Cable Classic Volume 3 Review

Posted on January 18, 2015 by dreager1

Time to check out a collection with good ole Cable as one of the main characters. Despite the title, you really couldn’t say that he was the main character for any of the Phalanx comics. That just leaves the opening one and the comics about the Morlocks. (The first one was about the Morlocks as well so it’s a bit of a trick sentence) Cable has definitely been one of the best Marvel characters when he’s at his best so let’s see if he can live up to that here.

The first comic is about Cable and Domino eating their dinner when they realize that the Morlocks are in trouble. Nothing really happens here, but this plot is resumed towards the end. The first half is mainly about the Phalanx. They have taken out the X-Men and they are ready to start assuming control over Earth. I’m not sure what the Avengers are doing, but maybe they’re just off planet. Regardless, it’s up to Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, and Cable to take the Phalanx down once and for all. They are prepared to do what needs to be done, but a secret that Cyclops and Jean are keeping from Cable could prove to be trouble.

After that big arc, the final comics involve Cable’s return to the sewers. Domino is still with him and they bring in Storm since she has ties to the Morlocks. They find out that the Morlocks and other mutants are being hunted by the Dark Riders. The heroes manage to fend them off, but the villains retreat for some reason. Cable doesn’t like this so the heroes decide to pursue the villains. Who is their leader and can the heroes really deal with such a powerful group of enemies?

The final comic is a really fitting way to end this collection. Legion has altered the past by destroying Magneto so now the entire universe is shattering because the M’krann crystal is acting up. It’s consuming galaxy after galaxy and the main one is next. Cable goes back in time (off screen) to warn Bishop and the others since the X Men lost their memories, but it’s futile gesture. The universe blows up and we’ll have to read another collection to find out what cop out/retcon allowed the heroes to survive this. I just have to give the collection some credit for ending here. It’s a perfect ending since everyone basically died. Imagine all of the super villains who had been planning to rule the world only to have it snuffed out so quickly. Same with all of the alien races and the Avengers. It’s just a little funny to think that all of their plans were spoiled just because a time traveler went to the past and altered it a little bit.

See, that’s why I’ve always found time travelling to be a little iffy. All it takes is one change for the multiverse to blow up. If you ask me, the multiverse should definitely not exist right now considering how easy it is to wreck time. Unless the One Above All or the Beyonder decide to fix it each time, oblivion should be the current state of the Marvel universe. Anyway, you gotta admit that it’s a pretty great ending.

Cable is a pretty good character here. He’s not quite as awesome as in X Sanction, but that would be almost impossible to replicate. He’s still a pretty determined hero here and it’s cool to see him keep pace with the other fighters when he’s just using his gun. As the issues go on, he starts to use his TK powers a little more, which certainly gives him a better fighting chance. He’s a pretty likable guy and he always puts the team first even if he doesn’t act like it. In his argument with Gambit, I was definitely on Cable’s side. That’s probably not very noteworthy since I really don’t like Gambit and I do like Cable, but it’s worth noting. Cyclops ends up blaming them both, but I think that Gambit was in the wrong. He was basically complaining for no real reason and he was certainly not helping the situation.

Domino gets a pretty large role here. Her luck abilities may not seem directly helpful in combat, but she continues to defeat any and all opponents who get in her way so it’s probably helping a lot in the background. I appreciate the fact that she tries to keep things platonic with Cable since that’s always the best thing to do in just about any situation. You don’t want to complicate things with your allies. The romance isn’t handled badly though so I won’t use it as a strike against the comic. It doesn’t take away from the rest of the collection and it certainly could have been worse. It’s handled in a civil way so kudos to the author. She’s a pretty likable main heroine and she’s always ready for a fight. She seems to be a little less sympathetic to the Morlocks than Cable is, but I suppose that it’s just how it goes when you’re used to being an assassin.

Cyclops is mostly only present in the Phalanc arc, but he looks pretty great. He’s portrayed as a superb leader who is always calm and collected. He makes the right choices and there’s nothing wrong with his character. He’s on par with Captain America on the leader’s best days. It’s easy to see why Cyclops is one of my favorite Marvel characters of all time and his portrayal is spot on here. Jean Grey also looks really good. She seems to have total control over her abilities so she is very good in combat now. She doesn’t get to fight all that often, but she plays a critical role in supporting the heroes when infiltrating the Phalanx. She lives up to her reputation as one of the strongest telepaths on the planet.

Wolverine’s role isn’t very big either, but he looks pretty good. This takes place at a time where he temporarily lost his Adamantium Skeleton so he’s in a weakened state. That’s definitely not great for him since he gets pounded a lot as a result, but he never backs down. Even without hie special abilities, Wolverine is a fighter and you can bet that he won’t go down without a fight. He’s definitely as likable as expected here and he still makes for a good rival to Cyclops.

Storm’s role isn’t huge, but she certainly helps a lot against the Dark Riders. One of those villains has elemental powers as well so it’s pretty satisfying to see her overpower him. Her weather abilities should certainly be a lot stronger than his and the comic doesn’t even make that debatable. She crushes him and she looks very good during all of the fights. As one of the senior X Men members around, I expect nothing less from this fighter!

Tyler gets a decent role as well since he is the final boss of the Morlocks arc. Let’s just say that he went off the deep end and you have to wonder what happened to him. Fans of the 90’s X Men show will definitely remember him and he’s certainly changed a lot since then. I like his new armor, but he’s a pretty generic villain once you get past that. His reasons for blowing up towns and hunting mutants are vague at best and there doesn’t seem to be much of a point beyond his actions. I don’t care for his character, but he makes for an intimidating villain. (When he has his helmet on)

The Phalanx is definitely one of the X Men’s more iconic foes. They usually beat their opponents through sheer numbers. It’s hard to really take them down in a physical fight so usually the X Men have to use some kind of electronic to disable them or just break their psyche. The heroes opt to do the latter this time and they do a good job of getting through the Phalanx’s defenses. I was actually expecting it to be more difficult for the heroes. The Phalanx make for good villains although none of their individual members appear to be likable. Luckily, this may change soon as he get a silhouette of a master Phalanx in space. He doesn’t like that his Earth forces were destroyed so he makes a threat about launching a real offensive there. That’s a cliffhanger that I can’t wait to see resolved since the leader looks really cool. Technically, I don’t see the X Men surviving such an assault so the Avengers better appear this time!

The Dark Riders used to work for Apocalypse and now they work for Tyler. They’re a pretty intriguing group, but I’m not familiar with any of their members. They’re fairly weak, which is why they typically go for Morlocks since those guys typically can’t fight back. I’m confident that the X Men or Avengers would have no trouble for them. None of the members are actually likable, but the designs are pretty good and I always like to see a super villain team.

The art is in that 90’s style so there are a lot of big splash pages where you have to turn your graphic novel. I was expecting it to be a little harder to follow than it was so that’s a good thing. Typically, you miss out on some of the action because it’s too chaotic, but the artist did a pretty good job of preventing that in this volume. Everyone probably looks a little too muscular and they can definitely be pretty exaggerated, but the art actually looks pretty good. This style certainly works pretty well for energy blasts. This will never be my favorite style though. It’s still hard to describe, but everyone is just a little too big and they all look pretty deranged this way. It’s pretty classic and there’s something about it that’s naturally appealing for fight scenes, but I’ll still take the streamlined X Sanction anyway. Long story short, the art doesn’t hurt the story.

The fight scenes are pretty intense. There are no real feats to be found here, but it’s still fun to see the fighters go at it. This collection is definitely a lot of fun. It’ll remind you of the good ole days from the Uncanny X Men. The writing is really good and the opposite of the Avenging Spider Man. It’s the type of collection that would have been a lot of fun even if the fight scenes had not been there, but they certainly help. Good writing plus good fights tends to result in a really good/great array of issues and that’s what happens here.

Overall, Cable Classic is a pretty good collection. The ending was perfect and the writing is really good. Just about all of the characters are likable and in character. The art complements the story pretty well here and it’s a very engaging read from start to finish. All X Men fans should get a kick out of this and I’d recommend it to DC fans as well since it’s a way to get introduced to the Marvel side of things. It may not be quite up to X Sanction level, but it’s definitely one of the better X collections that I’ve read. When you read this, get ready to see Cyclops as he was meant to be portrayed!

Overall 7/10

Avenging Spider Man The Good The Green and the Ugly Review

Posted on January 18, 2015 by dreager1

Looks like it’s time to review one of the volumes in the Avenging Spider Man series. I’ve read many Spider Man comics and I’ve heard about how they have gone downhill recently. A solid team up series is a good way to gauge how good they were from this point in time compared to the old days. The writing is pretty bad, but the art is good and we get some action scenes so it’s definitely a mixed bag. That being said, this is certainly a good comic to check out, even if Spider Man’s portrayal is not great.

This collects a few Spider Man team ups so each adventure really has to stand up on its own. First, we get a comic with She Hulk. Spider Man decides to help her fight some villains for no reason in particular. It appears that he’s just bored so he tails her to a party that he wasn’t invited too. One thing leads to another and some villains appear. They unleash a Cat god who now wants She Hulk to be her herald. Let’s hope that Spider Man is up to the task!

It’s a decent comic I suppose, but Spider Man definitely looked pretty desperate here. He just wanted to follow She Hulk around no matter what, which was pretty out of character for him. The writing in this issue was the main reason why I disliked it in the collection. Some of the lines would give me a headache although I did read it pretty early in the morning. They just didn’t make sense or maybe it was the way that the font was set up. As far as team ups go, Spider Man can do better.

The next pair of issues revolved around a team up with Captain Marvel. (I prefer the old title) Spiderman and Captain Marvel are trying to bond by exchanging secrets when a mysterious girl appears. She is being chased by robots/the government. She claims to be Robyn Hood and she seems to be insane. Spider Man decides to handle her while Ms Marvel takes on the robots. The mysterious girl has some dark secrets that rapidly change the situation.

This comic was better, but it still suffered from its share of problems. Spider Man doesn’t look too good since he’s in total panic mode the entire time and he cops out on his secret. Captain Marvel says hers and then Spider Man avoids the question until the very end. The writers seemed to be unsure of what to have him say so it’s naturally not on screen. The villains were fairly generic and they didn’t offer much to the story. Robyn Hood was an interesting character I suppose and it’ll be interesting to see if she ever appears again. There wasn’t a lot of action here though.

