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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 X-Men Volume 4 Review

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I had a lot of fun with the previous X-Men collection so it’s cool that I had the next volume at the ready! We get a pretty nifty guest star here and the mysterious Factor Three organization also decides to show themselves. A lot happens here for sure and while there may technically have been issues with higher stakes and better guest stars here, I feel like the last collection had better subplots on the human side of things. Either way, this is another solid collection.

Before the team can strike back at Factor Three, The Juggernaut rises to fight once more. As always, he proves to be a difficult opponent to take down. It’s fun to see how the power levels were back in the day as the heroes exclaim that Juggernaut can destroy a tank and it was extremely impressive at the time. Nowadays, such a feat wouldn’t merit reactions that were quite so fierce. This two part adventure was fun, even if the X-Men were extremely outmatched at the time. They didn’t have any real power hitters on board to counter the Juggernaut.

After that, The Factor Three plot took center stage and covered at least 4 issues. Spider Man appears, which was a nice treat. After all of the hype, I can’t say that I was very impressed with the leader of the group. The whole thing was very….interesting. It was fun to see the old villains again, but after all of the hype, I wouldn’t have minded some new faces. The Blob and Unus are all right, but I don’t consider them to be heavyweight champs or anything like that. Still, this plot was certainly one that lasted and seeing the arc end was fun. This was probably one of the first true arcs to ever appear in the X-Men comics.

After that, it was back to the one shot adventures. Frankenstein’s monster appeared in one of the issues. Another one had a guy called Grotesque who decided to beat the heroes up. He didn’t have a whole lot of motivations, but he was powerful and he did the unthinkable. He managed to destroy Professor Xavier, which was a pretty impressive feat. I’ll miss the leader of the X-Men, but it’s safe to say that he won’t be dead for very long. In the comics, iconic characters just can’t stay dead for too long or else the fans will riot.

The art is pretty solid as per usual. The X-Men also manage to get real costumes for the first time. They had costumes before the issue, but they all wore the same thing. Now each character has his own look and that would just be the start as just about every super hero team uses the same concept. After all, why should everyone look the same. The Angel’s costume takes the most getting used too, but the others all look good. The Angel’s isn’t bad either, it’s just not what I would have expected.

The writing is also great, but we don’t get any moments that stand out quite as much as those in the last graphic novel. It’s hard not to chuckle when we saw Cyclops go up against the Locus and get sucker punched. That was definitely an intense bout. In this collection, the best lines are probably the ones where Cyclops and the Beast are insulting the villains or when Spider-Man is around. It’s safe to say that you will not get tired of the banter anytime soon as it’s a blast and a half from start to finish.

Professor Xavier looks very shady in this collection as he starts to keep the X-Men out of the loop. His reasoning wasn’t great and I still don’t really see what his angle was. It just brought dissension into the ranks and hurt the trust factor between teammates. Cyclops was bold enough to decide that he would bypass Xavier’s orders if necessary, but luckily things didn’t come to that. It was a little foreshadowing for when Cyclops would resent the Professor’s leadership in the Uncanny X-Men days. Of course, that just makes the Professor’s death even more tragic as he didn’t leave on very good terms.

The rest of the X-Men are essentially unchanged from the last collection. At least the Angel is pretty much over Jean as he finds a new friend to hang out with. I remember her from another X-Men comic so she definitely stays around for quite a while. He certainly comes in handy to the team with his flying even if he isn’t very powerful. The Beast is an interesting member as the others treat him like the strongest member of the team at times. I would disagree with that since I think that Iceman or Cyclops could beat him with ease. His verbal gimmick is always enjoyable though as you know that he’s doing it all on purpose. Unfortunately, Jean chooses the Professor over the team, which I didn’t think was a good move. The heroes could have died against the villain because Jean and Prof X decided not to help and that really shows why his plan was so bad. At that point, it didn’t matter what his reason was for deserting the team, he nearly ended the X-Men. If they had died there, that certainly wouldn’t have been good.

Beyond the main comics, there’s also a backup story about how Cyclops first joined the team. It plays out at the end of each of the final issues and Cyclops gets to go up against a guy who is now The Living Diamond. It’s certainly an interesting story and Cyclops shows why he is one of the true heroes. His origin story is also interesting because I’m not too familiar with it. The one sad part about having a backup story is that the normal issues end up being shorter, but I suppose that it is a worthy sacrifice.

