Tag Archives: Hercules

Why Saber is the most overrated Fate character

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Man this editorial has been a long time coming. I’ve had it planned ever since I saw Ufotable’s Unlimited Blade Works adaption although I’d say the first inspiration was from Studio Deen’s fusion adaption of Fate plus the other routes. I had some issues getting the gifs set up and finally solved that issue yesterday. Now you may be thinking how can Saber be the most overrated character? Shouldn’t that be Gilgamesh? Well, I admit that a case can be made for Gilgamesh being overhyped as well. Particularly since the creator of the series said Gilgamesh is powerful enough to end the whole Grail War in a night if he felt so inclined, yet he gets served up every time the tournament starts. So I can see why that feeling would be there but he’s not going around losing to just anyone and that’s the big difference here. Let’s take a deep analysis of how Saber performs here and see if I can convince you that she is the most overrated character in Fate.

Now some quick rules of engagement here. For starters when I say overrated I’m talking about in universe not out of it. I think it might be similar both ways but I don’t keep up with the Fate fandom the same way I keep up with most others. The Reddit would be too dangerous with spoilers and such at this point. Additionally I am really focusing on the Unlimited Blade Works route as that is often considered to be the most iconic path of the series and is considered first when talking about Fate. Additionally, I haven’t seen Heaven’s Feel yet anyway. Now I will present my case.

Disclaimer: It goes without saying but this editorial will contain spoilers for Fate Stay Night, I will also be referencing Fate/Zero, and Fate Go to a small extent. If you have not watched these things or read the novel/web games, you’ll want to side step this editorial and check those out first. Thank you for stopping by though!

Of course, to show why she is overrated I must first establish how the show and characters hype her up from the start. You can’t pick apart a character if you don’t know how strong they were supposed to be at the start right? So Saber is the incarnation of King Arthur, a legend so great that I don’t need to explain here. To be more exact, a “Saber” is a class of servant summoned in the Holy Grail War. It is considered the most powerful class by a decent margin. No matter what series you watch, the characters are always talking about how they would want a Saber since that can end the war real quick. I’m just more used to calling Artoria, “Saber” since she is the most iconic servant in that class. So Saber is summoned in the strongest class and she is already supposed to be one of the more impressive legends.
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Now Fate has a ton of legends like Hercules, Medusa, Da Vinci, so I’m not saying King Arthur is the best but at the very least she is always treated as a top tier servant. Your legend plays a strong part in how powerful you are and the skills at your disposal. Saber has her famous Excalibur equipped and she even has her shield which regenerates her injuries and can even bring you back from the brink of death. Her Noble Phantasm is a powerful shockwave/energy blast which can rip the sky asunder. Her sword is also invisible by default which makes blocking it a lot more difficult.

So now we’ve gotten Saber’s skills into the mix here. Her legend is also solidified but now let’s talk about the hype that the characters give her. Rin throws a whole fit when she isn’t able to summon Saber because she knows that the balance of power has just shifted. Kiritsugu, the man with 100 plans took extra care to summon her because he knew this was the greatest path to winning the Grail War and the group he was with made sure to make this happen. Keep in mind that he desperately wants to win to achieve his ambitions and is generally considered to be one of the best strategists in the series and he admits that she is the strongest. It is established early on that Saber is quite crucial to at least having a great advantage in this whole tournament.
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Yet….that hype dies down almost immediately. Now Fate is a series that is huge in part because of how it treats most of its legends with such respect. People have fun seeing their culture’s champions actually getting to fight against the others and looking good. Aside from legends who are based on evil people like Jack The Ripper, each character usually gets to show off their ideals and fight rather well. So you’re never expecting a full stomp or anything like that but based on the hype of King Arthur and her strongest class, we are expecting that she should best all of these guys, especially if it’s a pure one on one fight right?

