were a modern comic, I’m sure that it would be 100x worse. On the bright side, Peter isn’t cheating on anyone since he’s not together with Mary Jane at the moment, but I still don’t approve of this relationship at the moment since it really doesn’t seem to be working. There’s also a subplot where Spiderman keeps brushing off Harry, but that’s basically the norm between them and I’m sure that this will make Harry turn into the Green Goblin pretty soon!

As you would expect, the art is quite good. It’s very consistent and The Amazing Spider Man has had good art from day one. The art style has naturally switched a little since then and likewise with the other series like Marvel Team Up, but all of the issues look good. This helps for the action scenes as well as the regular dialogue ones. Coupled with the consistently good writing that the series has at its disposal, this is a very solid Spiderman comic. There really aren’t any unlikable characters because they are all written well. Even Black Cat who I am typically not a fan of to say the least isn’t bad here. She feels more like a real character who isn’t one dimensional and can actually be sympathetic as she is trying to solve her problems on her own. She does nearly give away Spiderman’s secret identity on more than one occasion, but she was in danger from The Answer so you can’t blame her for panicking a little. It certainly captures your attention from start to finish and I still miss this series. I think it could be a very long time before I read Book 2, but it’ll be fun to see this saga continued.

I take a lot of shots at Dan Slott’s writing, but reading a comic like this one just helps to fuel that. The Amazing Spider Man was a legendary series that did well for decades and decades. It’s the main reason as to why I like Spider Man so much and it was consistently one of the best comics on the shelf despite not having as many big names or guest stars as other series. That’s because the world around Peter Parker is always interesting and he has such a good supporting group. I’m not sure when the comics started to go downhill, but they were evidently still really good here. It’s too bad that Spiderman isn’t always portrayed like the seasoned veteran that he is in these issues. If he was, I think more people would take him seriously. After all, he traded blows with guys like Thor, Hulk, Juggernaut, and Thanos back in the day. I don’t really see that happening quite as much nowadays although he did really well in Ends of The Earth. I’m hoping that Spiderman will return to his former glory someday, but we may just have to wait a while.

Overall, The Alien Book Saga is a fun restart to the Spiderman series as it takes place immediately after Secret Wars. We even see him leave the portal and save someone right after the cosmic adventure. (Twice thanks to the spinoff series) There are dozens of plots going on for both Peter Parker and Spiderman so the writer really knew what he was going. Some plots can go on for dozens of issues, which definitely makes the readers have to be patient to see where they go. I’m most interested in what The Answer will do from here as he has really been an awesome villain. Spiderman is portrayed well for the most part and the supporting characters are good. With good writing and nice looking art throughout the volume, it’s definitely hard to get much better than this. I definitely recommend the volume to all Spider Man fans and while the main plot of the symbiote suit hasn’t actually gone anywhere yet, there are a lot of other plots going on so it’s fun to see them all converge eventually. The series is never done and I shall be reviewing another Spiderman comic very soon!

Overall 8/10

JLA Volume 7 Review

Posted on July 25, 2015 by dreager1

Time to look at another volume in the JLA saga! The series has been pretty solid, but now we’re getting towards the latter part of its run. This volume isn’t quite as good as the last two, but it’s a good adventure nonetheless and is still about the Justice League so how can you go wrong there right? The Martian Manhunter gets a very large role here, but it’s at the expense of his likability.

This collection brings together a lot of issues (They were pretty small for this series for some reason) so there are several arcs to be found. The first one involves a war over on another planet and the Justice League hesitantly decide to end it. The tough question is, how can they end the war without choosing sides and interfering with the politics?

It’s a decently interesting mini arc and Superman reminds us why he’s the leader of the group. That being said, the heroes may have been thinking too much on the subject. Defeating the oppressors is always the first step. No matter what the repercussions are, it’s their job to help. Superman even reminds the readers at the end that evil flourishes when good people do nothing. So, inaction is still an action and I’m glad that the heroes made the heroic call and stopped the alien civil war.
Another arc had the Justice League framed for destroying a whole lot of people and the worst part is that they seem to believe that they really did it. The telepath who’s behind this must be powerful. Can the Justice League defeat a threat with their minds instead of through brute strength for once? Although, the brute strength part does come into play since the villains are pretty skilled as a group although Superman would likely defeat them all without any real effort.

Aside from the political intrigue on that part, there was even a character who made reference to the politically correct era that we are in now as he asked if the JLA was just meeting their quotas by adding the two new members. Whether it was coincidence or not, it’s definitely something that people would discuss nowadays. Superman’s response was off screen so we couldn’t see what he said. Naturally, this topic wasn’t as big back in the day, but it was still intriguing to read.

This was an interesting collection of stories, but it made the heroes look weak against mental assaults once again. I still don’t think that Superman can be mind controlled or mentally influenced so this was a little iffy. It gave some plot development to Major Disaster and Faith along with a subplot that could come back someday that involves her past. I don’t mind if it doesn’t though since I didn’t find it particularly interesting. The villains were all one shot characters who were effectively doomed, but the premise of the arc was still fun. After all, how can the League recover from a natural disaster that doomed so many people? (Or so they thought anyway)

After that, the big arc begins with the Martian Manhunter. He had been getting some counseling from an ex villain. She would help him brave the fires while he would help her forget the past and move on. Unfortunately, Scorch does her job a little too well and Martian Manhunter awakens his true, fiery form. He completely goes off the deep end and decides to destroy the Justice League once and for all. Stopping him will be tough and Batman is forced to bring in one of the classic Justice League members from his retirement.

Well, this was the big arc! I believe that it spanned around 10 issues, which is certainly impressive. A little less so when I remind you that the issues appear to be a little on the short side, but it was still intense. The White Lanterns even got mentioned at one point, but Martian Manhunter took down the whole army by himself off screen. It comes back to how I think the writers overdid it trying to make his new form look very powerful. He got a lot of hype and Superman even says that the Manhunter is one of the scariest opponents to face and maybe the strongest.

I don’t typically mind the Martian Manhunter and the guy can even be a decent character at times. That being said, I’ve never considered him to be anywhere near Superman or Wonder Woman in terms of power. After those two, you can make a good argument for him to take down Green Lantern or the Flash, but it’s a battle that I could easily see going either way. The White Lanterns were on Superman’s level at times and they gave the League a good fight so I don’t see how Martian Manhunter could have possibly taken down all of them in such a short amount of time. The only explanation that I can buy is that his telepathy overpowered all of theirs and he basically broke them before destroying the beasts. That would be slightly feasible, but only slightly since he shouldn’t be quite that good compared to them.

The arc definitely started off with a bang as the heroes found Superman partially phased into a table and then the rest of the League was quickly defeated aside from Batman who managed to escape in time. The Flash may have been able to have put up a decent fight, but he was taken out before he could really try anything. There was definitely a lot of action here and the League was really on the defensive until Plasticman arrived onto the scene and Martian Manhunter also helped to stop himself from the inside. This was the highlight of the collection even if it couldn’t beat the big arcs from the other volumes like the original White Martian saga.

After that big arc, things died down for a little while as a one shot showed us what could happen in the future if Batman and Wonder Woman ever got together. Wonder Woman went into a mind chamber that showed her how the future could be, but is really more just about looking at the subconscious. None of these things might actually happens, but Wonder Woman thinks that they can. It’s really an AU and some ideas were decent, but I’m not much of an AU guy and since each story would abruptly start and end, the issue didn’t do much for me. As least it finally ended the whole Batman and Wonder Woman angle.

Finally, the volume concluded with a small arc about an alien who was shocked that humans became the dominant species on Earth. He went around the world checking out the sites and ultimately decided to just blow the planet up. The heroes stopped him of course and the guy just destroyed himself instead. It was certainly a bit of a morbid ending, but not as much as it could have been because of the art.

The art in this mini arc almost makes you a little insensitive because it’s just verrrry abstract. Almost cartoony in a sense that everyone was constantly off model and the issues were hilarious to look through. It’s one of those “so bad it’s good” moments for the collection. Beyond the art, I can’t say that the final mini arc was all that interesting and was really just there to show us how Earth has really gone down over the years aside from all the good that’s also been done. It is a cruel world out there for sure. On the whole, the art is quite good and unique as always. JLA is definitely a title that believes bigger is better as it uses a lot of big panels for the action scene and everyone is larger than life. The splash pages of the heroes always look quite good and naturally the fight scenes follow suit. One scene that will likely make you chuckle is when someone asks Wonder Woman if she is interested in Superman and she has a laugh that is extemely dramatized. It comes so suddenly and takes up a huge part of the page. Wonder Woman even apologizes afterwards and basically just states that it would never happen. It’s great to see that the writers knew not to go down that route back in the day. If only they had stayed true to that right?

Batman looks good here like you would expect, but his role isn’t a very large one. He forces the Justice League to apologize to him after they go on a mission without consulting him and then saves the team. It’s neat to see Batman in control like usual and aside from the plot with Wonder Woman that ended in a good way anyway, he was definitely in character and always had a plan. If not for his decision to bring an old member out of retirement. It would have been Game Over for the world.

Superman ‘s great as you would expect. There’s not much to say about his portrayal because it was really spot on. He was completely heroic and always did the right thing. He may have gotten crushed in his battle with the Martian Manhunter, but it was mostly due to the fact that Superman didn’t actually expect a fight and trusted the guy. That’s definitely a good reason for losing to someone!

