Marvel Contest of Champions Review

Posted on December 23, 2016 by dreager1

Just looking at that cover should remind you just how changed Marvel is from the good ole days. We have a lot of heroes trying to replace the classic ones and most of the old ones have had drastic makeovers. No worries though, this game manages to include an enormous amount of characters so the classics are still here as well. With new characters constantly being added to the game, I don’t see Contest of Champions ending anytime soon. It’s simply too expansive at this point and I’m glad to see it doing well. The amount of content can be intimidating, but it also shows that you can do quite a lot even when under the free to play format. Someone should have told Super Mario Run about that.

There’s actually a plot this time. The Collector is having another game and has decided to pit the Marvel heroes against you. You are the chosen one and your opponent is Kang. Both of you collect Marvel heroes and duke it out until there is only one fighter still standing. The plot will probably have some wrinkles along the way though because there are dozens and dozens of levels. I only played about 10% of Act 1, which was already fairly long. Since they keep on adding new chapters and acts for special events, I can easily see this reaching an RPG’s length by the end. The story isn’t all that engaging so you’ll be playing it for the gameplay. Console games are still my priority though, which is why I didn’t play the game for too long. I played it enough to see what it was all about and then it was time to delete the app.

The gameplay is fairly straight forward. Tap the screen for standard attacks. Swipe forward to dash or back to dodge. You can also use charge attacks and special moves. Each battle will play out in pretty much the same way and the various special abilities will all blend together after a while. This is still a game with a reasonably small budget so you can’t go in expecting Marvel vs Capcom. Still, the graphics are very impressive considering. All of the character models are on point and it’s pretty surreal to see Marvel’s large array of characters all show up. The soundtrack is rather bland, but decent.

One issue is that the gameplay can get a little repetitive. I suppose that can be said about most mobile games, but other titles like 1010 and Pokemon Go are super fun anyway. You may be doing the same thing hundreds of times over, but it never gets old. Contest of Champions will get old after a while so you shouldn’t play it for too long at a time. If you play it seriously for collecting all of the heroes though, then this may not be a factor. I also have to give the game some props for not making the pay to win element too prevalent. You can still play for a while each day before hitting your limit and that’s a good thing. Madden Mobile got annoying for how quickly you hit the daily limit along with Pokemon Shuffle.

The main menu is a little cluttered and complicated, but at least it shows that there is a lot to do here. There are all kinds of modes to explore and crystals to earn. It just never stops and you can be lost in the menus for a good 20 minutes before deciding what to do. The replay value here is endless and that’s what we’ve come to expect from these apps. With this one gone, it’s going to be back to Pokemon Go for me. That’s really the only long term app game that I need. These other titles are good, but ultimately can’t compete.

Overall, Marvel’s Contest of Champions is a fun enough game. The graphics are sound and assembling your team of heroes can be addicting. Eventually you’ll either start to get frustrated by obtaining duplicate heroes even though you only have 5 or 6, or you will be completely into the game by then and just hooked on all of the future updates. If you’re a big mobile player, then I recommend adding it to your roster. If not, then this one can probably be passed. It’s good, but you could always just buy Marvel vs Capcom instead for the superior fighter. I know that DC also got a very similar fighting game on the app store, but I don’t plan on trying it out anytime soon.

Overall 7/10

Civil War Review

Posted on May 30, 2016 by dreager1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 9/10

The Amazing Spider Man Spider Hunt Review

Posted on May 18, 2016 by dreager1

Time for another classic Spider Man volume! You can never tire of these adventures and this was during the height of quality for the famous hero. As much as I liked Next Chapter, Mary Jane was pretty out of character and stopped being a likable character. That was reversed here although I believe this may have taken place before the earlier collection. Either way, it deals with the origin of Spider Man’s alternate costumes, which is always neat.

Things aren’t going well for Peter Parker because Norman Osborn has taken over the Daily Bugle. This spells trouble with a capital T. Norman has spread the Anti-Spider Man regime even more intently than J Jonah Jameson to the point where the hardened reporter does not get along with him. Norman has also threatened Jameson so this comes as no surprise. Spider-Man will have to be sure not to go outside all that much, but that’ll be difficult to pull off. When someone’s in danger, you can bet that Spider-Man will be on the case no matter what.

The art is big and bold in the classic style that it always fun to see during these Spider-Man issues. As with the Cosmic Spider-Man trade or the other recent ones that I’ve been reviewing, the art just works really well. It is also a clear signal that this is from the Prime Spider-Man comics where he was depicted just right. It’s hard to ever call something a perfect adaption, but this Peter Parker is about as close as we’ll get. Spider-Man’s not treated as a joke, but is seen as a capable hero just like any other. His sense of justice isn’t skewed or in doubt. Spider-Man just takes on the villains and never crosses any kinds of lines.

One of the main sagas involves the Punisher comic from the cover. Punisher has lost his memories yet again so he’s not sure what he is even doing at this point. He wants answers though and Spider-Man isn’t about to let anyone die from this quest. One thing leads to another and Punisher decides to help Spider-Man out, but it is really a one way road. Whenever Punisher shows up, Spider-Man just ends up tying him up or pushing him to the side. Spider-Man’s not really sure what is happening here, but he certainly doesn’t want to team up with anyone who uses guns so freely. He’s not really given a choice though as bounty hunters start showing up from the woodwork to take Spider-Man down.

Spider-Man can take these guys down no problem if it were all one on one fights, but they start wear him down as the collection continues. Bullseye comes into play and Norman’s son also goes missing. Of course, it could all just be a ruse, that’s not a risk that Peter Parker can take. This collection eventually sees the start of his costumed personas since going outside in his full gear starts to get a little dangerous. It’s a nice compromise since he is still out there saving lives instead of simply putting the costume on the shelf for a little while.

One problem with not reviewing this comic for so long (It’s probably been on the back burner for almost half a year at this point) is that it’s easy to start mixing up the plots a little. The Spider-Man comics have always been iconic for having numerous subplots scattered throughout the issues. When one plot ends, another 3 or more will pop up in its place and then those will interconnect to others along the way. As a result, I can’t say with full confidence whether or not these plots have started or even begun to wrap up in this one. Some that I recall (Probably) involve the Venom calls to Mary Jane, the Kingpin is starting to get back to power as well. I think Black Cat and her luck powers may be around, but that plot may have actually ended already. Well, you get the jist of it. There are dozens of players running around at this point so it’s tough for Spider-Man to even know which villain to focus on. Every time he turns around it seems like someone else is in danger.

One odd issue involved a crazy scientist kidnapping Spider-Man and forcing him into a fake virtual reality world until Spider-Man finally broke free and snapped the machine. For a while there you didn’t know if the whole thing was fake or not so it was a little intriguing although probably one of my least favorite issues. I don’t think we ever even find out how Spider-Man was kidnapped and that’s likely because it is all a little sketchy and hard to believe. One fun issue was seeing Spider-Man don the now famous paper bag over his head to fight a few comic relief villains. It just goes to show that even without a good costume Spider-Man can take down some villains.

Another stand alone story away from the main plot of being framed by Osborn has Spider-Man take on the combined forces of Sand Man and Hydro Man. Both of these villains can be very dangerous on their own so combined they make for a very good opponent. Their team work isn’t the best though so Spider-Man can exploit that. Another random issue has Spider-Man go up against the cosmic villain Blastaar. Spider-Man goes to town on him although it’s a fairly good fight. It’s another match up that I can’t picture going quite as smoothly in the newer comics. Even if it did, the art wouldn’t be quite as full and dynamic as it is here.

Two more stories involve fights against Mr. Hyde and Black Tarantula. Black Tarantula is a surprisingly powerful villain who actually gives Spider-Man a really good fight. I also like the design here and feel like it is much better than any other incarnation that I’ve seen of him. Mr. Hyde’s not quite as interesting and I don’t care for him as a villain. Still a decently fun issue, but I would prefer a different villain. I do hope to see more of the Black Tarantula in future Spider-Man collections though. That guy has a lot of potential.