The final comic definitely had the most fighting and Spider Man got to finally team up with Deadpool. This is certainly a duo that we’ve been wanting to see for some time. Deadpool lets Spiderman know that a telepath is trying to get into his head so they are 4 levels down in his dreams. They have to beat the boss at the end of each level to rise higher and higher until Spider Man is fully conscious. That shouldn’t be too bad, but can Deadpool really help Spider Man wake up or will he just make the situation worse.

This comic was probably the most fun one in the batch. Seeing Deadpool without his mask can still be nauseating though so I wish that he would keep it on. Some of the lines can definitely be a little unsavory or just gross as you may expect from an issue with Deadpool in it. That hurts the overall issue a little, but it still manages to be the best in the batch.

The artwork is pretty decent although it’s definitely not very good. It feels like a TV show tie in comic so the quality is just very low. They were probably able to make this comic really quick and the effort just doesn’t seem to be there. It’s easy to read and you can easily tell who everyone is, but the animation definitely won’t be causing you to take a step back in disbelief. It’s not the greatest, but it doesn’t hamper the story.

As I mentioned, Spider Man doesn’t look very good. He still jokes around a lot, which can be good, but he doesn’t do anything to dispel the rumors that he is pretty weak in the newer comics. She Hulk intimidates him a lot and he doesn’t handle the Robyn Hood situation well at all. He looks pretty good in the Deadpool team up, but it’s not really enough to save his character. Finding the right mix of strength and jokes can be tough and this author couldn’t pull it off.

She Hulk actually looked pretty terrible in her issue. She goes off the handle very quickly and she seriously overreacts when she grows a tail. She yells exclamations more than once, which doesn’t seem to be in character and she’s just not likable at all. I don’t know how she can keep her job as a lawyer after this case is all over. She wasn’t apologetic about wrecking the party.

Captain Marvel looks good in her issue even if she isn’t able to fight all that much. Her strength isn’t diminished, but there just aren’t many opportunities for her. She gets to talk tough to one of the robots though and she’s clearly stronger than the rest of them, but there was not an opportunity to take the villains down. They were protected legally after all. Captain Marvel just didn’t get a lot of character though, but that still beats She Hulk.

Deadpool was true to form and that’s always good to see. He’s still on top of things and he has an answer to everything. You can never tell what he will do next and he never lets an enemy try to pull the wool over his eyes. When the terms of his deal change, Deadpool doesn’t accept that and quickly gets down to business. He’s still a villain despite how sympathetic he can be at times, but at least he helps out for the money once in a while. Agreeing to get stabbed as part of the heroes’ plan was pretty nice of him since it was a bit much to ask for.

Robyn Hood was pretty insane and the writers didn’t seem to know what to do with her, but she was an interesting villain. She definitely needs more character if she’s intends to stay interesting for future issues, but she did all right for her first appearance. I definitely liked her more than the hypnotist from the final issue. It’s impressive that he did so well in the fight against Spider Man, but that was mainly due to a lot of external factors. His ability is definitely a great one and it will be fun to see him appear again some day. Depending on the writer, he could probably be a lot of fun. As for the cat god, I’m definitely not a fan.

This review probably seems more negative than a lot of Spider Man’s other comics from the past and a good reason for that is the simple fact that it isn’t quite as good as the norm. The writing just isn’t good and the art is sub par. Some of the characters just don’t look as good as they should and the collection is really light on action. That being said, it still earns a positive rating on the fun factor. It’s still pretty fun to read and while it may not seem that great in retrospect, you’ll be blasting through the pages. There are no real stakes here, but seeing what the heroes do on their downtime can be fun as well. The action scenes that we do get also have some potential to be better if not for the factors that were previously mentioned.

Overall, Avenging Spider Man is a pretty good idea, but Marvel fumbled a little in the execution. With a proper amount of hard work and a good staff behind it, this could have been the next Brave and the Bold. As it stands, it’s still a decent comic to check out if you want to see Spider Man team up with some of the heroes in a nice throwback to the old days. This certainly won’t make you a big Spider Man fan so take his portrayal with a grain of salt. I recommend this to all superhero fans who just want to see them fighting and having fun, but a Spider Man comic that you would prefer is his “Cosmic Spider Man” trade paperback.

Overall 6/10

New Avengers Everything Dies Review

Posted on January 13, 2015 by dreager1

Time to review volume 1 of the recent New Avengers series. The Illuminati have always made for a pretty interesting plot and Captain America has been the one to keep them in line. What will happen when they decide to go too far? It’s definitely a collection that is meant to keep you thinking and it’s a fun read.

The Earth is going to collide with an alternate Earth and the resulting explosion end up devastating the universe. Black Panther learns of this when he apprehends a mysterious figure who appears on his land. Her name is the Black Swan and she knows more than she lets on. He reluctantly calls the Illuminati to deliberate about what must be done. Black Swan lets them know that they ultimately only have two choices. Blow up the other Earth or allow the universe to end. She just finished blowing up a planet herself so she is not bluffing. What will the heroes decide to do?

Naturally, Captain America is against the notion of blowing up the planet. Since it is an alternate Earth, that would mean destroying billions of lives to save their own. It’s just not a good gambit and he knows that there has to be another way. He’s seen the Earth on the brink of extinction many times in the past so he knows what he is talking about. This is Captain America as he was meant to be portrayed. He is the moral compass of the group and he won’t even entertain the notion of using the bomb to take out the planet. Unfortunately, this means that the Illuminati can no longer have him around and they decide to erase his memories. It’s ~~ripped off~~similar to what the Justice League did to Batman a while back. It’s sad for Steve Rogers since the others basically became traitors at that moment. The Avenger didn’t get to appear for most of the collection since he was taken out, but he looked very good in the scenes that he was in. I think he shouldn’t have been surprised by Black Panther’s betrayal though, but that’s a minor setback.

Black Panther is all for the idea along with Black Bolt. They’re leaders so they’ll do whatever it takes in order to save their kingdoms. Morals and honor will always be secondary to their overall goals. Namor is happy to do it since he’s essentially a villain at this point in time anyway. Dr Strange is slightly more reluctant to do this and he has a few spells ready, but none of them really seem like they’ll complete the job here so it’s moot. He ultimately agrees with the decision to blow up the planet. Mr Fantastic agrees pretty quickly since it’ll save his family and the Beast doesn’t even need a moment to think about it. He agrees wholeheartedly because he is the Beast and remains as one of my least favorite X-Men fighters.

That’s when the big cop out occurs…the planet is uninhabited. That does take away all of the tension and the stakes since they can now blow up the planet with a clear heart. In a way I would have preferred for this cop out not to have occurred since we would have seen whether these heroes were really heroes or not. No matter how they tried to justify it, destroying the planet would have cemented them as villains here. Destroying billions of people is far greater than any genocide feat in history and it always would be since blowing up planets is impossible in the real world. Naturally, a hero could top them by blowing up an inhabited galaxy someday, but it could be a while. On the other hand, it’s probably good that this did happen since I would rather not see these heroes taint themselves in such a way.

That was a big blow, but we got to see what all of the characters would have chosen (in theory. No guarantees until the final seconds right?) so that’s the important thing. Some subplots for the future have already begun. Black Panther has declared war on Namor and we can bet that Captain America will regain his memories and launch his own attack at some point. Dr Doom now has knowledge that could prove dangerous to the heroes as well. These plots should be pretty good and it’ll be interesting to see what the Black Swan does next as well.

The Black Swan makes for a pretty good villain here. She looks pretty similar to Emma Frost or Magik so I can’t say that the character design is pretty unique, but she’s a fun villain. We haven’t really seen what her abilities are (Assuming that she has any, but let’s face it…she will!) yet, but her plan is just getting started. She is pretty cooperative with the heroes since she definitely does want to keep on living. The whole situation is rather complicated and the heroes would have had a much tougher time without her. They should hopefully not trust her all that much at the moment, but she has definitely earned her freedom. Only time will tell if she saved the world for the better or for the worse.

The concept of the Illuminati is also pretty dicey and I agree with Black Panther for the most part. Deciding that they will take care of the Earth as they see fit is something that no group should be able to do. What about politics and Joe the Plumber? The heroes are starting to put themselves on a pedestal next to the average person and that’s definitely dangerous. Having the Infinity Gems in their possession is also a big display of power. at least the heroes claim to be doing this for the good of mankind and they haven’t overstepped their boundaries yet, but that day could definitely arise in the near future. We’ll see if the choices make or break them. After all, Captain America was the only member of the team who was a complete hero, without him…things could get very dangerous. The Beast will do anything to help the mutants and likewise with Black Bolt and Black Panther for their races. Namor doesn’t really care about anyone and Dr Strange’s motives are typically pretty clouded. Iron Man already has a dicey history of betraying his comrades like in Civil War so he certainly can’t be trusted. It’s only a matter of time until they fight the normal Avengers.

One thing about the premise that is hard to believe is how Black Swan says that nothing can stop the planets from colliding. The heroes try to use the Infinity Gauntlet and it actually doesn’t work. It’s possible that Captain America’s resolve just wasn’t strong enough, but it’s still a bit of a stretch. Even if that didn’t work there should be a bunch of other things that would. Remember how the Justice League made the Earth intangible during Doom? Something like that would work here or just warping it away from its current position for a few minutes. There are a lot of solutions that you can think of and it’s why I never believe in two choice scenarios in the Marvel world. Of course, you have to ignore that for the plot here, but it’s something to consider. It’s hinted that a high above being is forcing this to happen so that could become a plot soon.

The art is as good as I could have expected. Marvel has always been very sharp for the New Avengers and that doesn’t stop here. All of the character models look sharp and the proportions are right. The action scenes are typically pretty clear except for the Terrax one where a lot was happening at once and the art got a little fuzzy. Marvel continues to show that they can keep up with DC in the artwork game when they really put some effort in.

The writing is also very good for the collection. Regardless of how antagonistic the heroes appear to be, they are still written pretty well. It’s not necessarily out of character for any of the characters here to decide to blow up the planet. If Captain America had agreed then it would be a different story, but he didn’t so I give the comic some more props there. Galaktus and his herald do pop up out of nowhere, but it makes sense that they would try to do something in these final hours. The script alone makes the comic interesting so the fights and good visuals only help to improve the experience.

