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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Year One

Posted November 10, 2019December 24, 2019 MaceLeave a commentPosted in Omnibus Reviews

I’d like to preface this with a blurb about the Power Rangers in case anybody is coming into this review with absolutely no prior knowledge. The Power Rangers are a group of five teenagers that were given special abilities from a entity known as Zordon. The team consists of Jason, the Red Ranger, he is the leader of the team and often stubborn in his ways, Billy, the Blue Ranger, the smart nerdy Ranger who lacks confidence on the battle field but always helps find the formula for a victory, Trini, the Yellow Ranger who bridges the gap between Billy and the rest of the team by not being as nerdy but still understanding him for the most part, Kimberly, the Pink Ranger who has a no BS kind of attitude and Zach, the Black Ranger who is calm, cool and collected. There is also a Green Ranger, Tommy who is originally a bad guy and given his powers from Rita Repulsa, the main villain of the series.

Wow, there was a lot of hype going into this book and all I can say is it definitely lived up and I cannot wait to jump into book two. Things start with Tommy, the Green Ranger having just recently joined the power rangers and overcome being mind-controlled by Rita Repulsa. Although she still seems to live on as a ghost or vision to him putting him down and constantly reminding him he is not a true ranger. Because of Ritas interference Tommy’s Dragonzord locks up while on a mission and nearly causes the team to fail. Scorpina, one of Rita’s minions, recovers the green power crystal and attacks Tommy in his home because it charges the crystal which they then put into a replica of the dagger Tommy uses to control the Dragonzord. Scorpina uses this dagger to successfully take control of the Dragonzord and attacks Angel Grove which puts the power rangers new allegiance with the Green Ranger into question for the public. After Tommy comes clean to the rest of the rangers about Rita being in his head, Jason, the Red Ranger commands him to sit out as the rest of the team use the Megazord to take down the Scorpina controlled Dragonzord.

This book/series uses flashback issues very well, we get a flashback to a month before Tommy moved to Angel Grove. Rita had actually approached Zach, the Black Ranger about using the Dragon coin to become the Green Ranger and help her lead her crusade for a better world however he refused. Jump back to present time Tommy realizes only he can take control back of the Dragonzord and disobeys Jasons order to join the fight, the power rangers are successful in taking control of the Dragonzord and they bring Scorpina back to the Command Centre as a prisoner. She informs Tommy the plan is already in motion and suddenly a black zord who refers to itself as the Black Dragon is summoned and destroys Zordons base and appears to have destroyed Zordon and Alpha along with it. The Power Rangers barely escape and unfortunately Billy, the Blue Ranger does not and is sent to the Dark Dimension as a prisoner where he finds Goldar, one of Ritas loyal servants also imprisoned.

The Power Rangers go after the Black Dragonzord while Goldar and Billy are able to ‘tune in’ from the Dark Dimension, Billy see’s that there is a hatch to enter the Black Dragon and he is likely a Zord just like the ones the Power Rangers control. We also learn Goldar is in control of this Dark Dimension and stays prisoner only because he chooses to be loyal to Rita. Billy convinces him that by letting him return to Earth and take down the Black Dragon, that Rita will return to Goldar for help. Billy returns and explains his plan to Tommy, the two enter the Black Dragon and manage to depower it. However in doing so it shrinks and ultimately disappears, taking Tommy and Billy along with it.

The two find themselves in an alternate timeline where they meet a sword named Saba who claims to be a steward of Zordon that could only be awakened by those whose hearts are filled with ‘pure good’. It was created to be the partner of the White Ranger, in this timeline they tried to make Jason the white ranger however Tommy never overcame Rita’s spell and it is implied he killed Jason to become the White Ranger and is now known as Lord Drakkon.

Thanks for reading my review, I can’t recommend this book enough to anybody so you can get a better idea of whats going on here than my quick summary!

Avengers Volume 4 Review

Posted August 17, 2019February 16, 2020 MaceLeave a commentPosted in Omnibus Reviews

Well this one is a bit overdue. I finished reading 90% of this book about two months ago but ended up moving and my most beautiful daughter Emma was born on July 25th, so my time for reading, and on top of that, writing a review for my readings has fallen a bit to the wayside. None the less I’m back and ready to give you my review on the fourth volume of the silver age Avengers Omnibus (assuming anybody actually reads my reviews).

This omnibus consists of Avengers 89 – 119, Daredevil 99 and Defenders 9-11 (it says 8-11 but there is like two pages from Defenders #8 so I wouldn’t count that) Things get started fast with the Avengers helping Rick Jones capture Captain Marvel. We find out that in the captain marvel series these two have been swapping places between earth and the negative zone using something called the nega-bands. Captain Marvel is aware of a device that Reed Richards uses to enter the negative zone and uses that for both of them to be on Earth together. Annihulus takes advantage of this and also breaks through to earth.

Ronan the Accuser informs the Kree Supreme Intellegince that Captain Marvel is on earth, he is also in the hospital because he is getting poisoned from all his time in the negative zone. The Kree awaken an ancient sentry on earth to find Mar Vell. The sentry kidnaps Mar Vell from the hospital and vanishes, leaving Wanda, Pietro and Vision behind. This basically kicks off the Kree Skrull war which was a great read but will be quite summarized here. If you have the chance I strongly recommend reading it yourself! Anyways, Carol Danvers shows up saying she owes a debt to Mar Vell. When the group heads back to Avengers HQ they are summoned by Goliath/Hawkeye (Clint Barton) to head to Alaska to assist Wasp and Yellowjacket. Upon arrival they find a jungle off the arctic coast where Ronin and the Kree sentry are awaiting their arrival. Using Kree technology Ronin devolves Yellowjacket into a caveman along with three island locals, and plans to do the same to all of earth sending it back to prehistoric times. The Scarlett Witch and Vision are taken hostage by Ronin while Quicksilver and Rick Jones manage to free Captain Marvel. Ronin gets distracted by a message saying the Kree are being attacked by the Skrulls. The Kree flee the scene which reverts the devolving process. Upon returning to his normal form Yellowjacket officially retires as an Avengers.

The three men who were devolved end up telling the events to a news station which triggers a government warrant issued for 153 individuals who are believed to be Skrulls impersonating humans. Captain Marvel is on the list so Carol Danvers assists him in escaping from the avengers HQ, which results in the Avengers being seen as accomplices and frowned upon by the world. Captain America, Thor and Iron Man show to announce they have decided to disband the avengers based on the recent actions of the team. We find out these were actually Skrull imposters trying to disband the Avengers and that Vision, Goliath, Wanda, and Pietro also fought the Fantastic Four but that also ends up being Skrull invaders. Captain Marvel alerts the Kree the Skrull are on earth and Carol Danvers reveals herself to be the Super Skrull.