Overall, This was a fun collection. I always enjoy seeing a comic have many plots at the forefront so you never know which plot the next issue will follow. The framing of Spider-Man was a complete success by Osborn here so Spider-Man is once again being driven into a corner. I suppose it wouldn’t be one of his series without that as it is practically a requirement of a Spidey title by now. I definitely recommend this to all Spider-Man fans out there. This era certainly has a lot of stories to pull from and hopefully they all get adapted into collections like this one someday. I feel like a lot of them are probably lost in the shuffle between collections. We need a “Marvel Masterworks” sort of series for these issues. A series for the titles that aren’t super new, but aren’t extremely old either. The 90’s and early 2000’s lose out a little in that respect. That’s why I’m glad that everything goes into trade so quickly nowadays. 50 years down the road, those will be extremely helpful for new comic readers. This review’s a bit short for a comic of this size, but hopefully I’ve still illustrated why this is a must read. It has good writing, solid art, and likable main characters. All of the issues are interesting as well with even the filler ones still making for good stand alone adventures.

Overall 8/10

FCBD 2016 Captain America Review

Posted on May 8, 2016 by dreager1

It’s time for the next Marvel issue. It’s always interesting to see the current state of things because everything changes so rapidly in the Marvel universe. The main story is about Captain America and his costume has changed yet again. I’m not a huge fan of this one though because it looks a little too comfortable. It’s hard to picture it as battle gear and it looks like a cheaper version of Cap’s ultimate costume. The new energy/hardened shield isn’t all that great either and he definitely needs the original one back. He needs Falcon to surrender it back to him ASAP.

There’s not much of a plot here. Cap, Falcon (The New Captain America), and “Falcon” (Falcon’s sidekick) attack an enemy base, but there are casualties due to different attacks at once. The government acts very similarly to its counterpart in the Civil War movie and immediately says that Cap and the others need limitations and such. Sharon Carter (Who has aged quite a lot apparently. She’s significantly older than Cap here so at least no forced romance can occur anymore) defends the team though and reminds the government that lives were saved. Cap also walks in and reminds the council that they were suspended (Or on leave..something like that) while this was all going on so they could have done better. The issue ends with a big speech and Cap deciding that the country must declare war on Hydra. Red Skull accepts of course. It was a decent comic and the art was good. I won’t be pleased if we get some drama between Falcon and Cap on who should keep the title of Captain America though. Falcon should quietly step down and at least so far he’s not getting ruffled, but “Falcon” keeps giving him bad advice. I’m worried as to where this is all headed at the moment, but it should be a good comic series.

The backup issue gives us a sneak peak at Dead No More, the infamous Spider-Man event that is finally bringing back Captain Stacy, Gwen Stacy, Uncle Ben, and everyone else who has ever died in a Spider-Man comic. There will probably be a plot twist about all this, but Marvel has successfully ruffled quite a lot of feathers at the moment. Is this a wise move or has Marvel finally made a mistake? Well, they’ve made a lot of mistakes with Spider-Man so it’s to be expected. The art isn’t very good I’m afraid and one of the first panels has Spiderman’s lower mouth wide open, but his top half closed which makes for a very weird visual. The character designs are also a little odd. Spider-Man’s a lot more stiff now that he wears full body armor and the Rhino’s design was a little slimmer than usual. We got some good fight scenes though and the atmosphere is very light and happy like a Spider-Man comic should be. Against my better judgment, I’m actually a little hyped for the event and it certainly has a lot of potential. This story was certainly more interesting than the Captain America one and if the writing is on point, we could certainly have a winner on our hands folks!

Overall 7/10

FCBD 2016 Civil War II Review

Posted on May 8, 2016 by dreager1

It’s time to jump ahead a little with the FCBD reviews to the big Marvel one. Civil War II is getting a lot of buzz from Marvel as Bendis is trying to help the event become one of the biggest of all time. It’s going to be tough, but I don’t mind the concept. Seeing the heroes be forced to choose sides once more should be entertaining even if the whole thing is a little forced. We’ve definitely had characters who could see the future in the past, but the moral debate should still be pretty interesting.

In the main story, a heavily nerfed Thanos arrives and fights the Avengers. War Machine and Captain Marvel put up a fight, but they’re a little outgunned here and War Machine is critically injured…as always. The dialogue is fairly bad, but it tries to be epic. The Avengers thank the Inhumans since it is due to one of their members that the team knew about the upcoming threat. (Thanos) The issue essentially ends with Captain Marvel in hysterics over what happened to War Machine.

The art was very good and I was glad to see a good fight involved, but Thanos is severely downgraded here. Most of the attacks that were being fired at him should not have done any damage and he didn’t seem to have any strategy in the fight as he just tried to throw a lot of punches or blasts. I dunno, he felt off here. The other thing that felt very off was Captain Marvel’s reaction. She’s a seasoned veteran, but you’d think that she was a cadet straight out of training by how she reacted to War Machine’s injury. If you get that hysterical over an injury, then you’d best keep the romance off the team. The whole scene with her telling Black Panther to turn around so he could ignore them being together was very bad as well. The team was on a mission before War Machine had to show up so let’s keep it professional! Captain Marvel and War Machine looked terrible in that scene. Not the greatest way to start hyping up Civil War II.

In the backup story, we got a glimpse of the new Wasp. She learns that Henry Pym is dead so that means she can now pilfer through his life’s work without permission. She steals the Wasp/Ant-Man suit designs and alters it a bit to make hers. Then she steals the rest of Pym’s stuff so that she can start her crime fighting career. She plans to start it off with a bang by taking down the Avengers so that she can prove her stuff. Vision’s her first victim and that’s the cliffhanger. The art is pretty good like with the main story, but Wasp doesn’t come across as a very likable character. Quite the opposite in fact, she is certainly no hero since she is acting like a thief and taking down the Avengers is a fairly nonsensical plan. I don’t mind having a new Wasp though, but she is going to have to work hard to end up being a likable character.

Still, Civil War II should be fairly good in theory. Hopefully it is a fairly long event though because with so many heroes in the universe now, I want to see as many of them as possible take part in the debate. The series has to introduce the debate a little more as well though so there is plenty of time. I doubt this event will end up defeating Civil War to be honest, but I like to think that it will still be great and that the comparison can be made without being a blowout. The writing will have to improve a little bit though or else the characters are all just going to come off as amateurs who don’t comprehend the situation.

Overall 7/10

Captain America: Civil War Review

Posted on May 7, 2016 by dreager1

The Captain America trilogy ends on a high note as Civil War escalates the series to another level. I was certainly not expecting the film to take down either one of the two Avenger titles, but it manages to jump over Age of Ultron, making it the best Marvel film right behind The Avengers. While it does not manage to quite capture the level of intensity and depth that Batman V Superman showed, Civil War is easily one of the greatest live action films of all time and a title that I recommend to everyone. Whether you are a comic book fan or not, there is plenty to enjoy here. So much so that it will be difficult to capture all of my thoughts in this review, but I shall do my best so prepare for a long one. On that note, let’s get to work!

The film starts off with a fight against some terrorists led by Crossbones. Captain America and his team of Avengers manage to defeat this group, but in the process a building full of innocent civilians is destroyed by the last ditch effort of Crossbones. Scarlet Witch attempted to keep the blast contained, but couldn’t do so long enough which leads to the media wondering if the Avengers have been given too much power. They want the Avengers to become a public group that works under the United Nations. Captain America is opposed to this because the Avengers will lose their right to act without permission. Furthermore, when his old pal Bucky is framed for being the cause of another large explosion which takes the life of Wakanda’s king, Captain America is forced to go against the law to protect him.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark meets up with a lady who blames the death of her son on the Avengers. The events in Age of Ultron had a lot of fatalities during the final fight, but hearing a personal story about one hits Stark a lot more personally than any statistic would. This is what gets Tony to believe that working under the United Nations as a controlled entity is the best course of action. He doesn’t see eye to eye with Captain America and as Steve (Captain America’s alter ego for my non comic book readers) is forced to go against the government, Tony has to fight him. Neither one will back down as they are both confident that they are making the right choice here.

