Comic Review 218 // The Adventures of Spider-man: Radioactive

It's always a good day to read a little Spiderman! Spiderman is my son's favourite Superhero, slowly being challenged by Captain America. So to fix this unstart Cap from taking over, we read through this classic.

Title: Adventures of Spider-Man: Radioactive

Art Team: Joey Cavalieri (Text), Eric Fein (Text), Mike Pellowski (Text), Scott Proudfit (Text), Marie Severin (Illustrations), Jesse D Orozco (Illustrations), Wayne A Murray (Illustrations), Don Heck (Illustrations)

Blurb: Spider-Man takes on his classic rogues' gallery in these exciting adventures from his 1990s magazine, featuring a parade of guest stars from Captain America to the Hulk! Spidey must avoid the many arms of Doctor Octopus, but will he fall victim to Electro, Mysterio, the Scorpion and the Vulture? There's panic at the planetarium and a great train robbery to solve - but that's nothing compared to the horror of the Hobgoblin! Spidey and his old pal, the Human Torch, fly in the face of Doom, the X-Men pitch in when Magneto strikes, and Daredevil lends a hand against their mutual enemy, the Kingpin! And don't forget deadly encounters with Venom and Carnage! It's fun for the whole family in these never-before-reprinted, animated-style adventures!

Collecting: Material from Spider-Man Magazine (1994) 1-19, Spider-Man Magazine Special (1995) 1-2

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Format: Paperback, 168 pages

Review

Well, this was the perfect Spider-Man collection for younger readers. It was perfectly designed with children in mind. The dialogue is simple, and the artwork is easy to follow. Our stand-out tale was a Christmas piece where it's up to Spider-Man to save Christmas for a young boy and his out-of-work mother.

It's strange to think a lot of these came out in the 90s meaning they are all in their late 20s. It was enjoyable watching my son (3) point out characters, telling me their names and powers and the thought about how much-continued joy they bring to people really grounded me at the moment.

Ultimately collectors will enjoy these, and children will enjoy these. Random readers may not be as impressed. I recommend reading but go in with an open mind.

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.