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FCBD 2017 Wonder Woman Special Edition Review

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It’s time for another year of Free Comic Book Day reviews! I wasn’t able to snag as many as I’d have liked this year, but I got 7 so that’s not so bad. Lets start it off with Wonder Woman since her film is coming out pretty soon. It’s…another origin story. Ah well, I guess this is so that new readers can hopefully pick up the series, but I always found the approach a little odd. I feel like the only people who know about Free Comic Book Day…are people who already read comics. Still, I guess I’ll assume that the company knows what it’s doing. Also, this is why I still prefer trade paperbacks if I’m being honest. Having ads every other page can be a little odd.

So the comic starts off with Wonder Woman longing to go to the outside world. Naturally, the Amazons are against this and Wonder Woman would essentially be exiled if she ever decided to go. Meanwhile, Steve Trevor and his army buddies are getting ready for another fight. Unfortunately, the planes crash on the Amazonian island and everyone dies except for Steve. Wonder Woman is left with the choice of saving his life or letting him perish. That’s how the issue ends.

It’s a pretty short comic of course and you can easily finish it in around 5 minutes or so. Based on the pacing here, the origin story shouldn’t last too many more issues. I’m not a big origin guy, but if you’re gonna do it, you may as well do it quickly. There don’t seem to be any real changes to the origin so it’s a fairly faithful interpretation. The art is fairly decent as well. There were maybe one or two faces that would seem odd when the camera zoomed in, but it looks good enough. I don’t expect that I’ll have any complaints with it and the whole thing should come to life once the action scenes start.

Overall, If this gets new readers interested then it’s worth it I suppose. I would have preferred a more plot heavy issue, but there’s always next year. I think this comic has a reasonable chance of being the best one this year, but I hope not since that would mean that the others simply raised the bar to a new level. Reviewing single issues is always tough when they’re this small since there’s not much to say. No need to drag it out I suppose, I got the main points in. I shall have the next free comic review up shortly.

Overall 6/10

Godzilla: Complete Rulers of Earth Volume 1 Review

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The library finally pulled through and ordered a bunch of copies of this comic. I got to read Godzilla in Hell a while back, but have otherwise been lacking in Godzilla comic knowledge. Well, that is the case no longer as I have heard it from a very reputable source that this is the best Godzilla comic series to date. I can certainly believe that as this is a considerable improvement to the last trade. G in Hell was pretty fun, but this feels more like a big Godzilla adventure and the plot makes the whole thing all the more engaging. Who doesn’t like a war between multiple groups of aliens?

The humans don’t realize this, but there are two different alien factions who want control of the Earth. There are the space invaders and the ones who come from the ground. One is aquatic and the other is more like your typical Xenomorph, except more humanoid and capable of humans speech and shape shifting. Both of them have an army of Kaiju at their disposal, with the aquatic group having titans like Ebirah and the other water Kaiju while the other group has all of the heavy hitters. Earth is a very easy target for them except for one key obstacle..Godzilla!

This series takes place after a few of the other titles I believe so the Earth is finally starting to get used to fighting these giant monsters. Godzilla is still too much for them to handle, but they finally have the equipment needed to take on the small fry like Ebirah. I don’t want to put the lobster on the spot here, but he definitely didn’t look all that strong throughout the comic. He was treated as a D lister and I suppose he is for now. It’s unknown exactly what Godzilla’s plan is, but the king definitely has something up his sleeve. He continues to challenge all of the Kaiju who show up and doesn’t back down even when he’s outnumbered. To an extent you do feel bad for Godzilla though.

He’s tough and can hold his own, but being constantly outnumbered and not having a lot of backup can be pretty annoying. Some members of the government like Steven Woods realize that attacking Godzilla is not in their best interests at the moment, but others just decide to blast all of the monsters indiscriminately. Not their wisest move I’d say. The only allies Godzilla can count on are Jet Jaguar and Mothra. Together, those three can take on just about any opponent.

Godzilla fans will be pleased at how good he looks here. He takes a lot of injuries during the adventure, but keeps on going. He is well known for his stamina and this comic definitely had that in mind. Seeing him use his nuclear blast or barrier of sorts was also good to take on the numerous mini Destoroyahs that were on him. As this comic is basically a big battle with all of the Kaiju throughout the Godzilla universe, there were a lot of opponents for him. One that naturally stood out was the return of Zilla. His fight with Godzilla in Final Wars is still legendary to this day and a rematch is something that his fans have always wanted. I can’t say that he did much better this time around, but at least he lasted longer than 7-13 seconds or whatever the official time for the film was.

Other fan favorites like Space Godzilla, Rodan, and Destoroyah show up to deal in the damage. They all look very good and while it can be a little sad to see them all being manipulated and controlled by the Aliens, it’s just how they were introduced in this series. I didn’t read any of the original titles so I have to assume as a reader here that the villains either created the monsters or trapped them with some kind of high tech hypnosis. I’d assume that it wouldn’t last for very long though and Gigan’s urge to fight could not be suppressed in the end. A fight will always bring out the tough nature of the Kaiju.

A surprise highlight was Jet Jaguar. I’ve always been a fan of this guy, but he was even more awesome than I remembered. He basically just shows up and takes names. Jet Jaguar proves that he can hold his own with Godzilla’s strongest foes and even with the king himself. His size changing abilities are incredibly handy along with his flight and laser blasts. While he may not be able to speak yet, you can easily tell that he is one of the good guys. Jet Jaguar has apparently been hunting the aliens for quite a while now and it is the first time that you ever see the villains look nervous. Besides Godzilla, Jet Jaguar is the biggest threat on the planet now and he actually was winning his brief bout with Godzilla. The villains can’t afford to ignore this new player, but it might not matter. Jet Jaguar already has their number.

Besides all of the Kaiju showing up and duking it out, the comic had time for two main human characters. Lucy is a reporter who likes to go to dangerous areas for a good scoop. She’s been around for quite a while and isn’t afraid of the Kaiju that get in her way. She seems like a reasonably tough character and is smart enough to realize the difference between Godzilla and his opponents. She encourages the army to make smart moves even if they don’t always listen. I’d say that she’s doing pretty well so far. The other character is Steven Woods. He’s a tough army member and he saves Lucy during one of the early scenes. This guy seems like a capable soldier and someone who gets the job done, but it’s a very tricky situation for him at the moment. For starters, he is now dealing with shape shifting aliens who don’t exactly play by the rules. You can be the strongest hand to hand fighter there is, but it won’t help if you don’t know who to aim your fists at. If he figures out what is happening, I’ll give him some major credibility points. I don’t blame him for not realizing the threat yet, but it is sad to see the humans just being messed around with the whole time.

As I mentioned earlier, the plot is really engaging. I always did like the sort of Secret Invasion plots that come up with shape-shifters. On one hand, it can be annoying to see them get away with everything since nobody even has a reason to suspect foul play, but it also makes everything intriguing as well. What will the aliens do with these abilities and how can they be stopped? It’s clear that the humans are losing and quite badly at the moment, but they do have Kiryu and the other mechs that they’ve acquired over the years. I like to think that Jet Jaguar would have a way of detecting them as well so that could be pivotal in helping the main characters by the end.

I also liked the fact that this took place at a time where humans already knew about Kaiju. This meant that we could skip the panic phase and go right into the plans and discussions about how to handle this. It’s not exactly just another day in the park for the heroes, but it isn’t anything too drastic either. They handle the situation quickly and efficiently.