In the background, we have some other plots going on as well. Zemo is stirring up a lot of trouble in the background as he learns the hypnotic words to control Winter Soldier (AKA, Bucky) and keeps widening the rift between the Avengers. Meanwhile, Scarlet Witch feels personally responsible for the lives lost at the beginning of the film and is having a hard time coping with what happened. Being placed under house arrest certainly doesn’t help with this either. Finally, we have the Black Panther, who is working to avenge his father. He blames his father’s death on the Winter Soldier due to evidence showing that he was responsible for the situation. The Panther won’t stop until he is dead so Captain America will have to try extra hard to save him.

All right…where to start with this review. Let’s go through the negatives first since there really aren’t many of them as you may expect considering the positive tone of the film. It’s a 9 star title so the positives easily outweigh the negatives. One weak point in the film is…you guessed it, the extremely unnecessary romance with Sharon Carter and Captain America. You can’t even call it a romance if we’re being honest folks. They just randomly kiss as they say goodbye to each other and that’s the end of that plot. As I’ve mentioned in the past, you simply can’t develop a proper romance in the span of 30 minutes and especially when these two characters are only on screen together for maybe 15-20 minutes tops. If you want a romance done right, it’s got to be gradual like Tsubasa. It’s a super minor thing that certainly doesn’t hurt the film, but this scene really comes out of left field.

There’s a little language in the film. It’s not super excessive or anything, but worth making a slight note. It was certainly out of character for Spider-Man of all people to say the s word. I remember the good ole days of him being a nice kid in the comics who wouldn’t even dream of swearing. His portrayal is great overall though, but he is the result of several power inconsistencies…I’ll get to that in his section though. Is that it for the negatives? If we’re being a little picky I’d say that the soundtrack was pretty forgettable and underwhelming, but I typically don’t expect live action films to really sound that good. Hannah and Man of Steel are really the exceptions to the rule along witih a handful of other titles. Now let’s get to the positives!

For starters, the fight scenes are great like you would expect. In a day and age where hand to hand fight scenes can be a little dicey at times (Instantly going for the eyes) the fights here are handled well. Crossbones vs Captain America was a great way to start off the film and any fight with the Black Panther was exceptional as well. Naturally, this only gets better when you add in the super powers from the meta human fights. The battle between both teams at the airport is definitely the highlight of the film and easily the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s best fight yet! Even before the fight starts, one of the best moments in the film was when Iron Man’s allies slowly started popping up and Captain America was outnumbered by around 5-1. You know that Cap isn’t on his own, but even then it’s just such an imposing scene. Cap would have had no shot against that group and Iron Man’s plan was quite sound. The thing is, great minds think alike and Cap has enough friends to ensure that he’s never alone against such an army.

After thinking on it a lot, I have to say that my favorite character was Black Panther. Yes, Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man lost out this time. The film really handled Black Panther perfectly. He comes across as very reasonable and it certainly makes sense that he would want to avenge his father. Whenever the Avengers would get in his way, Black Panther would be forced to fight them, but he never hesitated. He stood firm in his mission and never wavered while at the same time, he kept a cool head. He certainly didn’t lose his cool as much as Cap or Iron Man and in the end he was the first one to really get away from all of the violence and make the hero call. (Sparing a villain’s life) During the final fight, you can’t say the same for Iron Man. Physically, Black Panther was able to hold his own against Winter Soldier and Captain America. In fact, I’d say that he had the edge over Bucky, but I doubt he would have defeated Captain America. The design for his suit was also really good.

Next we have the other big guest star of the film Spider-Man! So….I was mixed on his portrayal. As Spider-Man he was great. He had a lot of witty banter during the fight which has always been his trademark and his webbing was also very strong as it was always meant to be. In today’s cartoons and comics everyone breaks through it with ease, but in the old comics even the Hulk couldn’t snap them right away. As for the part of his portrayal that I was iffy about….well, I don’t think the actor works very well as Peter Parker. He’s too young and I think that the director made him talk with a higher pitched voice than usual to make him sound even younger. When he first appeared, it almost felt like a parody. His intro was the kind of moment where I could picture everyone laughing out loud. It just felt off. It also helps that the new Aunt May looks nothing like Aunt May and is still one of the more mind boggling changes. At least she encouraged Peter to fight back against the bullies though so I like her up beat attitude here. I like to think that she already knows about him being Spider-Man by the way. I’m calling it right now, she’ll reveal that in the upcoming Spider-Man film.

Aside from Peter Parker seeming a bit off, I think Spider Man’s power level was very inconsistent. Let’s get real here folks, The Avengers are lightweights without Thor and Hulk around. Spider-Man’s worth more than the whole group put together. Maybe Vision could put up a decent fight, but Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Winter Soldier, Black Panther, and Captain America would get speedblitzed. Iron Man and War Machine would be overwhelmed as their suits are ripped apart and Hawkeye wouldn’t land a single shot. Spider-Man’s gone toe to toe with Superman in the past and he’s had some very intense fights with Thor back in the day. To have him lose here is a cheaper cop-out than buying a slice at 7-11 instead of Europa because you didn’t feel like walking the extra block.

He’d look good in some moments and then he’d be treated like a joke the next. Here’s an example, at the airport fight, he is able to catch and repel Winter Soldier’s punch with no effort and even starts to twist it off until he is interrupted. Captain America was previously unable to stop Winter Soldier’s blow with both hands and he was flung through an elevator. So…Spider-Man’s stronger than Cap right? Well, you’d be wrong because Captain America completely humiliates him when they fight and overpowers him twice physically during the battle. That makes absolutely no sense and I was tempted to yell something from the audience like “Boooo” “Nerf alert!!” or something along those lines. I restrained myself though for the good of the movie experience.

Another iffy moment is the fact that he seemed to completely not have a spider sense here. I wouldn’t blame Marvel if they decided to get rid of it though because the ability is way too good. Still, without a mention of removing it, I will have to label it as a plot hole. There’s no way Ant Man can sneak up on Spider-Man because Spider Sense prevents such an event from ever happening. It is literally impossible to sneak up on Spider-Man without some kind of power to get past his ability or if you’re Venom and have compromised the ability by actually being Spider-Man for a bit. Every time Spider-Man got hit by a sneak attack I would wince a little on the inside. Still, aside from being treated as a bit of a joke during some parts of the fight, it was a satisfying portrayal overall. It’s great to finally see Spider-Man alongside the Avengers. This is something that fans have wanted to see for many years and now I’m eagerly awaiting the big dream team of Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Cyclops against Thanos. Make is happen Marvel!

Let’s talk about the Avengers now. I’ve never really cared for Vision in any form of media so we’ll start with him. He’s somehow managed to become even more annoying than he was in Age of Ultron. He pretends to be Scarlet Witch’s friend until we find out that he’s under orders to keep her confined. If he was a true friend he probably would have mentioned something like that. He also attempts a long-shot at blasting someone from a super far distance which backfires quickly. He’s one of the strongest Avengers, but seems to forget that most of the time and actually doesn’t contribute almost at all during the airport fight. Powerful or not, Vision is simply not likable.

