DWD's Reviews

Published in 2016 by Marvel Enterprises. Written by Charles Soule. Art by Alex Maleev and Paul Mounts. Synopsis Lando Calrissian is in financial trouble - he has debts and he is working them off by pulling off "jobs" for the people he owes money to. He makes a deal to pull off one big heist for Papa Toren in exchange for all of his debt being cleared and the possibility of making of making a lot of profit for himself. Lando and his sidekick Lobot (see picture below) build a team and pull off the heist - stealing a space yacht from an imperial shipyard. Everything looks great until they find a Sith artifact onboard and realize that they've just stolen the Emperor's yacht! My review This is the fifth Star Wars graphic novel that I've read written by Charles Soule, and it was the weakest of the bunch. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't great like the others. The plot had a lot of zip at first but moved from a heist story to a horror story and it slowed down so...

Published by Marvel Universe in 2021. Hawkeye: The Saga of Barton and Bishop is actually two collections in one. The first half of the collection is the text from Hawkeye Volume 1: My Life as a Weapon . To be honest, the first collection is much better than the newer second half.  In the second volume, Hawkeye and Bishop are working separately. At the end of Volume 1 she left for California to be an independent Avenger. That's not really a thing, but she's young and hadn't really thought it through. I found the art and storyline to be convoluted, especially with the main storyline - the Bishop storyline. The shorter Barton storyline is a simple continuation of the actions in Volume 1. Even though it is the shorter part of the story, it feels like it is stretched out and padded while the much longer Bishop story arc feels rushed and poorly explained. I gave a rating of 4 stars for Volume 1. I give a rating of 2 stars for Volume 2. That makes for a total score of 3 stars.  T...

Originally published by Marvel Comics from 199-2007. Synopsis: Hulk is banished from Earth after helping The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, and others defeat a common enemy by using Hulk's brute strength. Hulk has been rendered unconscious and placed on a spaceship. Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) leaves a video message for Hulk to find on the spaceship when he arrives at his destination - a planet with no intelligent life.  Reed knows that it is a wish of both Dr. Banner and Hulk to be someplace where  Hulk cannot hurt anyone and no one can hurt Hulk.  But, a wormhole opens up and sucks Hulk's spaceship to a different destination - the planet Sakaar. Sakaar is ruled by a despotic, deranged emperor. He rules a planet with multiple species - all of them hate each other because he pits them against them against one another. He has discs attached to their bodies to control their impulses and allow him to deliver pain at will. He wears a suit of armor that Iron Man would envy an...

Published in 2013 by Marvel Worldwide, Inc. This collection is the inspiration for the Disney+ series "Hawkeye." I really enjoyed this series and thought I'd read the source material.  Just like in the series, most of Hawkeye's adventures are small time affairs.  That's okay by me. Every adventure can't be (and shouldn't be) a "save the world" event. Fans of Hawkeye in the MCU will be surprised that Hawkeye in the comics is not a family man. He's also a lot more disjointed and unorganized than he is in the movies. That being said, this was an enjoyable read and this Hawkeye may not have an overwhelming love for his family, but he has a big heart in different ways. I very much enjoyed the simplified art design and color scheme of most of this graphic novel. It gave it a sense of moodiness.  I rate this graphic novel 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:  HAWKEYE VOLUME 1: MY LIFE as a WEAPON (graphic novel) by Matt Fraction, Da...

Originally published as a paperback book by Pocket Books in 1978. Published by Marvel as an audiobook in 2019. Read by Tristan Wright. Duration: 4 hours, 9 minutes. Unabridged. Spider-Man is busy being "your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man" when he encounters a dead body thrown out of a New York City luxury high-rise apartment onto the street below. While he is investigating, two beat cops stumble upon them and a rookie cop on his first night shift tour takes a shot at Spider-Man. Worse than that, they make Spider-Man the prime suspect for the murder and Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson starts yet another media campaign against Spider-Man.  Can things get worse?  Spidey finds out that they certainly can as he begins an investigation to clear his name... ****** Spider-Man: Mayhem in Manhattan was kind of a tedious listen. Clearly, this book re-published as an audiobook in response to the Spider-Man craze that has come along since Spider-Man was added to the Marvel Cine...

