Comic Review 216 // Super Hero Adventures: Captain Marvel by Sholly Finch

I'm continuing my trend of library comic book reads that my children have picked.

Title: Marvel Super Hero Adventures: Captain Marvel

Author: Sholly Finch

Blurb: Carol Danvers is one of the most powerful super heroes on Earth. She's led Alpha Flight and the Avengers, and prevented more alien invasions than you can count. But she's about to hit big trouble - and even the mightiest heroes need help sometimes! These action-packed, exciting stories explore Captain Marvel teaming up with fan-favorite characters like Spider-Man and more!

COLLECTING: MARVEL SUPER HERO ADVENTURES: CAPTAIN MARVEL 1-4

 

Format: 112 pages, Paperback BUY via Amazon or support your local Library!

Review

So Captain Marvel is a character I know very little about so I was hoping to learn something with this title. Unfortunately it is instead a bunch of random short stories with the Marvel characters all drawn in the same cartoony style as the cover.

Ultimately the stories are short, fun and cute. Perfect for little ones or young readers. There is nothing new here, but it does avoid all the series themes of the graphic novels aimed at an older reader. Mainly filled with light hearted action I would say this is more comical/humorous than action packed.

But it does have some faults. Firstly Captain Marvel is missing from a lot of the stories, what gives? It's named after her. Shame to have her as the title character and not actually 100% focus on her. Maybe there isn't enough stories for her? Then the stories are painfully predictable, my five year old could see the plot ending coming, it needed some surprise ending for sure. We follow up this with the jokes, there is a lot of inside references that new fans wouldn't get or kids in general might not understand. Also some of the jokes seemed very dated like the newspaper style comics, I personally haven't bought a newspaper is so long, my kids didn't get the reference at all. And finally the lack of imagination when it came to the stories. Being predictable is one thing but I am starting to feel like I have read the same stories multiple times not, just with the characters or villains swapped out for a different one. This maybe just me as I've read a lot of comics of late.

Final thoughts for this title. Its a solid okay. Fun, but not special. A little misleading with the title, felt a little bit like a filler comic. But at the end of the day it is meant to entertain the kids, and I can confirm it did just that.

Cheers for reading.

Comic Review 215 // Avengers: The Avengers Initiative

Continuing my new series, it seems, of reading and reviewing my kid's comics. I've been struggling lately will multiple colds/flu/who knows what. It's been rough, and I have struggled to read for myself for about a month. Luckily the kids don't care (ha), and I am still reading some stories. Here is this week's offering.

Title: Marvel's The Avengers: The Avengers Initiative

Author: Fred Van Lente

Art: Ron Lim

Blurb: The perfect introduction to Marvel's The Avengers movie! All your favorite characters from the film packed into one digest! Meet the incredible cast of the Avengers Initiative: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye! The perfect introduction to Marvel's The Avengers movie! All your favorite characters from the film packed into one digest! Meet the incredible cast of the Avengers Initiative: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye! Collecting MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS: THE AVENGERS INITIATIVE, CAPTAIN AMERICA & THOR!: AVENGERS.

Format: 88 pages, Paperback (Buy via Kindle on Amazon)

Review

This was a hard one. The stories within the pages of this book are all set with the MCU but were seemingly written before most of the movies, as it is no longer canon. Luckily the kids have not seen the movies and most likely wouldn't care anyways, so for the curious collectors out there, maybe treat yourself or go buy something else.

The collection definitely has its faults. Somehow, we go from good artwork to pretty crap, which is so weird to see collected in this manner? Why Marvel you have so much money do your comics some justice. The book is three stories long, consisting of the title piece, which is a way to a quick intro to the characters (which we already know) and comes across as pure filler. Then a Captain America tale, followed by a Thor tale. Both of these were fine, but ultimately this is so middle of the road that it is dull. But this is also me as an adult reviewing it.

On the other hand, my sprogs enjoyed the adventures and pointing out the superheroes, so for their enjoyment, I would give it a 3 out of 5. As an adult, this is a 2 out of 5. I have warned you!

Movie Review // Planet Hulk (2010)

Well for those not up to date on my personal life (for shame not that I share it), I presently have a membership to Amazon Prime. Recently on this streaming service, Planet Hulk appeared so I quite rightly decided to watch it and review it for the blog. Now my knowledge of the Hulk is very limited to the more modern movies and a few tv shows in the '90s, so I am really not up to date on anything Hulk related. All I know is "Hulk smash" and don't make him angry, so I am really going in blind.

The movie begins on board what seems to be a spaceship, a video kicks in showing us Iron man, Dr. Strange and possibly Mr. Fantasic and maybe Fury (drop me a comment if you know them)? It would seem Earth's greatest heroes have had enough of the Hulk smashing and have captured him, before caging him in this ship and shooting him into space to live out his day on some low-risk world. Super harsh in my opinion, but how else do you stop the Hulk?

Unsurprisingly this enrages Hulk, causing him to heavily damage the spacecraft knocking it off course and into a conveniently placed Wormhole, spiting him out on to a world we soon discover is called Sakaar. Sakaar is seemingly under the dictatorship rule of the Red King and some religious aliens believe a saviour will arrive from space to save them all (I already see where this going). From here on out we get a bit of a Spartacus retelling in my opinion, following a brief combat scene Hulk is overpowered by alien tech and is implanted with a device that can not only shock him into unconsciousness but also translate spoken word to him (convenient). Whilst out cold Hulk is sold into slavery and sent to the Red King's Coliseum to become a gladiator, with other misfits and renegades.

In the first combat, we see a side of the Hulk I hadn't expected or like - a non-combative almost cowardly Hulk (!?), instead of fighting, he just tries to break his way out of the arena. Only once the Red King is pointed out to Hulk does he join in the fighting and help the other combatants win the duel. From here on the film becomes very obvious and dull. We learn of the ragtag team of slaves that now surround the Hulk, none of which are very interesting and we watch them slowly but surely build up their reputation to a fever pitch and lead a revolt resulting in their escape.

As the alien population revolt forms, Hulk attempts to go it alone until a femme fatale (the royal bodyguard of the Red King) convinces him to join the rebels' cause and save Sakaar from the Red King. With this small interaction, he rises to the occasion and defeats the bad guy to become King of all Sakaar and the film ends with Hulk being cheered on by the hoard of aliens, recreating the Hulk's future storylines and fate. Here endeth the tale, rather dull to be honest!

A real highlight and a much better villain for the film rather than the Red King came in the form of the spike aliens, but for me, this seemed like a throw-away plot thicker that happened too late into the film for me to care about and ultimately didn't affect the plot. This is a shame as I would have preferred to have Hulk face-off with a hoard of these creatures instead.

Pros: Violent for a cartoon (not one for young children) and great alien characters - who couldn't love the lava octopus?

Cons: Boring hero, overused gladiator storyline, no Bruce Banner and super predictable.

Overall I don't recommend this unless your bored. I found my brain wandering and didn't need to focus on the film to stay up to date on the plot overall two Hulk smashes out of five.