Wonder Woman gets a fairly large role here thanks in part to the subplot with Batman as well as just being present for all of the adventures. She looks good and is actually the first member to want to help out in the alien civil war so she deserves major props for that. Even Superman was unsure about participating, but he was quickly brought on board. Wonder Woman’s initiative certainly saved a lot of lives there and I like how she is the one who decided to break things off with Batman. She made a very wise decision.

This time, the Green Lantern who is present is John Stewart. That means that we’ve now seen the big three through the span of the JLA series. John Stewart’s a good Green Lantern even if I slightly prefer the other two most of the time. The battle between John and Kyle is a close one. Stewart’s role isn’t very large, but still much bigger than the Flash. He manages to keep some people inside of his bubble for over a day, which is a great feat of concentration and he definitely gave it his all to save the day. After the Justice League cartoon, it’s always cool to see him in the comics.

The Flash is a complete non factor here. Seriously, it’s like he’s a ghost. He gets almost no lines and doesn’t really impact the plot in any way except to save civilians in the background. His speed is always amazing and he certainly makes rescues that nobody else could, but I really wish that he could have gotten a bigger role. He’s still one of my favorite Justice League members. Barry is my favorite, but Wally can be great as well.

Firestorm can be a decent hero at times, but I didn’t care for his romance subplot here and that really accounted for around 90% of his screen time here. His powers have the potential to be great, but he is constantly knocked around before he can even activate them. He’s just out of his depths here and this is one character who could possibly use some character development. Faith also has no real character development, but it’s intentional as she is a bit of a mystery at the moment. Her abilities are certainly useful as she has the classic telekinesis skill, but she hasn’t gotten to fight too much yet since this volume wasn’t as action packed as you may have expected. She’s a good character so far, but we’ll see where it goes from here since she was already tempted to go back to the dark side once. Hopefully she doesn’t make that mistake.

The Atom has a minor role in this collection, but it’s enough of one that I should at least give him a passing mention. He doesn’t have much of a personality yet, but he does like to sing and gets along well with Green Lantern. While he’s certainly not one of the more dangerous League members, he’s fairly talented. Plasticman is a Justice League member that I’ve never been crazy about, but he ends up getting a critical role in the fight against the Martian Manhunter. It involves a lot of plot hax and even some toon force as Plasticman’s erratic style of fighting confuses the Martian. How this is enough to overcome the Martian’s superior speed and strength dozens of times over is what I don’t buy and Plasticman should have died after a single hit. Still, he’s back with the team now and as long as he isn’t as exaggeratedly bad as he used to be, I suppose that I can live with it. He just needs to act a little more reserved and respectful to his teammates.

Manitou Raven was one of the new characters who joined the team and I can’t say that I was a fan of his. Considering that he just joined the team, he seems to already be quite vocal with his opinions and seems to not be trust worthy. I can already picture him trying to take out Firestorm at some point and his scene with Green Lantern definitely felt suspicious. I don’t trust the guy, but maybe it’s just a red herring. Still not a likable member though.

Likewise, I’m not a fan of Major Disaster. Maybe I just didn’t want any extra members on the Justice League. The roster was already fairly strong so it’s not like the team needed any extra firepower. I actually thought that Disaster was just a depowered Guy Gardner for a while since he looks so similar. This guy could improve as time goes on I suppose, but his personality just isn’t a likable one for me. He wants to be a hero, but he’ll need to work better at being a team player to win me over. (Or just being likable as a solo act)

This was not a good appearance for the Martian Manhunter and the whole collection made him look bad. After he took a drink that he shouldn’t have, the Manhunter basically lost his mind and turned evil. Sure, he was able to gain control again, but only after nearly destroying the heroes several times over and being pounded into submission. I don’t really see how the League can trust him again after this so I can see why the vote was so close. I still think that he was slightly overhyped in this volume, but I do acknowledge him as a strong fighter. The worst should be over for him now so maybe I’ll like him more in future volumes. When he’s on top of things, the Manhunter can definitely be a good ally/character.

Overall, This was a solid volume of JLA. I do think that it was weaker than the others, but JLA can’t hit it out of the park every time right? An 8 is still great so they did well in my book. This is also the final volume out over here so I’m caught up for the moment although I haven’t read a lot of the older volumes. I may go back to those someday. If you’re looking for a JLA story with political intrigue and some action, then this is your bet. After all, it doesn’t get anymore dramatic than a traitor within the league right!?

Overall 8/10

Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus Review

Posted on July 24, 2015 by dreager1

The Infinity Gauntlet is definitely a famous Marvel arc at this point and some would say that it could be the greatest of all time. Marvel has quite a few big events though like Secret Wars and Civil War so there’s always a lot of competition, but the Infinity Gauntlet is a story that has aged well and is certainly one of Marvel’s best events.

This isn’t just your average trade paperback though. An Omnibus is even longer than an Essential collection and this one is longer than the average Omnibus as they tried to cram in all of the tie ins. This means that the Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus ended up being longer than 2 Essential Collections placed on top of each other. It was around 1200-1400 pages if I recall correctly. Usually that would have taken me forever to finish, but it was a blast reading the classic comics so I read about 400-500 pages in my first batch and then finished it off soon after. Once you start reading, you just won’t want to stop.

The collection is essentially divided into 3 parts. The set up to the Infinity Gauntlet, The Infinity Gauntlet, and the Tie ins that take place during the Infinity Gauntlet as well as afterwards. This way, you can say that you’ve truly read the Infinity Gauntlet since you will have seen what came before it and what came afterwards. This must have the record for the most tie in adventures in the shortest span of canon time. What I mean by that is that the tie ins will turn the gap between 2 panels from seconds into minutes as a character will blink and in that blink, have a big adventure. A good example of that is when Silver Surfer misses the Gauntlet when he charged at Thanos in the final part of the Gauntlet adventure and a whole tie in occurred as he raced back.

As you would expect, the art switches numerous times as we get issues from the Hulk, Spider Man, Infinity Gauntlet, Silver Surfer, and more. Luckily, the art holds up well for just about all of the issues. I can’t think of any issues where I didn’t like the art. The Hulk series was probably a little bigger and bolder than the others which could take some getting used too, but it was still fun and made for some good action scenes. (When the Hulk issues actually had action)

All right, let’s start off with the Infinity Gauntlet plot. I read the first issue a while back so I was familiar with that one, but it’s good to say that I’ve now read the entire epic. The first half is really about the natural disasters that are affecting the planet because of Thanos and then half of the multiverse’s inhabitants are destroyed with a thought. The Avengers realize that they need to do something about this so the heroes who are left decide to attack Thanos once and for all. The big fight is certainly the best part of the arc as everyone runs to Thanos for the big clash.

Without the Gauntlet, Thanos has already proved to be stronger than most, if not all of Marvel’s heroes so this isn’t even a challenge for him. To present the heroes (and readers) with a bit of a fight, Thanos decides not to use the Gauntlet’s full powers against them for a little while. While you know that the heroes are doomed, it is nice to see the action and the heroes do get a few good shots in. They just don’t really deal any damage.

The arc takes a bit of a spin when Nebula grabs the Gauntlet as the whole plot shifts since the heroes have to stop her before she does something that they’ll regret. The cool part of this comic is definitely the part where the cosmic fighters show up to challenge her. Thanos states that he would have been able to defeat them, but they do a pretty good job against her as they attack her on all planes of existence at once so that she will not have enough time to think about what is going on.

It’s easy to root for Nebula here though since she got a really raw deal for most of the event since she was trapped in a death like state where she was forced to live. Once she grabbed Infinite power, you could hardly blame her for wanting to stretch her new muscles. The Living Tribunal claims that it is not his place to meddle in the affairs of the heroes and villains so he doesn’t make a move here. It’s implied that he could probably end the whole situation if he wanted too, but such things are beneath him and he only interferes when he is angered.

Adam Warlock and the Silver Surfer easily have the biggest role in the Gauntlet from the heroes. Adam Warlock essentially has infinite knowledge now that he is back from being virtually dead in the mind gem so he proves to be an ace in the hole for the heroes and Silver Surfer has a lot of experience in dealing with Thanos from his past exploits so he is naturally critical at this point in time. The rest of the heroes are really just there to be a distraction, which Warlock even admits during the latter part of the story.

I’m a fairly big Adam Warlock fan so seeing him take a starring role is always fun. After his death, Warlock is a little more subdued in this arc. He treats most of the fight as a game because he believes that if he took it seriously for a second, he would fall into despair. He’s still a critical factor here and he also gets a little mini arc after the Infinity Gauntlet, which I thought was a lot of fun. the power went to his head for sure and started to get into some epic abstract territory before the cosmic entities decided to weigh in. Sadly, it ended right before the court trial could start. (The trial is incredibly awesome and I wonder which trade paperback it’s included in)

One of the reasons why the Warlock getting unlimited power was so fun was the heroes reaction to this. They had just finished a fairly grueling battle and were exhausted so they were clearly not pleased with having to fight another battle. They half heartedly rushed at Warlock, but he just warped them away. It was a cool twist ending as fans likely didn’t expect something like that to happen. Warlock’s so powerful that the Avengers basically just decided to give up after that.