Overall, New Avengers Everything Dies is a pretty good comic arc. It’s a very fine start to the series since some of the sub plots have already started and we got to see the dark side of the group. The roster for the Illuminati is pretty good as well since most of the characters are interesting. I don’t think that adding in the Beast was a wise move, but maybe he’ll contribute something to the team soon. I think that the plot twist at the end was one of the biggest cop outs that I’ve seen in a while, but I suppose that it makes things a little easier on the heroes. It certainly prevents me from losing more respect for some of them, but it would have been nice to see if they would ultimately take the plunge or not. I recommend this to all Marvel fans or to anyone who wants to read a pretty good comic. Let’s see if future installments can keep this up!

Overall 7/10

Fantastic Four World’s Greatest Heroes Review

Posted on January 10, 2015 by dreager1

Looks like it’s time to review one of the Marvel cartoons that fell under the radar. The Fantastic Four have had several shows, but they’ve never had the same amount of success as the Avengers or the X Men. I’ve seen episodes from two of the other series, but this is the first one where I got to watch the whole series from start to finish. It’s a decent show, but it makes many mistakes, which keeps it from being known as one of the better cartoons. You can certainly see why it was cancelled, but it’s still a good title to check out.

There aren’t any large story arcs in the show. There are plots that continue like villains who go in and out of jail and Dr Doom’s never ending plans to destroy the Fantastic Four once and for all, but nothing to really talk about in the plot selection. A lot of episodes are stand alone fights with the various villains. We also have the Kree subplot as they start to get pretty fed up with the group of heroes. The Fantastic Four antagonize just about everyone that they meet so they have a lot of enemies. Naturally, Dr Doom is at the top of the list.

There are 26 episodes, which is a decent episode count for a series. It’s not a whole lot when you compare it to the other Fantastic Four shows, but cracking the 20 episode barrier is always something to be proud of. That being said, the show was just not as high quality as we have come to expect back in the time that it aired. One of the main problems is actually the animation.

It’s some of the worst animation that I have ever seen for a superhero cartoon. We can make the case that the CGI Spiderman series looked worse, but it was CGI so that’s to be expected. The character designs here are just pretty off putting and the colors can get very chaotic. The show loves to make everything look red or green or blue depending on how the animators are feeling that day. It’s not very pleasing to the eyes and they just seem to be having too much fun trying to make the show unique. Focusing on the fight scenes would have been a better way to have kept the series afloat. I could not get used to this animation no matter how many episodes I saw.

The soundtrack is certainly better, but it’s still not very good. There’s one classic theme that plays whenever they are about to fight and it’s a pretty decent theme for the Fantastic Four. The problem is that the soundtrack is very limited so you’ll be hearing the same theme in just about every episode and typically more than once. It’s a good theme, but (almost) any theme will get old after a number of times. We need variety!

Those two factors hurt the show, but what hurt it even more is the overall cast. The Fantastic Four are known to argue and fight a whole lot, but they take it to a whole new level here. They are constantly talking and there is never a quiet scene in the entire show. Human Torch is like a music box that you just can’t close and he’s always on screen. The others love to contribute as well and the villains play their part. It wouldn’t be a problem if the lines were good, but that’s rarely the case. I’d definitely compare it to Avengers Assemble since just about every line here is supposed to be witty and make you smile. The scary part is that Avengers Assemble actually does a better job with this, but it could just be that I like the characters a little more there. Let’s look at the characters in more detail.

Mr Fantastic is easily the best character in the show. It’s not even close and I also liked the voice that was chosen for him. He really sounds like he’s full of himself and that’s the Reed Richards that I know. He’s always got a plan at the ready and he doesn’t back down. I’ve never seen an incarnation of Mr Fantastic that I did not like and I’m glad to see that this hasn’t changed so far. His powers still aren’t great for combat, but he definitely has his moments.

The Invisible Woman is not bad, but she definitely gives Mr Fantastic a lot of grief during the series. She blames him for the Human Torch’s disappearance at one point, which was fairly unreasonable. One thing that helps to counter this is that she’s easily the strongest member of the team. When she uses her powers effectively, there are few fighters who can really stop her and almost none of those are main FF characters. She runs the business side of the Baxter Building so she tends to talk to the various inhabitants a little more than the others. This means that she has to keep up a pleasant facade from time to time, but the other members know that she is always ready to fight. Sue Storm is probably the only member who can talk back to one of their meaner neighbors.

I’m definitely not a huge Thing fan and he doesn’t do himself any favors here. He’s a pretty nice guy as he just wants to watch his ball games in peace. Unfortunately, the Human Torch will never let that happen so they get into constant arguments. His side plot with Alisha can also drag on a lot since it never goes anywhere. I think there’s no real excuse for the heroes not to cure her blindness and she should also move somewhere that’s a little safer from the Puppet Master. Alisha’s not a bad character, but she’s always been one of my least favorite heroines. She simply doesn’t have a whole lot of character and she naturally doesn’t get any fight scenes. The Thing is the power hitter of the Fantastic Four, but you’d be surprised at how often he still manages to lose fights. The Mole Men’s minions are able to take him down and that was during a rage moment. This certainly isn’t Ben Grimm’s best collection of moments, but the show did adapt his character pretty faithfully. I’ll give the writers some props there.

The Human Torch is unfortunately the most annoying character of the group. For every good line that he has, he’ll have 10 wince worthy ones. The reason for this is the fact that he never stops talking. He continue going on and on until he’s knocked out by a villain. It’s nice to see his confidence and he does pretty well during some of the events, but this version of Johnny Storm is just a little too exaggerated. Naturally, he is given a rather high pitched voice to make him look even worse when he is knocked out. His fire abilities are definitely useful and I would argue that he could defeat the Thing, but there are also a lot of ways around his fire that make him a risky ally to have. He’s typically fun to watch, but he goes overboard way too often to be a really likable character this time.

The Skrulls naturally get to appear and the writers must have really disliked them. They are shown to have little to no actual intelligence. They are very obvious in their attempts to gather intel on the Fantastic Four and they are brushed aside rather easily once the fighting begins. They have never been the toughest of enemies, but they are typically intelligence. They are masters of espionage after all so they wouldn’t make the rookie mistakes that they exhibit in their appearances. It was a pretty good episode though, but their portrayal should have been a little better.

Namor makes a quick appearance in the show and naturally he is rivals with Mr Fantastic. They are constantly getting into arguments and trying to one up the other. Namor is not as bad as you would expect since he is typically a very unlikable character for me. He still shows some of those traits, but the focus is more on him being a leader than on his other qualities. That helps him a lot and he makes for a good guest star. It’s unfortunate for him that he has to ask the surface dwellers for assistance, but the Fantastic Four are always happy to oblige. I was more than satisfied with his portrayal.

Hulk looks pretty good here in his beast form and as Bruce Banner. It’s sad for Bruce since he’s always so close to getting a cure until things just don’t go his way. Considering how smart Reed is, you’d assume that he’d be able to cure him easily. The Hulk’s design isn’t very good, but he definitely looks tough. It’s safe to say that the Thing was completely outmatched in their skirmish and that’s how all of their fights should end up. Bruce Banner gets the short end of the stick as per usual, but his personality was pretty good and he was a likable guest star.

Ronan appears a few times and he has actually defected from the Kree this time. In the comics, that is pretty rare although I don’t necessarily mind the change. It means that he is now free to do as he pleases and he naturally challenges the Fantastic Four. His skill with his hammer is formidable and he has a nice fight against the Human Torch. I’ve never found him to be an incredibly powerful fighter, but against the Fantastic Four I would definitely give him some decent odds in a fight. He’s around the Thing’s level in strength here, if not a little weaker. He gave us one of the better episodes here in the form of a sort of Olympics competition against the Fantastic Four, which was pretty cool. He was definitely one of the better villains in the series.

The Mole Man is probably my least favorite villain in the series. He can’t fight and his design is pretty hard to look at. None of his plans should have any reasonable chance to succeed considering how weak his forces are. Unfortunately, he is one of the more popular Fantastic Four villains so he gets to appear several times. You end up feeling bad for his minions since they’ll never get to see the sun. He has to rely on his wit and cunning to win his fights since his staff can only get him so far. It’s always wince worthy to see him defeat the Fantastic Four.

The Impossible Man is one of those characters that I never like. His reality warping abilities are something that I never want to see in a show so a character whose whole gimmick is related to that is naturally not my kind of character. He mostly just comes to troll the heroes until they trick him into leaving. His episodes are typically more annoying than entertaining. Ant Man made a surprise guest star appearance in this show considering that he typically doesn’t get to be a guest star anywhere. His portrayal was pretty good and he definitely seems to know what he’s doing. There’s not all that much to say about him, but it would be nice to see him fight someday. Fighting minions doesn’t really count, he needs to take on a super villain!

Ironman gets to appear, which is pretty cool. Tony Stark’s portrayal is pretty great since he acts pretty fearless even as the Fantastic Four begin to threaten him. As Iron Man, he definitely proves to be an impressive fighter as you would expect. His armor does get hacked once again, but it is by Dr Doom so it’s pretty excusable. I liked the armor design here, which is a plus and he was definitely one of (if not) the best guest stars on the show. It’s too bad that he didn’t get to return since that would have been pretty cool.

The Super Skrull naturally gets to appear, which is good since he’s a very iconic Fantastic Four villain. I always liked the idea of a guy who had all of their individual abilities and he does not disappoint. He puts up a pretty decent fight and what he makes up for in personality, he makes up for in attitude. He’s never been a very deep character anyway so I hadn’t been expecting all that much. Still, he was a pretty cool villain thanks to his battles and appearance.

The Puppet Master is similar to the Mole Man in that he can’t really fight. He actually has a very overpowered ability, which enables him to control anyone that he has made a statue out of. Techncially, nobody can really counter such a technique so he cannot lose. Plot hax ensues and they get out of his plot, but it’s one of those cases where the writers just made him a little too good. That happens sometimes I suppose, but it’s why you’ve always got to be careful. Even with that ability, he’s just not likable. He’s a really old guy who’s out for vengeance…not a very original story.

She Hulk gets a guest star role and she shows why she is about as strong as the Thing. She is mainly here to remind us why the Thing is so important to the team, but she’s still pretty likable. She was always a pretty good replacement member on the team and she doesn’t rub it in. She’s a team player, but she’s naturally here for the money. It would have been cool for her to have had a real fight with the Thing, but maybe next time. I was just glad to have another guest star.

Terminus is the final villain in the series and it was an interesting decision to end with him. He’s incredibly powerful, but also incredibly slow, which helps to even it out. The heroes quickly despair when they see him until they remember that Reed will think of a plan. So, all of the pressure rests on Reed and it’s thanks to his quick thinking that the heroes survive. Terminus is pretty gullible and I can’t say that I like him, but I do like the idea of a giant mech running around New York. He makes for a good villain.