Well, her first fight upon being summoned is to fight Lancer and it’s fair to say right off the bat that she was on the losing side here. His ability to reverse cause and effect may not have destroyed her due to her passive ability to negate magical effects but he did land a hit and was still at full power and could have launched his Noble Phantasm again. Could she have blocked this with hers? It didn’t seem as if she would have the time but even if their blows canceled out, her lack of mana reserves would have come back to haunt her. She definitely loses this fight and this is when she is a freshly summoned servant against a guy who just finished battling with another powerful servant. So at full power she could not beat a weakened servant? That’s not great and this happens almost immediately in the series so I was surprised she did not do better.
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Next we are introduced to Hercules and this really did not help Saber’s case. He is introduced as someone with enough mana to destroy the rest of the servants even if they teamed up. Now that’s way too much hype and I don’t think anyone believed that for a second but it is still clear that he could beat Saber one on one and this is basically stated. In fact he does this with relative ease when you consider the fact that he won even when she was teaming up with Archer. So now that’s two fights where she did not look very good and we’re still in the opening segments of the war.
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Saber does defeat Rider rather easily when they fight one on one so I’ll give her that. Rider may not be the most powerful fighter out here but a win is a win so that’s still something to feel good about. Her next tough match was when she had to go up against Caster and her master Kuzuki. Now even I don’t buy this moment so I’ll cut her a bit of slack here but she actually gets crushed by a human. Kuzuki is able to block Saber’s attack and then goes into a combo that completely takes her out.
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Sure, he is amped up but that should not be nearly enough to compensate for the power of a servant. There’s just absolutely no way he should be able to beat Saber here and certainly not to do so with this much ease. That was just a bit much but I have to include it because this was Saber’s lowest moment. The fight should have gone the way the Kuzuki vs Archer battle went to be honest. Kuzuki was weakened at that point but it should have been that one sided.

I don’t have any qualms with Caster holding her own against Saber because magic is tough to fight against. I suspect Saber would win in a prolonged battle as well. Maybe she should have won easier but I can let that slide since the fight was interrupted and Shirou/hostages were getting in the way the whole time. With no distractions she could have won this and losses with hostages in the mix don’t count.

Assassin’s fight against Saber is definitely a critical one for my case here. He is the servant of another servant and isn’t even a real mythical hero. He is made up from a story and has some of the worst stats for a servant in the fate verse. He is skilled yes, but not so much so that he should be defeating Saber, the most powerful class of servant right? Well, he wins this fight with relative ease. Part of the issue is that Saber holds back for far too long but that’s a risk you take when underestimating the enemy so it doesn’t take away from his victory in the slightest.
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He just won with pure swordplay and perhaps the most impressive part here is that he had no super special abilities. Yes his ability to swing his sword apparently breaks the laws of reality and causes some kind of portal effect but it’s still him just swinging his swords really hard. He got underestimated and Saber paid the price. So that’s another loss to a servant right there which was not a good look for her.

We then get to the final battle where she goes up against Archer…and is getting absolutely dominated. So now is when I should address the common counter point which is that Saber only looks so weak because Shirou doesn’t have a lot of magical circuits so he is always limiting the flow of mana to Saber. A servant cannot fight for very long without a master after all and so you need a good one. There are two reasons this doesn’t hold up though. The first is that her opening battle against Lancer where she could not claim victory happened while she was at full power and was just summoned so mama would not be a concern yet.
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Then we’ve got the big nail in the coffin. It turns out that Archer didn’t have a master for a little while and yet he was able to fight well. He broke his pacts with Rin and Caster yet he was still able to overpower Saber initially and he was able to fight on par with Shirou. That’s lowballing him though, he was clearly winning and he still had enough mana to use his reality marble noble phantasm. So the lack of mana excuse from Saber doesn’t work so well since Archer had to fight without being given any mana and was still doing good. Saber only ends up taking the edge when she makes a new pact and gets her energy refilled to 100%. Before that moment both combatants had not been at full power but Archer had been in that state for a longer period of time so you felt like that should have been an easy win for Saber.

There’s also her fight against Gilgamesh where she was being overwhelmed in the first show but that one we don’t need to worry about since he would beat just about anyone. It only hurts from a hype perspective since Saber was introduced as the strongest class and yet she was quickly overtaken by Hercules and Gilgamesh who were both said to be more powerful as soon as they appeared. Saber’s hype just ended up vanishing as a result. Let’s just recap her track record here.
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She lost to Kuzuki, Archer, Gilgamesh, Assassin, and Hercules. She was losing to Lancer and the only one she flat out defeated was Rider who always seems like the weakest servant by far in Fate Stay Night. (A far cry from the hero in Fate/Zero who seemed to be one of the most powerful servants) This track record is not good for the servant who was hyped to be the most powerful one initially and this is why I choose her as the most overrated character in universe. She just did not end up clinching out the win when it counted and that’s a bad look for her. I expected so much more out of Saber from a power perspective and I don’t think that’s unreasonable given her stature. At least in Stay Night she did not live up to the hype.