His fellow Age of Ultron member was solid though. Scarlet Witch gets a lot of screen time in this film so she can finally develop more of a personality. Her abilities are certainly very potent and as she grows more confident, we can expect more out of her. One good scene in particular is when she materializes an energy shield behind her while she gets the poison gas out of a building. Being able to multi task like that is critical in a fight since she’ll need to have a shield up at all times as her defense is rather low. By the end of the film she has learned to be more independent and sure of herself. She has a promising future in this cinematic universe.

I’ve never been a big fan of Black Widow although her character can vary quite a bit throughout the Marvel franchise. The movies have been one of her worst portrayals in my opinion while she tends to look a lot better in the Avengers Assemble cartoon and the Punisher animated film. She was fairly reasonable here though and while she seems to have fallen to the very bottom of the hero totem pole (I’d say that this film confirms that Hawkeye can defeat her in a fight) she is still a good hand to hand fighter.

Falcon’s role in this film is small even though he appears quite a lot. He’s the guy that Captain America can always count on, but the main problem is that he’s still very weak in the end. He basically has part of an Iron Man suit, but it leaves him very vurlnable. His character’s fairly likable though. We’ve also got Ant-Man who pitches in during some key moments. I admit that I haven’t watched Ant Man enough times to really remember the actor’s face. I knew he was Ant Man based on the trailers and plot, but he felt so out of place in this film. I mean that in a good way by the way. It would be like seeing Sandler walk into the battlefield against Thanos in the Infinity Gauntlet. Ant Man’s actor strikes me as a total comedy character and I suppose that it works quite well for Ant Man. There’s really a lot that you can do with size shifting abilities. It’s not the most glamorous power, but it is effective. As for turning huge…I think that’s overrated. If you get hit by an opponent who is that slow, then it’s time for an upgrade.

I’m not really a fan of War Machine here though. It’s not because of the fact that he’s super pro registration because I was on Team Iron Man myself, but it’s why he wants to join. It feels like he’s putting the army before the team (Again…see Iron Man 2 for reference) and that’s why it’s always a little tough to trust teammates who have connections to other groups. If only SHIELD and Agent Coulson were still alive to help sort things out eh? They probably could have helped the heroes go underground as another option. Hawkeye’s role is very small, but very good as well. It was cool to see him break into the Avengers base and he did a good job during the action scenes. He’s a likable member and definitely another guy that Cap can trust.

Time to talk about the real main characters of the film. I was on Team Iron Man coming into the film by the way and I left on that side as well. It’s not a black and white debate and I’ve always been opposed to registration. In the comics, Iron Man’s team was completely wrong. The Registration act was much worse than the equivalent that we see in the film so that’s one big change. Either way, I’m still against any agreement with the government, but I have to stay on Team Iron Man because I can’t stand Winter Soldier. More on that in a little while.

Back to Iron Man. I think that his decision to quickly go along with the documents because he was shown a picture of someone who died during one of the fights is a little forced/rushed and out of character. We needed the conflict somehow though and this is Iron Man, he would definitely start bending the rules and reshaping the agreement after it was signed. Captain America asks Tony what would happen if they saw a bad situation and weren’t given permission to act. I’m fairly confident that Tony would act anyway and the Avengers would be in agreement. Ultimately, this would lead to even more bad consequences for the team so in that sense Cap is right. They may as well just not sign. Especially due to the fact that the government always turns out to be evil in media and this film is no exception. You can also tell that Iron Man is getting a lot older though and you have to wonder how long he can keep this up. Perhaps age has dulled his reasoning, but his fighting skills are still top notch when necessary. Towards the end of the film, Iron Man goes into a fight without holding back. You can draw a lot of parallels to Batman V Superman in those moments.

Needless to say, Iron Man wasn’t taking any prisoners. Obviously, I’m always technically on the side of saving the murderer since we can’t take justice into our own hands. So, Iron Man should lose, but I’m still rooting for him in the moment. It’s like when you like a bad guy and root for him/her over the heroes. They’re evil, but at that point they are simply a lot more interesting than the heroes. I can appreciate a character who has the fortitude to make the right call because it’s incredibly difficult to make that call. So, as a viewer I’m okay with seeing the villain get destroyed depending on the reason and the method, but I’ll still be fine with another hero saving him/her because it’s the right thing to do. I just won’t be rooting for that character at the moment. An example is from the show Yugioh Zexal. The main villain murdered all of the main character’s friends, but at the end the hero tries to save him anyway and even says that they could be friends. That’s……..very forgiving and I know for a fact that I couldn’t make that call. It’s a good call (Well, saying that they’re friends is wayyyyy to disrespectful to his friend’s memories if you ask me) but if there was another character trying to destroy the main villain, then I’d be on his side. It’s like how I was on Black Panther’s side when he went to destroy the Winter Soldier. Thus, I was pretty pleased with Iron Man’s portrayal here. He even tried to be reasonable at the end until that became impossible.

Captain America makes for a great lead as you would expect. He’s a great hero and tries to always do the right thing. He’s in a bad spot since all of his friends are choosing a side. He also had to go during the initial meeting due to an emergency which was tricky since it meant that everyone chose sides while he was gone. The film did adapt his famous line from the comics about how even if everyone tells you that something wrong is something right, then you have a duty to resist. When told to move, you should plant your feet down and say “No, you move.” It was a great quote of Cap’s so it was good to see it used in the film. While I was always against Cap, he was constantly making hero calls and ultimately he is just trying to help a friend. Bucky was mind controlled into doing awful things so it wasn’t really him. Cap doesn’t want him to have to die for things that were not under his control.

He also doesn’t lose sight of the innocents in the crossfire either. He sticks up for Scarlet Witch the entire film and even goes easy on his opponents like Spider-Man. He’s careful to avoid hurting anyone too seriously and his move at the very, very end of the film was great as well. It’s really impossible not to like the guy and he’s one of the best characters in the film. I do think that his strength can be inconsistent as the expense of other characters, but I’m glad that he looks very powerful here.

As for the Winter Soldier, I really dislike the character. Sure, he was mind controlled, but he doesn’t seem very remorseful about what he has done either. He shows no regret and never resists the mind control all that much. I’d say that it’s because it is in his nature. “I won’t kill anyone” Winter Soldier says right before he drops someone to instant death, but Captain America quickly saves the guy before the murder can occur. Bucky was willing to destroy that guy and he goes all out against just about everyone. He’s constantly looking to deal a mortal blow or at least a very serious one if it will let him escape. There’s no way that I can consider this guy to be a hero or even a slightly likable character. That’s why I couldn’t be on Cap’s team. This is just impossible to like at all. Protecting him is the right move, but I don’t have to like it.

As far as the villains are concerned, there are really only two this time around and both of them are fairly minor. We have Crossbones who makes for a good intro villain for the heroes to fight. He puts up a pretty good fight against Cap and actually manages to bring in a draw by the end. Baron Zemo never gets to be in his costume which is a shame, but he does a good job of masterminding the whole film. It would have been awesome if he had actually committed a certain plan that was hinted at. It would have made for a great final fight, but his true ace was just about as good. General Ross also had his own plans in motion, but he was really not that smart. He kept overplaying his hand. Once he got half of the team to sign the document, he should have taken it slowly. Instead, he placed some individuals in a max prison with very inhumane conditions. It’s almost like he wants the heroes to turn against him. If he tried to arrest Iron Man, then a civil war would have really broken out.

Naturally, I won’t say what happened in the after-credit scenes, but needless to say they were not quite as good as I had hoped. The first one was decent since it gave the film a little closure and I definitely like the option here. The characters in the first scene are in a much better position now. As for the second scene, it is very anti climactic and sad when you think about it. The film could have made it a lot more epic and exciting with a quick shape-shift or an Infinity Gem locked inside of a chest or something. You should stick around to watch the first one, but there’s really no need to stick around for the second I’m afraid.

