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Amazing Spider-Man Volume 2 Review

Posted October 31, 2018October 31, 2018 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!”

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 October 13, 2018October 13, 2018 MaceLeave a commentPosted in Omnibus Reviews

“Avengers assemble!”

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.

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 October 3, 2018October 3, 2018 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!”

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.

Amazing Spider-Man Volume 1 Review

Posted September 30, 2018September 30, 2018 MaceLeave a commentPosted in Omnibus Reviews

“With great power, comes great responsibility”

Is there really any other way to start a blog about Spider-Man than with his most famous quote?! I would think of all marvel characters that Spider-Man has got to be the most well known by the masses and comic fans alike. Chances are if you’re reading this, you know who Spider-Man is. Be it through the comics, toys, movies, cartoons, games and whatever other forms of spider-man media are out there, you’ve probably already at the very least heard of Spider-Man, so this shouldn’t take too much explanation. You’re likely already aware but Spider-Man is a teenage boy named Peter Parker (for now) and that he was bitten by a radioactive spider which gave him his abilities. He didn’t help stop a criminal when given the chance and that same criminal would end up murdering his uncle Ben, resulting in Spider-man devoting using his power for good and to help others!

For me, much like X-Men it started with the 90’s cartoon on FOX and eventually the early 2000’s Spider-Man movies with Tobey Maguire. I’ve also caught a handful of episodes of the older 60’s cartoon on late night TV but having now read the first two Spider-Man omnibus (Issues 1-67 and some extras) I have to say the comic is my most preferred format! The first omnibus collects Amazing Fantasy #15; The Amazing Spider-Man #1-38 and Annuals #1-2 which naturally includes the first appearances of Peter Parker, Electro, Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, Scorpion, Vulture, Lizard, Kraven and the Green Goblin. I’m sure there is more but these ones stand out!

I will admit this silver age stuff is very very wordy and sometimes a single issue will take me 30+ minutes to read. Amazing Fantasy #15 was a treat to read, the real beginning and origin story of Spider-Man as we know it today. Some other stand out moments from this book are when Spider-Man goes to cash a cheque but can’t because they won’t open a bank account for a masked man. Spider-Man trying to join the Fantastic Four, countless encounters with the human torch trying to one up one another. Everyone seems to love Johnny Storm but they have mixed feelings over Spider-Man, which seems to come with wanting to hide his identity, which is fair. I would trust somebody whose face I could see over a masked person anytime.

Some of the bigger standout stories for me was Spideys first battle with the sinister six, Spider-Man getting hypnotized at the circus and fighting against Daredevil, and a team up annual with Doctor Strange!

I really enjoyed how much Peter avoided ever meeting Mary Jane, it had always seemed to me that MJ had always been Spideys #1 girl, but in this omnibus he is far more interested in Betty Brant whom he works with at the Daily Bugle and Liz Allen who he goes to high school. Aunt May is constantly trying to introduce Peter to MJ but he is always far too busy as Spider-Man or tied up with his other love interests. This first omnibus really was all about Spider-Man in his high school years. He does graduate, go to ESU and eventually meet Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn in this omnibus which gets me excited to see how the Peter and Harry dynamic is going to play out in the comics.

We also get a ton of Flash Thompson in this book, he’s constantly taking jabs at Peter and giving him a hard time all the while being Spider-Mans biggest fan. If only he knew they were the same person! By the time I got to the end of this book I could hardly put it down and would recommend it to anybody who wants to learn more about everybody’s favorite webslinger and his true origin stories. You’ve just got to be prepared for some actual reading and not just all cool art and classic spider-man one liners.

Uncanny X-Men Volume 1-3 Review

Posted September 23, 2018September 30, 2018 MaceLeave a commentPosted in Omnibus Reviews

“Hear me, X-Men! No longer am I the woman you knew! I am Fire and Life incarnate! Now and forever – I am PHOENIX!”

Before I can give these books a proper review, I should first shed some light on my own knowledge of the X-men as well as Marvel comics. As a child of the 90’s I was lucky enough to be a kid during the peak of super-hero comic popularity. My older brother was into comic books, but me? Not so much. I can only recall two actual issues I owned as a kid, Marvel vs DC #4, and Astonishing X-Men #4 with Rogue on the cover. I did however watch the FOX cartoons for both Spider-Man and X-Men every chance I got, as well as collected the fleer ultra spider-man card sets from ’94 and ’95.

Around the late 90’s live-action X-Men and Spider-Man movies were becoming a thing. I recall my father taking me to see the first X-Men in theaters as well as seeing the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy but this still didn’t interest me enough to start reading the comics and getting to know the true roots and lore behind these characters.

When Marvel Studios’ Iron Man hit theaters in 2008, superhero movies had become stale and to be fair, weren’t that great to begin with. I had totally skipped over the MCU until the first Avengers movie in 2012, and despite seeing it and genuinely enjoying it. Marvel still hadn’t won me over.

Finally in 2016 I saw Captain America: Civil War. It was incredible to see all these heroes come together on the big screen, but even more so, fighting with and against each other. This left me wanting more, to learn how things got to this point and left me questioning where they could go. I went back and watched all of the MCU movies and Netflix shows but still found myself wanting more. It was common knowledge Infinity War was going to be the next Avengers film so I decided to pick up some trade paperbacks of Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity War from the bookstore Chapters. I then found out about Marvel Unlimited where I could easily read over 20,000 comics from the Marvel Library digitally.