Mephisto is a major player in this adventure, but I’ve never been a fan of his. He’s not very strong so he relies on trickery, but it typically backfires. Even when Thanos was getting used to being omnipotent, Mephisto couldn’t gather his courage fast enough to grab the Gauntlet. It was a huge missed opportunity for the demon. He’s always around and Mephisto actually helps the heroes out on quite a few occasions so that he could dethrone Thanos, but things never go his way and he spends the whole arc getting pummeled.

Death is a prominent figure here as well, but I definitely don’t care for the character. She never talks and only speaks through her lackey. The lackey talked tough to Thanos so he naturally got the most violent death in the whole collection as Thanos had enough of the guy. The minion was extremely annoying so I wasn’t sad to see him gone. It was unexpectedly intense, but I suppose it was too convey how upset Thanos was. The rest of the collection is fairly tame so it was pretty surprising. If Death could only talk, then I would definitely like her much more, but as it stands, she just looks really arrogant and it doesn’t work since Thanos became much stronger than her. At least Thanos has enough self dignity and honor to not try and control her. He does make a female Thanos who actually defeats Spider Man, which was interesting. I think Spider Man should have won though.

Now let’s look at some of the tie in issues. The Sleepwalker got one and I’m not too familiar with the character, but he seems like a decent fighter. For some reason, he’s treated as a trump card at times, but his strength isn’t incredible. He’s roughly a Daredevil-Spider Man level opponent. He helps out a lot on Earth when Thanos starts to wreck the place and his issue is mostly about him keeping the peace while the other heroes are busy. It’s not a bad tie in even if it sounds a little uneventful. Sometimes it’s nice to see what’s happening while the heroes are gone.

Spider Man gets an issue where..he actually dies. He successfully helped a kid, but it cost him everything. Once he dies, Thanos decides to mess with Spiderman’s soul and tries to give him despair. Spiderman fights back and he has to question what he has been fighting for and if he should continue to live. It’s a very interesting issue and seeing someone cope with their death and wonder what comes next is always cool. In the end, Spider Man didn’t give up hope and managed to reclaim his life. This is yet another example of how Spider Man was written so well back in the day. I shudder to think about how Peter Parker would have acted if this was in the modern days with Slott writing the issue.

Cloak and Dagger got their own tie in issue as well. I’m not sure if you realize this blog readers, but I’ve never been a fan of this team. Dagger’s all right, but I feel like she doesn’t have a whole lot of personality and doesn’t use her abilities to their fullest potential. Cloak is constantly going off the deep end and putting everyone in danger when Dagger is gone for any reason. They’re not terrible, but I probably like Punisher more than them…and I’m not the biggest Punisher fan out there. Ghost Rider and Spider Man got to appear in the issue as well so it was definitely packed with heroes!

Dr Strange gets quite a few stories. They take place during the Infinity Gauntlet at first and then move on to the after effects. The first issue mainly deals with Dr Strange helping Silver Surfer get back to reality after his mind retreats when he crashed into Dr Strange’s room in the first issue of the Gauntlet. It’s exactly what I’m talking about when I mentioned earlier how a tie in could occur at any time. In the span of a page, a whole issue managed to come forth due to this twist of Surfer not ready to come back to reality! It was a fun fight between the two.

After that, Dr Strange got involved with some time travel and fights against other magicians like the Silver Sagger. When Thanos warped all of the heroes away during the first climax of the Infinity Gauntlet, Dr Strange was sent away with Thor and Scarlet Witch to Asgard where they had more adventures. In the final issue, Dr Strange decided to try and defeat Adam Warlock since the infinite power was getting to the wanderer’s head. Dr Strange was incredibly powerful back in the day, but not even he could hope to overpower a wielder of that gauntlet. Still, the attempt was fun and he helped Adam Warlock see reason.

Dr Strange is certainly a fun hero and he’s a character who can be underrated at times. He doesn’t always look it, but his abilities are very potent and he knows thousands of different spells. At this point in time, he could actually fight with the likes of the Silver Surfer and Pre Gauntlet Warlock. Those aren’t weak fighters by any means and Dr Strange could really hold his own with any of them. Strange is also a very wise fighter and never begins a brawl without a plan. The large array of cosmic fighters is yet another reason why the Gauntlet was so fun.

Quasar got some issues as well, but they were apparently forgettable enough that Comicvine didn’t even list them! It’s too bad since they were fun. Quasar got to fight the previous title holders so these other Universe protectors were very tough, but Quasar uses his ingenuity and raw power to take them down. He gets a little bold and heads for Thanos next, but he’s severely outmatched. While Quasar does have the Power Cosmic, he’s never been quite as powerful as the other Cosmic fighters. Still, you should only underestimate him at your own risk as he’s still quite tough. Picture Green Lantern’s energy projection with Cyborg’s strength + Superman’s flight. It’s a very deadly combo.

Quasar was a likable guy and he’s very down to Earth. He has a comfy life on Earth while still keeping up with his cosmic duties. That’s definitely tricky and most cosmic heroes wish they could do something like that. Quasar may not help as much as some of the other big heroes, but he still contributes against Thanos and that’s what counts. He probably makes more of an impact in the fight than most of the Avengers!

The Hulk gets three issues and they show why he was so upset at being called in during the Infinity Gauntlet story. The events slightly blurred together, but things happened in roughly this order. The Abomination had kidnapped his wife and was sad at how everyone looked at him like a monster. Hulk followed him into the sewers and they naturally had a brawl. One thing led to another and Abomination was able to get away thanks to Dr Strange’s untimely summons. Hulk was able to get back and was turned small so he used this opportunity to act as the Abomination’s conscience and convinced the guy to stop what he was doing. The Abomination let his wife go and went back to the shadows, sad at how his fate had treated him.

Hulk then went on to help a town that had been overcome with rage. This is the Hulk who is basically taken over by Bruce Banner and essentially speaks perfect English. He’s not quite as strong of course, but he gets the job done. I can’t say that he looked very good in the Infinity Gauntlet, but that’s mainly because he’s simply outmatched by the other big villains at this point. He may have complained, but he still helped out when it counted.

The Thanos Quest is easily one of the best extras to be included here. It shows how Thanos defeated all of the Infinity Gem guardians and gained the Gauntlet’s power. Each member of the group was extremely powerful so Thanos had to use his wits to win. When physically outmatched, you have to be very cunning to claim victory. These issues would have likely gotten a 9 on their own. In particular, I loved the fights against the speedster who could move at speeds much greater than light and the physical powerhouse who could likely give the Hulk a run for his money. That being said, the fight in the computer game against the game member was a lot of fun as well.

Those issues really captured the intelligence of Thanos. It’s not something that’s played up too often and I don’t expect to see a whole lot of that in the films or TV shows, but it’s one of the reasons why Thanos is so deadly. He essentially has the combat expertise of Batman with the strength of Superman. That’s not even counting his many energy attacks and how well he can use the Gauntlet. While Nebula was overwhelmed on the 3-6 planes of existence, Thanos explains that he could have been able to fight on all of them at once. He simply can’t be stopped and will forever be one of Marvel’s heavy hitters.

Finally, we had the onslaught of Silver Surfer issues. To put them into perspective, just adding all of them together would have been enough to fill 6 of the average trade paperbacks. They cover a whole lot of content and most of them deal with the Thanos plot which is cool. The majority of the issues take place before the Infinity Gauntlet and technically, the Silver Surfer is the first person to learn just how dangerous Thanos is. He follows the Titan across solar systems and many planets, but it’s actually a very depressing journey for the cosmic speedster. Even when he does catch up to Thanos, he is quickly crushed each and every time. He cannot even hope to beat avatars of Thanos.

That being said, the prophecy states that the Silver Surfer is the only threat to Thanos so the Titan is always very cautious with him. In a way, you could say that the Silver Surfer is the main character of the arc and I would completely agree. Almost half of the collection is comprised of Silver Surfer comics and he naturally appears a lot in the main series as well. His plot also connects with Drax’s as they meet up and are forced to team up on many occasions.

They even have a lengthy battle in one of the issues. Silver Surfer is clearly stronger, but Drax is almost possible to destroy so it’s effectively a stalemate. This was back when Silver Surfer was a complete powerhouse and I don’t really see how Thor or Hulk could compete with him at this point in time since Thor was going through one of those phases were it wasn’t the real Thor and the Hulk lost most of his power. The Silver Surfer nearly ended the whole Gauntlet arc on his own if he had not missed the Gauntlet. Thanos didn’t dodge, the Surfer just missed because he was going way too fast. If only he had time to practice before the big play. Still, he kept it close.

As with Warlock, I enjoy the Silver Surfer’s character a lot. He never really wants to fight, but when pushed he can really deliver some spectacular action. It’s admirable that he always tries to find the peaceful way out of a situation, but things just don’t work out that way for him. He doesn’t get to appear very often in the current comics, which is too bad. Hopefully he will get popular again once he starts to appear in the Fantastic Four sequels.

Drax got a really big role, but it just served to remind me that I don’t like Drax in any incarnation. I really don’t like the new Gladiator form of the character, but I am not a huge fan of the old form either. It’s a big improvement of course and he means well, but he’s typically pretty clueless about what’s happening and while he was made to destroy Thanos, he’s severely outmatched the during the entire collection.