The Frightful Four appear as a foil to the Fantastic Four. They pretend to be heroes for a while, but we naturally don’t buy that for long. It’s one of the better episodes as they try to humiliate the Fantastic Four on TV until they eventually begin to fight. Mr Fantastic really lets loose and he gets a pretty epic line to end the episode. The members of the Frightful Four are decent. The Wizard is pretty smart after all, but they are rather simple villains. They’re around, but they aren’t on screen long enough to become likable. They make for good villains and that’s about all that you can say for them.

Diablo is a one shot character, but it’s cool to see him try to convince everyone that magic is real. He’s a villain who is hard to take seriously since his powers don’t have many offensive capabilities, but he really tries and that’s the important thing. He definitely isn’t a very interesting villain, but he only appeared once so it wasn’t a real problem. Annihilius is more interesting and I’m not even a fan of the guy. Annihilius also gets to appear in one of the episodes and things aren’t going well for him when his weapon is stolen. Let’s just say that a team up may be in order unless he can snatch the scepter back on his own. He’s not mindless per say, but he’s not one of the Fantastic Four’s more intelligent villains either. He’s a monster who will defend his territory and I guess that will have to be good enough for us. On the bright side, his design is pretty good.

Ultimately, the show definitely had some fun guest stars. It also had some pretty fun episodes like the olympic games and the one with the Frightful Four. From the 26 episodes, I’m sure that at least half of them are pretty good. There were just other episodes that were not so good and ones that were only decent. The problem is that some episodes can toe the line where they almost feel a little boring. It’s partially thanks to the intros as a lot of the episodes begin rather similarly with the Human Torch and Thing fighting. It can just be hard to really get into the feel of the episode, which hurts its chances. The series definitely has no real replay value since you will never care to watch it again. Other big shows like Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Justice League don’t have that problem since you really want to watch them again. That’s probably due to the fact that this show has no good fights. It’s just the way that it was made, but you never feel the blows here. The lack of a plot only serves to amplify this and your first time around will likely be your last.

As far as Marvel cartoons go, this one still does beat Hulk Agents of Smash though so that’s a consolation win. It’s still not a bad show either since I would have given it a quick 4 in that case. It has its pros and cons and they basically cancel out in the long run. Watching an episode shouldn’t be considered as 20 minutes wasted, but it won’t leave you as fulfilled as other shows. Compared to most western shows at the moment, this would probably seem like an all star in comparison. Compared to most Marvel tunes, then it definitely seems to be under average.

Overall, The Fantastic Four were never the World’s Greatest Heroes so the title may have already started firing off some warning bells. The characters can be pretty annoying and it’s really hard to get invested into some of the episodes. They just aren’t very entertaining and the sub par animation does not help its case. That being said, we still do get a lot of fight scenes and we have a decent amount of guest stars. Some episodes are certainly better than others and at its best, the show can still be good. It’s just not very consistent and you are always playing with fire here. I recommend checking this show out if you’ve always wanted to see a new Fantastic Four cartoon, but otherwise I recommend watching the classic 90’s series instead. It’s a more accurate representation of the team and the comics that spawned them. On the bright side, you’ll get to see the Hulk duke it out with the Thing in this show!

Overall 5/10

Captain America Volume 4 Review

Posted on January 5, 2015 by dreager1

I haven’t read a whole lot of Captain America comics in the past. He has certainly been in a lot if Avenger issues, but I rarely check out his solo issues. He is a good hero, but his villain roster has never been the most interesting. So, it’s about time that I grab one of his collections and it seems to be the final one of the series or at least with this author. It is pretty good, but it does suffer from the issues that I expected in this collection.

New villains who call themselves the Discordians have declared war in the U.S.A. Captain America quickly heads in to stop them, but he doesn’t realize that the villains have the power of the press on their side. A new reporter is running a smear campaign against Captain America and it is working. Captain America considers retiring from the role once and for all. Will he really do this? If he does, then America may be doomed against this new threat!

It is a pretty fun story arc and one of the big factors at play here is the artwork. It looks really good and all of the character models are accurate. It is easy to see what is happening so we don’t miss any part of the fight scenes. Marvel is playing catch up when it comes to artwork thanks to DC’s brilliance and this title certainly helps Marvel’s rep. When Marvel wants too, they can definitely make a great looking comic, they just don’t give it 100% sometimes.

Captain America looks decent here except for the fact that he doubts himself a lot. Seeing the American public turning against him should not face this veteran. Cap’s seen this happen many times in the past and the citizens of this world are always pretty fickle. Especially in Marvel world since they’re always turning against Spiderman. It’s okay not to harm them of course, but rushing through the mob should be all right. Taking out the Discordians is still Captain America’s top priority so that’s what he needs to focus on. I actually do like him as a character, but some authors definitely can’t write him as well as others. I think that this writer has a good handle on the character. The doubting subplot just wasn’t needed.

Baron Zemo appears here, but his role isn’t very flattering for his fans. He looks pretty bad against Agent 13 and it’s like he can’t even fight anymore. The other villains are treating him like an underling and he never gets to betray them. At least he can ponder his mistakes in prison as he plots his next scheme. This is why Captain America’s array of villains are just not that good.

Sharon Carter does look pretty good though as she proves why she’s a more likable character than Black Widow and the Charlie Angels group. She doesn’t use any cheap tricks to complete her missions. She’s just a pro and that’s what counts. She handles a lot of the guards and she outfights Baron Zemo, which is a pretty decent feat in theory. She’s definitely one of the better S.H.I.E.L.D. agents out there. Dum Dum Dugan also gets his hits in as he lands the big blow on the reporter. He is pretty old so it’s always impressive to see him on the front lines.

The actual two villains in the shadows are pretty uninspiring. They barely even deserve a mention since their combined screentime may only be like 5 pages. They go down very quickly to say the least since they aren’t really fighters. The Discordians were a good idea though. They’re like DC’s Manhunters. They can only live for a short while so they try to cause as much mayhem and destruction as possible in that short amount of time. They aren’t really powerful, but their lasers can be dangerous when they manage to land a hit in. I liked their designs and they definitely have some potential. They should be brought back in a future arc since they make good opponents.

After the arc is over, we also get a one shot story to wrap everything up. It’s really just a flashback issue, but the writer was leaving so it was the end of an era. Steve Rogers basically talks to another one of the Captain Americas of the past about how tough it is to keep up the mantle and how someone will always be ready to replace them. He wants the past one to finally move on and enjoy his life. It’s a rather emotional issue and it’s a pretty good one. There aren’t a lot of fights and plot progression of course, but it’s still a good story.

In a world where dozens of superheroes are around at any given point in time, authors really need to make sure to reference this so that I can’t ask why the other heroes aren’t helping out. Well, Captain America mentions that the other Avengers are helping off screen at one point so I can live with that. There are thousands of Discordians attacking around the world so it’s totally plausible that we wouldn’t actually see the other Avengers even if they were helping out. It was just a quick mention, but I’m definitely glad that the line was included since you would think that the other heroes would want to fend off the alien invasion.

There is one part about the plot that is rather sketchy though. The villain is using the TV show to get to the public, but why doesn’t S.H.I.E.L.D. just jam the signal. They go to the source to stop the reporter, but they must have some great hackers or meta humans who could have done the job that way. The plan just didn’t seem like Hydra’s best one and it’s hard to really see it working. It’s a little embarrassing for the normal people since they lose their will so quickly. They never were the strongest guys in the lot, but I still expect a lot more out of them. Ah well, it’s a minor plot detail that won’t actually hurt the collection. It’s just something to think about.

Overall, Captain America is a pretty good topic. I do think that it should have a sub title on the cover or some other way to uniquely identify it from the other Captain America comics. Trying to find this one online would likely be difficult. There are no real good villains to be found here aside from the Discordians…and they are only minions. That’s why all of the pressure was on the plot and it came through. This arc was not Earth shattering, but it was very fun and I could read it again. That’s definitely a big plus for the graphic novel and it’s the main reason why I give it a 7. There’s just something about this arc that makes it easy to read. I definitely recommend it to any Marvel fan and especially to those who want to read about Captain America.

Overall 7/10

Secret Wars Review

Posted on December 11, 2014 by dreager1

Secret Wars was Marvel’s first really big arc and they really knew how to make it exciting. There was never an arc quite like this nor shall there ever be again. It was a one of a kind deal and even if similar plots come out, you cannot hope to pass the sheer originality of this event. I think that Civil War may be my favorite Marvel arc, but I have not technically read all of it so this is officially my favorite Marvel event arc. It’s just brilliant and it’s probably one of the best comics that I have ever read. So much happened in these issues and you can tell that they really put a lot of effort into it.

Marvel is planning a new Secret Wars arc coming soon since they have had fun revisiting old arcs. The new version sounds pretty fun as well, but it looks to be pretty rushed. This one had a lot of characters, but they made sure that a good amount of them got some proper screentime. The new arc is following the “Bigger is Better” motto a little too seriously as the number of fighters has been multiplied several times over. Considering that there can only be so many issues in the main series, we’re not really going to get to see most of the fights. I still do have hopes for it to be one of the best Marvel arcs ever though. All right, time to go back to the plot for this arc!

A lot of heroes had been going through their days like any other when a mysterious spaceship appeared. Some of the heroes fearlessly go into it while others are pretty cautious and carefully set foot inside. It doesn’t matter how you go in though because you end up being trapped either way. The X-Men, Avengers, Spider Man, and the Fantastic Four minus Sue Storm end up on the other side. That’s some serious firepower, but an essentially equally powerful group of villains also arrives. They include Dr Doom, Ultron, Galactus, (Starting to seem a little unfair right?) The Lizard, Magneto, and more. A mysterious being known as the Beyonder has brought them here to engage in the ultimate battle of life and death. Good vs Evil! The winning side will naturally be the correct side and everyone is stuck in this dimension until the war is over. Make no mistake…this is War! Both sides begin to choose their captains and a strategic battle of territories begin with these characters.

The plot begins to shift as the story arc goes on though. It’s originally a big war, but eventually the war is over. Unfortunately, one player deviates from the script and gains unimaginable power. This means that everyone will have to stop this person, but that’ll be tough when he can literally do anything. It’s going to take the will to survive (Which actually comes into play) and some actual power if the heroes want to get out of this alive. Hopefully the rest of the heroes are able to do all right for themselves over on Earth without their power hitters….hopefully!