Another thing that really makes the comic stand out is how good the artwork is. Some issues in particular looked incredibly sharp like Jet Jaguar and Godzilla vs Gigan or Mecha Godzilla vs Destoroyah. The whole series has been at a high level though and it’s certainly better than I would have even expected. The artwork can hold its own against any other comic no questions asked. Every character is portrayed perfectly and every attack comes across very smoothly. If there is any chink in the art’s armor, it’s that the humans can look a little off at times. Luckily, we’re reading for the Kaiju, aliens, and fights here. If the humans were specifically drawn with less effort so the rest of the comic could look amazing, then there will definitely be no complaints from me.

Overall, This is definitely the definitive Godzilla comic and it’s hard to picture another series overcoming this one. The cover definitely seems like click bait though since you would assume that a Complete Collection would bring all of the issues right? Apparently, it is volume one of the complete version so I have to wait for the library to get volume 2 to end the saga. It just came out today so hopefully the library notices and orders the copy as soon as possible. I’m definitely expecting a pretty intense ending. The series has already used almost all of Godzilla’s iconic monsters though so I’m wondering how they’re going to end the series. We haven’t really seen King Ghidorah yet so I’m expecting him to play a big role. As long as Jet Jaguar is also there, then I’m set. If you haven’t read this comic yet, I highly recommend changing that. If you think that it’s just going to be a comic where monsters fight each other, (Still sounds good to me) think again. The plot is sound and with a 3 way war going on along with Godzilla just fending off all attackers, there is a lot to think about as you read through it. It’s a very complete story and one that likely will not be rushed given how many issues there are.

Overall 8/10

Super Mario Adventures Review

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It’s time for a look at an old Mario comic series that came out a long time ago. I finally got to read the trade paperback and it was definitely fun. I can safely say that it was better than the Super Mario-Kun manga and it was a fun take on the mythos. There were some creative liberties like Peach’s new personality, but it was actually quite the improvement and it would be really cool if Peach could stay like that in the games. Bowser was a little worse than usual though so that helped to balance things out.

Mario and Luigi are called in to inspect a plumbing situation. They have to get it done before the day is over or it’ll spoil Peach’s party. Unfortunately, Bowser takes this opportunity to attack and says that if Peach doesn’t marry him, he’ll turn all of the Toads into statues. Peach doesn’t surrender to threats though and storms Bowser’s castle. Meanwhile, Mario has been turned to stone and stays that way for 3 days. Are Mario and Luigi too late to save Peach? More important, will Peach be able to save them from Bowser in time?

As mentioned earlier, Peach’s change is the most radical by far. She seems to be styled after Zelda from the TV show this time as she is eager for a fight and also very clever. She actually outshines both Mario and Luigi here as she escapes from Bowser on her own, defeats his underlings, and then escapes the castle. Mario was placed in the same situation later on and he was unable to break free. It just goes to show why Peach is the princess here and while she may have ultimately gotten captured by the end, she stole the show in the end. Peach was easily the best character.

Mario and Luigi were also cool of course. They do panic a bit and let their guard down around the enemies, but they come through when it counts. Mario got a big punch in on Bowser and took down quite a few enemies. Luigi boldly used a disguise to get into Bowser’s lair and even talked back to Peach as he wanted to keep the dress. Mario and Luigi also get to sing at the beginning of the comic so we know that they’re talented. The comic has a lot of fun with them, but it never goes too over the top to make them unlikable or anything like that. I still can’t get over the fact that Peach is stronger than Mario in this version though.

As for Bowser, he is the one sad part of the comic. His whole goal is to marry Peach falls for all of her tricks. He’s not much of a fighter in this comic and needs his underlings around him 24/7. I can understand why Bowser isn’t portrayed as a super serious villain, but they could have at least given him a little dignity. As it stands, he is just a poor villain and I actually preferred all of his henchmen. The piranha plants and Boos actually did the best as they kept biting the heroes. Yoshi was also pretty neat even if he didn’t get to do a whole lot. He was quite large in this version and that made him a powerful ally to have.

There was also one human character who tagged along at some points. He’s always looking to make a few bucks and actually tricked the Mario bros so you can’t say that he isn’t clever. His role was pretty small, but he made an impact and at least he had a fun personality. Fun was actually one of his titles when people would stop to greet him. I don’t know how he got here, but you can definitely tell that the guy is here to stay.

Aside from the main story, there was also a quick epilogue tale with Wario. Apparently Mario used to bully him a lot without realizing it. After 20 years, Wario decided to have his revenge by inviting Mario over while preparing a lot of traps. The problem is that Mario is simply too good so he overcomes all of the traps and then blasts Wario with a water gun anyway. You have to wonder how innocent Mario is in the middle of all this. It was a fun little comic, but you can’t help but feel bad for Wario the whole time. He didn’t ask for this! He should have just looked on the bright side and enjoyed the activities with Mario. You have to see the cup half full after all.

The art is a lot of fun to read. It may not be super detailed, but the colors are some of the brightest that I’ve seen. Every page really pops out at you and the backgrounds all look great. The trade paperback was rather tall and that’s a good thing since it allowed you to easily see all of the panels on the page. It made for quick reading and considering that it was 12 chapters long plus an epilogue bonus comic, the individual comics would have been insanely short. As it stands, this was a good length for a collection although I wouldn’t shell out too much money for it. The art is part of what makes it enjoyable and the definitive Mario reading experience. (Although the chapter book was also a lot of fun)

Overall, Super Mario Adventures was a fun comic. It’s too bad that the series couldn’t have lasted a bit longer. It’s the kind of title that could have easily kept on going and going since there is always another story to tell. The Mario franchise has a lot of characters so it’s not as if they would have run out. The 12 issues are basically just one arc so with a mere 5 arcs, it could have reached 60 issues. Ah well, Nintendo typically doesn’t do a whole lot of comics or other similar products so I’ll just be happy that they did this one. Since Link also got some comics, we just need some for Metroid next. There is less of a big universe to work around, but still enough for a bunch of comics. If you enjoy the Mario games, then I definitely recommend this. Even if you don’t, it’s just a fun all around comic that can appeal to everyone. Who doesn’t like a nice fantasy adventure?

Overall 7/10

X-Men Inferno Volume 1 Review

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Time for a fairly large comic collection. This bundle brings together a lot of the Inferno arc related comics, but ultimately ends up being more of a prelude than anything else. Most of the X-Men don’t even appear for very long or get any real fights. This one focuses on the New Mutants and the Power Pack. Unfortunately they cannot hold their own this time which makes for a rather lackluster collection. It has its good moments, but ultimately never gets all that exciting.