The Skrull seek information from Captain Marvel about an omni-wave device they can use for long range communications, they use Wanda and Pietro as hostages to get the information from Captain Marvel. Mandroids are sent by the government to fight at Avengers HQ to capture any Skrull imposters, and Triton of the inhumans also shows up to ask the Avengers to help find Black Bolt. Captain America and Goliath help the inhumans while Ironman and Thor help Vision to rescue Wanda, Pietro and Captain Marvel. When Black Bolt is found he advises that Maximus made a deal with the Kree to defeat the Skrull to bring peace to Inhumans. Shield steps in and helps the Avengers get to Andromeda to resuce the twins and Cpt. Marvel. Along the way they are boarded by a Skrull ship and told by a Skrull leader that Captain Marvel has betrayed them and given them the info to build the omni-wave device he plans on using as a weapon. However it turns out he actually was using the device to create a projection of himself while helping the rest of the team. The Skrull call for plan delta which is to destroy earth, the skrull ship heads for earth and Goliath jumps aboard.

That combined with Wanda being in danger sends vision into a ballistic rage where he nearly kills the pilot of the ship. Rick Jones is captured by and taken to Kree space. While in Kree prison Rick is transported to the negative zone where he finds Annihulus waiting for him. He is able to fend off Annihulus by shooting a beam of energy using his mind. He is transported back to the Supreme Intelligence who tells him the Kree have reached their potential but the human mind has so much untapped potential. Ronin and an army enter the cell to kill Rick and destroy the supreme intelligence, however Rick is able to summon heroes from his mind. Eventually he passes out and Captain Marvel merges with him to save his life. The Supreme intelligence sends the Avengers back home where they begin to seek out their missing friend Clint Barton (Hawkeye/Goliath). Ares one of Thors villians happens to be on earth and playing a song that is entrancing men to want war. Thor and the Vision are unaffected and able to defeat the flute playing minions. Hawkeye returns and as Hercules with him. We learn Hawkeye ran out of Pym serum to turn into Goliath so he handcrafted a bow and arrow while on the Skrull ship causing it to crash land in Yugoslovia. There he joined a circus which Hercules was also a part of however he lost his memories. Hercules is kidnapped by Bia and Kratos and taken back to Olympus however with Wanda getting injured in the battle Vision refuses to help save Hercules.

In the 100th issue all Avengers past and present are summoned to Black Knights castle to aid in saving Hercules. The Black Knights sword had materialized on Olympus where Ares had found it and turned all the Gods into lifeless crystals and banished Hercules to earth. The two splits into two, one on earth to defend Ares men from causing more war and one on Olympus to try free the gods. Naturally the avengers win, everybody returns home and all is well. 101 was a bit out there as the Watcher intervened with a human, advising him to kill 5 innocent people who would birth children that were the cause of a nuclear war in the future. He is granted cosmic abilities and sets out to do the deed which gets the attention of the Avengers. They weaken him enough for the Watcher to remove him from the planet which was his plan all along.

Vision gets an anonymous letter which ends up being from the Grim Reaper, he offers him a chance to become human and to restore him to the the body of Wonder-Man. Vision declines and then Sentinels invade and Capture Wanda. While the Avengers are coming up with a plan to rescue her, Pietro is too angry and takes off on his own, he goes after the son of the man who invented the sentinels in the first place, Larry Trask. The rest of the Avengers are informed by Shield there is a beam pointing to the Sun causing solar flares and potentially causing the sun to explode, Pietro gets the same warning from Trask finding out he is a mutant with the ability to see into the future. The Sentinels are planning to use the Scarlet Witch to launch a strong enough solar flare into the sun that will sterilize humans of any mutant abilities. While the Avengers are fighting the Sentinels Vision is able to free Wanda and Trask triggers a mutant detection device. The leader Sentinel known as “Number 2” is revealed to be a mutant which causes the other sentinels to destroy him and the deactivate, one falling over and killing Trask in the process. The Avengers leave not knowing Quicksilver was also there and trapped under a fallen sentinel.

Wanda is devastated over her missing brother and refuses to leave her room. The Avengers are summoned to Chile where three scientists have gone missing and Black Panther rejoins the team. The find a tunnel into the Savage land and remnants of a Village Magneto once formed here. A female mutant is able to sing and entrance the Avengers aside from Vision who is unaffected. Back at HQ Vision realizes he is just an android and does not continue to search for Pietro with the rest of the Avengers.

Captain America returns to Avengers mansion to find Vision alone brooding over the fact he is not human. Rick Jones also shows up and clashes the nega-bands he has from Captain Marvel together which causes Captain America to start having flashbacks of him and Rick finding a hidden Hydra base which he decides to go look for once again. The rest of the Avengers also stumble across this hydra base while looking for Pietro, and one at a time seem to be attacking one another.

The Space Phantom from Avengers #2 has returned and is able to assume the role of anybody while that person gets transported into limbo, he ends up capturing Wanda, Hawkeye, Black Panther and Iron Man. When Cap finds the secret lair we learn the Space Phantom had body swapped him hence why he couldn’t remember, but they have baited cap here to ultimately use his body to transfer Vision into. Vision is baited into accepting however we find out later Cap actually told Vision to accept as part of the plan. The two come together and free the other Avengers, Wanda escapes and collects Rick Jones from the mansion, when Rick arrives the space phantom attempts to body swap him however Captain Marvel shows up, Rick goes to the negative zone, and the Space Phantom ends up in limbo. Wanda is still upset over the fact Pietro is missing and Vision swears to help her find him.

Hawkeye is upset over not being able to find love and ends up being recruiting to go out west to California with a man named Champion. Champion offers him one million dollars to teach him to fire a bow like Hawkeye, which he accepts. It ends up being a ploy to destroy the San Andreas fault and due to Hawkeyes goodbye letter being signed Hawkeye instead of Clint, Wanda knew he had not written it. After the Avengers save the day Hawkeye decides he no longer wants to be an Avengers.

Pietro comes on the monitor to advise the Avengers he is ok and teamed up with Crystal of the inhumans and they are in love. Wanda is overjoyed and also informs Pietro of her love with Vision however Pietro does not approve and ends the transmission, shortly after another transmission comes in showing the X-Mansion in disarray and requesting help from the Avengers, when they arrive they find unconscious X-Men and move their bodies outside, they are attacked by prehistoric dinosaurs from the savage land and then Magneto himself who was wearing Angels costume and tricked them. He pins Black Panther, Thor and Vision in a pile of rubble and is able to control the rest of the Avengers and X-Men using the iron in their blood stream.