Back to Spider-Man, it was also cool to see that the comic essentially admitted that he could beat the whole team. The X-Men started the fight this time so Spider-Man was just playing serious, but things changed once he got serious. He can easily handle them all thanks to his Spider Sense and he did a good job of keeping them all tangled up. That’s one thing that a lot of villains seem to take advantage of. In terms of raw power, the X-Men are essentially powerless. As I mentioned earlier, the Beast is physically the strongest member of the group and he’s barely any stronger than a normal human. So….the team really needs a power hitter. As it is, they’re lucky that they haven’t fought a really strong villain yet or that a lot of other factors were at play when the Juggernaut was around.

Overall, This was a fun collection. Besides Spider-Man, we didn’t have many notable appearances by any big players. It was a very dry collection. Juggernaut was a fun villain to have, but that’s essentially it. I wouldn’t consider The Blob or Unus to be too popular. The Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch appear for a very brief cameo, but they don’t really get to do anything so it barely counts. You really need to just enjoy the X-Men members a lot to enjoy this collection and luckily the writing is very good here so they are enjoyable protagonists. With Factor Three out of the way, it’s time for Magneto to step back into the equation. It’s been a while since he appeared so it’s certainly about time. With Prof X out of the equation, can the heroes really handle him? I suppose that we’ll find out once I am able to check out the next volume. Until then, you can expect a review for an Avengers collection soon.

Overall 8/10

Marvel Masterworks The X-Men Volume 3 Review

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It’s time for another visit down memory lane with some classic X-Men comics. The Marvel Masterworks series has definitely been an excellent way to look at some of Marvel’s original all stars. I don’t believe that I’ve read any that I disliked. The X-Men collection is even better than most as the comics were really interesting and about on par with those of Spiderman and Thor. It’s fun to see Cyclops and how much of noble leader he was in contrast with his current personality. This is a collection that you don’t want to miss!

The collection brings 10 comics and since each one is about 20 pages, we get around a 200 page collection. That’s a decent size and it allows the graphic novel to churn out quite a few stories. The collection starts off with an action packed two parter where Count Nefaria assembles a group of super villains to take down the X-Men. Their members are all rather weak and unknown, but they prove that teamwork can make any villain a legitimate threat. Can the X-Men put aside their differences and defeat them or will they be crushed?

This was a great way to start off the collection. I had quite a bit of fun with this two part story as it was fun to see the heroes actually losing against some of the weakest villains that I’ve seen in a while. This certainly wasn’t there day, but at least Cyclops put up a decent fight. When you think about it, the X-Men really aren’t that tough so a sneak attack can work quite well against them.

Next up was a one shot issue with the Locust. This comic was fun to read as the guy got a sucker punch in on Cyclops, which was hilarious to read. There’s not a whole lot more to say about it because the Locust is just another villain who wants to terrorize the world. His goals and motivations are essentially cardboard, but he still makes for an interesting antagonist. I never considered him to be much of a threat though.

After that, was the two part comic with El Tigre. El Tigre was just your average criminal until he found a pendant, which allowed him to gain great powers. Once he had both pieces, he claimed to be a god and the X-Men realized that this villain would be no pushover. In fact, it may take everything that the X-Men had and more to defeat this guy. Thor is mentioned as the X-Men admit that he could have beaten El Tigre, but what can mere mortals do? El Tigre was a bit of a boring villain. Decently likable, but there was nothing to him and I can see why he never became popular. His telepathic abilities were certainly good though.

The Mimic returned for the next 3 issues. He decided to join the team and help them out, but he was unwilling to alter his personality. Mimic essentially bullied his way into being the team’s leader. He is the most powerful member of the group to be sure, but he’s not a very nice guy. He helped the team against the Banshee and the Super Adaptoid though. Without him, the team would not have lasted very long against those threats. They were certainly lucky that the Mimic was in town.

It was fun to see the Super Adaptoid. He’s like a retro Ultron and made for a very imposing villain. He probably should have beaten The X-Men, but I suppose that having the Mimic along gave the team some extra muscle power. It’s sad that nobody believed Iceman when he saw the android though. The Cobalt Man still doesn’t make that much sense into how suddenly he turned evil, but he was a fun adversary as well. He’s essentially an evil Iron Man and it’s impressive that someone was able to replicate the suit. The Mimic wasn’t a very likable guy. He comes across as really arrogant, but not in a cool way. He can barely back up his tough talk and didn’t last too long when the stakes were high. He has a sad ending to his story, but it’s likely just temporary and I expect him to be in fighting shape before long.