One of the fun things about this arc is the fact that most of the characters have barely worked with the others if they even have at all! The X-Men are distrusted by most of the other heroes and they don’t do a whole lot here to improve their image. Other teams like the Fantastic Four and the Avengers get along pretty flawlessly. After all, there’s nothing suspect about Mr Fantastic and his crew right?

Mr Fantastic does look pretty good by the way. His role isn’t huge, but he’s acknowledged as a very smart individual even if he does let himself get pushed around by Captain America for a while. He’s just a little too selfless for his own good at times. (He also continues to outshine the Hulk, which is great) The Thing actually doesn’t mention how much he wants to be human that much here, but he can shift between forms for some reason so I guess it’s just not much of an issue at the moment. The Thing is always ready to fight and he was one of the first heroes to suggest that they go after She Hulk so he definitely gets some credit there.

Spider Man dons his black suit for the first time and that is something that is probably not as well known as it should be. He looks pretty great as you would expect and he dodges just about every attack that is shot at him. This is the dependable Spider Man that we used to know and we hope that he returns someday. He’s always in control of the situation. She Hulk is with the group, but she likes to fight solo, which can be dangerous. She runs off to face a few of the villains and that plan really doesn’t work out that well for her. She was outnumbered 5-1 and all 5 of the villains possessed super strength. I’m sure that the Hulk would have handled those odds, but while the She Hulk is strong, she’s not quite at Hulk’s level.

The Hulk has a rivalry with Mr Fantastic in this volume and he’s pretty obsessed over it. Bruce is in complete control for the arc so his strength is very limited, but it means that we can see him brag a lot. He seriously won’t stop and you can tell that he does not want to be here. It’s really hard to fight alongside him since you can’t trust anything that he does. He is very quick to go against his comrades although he would never go as far as to join the enemies. He’s simply a thorn in everyone’s path. I liked the fact that Bruce insults everyone whenever he finds the time, (Which is often) but it can also make you just want him to be taken back home at times.

Captain America looks pretty controversial to say the least and he may actually remind you of his portrayal in AVX. He really seems to have a thing against the X-Men and his decision to stay at base instead of saving She Hulk from imminent destruction was pretty awful. That’s simply not the heroic move to make and the other heroes should have just barreled past them. It’s lucky that reinforcements came when they did since that could have been pretty ugly. Captain America ultimately makes some good calls as well, but he’s too much of an army general. He’s willing to face heavy casualties in order to win the war and that’s unacceptable for a hero.

This took place before Ultron got the hype and recognition that he has currently earned in the comics. He’s still feared as a powerful Avengers villain, but that’s about it. That’s all right…Ultron doesn’t need any fancy titles to strike fear into the hearts of many. I like the fact that he just turns on the villains and decides that he can take them all on at once. He even goes after Galactus at one point, which was pretty great. Let’s just say that Ultron really doesn’t fear any being!

I appreciate that Galactus is not willing to play the Beyonder’s games, but he looks pretty bad as a result. What scene would really shock the crowds? Having Galactus be bested by a guy with an 80’s haircut! So, Galactus is beaten pretty badly by the Beyonder and it can be tough for his fans to bear. I feel their pain since that was definitely a humbling moment for this galactic fighter. He looks good aside from that though and he’s definitely portrayed as one of the strongest characters around.

Molecule Man is one of those villains that I disliked from the very beginning. He’s never been a cool character no matter which continuity tried to make him tough. He gets a whole lot of hype here and the writers even try to make you feel bad for him. That definitely didn’t work on me though and I never liked it when a character is able to just do whatever he wants. It’s bad writing since there’s no stopping him! That’s not what I expect to see from my comic book villains! He starts to buy into the whole romance thing after a while, which helps him start to change his ways. It’s still pretty cheesy though.

Klaw’s role is pretty intriguing since he basically lost his mind after he made it aboard Galactus’ ship. It actually managed to improve his character though since he’s pretty likable. There are a few scenes where you may become suspicious of him since he has a lot of shifty looks, but it may have just been the art. That being said, you almost feel bad for Dr Doom in a few scenes because he really trusted the sound master. Just know that when you have a villain like Klaw, whose deadliness is only matched by his insanity..things are going to be very tough for those around him. It’s good to see this villain getting the respect that he deserves.

Cyclops is a part of the disfunctional X-Men group (At least in this series) so he gets a lot of inner monologue. He’s unhappy about the direction that the team has been heading in and he feels like Professor X is just not the best choice as the leader. He plans on quitting the team once this is all over since they have started to lose their morals. It’s good to see that Cyclops has kept his and while he’s a far cry from the Cyclops of the modern comics, he’s pretty great here. Cyclops is one of the few characters who has managed to be a great character through just about every comic era. He doesn’t see a lot of action here, but he’s always around just in case.

Wolverine looks pretty true to form. He has more experience than over 90% of the other heroes…maybe even all of them. He knows what it’s like to be in a war so he’s not taking any prisoners this time around. While you would think that he might get along with Captain America, that turns out to be impossible. Captain America seems to have a thing against mutants and that makes Wolverine turn against him. There’s a really rushed page at the end that quickly has them settle their differences, but it makes you think about how things have changed. This Wolverine was not the kind of guy who would become the principal of a school or the guy who would betray mutantkind for the Avengers. Too bad he couldn’t always be this good right? It’s hard to think of him as a hero, but he’s a capable ally to have around.

Storm wants to be leader of the X-Men and she actually was for a while until Professor X stepped in. Storm tried to reclaim her position, but Professor X threatened to take control of her mind so that he could force her into being a subordinate. She quickly backed off after that, but another layer of trust was definitely lost from the team. She is certainly not in a good mode for the arc, but she doesn’t do a lot after that. Like the rest of the X-Men, she’s mostly just along for the ride.

Professor X looks very bad in this collection although that can be a good thing if you ever wanted to see what it would be like if he was a little more sinister. He decides to form an alliance with Magneto since mutants should stick together, but he decided not to inform the other teams that Magneto had possibly reformed. (Not really) He wipes away some of Spiderman’s memories, which is extremely unheroic to the point where I would say that he completely descended into the realm of evil. It was all so Spiderman couldn’t rat them out about meeting with Magneto and betraying the heroes so at least the wall crawler was doing the right thing. Prof X makes a truce with the heroes so that they wouldn’t have to fight, but things definitely got very tense for a while there. I like the X-Men, but Professor X was very unreasonable the entire time. You were almost waiting for him to be dethroned. I’m sure that the X-Men had him step down once the arc was over.

Magneto decides to part ways with the rest of the villains since his goals are pretty different. He wants to survive this and he also wants the other mutants to survive. Unfortunately, he then kidnaps the Wasp, which is a pretty big blow to his reputation. The other heroes were definitely not going to trust him after that and it’s disappointing that some romance ensued. Magneto should keep his mind on the mission and this is a mistake that is pretty inexcusable for anyone. Magneto had some kind of plan that was lost in the shuffle, but this was certainly not his best appearance. I expect more from the Master of Magnetism!

The Beyonder is all powerful, but I’m sure that you’ve heard that tune before. He’s like the One Above All and he’s a pretty awful character through and through. You’ll probably cheer when Dr Doom unleashes his ultimate plan. I’ve already seen the Beyonder in other comics so I disliked him before his appearance here, but he did nothing to change that opinion. He let his guard down at a pretty bad moment and you have to wonder what the point of the whole war was. It’s basically just for his entertainment and that’s not very fulfilling for the heroes. I’m sure that he could be a good character in theory…but it could take a while for him to reach that level.

Dr Doom has a pretty big role in this arc and he looks pretty good. He has a plan from the start and he never loses hope in it even after he is utterly crushed and humiliated by the Beyonder on several occasions. His determination eventually pays off and you actually feel pretty happy for him. I thought that he was one of the best villains to be found here and he even gives the heroes a chance to walk away. They would never do such a thing…but you have to admire the fact that he gave them a choice right? He gets a sad ending, but I suppose that we could expect nothing else.

War Machine is here instead of Iron Man, but he is impersonating the famous hero. Sadly, this means that he spends a lot of time tarnishing the golden avenger’s name. He seems to take offense at every little thing and he flirts way too much. Iron Man didn’t do that back in the old days so it really makes him look bad. War Machine may be in a better armor, but he’s still all talk and he never really backs it up. Luckily, we have Thor so two out of the three big Avengers are present for the arc. He has a subplot where he goes off to talk in another dimension with Enchantress at one point, but he definitely makes an impact when he goes back into the war. He takes on a decent amount of villains at the same time and he doesn’t back down from attacking Doom’s lair. Thor is typically with the group when they fight so his role isn’t huge, but everyone had to get their screentime. At least he got one solo fight against the group.

The art is pretty solid and it’s really classic. As such, all of the pages were done by hand so you are certain to find some funny facial expressions of off proportions on the characters once in a while. That being said, you have to imagine just how tricky it would have been to color all of these guys in and how much work it would have been. We can’t deny that computers make drawing more efficient and precise nowadays, but the unpredictable of the old comics is one of the reasons why the art looks so good. It’s pleasing on the eye and it’s very easy to follow the action. I would definitely be content for all Marvel comics to have this style of art although I also love the art in X Sanction and that’s a completely different style. So, diversification is always a good thing.

The ending of the arc definitely has more than a little plot hax since one character conveniently gets everyone to the revival chambers after they were all dead. There is a twist and someone wanted them to win, but it’s still a little dicey. When you have invincible beings…I guess that’s just what you have to do though right? It was interesting to see new characters just pop up once in a while though like the two girls that we found in the village. Apparently a whole town/village ended up getting thrown in the portal as well even though we don’t get to see the civilians all that much.

Overall, The Secret Wars will never be forgotten. It was the first large scale arc of its kind and it paved the way for many more fun adventures in both the Marvel and DC comics. I definitely liked the war scenario the most from the arcs inside of this story, but the climax was definitely pretty grand. This is a collection that I highly recommend to all comic readers. It’s simply a must read and it has certainly aged well. Adapting this into an animated film would certainly be pretty fun to watch. Where else can you see so many characters interact on screen? It’s amazing how the writers manage to cram in so many subplots without them feeling all that rushed. A lot of them will be concluded in different comic series as it is. Yeah…this arc will likely not be surpassed by Marvel and even DC will have a tough time trying to take this one out. It was just about perfect!