Where to even start with this plot. It’s a huge collection so a lot happens…and yet there aren’t a lot of stories. It’s all fairly connected in one way or another. The basic premise is that a demonic invasion is approaching. The demons from Limbo want to take over Earth once and for all. Fear feeds them and with all of the fearful humans running around, it makes the army very potent. To ensure that the invasion goes well, they also lure Magik and her New Warriors back to Limbo. We can call this Plot A. In Plot B, the Power Pack are dealing with the effects of the Demons in the human world. It’s tough because they also have to evade Nanny, a robot who kidnaps kids. The villain actually comes in handy and saved some of the kids at one point, but it’s only a temporary reprieve. The X-Men get in on the investigation, but then they get distracted by the Morlock troubles and a bunch of other random circumstances. In Plot C, Sinister is making a move and things are all seemingly going according to plan for him. His Jean Grey clone is starting to head to the dark side and it is revealed in a plot twist that she is actually commanding all of the Demons. It’s all been a part of her plan from the start to get revenge on Cyclops for ditching her. (A truly out of character moment that still boggles my mind)

There are a lot of other things happening in the meantime, like the government being shady again, but you get the gist of it. Most of the horror moments are in the human world, but you can probably imagine that Magik’s plot deals with this as well. It was interesting to see a continuation of her story because it wasn’t all that long ago that I read her original saga. It was very dark, but also interesting. As a small child, she fell into Limbo and so the X-Men attempted a rescue mission. It didn’t go well and they all died. Magik was forced to learn Dark Magic and then she escaped to a parallel universe where the X-Men once again tried to save her. They succeeded…except that she fell back in. At least Magik became Queen and joined up with the X-Men again, but she left Limbo in a state of chaos with her old enemy S’ym in charge. Well, this comic shows how he’s controlled the place with an iron grip and has turned the tables on Magik. She is no longer strong enough to beat him and if the X-Men were powerless last time, you can imagine how outclassed the New Mutants are. They are completely out of their depth here. It’s definitely the most interesting part of the comic.

Lets launch right into why this comic was not a success. The big problem here is that the actual X-Men don’t get to appear almost at all. They show up very briefly to help the Morlocks face off against the Mutant Killers and manage to send the group packing, but then they vanish again. Inferno is one of those large graphic novels that manages to collect all of the tie-ins. Usually this is a good thing, but I believe it is ultimately what weakened it this time around. There were so many tie ins with the Power Pack that they took priority. I’m assuming that volume 2 would probably feature the X-Men more, but it’s hard to say for sure. They can’t appear any less I suppose. Now, that wouldn’t be a problem if the Power Pack and the New Mutants were interesting…but they usually weren’t. It took quite a few issues to get to one that would be fun.

Also, a “fun” comic was hard to find since most of the issues were just very dark. It was going for a Poltergeist kind of feel as there is a sinister chill in the air the whole time and the villains can be behind any nook and cranny. The humans could see the demons sometimes and sometimes they couldn’t. It was just like a horror film and I’ll give the comic some credit for actually creating that atmosphere. In a world of superheroes, it can be very hard to create a menacing horror backdrop since a hero can just show up and save the day at any time. It works though because they are all busy dealing with the main alien threat. The Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Defenders (If they’re around) and all of the loners won’t be coming to help. This means that the ordinary humans are left to fend for themselves. This comic probably has more horror undertones than any other comic that I’ve read with the possible exception of some Swamp Thing comics. Those put up a pretty good fight.

However, it’s also a bad thing as the humans have no shot. We have many issues where the demons just show up and start ripping the humans to shreds. It’s never all that violent although some people are literally crushed, but it’s just all so hopeless and sad. There’s no way that the humans can even land any damage on these creatures and for every death that you actually see, there are dozens of others off screen. Most of them go in rather grim circumstances. The whole thing was just so dark and gritty and it went on for far too long if you ask me. We even had some cheating going on as Angel decided to go for a quick one night fling with someone who was technically still married and then decides to continue with this. I never cared all that much for Angel, but this certainly won’t be doing him any favors. In the end, it just didn’t feel like an X-Men comic at all and that was a problem.

One subplot that was handled well was when the Power Pack was finally forced to reveal their true identities to their parents. The parents didn’t overreact, run away, yell, or panic. They took it in stride and said that they wanted to talk about it, but weren’t upset or anything like that. They realized that a demon was still around and that they should finish the fight instead of bickering. Even after that, the parents were okay with the whole thing. This is really how this kind of plot should always play out. Having powers shouldn’t suddenly make the parents back out of a bond that they’ve shared with their kids their whole lives. This also means that the villains can’t blackmail the Power Pack anymore, which is certainly a good thing. The parents even did a good job of dealing with their haunted house.

Yes, there was a haunted house here to further the notion that this was a horror comic in disguise. The demons would take control of all the equipment. They took over the water supply and would make inanimate objects turn to life. Considering that they had no actual hero experience, the parents did all right. They smashed up most of the evil objects and kept on fighting back. They also did their best to protect the kids when they didn’t know about their secret powers. More horror protagonists should be proactive like this. The parents decided to get out ASAP.

As for the rest of the characters, I’m still not much of a fan of the Power Pack or the New Mutants. I like Magik a lot and she’s definitely earned her way into the main X-Men team. Everyone else? I don’t think they’ll be getting past the B ranks anytime soon. They can’t really hold their own issues, at least not in this context. The Power Pack are good for their fun little adventures, but they feel out of place in issues where the whole planet is at stake. The villains aren’t all that interesting either although I’ve always thought S’ym makes for a very intense villain. His super strength and durability are pretty unbelievable. Dark Beast shows up as well, but he’s just annoying and certainly not cool.

Also, the art was solid as expected. The style makes it look a lot older than it actually is, but helps to add that retro effect. Everything is very clear to read and understand. All of the character designs are on point although they aren’t as colorful as the 90’s. I wouldn’t say that the writing is bad either. It works well enough for what the comic is going for. It just should have taken another direction. The comic isn’t quite as engaging as most though. You won’t be on the edge of your seat here and some of the comics actually do drag on quite a bit.

I do think that the next volume will probably be an improvement though. This whole saga was basically the prelude as the fake Jean Grey essentially announces that the Inferno is coming. The X-Men aren’t even at the scene yet. I guess they’ll end up missing most of the demon invasion although I hope it is at least referenced. It was a rather huge deal so the big heroes should still be aware of what happened. While this comic may not have been my favorite, it did do a great job of adding a lot of context to what’s happening. Reading it weekly, I probably would have been more upset about the slow pace, but it does make this saga feel more like an event. Some of the modern day events feel a lot shorter because they’re over so quickly. That’s definitely not an issue that this event will have…for better or worse.

Overall, This is probably the strangest X-Men comic that I’ve ever read. The concept of a demon invasion is definitely interesting and these guys are more menacing than aliens. Demons almost feel a little out of place in Marvel, especially such realistic ones, but they have technically always been around. It just so happens that it’s in an X-Men comic instead of Ghost Rider. Honestly, the comic just needed more action and some bigger heroes to help things out. That would have done wonders since they could have actually saved some of the humans instead of just watching them all die. If not, they could have gone for a total horror angle although that may have been even more risky. If the idea of a horror/action comic sounds good to you than this could be up your alley. It’s probably the closest merge of the two genres that I’ve seen so far. If not, then you should check out the other X-Men comic that I just reviewed. This isn’t a bad comic, it’s just different. You’ll just have to check out for yourself whether it’s different in a good or bad way.

Overall 5/10

Superman Secret Identity Review

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It’s time to look at another Elseworlds Superman story. I believe Elseworlds refers to any alternate Superman story, but if that’s not true then you know what I mean. This one’s more of a character story so it deals with the Clark Kent aspect of Superman more than the classic hero form. It’s a fun enough story although this is definitely one of the less likable versions of Superman. Time to see how the hero would operate in a more realistic Earth where he is one of the only heroes…or as far as he knows. There is lightly hinted to be a bunch of other superheroes operating, but we don’t get to see them.