Finally, the comic ended on a bit of a quiet note with two stand alone stories. Warlock decided to attack in one issue, but it wasn’t the cool Adam Warlock. This was Merlin and the man had merely changed his name. It was a decent issue, but nothing to write home about…just to write the blog about. In the last issue, the dreaded Cobalt Man made his debut. He used to be an all right guy, but putting on the costume turned him into a super villain. It’s interesting because there’s no reason why this should have happened to him. I suppose that it’s just like how putting on a mask makes some people turn into super heroes, it has the opposite effect on others.

There are naturally a few subplots, which continue in the background during the issues and will likely stick around for future volumes as well. There’s an evil organization that keeps being mentioned and you can bet that they are about to make their move. Jean Grey also quit the team to enter into college, but still ends up helping out in just about every issue. Professor Xavier is also keeping a big secret. There are probably even more plots going on if I really focused and that’s one of the reasons why the collection is so much fun. Being able to juggle many different plots is the sign of a good writer.

Also, the comic is a blast to read through and through. In the end, that’s why you read a comic after all and few succeed more than this one. The writing is on the dot and it’s great to hear the characters exchanging one liners. The characters even acknowledge this as it leads to a loss for the heroes several times and the villains rub it in. “While you’re posturing, I’ll take this.” is an example of something that a villain will say before stealing something or maybe even beating up on the heroes. It’s something that modern comics don’t really do anymore as the heroes don’t indulge in puns and their quick burns. I certainly miss that as it was really classic and fun to witness.

The roster is a pretty good one although the team is a little weak at this point. Cyclops is still the commanding leader who is always ready for action. He hasn’t come to terms with his optic blasts yet, but he’s certainly on the way to recovery at this point. He’s easily the strongest member of the team and the most likable one. Angel is Cyclop’s rival and the guy is decently heroic, but certainly not as likable. He puts Cyclops in a bad position when the Angel accuses him of attempted murder and the guy is constantly flirting. That’s definitely not cool. Iceman is pretty great as he gets the most burns and can fight on his own better than most of the others. He doesn’t get a very unique role compared to the others, but he’s always helping out. Professor X doesn’t act as the leader very often anymore, but he starts to act a little shady in this volume. It’ll be interesting to see what he’s hiding. He has a device that allows him to walk a little, which is interesting. I wonder why he ultimately ends up ditching it and will be interested in seeing how it is broken. You would expect him to simply rebuild it, but I suppose that there are extenuating circumstances.

Jean Grey gets a bigger role than the rest of the team since she has her own major subplot where she joins College. She’s definitely a good character and helps out the team in many circumstances. If she had more mental energy, she would easily be the power house of the team. As it stands, her powers have not developed enough to make her a big threat. The Beast is still my least favorite member of the team. He always uses big words to impress the others, but I just don’t see him as much of a fighter. Having a little extra agility isn’t very lethal. Of course, none of the characters are downright bad and they’re all written well. So, even the most unlikable members (Beast and Angel) still end up being good characters when compared to the average bad one.

As expected, the art in the comics is really good. This retro style is a lot of fun and the action scenes definitely roll by smoothly. I was glad that the X-Men altered their costumes a little as Jean was right that the old ones simply had too much yellow. They were rather bland and didn’t scream “Super Hero” to those who saw them. The Avengers all had unique attire after all. If the X-Men had to share the same ones, it would need to be a good costume that you could never forget.

Overall, This was a really fun collection to read through. The X-Men never disappoint whether it is this roster, The Uncanny X-Men or one of the various mixes throughout the years. Back in the day, The X-Men were certainly a fun bunch and could hold their own against the Avengers. (In style, not power) They probably passed The Avengers for a time when Earth’s Mightiest Heroes lost Iron Man and Thor. I highly recommend checking this collection out when you have a chance and I will be reading volume 4 in the very near future so keep your eyes peeled for that. It’s going to be an epic ride and I’m nearly through my comic backlog now.

Overall 8/10

Marvel Masterworks The Mighty Thor Volume 5 Review

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It has been a while since I read one of the Thor volumes from this series. These were some of Thor’s best adventures as Stan Lee and the other really knew how to write the character. This was back when Thor was easily one of the heavy weights of the Marvel Universe and you could make a strong case for him being the strongest Marvel character to have his own series. The collection also brings some mini comics from when Thor was younger, which are fun to read and add to the overall experience. This is certainly one of the better Masterwork volumes out there.