Overall 9/10

Lego Marvel Superheroes Update

Posted on November 3, 2014 by dreager1

All right, we now have the Platinum in Lego Marvel Superheroes! Time to add that big trophy to the pile and we can really consider the game to be complete now. There are more things to do in this massive title so stay tuned. Meanwhile, just keep looking at the 100% epicness next to the title!

Iron Man and Hulk Heroes United Review

Posted on September 16, 2014 by dreager1

Technically speaking there is no and in the title, but I don’t really care for using the & symbol that much and just leaving it blank could be odd. In this case, I’d say that using “and” is the right move. Is this film really as terrible as its reputation? Well, that would have been nearly impossible from the get go and it’s still a decently good Marvel film. The animation is the main thing that really holds it back. First off, let’s get the plot out of the way!

The Hulk and the Abomination get into a brawl as the film begins. The Hulk was just resting and showing the world that he is not to be trifled with so he wasn’t prepared for such an attack. The Hulk is quickly subdued (By a pair of robots…he did beat the Abomination btw!) and kidnapped. After the scientists realize that they are in over their heads, they leave. (They so say sorry though!) The Hulk breaks out the saves the Abomination’s life, but a spark escapes from the battle. Ironman appears and they quickly get into a fight. The Hulk quickly takes him down and they agree to make a temporary truce to defeat the mighty Zzzax. Ironman and Hulk are as different as two heroes can be and they Really don’t get along. Will they really be able to pull off such an ambitious team up!?

Well, that’s the plot in a nutshell! The film is a little over an hour, but they do try to cram a lot of things in. We get a bunch of Wendigo creatures at one point that really come out of nowhere! The Abomination is here of course and Zzzax serves as the main villain as he uses many of Ironman’s old armors. It’s a pretty good array of villains that we’ve got here and the film has almost nonstop action. What is keeping this film from cracking a solid 7 like your average action film? It’s the animation!

This film uses CG-I and that was mistake number one. Always go for Hand Drawn when you’re making a true animated film. Ironically, these graphics would be perfectly acceptable for a PS4 cash in game or something on the mobile. For a real video game or a film…this just won’t cut it! There is a lot of lag to be seen between character movements and the fight scenes can look really fake at times. The bullets leave random explosions when they hit that appear as if they were put on the Hulk’s character by photoshop. Nothing about this really screams professional and the animation really brings it down. Contrary to popular belief, animation is easily one of the most important factors in a film. It’s (nearly) as important as the writing. Examples of this include Samurai Jack and Symbiotic Titan. Both of those shows are in the pretty good range, but they easily could have jumped up an extra point or two into the great category. 1-2 points may sound pretty small, but considering that it is out of 10…that is a pretty big jump. Let’s face it, a 6/10 looks much worse than an 8/10 and a 2/10 is scarier than a 4/10. Two points can make a difference. In this case, the film lost a firm point with the animation.

That being said, if the movie was incredible in all of the other areas, I’m sure that it would have still done pretty well. The problem is that the rest of the film is really only average. The writing is what you would expect from Marvel. Ironman and Hulk have settled into their stereotypical personalities pretty well and you can really tell what they will say before they even speak. There are several puns in the film at least, but they aren’t as original as the ones over at DC. (Not to play the DC card this early in the fight…)

The soundtrack is actually really good in this film. I’ll say that it was one of the surprising positives involved. It really felt like they stole some music from the DCAU, but I’m not going to go there. Wherever the music was from, it was really good and it definitely made the film a little more enjoyable. A good tune can make everything seem cooler.

The film actually has some pretty deep environmental messages. Zzzax isn’t completely bad as he just wants to protect the planet from the humans who continue to fill the landfills across the world. As with Ultron, Zzzax realizes that the extinction of mankind is the only way to save the day. Ironman reminds him that humans are still a pretty young race and that they are getting closer to using clean energy. It’s all empty words and Zzzax knows it. Humans continue to use up more and more power while polluting the planet, but I suppose that it’s an issue for another time. Still, it was interesting that Marvel added this part in and combined with the elements from the Technovore film…maybe they will start including things like this in their films. I’m always ready to talk about the environment so I wouldn’t mind seeing it in the film.

So, there isn’t a whole lot to say about Ironman and Hulk. Ironman loves to find some humor in the situations that he gets involved in and he’s pretty proud of himself. He takes the credit for everything and he acts as if he was tougher than everyone else. He’s so confident that he will beat the Hulk until he’s quickly crushed. He’s a pretty good character here since he doesn’t have time to fulfill his less desirable character traits in the film. Trying to blast Hulk in the eyes wasn’t cool even though he claimed that it could help the Hulk. (He didn’t try again so I’m not sure if I buy that) The Hulk is also what you would expect. This is the smarter Hulk that we are used too from the various Avenger cartoons. He puts Abomination in his place, but he’s easily crushed by robots several times in the films. He’s another big punching bag when it all boils down to it. It’s a trait that many superheroes have at this point. They act all high and mighty, but they crumble at the first attack from a decent villain. It’s films like this that really make me pick Link or Gagaga Girl in a fight against these guys.

Zzzax has a pretty nifty design and he makes for a good villain. The way that he talks can be annoying though since he has a hisssssss for each word and he likes to take his time a little too much. Abomination is another confident fighter who can’t back up his tough words. He also has a fun CGI design for this one. Power wise, he does seem to be clearly outmatched by the Hulk though. The Wendigos didn’t have any character in this film, but maybe that’s for the best.

Surprisingly, the movie actually drags on a bit. It’s only a little over an hour, but thanks to the CGI it’ll feel like a lot longer. Each fight scene looks the same and you’ll get tired of seeing the two heroes getting beaten up by the electro robots for so long. They’re basically powerless and it’s more than a little embarrassing. It really could have ended after the first 30 minutes and it may have been a little cooler. It would have had the same score though so maybe this is for the best. Ironically, the fact that it’s pure action without much plot gives it a lot of replay value. This is actually a film that I wouldn’t mind rewatching in the near future.

We can’t forget to mention that there is an after credits scene! It leads into the next film for those of you who are actually interested. I guess the writers really want to keep things confined though since the two scientists from this film seem like they will be returning with a new threat. It’s an epic scene in theory, but not in execution as the film couldn’t really make the scene as threatening and intense as it really could have been.

Comparing this to DC’s last big superhero team up..it’s pretty sad. Superman/Batman Apocalypse (Notice how I appropriately switched the title a little bit?) smashed this film in animation, crushed it in fight scenes, demolished it in character development, burned it in pacing, and thoroughly destroyed it overall. This is why I don’t even think that there is a debate in as far as who creates the better films/TV shows overall between Marvel and DC. DC is just too good at this point. I don’t think that Marvel will ever make a film to match the DC title that I mentioned. It’s bold, but I seriously don’t think that Marvel has it in them. We can hope of course. (While we are “hoping” I’ll be checking out Throne of Atlantis!)

Overall, This film is nowhere near as bad as the reviews suggest. It’s par for the course for Marvel and while it’s nothing special, it’s nothing bad either. It’s just a good action story where we get to see two iconic heroes team up. It could certainly be a lot worse and one plus is that it’s always enjoyable to see a classic Avengers battle. I like to think that Ironman would have won the battle though and Jarvis’ statistics seemed flawed. No way does the power type end up beating the speed type more often than not. The only reason why Ironman was humiliated in that fight was because he wasn’t fighting properly. The point of a speed type is to use your speed…not fly right into the power type to make it a fist fight. I recommend checking this out if you’re just looking for a casual watch (Since this is basically just a pilot to “insert any Marvel show” it works as a Saturday Morning Cartoon) to see your favorite Marvel heroes duking it out. Of course, I would sooner just recommend watching the original Ultimate Avengers since that one was pretty solid! (The Hulk fight there was intense!)

Overall 6/10

Inhumans The Origin of the Inhumans Review

Posted on September 9, 2014 by dreager1

The Inhumans have been getting a pretty big push over at Marvel so it’s a pretty good time to check out some of their first comics. It’s mostly Fantastic Four adventures where the Inhumans just happen to be present, but I’ll take it. I’ve always found the Inhumans to be rather unnecessary, but maybe this collection could change my mind…maybe! It was a pretty good collection, but it was just lacking something.

Naturally, there are a lot of plots within this collection, but most of them are stand alone stories. We see the Frightful Four arrive to challenge the Fantastic Four on more than one occasion. Medusa is one of their members, which leads to inevitable battles with the Inhumans. (Johnny’s friendship with Crystal also complicates matters) The final part of the collection is dedicated to mini adventures with the Inhumans during the Thor comics. Thor’s part is cut out unfortunately and the stakes are noticably lower, but they’re decently fun short stories.

It should be noted that the Fantastic Four comics are typically pretty solid. They don’t tend to be quite as interesting as the other big hitters like Spider-Man, the X Men, or the Avengers, but their adventures can be pretty fun. What limits them is their small roster of 4 and the fact that they typically don’t open their ranks up to the public. So, you know what to expect in each issue and the actual story will need to be interesting to help you not mind the lack of character development. Well, this collection gives three of the members some character development due to some intriguing circumstances that change them so it’s an interesting time for the Inhumans to appear.

Mr Fantastic’s personality has definitely changed a lot during his encounters with Invisible Woman. He is typically the intelligent leader that we’ve all come to know, but he can be very testy with her. “Not now woman” is the kind of line that you can expect to hear from him. I know that this used to be something that was generally accepted back in the day, but I’m certainly glad that people don’t talk like that nowadays! There are two main reasons as to why Reed and Sue’s relationship is so strained. Reed Richards doesn’t see her as a Fantastic Four member anymore as he can only look at her as his wife and Sue keeps trying too hard to be helpful while also pulling pranks on Reed to get him to notice her. This doesn’t go very well for either of them, which causes a lot of arguments.

Both of them are to blame depending on the circumstances. Sue pretended to be dead at one point to get back at Reed and she also continues to bring up their honey moon when Reed is more worried about Johnny’s troubles and what’s going to happen to them. It doesn’t really seem like the time to think about those things. On the other hand, Reed tends to blow up at just about anything that Sue says and he continues to treat her as an underling. His orders are basically absolute and they must be followed!

Despite this, Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman are still pretty close throughout the collection. They have their differences, but they start to work through them in their final appearances in this collection. They finally manage to go on the honey moon and they are able to keep their personal lives separate from the superhero biz. Once things are back to normal, they’re back to being good characters.