Hawkeye goes back out west to search for Black Widow who has been a partner to Daredevil recently. There is a showdown between Daredevil and Hawkeye however they decide its best to let Natasha choose her own mate rather than duke it out for the right to be her man. Thor, Vision and Black Panther show up to ask for assistance to rescue the other Avengers and X-Men. While fighting Magneto Vision goes missing and Magneto appears to win. Magnetos loyal servant ends up knocking him out and was actually the Vision in hiding. Black Widow decides to rejoin the Avengers and no longer be with Daredevil.

There is some silly issues where a lion god statue is resurrected in Wakanda and comes for the Black Panther, Thor is able to defeat it and Black Widow decides to leave the Avengers for Daredevil (come on woman, make up your mind!)
The Avengers take it upon themselves to rebuild the statue of liberty after some events of another marvel comic. While doing so Vision and Wanda kiss and humans become scared of Androids taking over. There is suicide bombers and relentless attackers at Avengers HQ which turns Wanda into hating humanity. Thor and Ironman also learn of each others secret identities while holding off the attacks. Wanda ends up being harrassed one day out on a walk and is aided by a female called Mantis who is partnered with the Swordsman, the two hope to rejoin the ranks of the avengers. Captain America is reluctant but the rest of the group is willing to give them a chance.

The omnibus finishes off with an event known as Avengers vs Defenders. The Defenders is a ragtag group of heroes consisting of Hulk, Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer, Namor, Valkyrie, and Hawkeye. The Avengers go to England in search of their old member the Black Knight. They are told by SHIELD they are not welcome because of Mantis and the swordsman being on board, however manage to persuade SHIELD to let them through. We find out Doctor Strange has places a spell on the castle the Black Knight calls home. We then learn that Dr. Strange had communed with the Black Knight and when the Black Knight returned his message it was intercepted by Loki and Dormammu. Dormammu has stripped Loki of his vision forcing him to work with him. Loki changes the return message to Dr. Strange to suggest the Defenders need to locate something called the Evil Eye. This will actually help Dormammu take over Earth. Dr Strange is able to track the location of fragments and the Defenders split up to collect the Evil Eye. Loki, afraid that Dormammu won’t stop with earth, appears to the Avengers and asks for their aid to stop the Defenders.

With both teams splitting up to find the fragments of the missing eye we get some pretty awesome fights. Iron man vs Hawkeye kick things off. Hawkeye is able to come out on top and get away with the first fragment. Secondly we get Dr. Strange vs Black Panther and Mantis, they end up on private property and the owner shooting at them which enables Dr. Strange to escape with the second fragment. Valkyrie is able to defeat the Swordsman for the third fragment giving the defenders three pieces before the Avengers even got one. When Captain America and Namor fight, they realize there is something fishy going on and the two leave as allies. The final fight takes place between Hulk and Thor, lots of that issue looks to have been used as inspiration for the showdown between the two in Thor: Ragnarok. Ultimately the fight is ended by the rest of both teams showing up to explain their conclusion after comparing notes of the situation. While this is happening one of Dormammu’s minions snatches the fragments and begins to open a rift between dimensions. Dormammu betrays Loki and imprisons him and the Watcher shows up, assuring Dormammu that he will not interfere and he is just here to observe. Dromammu easily holds the Avengers at bay, but when Loki starts to fight as well he is distracted and Wanda is able to hit him with her hex power which ends up trapping him inside the evil eye. The beam also restores Loki’s vision but causes him to go insane. The Defenders appear to disband and the Avengers have one more issue where they attend a Halloween party which ends up being hosted by the collector, he intends to ‘collect’ the avengers as belongings but they are saved by the Mantis and the Swordsman, after the party Thor decides this is a good place to leave the now crazed Loki.

My apologies if this review is a bit long, scatter brained and not that great! I read a lot of these stories 2 months ago and just had summarized notes to reflect on. I can’t recommend enough if you’re into the Avengers to check out this omnibus for yourself.

Thanks a lot for reading and we’ll see you again soon 🙂

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 3 Review

Posted May 29, 2019May 31, 2019 MaceLeave a commentPosted in Omnibus Reviews

Hey folks, welcome to another one of my omnibus reviews. This time for the Amazing Spider-Man Volume 3. Some of my past reviews I have found go maybe a bit too in depth issue by issue and can be a lot to take in. No promises but I am going into this one with the mindset of a shorter review with less overall about what exactly happened or more broader strokes. So without further ado, lets jump right in!

This omnibus includes Amazing Spider-Man #68-104. Things kick off with an ancient tablet thats on display at ESU which the Kingpin ends up stealing causing Spider-Man to jump into action. While they fight Spidey web blasts Kingpins cane which had a secret pistol, causes it to backfire and the Kingpin gets arrested. Kingpin cleverly plays it off as Spider-Man was his accomplice and that he will be working to break him out of prison soon, further making Spidey look like a villain to the public. When Kingpin does break out he goes after Spider-Man to get the tablet back.

While fending off the Kingpin and his goons, Ned Leeds and J. Jonah Jameson happen to drive by and heckle Spider-Man, frustrating him to frighten JJ enabling the Kingpin to escape and causing JJ to have a heart attack. With JJ in the hospital Joe Robertson starts running the paper and believes in Spider-Mans innocence so he prints some pictures of Spider-Man fighting the Kingpin as you’d expect this made JJ furious. Quicksilver also makes a guest appearance in an attempt to prove he is a good guy to the Avengers he tries to capture Spider-Man, however Spidey is able to outmaneuver him on several occasions and convinces him he is a good guy. Finally, Spider-Man is able to rid himself of the ancient tablet and entrusts it to Captain Stacy, Gwens father. The Shocker makes a return and steals the ancient tablet from Cpt. Stacy while Peter is getting jealous that Flash Thompson is back in town and flirting with Gwen, causing a rift between the two of them. Aunt May leaves for a Florida vacation and Spidey finds the Shocker and gets him arrested however the ancient tablet is not with him.