This volume has a few story arcs within it and a lot of one shot stories as well. The first few involve a mysterious group of aliens from another galaxy. One of them appears on Earth and claims it as her own. The cops humor the alien for a while since they don’t know that the Earth has been trapped with an energy ring and is being taken out of Orbit. Thor proves to be stronger than the aliens had anticipated and they agree to spare the Earth if Thor can defeat Ego The Living Planet. While Thor does not need to agree to the deal, he accepts the challenge and looks forward to the fight.

This was a fun way to start off the collection as the aliens may not have been very powerful physically, but they had some lethal abilities. Thor was the first being to ever overpower their mental attacks and their ability to harness limitless durability and strength availed them not against The Thunderer. Ego was also a powerful antagonist, but Thor bested him in combat and Ego ended up retreating. After his adventures against those foes, Thor helped the High Evolutionary defeat the Man-Beast. The Man-Beast was reasonably powerful, but no matter how far human genetics go, the result will still be mortal.

One of the one shot comics had Odin give Jane Foster some tests to see if she was worthy to be an immortal. Once Odin gave her a glimpse of her abilities and sent the lady to face a monster, Jane Foster was not able to succeed. Jane looked really bad in this issue and while the situation was a little overwhelming, I would have expected her to have dealt with the situation a little more effectively. If she was as strong a character as she is now, I don’t doubt that she would have conquered the beast.

Later on, another comic had Loki take over the Destroyer armor and attack Asgard. It was a king sized special and the fights that ensued were a lot of fun. Seeing Thor go fist to fist against the Destroyer armor was enjoyable and the Destroyer was certainly a powerful opponent. Surprisingly, I think that this was the only comic where Loki got to appear. Considering how much of a big Thor villain he is, I assume that this is quite rare. Finally, we had a one shot comic where Kang accidentally unleashed one of his super robots on the Earth. Thor briefly engages in combat with the man, but then Kang runs off. Thor essentially sent him to Limbo, but we never got to see a proper fight between them.

Aside from the opening arc, the main saga in this collection deals with Ulik The Troll. The Trolls decide to invade Asgard so Ulik kidnaps Sif to lure Thor to Midgard. While Thor is away, the rest of the trolls plan on taking over Asgard. Odin is still there so the kingdom won’t fall so easily and Thor’s wrath has been stirred so Ulik may end up regretting his decision by the time the fight is over. This saga certainly had a lot of action and made for a good read.

The Thor Masterworks are certainly a step up from the rest of the Marvel comics from these days. The main title that keeps up would be Spider Man and it makes for a close battle. One of the main reasons why I have always liked the old Thor comics is due to the dialogue. It’s all very grand and majestic, fitting for Asgardians. The way that the characters all talk is very refined and many feats are included here as well. Thor gets hit with planet leveling punches and karate chops that strike as hard as cosmic tornadoes. It’s great to see these feats just be tossed about and Thor was always able to keep up with his foes.

Thor certainly looks very good and he never backs down from a fight. He’s a very likable main character and you can always count on him being honorable while in combat. You’ll find yourself rooting for him from early on and he never falters. Having an immortal as the main lead is also a nice contrast from the many humans and meta humans. Thor has lived for thousands of years at this point so he has reason to be so confident. If no being has managed to best him yet, why should that change now?

This collection showed Lady Sif’s first appearance in the Marvel Universe. Jane Foster had just been written out of the comic and the writers did a good job of making Lady Sif more likable than Jane in every way. Lady Sif was always ready for a fight and she was very competitive. I do have to question the fact that Thor completely forgot about her since that seems to be impossible, but I suppose that the writers had no idea on how to suddenly add a new Asgardian into the mix. I suppose that the reason for why she had never appeared before could have been worse. While she is certainly not as strong as Thor, Sif takes down many trolls and proves herself as an Asgardian warrior. She instantly became one of the better supporting characters.

Ulik The Troll also debuts here and it’s amazing to see how much stronger he was back in these days. Nowadays, the writers like to treat him like a joke, but he was originally a foe to be feared. His raw power was nearly equal to that of Thor’s own and he nearly bested the warrior the first time that they fought. Ulik is not really my kind of villain, but he was a serious threat and made for a good opponent of Thor’s. You could say that he was similar to Doomsday or Abomination back then when compared to the hero of the story.