Mr Fantastic is still one of my favorite Marvel characters and he gets a lot of action in this collection. “Now you see why they call me Mr Fantastic!” is one of his big lines as he charges into powerful foes. He never backs down and he’s a very sensible leader. I dare say that he’s better at leading a team than Captain America or Cyclops! Invisible Woman is also closer to mastering her abilities in this batch and they come in handy many times. She shields the Fantastic Four from large explosions, tidal waves, and many other things. Being able to make her teammates invisible is very handy for just about any mission and her force abilities can affect any foe. She may not have realized that she’s potentially the most dangerous member of the team yet, but she’s definitely getting there.

The Human Torch can be a little annoying in this batch. This is during the time where he became distracted by Crystal and she was the only person that he would talk about. He kept on trying to shatter the barrier during a mini arc that felt like it would drag on forever with his college roommate. Teleporting from place to place was a decent plan, but it didn’t really work out very well. Reed Richards kept commenting that the Human Torch was finally a man because of this, but I wouldn’t say that the situation made the Human Torch more manly at all. He still pitched in to help whenever the need arose, but the Thing still does most of the work. Most of the villains have some excuse for why the Human Torch can’t burn them and it can be pretty sad for the guy. Technically, the Human Torch is still a pretty dangerous fighter, but he just tends to be out of his league. This was not his best appearance to say the least. (And he insulted Lockjaw, which isn’t cool)

The Thing is definitely in character since he’s constantly insulting himself and reminding the team that he is a monster. He definitely doesn’t like how he looks, but it could be a whole lot worse. Power wise, this could be the Thing’s most impressive outing. He’s able to defeat Black Bolt in a fist fight and he was also holding his own against Gorgon and Dragon Man. Whenever a strong opponent appears, you can bet that the Thing will be the last one standing. His personality can be a little too mopey for me, but he also has his moments where he can be likable so it really depends. It’s always good to see how determined he is and the Thing never goes down quickly. I like different aspects of his character while I don’t care for others. At least I can say that he’s a complex character!

Black Bolt is the legendary leader of the Inhumans and you can be sure that he’ll get a huge role in the upcoming Inhumans film. I’m not really a fan of the character and I blame the recent Fantastic Four run where things got cosmic and epic. The overall arc was great and I really enjoyed the series, but it contained all of the worst traits from Black Bolt. He was very proud and full of himself the whole time and he acted more like a villain than a hero. “It’s because he’s King” but that’s not a good enough excuse. Kings have to make the tough calls sometimes, but other characters have handled their royalty better. (Yu-Gi-Oh for example)

Luckily, this is before that era and maybe it was just that series since Black Bolt looked good in Infinity. (From what I saw) Black Bolt is a pretty heroic leader in these comics. Of course, most leaders were pretty heroic back in these days, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that Black Bolt is pretty likable here. He risks life and limb to help the Inhumans escape their (basically anyway) prison. He’s also acknowledged as one of the stronger fighters and he’s likely the strongest fighter here aside from the Thing and maybe Gorgon. (He could take out the Thing and Gorgon if he yelled though) I definitely have no qualms with him here and maybe this is a good sign for the fearless leader.

The elemental master Crystal gets a large role and hers is probably the largest aside from Medusa. I can’t say that her role was too great though. She was a little more reasonable than the Human Torch, but she gets a little too caught up in the romance of it all. She should be trying to help her comrades find an island to stay at while the humans go away. Heading for Johnny does allow her to save Mr Fantastic and play a critical role in several other dangerous situations though, so there is always a good silver lining. Unfortunately, Crystal doesn’t really get to fight that much here, but we do see that she at least has the potential to be very powerful.

Medusa gets the largest role from all of the Inhumans (arguably I suppose), but it’s mainly because her first few appearances come before the Inhumans appear. Before the Inhumans ~~were invented~~ appeared, she was a member of the Frightful Four and she challenged the Fantastic Four with these allies. She always met with defeat, but the Frightful Four did give the Fantastic Four a run for their money on quite a few occasions. She eventually started to change into a nicer person and then the Inhumans arrived to claim her. By that point, any shred of toughness was basically gone since an arranged marriage was coming. Luckily, the Fantastic Four don’t let this kind of thing slide and that’s how they jumped in to fight the Inhumans. I think Medusa could have put up more of a fight when she was taken and I can’t really accept how she went from total villain to possible hero so quickly. As such, I can’t say that I’m a big fan of hers. She was better as a villain.

Maximus is the most popular Inhumans villain, but he doesn’t really have that much strength. He doesn’t even really have a super power, which is always a disadvantage in this kind of comic. He goes insane for most of the collection and his only cohesive thoughts aren’t that good. He’s as petty as a villain can be and I doubt that anyone will be rooting for him at any point. He wants to be King, but he doesn’t even know what to do when he is King. He had his chances, but he was doomed from the start. I will admit that it was a little annoying to see the Inhumans following him at the beginning of the collection. They must have thought that they had joined the Shiar for a second there! Trust me, you won’t miss Maximus when his appearances are over!

Gorgon is another Inhuman who had a decently large role in this volume and he was easily one of the better members. That’s not saying a whole lot and I definitely wouldn’t be putting him in any Top 10 Marvel character lists anytime soon, but his abilities are definitely impressive. With a single stomp he can take out a city and that probably makes him the second strongest Inhuman behind Black Bolt. His fight against the Thing was intense and it’s a shame that he didn’t really get to use his abilities after that comic. I suppose that the fights would be over a little too quickly if he got to fight.

Karnak knows advanced martial art skills and he can find the weak point in any object. Essentially, this means that the writers can have him break whatever he wants whenever he wants. He’s not very likable though and I dare say that he’s the worst member of the Inhumans. He’s seriously out of his league in every fight because he’s still a human physically. Having advanced martial arts is cool, but I’m sure that Ironfist or Spiderman could still outfight him.

Triton is the water member of the group and he’s not that powerful physically, but he’s good underwater. (Who would have guessed right?) He does have a key moment where he ends up saving Reed Richards, but he mostly spends the collection getting knocked out or just being a non factor in the fights. He’s a pretty bland character compared to the others, but I would still say that he is better than Karnak.

Blastaar is only around for a quick issue, but he is definitely a formidable opponent. He gets a whole lot of feats during his trip in the negative zone and even the Sandman is intimidated by him. The Sandman was decently good in this collection since he fears no one and he talks tough to the end, but I still prefer him in later issues. Paste Pot Pete and the Wizard are so forgettable that I don’t even need to mention them. (The Wizard will always be one of my least favorite FF villains. At least Paste Pot Pete is good in the Spiderman series.) Blastaar really gives the Fantastic Four a tough time and it’s similar to Darkseid in that the heroes seem to be outmatched. (When Superman isn’t around of course) It makes for a solid stand alone comic.

Dragon Man and Black Panther get small roles as they aid the Fantastic Four. Dragon Man is in over his head as he faces Gorgon, but his heart’s in the right place. He’s pretty heroic and he thinks that Crystal is in danger so he attacks. He definitely gets the short end of the stick here though and his ending is downright tragic. You really feel bad for the poor guy. The Black Panther gets to appear briefly for his daily page filled with hype and his wise words of wisdom. He attacks the Inhumans and he naturally overwhelms them until Black Bolt arrives. Black Panther implies that Black Bolt would give him a good fight, which made me smirk a little. I have nothing against Black Panther, but if I had to name a character that I felt was the most overhyped in Marvel…he may actually be at the top of the list! He’s still a good character though and he ends up helping out in the big battle.

Most of the villains in this collection were pretty good, but Psycho Man was definitely not one of them. I’ve always found him to be pretty dull and his arc in a recent Spiderman collection was one of the only downers to be found. He relies on his minions to fight and he really has no distinct characteristics. I really hope that he never appears in the cinematic universe and he should be fazed out. He’s just too weak to be a real threat to the Fantastic Four.

Ronan is one of the final villains to appear in this collection. I still can’t say that I find him to be too impressive in the comics, but that’s mostly because he wasn’t established as Thor level until the more modern days. That’s not to say that he doesn’t get his props here though. It’s safe to say that he could also take the Fantastic Four down depending on the circumstances and it’s heavily implied that he is much stronger than the Sentry 459. (Who gave the Fantastic Four a beating)

The Sentry 459 was a solid guardian and he actually got some character development. He technically feels no emotions, but he sure acted like he had them in his flashback with the Inhumans. He doesn’t bare any ill will towards the heroes, but they invaded his island so they have to pay the price. He’s pretty impressive looking and I wish that EMH had kept this design. (Although he still looked cool there) For a one shot villain, he makes for a nice opponent.

The artwork for the comics is pretty good. It’s what you would expect from the classic Marvel days and I always enjoyed this style. It has its advantages and while it may not look quite as sleek as some of the newer comics from the current days, you can’t underestimate the fact that it was a lot of work. No fancy computers back in those days so they drew the comics as best as they could. A good amount of work was put in and you can tell from the backgrounds and the emotions of the characters.

The fight scenes in this volume are pretty solid. They involve more strategy than the other teams because the Fantastic Four aren’t quite as powerful as the Avengers or the X Men. That being said, the Thing is always ready to slug it out and he has three really good fights against Gorgon, Black Bolt, and Dragon Man. He fights several others as well and he puts up an admirable fight against the Psycho Man. The rest of the team also get their share of action and Reed really tries to show just how powerful he can be by thinking of advanced tricks that he can perform with his stretching abilities. The action scenes definitely hold up well against the other comic book brawls that you may be used too.

There really aren’t any negatives in this collection. I guess you could say that the romance was a bit much and it could start to drag on, but it’s not as bad as it would have been if it was a modern comic. One thing that keeps this comic from getting a higher score is that there was no story that really blew me away. The fights were great and we got several story arcs, but there weren’t any moments that would make me take a step back or go high five my dog. The team fight between the Frightful Four and the Fantastic Four as well as Black Bolt vs Thing would be the highlights for the collection though. The short stories about the Inhumans were definitely a little lacking in excitement since nothing really happened in those. I would say that this could be a negative, but the mini comics are so short that they can’t really hurt and the collection Did have well over 300 pages in it so it can afford to have some moments that didn’t have action.