Clark Kent has been teased a lot because his parents named him that after the classic comic book character. Clark’s never liked the fact that people keep calling him Superman and then he also gets bullied at school. Luckily, this all changes when he discovers that he actually does have Superman’s powers. It is to a lesser degree as he can still be injured and being near the Sun doesn’t recharge his abilities. Still, it’s more than enough for him to be a hero, but what he really wants is to just lead a normal life with Lois while stopping some crimes as well. Can he achieve this perfect balance when the government is constantly at his heels?

The concept of having Superman in a normal world is always interesting. He would certainly be even more of a threat in the eyes of the government since there really wouldn’t be much that they could do to him at that point. Malloy is the main figure head for the government and he is actually pretty likable. He does his job quite well and really hounds Superman. Even after the two of them reach a mutual understanding where Superman will help him out in any tricky situations in exchange for the government stopping all efforts to find out Superman’s true identity, Malloy continues to mildly try from time to time. Eventually, both of them grow quite old and we even see Malloy retire. The mutual respect between the two was handled well and government agents don’t always have to be completely unreasonable stereotypes. Malloy was certainly much more realistic. Of course, it did help that Superman proved how easily it would be for him to take them all down if he was evil.

I did mention that I didn’t care all that much for Superman here. Well, that’s because the comic went a little too far to make him realistic. After all, this version is aware of his comic counterparts and as such, his personality is quite different. He tends to get angry with everyone a lot easier when they compare him to Superman and loses his cool at his colleagues as well when they make a few small jokes about it. Obviously, they shouldn’t overdo it since Superman doesn’t like that, but he didn’t really handle the situation well. He also started properly using his X-Ray vision after realizing that it would probably be harmful to other people, but I would have hoped that his morals would stop him from even attempting that in the first place. Likewise, the story of his Mom walking in on him in a dicey situation was also rather unnecessary. Beyond that, Superman was all right for the most part in his portrayal as just an average guy, but Superman should never be an ordinary person. He should always be a beacon of hope, a guy with absolute morals. This is not meant to be the real Superman of course, but that’s why he isn’t as likable as he could be.

Lois is also not as good as her comic counterpart of course, but she’s all right. She helps Superman through a lot of his decisions and overlooks the fact that he cracks a lot. She’s dependable and helps him solve all of his problems. Without Lois at his side, things probably would have been pretty dicey for him. Their two kids also get a small role towards the very end of the comic. There wasn’t much of a point to adding them, but since the comic showed Superman’s development from kid to old man, I suppose it was a good way of showing how much time has passed. Since they have powers of their own, he won’t have to worry about them too much.

The comic’s biggest flaw was probably the art. I definitely didn’t like it as it went for a gritty, indie-esque style. There were no flashy colors or awesome double spreads and instead it was just all darkly colored. The style didn’t work so well for the comic. There weren’t any real fight scenes so the art didn’t have to worry about that, but better art could definitely go a long way. The New 52 look may have shifted the tone a little, but it’d be worth it for the incredible character designs.

Still, the plot is more important in this case and the story was interesting. I ended up reading the full trade paperback in one batch since it was a lot of fun to read through. I won’t call it a great comic, but it was a pretty good one and makes for a good read. It’s always nice to read about the various portrayals of Superman and aside from the evil versions which I’m tired of, most of them tend to be quite good. Even if the character himself was lacking, the world around him was interesting. The government stole the show here although it was a shame that aside from Malloy, they were all a little shady and without morals.

Even the TV reporter who pretended to be a nice person turned out to be just another villain by the end. It’s easy to see why Superman doesn’t trust anyone with his secret identity aside from Lois. Meanwhile, he got to end his school days on a high note as he saved one of his classmates which earned him respect from the rest of the class. Even the bully complimented Clark and stopped messing with him after that. It’s always nice to see the bully finally stop once his victim has actually helped him out. Of course, it’s just as satisfying to see the bully get knocked out since it will encourage him not to be a bully at all, but we can always say that this bully stopped permanently after the experience.

While there were no fights, we did get a few action scenes. The big fire next to the school is one example of this and Superman also fell into a government trap a few times which resulted in some energy blasts and buildings breaking. Superman never goes down without a fight after all and you have to give the government some credit for having such large armaments at the ready. If nothing else, America is certainly prepared for any situation.

Overall, Superman Secret Identity is definitely a good comic to check out if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to wake up with Superman’s powers someday. It would mean that you would have a super life with two kids, a wife, and constant thrills by flying around all day. You could eat whatever you wanted whenever you wanted too since you could zoom over to Italy and buy a Deep Dish pizza before zooming to France and grabbing a Pepsi…because why not? The government would be after you, but as long as you weren’t too obvious you would probably be okay. I’m sure we’ve all thought about having Superman’s powers and I don’t even know what I’d do with them first. The possibilities are endless, but one thing’s for sure, I’d be going around the world trying out every limited edition snack that I could find. My super metabolism would prevent me from ever gaining any weight while still enjoying all of the flavors. That’s why the concept behind the story is so good and why it doesn’t work as well for Batman comics like Year One. I’ve never been tempted to wake up as a normal guy in a Bat costume. The gadgets are handy I guess, but not really for everyday life. I wouldn’t mind suddenly being a hand to hand master though.

Overall 7/10

Teen Titans Volume 1 It’s Our Right to Fight Review

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It’s time to look at the start of the New 52 Teen Titans run. I always thought the comics looked like fun with the dynamic covers and the cool new costumes. I can imagine how it may be a little too flashy for some readers, but it helped capture what the New 52 was supposed to be all about. The only thing that I was a little wary about is the fact that one of the main characters is gay and I believe that it may become a bit more of a focus in the future, but hopefully it simply remains a background element that doesn’t come into play. This comic series doesn’t need any romance of any kind. Simply focus on the action and this title should stay solid.

Red Robin/Tim Drake finds out that teenage meta humans are being targeted and kidnapped by an organization known as NOWHERE. He has written many blog posts to warn fellow heroes about this, but decides that he’ll finally have to step in to save them. He dons the Red Robin costume and finds Wonder Girl first. The two of them fight off the agents and Red Robin decides that he’ll save everyone else in the same way. Unfortunately, the two of them do not get along very well and the other members like Kid Flash, Bunker, Skitter, Solstice, and Danny are all not used to being on a team. Red Robin has his work cut out for them as the team ends the graphic novel embarking on their first big mission. They need to save Superboy!

There’s a lot of action in this first graphic novel. Superboy gets to fight the whole group of Teen Titans as he works for NOWHERE in this continuity. I suppose that they built him or that there will be a plot twist about that at some point. As with other modern day trades there are some events that happen in other issues so you won’t fully see them here. After all, Superboy already had his own comic series at the time so the timing must have been interesting. (Granted, the same thing happened in Civil War as well) You can still understand everything that is happening with no extra effort though. The best part of this comic was certainly the battle with Superboy.

As it stands, Superboy completely outclasses the Teen Titans in a fight though. This isn’t exactly evenly matched after all. Superboy is the strongest member around and since he has telekinesis at his disposal, he can even stop Kid Flash. I’ll still take classic Super Strength and speed like Superman any day, but it is always handy to have an extra power. Superboy seems like a reasonable guy even if he isn’t thinking things through a whole lot. It’s obvious that NOWHERE is suspect and even if his mission is to serve them, he should think about what kind of reception he’ll get for failing his mission. That was a good hero move on his part though.