Odin is actually reasonable in this comic. Typically, he can come across as rather rude or simply unaware of what is going on, but he is likable here. Odin ends up joining the fight against the trolls and finally says that he approves of Jane and Thor’s relationship. He ends up being a decent guy when it counts, which was nice. I don’t think that he lived up to the hype as he nearly lost to the trolls, but he never actually lost so I can’t say that he was disappointing either.

The Warrior’s Three were decent characters. My favorite member is certainly Volstagg though. Each and every one of his lines are genuinely funny and he really makes the adventures more enjoyable. His two partners are good as they keep up the banter, but the dialogue wouldn’t be possible without Volstagg. He’s easily one of the best Thor characters of all time and he’s a blast and a half to read about. The mini comics often involved them teaming up with Thor. The collection ends with the group about to fight Mogul to avenge Hogun’s clan. The mini comics are typically very short, but we still get many nice action scenes with them. It’s an example of a backup story that does help to make the main one even better.

As always, the art does not disappoint. The classic Marvel style has always been a lot of fun and it is so easy to read. You don’t have to worry about any of the panels being unclear because the staff worked hard on each and every panel. You can feel the level of detail present here as soon as you start reading and it pays off for the fight scenes as well as normal talking moments. This is a style that is lost to us and it’s not all bad as I really like the modern day art as well, but seeing some of this nowadays would still be pretty great.

Overall, This is a great volume of Thor comics. It’s a little over 200 pages so it’s a fairly long read. I believe that it brings 10 Thor issues and one of the annuals. There is a lot of action to be found here and the characters are all well written. I haven’t met a Marvel comic with bad writing from this period and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. There’s a cliffhanger that revolved around Galactus getting ready to fight Ego, but I guess it must have been resolved in a different comic. It’s too bad since that sounded like a good fight. If you are looking for a comic to see the true Thor as he was meant to be seen, I can think of no better way to start than to jump into this series. This is certainly one of the best Thor runs and you will be hooked on the story from start to finish.

Overall 8/10

Marvel Masterworks Daredevil Volume 2 Review

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All right, it’s time to read a classic collection of Daredevil issues! With the recent Netflix show on the air, he is a character who will gain a little more recognition than what he has seen in the days of old. If you saw my post on the show, you’ll already know my views on that. Needless to say, this comic is the kind of publicity that he needs as opposed to the show and you will see a noble superhero here. It’s a fun collection even if it’s not quite as action packed as the classic comics of other heroes.

As this is only the second volume, the series is still just getting started. Daredevil decides to leave town for a while to let Foggy and Karen keep the office in order for a while, but gets caught up in a tough situation with the Plunderer and Kazar. Not able to catch a break, Daredevil also gets into a mix up with Spider Man and learns that there are other heroes who can defeat the Man of Fear! Naturally, that’s just the tip of the iceberg and we quickly learn how skilled a blind lawyer can be when push comes to shove!

As this was in the olden days of Daredevil, he was closer to being blind than nowadays. Currently, Daredevil’s “vision” is so close to sight that he can basically see. He just sees in red or fire. In these classic comics, it’s treated more like echo location so he still has a lot of trouble in day to day operations. Why do you think the Plunderer was so strong compared to Daredevil? That being said, Daredevil still isn’t blind here as the villains use a flash gun, which does end up blinding him. (By hurting his other senses) As a blind man, Daredevil is quickly crushed by the enemies and he couldn’t beat a regular foe. So, we definitely know how well Daredevil would fare in a fight as an actual blind person.

Daredevil’s a nice hero to root for here. He makes a lot of puns like Spiderman although he vows to be more silent and commanding towards the end of the volume. He has a lot of potential for puns thanks to his blindness, but he likely couldn’t use most of them unless he was dressed up as Matt Murdock. I’ve always preferred the other classics like Spiderman, Iron Man, Thor, etc, but Daredevil is a solid hero in his own right. Being a lawyer is a unique occupation in the comic world and I would have liked to have seen more of that here. Daredevil really gets all of the screen time, which doesn’t leave Matt with much to do.

Spider Man’s appearance was a lot of fun. He was probably tricked a little too easily into starting a fight with Daredevil if you ask me, but at least he won. I was worried that the hype factor would result in a tie or with Daredevil winning, but the outcome was satisfying for me. You could even say that Daredevil won round 1 so that will be happy for his fans as well. The villains were underwhelming as they were essentially just average thugs, but that gives Daredevil a better chance to look good so I suppose that it is worth it.