I asked a friend for some recommendations on more storylines or comics to read and he told me that to him, comics were like boobs. They are nice to look at but even better to touch. The more I thought about it the more I would agree that it was much more satisfying to read a book start to finish, then to flip through some panels on a tablet.

Being able to remove myself from technology and lose myself within the pages of a book is truly a lost art in society today. With that, I decided I wanted to get into either Spider-Man or X-Men, two of the best cartoons I had the privilege of watching in my youth and headed to my local comic shop.

Single issues didn’t really interest me because I knew there was a bigger story going on and I didn’t want to go through the trouble of finding specific issues, especially seeing how high key issues can go for. As I was on my way out the shop empty handed thats when I saw it. ‘Uncanny X-Men Volume 1 by Claremont, Cockrum, and Byrne. It was out of my reach and I had to ask an employee to pull it down so I could check it out. As soon as I looked at the back cover and saw the cover gallery and that it included Giant Size X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #94 – #131. In my recent research of what comics I should be reading I knew this was the start of the Claremont run I had read so much about. I just had to have this book, I had to rekindle that love for the X-Men from my childhood. When the cashier went to scan it, it didn’t register in the system and he had to call the store owner to find out what to charge me. I paid cover price (never again!) and thus began my journey into comics and one of the most expensive hobbies I’ve ever had.

Whew, now if you made it through all that we can get back to the review of these 3 omnibus. Fair warning this and probably all of my reviews will have spoilers. I also think each one of these books could stand on their own, I read them over 6 months ago and my memory of where one ended and the next picked up is all kind of merged now, hence my decision to review all 3 together instead of as individuals.

Before reading these books, to me the X-Men were the team that opened up the show; Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, Gambit, Jean Grey, Storm, Rogue, Jubilee and Professor X. So I was shocked to find out Beast had actually left the X-Men to become an Avenger, and that Gambit, Rogue and Jubilee didn’t even exist yet. If you know the history of X-Men comics please feel free to correct anything I mention in the comics below. If you don’t know about X-Men comics you may find it interesting that issues #1-66 were the original run by Stan Lee, however issues #67-93 due to a decline in sales are actually just reprints of some of the more popular X-Men stories. In 1975 the title relaunched with Giant Size X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #94 was the first main line issue with new content in over 5 years. The original X-Men team only consisted of 5 members; Cyclops, Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Beast, Angel and Iceman and was lead by Professor X. With the mid 70’s relaunch the team added some new faces such us Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm and Colossus. This new team also included members such as Banshee, Sunfire and Thunderbird though their memberships didn’t last too long.

The Giant Size X-Men #1 introduces us to the new team, and shows us how Professor X found them and recruited them to the X-Men. We also find out the original X-Men team has been captured and the first mission of the new team is to rescue the original 5 members. The beast which captured the original team was feeding off the mutants energy and allowed Cyclops to escape, knowing he would return with help to rescue his fellow X-Men. Long story short they save the original X-Men and end up having 13 members on the team. This doesn’t last long as the original members start to feel as if they have outgrown the X-Men. The first omnibus shows us Cyclops struggles to lead the new group and really make them work as a team. Thunderbird gets killed, Banshee loses his voice and quits the team. The sentinels return and take some of the X-Men to space which plants the seeds for the phoenix saga, where Jean Grey presumed dead is brought back to life as the Phoenix.

The second omnibus begins with issue #132, the X-Men are trying to recruit Kitty Pryde to join Xaviers school for the gifted but so is Emma Frost of the Hellfire club, ultimately the X-Men get captured and brain washed by the hellfire club, Phoenix then spirals out of control leading us into the Dark Phoenix saga where Jean would make the ultimate sacrifice and kill herself in order to prevent herself from causing further harm. Within this second omnibus is also the famous two-issue story ‘Days of Future Past’ where a future Kitty Pryde takes over her younger body to help the present day X-Men prevent an apocalyptic future. Cyclops leaves the team, moves to Alaska and meets Madelyne Pryor. It also includes Avengers Annual #10 which introduced us to Rogue and her ability to nullify others abilities. All in all this omnibus was a great read.

The third omnibus picks up right on the heels of the second with issue #154. Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel) is an interim member of the X-Men after being touched by Rogue in Avengers Annual #10 and hasn’t regained all of her memories or abilities. Storm becomes a punk girl, Cyclops gets to know his father Corsair better, Wolverine goes to Japan to get married, and Colossus sister Illyana spends some time in limbo with Belasco. This omnibus has the God Loves Man Kills graphic novel where the government plans to exterminate mutant-kind and the X-Men are forced to team up with Magneto in order to rescue Xavier.

This wasn’t the X-Men I remembered from the 90’s cartoons, this was their origins. Some of the stories within are some of the most popular and retold X-Men stories of all time and I cannot recommend these 3 books enough to any X-Men fan or anybody looking to get into Marvel comics. I am excited to continue reading X-Men and see how characters like Gambit, Psylocke, and Jubilee come into the fold. But for now, this is exactly what I was looking for, and far more entertaining then I ever imagined reading comics would ever be.