The art is really good and continues to show why DC is leading the industry in this area. It holds its own as well as any other comic on the shelf and that is especially true for the action scenes and character designs. It’s been a long time since Red Robin was such a starring member so it’s good to see that his new design is so sharp. I imagine that Kid Flash’s is the one that people would find too colorful, but it works well for the character.

Unfortunately, the writing is what I’d call the weak point of the comic. The dialogue between Red Robin and Wonder Girl in particular can be a little sad as both of them really try your patience. A line should always be cool sounding or at least it should push the plot along. Some of the conversations that they have are just filler and usually it is just Wonder Girl accusing Red Robin of being a creep. He doesn’t seem to deny it typically so that doesn’t bode well for him at all. Even the conversation leading up to Bunko’s big revelation is rather forced as well. Characters don’t need to be talking about flirting all of the time!

Anyway, as you’d expect I didn’t think too highly of Red Robin. It’s unfortunate since I do like the Robins quite a bit, but he had too many iffy moments. Red Robin tends to look good when he’s on his own taking down criminals and making deductions, but he’ll have to work on himself when he’s with the team. I’m sure that he’ll gradually get used to being a team player. As it is, he also makes a very questionable call at the end of the comic which I naturally disagree with. He lets other meta humans get hunted and injured just so he can have some more proof. Definitely a bad call.

Wonder Girl plays up the “tough girl” angle a little too much most of the time, but granted I can see why she is always annoyed at Red Robin. He constantly calls her Wonder Girl even though she doesn’t want to be called that. She is not as eager to fight as Wonder Woman, but still seems to get a thrill out of it so that’s always a good personality trait. She’s easily the strongest member of the team, but not quite as Superboy’s level yet. Her dialogue needs to get better for her to be more likable, but she’s still better than Red Robin, Bunko, and Skitter.

Skitter has very weak will power. She lets her animal form take control rather easily and comes across as a self-defeating person the entire time. She definitely needs to work on getting a little more confident. Her Skitter form has a cool design and seems to be decently strong so she should grow into a being a good character. She just needs more will power and confidence is a good way to increase that quality. Bunko was a fan of Red Robin from the start so he’s one of the only members who is really glad to be on the team. His telekinetic powers will surely be useful as the fights go on. That being said, his costume is a complete rip off from Iron Fist’s. DC didn’t even try to give him something original. Right now he is a rather bland character, but at least he is optimistic which is more than I can say for some of the others. Danny has no role as of yet and he’s a living street. That’s got to be one of the worst powers of all time. I hope it doesn’t hurt when people step on him. There’s really nothing to say about him at the moment though there may never be since it seems like he’ll never take human form. I suppose having enough written lines as an object could still give him a personality…maybe.

Solstice has mysterious dark powers so it’s good that Raven’s not on the team yet. She seems fairly powerful, but we haven’t really gotten to see her fight yet. Energy Projection and flight is a good start though. She is the only one to realize that Red Robin is up to something iffy and she is also very optimistic. Solstice is definitely off to a solid start as one of the best members, maybe even the best. Kid Flash acts as you would expect him too. He has great speed and it naturally goes to his head. The concept of a backdraft following him into a burning house makes sense even if it feels like he just had some bad luck there. I could swear that the Flash has done the same thing many times with no ill side effects. Kid Flash will be integral to the plot as time travelling shenanigans are already starting and Kid Flash may not be what he seems. It’ll be sort of neat to see his true story, but it’s not interesting enough to warrant a full comic flashback so hopefully it just gets a few panels. His blue costume seems neat though.

The comic ends with a fairly great cliffhanger as the founder of NOWHERE shows up to fight the full team along with an injured Superboy. That should make for a solid fight even if this guy seems completely outclassed. His Grim Reaper design is another great one and the New 52 has done a good job creating original villains. His powers seem shadow based and those are usually difficult to fight against. I look forward to seeing what he has got in the next volume.

Overall, This was a solid comic. It ends up being just shy of the 8 due to the weak writing at times, but still makes for a fun read. It’s a good start to the Teen Titans adventures. The roster is also surprisingly strong as Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Superboy are all power hitters with Solstice and Bunker being decent in combat as well. It’ll be interesting to see which villains are pitted against this group as it will be tough to stop them. After enough issues, I naturally want to see the Justice League fight the Teen Titans. It should be a blowout, but just the concept of a crossover fight is always fun. On an ending note, I’d also like to point out that the group fight against Superboy is exactly how all team comics should begin.

Overall 7/10

Civil War Review

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After all these years, I have finally gotten a chance to read the famous Civil War arc. Due to the movie recently coming out, it makes sense that a lot of copies from the comic would be lying around. It certainly holds up as one of Marvel’s greatest events although you do lose a bit of the narrative by not reading any of the tie ins. I still say that big Marvel/DC events should be a little longer (10+ issues) but a lot still happens here and it is quite epic. This was back during Marvel’s prime and everyone is solidly in character although the ending is pretty iffy.

A few teenage heroes fail to stop a villain named Nitro and a school full of kids is blown up. Iron Man decides that heroes should no longer run rampant and agrees with SHIELD and the Government on the Registration Act. Heroes have to formally register and give out their secret identities if they want to continue operating. Moreover, the government will be making many more decisions when it comes to crime fighting. Captain America disagrees with this law and evades arrest by SHIELD. He gains some more sympathizers and the Civil War is now on!

Captain America’s side is definitely portrayed as the right one in this battle. The registration quickly starts to become rather extreme and SHIELD cannot be trusted. Iron Man’s side also begins to hire murdering villains as allies to round up the heroes. They even build a very morally iffy jail in the Negative Zone to contain the heroes and clone Thor. The tie ins typically chose sides as well so sometimes Captain America’s group would come across as a little iffy as well, but through it all they were the “heroes” this time.

The art is excellent and easily one of Marvel’s more impressive creations. The fight scenes are handled very well and do a good job of having a serious vibe to them while still feeling like comic book fights. It’s definitely fun to see all of the heroes on panel at once and the event does feel like a big crossover epic. I do miss some of these classic costumes like Cyclops, Captain America, and Spider-Man’s. Before the gimmicks, there were the original costumes and those are the ones that are present in Civil War.

Before going any further into the comic analysis, I can safely say that I am on Team Captain America as well. For starters, SHIELD can never be trusted. There are always Hydra agents in their ranks and as soon as this sensitive data is put on a database it will be hacked. Sharing their secret identities is very risky for the heroes families and friends. I know that Spider-Man discussed the situation with Mary Jane and Aunt May first, but it was definitely not a good decision on his part. He rectified this later on, but he has dozens of enemies and most of them would definitely wreck his life in the blink of an eye. Especially the local ones like Hammerhead and Kingpin who could easily make a move. If there was a way to make the whole process absolutely safe, then I would probably agree with Team Iron Man. Unfortunately, there isn’t and there never will be. That’s simply the nature of comic books.

Also, if you really think about it, this won’t stop a similar incident from occurring. Sure, the teen heroes wouldn’t be able to have a public livestream, but they could always do it in the sneak. Not to mention that there will always be heroes who won’t register. The only difference from now is that more heroes will be hunted like the mutants are. I’m sure the heroes wish that they could be in DC land where the heroes typically aren’t attacked quite as often. At the very least, the government seems to tolerate them.