The initial adventure with the Plunderer and Kazar was all right, but not as good as it could have been because Kazar was around. I’ve never cared for that character as the whole “Jungle Man” trope was never my favorite. I prefer characters who talk through long metaphors or puns because the dialogue is part of the fun in rooting for those characters. For Kazar’s dialogue, it simply doesn’t work for me. The Plunderer was a good villain though so he made the comics more fun.

This collection is a little larger than the average one as it is around 200 pages. That sounds like a good deal to me and it comes with the prelude that the Marvel Masterwork collections always contain. Those are fun to read and it is cool to see the behind the scenes story on why things happen like they do in the comics. The Dr Strange prelude was the most interesting, but this one had a good intro as well. A lot of thought certainly goes into each issue.

Aside from the various villains, there are two main supporting characters to be found here. Foggy and Karen, who work with Daredevil on the hero’s cases. By day, Daredevil is a lawyer after all so he needs some teammates. Karen always worried about Matt Murdock (Daredevil) because of how he always seems to be in danger. Her role is still fairly small at the moment. Foggy is the one who gets a big role as he has a subplot, which spans quite a few issues.

To impress Karen, Foggy decides to pretend that he is Daredevil. He even goes as far as to buy a Daredevil costume and convince someone to dress up as a villain. The problem is that the villain means business and wants to destroy Foggy to build a name for himself. Daredevil learns about this and decides to join the fight. This villain was powerful and managed to gain the upper hand in the first round, but Daredevil was ready. The villain went on to team up with another one of Daredevil’s old foes and they were still making plans when the volume ended.

I assume that we will likely see more of them in future issues. I liked the villain who used to be a costume designer so I’m hoping that he wins the battle of villainy with his partner. Daredevil’s array of villains may be one of the blander ones, but he certainly has some decent ones. The guy with the spinning blade and armor is probably my favorite Daredevil villain of all time and I don’t even know the guy’s name!

As expected, the art is spot on and really shows why the classic Marvel style worked so well for each story. Many of them had similar art, but you could still easily tell one series apart from the other. It was simple and made for good action scenes that were colorful and fun. It’s still hard to imagine how the artists were able to draw these pages every week as the amount of detail and effort that went into them is clear as you read the comics. Naturally, this applies to the writing as well, which is also as solid as you would expect. Compared to some of the current writers like Bendis and Slott, you really start to miss the high level of quality in these classic issues.

Overall, Daredevil was a good collection. It essentially captures all of the good qualities that you would expect from a Marvel comic. You could call it the definitive, average Marvel comic. It’s not as exciting as most of the popular Marvel heroes, but it still has the Marvel brand of quality on it. Daredevil is a likable main character and he makes the comics very engaging. Foggy and Karen aren’t the greatest of supporting characters, but at least they help to remind the audience of how much danger Matt is in as that’s usually the only thing that they talk about. New York can be dangerous for a blind man after all. I definitely recommend this to the comic readers out there and especially if you are looking for a new hero to root for. Daredevil is ready for some adventures and hopefully I will be able to read more Daredevil comics in the future. He’s a hero that I really haven’t read about on many occasions. Our paths have simply not crossed much, but perhaps that will change. Until then, you can expect popular heroes like Spiderman to appear more and more.

Overall 7/10

Marvel Masterworks Doctor Strange Volume 6 Review

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I don’t think that I have read a Doctor Strange comic before now so it was great to get this collection from the library. He’s a character who used to be among the strongest in Marvel history as he has gone toe to toe with foes like the Living Tribunal in the past. This collection certainly sees him go up against some cosmic threats, but we also get to see him get used to being a weaker fighter. This comic is sound in all areas and makes for a fun read.

There are quite a few adventures to be found here. One of the mini arcs involves a test that Eternity decides to give Doctor Strange. Strange must defeat himself as he meta physically fights against all of his personalities to show that his strength of will has not deteriorated. If he fails, Eternity shall end the planet! Later on, Strange decides to take a field trip to the past to meet with Ben Franklin and other retro figures. Unfortunately, someone has been following him around and Strange must learn not to believe his eyes, but to feel the truth. Finally, Strange is stripped of his Socerer Supreme title and goes back to just being a good magician. This comes at a bad time as Xander has come to attack Strange on behalf of his masters. Clea has also been tainted with evil and she is on a rampage in the city. Life never gets dull for Doctor Strange!