  Originally published in book form in 1996. Published in 2019 by Marvel. Read by James Patrick Cronin. Duration: 2 hours, 15 minutes. Unabridged (but maybe not - see below) As the Avengers settle down for a Christmas Eve dinner in Tony Stark's mansion (which doubles as Avengers headquarters), they are interrupted by news of a robot attack on a super secure research facility. TESS-One, a World War II era robot designed to counter super serum soldiers if it turned out to be necessary has returned from the dead. Can robots die? No matter - this robot was thought to be disposed of, but it is back.  TESS-One Even worse, it is under the control of another robot - the dreaded Ultron. He was also thought to have been killed/destroyed, but he is back and is pursuing his goal to kill off humanity... My take: ******Caution - spoilers******* The Iron Man: Steel Terror audiobook was created from a 160 page novel published in 1996 by Pocket Books that was aimed at 12-15 year-olds. If you ...

  Published in 2019 by Listening Library. Duration; 9 hours, 10 minutes. Read by Oliver Wyman. Unabridged. The eternal issue with Loki in the Marvel Universe is the sibling rivalry between Loki and Thor that is encouraged by their father Odin who dangles the possibility of inheriting the throne in front of both of them. Odin encourages Thor to be "The Hero" and Thor responds too enthusiastically and Odin disapproves. Odin encourages Loki to try and keep up with Thor, but Loki can't keep up physically so he is forced to act using magic and/or tricks and Odin disapproves.  This book is built on this tension. It's an okay book, but not a great one. There are three main settings for the novel - Odin's court, on Alfheim and in London in the late 1800's. For me, the best part was the part in London, but it just never really grabbed me.  In this novel, the brothers are in their late teens or early twenties (or the equivalent to that for Asgardians.)  There was a grea...

Published by Disney in 2018. Read by Tom Taylorson. Duration: 10 hours, 4 minutes. Unabridged. Thanos: Titan Consumed is a prequel to the record-breaking  Marvel Cinematic Universe's Infinity War  movies, telling the early life story of the villain - Thanos. The story starts with the birth of Thanos on the planet Titan. Thanos is born deformed. His face is deformed, he is freakishly large and he is purple on a planet where people are born all sorts of colors, but not purple. Purple is the color of death. And so starts the tragic story of Thanos... Well, it's sort of tragic. Thanos has a horrible early life but he is pretty horrible in his own ways, even without external prompting. The author, Barry Lyga does a commendable job of breathing life into this story and making Thanos a character that the reader alternately hates and pities. The journey from Thanos: the scorned child to Thanos: the Mad Titan and Destroyer of Worlds makes sense in this telling. I found myself wishi...

Published in 2015 by GraphicAudio. Performed by a multicast. Duration: 5 hours, 35 minutes. Unabridged. Set in the days after the conclusion of the superhero Civil War , this book deals with the aftermath of the assassination of Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) on his way to a courthouse to face a judge for not complying with a superhero registration policy. If you are only familiar with the Marvel movie Captain America: Civil War, this movie will be confusing. The movie is inspired by this comic book series, but does not follow it. The superhero world (and the regular people, too) is mourning the murder of Captain America. In particular, Bucky Barnes (aka The Winter Soldier) is on the hunt for the killer. He is not alone. Falcon, Black Widow, Nick Fury and Sharon Carter are also looking. Turns out that even though Captain America is gone, many of his oldest enemies are still on the prowl... I really enjoyed Civil War , but the follow up was just so-so. The big plot from the bad guys...

Published by Disney in May of 2018. Read by Tom Taylorson. Duration: 4 hours, 4 minutes. Unabridged. Brandon T. Snider was stuck in a hard place when he was picked to write this book. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) had just released Infinity War and there was no way that Snider was going to be allowed to release any spoilers for Endgame . In fact, there was really no way that he was going to be allowed to move anything forward in any meaningful way. The ABC TV show AGENTS of SHIELD has been dealing with this problem for years - how do you tell an interesting story when you are so constricted in what you can write about? Well, in this case, he pretty much failed. The story centers around two brothers who are MCU characters. No, not Loki and Thor. They are the Collector (featured in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie and played by Benicio del Toro) and the Grandmaster (featured in Thor: Ragnarok and played by Jeff Goldblum). The book is set after Thor: Ragnarok  and be...