Spidey goes to Cpt. Stacy for clues and discovers Shocker had a girlfriend and decides to look for her to find the tablet. Here he encounters Marko of the Maggia crime family, a big tough guy who acts as the muscle for the family and ends up stealing the tablet, while their leader a frail old man known as Silvermane sends for Dr. Kurt Connors (the lizard) to come study the tablet. There is also a man named Cesar Cicero who is trying to take over the family and Silvermane fears he will overthrow him. The Maggia’s keep Connors family hostage while forcing him to work for them. Spidey rescues the family while Connors discovers the power of the tablet and creates a serum containing the fountain of youth. Silvermane drinks it and reverts to a young man regaining his former strength. When Spidey arrives the serum continues to de-age Silvermane until he eventually de-ages to a point of non existence. Spidey fights Cicero who eventually escapes but in all the commotion Kurt Connors once again turns into the Lizard.

Spider-Man promises the Connors family he will capture the Lizard without harming him. Human Torch hears of the news as well and gets involved. Spider-Man has to distract the Torch from harming the Lizard as only Spidey knows his true identity and that he isn’t a villain. He outsmarts the torch and tricks him into thinking a FF distress signal, he then lures the Lizard into a factory which produces dehydration power which causes him to revert back to Kurt Connors.

Meanwhile Gwen is asking around why Peter disappears all the time, Peter see’s her in a coffee shop with Flash and assumes the worst. On his walk home he see’s a window washer and wishes he had a simple life like that. The story then follows the window washer and we find out that he is tired of having his ideas shot down and also just wants to get ahead in life so he becomes the Prowler. While Peter happens to be at the Daily Bugle asking JJ for an advance on his next set of photos, the Prowler decides to rob some cash from where else but the bugle itself.

Peter, knowing he can’t give himself a way, makes it look like he got tossed out the window. Presumed dead by those in the office, he climbs to the roof and quickly changes into Spider-Man. The Prowler flees the scene thinking he just murdered Peter Parker. Spider-Man attacks the Prowler as he is escaping but Prowler manages to fend him off with a gas bomb he created and gets away. Peter fights with Gwen over her seeing Flash and the Prowler attempts to rob a diamond store baiting Spider-Man out. Spidey defeats and unmasks him learning his true identity and the reason he became the Prowler to earn some extra cash to impress his girl. Peter realizes the two boys aren’t that different and lets him go, making him promise to give up the Prowler act.

Flash catches up with Peter to tell him the truth about why he was meeting with Gwen. Peter and her get back together and go to a paint exhibit where some paintings end up getting stolen by the Chameleon disguised as Gwens father Cpt. Stacy. Spider-Man reaches out to Joe Robertson to print a false headline about a big money transfer to bait the Chameleon out. While on location JJ is screaming at Peter Parker to get back to work however Spider-Man is also nearby, and able to spot the Chameleon quite easy as he knows that he himself is Peter Parker. Spider-Man attacks and reveals him, resulting in his arrest.

Aunt May returns home and while Peter is picking her up from the train station we see an Australian man escape from the police known as the Kangaroo, he studied and lived with Kangaroos and has abilities similar to a Kangaroo. Aunt May as usual suspects Peter is sick and needs bed rest. While at home the news talks about the Kangaroo and that he has stolen a deadly virus. Peter goes after him while leaving a web-based mannequin in his bed. Aunt May discovers the web mannequin and passes out. Peter defeats the Kangaroo and returns home, nurses Aunt May back to health and tells her that he never left, resulting in Aunt May beginning to question her own sanity.

Spider-Man agrees to be a guest on a late night show to earn some extra cash. Electro happens to be out on parole and working for the station. JJJ hears of this and offers him $5000 to unmask Spider-Man during the recording. He ends up short circuiting, trapping himself and harming Spider-Man in the process. We then learn of the Schemer. A villain who wants to replace the kingpin as the leader of crime in the city. We also learn that Kingpin is in hiding with his wife Vanessa and that he is eager to return to the streets because he is brooding over the recent death of his son. Peter and Gwen are saying goodbye to Flash as he is leaving for the army and as they walk back home some of the Schemers men attack some of Kingpins, resulting in a car accident, Peter is forced to push Gwen out of the way but she gets injured in the process. Peter tags one of the vehicles with his Spider-Tracer and accompanies Gwen to the hospital. Gwen is unconscious so Peter takes the opportunity to go after the Schemer, finding him but gets trapped and the Schemer gets away. When Peter returns to the hospital Gwen is awake but extremely upset that Peter has been away.

A $5000 bounty is offered in the paper for catching the Schemer, but it is unlisted who is paying the bounty. Spider-Man decides he is the man for the job. He finds one of the Schemers men on the streets and decides to try scare some information out of him but the thug is too loyal. He visits Gwen and almost tells her about his powers but decides against it. Elsewhere the Schemer and his men attack a property of the Kingpins, when word gets back to the Kingpin he decides he will deal with the Schemer himself. Spidey overhears some thugs talking about the scenario and follows them to the property. The Kingpin, the Schemer and Spider-Man end up in a three-way brawl. Kingpin ends up so focused on Spider-Man the Schemer escapes with Vanessa. When Kingpin realizes this he goes after them leaving Spidey alone. Peter returns home to tend to his injuries and wakes up the next morning to Gwen and her father coming over, questioning how he is able to always get such good photos of Spider-Man. He sneaks out of the house and returns as Spider-Man asking for his share of the money Peter makes from the photos, and making Spider-Man look like a thug to Gwen and her father. He then goes after the Schemer once more this time defeating him. When he goes to claim the $5000 bounty we find out it was actually put out by the Kingpin to help bring the Schemer to him. Kingpin overpowers the schemer. The Schemer reveals himself to be Kingpin and Vanessa son who was presumed dead. We find out he faked his death after learning the truth of his fathers crime empire, while the Kingpin is in shock to learn his son is still alive. Spidey flees the scene.

We get a cameo issue featuring the Black Widow, unsure of what she wants to do with her life she decides she would be more suitable in the role of Spider-Man. She decides to go after him and finds he is really pathetic, his powers are fading but he is still able to fend her off. This issue is kind of an advertiesment for her getting her own run in “Amazing Tales” we then see Peter take a blood sample of himself to test if his blood is still affected by the Spider which bit him in the first place. He ends up being late for Gwen’s birthday, convinced he has lost his powers he tells everyone at the party that he was Spider-Man and he runs off frantically. After visting a doctor he finds out he just has a bad case of the flu, he gets some antibiotics and tracks down the Prowler. He gives him a Spider-Man outfit and tells him to show up at Gwens house to harass Peter for some money, confirming he isn’t Spider-Man. Prowler agrees to help and convince Peters friends that he isn’t actually Spider-Man and was delusional because of his flu.