I won’t really jump into the spin-offs much for this editorial but she tends to fare a bit better there. In Grand Order she seemed to have a good setup going but it’s hard to say how much was her strength and how much was Archer helping her out. In Fate/Zero she tends to do better as she fought well against Berserker and held her own with Lancer. Would she have lost the fight with Lancer? Perhaps but it’s hard to say since their fights kept getting interrupted but either way the showing was on point.

So that wraps up my case for why Saber is the most overrated character in Fate. I’d say the fights just speak for themselves and mainly this happens because the series hyped her up so much. If it did not and treated the Saber class as just any other then there wouldn’t be a problem. It would actually go for the underdog kind of feel then and I dare say that this would have worked out very smoothly. After all in the series it is safe to say that Saber is still equal to the others at best or slightly weaker at worst but either way there isn’t much of a gap there. So it doesn’t make sense why they give her so much hype. I do like Saber as a character but whenever someone mentions her as being one of the most powerful servants then it’s time to look at the fights and see if you agree.

Jaina Solo vs Hercules

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Suggested by iKnowledge This match will play out in a pretty similar way to the last one. Hercules has enough power to simply dominate the match. Hercules wins. Jaina Solo has some good Force abilities at her disposal in addition to her lightsaber skills. They have earned her many victories back in the day but they won’t be enough to win her this round. Hercules is strong enough to defend against her attacks and skilled enough to dodge some as well. Ultimately his physical stats are just too great. Hercules wins.

Darth Caedus vs Hercules

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Suggested by iKnowledge Darth Caedus is a Solo and as you can probably guess he is very skilled with the Force. He is one of the best blade users in the Star Wars franchise and his Force abilities are quite impressive as well. That being said, Hercules is one of the stronger Marvel characters. He has some absolutely crazy feats at his disposal so the odds of this guy holding him back with the force are pretty slim. Hercules will have a lot of resistance to such a move. Darth Caedus will ultimately fall. Hercules wins.

Hercules Review

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It’s time to watch another big Disney classic. This time we are thrown into the world of myths and heroes with Hercules. This is definitely one of the more action packed titles and it holds up quite well to this day. While the songs aren’t quite as memorable as some of the other films, we do get one of the best Disney villains in Hades. The guy has a lot of charisma and steals all of the scenes he is in.

The film starts off with Hercules being born and Zeus has a big party to celebrate this. He invites all of the other gods of course and it’s a perfect day. This changes when Hades shows up and hatches a plan to prevent this. He turns Hercules into a mere mortal and Zeus is forced to banish him to Earth. The only way for Zeus to re-obtain his godhood is to become a true hero by performing many feats. It’s not as easy as saving people though, he has to do something truly heroic for noble reasons. Can Hercules become a god again before Hades conquers both of the worlds.

Lets quickly just talk about some things here that are a bit iffy, but in character when you look at the myths. One thing is how Zeus can’t let Hercules stay once he is mortal. Zeus is the highest ranked god in this universe right? Why does he have to obey a law when he is the one making them? Most people who create laws rarely end up following them and Zeus is always shown to be a pretty selfish guy. I guess this one’s just too heroic for that, but it’s still a bit iffy. He’s also super oblivious like how he didn’t notice that Hades tried to stab baby Hercules. How he didn’t realize that Hades would be a bit upset after being banished to the Underworld is also interesting. I do like Zeus a lot to be fair. He’s just a lot of fun which is rare for most portrayals of his character. That being said, he’s not very smart of strong. In the climax he looks pretty terrible to be honest.

I also have to question how there is a potion that can take away your godhood so easily. Can’t Hades just trick the other gods into drinking it too and then he would rule the world? If the film mentioned that it only worked because Hercules is half human then I’ll have to retract this issue. Both of these are extremely minor observations that don’t effect my enjoyment of the film or the score, but were worth noting. I was definitely thinking about this as I watched the film.