Published in 2018 by Listening Library. Read by Abigail Revasch and Tara Sands. Duration: 8 hours, 20 minutes. Unabridged. Middle school in a new town is tough enough - establishing new friendships, figuring out a new school and a new town and more. Being a superhero in middle school has extra difficulties. How do you keep your secret identity a secret? How do you keep up with your homework when you are patrolling for bad guys at night? How do you balance your superhero and regular people friendships? And, if you are Squirrel Girl, you also have to balance your squirrel and human friendships.  After successfully establishing herself as a genuine superhero in the first novel, Squirrel Girl is working on non-violent ways of dealing with bad guys, she has a tough new English teacher and she and her BHFF (Best Human Friend Forever), Ana Sofia are still sorting out what friendship is all about. Squirrel Girl's new town (Shady Oaks, New Jersey) is getting a mall. But, everything see...

Published by GraphicAudio in 2015. Written by Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada. Adaptation by Richard Rohan. Duration: Approximately 3 hours. Performed by multiple voice actors. GraphicAudio specializes in multicast voice performances of audiobooks - they are like old-fashioned radio plays, but heavy on the action. In this story, there are 26 different voice actors and a lot of special effects. Daredevil is a superhero by night and a lawyer named Matt Murdock by day. As a child, Murdock was blinded by an accident, but exposed to some sort of radiation in the same accident that radically enhanced his other four senses to the extreme. These enhancements allow him to fight crime, which he primarily does in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. Murdock is having a crisis of faith after a rough romantic breakup. Despite his devil personae, Murdock is a faithful Catholic of sorts. When he encounters a young woman with her baby on the run he immediately steps in to help he...

Published in 2015 by GraphicAudio Performed by more than 25 voice actors. Duration: Approximately 5 hours. Scott Lang, better known to superhero fans as Ant-Man, has moved to New York City with his teenage daughter to take advantage of some job opportunities in the tech field. If you only know Ant-Man from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are a few differences in this book, but nothing that is insurmountable. Scott Lang's criminal past comes back to haunt him when a former partner in crime breaks out of prison. People connected with his conviction are dying all across the country - and the FBI thinks that Scott Lang is next. Why? Because Lang testified against him in the plea deal that turned him away from a life of crime. Lang knows that he doesn't really need police protection - after all, he is a superhero. But, he can't tell the FBI that. Meanwhile, his daughter is having typical "mean girl" problems with a classmate when it occurs to her that she kno...

Published in 2016 by GraphicAudio. Performed by a multiple performers. Duration: approximately 6 hours. S.H.I.E.L.D. doctors discover a dormant virus in Captain America's bloodstream while performing a newfangled ultra deep scan after an encounter with a different dangerous virus. This is not just any virus, it is an "extinction-level" virus, meaning it has the potential to wipe out the human race if it were to become an active virus. So, Captain America is placed into a containment area so the virus won't kill off the world in case it goes active. But, giant old Nazi robots from World War II keep coming to life with Adolf Hitler's voice demanding to fight Captain America. If he doesn't show up to fight, they threaten to start killing nearby civilians. Iron Man shows up to help, but these robots are really just too much for one Avenger to handle and everyone else is busy, unreachable or just too unpredictable (you don't unleash Hulk into downtown Pari...

Published by GraphicAudio in 2015 Read by a multicast Duration: 6 hours, 9 minutes. Unabridged. Captain America is called to Berlin to uncover a Hydra plot. Iron Man is called to Washington, D.C. to confront Ultron. Thor is in Siberia confronting a magical threat of immense proportions. Dr. Banner is investigating a mystery of his own with SHIELD. And, Black Widow and Hawkeye have their own problems confronting A.I.M. In The Avengers: Everybody Wants to Rule the World , the Avengers are each pulled into their separate top-level emergencies - each of which could result in a worldwide disaster. Soon enough, the Avengers discover that each of these threats has arisen in response to a much larger threat - if only they can figure out what it is in time... Usually, I really enjoy GraphicAudio's adaptations of comic book novels. Their use of sound effects and multiple actors remind me of an old-time radio show. But, a high quality performance could not hide the fact that the action...