As for some of the other characters who appeared, Thor was one who was really hurt by the time at which the comic was written. This was still the era of the fake Thor so he wasn’t very cool or regal like the real thing and his power levels weren’t as impressive as the should have been. Even in his weakened state, the heroes mentioned him as a trump card so I would have really liked to have seen the real deal fight a little. Likewise, this wasn’t the Hulk that we were used to seeing. Cyclops and Scarlet Witch launch a nice two pronged attack on Thanos, which is completely ineffective, but it was fun to see them try. The X-Men were really a total nonfactor here. Vision also tried his best to stop Thanos, but this was during his ghost days so it didn’t go too well. Captain America had his famous moment where he walks up to Thanos and it is a cool scene, but it’s too bad that the fight couldn’t be longer. I suppose that it would have been a lose-lose situation though since I may have had to talk about plot hax a little.

There is plot hax here of course, but that goes without saying so I didn’t even mention it. The only good explanation is that Thanos wanted to lose, which I still find a little iffy since Nebula should have won in that case, but we’ll let it go there. The plot hax is self evident enough that I don’t really need to talk about it much. It was funny to see Thanos just retire on a farm after destroying half of existence. He certainly got off easy eh?

Naturally, all of the cosmic entities minus the Living Tribunal also get a big role. Thanos manages to take down each and every one of them. The Celestials, Galactus,The Elders of the Universe, and many more. Finally, Eternity showed himself since he’s apparently much stronger than all of those (But significantly weaker than the Living Tribunal) but Thanos also takes him down without too much effort as well. It’s a stunning battle with great feats and scenes of action. The cosmic fights alone would be enough to justify this arc as a living legend.

This Omnibus also exposes one of the areas where I actually believe that Marvel surpasses DC. How can this be possible right DC fans!? Well, DC’s never had much of a cosmic scene. We’ve got the Anti Monitor and the Source…but that’s about it. There’s an argument to be made for the Green Lanterns, Darkseid and his armies, as well as the New Gods, but I’m not sure if I really buy it. They just feel more like aliens and other heroes as opposed to cosmic fighters. Take Orion for example. I don’t see any difference between him and a regular hero while fighters like Adam Warlock and Silver Surfer have that dignified cosmic air about them. So, while I do still think that DC has the overall better characters, Marvel has a much better cosmic scene so they can have events like this. DC’s a little more limited when you leave Earth.

That being said, the Marvel cosmic part has weakened a little in recent years. Not literally, but the cosmic events start to be a little more underwhelming when everyone has infinite power. Now we’ve got kids and horned creatures who can rewrite whatever laws they want. When everyone is a cosmic being who can do anything, the whole concept starts to lose its shine. Luckily, most of the cosmic beings who are too overpowered weren’t in Infinity so that one still sounds like it should be a fun remake/reboot of the Infinity Gauntlet. I doubt it can beat the original, but it would still be a lot of fun to see how the new version is. Meanwhile, DC needs to bring back the Angel from the JLA series as he’s one of the only cosmic beings that they’ve got. Putting him and the other Angels up against the Justice League would be a fun arc to read.

Overall, This was a powerful volume from the classic days of Marvel. It’s easy to see how Thanos got so popular after this arc. He was written well and the arc was a blast. Seeing the complete version (Prequels, Sequels, Tie ins, etc) also helps you appreciate the true scope of the story. The actual arc was a little light on action for most of the opening issues, but we got some big brawls as the story went on and you need set up for a large scale arc like this one. The art and writing are consistently good as you would expect and there’s not much in the way of negatives to say about this one. I will say that Nebula’s fate was really sad the whole time as she experienced living death and I could have done without that, but it’s still not as bad as it could have been and one small element won’t really hurt this comic. This could have easily gotten a perfect 10 star rating, but Superman Unbound’s already snagged that one. Still, this is a must read not only for Marvel fans, but DC readers as well. This arc stands as a good model for future arcs to follow or be inspired from so they make the mistakes of other arcs. (Like Fear Itself)

Overall 9/10

Thunderbolts Classic Volume 1 Review

Posted on July 20, 2015 by dreager1

I haven’t read many comics from the Thunderbolts. Actually, this is probably the first collection that I’ve checked out from them. The concept is always interesting as it was a group of villains who banded together to act like heroes. The current group is more of a heroes for hire team while this one is comprised of actual villains who are just trying to trick the world. It’s a fun comic and the concept is sound. It’ll be interesting to see where the series will go from here as the rest of the heroes will likely try to expose them once word gets around.

The Avengers and Fantastic Four were destroyed during the battle of Onslaught so there aren’t many heroes left to help out the average joe against the swarms of villains who are still out there. Baron Zemo decides that he will take advantage of this situation to win the trust of the world and eventually get rich as they give him access to more and more things. It’s an ambitious plan, but he knows that it can be pulled off! That being said, will his team be able to band together and overpower the villains or will they quickly be exposed?

This was during the classic 90’s so the art is big and bold. It works well for these comics and the fight scenes are definitely nice and intense like you would expect them to be. All of the character designs are the iconic ones from the classic days and you can’t help, but feel nostalgic when you see a character like Spider Man who looks so much like how he did in the 90’s TV show.

Speaking of which, he was one of the guest stars in this collection. He gets into a scuffle with the Thunderbolts as he tries to clear his name from a crime. The villains end up helping him out although Baron Zemo is not pleased with this decision. The Beetle took the initiative there since he found out what a nice guy Spider Man was. While Spider Man was losing to the group, he was trying not to hurt them so he underestimated the group. At least he was still holding onto his spider sense and felt like the real Spider Man. Naturally, I would have been happy if he had ended up winning of course.

The other big guest star was the Hulk as he went up against the Thunderbolts. He looked really good as he was totally in control of himself and acted very strategic. He certainly put the team in their place and you actually are rooting for him here since the Thunderbolts aim to destroy him. His partner was a skilled warrior who made for a good ally as well. I wonder what was happening in the Hulk comics at the time. Whatever situation he was going through, it looked like an interesting one and the fight between Hulk and the Thunderbolts was one of the highlights of the collection.

Baron Zemo’s plan was certainly genius as his team came together at a crucial time for the world. People accepted his group rather quickly, but I suppose that they were desperate for new heroes. Zemo’s alter identity was cool as he tried to act like Captain America or Superman. He was a symbol of hope for the world and while he had no fancy super powers, his athletics were enough for him to still deal some damage. He’s the lynchpin of this operation and without him, the whole team would fall apart.

Of course, that’s what Moonstone is gunning for. She seems to want Zemo out of the picture for some reason, possibly just so that she can become leader. Moonstone’s already thrown a few wrenches into the leader’s plans, but Zemo doesn’t suspect anything yet. This is a plot that will definitely become a big focus as the issues go on. While she is not quite as likable as Baron Zemo, she’s still a very interesting villain and is written well.

The Beetle used to be a classic Spiderman villain, but he has moved on since he always lost to the Wallcrawler. He has developed a bond with Screaming Mimi and starts to want to do the right thing after Spiderman helps him out. While his romance subplot is a bit much, it’s handled decently well and isn’t moving too quickly. He’s definitely one of the weaker members of the team, but his tech always keeps him in the fight. Atlas is the heavy hitter of the group and he’s grateful to Baron Zemo for giving him this chance and also saving his life a while back. Atlas seems to want to be a hero right away as he becomes friends with the mayor’s secretary, but he’s definitely going to have to deal with a conflict of interests situation very soon. I’m not a big fan of this guy, but he is more heroic than most of the other members and he can be quite tough as he grows larger and larger.

Screaming Mimi has really changed from when she was a big villain as she’s very timid and soft spoken now. Her vocal powers are pretty original as she can make barriers, fly, and do all kinds of things with them. The Banshee would be proud! I could definitely see her turning good since she doesn’t even act like a villain here, but seems to just follow whatever the group is doing. Hopefully, she will have a stronger personality as the issues go by so she isn’t just led around, but she seems like a nice character.

Jolt was the final member to join the team and she came around at the very end. The character is decent as she is always ready for a fight and she bounces back from bad situations very quickly. That being said, her origin story is rather intense and it’s really my main negative for the collection. For around 5-6 comics, we are constantly reminded of how painful it was for her to gain her powers through the experiments. It’s also just sad as she was kidnapped and nobody even knew or suspected. Luckily, she was able to escape on her own, but it was a rather dark subplot for what was otherwise a very light themed comic. The heroes managed to stop Zola and his experiments, but the villain unfortunately escaped to fight another day.

Finally, we have the Fixer. He’s a tech wiz who acts openly evil and loves just having an excuse to shoot everyone who gets in his way. He still gambles a lot on the side and definitely has no real thoughts of turning good so it will likely be very tough to convert him. He was one of my least favorite members of the team and actually, he was my least favorite member. He didn’t really add anything to the team dynamic and we already had the arrogant character in the form of Baron Zemo.

One of the more interesting plots here is about how the villains start to like being regarded as heroes and even help out a little when it’s not necessary. It’s safe to say that The Beetle is the first character to start thinking about being a hero. Atlas and Screaming Mimi start to get on board pretty quickly as well. Baron Zemo and Moonstone typically have the original goal in mind, but if the Fixer were to also start liking the hero gig, they may have to follow suit. As Moonstone and Zemo are the two biggest villains, it’s hard to see them turning over to the side of heroes so it may be time for a new leader for the group. Hopefully the members will make the right call and based on some of the covers for future volumes, at least some of them might. The comic series definitely ran for quite a while.