Part of why Civil War is so good is because it is able to balance the serious and light moments rather well. It’s a very upbeat film, but it still gets serious once in a while for something grim to happen, but not for it to be overly grim. I was worried when Zemo confronted a Hydra agent that we were going to get a super violent moment, but it was fairly tame and I’m glad that the Hydra guy stood firm. This event was a lot different from the comics of course, but it was cool to see the film adapt as much as possible and throw in references/moments when possible. The big Captain America vs Iron Man visual made it in of course and there were several more homages that I’ll let you find out through watching it.

Unfortunately, Civil War followed The Amazing Spider Man 2 in the sense that moments from the trailer were not present in the film. “YOU JUST STARTED A WAR!” remember that line? It’s not in the film. “I was wrong about you….we were all wrong about you.” That’s not in the film either. It’s a shame because those two moments were important in the trailers because they showed that things had reached a certain moment of no turning back. Instead, the lines were pure click bait. The film is still very satisfying on the civil war angle and the ending was a lot more decisive than I had imagined, but it’s still too bad that some trailer scenes weren’t present in the end. I feel like a trailer should always have all of its content be in the film.

All right, we’re near the end now. Aside from power level inconsistencies hurting the film’s logic, I’ve depicted how Civil War was just about perfect. Well, why did it lose to Batman V Superman? Here’s why Batman V Superman was the better film. The soundtrack was infinitely better than Captain America, the latter of which had no significant themes of note. Batman V Superman’s fights were significantly better. Cap’s were amazing though and Marvel’s best, but they simply can’t come close to DC’s. Third, as interesting and engaging as Captain America was, Batman V Superman just obliterated it there. The film has you at the edge of your seat for most of it. Granted, as a much bigger DC fan than Marvel, that will almost always be the case since Batman and Superman make for very engaging leads even when they aren’t written as well as they could be. (Batman lacking in intelligence and Superman being a pushover) So, Civil War was great, but I feel like it loses to Batman V Superman in just about every way. Civil War does beat it with having less unlikable characters and no random bathtub scene though.

Be warned though that Civil War’s ending is a little intense. It was so intense in fact that nobody clapped when the credits started rolling and I had to personally start it all off. I think everyone was in shock or something, but I can’t blame them. It takes a while to get used to these things. After all, Civil War was a thrill a minute and there was never a dull moment during the entire movie. The closest scene to being boring would be the very first one, but it still wasn’t that bad. The pacing is quite excellent for this film. I was the only one who clapped after the final extra credit scene as well, but it was pretty underwhelming so I don’t blame the audience for the silence this time.

Overall, Captain America is a great film though and no live action film will be able to defeat it for a very long time. In the near future, the only films that may have a shot are Infinity Gauntlet Part 1 (Which I think will actually lose unless Thanos gets his big fight) and Justice League. (Which I’m also a little skeptical of) If you haven’t seen this film yet then I highly recommend that you check it out ASAP. Even if you somehow don’t know who Captain America, Iron Man, and Spider-Man are, you’ll be in for a treat. Considering how well the team fight went, I’m ready to see a full blown Avengers vs Justice League fight in 20 years. Hey, nobody thought that we’d ever get Spider-Man and the Avengers. Given time, I’m sure that a crossover film is bound to happen! Of course, we’d need Thor and Hulk this time around to keep the fight from being too one sided

Overall 9/10

Avengers Battle For Earth Review

Posted on February 15, 2016 by dreager1

I’ve wanted to get this Avengers game for years. Ever since it first came out, the game has looked like a blast and a half. Alas, it just never quite made the cut when I was looking to buy games for Christmas or my Birthday. Well, the wait is over and the game has certainly lived up to my expectations. It’s great even if you can tell that it’s not exactly a AAA title of technical mastery. A sequel would have definitely been a blast.

The plot of the game is based on the Secret Invasion arc from the comics. Skrulls have taken over the planet through deception and the heroes have to weed the fakes out from among the real heroes. The best way to do that is to beat them all up and that’s exactly what the heroes do. Some villains even decide to join in by the end like Magneto, Loki, Venom, and Dr Doom. Together, these guys can’t lose to the Skrulls right!?

The main campaign for the game is fairly short. There are 40 battles and each battle is a best of 3. Each individual round can sometimes only take about 10-20 seconds while the later battle are harder. This is one of the only games that you can play and complete for the most part with your eyes closed. With the exception of the final level in each of the 5 areas (5 Areas with 8 levels each) all of the battles can be won by simply flicking the nunchuck’s control stick up. Do that and you’re guaranteed to win just about every fight. It’s probably one of the easiest games of all time.

You can take a snooze while playing if you really want too. Granted, you can also use the Gamepad for similar results. Surprisingly, I found that the Wii Remote is much more effective in this game. Using special attacks is much quicker with that setup, which gives you a noticeable advantage in battle. For the remotes, you just have to flail around. For the gamepad, you have to draw the correct shape to use the attack. It’ll work out if you just main 2 characters and memorize the shapes, but if you’re playing around with a bunch of characters, you’ll be at a noticeable disadvantage. Such is the fate of Gamepad users this time around although I’ll admit that it may feel like more of an actual fighting game since you can just keep on swinging to victory with the Wii Remote.

The main reason why I used the Wii Remote in the first place was that using the Gamepad meant that you could only see the cutscenes on it. A work around is using the Wii Remote to shift the camera angle, but then you have to do that for every fight, which can get quite tedious. It’s an odd feature and one of the main hints that this isn’t your big budget 60$ Avengers game.

If fans were mad that Super Smash Bros had a few clone characters, they would be furious at this game. All of the characters are essentially clones. Sure, there are some cosmetic changes to the attacks, but every fighter basically has the same 5 moves along with a final smash. Some look better than others, but aside from the gestures being different (Or in different areas anyway as it cycles from around 5) you’re basically playing the same character the entire time. Hey, I said that it was fun, not that it was high budget!

The graphics are decently good, although this is where I may disagree with some of the reviews. The character models aren’t incredibly detailed and can come across as a little “free to play.” Certainly not what you’d consider Next Gen, but a lot of the attacks are very flashy and the character designs are all on point. The opening movie was a blast even if the graphics would not wow someone. The fights were neat to see and the animation certainly isn’t bad. It’s not great, but it works for me and I was satisfied with what I saw. Once again, I have to point out that all of the energy attacks look great.

The game also has an epic feeling to it. The story mode is actually really engaging. It’s a shame that there are only 11 big cutscenes in the whole game as the other levels just get a quick line of dialogue. Still, the cutscenes that we do get really show the importance of why comic panels can be good if used right and not as rather uninspired pages like in Mario Galaxy 2. The game’s ending also leads up to Siege/Dark Reign, which would have made for a very enjoyable sequel. Obviously, this game did not succeed nearly enough to warrant a sequel, but boy would I have enjoyed one!

The soundtrack’s a little forgettable, although it wasn’t bad. Mostly the themes are the kinds of music that you would expect from a game that doesn’t want to spend a lot in that area. Luckily, the presentation before the fights is always good as each character has a quick introduction and the 2 vs 2 format works well. It pops out at you and the matches feel really official. I wouldn’t mind Super Smash Bros taking a cue from that and having a similar introduction for 2 on 2 battles someday. It could be optional of course so it wouldn’t always slow a match down.

I can’t say that there is a whole lot of replay value though. You can finish Story Mode in under 2 hours and probably much quicker than that if you’re good at spamming the nunchuk control stick. Once you’ve beaten the game, you can play Arcade Mode, Challenges, or Trials to unlock costumes and character panels to use as your avatar. The unfortunate part is that there is a lot of on disc DLC like Street Fighter X Tekken. Some of these things you have to buy on the E Shop and others are related to UPlay. I’m not sure if UPlay is even up and running anymore, but either way it’s always unfortunate. I’m cool with DLC, but don’t clutter the mission select with it. As a result, my Game Completion% looks a lot smaller than it should because the DLC is actually counted. Boooo. There’s really no reason to play the game again unless you want to have a good multiplayer match.