Captain America’s a great leader as you would expect. He shows off his military tactics and does a good job of pressing the advantage on Iron Man’s team. His plan for Hulkling was also well done. As mentioned earlier, I did not agree with his final move though. Sure, there was a lot of property damage, but he basically deserted everyone who had been following him. He just left them to dry. People are going to get injured regardless and the heroes did try to evacuate the area. The humans probably just hid and decided to attack voluntarily. Just because the civilians are on Team Iron Man doesn’t mean that it is the right side. Cap ends up getting shot in a story shortly after this one so he may want to rethink the whole thing.

I do agree with his move to have Punisher leave the team though since he is a murderer. That being said, this is one of the cooler appearances from the Punisher. He took down 4 villains with ease and he played a big role in infiltrating the tower for the plans. He simply follows a more lethal methodology than Cap and isn’t going to change anytime soon. He doesn’t aim to be a hero, he just wants to destroy as many villains as possible. It’s what makes him fall to their level, but he is certainly a lot more likable than the average villain. Refusing to fight Cap was also an intense move that took character.

Iron Man is naturally not all that likable in this one. He does really try to bring Cap on his side, but there’s no way that it was going to work. Not to mention that Iron Man really tries to take charge immediately and that really defeats the chances of having a big debate about the whole thing. He comes across as rather trigger happy when Spider-Man decides to leave as well so the fight was really unavoidable. Iron Man definitely got lucky there too since he’s not quite ready to deal with Spider-Man just yet. If you were getting sympathetic to his side then no worries, SHIELD quickly steps in again and tries to destroy Spider-Man. They don’t really take prisoners at all and show a general disregard for the heroes.

Building the Thor clone was another big strike against his side. Iron Man’s not completely unreasonable though so don’t think that he is a downright bad character. He does a decent job of championing his side, but I feel like his mind is changed way too easily. All it takes is one lady spitting at him for Stark to take the whole thing seriously. I think he should be able to stay true to himself a little more strongly than that. Mr. Fantastic was fairly cool. I do consider him to be one of the more underrated Marvel characters at the moment, but he’ll change that soon enough. He can be a little inconsistent though. Despite the fact that Invisible Woman is on the other side, he does make sure that the government won’t arrest her regardless of the outcome. That’s the kind of move that I would hope to see from some of the others make, but they typically don’t have the guts.

Spider-Man looks great in this trade. This was back when people took him seriously and he’s treated like an adult hero who commands respect. He’s seen as no different from Cap, Iron Man, and the other big heroes which is as it should be. He can hold his own in a fight and certainly goes through the wringer. During the story arc he takes on about 5 fighters at once and defeats them all. He also seems to have had the edge against Cap and Iron Man as well. I was really glad to see him lose the Iron Spider armor though. It’s fine for once in a while, but I definitely prefer his traditional look. His portrayal was spot on. He made a mistake, but doesn’t hesitate to fix it.

I can’t take Namor seriously and still don’t like the guy. I don’t believe that his forces were the game changer that they were made out to be. By and large, Cap’s team was seriously outgunned though. Even by the end when the numbers were almost equal, the fighting forces were not. Iron Man’s team has the Sentry on it. Isn’t that basically game over since Thor and Hulk aren’t in the equation? Ms. Marvel is strong as well, but as far as I know she was on Tony’s side as well. If not, she could at least give Sentry a decent fight. Cap’s team was starting to have the upper hand by the end though and I won’t call plot hax on that considering just how many heroes were involved. There may have been some big shots that I am unaware of.

Maria Hill gets a pretty humiliating ending as Civil War comes to a close. She was particularly unreasonable throughout the arc so it makes sense that Iron Man should get the last laugh here. SHIELD is one of the main reasons why I couldn’t be on Iron Man’s side so it was good to see her demoted. It also looked good on Iron Man’s part since he had to notice that she was really jeopardizing the team’s chances at winning over the crowds. With her out of the way, Iron Man should be able to start making a positive difference. He may have been on the wrong side, but he can still make the best out of the situation.

There were certainly a lot of other characters involved in the story and I can safely say that they all looked rather good. I’m a little disappointed that the X-Men didn’t get involved, but it makes sense why they could not. They would join Cap’s side and then it would barely be a fight by that point since Iron Man’s side wouldn’t stand a chance. Just Cyclops and Emma Frost are intimidating enough, but the X-Men had legions of members at the time. Even if Iron Man’s side brought in every villain from the jail cells and threw in the Sentinels they wouldn’t be guaranteed of victory. They would guarantee themselves a bad rep and a lot of civilian casualties though.

Overall, Civil War was definitely a game changer for Marvel. Marvel always likes to say that each event is the biggest one yet and that it will change things. Sometimes that’s true and sometimes it isn’t, but Civil War was definitely a title that turned the tides. It made things rather rough for the heroes for quite some time. After all, the ending to this comic is pretty somber and it does start to lead into Dark Reign and Siege. Ultimately, Iron Man basically agrees that the Civil War was a bad idea. The sequel just started so it will be interesting to see how that one is. I actually think it should be fairly great, but I don’t see it possibly matching up to this one. This one was just a blast and I highly recommend it to all Marvel fans. It’s a very engaging story with fast pacing that never lets up. It’s the big character crossover that fans have always wanted much like the Secret Wars and Infinity Gauntlet arcs. The only difference was that this time it was heroes against heroes.

Overall 9/10

Scooby Doo Team Up Volume 2 Review

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It’s been a while, but it’s time to finally check out the next volume in the Scooby Doo team up series. This one brings adventures with more DC characters as well as classics like the Jetsons and the Flintstones. Needless to say, The Mystery Gang is always ready to go and capture some ghosts no matter where and when they are. It’s another solid installment in this series. Now all we need is a team up with the Crime Syndicate so the heroes can unknowingly help them commit a crime for some extra tension.

The first story involves the Flintstones. Scooby Doo and the gang were sent back in time when the Flintstone professor started to mess around with his time machine. He underestimated his genius apparently. Either way, it’s good that Fred and the gang are around because a ghost is haunting the opera. The gang may be a little confused as to how they got to the past, but that won’t stop them from uncovering this menace! I’m not a huge fan of the Flintstones, but the cast seems fairly standard as far as comedy shows go. I don’t like the little kid with super strength, but the others seem all right. Fred Flintstone nearly got to escape and have his fun bowling night, but it wasn’t to be.

It even ended with a cliffhanger as the group was sent too far into the future by mistake so they got to meet up with the Jetsons. The Jetsons was always the cooler show and it also made for a better comic> The gang has to find a way to get back to the past, but it’ll be tricky since another ghost has shown up. The boss of the main Jetson is also forcing him to work on a top secret project which has made his family members a little tense since he hasn’t been home all that much lately. The boss is definitely a good character and he even talks back to Daphne and the gang. His rival is even better though as he laughs and scares the main boss whenever he shows up. This rival seems to be winning the company battle in terms of profits and it is easy to see why. He’s got that natural charisma after all.

Another story featured Superman and it’s always great to see him. The Mystery Gang helps him stop the Prankster, but in the process Superman is exposed to Red Kryptonite and turns into a Super Monster. Lois and Jimmy try to change into their super powered forms, but Shaggy and Scooby steal the elixirs and use it on themselves first. Now they’ll have to defeat Superman and with a little help from Krypto…they can actually pull it off. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang works on putting the Prankster behind bars for good. Naturally, the heroes could never hope to stop Superman without plot hax, but this is a comedy adventure so we can let it slide more. The Mystery Gang likely realizes that Superman is too strong as well. This portrayal of Superman was also good overall as he took down 4 super villains at once without any effort. That’s definitely the kind of strength that I like to see from him.