Hercules is definitely a good lead. He reminds me of early Superman when he would work on the farm using his super abilities. Hercules doesn’t have a secret identity to worry about so he just works hard and does his best at all times. The townspeople are annoyed by him which is unfortunate. While Hercules can be a bit sloppy, he really seems like an earnest chap. He does fall for Megara pretty easily and doesn’t listen to Phil as much as he should, but all in all Hercules can easily hold his own film. He already seems more powerful than most of the gods which is also quite impressive.

Phil was always fun in the Kingdom Heart games and is good here as well. He definitely flirts a lot though so I have to doubt his concentration as a coach, but once he actually gets his hat on straight then he’s ready to work. He probably could have done a better job of explaining to Hercules what was up though. As for Megara, she’s a tough heroine. Megara is the kind of character who always tries to get the last word in and is pretty jaded on romance in general. This does result in what I would say was a pretty quick 180 with Hercules but I suppose he is basically a god so I imagine he was impressive in person. I do think it would have been a good dynamic to have had them stay friends though.

As mentioned earlier Hades is definitely the big character here. He is proactive compared to the rest of the gods and characters. While they sit back and eat he is always planning. His plan was pretty much fool proof and while his lackeys aren’t too helpful (They don’t really add to the film and could have been cut out) Hades is prepared for that as well. He probably should have just hurried a little more near the end so Hercules wouldn’t arrive in time. His abilities aren’t tough enough to actually fight head-on with Hercules and Zeus, but it would have been interesting to have seen him fight a little more. Most of the gods lost effortlessly to the Titans though so those guys got quite a lot of hype.

I did like that in the ending Hercules quickly went to the underworld to save Megara. In any story where the underworld is a place you can visit it feels mandatory that the characters should head on over. Hercules was able to win on his turf so he should at least believe that he can win here as well. That’s the level of determination you need in order to be a good main character. What would have made the ending perfect would have been if Zeus said that Hercules and Megara could both come to their world and they could just go back between Earth and the realm of the gods whenever they pleased. It’s the last the gods could do since they’d be dead otherwise.

The scene with Hades talking to the fates are interesting dialogue-wise but the whole eyeball thing was more gross than creepy. I could have gone without that scene to be honest. As for the songs, we do get some catchy songs from the fates, but none of them quite have the same heart that you would see in Aladdin or Frozen. I already can’t say that I remember the lyrics to any of the songs. They have that classic Disney auto tune (Not auto tune, but a voice modification thing that makes them all sound the same) effect which works well and I’m glad they had these songs as opposed to not having any, but it’s not the strength of the film.

The writing is really where the film shines and the pacing is tight. Then we’ve got the solid animation which is as sharp and colorful as you’ll remember. It holds up to any and all of the other Disney films. We also get some fun fight scenes which is great like Hercules vs the Titan or the first bull creature. I was surprised that Hercules didn’t win his first fight with more ease though. Even if he didn’t know how to fight yet, I figured that his super strength would make any fight an easy win. I guess it’s good that he’s not too OP yet, but then it does make you wonder how strong the gods are. It is reasonable to say that the humans could possibly win a fight with them in a few hundred years once they got gun powder.

Overall, Hercules is a very good movie. It’s definitely the definitive version of the story and I’d be down with Disney making a sequel someday. They’ve been doing a lot of remakes lately but not a bunch of sequels. A crossover of all their 90s classics would also be a blast. That’d be very ambitious, but it would make for an excellent watch. I was long overdue to watch this film and it lived up to the wait. If you haven’t seen this movie yet then I recommend changing that and watching it as soon as possible.

Overall 7/10

Hercules vs Griffith

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Suggested by iKnowledge Hercules is back, but he won’t fare any better against Griffith. He won’t be able to even understand what is happening when Griffith speed blitzes him and starts dishing out the pain. Hercules can take a hit but with no way to counter attack he will still be going down for the count pretty quickly. He just wasn’t prepared for this kind of fight. Griffith wins.

Hercules vs Guts

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Suggested by iKnowledge Hercules is a pretty powerful fighter. While he has never been in the same league as Thor, the guy puts a lot of passion behind every punch. He’s not a fighter that you should take lightly. That being said, Guts is highly proficient with his sword so he’ll have the edge in mid range combat and the difference in their speed isn’t even comparable. Hercules won’t be landing any hits here. Guts wins.

Medusa vs The Son of Hercules Review

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It’s time for a really old film that basically nobody remembers at this point. It’s just very obscure and it’s easy to see why since it’s pretty low budget and feels kind of random. The good news about this is that the film can basically do whatever it wants because it’s not like there were any expectations for it. The film’s pretty fun and has some nice monster designs. I wasn’t sure if it would be able to stay the course for the whole film and cross the line into boring territory but it stayed entertaining throughout.

The character names are a little tricky, but I know the important ones. Perseo is just an ordinary guy living in the poor slums of the world. He doesn’t know that he is actually the son of Hercules so I’m assuming that as a baby he got lost or was banished for some reason. Either way, he’s content since the princess (He doesn’t know that she is royalty) comes to visit him every day but never tells him that her name. He vows to catch her one day before she escapes him. The problem is that Andromeda has an arranged marriage to Galenore in order to stop an impending war. Galenore and Perseo meet which ends up with Perseo getting humiliated in combat. He will get one chance to redeem himself as Andromeda saves him by initiating a tournament. The winner claims Andromeda so the stakes are high. Can Perseo win?

This is one of those films with a ton of different climaxes. There are many times you’ll think the film is about to end when it just keeps on going. I’d say that this is a good thing for the most part since it means that the film keeps up a very fast tempo. I’d expect nothing less. It’s old but the effects are actually pretty good for its time. Case in point, the monsters. There are two main monsters here. The first one is a Sea Serpent who picks off anyone who gets too close to the water. Fortunately for the serpent, everyone runs to the water and even the villain trips inside it towards the end for plot convenience. I liked his design and this monster was not to be trifled with. Nobody could stop him.

Then we have the Medusa. It’s a living Tornado with an evil eye that turns everyone into stone. It claims a lot of victims during the very first scene but sadly only appears once or twice after that. It’s definitely another strong opponent and this may be my personal favorite Medusa design. At the very least you have to admit that it’s very original and unexpected. Since the Medusa is even in the title, you want it to go down with a little dignity. It certainly had a lot more than the human villains.

Galenore is the main antagonist and he talks a good game while he’s winning. Once he suffers his first defeat, he quickly becomes afraid of his Perseo. He basically cowers behind his father from this point on and only fights when his opponent is at a disadvantage. Naturally I’m not a fan since his only motivation is basically that he wants to marry Andromeda. You can probably see why he’s not my kind of villain from that scene alone. His whip skills were fairly solid I suppose, buit I definitely don’t consider it t be one of the better weapons out there. Give me a sword any day.

Andromeda was an okay heroine. She had bow and arrow skills which is more than I can say for most. I would have been happier if she had used them more during the film though as opposed to getting knocked out with ease. Granted she was in her room in the palace so you’d think that nobody would break in, but the guards were all dispatched in an instant. Honestly the security was pretty terrible. Going against the arranged marriage was good and all, but she could have been more direct with Perseo. The romance was pretty weak throughout though so I’m glad it was given a relatively small presence. I saw the comedy version on Svengoolie with the extra sound effects and I can certainly say that they did at least make all of the scenes a lot funnier. Enough that I’d possibly give it an extra star as most of the additions were pretty well placed and also made Andromeda a better character.

To round out the main cast, I can’t say that I like Perseo all that much either. He just seems a little desperate for Andromeda and yet he still gets completely wrecked in his first fight. I was expecting him to put forth a little more effort to be honest. It was just sad how he lost and even in the rematch he was not faring well for a while until Galenore got overconfident and went too close. It was interesting to see him suddenly become the head of the army and break into the villain base though. It was a pretty big shift in stature in just the span of a few minutes. The King of the heroes wasn’t even that grateful the whole time as he forced Perseo to get in the army. Then we got a plot twist about where Perseo truly belonged which was at least mentioned in the beginning so there was some foreshadowing. I felt bad for the Mom since it took ages for Perseo to arrive. I believe she ended up dying rather tragically as well but I don’t remember the specifics.

It would have been nice if Perseo’s army was a little stronger though. The difference in power was crazy and how did the villains get those overpowered monsters? The heroes losing everyone to the Medusa was also pretty suspect since you’d expect at least a few to throw some arrows or sword stabs into the tornado while it was busy freezing others. Of course, given their lack of teamwork and how they got picked off by random guys the whole time, I suppose it is to be expected.

Overall, This was a pretty fun film. It’s certainly not amazing or anything, but it’s surprisingly a pretty solid experience. Something is always happening and the film never got too fishy with Galenor’s obsession with Andromeda. Perseo was always ready to break things up. The action scenes are entertaining and this just makes for a really good light hearted action film. It’s certainly not serious and it’s not even self aware but you’d be surprised at what you can do with a limited budget. This film was clearly ready for it and I’d certainly be up to seeing more films in this series. I’d recommend checking it out but don’t expect the monsters to get a huge role. At the end of the day, it’s just a story of the hero trying to save the Princess from the villains.

Overall 6/10

Marvel Masterworks The Incredible Hulk Volume 2 Review

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It’s time to take a look at a collection which brings some of the Hulk’s first comics! I’m about 99% sure that I’ve already read this one, but apparently I never uploaded it to the site. Ah well, the re read gave me a chance to review it. The Hulk comics are typically fun and this one was enjoyable, but like always, you end up feeling really bad for the Hulk by the end. He didn’t ask for this!

Unlike the average collection, this one brings 20 issues. The reason why so many are able to fit in here is because Hulk has to share with Giant Man and later on with Namor. So, each issue is only 10 pages instead of the usual 20, which ends up working out quite well. That means that each issue must end quickly so some arcs go on for quite a while like the Leader story. That villain just didn’t want to go down!

Luckily, the issues never actually feel rushed except for the Hercules story. He meets up with the Hulk in the final issue and the fight is essentially over as soon as it has begun. It’s safe to say that the Hulk had the upper hand despite the boasts of Hercules. I’m not surprised since I always considered the Hulk to be much stronger than the Olympian. Hercules is no Thor and I don’t see him ever being such a powerful contender in Marvel.

The first issue was the big fight with Giant Man so the collection started and ended on a high note. It was fun to see Giant Man take a shot at the Hulk since the fight wouldn’t be so even nowadays. The Hulk has utterly surpassed Giant Man and while I would still say that he was the stronger fighter back in the day, it was closer. Giant Man used to be the power hitter for the Avengers, now he’s just the tech guy.

Most of the issues dealt with the Leader as he worked on capturing the Hulk and eventually succeeded. He then forced the Hulk to go to the Moon and steal something from Uatu. That was easily the best part of the arc as the Hulk took down the “strongest fighter in the galaxy.” That guy was bred for combat and the Hulk still schooled him. The Hulk definitely overpowers most of his foes with ease and that’s how it should be.

There was also a mini arc where the government blasted the Hulk with a time ray and Rick Jones ended up spilling the beans about Bruce Banner being the Hulk. I was a little surprised that there was no retcon or plot twist to force the heroes to forget about this. I’m pretty sure that Talbot gets amnesia in a few issues, but Betty will still know Banner’s ultimate secret. His secret identity certainly didn’t last very long now did it?

The art switches about halfway through the volume as the main team comes back to help out. It’s an interesting twist and there’s more of an emphasis on facial expressions. Betty Ross’ hair also turns gray for some reason. It took a little getting used too, but the second half still holds up quite well. I love the old style of art as the artists really had to work on every panel. It’s certainly not as well refined as the modern day stuff and you can probably see some inconsistencies and characters going off model if you’re paying a lot of attention, but it’s still very solid overall. It may not be quite as good as the rest of Marvel’s titles at the time, but it’s hard to match up to those.

The Hulk is a good main character as always. Once again, the whole story is just really tragic for him. He makes another friend, but the guy is naturally killed off right away so the Hulk is left without an ally. The army never gives him a break and he is constantly being framed by the villains or put into very bad situations. At least the Hulk gets a lot of opportunities to smash and it’s always good to see him take the win. His strength fluctuates a lot, but that’s part of his whole gimmick so it’s all right for the most part. Typically, you can expect The Hulk to come out on top in a fight since he just won’t go down and the villains typically have to use gas to take him down. The Hulk is certainly the best character here.

I’m not a big fan of the Leader and he’s always been a bit of a weak villain if you ask me. He’s smart, but he doesn’t have a whole lot of power to back it up and he just feels outmatched if you ask me. At least he has some cool androids, which give the Hulk a good fight. Giant Man and the rest of the Avengers don’t seem too concerned with the fact that the Hulk is on the loose. I suppose that most of them just don’t think that he’s very dangerous so he’s not a top priority. Still, they should at least try to protect him from the government since those guys never give him any peace.

You may have expected this, but the issues are still very hard for the Hulk. He is constantly being framed and used by both heroes and villains. When he finally does make a friend, the guy is typically killed off in the same issue. You really can’t blame him for wanting to retreat and just be alone sometimes, but the government or another villain inevitably finds him. It turns into a never ending cycle of sadness for the guy and it’s why it is always fun to see him on the Avengers. At least he has some teammates that he can count on in those situations, but it would be quite a while until he joined the team again from this point.

As always, the writing is one of the reasons why the Hulk collection is fun to read. The characters are all direct and address each other with some classy English skills that it reminds you of how the language used to be. Even the older slang felt more refined and the villains would say things like “With my wit, I shall overtake your brutish strength!” when battling the Hulk. It’s just easy to read and the pages really flow into each other.

If there’s one part of the plot that’s always a little iffy, it’s the question of how much the Hulk knows. Sometimes, the Hulk is completely mindless and other times he will be able to form quite a few sentences. There was an arc where the Hulk’s mind was taken over by Bruce Banner, but this was separate from those events. I suppose that you can make the argument that the Hulk gets smarter as he grows weaker so that it’s the opposite of the strength factor. Either way, it’s a fairly mild thing.

Overall, This volume of the Hulk is a fun one to read. It’s a fairly stand alone collection with few guest stars, but the Hulk can easily hold his own title. The comics are much sadder than the others at the time, but it never goes too far. Given how short each issue is, you can definitely blast through the adventures in no time. It would be great for the Hulk to get an ally at some point and hopefully he will soon, but they don’t tend to last very long. With good art and solid writing, this is a collection that any Marvel fan can enjoy and the issues hold up well.

Overall 7/10

Marvel Masterworks The Avengers Volume 4 Review

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The Avengers are known as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and considering that the Justice League don’t exist in Marvel, I must agree. The Avengers have always been a team of powerhouses who could tackle any threat. That being said, this volume occurs when the team is actually not looking too powerful so they must use their quips and wit to outsmart the foes who stand in their way. It is an interesting concept, but the volume isn’t quite up to taking on the average Avenger collection thanks to its high standards. Still makes for a fun read of course.

There were around 10 issues in this collection, which is a reasonable amount. The first few issues deal with the Sons of Serpent organization. While they may appear to be extremely weak on the surface, they are powerful when in great numbers. They manage to capture Captain America so the rest of the Avengers are pressured into supporting the political views of the enemies. It’s always intriguing to see politics addressed in comics, but they made sure to not get too involved with those issues. I’m sure that the Avengers won’t underestimate the group again after this!

The next two issues featured The Living Laser! This guy was typically an Iron Man villain, but this time he decided to take on the Avengers because of his feelings for the Wasp. Little did he know that Heart, not feelings, wins battles. He was outmatched from the start even though he nearly finished off the Avengers for good. After that was a two part adventure featuring the Ultroids. They weren’t exactly Ultron, but these androids were still decently powerful and they could copy the abilities of the foes that they defeated through their technology. They managed to cream the Avengers for a while, but they overestimated themselves, which doomed the villains.

Finally, a three part epic involving the famous Hercules arrived. He was tricked by the Enchantress into attacking the Avengers and then he helped them out against Namor. That was a decently fun trilogy although it is always sad to see the heroes mind controlled so easily. Their strength of will should suffice to keep them safe from danger and harm. Ah well, at least Hercules realized what was up with some help and then stuck around to help the team when they were in a jam. I still consider him to be a watered down Thor who is not quite as impressive physically or mentally, but Hercules is still stronger than the rest of the cast at the moment so that’s always a plus.

We start to see why Hank Pym isn’t one of the greatest heroes in this collection. While he has some good moments like talking back to Hawkeye and taking charge, he’s definitely not very nice to the Wasp. When she’s in danger he gets riled up of course, but he basically tells her to leave when she was trying to help him with an experiment. He certainly doesn’t have a whole lot of tact and I can see why they drifted apart. The Wasp is a decent character here, but she’s still not close to how she was in later years as she can still be a bit of a flirt.

The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are good heroes here and they are finally confident in the fact that they are Avengers. They had some iffy moments down the line, but they now know their place on the team. With two of the stronger team members back with the Avengers, they helped to give the heroes some much needed muscle. Hawkeye does a lot of trash talking for the team and he’s always got an arrow at the ready. It’s scary to think that he’s actually one of the tougher members on board, but that’s simply what the Avengers had been reduced too in this era. He’s always a fun character to have around.

Captain America is the best Avenger so I was sad to see him go. I know that he eventually comes back, but it must have been tough for fans of the team to see the final member of the big three leave. With only the B list heroes on board, The Avengers really needed him to stick around. As far as the villains go, The Living Laser was one of the only ones that I recognized. He looked pretty bad here as he was just attacking people to get the Wasp to like him. He had some good dialogue, but such a petty reason for being a villain definitely ensures that I wouldn’t care for him as a villain. That’s just very shallow.

Namor was a neat guest star and he looked fairly impressive as he held his own against Hercules. Hercules is certainly stronger of course, but Namor found the Cosmic Cube and that helped him out a lot. I didn’t expect to see such a powerful cosmic item come into play either so the final issue really raised the stakes on the adventure. Namor’s still antagonistic here, but you can’t blame him for being fed up with the humans since they constantly attack his home. So long as Atlantis is under the sea, humans will never leave it alone so it is an endless fight.

The Black Widow has a subplot where she tries to join the Avengers once more, but Giant Man doesn’t trust her and she doesn’t give the heroes much reason too. She ultimately takes on a mission from S.H.I.E.L.D. which puts a damper on her plans and I guess that her plot will likely continue more in future issues. I don’t remember her really appearing in volume 5, but she may have been around briefly. This old version of her was certainly very different from her modern incarnation.

If I had one critique for the collection, it would just be that the stakes are typically very low. It’s hard to get very excited about some of the issues and some more well known characters would have been nice to have. The plot in X-Men was more interesting for me and the characters may have actually been slightly better although the writing here beats that of the X-Men’s. It’s still a fun comic that you will be able to coast through, but you won’t be as invested as you typically would be in one of these classic Marvel issues.

As always, the art is quite good for the Avengers collection. The classic designs for the characters are always fun to look at and the fight scenes are engaging. Quicksilver’s speed here looks more impressive than it did in other instants and we are finally starting to get to the point where his speed is at in the modern days. He’ll never be quite as fast as someone like the Flash, but this is still a nice start. The writing is also quite good as the heroes trade good one liners with the villains. We really don’t see dialogue like this anymore, which is too bad. It’s one of the reasons why comics were so awesome in the first place after all. The burns were certainly real.

Overall, This was a good collection of the Avengers, but it just wasn’t as exciting as it could have been with Captain America missing some issues and Iron Man/Thor not being around. I always miss the big three when they’re not together as they are The Avengers for me. I recently reviewed volume 5 so I’m already okay on that front. I’ve still got another Marvel Masterworks coming up, but after that one, it could be gone for a while. The series has been a fun way to read up on the old series though so I won’t be forgetting about it anytime soon. If you’re a fan of the classic Marvel stories, this is definitely the comic for you. It’s still a solid action title that makes for a good read.

Overall 7/10

Wonder Woman vs Hercules

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Wonder Woman takes this match pretty easily. Hercules may be strong, but without Wonder Woman’s super speed and flight it’s barely a fight. He just can’t take on someone as powerful as Wonder Woman. Hercules drops to 0-2 with this loss. This is a sad day for his fans. Wonder Woman rises up this win. Wonder Woman wins.