Naturally, that’s the big hook of the game. The multiplayer is a lot of fun and even if it is a total button masher, it’s the kind of fighting game that is easy to play and you can have a lot of rounds in it without getting bored. It’s like a discount version of Marvel vs Capcom 3. Certainly not as good as that game when it comes to gameplay, replay value, graphics, or soundtrack, but it’s good for Wii U fans who want a piece of the action. The character roster is also quite good with non Avengers like Dr. Doom, Venom, Spider Man, and the Phoenix. It may just be me, but I feel like Phoenix is the strongest fighter in the game, although Black Widow has the best charge attack. You can easily defeat a foe just by spamming her slide attack. It’s quick and packs a punch.

Overall, Battle For Earth is a game that’s worth your investment. The price isn’t all that high nowadays anyway and you’ll be surprised at how well done the gameplay is. Considering that the game must have had a limited budget, it’s actually very exciting. There’s voice acting for all of the characters, the avatar pictures are cool, and the character roster is solid. Not to mention that the opening scene was a blast as well. The whole game had an epic feel to it, yet you can still tell that a higher budget would have improved the game immensely. I can only imagine how much fun a sequel would have been. Naturally, this game is best if you have someone to play it with you, but if not there’s still enough here to satisfy you with the single player experience.

Overall 8/10

Nova Classic Volume 1 Review

Posted on January 26, 2016 by dreager1

Boooo, the cover image is small, but it’s the best I could do this time. Richard Rider’s always been a pretty fun cosmic character so when I saw his classic comic on the shelf, I knew that I had to snag it. Another incentive was the debut of Megaman in the Marvel comics. I’m happy to say that the comic ended up being a blast and I never would have suspected that Nova turned out this way. There’s always time to learn something new after all!

Turns out that Nova used to be a normal kid who attended school and had rivals/friends just like Peter Parker. You can draw a lot of parallels between the two characters and it’s cool because I always assumed that Nova had started out as an adult. It’s always interesting because some characters like him and Spider-Man are currently adults while the guys who were already adults like Iron Man and Ant Man haven’t aged nearly as rapidly. It’s just how these things go I suppose. Nova has to quickly wrap his head around his new powers since evil never rests. The origin is similar to Green Lantern’s as the original Nova is destroyed while following a criminal and quickly transfers his powers to Richard.

Richard avenges him and decides to be a superhero, but he still has to deal with his real life dramas. There’s a bully who likes to pick on him and Richard’s “friends” don’t really do a whole lot to stop him. It’s probably the friendliest bully that I’ve ever seen though because everyone still talks and hangs out with each other even though the guy’s a bully. It’s all very intriguing to say the least. The main heroine is Ginger, but she hasn’t done a whole lot yet. There’s a slight chance that she figured out Richard’s true identity, but I we certainly won’t know for sure for quite some time.

Richard does have two friends though. A little kid who ends up getting kidnapped by Megaman and is one of the weaker supporting characters, and the kid’s pal. The pal is the trickster of the group and I have to admit that he gets a lot of really good lines throughout the comics. One of them was something along the lines of (When talking about the bully to Richard) “Don’t let him bother you Rich. Just remember that if you take away his smarts and his strength, then you get us…whoops!” He’s constantly insulting himself and Richard through his comebacks which makes for a very interesting style of humor. I can’t say that I’ve seen it done before or maybe I simply haven’t seen it done this effectively before. Either way, it’s definitely a blast.

Other supporting characters include Nova’s family. His brother’s a self proclaimed genius who can’t get any of his inventions to work, but he likes to remind Nova that he’s the smart one of the family. He’s always acing his tests. Nova’s Dad is usually busy with work drama so he’s always rather upset. Nova tries to keep him in check, but since he’s failing his classes, it’s been very difficult so far. The Mom is reasonable, but she only helps Nova in secret so as not to make the Dad more irritable than he already is. It’s tough being Nova, but Richard knows that he can take it.

He’s already amassed a bit of a villain’s gallery as well. Condor is the brains of the villain group, but he’s not as tough as you can think. He’s essentially the Vulture with Forge’s energy gun and 10% of Iron Man’s intellect. He puts up a good fight, but that’s mainly because Nova still isn’t very experienced. Once he gets his powers under control, he should be able to beat this guy with ease. Powerhouse is easily the worst villain of the trio. He’s constantly whining about how everyone is using him, but he’s the one who’s standing there and taking it. Now, blaming the victim is one thing, but I can’t even call this guy a victim since he’s clearly stronger than Condor. Yet, Condor slaps him about 40-50 times and it happens so often that it’s practically a comedy subplot by the end. The various heroes and villains keep commenting about it, but Powerhouse always ends up choosing the dark side over the light. Well, he made his choice and he’ll likely keep getting slapped around.

Diamondhead is the only true threat of the three and he’s impressively tough. His whole body is made of diamond so his physical strength is very impressive. Nova essentially broke his hand just by punching the guy. Even once Nova is more experienced, this guy was able to give him a good fight and he’s easily my favorite villain of the group. One thing that the three villains had in common was that they were all deathly afraid of another villain, the mighty Sphinx. It was cool to see the villains wage war against the super being and he easily bested all of the characters. If only Nova’s Power Cosmic had been a little stronger during his early years. It was a great ongoing plot though and it’s a shame that it ended so abruptly. As it stands, Sphinx was very overpowered compared to the rest of the characters, but it was always a blast to see him. He also wasn’t afraid to show his fear once in a while as his underling always tried to make him look at the future. (The villain is a mirror who shows you things that you don’t want to know) The other underling was a traitor who tried to destroy Sphinx so the villain placed him in a painful illusion.

What separates Sphinx from the average villain is that he inflated the body count right away. He punched Diamond Head so hard that he was partially merged into a Pyramid and supposedly he is effectively dead. Condor was turned into an actual bird so he’ll never mess with anyone again. Sphinx wasn’t playing games and he was definitely cool. The final notable villain was Megaman. For obvious reasons, I was very hyped to see him appear. Unfortunately, the guy is fairly petty and just wants revenge because his nephew ran off and left him to die. It was a salty moment, but a better man would have just kept on going. He doesn’t get to really have an ending in his fight because a futuristic being takes him away, but it was cool to see Marvel’s take on the iconic character. Nowadays, this kind of move would definitely generate a lot of headlines.

There were also two storylines for guest stars. The first had Thor appear to help Nova. Naturally, what’s a team up without a quick fight right? Thor was being mind controlled by a villain (I call plot hax here. At least it didn’t work on him a second time) and had a brief scuffle with Nova. Nova wasn’t doing too well, but at least he slowed Thor a little. The two of them fought a demon and then called it a day. The villain wasn’t great, but just seeing Thor and Nova go at it made the comic worthwhile.

The other team up was with Spider Man and that was cool. It was a classic mystery case as Nova’s uncle was murdered and one of the people in the room must have been the culprit. The suspects included an A.I.M. agent, a member of the Mafia, a corrupt business man, the Butler, A co-worker who believes that he was cheated out of fame, The Detective, and one more. Ironically, I think I may be missing the actual culprit in this description. Peter Parker is a suspect as well, but readers will know that it wasn’t him. It was a good feat for Spider Man though since he was able to endure a punch from an enraged Nova. Spider Man’s been in the game for a while so he held his own and I was glad that Nova listened to reason although I wouldn’t have minded an extended fight. Those are always a blast.