Published in 2017 by Listening Library Read by Abigail Revasch and Tara Sands Duration: 7 hours, 53 minutes Unabridged I am new to Squirrel Girl, sort of. Years ago, I had a middle school student on the autistic spectrum in my class with a comprehensive Marvel heroes book. He loved to look at that book rather than do his class work so I would "borrow" his book and find an interesting character and then talk to him about that character later on. Squirrel Girl caught my eye because, on the surface, she is ridiculous. All cute, fluffy and imbued with all of the powers of a squirrel. Doesn't seem like much when compared to the Incredible Hulk, does it? So, I told him my favorite all-time superhero was Squirrel Girl. And, to be honest, I liked the idea of a superhero that is not enhanced with over-the-top powers so she became my default answer to the question, "Who's your favorite superhero?" (asked by students who want to get off topic). In reality, The...

Published by Disney and Blackstone Audio in October of 2014 Read by MacLeod Andrews Duration: 2 hours, 18 minutes Unabridged Big Hero 6 is, in my mind, one of the best superhero movies that has been made in this time of the renaissance of the superhero movie. It is fun and colorful, but it also has loss and shows the power of friendship and love. It also demonstrates how love can be twisted into something evil. Hiro Hamada is a teenaged robot-building prodigy who competes in robot fighting contests. His brother attends the local university in the future city of San Fransokyo and also builds robots in a high-tech lab in the school with several other talented young engineers. When his brother dies in a horrible explosion at the lab, Hiro is thrown into a profound depression. He re-discovers Baymax, a health care robot built by his brother, and he and Baymax discover clues that his brother wasn't killed in an accident, but was murdered instead. Baymax, Hiro and his brother's...

Published in 2014 by Disney. Read by Chris Patton. Duration: 1 hour, 39 minutes. Unabridged (sort of). Guardians of the Galaxy: The Junior Novel is the sanitized, unabridged version of the abridged book of the movie. That means that not all the movie is in this book, but the audiobook version that I listened to does have everything that the abridged book has in it. We picked this up to listen to on a short family trip. We are all fans of the movie but we were interested in a version with no cursing and less sexual references when we were listening in the car. Some scenes are edited and lots of great dialogue has been added that was not in the movie. It makes me wonder if the author was working from an early script. The reader, Chris Patton, does a good job of voicing each of the Guardians, especially Rocket and Drax. But....despite all of these good things the book ends at just past the halfway point - the point where the Guardians just lost the Infinity Stone to Rona the Accuser...

Published by GraphicAudio in August of 2013 Multi-cast performance Duration: Approximately 5 hours Marvel Comic's Spider-Man swings into action in Spider-Man: Drowned in Thunder . He is up against a robot attack against New York's Diamond District in a scene that was very reminiscent of the classic Superman cartoon " The Mechanical Monsters ." But, Spider-Man always has a different take on things than the Man of Steel. Spidey's comments and tendency to not quite have everything under control give this caper a unique twist. Of course, J. Jonah Jameson continues his media barrage against the webslinger, Peter Parker and M.J. are working through relationship issues and Spider-Man continues to struggle with his work/superhero/home life balance. But, in this story he faces other issues, including robot attacks from an undetermined source, a messed up Spidey Sense and a non-stop rainy weather pattern that make his webs a lot less effective and make it hard to swi...

Published by Marvel Press and Blackstone Audio on April 10 of 2015. Read by Tom Taylorson Duration: 1 hour, 34 minutes. Unabridged. Marvel's Avengers: The Age of Ultron: The Junior Novelization  is my third audiobook of a junior novelization of a movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  They adhere closely to the movies, have all been well-read, easy to listen to and, on the whole, quite enjoyable.  But, this one is troubling because it only covers half of the movie. Literally, this audiobook is about half of the length of the other audiobooks as well. If you have seen the movie, it only goes to the fight scene in the ship that is being harvested for scrap metal and it alludes to the Iron Man/Hulk fight scene. That's it.  Ultron Up to that point, it's an enjoyable audiobook. Reader Tom Taylorson does a very good job with the different voices of the Avengers, especially Thor. He also does an especially good job with the voice of Ultron - sometimes he sou...