Overall, This was a solid collection of Marvel comics. It was really a Fantastic Four collection, but I suppose that the Inhuman mini comics as the end help it live up to the title. They don’t even appear for the first few comics, which was intriguing. I definitely recommend this to any Marvel fan who wants to be introduced to the Inhumans. If you’re a Fantastic Four fan, then you’ll definitely like this one as well. This bundle definitely has some fun issues and it’ll never get boring since the writing was really good back in those days. You won’t regret picking this title up and it takes a while to finish the volume since it’s so long. Length is always an important part of any media! This may be the last Fantastic Four adventure that I read for a while so I tried to make this one count!

Overall 7/10

X Men Days of Future Past Review

Posted on August 12, 2014 by dreager1

How many of you clicked on this one thinking that it was a review for the film? No worries, I already reviewed that one. This is the comic version where it originally took place. I’m sure that there are many tie ins and stories to flesh out the event, but this is the meat of the Arc. It’s only about 2-3 comics long so it’s fairly short, but you can definitely see some of the similarities. It’s good to finally read the famous event and we’ve also got a few stand alone issues here as well.

The first issue is a very large recap told from Cyclops’ point of view. He explains how Professor X has merely been using the X Men this entire time and he never saw it until now. The Professor was unreasonable and now Cyclops has taken a leave of absence. The Professor doesn’t seem to notice how upset Cyclops is, but Cyclops is keeping to himself. Will Cyclops ever join the team again? Only time will tell. This is all after Phoenix died in the Phoenix saga so he is definitely under the weather.

The next comic is the first big mission for the X Men without Cyclops. It’s Nightcrawler’s birthday and it should have been a happy one, but one of his presents blows up and destroys him. Professor X calls in Doctor Strange to see if any magic was involved. (I guess he suspected magic for some reason…) Strange announced that Nightcrawler’s soul is gone and they follow him into the depths of Hell. Doctor Strange believes that there is something wrong with the place since it has changed a whole lot, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. Ah well, it’s time to go save their friend!

The Days of Future Past arc starts off in the future. We see that the resistance isn’t doing so well and the Sentinels are just too powerful. Franklin Richards, Wolverine, Shadow Cat, and Storm are some of the last fighters still alive. They decide to use Rachel’s abilities to send Shadow Cat back in time to stop the madness before it ever begins. Rachel Summers is able to transport Shadow Cat’s mind into the past and she must stop Senator Kelly from being assassinated. Will the Xmen believe her and can time really be changed!? Meanwhile, the future X Men may be doomed on their end since changes in the past don’t always affect the future…but create new futures.

There’s also a comic involving the Alpha Flight. Wolverine never officially left them so he has to go and clear things up. Unsure if this will end up being a peaceful venture, Professor X tells Nightcrawler to go with him. This turns out to be a good move since the Wendigo is in the area and he’s not going to be satisfied with anything short of a win.

Finally, we have a Christmas issue. The X Men all head to their respective homes to enjoy their Christmas break while Shadow Cat has to stay at the mansion since she has nowhere to go. She takes her mind off of this by working in the danger room, but she hears a crash. A dangerous creature that looks like a Xenomorph has broken into the mansion and it’s headed for her. This monster is as smart as they come and it’s very powerful as well. This could be Shadow Cat’s final Christmas!

That was definitely a decently good batch of comics. It wasn’t quite as action packed as usual and I did miss Cyclops, but we still got our share of fights. The best issues were definitely the Days of Future Past ones even if it did feel like there was a lot of plot hax. The saving Nightcrawler comic would probably be last despite the guest star as that one didn’t even have much of a physical enemy to defeat. You always need someone to punch!

The art is pretty good and you will be reminded of the 90’s Xmen TV show. The Uncanny roster is pretty good although I would have liked to see Cyclops a little more. It’s easy to discern what’s happening and things never get too chaotic. This collection is fairly short and it doesn’t crack 200 pages, but it’s still a decent amount of value. 5-6 comics is the norm for most of the shorter comic collections anyway. Just take a look at any New 52 collection or recent Marvel book and this is the size.

Shadow Cat may as well be the main character of the collection since she plays a big part in the Days of Future Past arc while getting her own Christmas comic. She’s a decent character, but I can’t say that she really does anything to set herself apart from the crowd. She’s mostly just trying to fit in during this stage and she hasn’t really mastered her powers yet. We do know that she will be a lot tougher in the future though and there’s no reason to dislike her right now. She just needs a little more personality and she’ll be set.

Dr Strange doesn’t look that good this time. He’s the Sorcerer Supreme, but he’s really getting pulverized in the magic battle by this new entity. He puts on a brave face and he does get some good magical blasts off, but it’s heavily implied that he is being toyed with. Professor X called him into protect the X Men, but it appears that this is not what really happened. It was surprising to see him on the losing edge since Dr Strange is all but invincible in the older comics. Not even he can beat cosmic entities I suppose.

Wolverine is as good as always. He still launches right at the opponents and he was critical in the mission to save Nightcrawler. It’s easy to see why he became a fan favorite and he was definitely the best character in the collection. Protecting his friends is his first priority even if he won’t admit it and he’s probably the most experienced fighter on the team. His healing factor isn’t as good as it is in today’s comics, but it’s good enough for him to be a threat. I really had no complaints with him.

Storm is faced with the pressures of being team leader so she’s pretty stressed out for most of the comics. She’s also wary of a new dance instructor who is helping Shadow Cat and I’m sure that there is a reason behind this. Hopefully she remembers to keep her guard up. Storm is a pretty powerful fighter, but her abilities completely depend on her location. She’s not very good at fighting in closed placed since her powers need space in order to work properly. As a last resort, she is very good at hand to hand combat. She has one of the toughest ordeals in the collection since she is forcibly turned into a snake and changing back is pretty painful. She’s doing a decent job at being team leader, but there are times when we can all admit that Cyclops is missed. Hopefully she can keep the members together until then.

Colossus serves as the nice member who has a rage out moment every comic for shock value. He definitely talks a good game, but Colossus is typically outmatched. It would be good to see him use his super strength a little more effectively, but it never works. Either he’s paired up with someone that can absorb physical attacks like the Blob or he’s fighting a Sentinel who can just blast him away. Colossus is still a good character, but he needs to fight more and talk less when the going gets tough. He has potential to be one of the X Men’s all time heavy hitters after all.

Nightcrawler doesn’t look very good. His sob story is pretty dicey. He murdered someone by mistake since he had meant to spare the person, but he then says that he would do it again if need be. He’s also a little…petty in some issues. He tells the team to their faces that he was almost disappointed since he thought they had forgotten his Birthday. Not really the best thing to say aloud. He’s also the weak link of the team, which means that he is beaten up in just about every comic. The Wendigo takes him out in one shot and the team is forced to go into a fake hell to save him. He definitely gets the team into a lot of trouble and he’s just not very likable here. At least he is trying to make friends with everyone and he’s a nice guy; Nightcrawler just needs to work on his abilities and get his priorities straight.

Cyclops has finally learned to make his own decisions and the character development is good for him. He’s in a pretty sad mood the entire time, but it’s excusable due to the previous circumstances. He seems to be performing odd jobs as he walks across the world and I’m sure that he’ll be back to pwning as the X Men leader in no time. The Wendigo made for a decent villain in one of the stand alone comics. He’s definitely as tough as always and he defeated Nightcrawler pretty easily. I’ve never really considered him to be a match for someone like the Hulk, but he’s definitely played off to be that strong. If his strength were to increase like the Hulk’s, then it would be more of a fight. Still, he may be the toughest villain in this collection.

Professor X doesn’t get a huge role this time. He tries to help out when chaos breaks lose in Days of Future Past and he’s quickly caught up on the events thanks to a quick mind scan, but he forgot to actually use his abilities and Mystique quickly took him out. That was definitely a poor showing by the Professor and we can only hope that he will keep his guard up from now on. He still seems like a pretty good leader, but the X Men definitely trust him a lot less than they used too. I guess it is hard to trust someone who can read your mind so it’s always going to be tough for the Professor. Let’s hope that he can prove his loyalty to them when the time comes.

It’s really good to see the classic Sentinels back in the spotlight. As cool as it is to see the newer variations, nothing beats the classics. It’s really nostalgic to see them tossing the X Men around and they definitely get a lot of props in this collection. One blast is able to completely overwhelm Wolverine’s healing factor and take him out for the count and Colossus was similarly defeated in quick succession. I don’t really believe that these guys would end up taking out the Avengers and Fantastic Four, but they’re still fun villains to have around. There are thousands of them after all so they can’t lose right!?

N’Garai is the name of the demon that attacked Shadow Cat. It’s just one of the N’Garai of course as the name only refers to the species as a whole. That guy was definitely pretty brutal and it was a lot more durable than I would have guessed. Aside from plot convenience, Shadow Cat really had no chance against him. Thanks to his soul damaging abilities, the N’Garai can actually damage the opponent through their intangibility. That’s a pretty nifty ability to have. I would say that this creature is instantly cooler than the Brood and it’s probably in the top 3 best random Marvel aliens that has no mind. So, only counting the beasts that can’t talk and are basically like monsters.

After reading Days of Future Past, I am surprised at how well known it is. I guess the plot was definitely very unique at the time, but it’s just so short. I was expecting it to be at least 5 issues. We still had the President Assassination plot at least and it’s essentially a condensed version of the film with different characters. It was a good two parter to be sure, but not quite legendary. At least we got a classic team fight between the Brotherhood and the X Men. Those are always pretty fun.

I can’t say that I cared for the hell comic all that much. It’s always interesting to see how it is portrayed of course, but it’s mostly lacking in action. Colossus mentions that hell is one of the reasons why he doesn’t believe in God, since it would mean accepting such a place as real. It’s an intriguing point since it almost sounds like he does think there is a God, but he doesn’t believe it because of hell. Meaning…that he does accept that God exists, but doesn’t accept Hell. Can’t really go halfway though since not believing in it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. It was a little sad to see that Nightcrawler had no comeback during their debates and he was quickly silenced each time. He needs to prep his answers ahead of time I suppose. The other comics were pretty standard, but fun adventures.

Overall, This is a pretty solid batch of comics. They definitely aren’t quite as action packed as usual, but they’re pretty good. I think they could have been a little more engaging at times since the Days of Future Past arc was pretty interesting while the others were really just there. I enjoyed them of course, but you weren’t very intrigued by what was happening. The fights were fun and that’s just about it. The Alpha Flight don’t really make you think about anything deep and the Christmas comic was just a fun chase. I still say that a little more action would have helped. I recommend this collection to all X Men fans and especially if you haven’t read Days of Future Past before. If you have, then it’s time to check out X Sanction for more future conspiracies!

Overall 6/10

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