Doctor Otto Octavious, AKA Doc Ock, is still rotting in jail while his arms are on display at a nearby museum, he successfully makes a telepathic link with them and uses them to break himself out of jail. He then hi-jacks a plane which has a Chinese emissary known as General Su. I think he might be a real person but I don’t know I wasn’t alive back then! Doc Ock holds a ransom of 10 million dollars for the General to live. Peter is assigned to take pictures and decides he has to rescue the passengers. Once Doc Ock realizes Spider-Man is helping people off he crashes the plane resulting in an explosion. There is no signs of anybody amongst the wreckage not even Doc Ock himself. Spidey ends up finding him near the power plant and Doc Ock topples a water tower over threatening the people below. Spidey manages to steer it the other way so nobody gets hurt but gets captured in doing so. He wakes up next issue falling to his death as Doc dropped him off the building. He saves himself but has to out run and hide from Doc Ock in order to survive. While back as Peter Parker he crosses paths with Cpt. Stacy and then passes out from fatigue.

Peter, fully expecting another encounter with the Doc, coats his webbing with a special fluid which will block the docs brain signals which control his robotic arms. While the two are having a rooftop showdown the arms go ballistic. Cpt. Stacy is passing by and see’s a crowd watching the roof top battle. Realizing the potential dangers he ushers the crowd away to safety. A portion of the rooftop gets destroyed and ends up falling headed straight for a young boy. Cpt. Stacy dives to push him out of the way sacrificing his own life in the process. Doc Ock escapes and Spider-Man tries to get Cpt. Stacy to the hospital. He dies in Spider-Mans arms along the way, telling him he knows under the mask its Peter Parker and that his dying wish is for Peter to take care of Gwen.

Spidey, now accused for the death of Cpt Stacy is the most wanted man in town. Sam Bullit a lawyer decides to run for the new District Attorney position (shout out to Foggy Nelson from Daredevil!) and earns Gwens support as his top goal is to convict Spider-Man for the death of her father. Some of Bullits thugs rough of Peter Parker to get some info on Spidey, he then returns the favour as Spider-Man and tells them to tell there boss he is coming for him. When he returns to his home still dressed as Spider-Man he finds Sam and Gwen inside looking for evidence to tie the two together. He kidnaps Gwen but is spotted by Bobby Drake “Iceman” from the X-Men. Iceman is able to free Gwen from Spidey whom everybody thinks is evil. Spidey escapes and goes to JJJ as Peter Parker to let them know Bullits men roughed him up. JJJ had been supporting Bullits campaign for DA but decides to withdraw his support because of this. Bullits thugs come to the bugle where Robertson brings to light more evidence of Bullits past and that he should not be the DA. He is taken hostage by them and Peter goes after them as Spider-Man, Iceman also see’s Spider-Man and follows him to Bullits lair, realizing Spidey is a good guy and helps him save Robertson.

The Prowler, reading the paper about the death of Cpt. Stacy and remembering how he helped Spider-Man recently is worried he will get caught up in the mix and decides he wants to be the guy to turn Spidey in. Gwen is invited and accepts to go live with some relatives in London. Peter decides he is ready to come clean to Gwen and has little time to make it to the airport before she departs so he goes as Spider-Man. Along the way the Prowler attacks him. Spidey is able to defeat him but is stalled enough that Gwen leaves for London.

Joe Robertson can see Peter is distressed about Gwen and assigns him to an overseas job. On the plane to London there is two american emissaries who get kidnapped and taken hostage. Spidey ends up going after the terrorists and rescuing the emissaries getting plastered all over british papers as a hero. He realizes he can’t show up as Peter Parker and visit Gwen now as she would likely make the connection between the two. We also see Gwen is missing Peter just as much as he misses her. Peter returns home and Harry sets him up with a job at Oscorp as well as invites him to Mary Janes first broadway show. At the show MJ seems far more interested in Peter than Harry, and Norman is clearly in distress. Spider-sense kicks in and Peter realizes there is a locked room nearby which is triggering it. After the show has ended Peter returns and enters the locked room to find Norman has turned back into the Green Goblin. The two battle but the Green goblin escapes thinking he has defeated Spidey. Harry is also giving Peter attitude over the way MJ was acting at the show and begins popping pills to help with his anxiety. Peter comes home later to find that Harry is passed out from the pills he took and Green Goblin shows up outside the apartment window. Peter forces the Goblin to look on at Harry’s lifeless body which causes him to become disoriented and flee. Later when Spidey is out and about he gets attacked by the Goblin. The goblin’s latest device countered Spideys ability to stick to things and he ends up riding on the Goblins back. He steers the glider towards the hospital room where Harry is staying and forces his gaze upon his unconsious son until the goblin passes out. Peter burns the costume and delivers Norman home, hoping that he wont remember any of this. On his walk back home he bumps into non-other than Gwen Stacy!

Peter gets assigned to take photos of a prison riot, he decides to enter the prison itself as Spider-Man and finds the leader of the prison gang orchestrated the riot as a distraction for his own personal escape. Spider-Man makes a deal with the Warden and the other prisoners to stop riotting and he will voice their concerns on a talk show. He tries doing so but the police show up thinking him still guilty for the death of Cpt. Stacy he is forced to flee. He eventually comes to the conclusion that most of his problems in life stem from the fact that he is Spider-Man. He develops a serum which he believes will remove his powers and falls into a deep sleep. While dreaming he encounters some of his deadliest foes in the Kingpin, the vulture and the Green Goblin. He ultimately finds Cpt. Stacy in the dream who tells him the power of being Spider-Man is both a blessing and a curse, but one that Peter must live with forever. Throughout the dream Peter is having pains in his sides, and when he finally awakens he discovers he now has six arms. Once again not knowing where to turn, he reaches out to the Lizard – Dr. Connors for help.

Peter blows off an assignment from the bugle and has to decline a date with Gwen due to his four extra arms. Doc Connors agrees to let him use his lake home in New York to try solve his dilemma. We get some back story for Morbius, a new vampire like villain that encounters Spider-Man at the lake home. The two battle and Morbius appears to have defeated Spider-Man when Kurt Connors arrives and because of what he see’s ends up turning into the Lizard once again. Spidey awakens to find the two fighting and plays possum waiting for an opportunity where he can defeat them both. As Morbius look to be defeating the Lizard and drains some of his blood. Spider-Man attacks and Morbius flees, due to the bite from Morbius the Lizard turns halfway back into a human. We find out Morbius used to be Michael Morbius a nobel prize winner and was trying to create blood cells to save his own life as he had an undiscovered disease. Through an experimental cure he became a vampire like creature. Spidey and the Half-Lizard Half-Kurt Connors hybrid think that Morbius blood is the solution to turn the Lizard back into a human and remove Spidey’s extra arms. Eventually they are able to catch him and extract some blood from him before he drowns to his death. As expected the sample of his blood works to return the two men back to normal.

The omnibus closes out with a trip to the savage lands, JJ takes Peter and Gwen there to get the full story about a beast that had been reported on TV. The crew gets attacked by a giant beast and Peter attacks it getting swatted out of sight enabling him to become Spider-Man. We then learn the giant beast was discovered by Kraven who came to the Savage Lands to defeat Kazar and claim himself lord of the jungle. Spider-Man finds Kazar first and the two work together, Spidey makes a distraction while Kazar defeats Kraven. Spidey baits the giant over some quick sand resulting in it drowning and allowing the crew to return back to New York.

Once again, I can’t recommend it enough. The silver age comics are quite dated but if you can overlook that fact they are a lot of fun.

Thanks again for reading!

Until next time!

Avengers Volume 3 Review

Posted April 30, 2019May 13, 2019 MaceLeave a commentPosted in Omnibus Reviews

Lets get this started, I held off on reviewing this omnibus until after I saw the new movie Avengers: Endgame. So I’ll throw in a bonus review of that at the end. I actually finished reading this book a few weeks ago and am about halfway through Spider-Man Volume 3 now, so lets jump right in.

Avengers Omnibus Volume 3 contains issues #59-88 as well as Marvel Super Heroes #17 and The Incredible Hulk #140.

The book kicks off with Yellowjacket arriving on the scene. He tells the Avengers that he killed ant-man and kidnaps the wasp. We find out later that Yellowjacket is actually Ant-man but during some experiments he inhaled some gasses which gave him some mild schizophrenia. Gotta love silver age silliness! He decides Yellowjacket is a more suitable moniker for the partner of the Wasp and decides that will be his super-hero name moving forward. The two finally get married and we have another who’s who of the marvel universe where everyone attends the weddings. Always cool to see all the Marvel characters get together.

Dr. Strange shows up at Avengers HQ asking for them to help the Black Knight, after doing so they seem abandonded so Black Panther gets a ship sent from Wakanda to retrieve them. When the crew arrives in Wakanda we find Mbaku aka the White Gorilla has taken control. Black Panther fights him and Mbaku is accidentally killed. Once the Avengers returned home from Wakanda Nick Fury asked them to go on a secret mission to save the Black Widow. They sit Hawkeye out because of his personal attachments but he ends up getting a call directly from Black Widow asking for help. He decides to take the Goliath Serum and go rescue her, however her captors Egghead, Puppet Master, and the Mad Thinker. When the two returned to Avengers HQ, Barney Barton, Hawkeyes brother is there and explains the Eggheads plans, Barney ends up sacrificing himself to save the Avengers. The Egghead hires the swordsman to go after both Goliath and Hawkeye not realizing they are now one in the same. Swordsman defeats Goliath (actually Hawkeye) and takes him to Egghead who is furious that it is not Hank Pym as Goliath. While the two villians fight Goliath/Hawkeye regains consciousness and defeats them both.

Shield gets a hold of some Adamanatium and calls on the Avengers to try and destroy, in the process Vision unaware he is still possessed by the mind of Ultron ends up stealing it and using it as the base for a new body for Ultron. Ultron defeats the Avengers and returns to the burial site of Ultron 5 where Vision awaits him. S.H.I.E.L.D shows up and intervenes knocking out Vision and assisting in Ultrons escape. The Avengers show up and find out how Vision was manipulated into working for Ultron. We also find out that Ultron has a plan to destroy all of New York but Vision is able to disarm the bomb before Ultron can flick the switch. Hank Pym poses as a S.H.I.E.L.D scientist at the UN and Ultron kidnaps him, hoping to learn how to make a new indestructible body. Hank Pym only thinks the thought ‘Thou shall not kill’ which overwhelms Ultron causing him to self destruct.

This omnibus also contains an issue called Endgame, part of a story arc that begins with the Avengers visiting a dying Tony Stark. An android suddenly teleports everyone in the room to Kangs ship in the year 4000. We find out the Grandmaster had told Kang that he had to defeat him in a game of chess, in order to become a master of life and death, enabling him to awaken the comatose love of his life Ravonna. If the Avengers refuse to help then Kang will destroy the planet. Cap, Hawkeye and Thor are set to fight against the Sinister Squadron (consisting of Hyperion, Nighthawk, Dr. Spectrum and the Whizzer). Iron Man ends up joining them later on as the 4th Avenger to make it a fair fight. As you’d expect, three of the four Avengers won their battles, the fourth being Hawkeye (still as Goliath) ends up meeting the Black Knight who tries to assist the Avengers, this breaks the Grandmasters rules so he ends the fight and decides a second phase will take place. In phase two (The issue called Endgame) Vision, Black Panther and Yellowjacket are sent to the 1940s to take on the Human Torch, Namor, and Captain America of that timeline.

I read this issue about a month prior to endgame the movie coming out in theaters and thought their may be similarities, aside from the aspect of time travel though there isn’t much in common between the issue and the movie of the same name.

Anyways, Vision ends up defeating the 1940’s Marvel Heroes by making himself ghost like and flies through them therefore demobilizing them. The Grandmaster decides the Avengers only won one fair fight so he offers Kang the power of life or death, but not both. Kang chooses death to the Avengers however, the Black Knight who was only trying to help is unaffected by the choice and defeats Kang. The Grandmaster is impressed and returns The Avengers and the Black Knight home where they officially invite him to be an Avenger. In another arc, Rick Jones show up to an Avenger meeting and S.H.I.E.L.D calls informing them Nick Fury is dead and other members of S.H.I.E.L.D have been captured by Scorpio the leader of the Zodiac. We find Rick Jones actually showed up to this meeting for the same reason, he was at Fury’s house and encountered Scorpio, he then body swaps or something like that with Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel finds a list of names. I feel like that part of the story probably continues is the Captain Marvel comics cause it didn’t seem to lead to much here. Scorpio appears on the Avengers video communicator thing and causes an explosion knocking everybody out. When the Avengers wake they find themselves hostages of the Zodiac. Yellowjacket and Wasp are able to use their telekenetic connection with the ants to disable a switch and set the Avengers free, Scorpio then reveals himself to be Nick Fury in disguise as the real scorpio was his brother so he faked his own death and infiltrated the Zodiac. Aries ends up finding and using the Zodiac Key to hold off the Avengers allowing the Zodiac to escape.

Their is a hand full of issues which deal with racism towards black people and a popular singer going on a talk-show voicing her opinions becomes a target of the group called ‘Sons of the Serpent’. They attack her one night and Black Panther defends her, knocking out the attackers and stealing one of their uniforms to infiltrate their headquarters. He ends up getting caught and while in their custody they frame the Black Panther as being a terrorist around the city. The Avengers fight but cannot capture the fake Black Panther and while back at HQ see on the news the sons of the serpent claim to have captured and plan to reveal the identity of the Black Panther. The Avengers invade the news station, saving the Panther and revealing the leaders of the sons of the serpent to actually be the men on the talk-show and running the news. They were trying to inspire racism to stir up violence in the city so they could gain some control.

We finally get the return of the twins, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Well Quicksilver shows up first asking the Avengers to help him. While the two were off trying to restore their powers a man named Arkon appears and takes Wanda to be his wife, additionally he kidnaps two earth physicists to build an atomic bomb which will blow up the earth creating enough light to light the sky in Arkons world. The Avengers decide to help Quicksilver and go to Arkons planet, defeating his army and also solving the light problem with Thor and Iron-Mans help. The hopping between dimensions between our own and Arkon’s also helps restore Wandas power back to their previous state.

Later, Tony Stark (who still hasn’t been revealed as Iron Man) tells the Avengers he is in debt and they need to start paying rent, resulting in them working some odd jobs in quite a forgettable issue. Mbaku comes to America and kidnaps the same popular singer from earlier trying to bait out Black Panther, he does so succesfully and captures Black Panther revealing a bunch of the villians have banded together to form the Lethal Legion.

The Avengers call on the big guns (Thor & Iron Man) for this one. Vision disguises himself as a human and goes to the School where Black Panther has begun teaching the black youth, letting them know he won’t be in that day. The Avengers ultimately all lose their battles and get captured aside from Vision who disguises himself as Power-Man and showed the Grim Reaper that Vision was made using Wonder-Mans memories, who happened to be the Grim Reapers brother. In his anger he free’s the Avengers which leads to the Avengers defeating the lethal legion. Vision begins having a humanity complex and decides to quit the Avengers.

While out on his own he see’s someone called the Red Wolf attack an innocent man, Vision intervenes and decides to take him to Avengers HQ. This leads into the origin story of the Red Wolf and how an aboriginal man rose to the occasion to fight off white businessmen that came to take over the land. We find out that Cornelius Van Lunt, a business man who keeps popping up is currently trying to take over the Red Wolf and his peoples land. The Avengers were in the process of preparing to go take on the zodiac and Red Wolf’s story inspires some of them to help him instead, resulting in two teams splitting up on two missions. Vision, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye (who is still Goliath) and the Red Wolf go after Van Lunt, while Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Quicksilver go after the Zodiac. Black Panther decides he wants to go back to teaching. While the first team is flying a quinjet to the Red Wolf’s land they are shot down by a rocket fired by Van Lunt. Vision and Wanda get captured while Hawkeye and Red Wolf round up natives to invade the property Van Lunt is staying at. However Van Lunt convinces the Vision to protect him in order to save Wanda. This is the first time we see any sort of affection from Vision as well as his feelings for Wanda. Vision holds off the invaders until Wanda regains her strength and defeats Van Lunts men herself.

The second team, which consisted of Cap, Iron Man, Thor and Quicksilver, got captured by the Zodiac and end up being rescued by the Black Panther and Daredevil, unfortunately the issue of Daredevil which precedes this was not included in this omnibus.

We get an issue featuring the all woman team of the Liberators, Wasp is in town and drops in at Avengers HQ to find Medusa, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow and the Valkyrie have taken over. The Avengers are attending a halloween party when they are attacked by the masters of evil, however the women show up and save the day, before turning on the Avengers. Once the women appear to have won the Valkyrie reveals herself to actually be the enchantress, Wanda reflects her magic attack severely wounding the enchantress. We find out in the next issue the Enchantress is still alive but in Arkon’s dimension and she sets up a trap where so the Black Knight gets transported there as well. Scarlet Witch see’s everything in a dream. When she wakes Avengers HQ and all the Avengers in it are also transported to Arkon’s world. Thor and Black Panther were the only two absent and return just in time to see the mansion disappear. They travel to Arkon’s world setting free the rest of the Avengers and use Mjolnir to travel back home. However only Thor and Black Panther arrive on earth to find Spider-Man and Captain America handing out toys to underprivileged youth.

Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Vision and Hawkeye (still Goliath by the way) find themselves in a post apocalyptic future. Scarlet Witch uses her abilities to send them back in time only to find they are in an alternate dimension where the Avengers never existed and their evil counter-part the Squadron Supreme does. They are able to convince Nighthawk of the apocalyptic future they saw and he agrees to help them prevent it. We learn of a character called the Brain-Child, a child born from parents who had been affected with abilities, it sounds like this could be the son of Sue and Reed Richards in this alternate dimension. Anyways, due to feeling like an outsider he decides he is going to destroy all life on earth, himself included, which results in the future the Avengers first arrived in. Hawkeye (still Goliath) uses one of the fallen Squadron members as an arrow and fires him at the Brain Child, knocking him loose and to the ground where Dr. Spectrum turned him back into a baby.

The omnibus’ last few issues start with an origin story for Black Panther which served as heavy inspiration for the movie. T’Challa is sent to study the world after the death of his father at the hands of Ulysses Klaw. A friend accompanies him and when he finally returns to Wakanda to become the Black Panther he finds his friend is a traitor and Vibranium has been harvested from Wakanda, his friend returns to the good side but dies in the process, helping save Wakanda.

We also get one final crossover where the smartest minds including Reed Richards and Professor X help to capture the Hulk. A villain called the Psyklop captures the already captured Hulk and uses a shrink ray on him sending Hulk down into a micro world. The people of the microworld grant Hulk the ability to use the brain of Bruce Banner while maintaining his Hulk form. Upset that he has lost the Hulk, Psyklop defends himself from the Avengers and send them back to New York having wiped their minds of the recent events. The people of the microworld are also green and have similarties with the Hulk, Hulk is set to marry their princess however Psyklop finds him and returns him to normal size, also returning the Hulk to his raging self he defeats Psyklop.

There is one final issue which sheds light on the origin story of the Black Knight and how his Ebony Blade could only be weilded bya decendant of the blood line, typical knights story stuff. Nothing to special.

All in all it was a very fun read, I’m looking forward to seeing Hawkeye return to his old self though, its also quite apparant in this book that the main Avengers team rarely consists of Thor and Iron Man at this time, they are more or less the big guns that get called in when the team needs additional help. I may have mentioned something about throwing in an Avengers: Endgame movie review here but honestly its better if you just go see it. In fact, watch all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, they are really well done!

Thanks for reading =)

Fantastic Four Volume 3 Review

Posted March 31, 2019April 2, 2019 MaceLeave a commentPosted in Omnibus Reviews

Here we are again, this time with my review of the 3rd Volume of the Fantastic Four omnibus. This one contains issues 61-93 and annuals 5 and 6. It says annual 7 is also included but annual 7 is actually reprints of older issues so all thats included from the 7th annual in this omnibus is staff photos. Nothing too exciting but its cool to see Stan Lee 50 years ago! As far as I know this is also the end of Stan Lee’s run on the FF as the next omnibus is John Byrne’s which happens somewhere in the #2xx issues.

I enjoyed this omnibus a lot. Having 60+ issues of the FF under my belt from the time I read the first omnibus I can understand why people have been fans of the team for so long. This omnibus kicked off with Reed getting sucked into the negative zone which he had been studying, and Crystal of the inhumans deciding she would rather pursue her love with Johnny Storm than continue being a member of the inhumans.

After she finds them, she returns to the inhumans and recruits the underwater breathing Triton to enter the negative zone and save Reed. However on the way out a creature from the negative zone knopwn as Blastaar followed them out. He would make an unlikely duo with the Sandman before both ultimately get defeated by the FF and return Blastaar to the negative zone. The FF decide to go on a vacation which ends up being an ancient Kree base station. A Kree god mind probes into the FF and tells them they have destroyed Kree property and Ronan The accuser makes his first appearance but is defeated by the FF.

In annual #5 we find out Sue is pregnant and we get a team up consisting of the FF, the inhumans and black Panther as they work to take on Psycho man, a micro sized being who is planning to take over earth. The Silver surfer also got mixed up with the computer life-form Quasimodo and gave him a human body. Reed continues his search for a way to turn the thing permanently back into Ben Grimm. They enlist in another doctor who is actually the mad thinker trying to overcome the FF. He tricks Ben into being angry with the FF for not being able to help him. The FF defeat the mad thinker but awaken his android defender in the process, which Reed defeated by baiting into the negative zone.

We get a crossover where Daredevil gets body swapped with Dr. Doom and appearances from Spider-Man and Thor, I always love seeing the characters crossover into each others comics. The Silver Surfer also steals the spotlight for some issues when has a change of heart and decides humans are ungrateful and do not deserve the planet of Earth. Naturally in a fight with the FF they prove to him the strength and resilience of humans and make him fall back in love with humanity. Then Galactus sends his punisher to retrieve Silver Surver to return him as his herald. The surfer hid in the microverse while the FF held off Galactus’ punisher. FF go after surfer and have a show down in the microverse and they convince surfer to return to being Galactus herald. Although Galactus decides to leave him on earth in case he is needed again down the road.

Finally, Reed comes up with a way to turn the Thing into Ben Grimm once and for all. While out on a date with Alicia Masters, she seems less interested in just plain old Ben. He happened to be carrying around power gloves the FF got from the wizard just in case anything happened. He uses the power within the gloves to revert back into the Thing as that is the life he has grown used to. Doctors become concerned with what effect Reed and Sue’s powers might have on the birth of their child. We also saw the return of an old friend, well Johnny’s old friend when the FF get a call from Wyatt Wingfoot. His people are being harrassed by an aboriginal God named Tomazooma and he calls on the FF for help. When the FF arrive though it turns out its truly a Russian Oil company trying to run the natives out of their land for oil.

Finally in annual #6, the baby who has yet to be named by the of this omnibus was born. Reed and Johnny ventured into the negative zone to find a cure for his potential birth hazards. They encounter Annihulus (whom I understand becomes quite a big deal down the road) and make a deal with him to bring the matter back to Earth and save the baby.

With Sue having to take care of the new born, Crystal decides to throw on her FF outfit and indicate her desire to be a member of the team. The Wizard creates some new gloves to counter the abilities of each of the FF’s members but never anticipated Crystal being a member so she was able to defeat him with her elemental powers. Upon returning to the Inhumans to request permission to completely become a member of the FF, they find Maximus has imprisoned the rest of the Inhumans and is somewhat of a Mad King type. He is also able to trick the FF with a form of hypnosis and make them his prisoners as well. Black Bolt shouts to shatter the glass which is trapping the Inhumans and overthrow Black Bolt.

On their way home to the US, shield stops the FF and sends them on a mission to Latveria to recover some hostages. Upon arrival Dr. Doom is welcoming of the FF and wants to treat them like guests in his nation. When Reed tries to leave he triggers a forcefield and an alarm and Dr. Doom threatens anybody that leaves will be killed and his doombots start attacking citizens at random. Doom hypnotizes the FF to be afraid of their own powers making them subconsciously not as effective. The FF team up with citizens of Latveria and we find that Doom didn’t actually activate the doombots himself and they are acting freely. Reed realizes the cause of their powers being suppressed and helps the team overcome it. After defeating the doombots, Doom himself activates a bomb which is meant to destory the entire landmass of Latveria. However a mysterious force field prevents the bomb from harming anybody or anything. The mysterious force field ends up actually being Sue Storms invisibility ability and she reveals herself.

Doom decides to invite the FF over as guests to a dinner party since everyone is still trapped in Latveria at Dooms discretion. Dooms evil scientist gets angry and attempts to kill the FF using a flamethrower and nearly ignites Dooms art collection with it. This makes Doom quite unhappy and he decides to kill the scientist and send the FF home unharmed.

Upon returning home the FF move into a house in the secluded woods where they can avoid having the celebrity status they had in New York. It turns out to be a trap set up by none other than the Mole Man himself. Reed nearly sacrifices his life to stop a buzzing emission that is causing everyone to be blind, leading to the FF’s victory and moving back to the Baxter Building. This leads us into the final story arc where a Skrull showed up and impersonated Reed to convince Ben to come on a ship with him. He ends up kidnapping Ben to be a slave in a fight to the death on a neighboring planet full of earthly gangsters. Reed modifies the Skrull ship the FF obtained in the first omnibus and they track down the Thing and save him. Also causing a revolution on the gangster planet to overthrow the leaders.

This was a very fun omnibus I would recommend to any FF fan. Having read roughly 100 issues and the first 3 omnibus, I would consider myself a fan of the FF now more so than ever before. Though I still don’t know who or what Yancy Street is other than a bunch of hoodlums the thing doesn’t seem to like. And the poor child of Reed and Sue has gone nearly 20 issues without a name. I wonder when he will finally get named!

Thanks for reading! So long!