Another fun part of the collection was when the Thunderbolts battled the Masters of Evil. The fun part is that the Thunderbolts technically are the Masters of Evil so Baron Zemo is outraged at the fact that someone is copying his group. The two groups clash on two occasions, but we still don’t know who the new leader of the group is. Either way, it was a lot of fun to see the two groups fight each other and it was actually pretty evenly matched. Both groups have some talented fighters. That being said, in defeating the group, Zemo essentially gave one villain a hint as to what his secret identity was, which could come back to haunt him later.

For now, the Thundebrolts are mainly focused on earning a reputation so the series is essentially a villain of the weak story for now. I actually like this approach, but I’m sure that the plot will really start to move once the mayor gives them more privileges. SHIELD still doesn’t trust the Thunderbolts and with good reason, but I have a feeling that the Thunderbolts will be given too much power very quickly. That’s when they will have to decide if they want to be heroes or villains!

The final issues also show us each character’s origin story and then how they came together. I suppose that this was due to happen at some point. I enjoyed seeing the team come together as Baron Zemo definitely handles it in a different way than someone like Cyclops or Captain America would. The origin stories were also decent and Baron Zemo’s got to show us how the original Zemo handled his affairs. The apple didn’t fall very far from the tree in this case. Zemo’s reaction to Captain America dying against Onslaught was pretty humorous as we don’t get to see what villains think of the news too often.

Overall, Thunderbolts is a fun concept and this collection was a nice read. You’ll be able to blast through it thanks to the clear art style. The Avengers and other heroes are not around, but we still got some guest stars like Spider Man and the Hulk. The Black Widow also gets a cameo to a guest star as her role is small enough to be counted as either one. She gets some pretty good lines and hints that she knows what the Thunderbolts are scheming and will put a stop to it. Nothing like a few threats between “heroes” right? There’s a lot of action here and watching villains take down other villains is pretty rewarding. It’s hard to say where the plot will go from here so you’ll want to stick around for the next volume. The only thing that holds this comic back is Jolt’s backstory and at least it’s just mentioned and not shown. I still recommend this comic if you’re looking for some fun fights and good dialogue.

Overall 6/10

Superman vs Darkseid Review

Posted on July 19, 2015 by dreager1

This is a comic that I knew would be good right from the start. I’m a big Superman fan after all and Darkseid is one of his best villains. A compilation of some of their biggest battles was sure to be good and I wasn’t disappointed. The comics did a good job of showing Darkseid’s strength without nerfing Superman. This was how the characters were meant to be portrayed!

The first few issues are about Superman getting trapped on Apokolips and he also loses his memories once he falls into a large area of fire. He decides to lead the rebels to fight Darkseid, but there is a big twist at the end of this and we find out that Superman is being manipulated. This was probably the only part of the collection that I wasn’t crazy about. I’ve gone over this a few times already, but Superman cannot be mind controlled. It simply isn’t done and to lose his memory like that….I don’t think so. Such a thing just wouldn’t happen to Superman!

It’s actually a fairly tragic story because the rebels basically had their hope shattered. Superman is not allowed to keep his memories of what happened and that is probably for the best. Still, he definitely gave Darkseid a good fight and Superman managed to come out on top. It was a fair bout, which was the best part of the whole match. It was a good fight between two powerhouses and both of them were giving it their all.

See, Darkseid and Superman have always been evenly matched, but I consider Superman to be stronger thanks to his speed advantage. In this collection, Superman comes out on top each time except for one comic where Darkseid got unlimited cosmic power, which naturally doesn’t count. If we bring in Superman 1 Million, then we can talk. That being said, the fights are always really good and the intensity never lets up for a second!

Another issue was taken from the Superman/Batman series where Darkseid brainwashed Supergirl so Superman brought Batman and Wonder Woman along to free her. Big Barda led them to Darkseid’s palace and the heroes messed the place up. Superman handled Supergirl while Batman took down Darkseid….verbally although he could have done well in a physical confrontation. ~~if he had prep time~~ Then we got a really good battle between Superman and Darkseid. Superman was in total rage mode so it wasn’t really that close as Superman wrecked him with ease and planted Darkseid into the source wall. I don’t even have anything against that because an enraged Superman should be far stronger than Darkseid. There is no comic book character who can beat Superman at this point and I consider the Man of Steel to be on top of the food chain.

While I liked the Superman/Batman Apocalypse film a lot, the comic was so much better after reading this issue. The fact that Batman and Wonder Woman apparently suspected that Darkseid would be back and followed Superman/Supergirl to the farm was brilliant. While they didn’t get to fight much since Superman wanted to end things, it made the characters really look good. In the film, Superman got wrecked by Darkseid, but he was the one doing the wrecking here in the comic. It came at the expense of Supergirl’s fight, but the fight was certainly more accurate here since Superman’s speed is his biggest asset. This issue was definitely a lot of fun.

Another comic had Superman assemble a team of Kryptonians to battle Darkseid for Steel’s soul. Superboy, Supergirl, Supergirl 2, and the Eradicator were the guys that Superman brought with him. The reason why he only brought Kryptonians was so Darkseid couldn’t take it out on the rest of the world if Superman’s plan failed. (Really dicey plan since Darkseid would likely attack Earth to spite Superman) Darkseid’s minions engaged the Kryptonians and did fairly well thanks to the insane numbers advantage. It was essentially hundreds to thousands of opponents against the heroes, but each Kryptonian is incredibly powerful so that wasn’t a problem for them. The Eradicator is a character who I haven’t seen very often, but he certainly looked impressive here and even had a super form where he turned giant.

Naturally, the main part of the comic was the fight between Darkseid and Superman. Both of them were really confident going into the match. It was another decisive victory for Superman, but they both gave the fight their all. Superman properly utilized his speed in order to get the edge over Darkseid. In the end, Superman was able to win Steel’s soul back and it was a really nice ending to a good comic. From the Superman vs Darkseid battles in the collection, this was certainly the best one and both fighter looked impressive once again.

Another issue featured a big battle between Darkseid and The Source. Somehow, Darkseid was able to steal the cosmic being’s abilities and gained near limitless power. The Source put up a valiant fight, but he was outmatched and even Superman could really due nothing thanks to the large gap in power. He was a distraction at best, but that allowed Orion to come in and stall Darkseid as well. The cosmic feats were a lot of fun and Darkseid was still fighting physically, which is always a good thing. While the Superman and Darkseid fight was essentially nonexistent here, it did give us an issue where Darkseid came out on top and Superman even had a long monologue about how he now knows what it feels like to be the weak guy surrounded by powerful players who are out of his league. Luckily, that didn’t stop him from entering the fray.

Jimmy Olsen also got to enter the fray in one comic where he gained immense powers and got to fight with Darkseid. I believe that this may have been during the same arc with Orion or a different one. Regardless, it was also a fun tribute to the Silver Age since Jimmy’s old lizard/reptile form got to make a comeback. Obviously not the most memorable part of the issue since I don’t remember the full context, but still a cool occurrence.

There’s also a very short issue about Darkseid’s origin and how he destroyed all of the old gods to gain almost unlimited power and a quick Justice League issue from the New 52 where we learn that Darkseid has been travelling around the multiverse and destroying dozens of Superman versions until he lost to the New 52’s version. That’s some good hype for Darkseid although I would consider many versions of Superman to be stronger than the New 52 one. I suppose that these guys just didn’t have it in them to win.

In the comics, Darkseid seems to be much stronger than New 52 Superman although these comics definitely show that Superman typically has the edge. It’s why I enjoyed the battles so much as they were all fairly close except that Superman always won in the end. One of the fights wasn’t even close because Superman was already enraged. His portrayal here is naturally excellent and this is the hero that I know and remember. Darkseid made for a good antagonist and he’s always been an interesting character. Having a trade paperback just about these two characters was a genius idea. Especially because I haven’t read many DC comics from this era.

The art switches for all of the issues of course, but they all look really good, which helps the overall experience. If I had to decide which art was my favorite, I’d probably go with the issue from the Superman/Batman series. Of course, I’m very used to the art at this point so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise. The issue with the Eradicator would be a decently close second.

Overall, Superman vs Darkseid is a great collection of comics and one that I would definitely recommend you to check out. Each of the stories is pretty epic and there aren’t any real negatives to speak of aside from the opening chapter where Superman was mind controlled. I really didn’t buy that for a second and evil Superman is a concept that has never worked from the beginning. Luckily, the rest of the comics are really just about showing how great Superman is and why he can’t be stopped by any threat. He is the ultimate comic book character and I never let anyone forget it. The size of the collection is decent. It’s short enough that I would still call it short, but not quite as quick to read as the average modern trade paperback, which only brings 4 issues. This is a steal for any current price!

Overall 8/10

Fantastic Four Volume 4 The End Is Fourever Review

Posted on July 12, 2015 by dreager1

It’s time to look at the end of an era for the Fantastic Four. They’ve had some really great runs over the years like the Hickman epic and the classic run. A lot of things have happened over the years and now the plots can all wrap up. The collection ends on a high note and things wrap up nicely without feeling forced or rushed. We even get some fun guest stars!

The Fantastic Four has been split apart recently. The kids were kidnapped by the Wizard, Mr Fantastic was kidnapped by a guy who wants to be known as the Peace Man or something like that. The Human Torch doesn’t have his powers anymore and the Thing has just barely gotten away from prison. As you can see, they aren’t really ready to stop a worldwide invasion by aliens, but they decide to give it a whirl anyway. They’ve made plenty of friends over the years and they’ll need all of them if they want to win this battle.

This collection is essentially nonstop action, which is really rare for the Fantastic Four series. The alien insects are everywhere so we get cameos from several Avengers. The Avengers don’t look so good once again, but it’s mainly SHIELD that starts things off on a rocky note as they decide to attack the Hulk. Everyone eventually gets over the mix-up, but it did give us a nice excuse for a quick fight scene, which is always a solid way to kick things off. The Fantastic Four’s group definitely would have won had the battle kept going since they had the Hulk on their side and Invisible Woman could have handled the rest of the group.

The art is quite good as you would expect from the Fantastic Four series. The fight scenes are vibrant and colorful while the dialogue scenes flow naturally. This is certainly an easy comic to read as a result and I had a fun time blasting through it. The final issues also celebrate its 75th anniversary so we get a few short stories and one issue where we see what all of the other heroes were doing when the Fantastic Four first formed. That was fun and there were certainly a lot of guest stars so the comic really tried not to leave anyone out.

The comic also had some really good writing and it was an interesting read from start to finish. Mr Fantastic got his props as he was able to foil most of the villain’s plan on his own and also broke free from the trap. He is Mr Fantastic after all and while some of Marvel’s other geniuses like Tony Stark typically get more publicity, I’d consider Mr Fantastic to easily be the smartest man in the Marvel Universe. I wouldn’t take anyone against him in a battle of wits and he’s still my favorite member of the Fantastic Four. He was portrayed perfectly here!

The Thing looked good and he was certainly willing to jump into the fray right away. He’s a character who’s had his ups and downs, but I’m glad to say that this would be more of an up for him. The Human Torch looks nice and heroic. The comic still plays up his flirty side a bit, which is regrettable, but he doesn’t go totally overboard in the past so the writer did a decent job with him compared to past incarnations. Invisible Woman continues to show why she is a threat in any fight since her force abilities are really effective against all fighters. There’s a twist about why she has been using her powers more freely lately, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that they are still her powers. Once she gets used to them a little more, she’ll be back to being a big threat in the Marvel universe.

The villains aren’t very high profile, but they’re not bad either. I’ve never been much of a fan of the Psycho Man, but his abilities are decent I suppose. I much preferred the peace guy who did escape so that’ll be a plot to delve into in the future I suppose. He’s quite smart even though he was duped by one of the other villains. I actually liked him as a villain since he seems to be a good match for Mr. Fantastic.

The subplot with the kids wasn’t bad as the kid made the right call and showed everyone that he’s not a true villain deep down. I don’t think that he should have played along from the beginning to be honest, but it all worked out in the end. The plot was not quite as interesting as any of the others, but at least it gave the kids some closure so maybe they won’t be needed in future arcs. I still don’t really like how Valeria is portrayed to be as smart, if not smarter than Mr Fantastic. That’s still a little iffy if you ask me.

I do appreciate the fact that the comic mentions why most of the Avengers aren’t around to help. Since the invasion is taking place across the whole planet, they have to protect the other countries that have less superheroes. This is a great reason for them not being around and I wish that more comics would acknowledge this. New York has all of the big threats so I’m glad that some stuck around, but the other countries have far less superheroes so they could definitely use the help.

After the nonstop action for most of the collection, I didn’t mind the short stories at the end. The camping story with Mr Fantastic and Valeria was fun and we got to see that Mr Fantastic did have fun enjoying nature when he wasn’t busy inventing things. The Thing’s was a little sad for him with the ending, but it shows that he’s always ready to help. I’m not sure if short stories would have worked as well if they had been the whole collection, but they still would have been fun to read in a different way when compared to the action. Both techniques work when the writing is good enough. The fact that we had fake versions of the Avengers was also awesome since it gave us an excuse to see Thor and Iron Man take on the Fantastic Four. Scarlet Witch even fights her doppleganger. The villains aren’t really a threat here and it’s really just to show you all of the friends that the Fantastic Four have made over the years. Trust me, they’ve made quite a lot of them!

Overall, This was a really fun volume. Whether you’ve read the previous ones or not, it’s easy to jump right into the action. A lot of things happened to set up the situation, but it’s easy to understand what the situation is and what the heroes have to do to stop the invasion. It’s too bad that most of the Avengers are busy, but the Fantastic Four are always more than a match for any adversary. The team is essentially a blank slate now so they can really do whatever they feel like doing now. It’s a great way to hand over the comic to a new creative team since there are no big subplots unfolding at the moment. This was a good run and an epic end to it so I recommend this collection to all Marvel fans.

Overall 8/10

Supergirl Volume 3 Sanctuary Review

Posted on July 2, 2015 by dreager1

Time to check out the third volume of the Supergirl series! This collection is mainly just made up of tie in issues so the main plot doesn’t move all that much, but what is the main plot? Debatably it’s just about Supergirl getting used to life on Earth. In which case, you can make a decent argument that this all helps to further that aim a little. At the very least, she can learn more about Earth’s superheroes through this debacle.

Supergirl heads underwater to discover that her ship has made it to Earth in one piece. It only responds to her commands so it’s a fairly safe headquarters. Unfortunately, a villain has broken in and his physical abilities are almost on par with Supergirl’s. How will she be able to take this guy out and reclaim her base? It’s a fun one shot story and the ship plays a big role in Supergirl’s series after this. The villain was one of the first ones to appear in the series as well so it was a pivotal issue and was handled well.

After that, the H’el arc started. Naturally, a lot of it is covered in the Superman series as well as the Superboy title so we only see bits and pieces here, which makes for an intriguing read. Unfortunately, Supergirl looks bad in these stories as H’el plays on her emotions quite easily. Supergirl never really questions the fact that he is randomly teleporting everywhere and messing with the headquarters that she found as well as the Fortress of Solitude. He seemed to be rather evil from the start and I feel like Supergirl should have realized this. Of course, this may not have happened if Superman had tried to get along with her a little more, but things are still really rocky between them so that was out of the picture.

While the H’el arc was all over the place and made him look seriously overpowered, it also gave us some of the best fights in the volume. First, Supergirl challenged the Flash. Given that the Flash was holding back against her, he did very well and was actually defeating her. Supergirl was actually trying to destroy him so that shows just how skilled the Flash is. He’s always been an underrated fighter and at his best, he could easily take on any DC fighter including Superman. While my money’s on the Man of Steel, it’s a fight that I’ve always enjoyed no matter who ends up as the victor. I wouldn’t even need to worry about plot hax here.

The second fight was Supergirl vs Wonder Woman. I may have called a little more plot hax here as I feel that Supergirl is definitely stronger than Wonder Woman, but in the New 52, Wonder Woman is very impressive so I don’t mind her claiming victory here. She certainly does have more experience than Supergirl and it was a close fight although I feel like Supergirl would have done better than she was given credit for. These were two power packed battles and they were definitely a lot of fun to watch. Supergirl didn’t get to fight Superman, but they already had a scuffle a while back I suppose.

Finally, there was another comic, which starts to get us back to the main plot. Power Girl arrives to help Supergirl fight a major powerhouse. They manage to escape, but then Supergirl’s headquarters turns against the two heroines because it believes that one of them must be a clone. It was a very entertaining comic because the ship has a nice sense of humor. It burns the Supergirls logically with its witty comebacks. The ship never gives up or backs down and I loved its dialogue. I dare say that it instantly became more likable than Jarvis or Batman’s computers. (Although they never really talk….) It may have been a little rude considering that it works for Supergirl, but that’s just the way that these things go right? I like for A.I. programs to have a little personality!

That being said, I didn’t care for the fact that Supergirl and Powergirl had to retreat from the new villain. Someone sent him to test their strength so he’ll probably be back, but there’s no way that he could stop those two. I feel like Supergirl is criminally underpowered in this series. The villains should be as weak as play dough when compared to her incredible feats of power. Whoever this guy is, the author is clearly making him out to be stronger than he should. I’m all for new villains who are tough though so maybe he’ll be likable.

Still, it seems to be something that the writer just likes doing. Look at H’el. He is apparently strong enough to fight off Superman and Superboy at once. Plus, he can teleport and do all kinds of things. He effortlessly beat the Flash and his master plan nearly succeeded. I don’t care for the guy and his sob story wasn’t great, but he does make for a very imposing villain. Perhaps a little overpowered, but that beats being underpowered though. As long as Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and Superman are able to give him a good fight, then I’ll be satisfied. If any of them ended up losing to him very quickly in the main series, then I would definitely be a little sad at that outcome.

In the end, I’d actually say that this was the best Supergirl volume because of all the cool guest stars. Even Batman had a cameo as he warns the heroes that it’s almost too late to stop H’el. The Flash and Wonder Woman were both portrayed well and Power Girl also made for a nice assist. Since Power Girl really is Supergirl from an alternate timeline, it’s cool to see them interact. I’m still waiting for Supergirl to really get to meet the other heroes though as she still seems to be so separate from them. She regards them from afar as if she’s never even seen them before. The sad truth is that Supergirl may not have seen them since she is so new to the superhero gig. Still, she can’t stay a newbie forever so that experience will come at some point.

The art is fairly streamlined although the character models can still get a little iffy at times. Particularly the faces. Maybe I’m just taking a harder look at the art now as I’ve been saying that more lately like with World War Hulk, but there are some panels that are clearly off. One of them was when Supergirl was talking to H’el as her pose made her look terrified for some odd reason. It’s just one example though. Naturally, the fight scenes are quite good though and I still like streamlined art a lot as it makes the action scenes that much better.

Overall, Supergirl continues to be one of DC’s better comic book titles. I enjoyed the addition of her Sanctuary, which will make for a very good supporting cast if it can be recovered. Let’s just say that the heroes had to use some rather drastic measures to stop him from destroying Supergirl. Now that H’el’s arc is over, the series can get back on track without worrying about tie-in issues although they were quite good this time. What I’m looking forward to the most is the return of the World Breakers from volume 1. That group had a lot of potential and they were awesome. Of course, being stronger than Supergirl doesn’t seem like much of a feat anymore, but they were still a fun group of new/powerful super villains. This series has always been very interesting and I do like Supergirl’s portrayal even if she is a little naive. Hopefully she won’t be falling for any more romance traps in future volumes. If you want to see some nice action and even some well written humor, this is a comic that you definitely want to check out!

Overall 8/10

World War Hulk Review

Posted on July 2, 2015 by dreager1

I remember this arc when it first came out. There was a lot of hype around it and I still consider the plot to be one of the best concepts from all Marvel events. Only Civil War may be able to top it. Nothing beats a good Heroes vs Heroes story, but one that comes close is when the hero turns evil and decides to destroy the heroes. It’s sort of like the Doomsday story in the comics as Superman has a long monologue about what would happen if he finally met a villain that he couldn’t defeat. It’s a story that has a lot of potential. World War Hulk doesn’t live up to all of it sadly, but it’s still a fun comic.

As mentioned, the plot is very simple. The Hulk was shot into space and deserted to die on a planet full of gladiators and aliens. He managed to survive and lived a happy life there, but then his rocket ship came back into orbit and crashed on the planet, destroying everyone on the planet. The Hulk blames the Illuminati for placing the bomb on the rocket and he has now returned to Earth to destroy them and make the Earth suffer for what has happened. All of Marvel’s heroes will have to set aside their differences if there is any hope of stopping the Hulk.

It should be noted that the Hulk picked a great time to launch this attack. For starters, Thor isn’t around at the moment, which takes away a really large threat right from the start. Also, the Civil War is still raging on at the moment or at least the post effects so the heroes have to reluctantly work together at the risk of being arrested. Yes, this is definitely the Hulk’s moment of glory and the heroes may not know what hit them! It should be noted that some heavy weights like Ghost Rider and the X-Men are noticeably absent, but they end up fighting the Hulk in tie-in issues. It’s too bad that they weren’t included, but I did review the X-Men one a while back.

If you wanted a comic with nonstop action, then this is definitely the one to check out. The 5 issues are basically showing the Hulk take down the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and all of the loners who tried to join the fray. Even the military stood no chance against the Hulk. Granted, The Hulk had about 5 teammates known as the Warbound who are apparently about as strong as the Hulk pre rage. That’s a lot of hype for those guys, but they did manage to defeat Spiderman (Off screen naturally……he never gets any respect in the modern comics!) so I suppose that they lived up to their reputation.

The Hulk has never been madder than he is now so his power is really skyrocketing. By the end of the comic, he starts to grow so powerful that he could have destroyed the Earth with a single stomp. That’s some insanely good strength. Naturally, Hulk is a total villain here who only cares for revenge. It’s a motive that works for most villains so why not for him right? He’s not mindless here by any means and he just believes that the Avengers need to pay for their crimes of genocide. An eye for an eye is his strategy. It’s been a while since we saw the Hulk portrayed as a villain so that was neat. He even uses his intelligence to trick Dr Strange at one point since he’s totally in control here. You have never seen a more deadly Hulk.

The Sentry’s role in this is also quite big as he gets hyped up right from the start. One problem that you may have with this is the fact that everyone acts like the Sentry and Hulk are best friends. Since when right? The Sentry is also a little insane and completely unlikable, but you still have to respect his incredible power. He’s said to be the strongest hero in Marvel and while I completely disagree with that, he’s certainly one of the stronger members and not someone to be taken lightly.

I do have to mention that the art isn’t very good here. It’ll look all right at times and then the character models will just start to shift and tumble. I dunno, there was just something a little off putting about it, but the art still wasn’t downright bad. We still got some fun action sequences out of it (Which is the whole point of World War Hulk right?) and the scene where the Sentry finally makes his move is pretty epic. The guy definitely seems to think of himself as a Superman level fighter and maybe he has some valid reasons for this. He does end up looking really good here after all.

As this is one of the more modern events, you can tell that you are missing some things by not reading the tie ins, but it’s not as big as in some other graphic novels where it’s in your face. The pacing is good. The Hulk gradually defeats everyone and by the end you will be wondering how the Hulk can possibly be defeated. You have to wonder if even the Sentry will be able to stand up to such a powerful threat. Most of the other heroes do feel like light weights here. Even fighters like Ms. Marvel and She Hulk are shown to not even be a threat to the Hulk. Seriously, they just watch Iron Man get taken out and only jump in to help at the very end. Not very heroic eh? I was personally disappointed that Spiderman was taken out off screen by one of the minions. I don’t buy that…at all.

In fact, as cool and tough as the Hulk is, I don’t buy any of it. The heroes badly outnumbered Hulk and his little group and I feel like they really should have won this round. I think that Ms. Marvel could give the Hulk a good fight. When she’s with She Hulk, Ares, Spiderman, and many more fighters…that should really be enough to end things. The Fantastic Four didn’t look too good, but I have to admit that those guys would be outmatched in an instant. Only Mr. Fantastic can hope to save them all and things didn’t go according to plan for him. It was fun to see Iron Fist and X-23 jump into the action and Iron Fist did all right against one of the Warbound, but he was soon put in his place.

Dr Strange entered a type of rage mode to stop the Hulk and nearly destroyed innocent civilians in the process. It was the only time where the heroes looked bad as the Hulk had to save them before stopping Dr. Strange. It was still a fun super form to look at though. Even the government gets some hype as General Ross explains that he always knew that the other superheroes could never stop the Hulk. Naturally, his weapons aren’t that effective and he doesn’t stand a chance, but you really have to admire his confidence. Ross has no doubt that he will stop the Hulk and he fights on right up til the very end. He was actually a very likable figure here and he has certainly known the Hulk much longer than anyone else.

The Warbound don’t really have much of a personality as they carry their baggage from Planet Hulk. I didn’t like any of the members and I doubt that the film would change my mind. One of them admits that what they are doing is wrong, but he doesn’t care since he just wants revenge. Better to be a villain than to knowingly act like a villain. Seriously, the guy is constantly talking about morals and justice while he’s attacking the heroes. Definitely not your typical superhero behavior eh? The justice concept would have been pretty interesting had the Illuminati actually placed a bomb inside of Hulk’s rocket, but a plot twist nullifies that. Most of what the Illuminati did was unintentional, but they still deserve a lot of blame for what happened to the Hulk. His time in space was certainly not a pleasant one.

You have to wonder what would have happened if Thor and the X-Men had been here from the start. Would the Hulk have been able to come out on top like he did here or would the heroes have stopped him? I feel like the heroes should definitely have won and with Thor and the others, that should be a guarantee. I would love to see another arc like this pop up soon where one powerhouse takes on the whole Marvel Universe. Not in a single blow or eventually, but a gauntlet run like what happened here. Those scenarios are always a lot of fun.

Overall, I was hyped to read World War Hulk from the start. I just love the concept of it and greatly enjoyed the X-Men vs Hulk tie-in. That being said, it was maybe a little less enjoyable than I had been expecting it to be. The gladiator ring part of the saga wasn’t great and the art was definitely a little sub par. The nonstop action was great though and the dialogue was engaging as well. This is definitely a solid read for all Hulk fans and especially if you just want to see some big hero against hero fights. There is a cliff hanger, but it’s not that great. Especially when you know who the mysterious figure turns out to be. Still, this was a fun event. Smaller in scope than most of Marvel’s big specials, but it was still impactful and showed us the Hulk’s true power! (Albeit, slightly over hyped…)

Overall 8/10

Spider Men Review

Posted on July 2, 2015 by dreager1

Yes, technically you would usually use a hyphen here, but I actually prefer not to use hyphens. It’s a bit of a personal preference. I saw this comic at the library a long time ago, but I didn’t have time to flip through it. I finally read it now and Spider Men is a fun crossover. There may not be a lot of action, but it’s always fun to see the 616 universe meet up with the Ultimate one. It’s safe to say that 616 proves its superiority in this volume.

Spiderman was beating up on Mysterio like usual when he got sucked into a portal which took him to the Ultimate universe. He was quickly subdued by that version of Spiderman and reluctantly decides to work with the Ultimates to get back to his universe. Is there a way back or is he stuck in this universe for the rest of eternity? It’s hard to say, but at least Spiderman can meet some of his old friends who are still alive in this universe.

As I already mentioned, there isn’t a lot of action here. It’s actually surprising that this was a whole 5 issues as it felt more like 2-3 by the end. It’s a fun way for Peter Parker to have a final meet up with Gwen and to also talk with Aunt May a little. It reminds you that the Ultimate universe definitely switched things up a lot when you consider Spiderman’s history. Gwen isn’t coming back in 616…ever, but we do have the Spider-Gwen series so she’ll still be around. That will also be a fun meet up…as long as Slott isn’t writing the comic.