As always, Marvel’s retro art is really good here. It really helps reinforce the atmosphere that they were going with here. You’d think that this was a 60’s comic from how the characters talk and act. It can be hard to properly make a comic feel old without it also feeling old in a negative way, but the comic pulled it off quite well. The character designs are all on point and you’ll definitely be eager to keep on reading. I essentially read most of the comic in a single blast and it does have that Spider-Man feel where it’s all very interesting. I can never get enough of the retro adventures although they aren’t all equal. (For example, retro Fantastic Four comics were usually not quite as interesting) If I had to make a tier list, I’d put Spider-Man, Nova, Blue Beetle, Superman, Batman, Daredevil, Green Lantern, and Iron Man comics at S rank. A rank would be titles like Thor and Avengers. (Mainly due to the drought once the main members left) B would be some random titles, but it’s hard to think of them. C rank would probably be Fantastic Four, Captain America, Hulk, and most of the others that are remaining. They’re all essentially good comics, but some are just more fun than others.

Overall, I highly recommend reading the Nova comics. If you liked the old Spider-Man comics, then you are certainly going to like these. For the most part, Nova’s a very good character. He has one passing line that’s pretty wince worthy, but by and large he’s a noble hero who does his best even if it takes the kid a long time to really use his powers. He can take a hit and that’s the important thing. He even gets a lot of hype against Sphinx as he keeps on getting up after each blow. I hope that my library gets Nova Classic Volume 2 someday so I can wrap up the saga. Who knows, maybe Megaman will return since the series is running low on villains. Watching his ascent into one of Marvel’s toughest characters will definitely be intense!

Overall 8/10

Spider Man Next Chapter Volume 1 Review

Posted on January 13, 2016 by dreager1

It’s time to jump into the next big Spider Man adventure! The Spider Man comics were consistently good back in the day and this volume is no exception. The funny thing is that I read volume 2 a very long time ago. In fact, that was one of the first big classic volumes of Spider Man that I got to read. It’s interesting to see how the plot continues into that one as a lot of the plotlines really start here. We also get some guest stars, which is always a blast.

The first issue revolved around an elaborate dream world that actually turned out to be an elaborate video game by the Wizard. Spider Man showed them that he wasn’t afraid to fight in cyber space and it was a decent comic. Essentially filler, but a solid stand alone issue. A fun issue was another one that wasn’t too important to the Spider Man series, but saw Thor arrive to fight some powerful elemental villains. Spider Man decided to lend a helping hand although these villains weren’t the kind of foes that you could simply whack away. Thor’s powers weren’t working very well due to things that were happening in his own comics and Spider Man had to actually leave him for a bit due to some other troubles. It all worked out in the end though. I’m always up for a good guest star and it doesn’t get much better than Thor right?

Another guest star issue involved Iceman. This issue had a lot of plots going on involving a villain duo who popped out of nowhere. All you need to know is that one of them is cursed to always be burning and the other villain essentially has control over him. The burning fellow wants to finally be free so he fights Spider Man and Iceman. Partially in the hopes that they will take him down and paritally because his boss wants him to do this. He does want to destroy the boss, but it’ll be tricky for him. Spiderman and Iceman must figure out a way to deal with the burning foe while also taking down the boss since he’s certainly a big menace to society. It was another fun team up to see. We can’t forget about Spider Man’s team up with Marrow. She finds out that something is attacking the Morlocks. The X-Men don’t want to go help because it could be dangerous and they certainly aren’t the Justice League. Marrow decides to go on her own and Spider Man jumps into the fray. Spidey doesn’t have much of a stake in the Morlocks business, but Marrow only recently became a “hero” so she still doesn’t mind destroying humans at times. That’s why Spider Man’s here, to keep her from doing anything like that. Marrow’s certainly not a great supporting character so this issue isn’t nearly as good as the other team ups, but it’s not bad.

All right, let’s get into the main plot now. Remember Agent Ward from the SHIELD show and how he brother was a Senator? Well, Senator Ward is one of the big villains here. He wants the world to be against Spider Man and consistently frames the hero after using him to get some quick popularity. Ward wants to burn as many bridges as possible and he quickly becomes enemy number 1 for just about everyone. While, it’s all part of the plan for Ward things do backfire a bit. Through plot hax and such, Ward basically gets away scot free the entire time, but realistically this plan should not have worked. His end goal still seems to be a mystery and I’m sure that he will be back for more action in volume 2. (Which I read, but it’s been a while so I forgot what he did there..if anything)

Kingpin certainly takes this personally and hires Bullseye to take Ward down. The thing is…Bullseye’s no Spider Man. He may be a problem for a hero of Daredevil’s calibur, but Spider Man could win the round effortlessly. No matter how tough Bullseye’s looked in the past, he is completely outclassed in this fight. Kingpin’s mission to take over his old stomping grounds is slow goings, but I have a feeling that he will get his way in the end. Kingpin was and still is the greatest crime boss in Marvel in terms of results. That’s why the others always fear him in the end.

Spider Man has to worry about keeping the thugs off his streets, but that’s not all. A crazed Spider Woman has arrived onto the scene and randomly wants to destroy Peter Parker. She can sense his presence no matter where he is, which makes things very dangerous. She is able to fight with Black Cat and Spider Man at once. As she was able to take out all of the previous Spider Women with ease, Spider Man will really have to stop pulling his punches if he wants to win this. Luckily, due to being the chosen one, his DNA is able to counter her super power of paralysis/fainting so he can stay up to put a good fight on. He also has to worry about civilians though.

For most of this volume, Peter decided to hang up the Spider Man mantle. It was making a lot of enemies and he still needs to clear his name for the latest frame ups. As far as Mary Jane is concerned, he should never put it on again. Peter actually gives this some thought, but his conscience comes a knockin and the last straw is when a new Spider Man appears. It’s actually a girl who has donned the costume to keep the legacy alive, but she is thoroughly defeated by another foe so Spider Man saves her life and decides to quickly jump back into action. He can’t let his fans down and everytime he doesn’t go into action, someone gets hurt. Unfortunately, Peter decides to keep on fooling Mary Jane with the idea that he is no longer Spider Man.

He doesn’t want them to have to break up yet again, but lying to her is only going to make things worse since the lies will grow bigger and bigger as he has to keep on making more stories. Mary Jane will also definitely find out at some point since the time will come when a villain shows up and Peter has to make a hasty exit. Mary Jane certainly won’t buy any of his excuses at that point. Even when a friend of theirs is in danger, Mary Jane insists that Spider Man should not help out, which is definitely going too far. Ward’s involved and it leads to a deadly battle atop a roof. If Spiderman had not been there, it would have been dicey.

Meanwhile, Mary Jane is busy with her own subplot. A mysterious figure continues to call and harrass her via telephone. This is the only plot that really makes no sense. Sure, she doesn’t want Peter to don the costume again, but why not tell him? Surely having a super hero with the proportionate strength of a super spider would come in handy for this right? In the second volume we find out who the voice is and let’s just say that Mary Jane wouldn’t stand a chance against this guy without Peter. Mary Jane keeps this a secret for the whole volume and it definitely gets old fast. Again, there’s really no need to keep this from him. At least both of them are keeping secrets from each other though so that evens things up a bit.

As expected, the art is great here. It’s the bold 90’s-early 2000’s style that really leaps off the page. The fight scenes are all a blast and the large art gives the fights room for the special effects of the super attacks. All of the character models are accurate and it’s always nostalgic to see the art here. It simply isn’t made like this anymore and that’s just how it goes. Art is always changing and it’s fun to see what the big companies come up with each decade.

The volume is fairly long so there are quite a lot of comics to flip through here. You’ll probably still finish it quickly since the volume is such a page turner though. It’s the kind of collection that you just don’t want to put down so you can easily just keep on going and going through each issue. That’s always been one of the strengths of the Spider Man series ever since the early issues when it first began. There are so many plot lines and likable characters that you’ll never be bored. Peter Parker’s a great lead and the characters around him all have good subplots. (Even if they don’t always make sense) The comics are never lacking in action even if the plot is the main draw. It’s really hard to find a more complete comic series.