Doctor Strange is a very fun main character. He was certainly someone that you could root for here and he was also interesting. Strange was certainly a deep character who had been through many experiences and didn’t feel like your average hero. As with many heroes, this was likely the best portrayal of him as it would be very hard to top. His abilities are so numerous that even he has trouble remembering exactly what he can do at times, which makes sense. Magic is essentially unlimited so once you know it, you can really do just about anything. It’s easy to picture Doctor Strange actually tangling with cosmic beings. He met the creator in an older comic and here he gets to meet Satan and Eternity. He really hangs out with the best of the best and it would be fun to see Dr Strange at his height go up against Thanos with the Gauntlet. There’s actually a good chance that Strange could do more than simply put up a fight.

Eternity is certainly a fun character to watch since he’s one of Marvel’s heavy hitters. He is literally the universe so he is everywhere and always knows what’s going on. How can he be defeated? Well, you’d be surprised at just how many other heavy hitters Marvel has stashed away! Eternity is bested in both of the fights that he engages in here. One of them was a little surprising while I suppose that I can buy the other one. Still, in a battle of hype, one character must always lose right? I definitely consider Eternity to be below the Beyonder and Living Tribunal in power after this, but he’s probably still ahead of Death even though they are essentially half and half. At the very least, you’ve got to love Eternity’s personality. He reminds Doctor Strange that he is not above anger and he certainly proves it. You simply don’t want to mess with him!

Those were the two characters who really stuck out for me. Clea is a supporting character who gets a bigger role in the second half of the collection, but it’s still relatively small when you really think about it. I think the writers sometimes forget that she is still a sorceress though. Sometimes, she’ll simply go down without a fight. It’s a little odd and even the foreward by the writer for the first half mentioned that she probably should have left already. Things just didn’t work out very well for her, but at least the ending shows that things are starting to look better. Dr Strange’s assustant’s role is even smaller than Clea’s though so things certainly could have been worse.

As for the villains, most of them are simply sorcerers or tricks by Eternity or Strange’s mentor. Nightmare appears and he gets a pretty incredible feat, but Dr Strange disposes of him rather quickly. This shows how strong Strange was at one point. We’ve also got Xander, but he looks surprisingly weak. I’m assuming that the writer wasn’t sure exactly what to do with him and just threw the villain in for the lulz. We also have the the two queens who fought in the annual, but there’s not much to say about them. The dynamic was similar to the two Queens in Friendship is Magic, but with less development of course.

The art is a little inconsistent. It’s not a problem of the artist I believe as they switch during the comics. For most of the graphic novel, the art is very good and it does a good job of capturing the cosmic scope of Strange’s adventures. Towards the end with the annual and the final issues, the art just takes a big dip. The faces tend to vary a lot and Strange appears to have a head of gray hair on more than one occasion. I probably wouldn’t think that the art was so bad if it had been like that the whole time, but there’s no comparison when you look at the first half and then the second. Still, the first half definitely keeps it in the clear and the art certainly won’t take you out of the adventure.

The writing is engaging and you’re constantly reminded of how they simply don’t make comics like this one anymore. The adventures were great fun and Dr Strange made for a good lead. His strange adventures into other realms and planets are what made his comics so unique back in the day. The current Doctor Strange is hard to pinpoint as I haven’t read many comics with him, but he’s certainly less impressive nowadays and he doesn’t feel quite as determined as this Doctor Strange. It’s something about retro comics that allows each character to dip deep and really give the battle their all. That kind of determination doesn’t show up quite as often anymore.

Overall, I definitely recommend checking this collection out! It’s a blast and a half. Moreover, it’s a good way to get you prepped for the Doctor Strange film that will be coming out at some point in the future. You may not want to expect the film’s version to be quite as awesome as the lead in this collection, but it’s very likely going to be a good film so it should not disappoint. Watching Eternity actually get into a physical brawl is very exciting and the stakes are much higher here than you would expect from the average comic. This version of Dr Strange could likely defeat the Avengers and the other teams of the day as long as he had enough time to think of his spells. He could really do anything back in the day. Hopefully I’ll get to read another one of these collections for Doctor Strange someday. That being said, there’s another graphic novel that I’ll be reading soon, which has Strange in it so that’s the next best thing.

Overall 7/10