I was a little disappointed with the fact that Miles defeated Spiderman. I mean..are you kidding me? I have nothing against Miles….well, I don’t really care for the guy all that much. His personality irks me a little, but beyond that, I don’t see how he could take down Spiderman. Miles has his own spider sense and venom blasts going, but Spiderman is physically stronger, I’d say that he’s faster, and it goes without saying that he has more experience. In the fight between the two Spidermen, they made Peter Parker look like a rookie. He got careless and it cost him big time when it came down to the fisticuffs. Even without prep time, I’m confident that the original Spiderman would win this round.

The art looks fairly good. Peter Parker looks a little off model, but the artist was likely just trying to point out just how much older Peter is when compared to the ultimate version of himself. It certainly is a contrast to see Peter next to the other characters. The art’s not great, but it’s fairly good. The action scenes are just a little stilted and everyone looks stiff. Marvel can learn a thing or two from looking at DC’s more streamlined art. Now, that’s how you suck the readers into the fight scenes!

Spiderman is still a likable lead even if he’s portrayed as being inexperienced and a little weak. He heads over to Aunt May’s house and then panics a lot as everyone beats him up. He keeps telling himself that he shouldn’t have come…but he is already there. It was a little late for the second guessing and Spiderman definitely overdid it. Still, as Spiderman, Peter Parker was a good character. He has the quips ready and he certainly did his best to make Mysterio look bad.

Miles is still a little annoying for me. Maybe it’s because he’s so young, but he constantly acts like he’s a big shot while pretending to be modest. Kind of hard to wrap you head around that right? It’s hard to explain, but that’s just the way it goes. Give him a few years of experience under his belt and I’m sure that Miles will grow up to be a likable character. He’ll certainly be better than good ole Mysterio.

Mysterio looked pretty weak and helpless, which is what I would expect from the guy. He’s not quite in the same league as the average Spiderman villain. I did like the twist that there never was an Ultimate Mysterio and the real one just used a robot to troll the characters in the other universe. Now, that’s the kind of plot twist that I like to see although I need to check out his older appearances to see if this twist really lines up or if it was just made up for the lolz.

I do think that there were some missed opportunities here though. Think about it, there’s so much potential about having the original Spiderman in the ultimate universe. Extending this arc to around 20 issues would have been great. Spiderman could have fought some of the villains and interacted with the supporting cast members a little more. We could have really seen the contrast between this world and 616. The fact that everyone considers Peter to be a hero in Ultimate is a plot line that could easily hold 5-6 issues by itself. It’s awesome to see since Peter will never have such a rep in 616.

There was one moment where I felt like there was a lot of plot hax. Mysterio was in a room with the Ultimates and the two Spidermen. The heroes just watch as he gets up and whacks Spiderman over the head. Talk about slow reaction times right? Luckily, Miles was ready to challenge Mysterio and take him down for the count. Also, the comic tries really hard to show us that the Tony Stark in this universe is not even close to as smart as the main one. He can barely even comprehend the universe travelling tech and we know how much the heroes like to universe hop in 616. He also seems a little more sinister, which would fit when you consider how Ultimate Reed Richards acts. The Ultimates definitely aren’t earning their keep so maybe they should have tried harder to recruit Spiderman into the fold. Also, does this mean that the Mysterio will never appear again? That would be awesome, but it probably doesn’t matter all that much with the big Secret Wars arc that’s currently happening in the comics.

Overall, Spider Men was a fun little crossover. The hype was deserved since this was really the first time that the two universes had a proper meeting. From here on out, the meetings would certainly get larger in scope. The comic could have used a better villain as Mysterio is super overused, but I was pleased with the fact that the heroes could effortlessly beat him. If they needed to actually try to beat someone like this, they would have been better off giving up right away! If you’re a big Spiderman fan, then you should check this comic out. If you don’t care about Spiderman, then that’ll certainly hurt your chances of really enjoying the collection and then you should just take a pass on it. Either way, it’s an enjoyable/quick experience and you won’t be losing much time if you decide to give it a whirl. With this, you will be ready for the Secret Wars and the battle between Ultimate and 616 that nearly happened, but mostly finished off screen. It was still a moment of incredible hype and you’ll need to track down the Free Comic Book Day issue to find it.

Overall 7/10

Batman’66 Meets The Green Hornet Review

Posted on June 27, 2015 by dreager1

The classic incarnation of Batman is back once again in a crossover with the Green Hornet. As soon as I saw this collection, I knew that I had to check it out. The Adam West Batman show was pretty great and the comics have done a good job of capturing why this series is so much fun. As good as the first two Batman collections were, this one is the best. Whether it is the added hype of the crossover effect or just the fact that the writing has gotten better, this is one collection that you don’t want to miss.

It was just another day for Batman and Robin until they learned that some rare items were leaving from Gotham to another city. Bruce Wayne felt personally responsible for this and decided to go onto the train as well. Gotta keep up the Wayne reputation right? The Green Hornet in his alter ego also decided to come along under the pretense of a story for his newspaper. The two heroes try to out hype each other as they brag about the local heroes (or villains in the Green Hornet’s case) until someone breaks into the train. The General has arrived and his glue weapons could mean the end for the Dynamic Duo. Batman and Robin prepare to stop him, but the Green Hornet is in their way. As far as Batman and Robin know, the Green Hornet is just another criminal. Can Batman drop him while also dealing with the real villains? Speaking of which, the General is not alone. He is joined by the Joker and stopping both of them will be difficult.

This comic is a blast to read from start to finish. It really feels like you are looking at a new Batman episode from the good ole days. The heroes are constantly making puns, but also reminding each other about defending the law. Batman can barely even stand the thought of working alongside the Green Hornet since the masked man is a known criminal. Seriously, the comic is incredible and the dialogue is easily top notch. You’ll thoroughly enjoy the issues and even the villains have honor as they outsmart the heroes using technicalities instead of tricks.

It almost goes without saying that Batman makes for an excellent main character. He really embodies truth, justice, and the American Way in this collection. He always stands up for what’s right and he gives everyone a fair shake. It’s just what he does and Batman never backs down from a fight. The Green Hornet may have surprised him in round 1, but it’s safe to say that Batman bounced back from that. In a fair fight, I don’t think that the Green Hornet would last very long. Batman also proved that his Batcave and its gadgets are better than the Green Hornet’s.

Robin is essentially the Yes Man on Batman’s group. He always agrees with Batman although you can hardly blame him since the Dark Knight tends to always be right about everything. Robin’s a good sidekick and this is really how he should be portrayed. He can fight and he’s also smart, but he’s just not ready to match Batman in those categories yet. Give him a little time and then he’ll be all ready to roll. His counterpart in the form of Kato wasn’t quite as likable. I found him to be rather arrogant and undeservingly so since he’s not a great fighter. I’d say that he’s weaker than Robin when you think about it. He likes to quote philosophers to psych out the opponents and get some subtle burns in. Kato’s not a bad character per say, but I do find him to be rather annoying. Of course, it helps that I’m on team Robin so the burns get personal.

As for the Green Hornet, he’s a fun hero to have around. He’s similar to Batman although he’s not nearly as heroic. The Hornet is still a hero, but he pretends to be a villain to deal with the crooks. I wonder if it’s a plan that Batman would approve of since it skirts the lines of the law. Telling Batman his secret would have saved them all a lot of hassle, but I can see why he wouldn’t want to divulge such a big secret so easily. So, I don’t blame him for that. The Hornet is a fun foil to Batman and I’m guessing that his old comics would probably be a lot of fun as well. I wonder if he has an ongoing at the moment to match up with the Batman’66 stories.

The art on the covers is trying very hard to look like it’s a live action piece to match the TV show. I’m not crazy about how it looks so I’m glad that the art inside of the issues is normal. It flows rather easily and while Batman’s uniform can still take a little getting used too, it looks sharp. Likewise with the rest of the cast. The art is simple and managed to pull off the TV show vibe that they are going for. The fights are certainly fun to look at.

I almost forgot to mention the villains! The Joker definitely looks like the mastermind of the operation even if he doesn’t get as much screen time as The General. The Joker can hold his own and I was satisfied with his portrayal as he showed a good amount of wit and skill. The General isn’t quite as charismatic and comes off as a generic villain. That being said, his plan was quite good and it would have succeeded against the average hero although the final demand for the millions was rather suspicious.

Naturally, Batman and Robin ended up fighting Green Hornet and Kato on one occasion. The battle was a quick one hit knockout so Batman and Robin fans would likely be disappointed by it. I can safely say that I wasn’t thrilled by it either. Although things essentially equaled out by the end, I just don’t see such a tactic working on the Dynamic Duo. If you ask me, Batman and Robin would win the fight quite easily and you could say that they had the upper hand in all of the other skirmishes. While the outcome wasn’t quite as accurate as I could have hoped, I appreciate the fact that the crossover actually picked a winner instead of making it a generic stalemate. Nothing’s worse than a tie…

Overall, This is a great crossover! From how the characters are portrayed in the collection, I have a feeling that each comic title could holds its own. I’ve already read two Batman’66 volumes so I can say with confidence that it is a good series. I haven’t read any Green Hornet issues so far, but if there are any retro styled ones where the characters act like they do in this collection, it would definitely be a lot of fun. If you’re a Batman fan, you really need to pick this title up. The constant stream of quality dialogue will keep you going and the art is sound. This is a style that I hope more comics emulate in the future and hopefully the library will pick up more collections for the Batman series.

Overall 8/10

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