Overall, This is a vintage Spider Man collection with stories that certainly hold up quite well in the modern day. It’s easy to see why so many people became Spider Man fans and why he became such a household name. The quality of the issues were certainly very high. It’s a shame that some of the modern issues haven’t been that good, but as this is Spider Man, he can always make a comeback. If only they would portray him as maturely as he was here. If anything, he seems younger in the new comics even though he actually owns his own business. It’s probably just due to the art though. (And the personality of course) It’s too bad that he’s lying to Mary Jane and that Mary Jane keeps on making the worst decisions possible, but things will start to get resolved in the next two volumes. I never read volume 3, but that one definitely looks like the most intense of the three. Whether you’re a big fan of Spider Man or not, you should definitely check this title out. Certainly one of Marvel’s better trades.

Overall 8/10

The Amazing Spider Man Volume 5 Spiral Review

Posted on December 27, 2015 by dreager1

It’s back to The Amazing Spider Man! Once Dan Slott brought Peter Parker back, he seemed determined to make the main character as unlikable as possible. The comics went through some dark times, but these issues aren’t related to Slott. I believe it’s because they are .1 issues, but at the same times, the plot feels relevant enough where these issues could be main ones. Regardless of where this takes place, Spider Man is back to being a good character with an engaging plot like the good ole days. It’s a pretty good Spider Man story. While I won’t let me enthusiasm get the better of me and say that this is worthy of a 9 or that it’s one of the best Spider Man comics ever, it’s a good improvement and hopefully this sets the bar for future Spider Man stories.

There is a gang war going on with the various villains trying to grab some power. Wilson Fisk, Tombstone, and a gallery of other big gang members want to seize control and that’s being really bad for Yuriko. She is a cop who is in charge of the district where all of the action is and while she may be good, she’s not ready to tackle supervillains. She decides that it’s time for Wraith to take command again (Her alter ego) and she slowly starts to cross the line between being a hero and a villain. Spider Man tries to warn her many times, but then he must make a choice. Does he continue to try and persuade her to join the light again or should he take her down before innocents are hurt? These questions are pondered as all of the villains make their move.

As mentioned earlier, this comic was fun to read the writing was actually well done this time around. Spider Man felt like the experienced veteran that he should be portrayed as. He was able to easily dispatch foes like Bullseye and Hobgoblin with no real effort. Spider Man is powerful despite only having the “proportionate strength of a spider” and his spider sense is an invaluable ability that can get him out of just about any jam. Spider Man also has to make a hard choice with Wraith and I’d say that he made the right one. He gave her a chance, but at the end of the day, Spider Man can’t let the fight against crime get personal. If she’s crossing the line, then it’s time to go and take the win.

It was interesting to see some of the gang members also show some loyalty for once. When Black Cat tried to move into the territory, the minions were not buying it. They still work for Tombstone even if he’s in jail. It’s commendable for what it’s worth. I can’t say that Tombstone and Hobgoblin should really invite that much respect considering that they’re always getting busted, but they can fight, which is always a game changer. In fact, Tombstone gets his his own fight in this comic, which is actually pretty impressive. It’s not very surprising to longtime comic readers who remember the days when he would actually fight, but still good to see. Some villains stop fighting and get rusty like Green Goblin.

Black Cat’s sideplot seems like it’s going nowhere fast as she still blames Peter for what Ock was doing for so long. I suppose that it can be tough to accept that someone else was controlling Spider Man’s body for so long, but in a world where aliens visit every other Tuesday, that should not be a huge issue. These things happen and not being friends anymore is one thing, but she turned back into a complete villain. I do like the new costume though and the ASM series has been pretty good with giving old characters new designs that are an improvement over the originals, but I hope that Black Cat makes a move and soon to avoid the usual formula.

Mr. Negative gets a fairly large role in this comic collection as he helps to steer Wraith down the wrong path. He presents Wraith with the alluring offer of some evidence to take down other villains so that he can gain some territory. It’s an intriguing proposition since Wraith can take down some villains, but then he can make a move. Personally, it sounds like a good bet, provided that Wraith keeps some perspective on this. If you got some evidence that could take down a few big mobsters, wouldn’t you accept it even if it was from someone who was not exactly a law abiding citizen? I personally don’t have a problem with this.

Naturally, the issue isn’t black and white. The evidence helped Wraith put a corrupt judge behind bars, but the judge’s family was also in a bind, which is why he made the move. The evidence was also only partially accurate. So, Wraith can take the judge down, but some innocents will be lost or she can let him go free and then more innocents may be convicted or the flip side of villains getting away scott free with more blackmail. These are some pretty heavy choices and Wraith has made this very personal because one of her comrades was destroyed in the line of fire during one of the earlier gunfights.

Of course, Wraith goes too far when she takes a life and acts like a vigilante through and through, but up until that point, she hadn’t really crossed the line. A little breaking and entering, intimidation, deceit, but these are things that you could picture Batman or even Captain America doing when necessary. I think Spider Man may have blown some of these acts out of proportion, but a small spark can lead to a fire and in the end we see that Spider Man was right to be worried.

Of course, you can sympathize with why Wraith is frustrated with the system. Villains break out of jail constantly and consistently get around to hurting more people. Batman is used to his villains getting out of jail within a day and the same could be said for Marvel’s prisons. The system is very corrupt in the comics with a lot of cops being on the villain’s payroll. Lawyers are so good that felons get to leave jail on technicalities a lot and justice is rarely served as more and more people are added to the body count. Still, Spider Man is right when he says that this essentially doesn’t matter.

Saying it like that looks bad so I’ll clarify here. Of course it matters and that’s why you have the people without powers trying to fix the system or at least improve it. At the same time, the heroes can’t take justice into their own hands or they will become villains and be a problem for the others. They can just keep on taking out the villains as quickly and efficiently as possible to save as many people as possible. They can help the cops, but they can’t actually become the executioners. Spider Man’s certainly been tempted to go too far, but he keeps himself in check and that’s where his famous responsibility comes from. That’s why being a superhero isn’t for everyone. Some just can’t handle it and turn into the next Punisher.

One area where The Amazing Spider Man is typically not lacking is in the art. It’s nice and streamlined for the duration of the issues and the fight scenes are pretty good. Good art makes a good comic even better so I was able to blast through this collection while standing in line for the new Star Wars film. It’s a good way to get yourself hyped for the feature film. With the writing also being solid, this made the comic a complete experience.

Overall, This is probably the best Amazing Spider Man volume that I’ve read in the modern era. If we’re counting special events like Ends of the Earth, then that changes, but this was definitely a good comic. Wraith also makes for a compelling vigilante/villain who tries to do the right thing, but is a little too extreme about it. I’m almost positive that her character will return at some point, but it’s definitely hard to say when this could be. If you’re looking for an emotional collection that discusses morality and letting the system do its job, this is the comic for you. You can finally see Spider Man as he was meant to be portrayed. Eventually I’ll probably check out another volume in this series with the main issues so hopefully it can be this solid.

Overall 8/10

	jhg195 on Sniper Review
	Princess Ichigo Brad… on Ichigo Momomiya vs Sailor…
	dreager1 on Braveheart
	Anonymous on Braveheart
	Anonymous on Tokyo Mew Mew Review
	dreager1 on Goku vs Beyonder

DReager1.com

The Ultimate Fighting/Review Site

Tag Archives: Spider Man

Marvel Contest of Champions Review

Civil War Review

The Amazing Spider Man Spider Hunt Review

FCBD 2016 Captain America Review

FCBD 2016 Civil War II Review

Captain America: Civil War Review

Avengers Battle For Earth Review

Nova Classic Volume 1 Review

Spider Man Next Chapter Volume 1 Review

The Amazing Spider Man Volume 5 Spiral Review

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: