Month: October 2018

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 2 Review

Posted MaceLeave a commentPosted in Omnibus Reviews
“Take a look, Parker–a good, long look–it’s the last face Spider-Man will ever see–it’s the real face of the Green Goblin–the face of Norman Osborn!” 
Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Volume 2 Cover Art

Finally! A book I can review immediately after finishing it instead of reviewing something that I actually read a few months ago. (Although to be completely transparent this is being written on September 30th, even if I don’t end up posting it for a few weeks, sneaky sneaky… I know) 

Well folks lets jump right in cause this was a good one! Every issue seemed to lead into the next, everything is connected. The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Volume 2 collects The Amazing Spider-Man #39-67, Annuals #3-5, and the Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1-2. 

We jump right back into the thick of things right from the very first issue. The Green Goblin (Norman Osborn) is plotting his revenge against Spider-Man. He catches Peter changing out of his Spider-Man outfit and follows him home and captures him. In his cockiness believing he has defeated Spider-Man he reveals his identity back to Peter. Ultimately Spider-Man ends of defeating him and the battle leaves Norman Osborn with no memory of being the Green Goblin or Spider-Mans identity. 

Peter, now a college student spends a lot of his time with his friends Harry Osborn, Gwen Stacy, and Mary-Jane Watson. He ends up buying a motorcycle and is often viewed as a self-centered conceded jerk because he disappears often and when he is around is usually so deep in thought about his own problems people think he is ignoring them! He also moves in with Harry and Aunt May moves in with Mary-Jane’s Aunt Anna. 

Flash Thompson got drafted into the army and with him leaving so did a lot of the Peter Parker being a huge nerd stereotypes that were common in the first omnibus. Peter is more sociable, has more friends, moved on from Betty and Liz to Gwen and MJ. 

This omnibus had first apperances of the shocker, rhino and the Kingpin, as well as many of Spider-Mans earlier foes showed up for at least an issue or two. The Kingpin I recall as being one of Spider-Mans main foes from the cartoon, and his comic counter-part seems to have the potential to get there as well. He can go punch for punch with Spider-Man but usually gets outsmarted. We saw Spider-Man hilariously try to join the Avengers and both sides mutually decided it just wasn’t a good fit. 

In one story-arc which spanned a couple issues, Doctor Octopus stole some device and Spider-Man naturally tried to stop him. Doc ends up escaping and moving in with Aunt May, not knowing that she is the aunt of Spider-Man. Peter is distraught and attacks as Spider-Man but Doc Ock convinces Aunt May that Spider-Man was trying to rob the home. Spidey hunts Doc Ock and ultimately ends up getting his memory wiped by the technology that was stolen. The doc then convinced him they were partners in crime and thats why Spidey wore a mask to keep his identity a secret. Spider-Man ends up meeting Ka-Zar who through battle and nearly drowning him, helps Peter get his memory back. 

Throughout the book we get glimpses of Norman Osborn, whenever he sees images of the green goblin or spider-man it puts him in distress and he can’t seem to figure out why. Finally in the spectacular spider-man magazine he remembers everything and invites Peter, Harry, Gwen and MJ for a dinner to celebrate him being released from the hospital. Peter starts a fire in the house and the two have another showdown where Peter uses the goblins devices against him to make him suffer from amnesia once again. Though something tells me this won’t be the last we see of the green goblin! 

The omnibus ends with Spider-Man annual #5 where Peter discovers more about his biological parents that his father was a double-agent working for the Red Skull. Peter ends up finding out the Red Skull is also responsible for the deaths of his parents 

Thanks for reading!  

 

Avengers Volume 1 Review

Posted MaceLeave a commentPosted in Omnibus Reviews
“Avengers assemble!” 
The Avengers Omnibus Volume 1 Cover Art

Well well well, what can we say about the first avengers omnibus. A lot of credit should go to the Avengers because if it wasn’t for all the hype surrounding the new ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ movie, I may have never taken the plunge into actually reading the comics themselves. The Avengers omnibus volume 1 collects The Avengers #1-30 

Well I guess we should start at the beginning. The team in issue #1 consists of Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp. Loki tricks the Hulk into smashing a train bridge and makes it look like the Hulk is a villain. Thor returns to Asgaard to collect Loki while the other Avengers try track down the Hulk. Naturally they accomplish their goals and the Wasp proposes they become a team… The Avengers. The team is formed but it doesn’t take long before the Hulk ends up leaving over feeling mistreated after being framed by Loki. 

 

The Avengers decide to go looking for the Hulk but instead end up in a battle with Namor the Sub-Mariner. Meanwhile a native tribe is found praising a man in a block of ice, who turns out to be Captain America. The Avengers end up rescuing him and realizing who he is pretty quick (Captain America has been in comics since the 40’s). He ultimately ends up joining the team. 

This omnibus also introduced me to Rick Jones who started out as a side-kick to the Hulk but ends up being Cap’s right hand man. Cap is afraid to let Rick get too close to the excitement though because he often reflects on his old partner Bucky Barnes and how he couldn’t save him. 

Then we get some top notch villans in Kang the Conqueror a time travelling mastermind and Baron Zemo a German that Cap battled with during WW2 and the man who killed caps best friend Bucky. Don’t worry though, Cap got to ‘avenge’ the death of his friend. 

Avengers #4 Cover Art

Some things that happen in these older issues seem completely silly by today’s standards. For instance, the avengers call a meeting that iron man doesn’t make it too because he is busy dealing with his own problems in his own comic. The avengers decided this was unacceptable and suspended iron man for 1 week so he could think over if he really wants to be an avengers or not. 

Ultimately,  Thor has to return to Asgard and Iron man, Ant-Man and the Wasp decide they need a break from the Avengers. At this point Cap takes over the role of leader and ends up recruiting three new avengers; Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. 

The new avengers team doesn’t exactly have the best chemistry and while Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch stand by Cap being the leader, Hawkeye is always questioning caps leadership and causing a fuss. After several issues he finally decides Cap is a sufficient leader for the squad and the bickering cools down. 

The omnibus concludes with a story arc about Ant-Man and the wasp doing studies on the Sub-Mariner and the wasp gets caught. Ant-Man goes to the Avengers for help and finds that he can no longer shrink in size and is stuck as 10 foot tall giant man, he then begins to go under the alias ‘Goliath’. As you might have guessed they end up saving the wasp and Goliath and the Wasp rejoin the team. 

Sorry if this review is a bit dry and missing some details. I read the book over two months ago and have read a bunch of Spider-Man and Fantastic four issues since so the stories here aren’t exactly fresh anymore. I promise soon these reviews will get much better! 

Thanks for reading! 

Daredevil Volume 1 Review

Posted MaceLeave a commentPosted in Omnibus Reviews
“You must be real proud of yourselves, gents… With a little luck, you may actually defeat a blind man… if you work together!”
DD1
Daredevil Omnibus Volume 1 Cover Art

Fair warning this is another ‘past review’ as I finished reading this omnibus back in July. Anyways. The first Daredevil omnibus collects Daredevil #1-41, Annual #1 and Fantastic Four #73. 

For me, before going into this book I wouldn’t say I had much knowledge of Daredevil, I remember him showing up in Spider-Man cartoons and games and I’ll admit I had the netflix series on playing TV while doing some things on the computer and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ll probably give it a proper watch at some point rather than just having it on for background noise. 

This book like most silver age stuff can be quite wordy and have some extra dialogue that doesn’t always seem necessary. Being written in the 60’s you can definitely feel the age of this book, one thing that stood out to me was just how fast Matt knew he wanted to make Karen his wife, something that just doesn’t happen often in this day and age. 

I have to admit, this book was far more enjoyable then I ever thought it would be. I started it just knowing who Daredevil was and by the time I finished issue #41 I would consider Daredevil to be among my favorite super-heroes. Once I got through the first few issues I couldn’t put it down and found myself wanting to see more and more of Daredevils exploits. This was a pleasant surprise as I had never been overly interested in him as a character before, more or less just a sidekick to Spider-Man. 

This book is everything Daredevil, we get the origin story of how he lost his vision and reasons for becoming a lawyer, his friendship with Foggy Nelson and the beginnings of a relationship with Karen Page. Seeing the way Matt Murdock uses his blindness and other enhanced senses to his advantage is awesome and the explanations of how he is doing it are great too! We also get to see an early yellow Daredevil outfit but it got replaced by the classic red outfit we know today about 10 issues or so in. 

I’m starting to think these reviews are more challenging since so many stories can happen over the course of 42 issues. Also having read two more complete omnibus’ since finishing this one, I don’t have the best recollection of everything that happened! Some standout villains like the Owl and Killgrave (the villian from Jessica Jones on Netflix!) Some guest appearances from Thor and Spider-Man, and humor all around are just a few of things you can expect from this book. 

The constant battle between Matt and Foggy to try win over Karen Page is ridiculous but a quite common problem in writing from those days. Two friends chasing the same girl, but only one can have her. Classic. I’m glad they started to steer away from this and Matt seems to be the clear cut winner, although Karen doesn’t think Matt could ever love because he is blind (what!?) 

When it seems the secret has got out that Matt Murdock is Daredevil he quickly makes up another alter ego of his twin brother ‘Mike Murdock’ unlike Matt he is loud, obnoxious and sometimes flat out rude to Foggy. I wasn’t a huge fan of this writing as it makes Foggy and Karen seem completely incompetent, not to mention the way Matt treats Foggy when he is trying to act like his brother Mike is completely disgusting. 

All in all this was a great read and another book I would recommend to anybody seeking to learn more about Daredevil, or just enjoy a classic silver age comic.