Later on, we also went to Gotham City where Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy called for the help of the Scooby Doo gang. They have a cursed jewel that has been spoiling all of their robberies as of late. Fred and the others are confident that it is Batman posing as the ghost so they decide to play along. Unfortunately, their guess was wrong as per usual. They will need some help though since the villains start to get serious. This issue had a bigger cast of super heroes than the others which was nice to see. It’s always nice to see Gotham City as well and while all of the stories are fun, they are at their best when the team up is with DC comic characters.

Another crossover was with a group of people that I actually didn’t recognize. Essentially, they are archaeologists who stop Aliens and save the planet on a regular basis. They go along with the Mystery Gang to Monster Island to stop a villain with mad ambitions. Both groups get their turn to shine as the Mystery Gang uncovers the crime while the other guys make sure to blow up the island afterwards. The insults were definitely real this time though and the Mystery Inc was always on the wrong side of it thanks to Shaggy and Scooby not helping their case. Still, it’s why I definitely like Fred as the leader. He doesn’t back down to these guys and continues to talk tough the whole time. Nobody pushes him around! This was actually the best comic in the batch so it broke the “DC Comics are the best stories” trend that I just mentioned.

Finally, we have a story with a talking Beever Squirrel apparently, who is actually a secret agent. You thought that 007 was good? No?….well, this guy’s 000 so he is definitely an improvement. He has scissors in his hat and he can do all kinds of neat stuff with his gadgets. He constantly ridicules the Mystery Gang for their conspicuous attire and vehicle, but he ends up being even worse than them. He was actually very annoying as a result and this was the weakest comic of the batch. The Beever just isn’t a cool guest star and his universe doesn’t seem all that interesting. Who knows, maybe it just gets better over time or something. Still a decent comic though, it just loses out.

The art is fairly good as well. It does a really good job of capturing all of the character designs. All of the characters look as they should be. It’s good to see Harley Quinn in her true costume as the comics have moved away from it. Everyone else looks like how they would be if they had been in Super Friends. The Mystery Inc characters all look good as well and it’ll remind you of the original show. So far the art has been consistent so hopefully the artist stays on board for as long as possible. (Although this collection already had 2 and they both looked rather similar)

Overall, The Scooby Doo Team Up adventures is a fun series. It’s like Batman’66 in the sense that you know what you will get each time. It’s a very consistent comic that I don’t expect to ever have a bad volume. The formula works and that will ensure that the series never loses its course. If you want to see some fun adventures with the Mystery Inc and various DC characters, then this is definitely the title for you. Hopefully the series continues to go on for quite a while. It feels good to be reading an ongoing Scooby Doo series to go along with all the others.

Overall 7/10

FCBD 2016 Boom Summer Blast Review

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I had been avoiding this comic for as long as possible, but eventually it was time to take the plunge. This one brings several comics with it, but unfortunately none of them looked very good. Still, maybe they would have potential right? It didn’t get off to a good start though as the first comic is about a guy who catches a cold. He asks people for help, but nobody knows how to help him. Someone gives him tea, but it doesn’t work. The art is quite bad and the story is not engaging for an instant. Let’s hope that it gets better from here.

The next story is about a mouse who is alone and doesn’t like to be alone. The main reason why this comic is bad is due to the very hard to read font. You’ll be very tempted to just skip it all since the dialogue doesn’t add anything to the story and simply wastes your time. The art isn’t very good here either and comes across as lazy since the panels aren’t too large and don’t have a lot of details. Yep, another strike for the comic. The next story was from Cloud and at least it had an actual plot, but the art was reeeeeeeeally bad. I really can’t emphasize enough how poor the whole comic looked and that hurt quite a bit. The actual premise has potential as a prince wants a wishing stone to change something from the past as well as the future, but a thief shows up and steals the orb. The Prince will now have to try and find the thief to get it back. This could be fun, but the art ensures that I won’t be checking this series out anytime soon.

Adventure Time got a story next and naturally it was about the heroes going to a place that stinks. The dog doesn’t want to go, but he’s coerced into doing so and as a result, he loses his job to hit it big as a writer. Them’s the breaks I suppose and he should have known better than to have gone to an interview like that right after jumping in a swamp to fight the living embodiment of filth. Still, this story was relatively decent and it had the best art yet so that’s a good thing.

The next story was about a group of hikers who decide to tell each other ghost stories after eating plants all day. It’s about the Shining so everyone dies and that’s the cliffhanger. I know that the story was (not) thrilling….but that’s not much of a cliffhanger since it is all just a story. The main characters seem incredibly unlikable as well and bringing up the fact that they may have just eaten something disgusting doesn’t help the issue either. The art was decent though so that’s something.

The final story is a mystery title that seems to be similar to Nancy Drew and a Suite Life on Deck. The art is fairly good and the main character seems decent. I don’t like the little kid and his lollipop since he seems like a huge ingrate, but luckily he’ll probably never appear again so that’s not much of an issue. Once the cases actually start, I could see this story actually being good. It’s easily the best one in the batch if you ask me. Unfortunately, it certainly cannot save the rest of the stories in this collection. Free Comic Book Day 2016 has ended on a rather low note, but it was still a decently good batch overall. I look forward to seeing what the next batch has in store!

Overall 3/10

New Avengers Volume 2 Review

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I actually read this comic many months ago, but haven’t had a chance to write the review now. Well, the epic Incursions Arc reaches a boiling point and this is certainly the height of the whole thing. It’s technically still going on to an extent, but the team has had enough of it all so this will probably be the final true battle revolving around it. The series has been leading up to this moment with some time and even survived various tie-in issues to Infinity in order to get here. Without further ado, let’s discuss this title.

The collection was quite large as it was longer than that of a normal trade paperback, but the majority of the issues were about the big confrontation with the homage to the Justice League. Earth was coming under attack from another Incursion. If you don’t recall what that means, it essentially refers to the phenomenon of two Earths starting to exist in the same place. If they collide for even an instant, then both planets die along with the Solar System. The only way to prevent this is to destroy the other Earth. For decades, many planets tried to find another way around this, but no such way was found. This has been occurring for all of eternity with numerous versions of the Avengers so the modern day ones have finally acknowledged that they don’t think it is possible to avoid this fate. Their only choices now are to simply accept their destruction or to destroy the other Earth to spare their own. The team has many debates about that, but at least they’ve been lucky with the fact that the other Earths have been uninhabited..until now.

The Earth that appeared this time is home to the Justice League. Their Earth is the only one besides the 616 (Marvel’s main Universe) Earth to have survived multiple Incursions to live til this point. Both Earths are undefeated, but only one planet can walk away from this one alive. The New Avengers roster is fairly stacked at this point (Since it is really the Illuminati and not the New Avengers per say) since they have Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Namor, Hulk, Black Panther, Black Bolt, Beast and Mr. Fantastic on their side. However, the Justice League team has all of their signature members as well. One factor that helps the Avengers not get completely decimated in the opening seconds is that fate was not kind to DC’s team. When their Earth first appears, it happens immediately after the League had just finished fighting off another Earth. Dealing with one Incursion is already tough, but two of them in a row? The League is exhausted before the fight with the Avengers has even begun. (The previous Incursion had them fight against power mages who had previously wrecked the Illuminati with ease when it was just a few of them. The Justice League had to take on dozens of them in a planet wide invasion, but they pulled through.)

That was a mouthful, but some backstory is pretty important to fully appreciate the stakes. It is as much of a battle of morals as it is physically. The Avengers have been skirting the issue of whether or not they would pull the trigger and decide to essentially destroy a whole planet of innocent people in order to save their own skins and that of the planet’s. They would be choosing to swap their own lives for others, thus saying that theirs are more important. It’s a very dicey conundrum and one that is easily seen as morally wrong, but still hard to stop. After all, you’ll naturally be tempted to save your friends and family over total strangers. In the end, this is that situation, but on a grand scale. The fact that it is so grand also makes the whole thing very impersonal as it all becomes a lot of statistics instead of lives.

In the end, The Avengers mostly make the right call although they weren’t as decisive as I would have liked. They decide not to destroy the planet, but they also don’t decide to destroy the device. One by one they all simply say that they can’t do it and leave the machine there so it was easy for someone to walk up and press the button anyway. Hopefully they will be more alert next time, but it doesn’t change the fact that they just let an entire planet blow up on their watch. This was definitely not their greatest moment and will be something that they likely won’t want to share anytime soon.

The tensions with Black Panther and Namor have escalated as well. Black Panther now knows that Namor was responsible for the massacre in Wakanda and having a planetary genocide to add to that rap sheet doesn’t help matters either. It’ll be tough to get to Namor now though since the graphic novel ends with the Sub Mariner forming his own Cabal. The group is fairly powerful with heavy weights like Thanos, Terrax, and the mysterious lady from another dimension in their ranks. If necessary, this group could likely defeat the Illuminati and with ease I might add.

The author likes his use of synergy and repetition, but with a twist. For example, the speech that Namor gives at the end is the same one that Mr. Fantastic gave to the heroes at the beginning. It’s the exact same dialogue word for word, but the words have been twisted thanks to the context of how Namor is saying it all. It was definitely a solid piece of writing and the whole collection is quite good with that. There are no poorly written scenes in the entirety of the collection and a lot of plots are juggled around. Once you start reading this saga, you really can’t put the book down. The saga even has its own lore and universe built to support it without interfering with the rest of the Marvel Universe. This story is essentially taking place in a vacuum. It doesn’t effect the other titles, but you can still feel that the stakes are real. For example, I like all of the original characters that were added for this event.

Black Swan is the main one and she gives the heroes the various ideas for how to destroy worlds. She’s the dark voice urging them to give in and just destroy their obstacles. Acting as a bad influence to the team, she tends to succeed in breaking them all down slowly but surely. Her powers are vague, but she seems to be quite powerful. Her standard looking energy attacks are deadlier than they appear to be. She also got an origin story towards the end of the saga, which shed some light on her motivations, but she’s still an odd character. At the very least none of the factions should trust her.

All right, let’s talk about the Justice League. They were easily the best characters in the comic and I was rooting for them right from the start. It’s hard not to since they appear to be completely heroic and just want to protect their planet. From their side of things, the Avengers just look underhanded. As soon as the Justice League turned their backs, Namor threw his spear into one of their members. Sure, the Illuminati didn’t think that Namor would be that corrupt, but the whole thing is on them. The Justice League tried for a peaceful solution, but this destroyed negotiations so they decided to fight. As it stands, Superman was completely decimating the Avengers. (Not even going to bother with code-names) The Justice League did a great job of showing that unity and experience can defeat individually powerful fighters any time.

While they relied on heroism and good ole fashioned team-work, the Avengers had their Namor traitor and Dr. Strange, who decided to sacrifice his soul to get help from a demon. That did give him a massive power boost and ultimately it is what turned the tides against the Justice League, but it was definitely a very dicey decision. The Avengers had to pull out all of the stops for this fight. It was great to see Green Lantern, The Flash, Batman, and Superman in a Marvel comic. There was even a Martian Manhunter member although I don’t recall if there was a Wonder Woman fighter in the group. I was on Team DC as expected, but even the Marvel fans reading this may side with them given the circumstances. I hope to see them all again soon.

Even if I was rooting against them, the Illuminati members are all rather solid as well. This is not counting Namor of course as he is just another petty villain in the end. Mr. Fantastic was a bit out of character during some points as he was overly protective and making quite a lot of threats. It seems like this arc started to slowly corrupt him. Iron-Man and Beast retained their composure and were fairly in character even if there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for Iron Man to crack jokes. Black Bolt didn’t say much, (Shocker) but he also made the right calls in the end. Hulk was really just here to fight and get stomped by Superman. It’s a solid cast, but with the team fractured and more Incursions to come, what will they do? They have essentially decided to just let Earth die and I believe that all of this ends up tying into Secret Wars so maybe there won’t need to be much of a conclusion in the series.

It almost goes without saying that the art is excellent for this collection. It’s some of Marvel’s best work in that area and can hold its own against the DC powerhouses. As a comic, this one is also one of the best titles out there. This New Avengers run may be the best Avengers arc that I’ve read. Currently, I’d say that the best Marvel arcs are Infinity Gauntlet, Civil War, and X-Sanction. We can’t forget Secret Wars and World War Hulk either, although while I love that final arc, it is a bit of a step down from some of the others. If I had to rank them all (Counting tie-in issues that I’ve read for them) It would go: Infinity Gauntlet>Secret Wars>Civil War> New Avenger Incursions> X-Sanction> World War Hulk. As of now, I haven’t read much of the other big Marvel events like AVX, the new Secret Wars, or the new Infinity. The big X-Men arcs are solid as well, but none of them even come close to ranking up there at this point in time. There are probably other arcs around that I’m not thinking of at the moment, but Marvel does have a ton of them in the lineup so it would take forever if I was actually listing all of them.

Marvel’s events have been consistently good even if some of the later ones look a little anticlimactic. The new Secret Wars always looked rather boring from what I’ve seen and the new Infinity seems like the Infinity Gauntlet, but on a much smaller scale. Luckily, tie-ins help to stretch out the events. Infinity should have good fights though so hopefully Secret Wars threw some in there as well. Plus, if it does tie in to a lot of the material from this series, then that will help bump it up quite a bit. Personally, I think Secret Invasion looks like an epic arc with all the intrigue of who is turned and who isn’t, but I know that the comic doesn’t have the greatest reputation so it’ll be interesting to see how that one is someday. I don’t know what big Marvel event is coming up next, but I’ve been rather out of touch with the comics lately so I’ll work on getting a little more involved again.

Overall, This is definitely a comic that I highly recommend to all comic readers. Even if you haven’t read the previous volumes yet, you’ll be able to quickly get into the situation thanks to the recap at the beginning and the fact that the heroes will remind you a few times. This comic is very dialogue heavy, but also has a lot of action so it makes for a good mix. The comic should take you a little while to read as a result. The highlight is definitely the fight with the Justice League. While the League should have won even if they were already exhausted, out of energy, and got hit by a sucker punch at the start, it was still a good fight. It’ll be tough for this comic to be surpassed by other Marvel comics with how solid this was. It’s hard to imagine another event being this engaging at the moment either.

Overall 9/10