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crookedtreehouse's review
3.0
This is the second of the Secret Wars-era limited runs that I've read. While [b:1872|25066820|1872|Gerry Duggan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1445554652l/25066820._SY75_.jpg|44751582] effortlessly dropped a bunch of Marvel characters into a new genre of comic, and let the plot drive the characters, this book seemed to be letting the nostalgia for characters dictate the plot. As such, it wasn't nearly as much fun.
Of course the interplay between a Holocaust survivor (Magneto) and a Nazi villain (Red Skull) is going to be a downer, but Williamson hits the reader over the head, repeatedly with Magneto agonizing over his scenario. Just one acknowledgement of this would have been sufficient, since their interplay wasn't even the crux of this series. Crossbone's involvement also seemed really forced. Not that he was involved, but the way he was involved. There was no character development, he just shows up early in the story, and then disappears until the end, where he acts like hhe was the protagonist the entire time. It left the whole story feeling kind of hollow, and made me wonder what Williamson's point was.
Author's had pretty much free reign during this era. You could write a ridiculous fun story, you could use nostalgic characters to make bold statements about himanity or politics...you could do anything, continuity didn't matter, and Williamson just sort of placed a bunch of characters in the world, killed them at a brutal pace, and then just walked away.
The reprint of [b:Captain America (1968-1996) #367|25843505|Captain America (1968-1996) #367|Mark Gruenwald|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435945198l/25843505._SY75_.jpg|45708294] so far outshined the content of this book with how to play Magneto and Red Skull of each other that it almost seems mean that they included it in Williamson's collection.
It's not awful. If you're really into alternate world titles, this might be for you. It's just not as exciting as many of the other Secret Wars books. PIzarri's art is fairly pedestrain, too. Again, not bad, but not especially interesting. Though some of that may be the muddied nature of Beredo's colors. In some ways its blandness really matched the content of the story.
Of course the interplay between a Holocaust survivor (Magneto) and a Nazi villain (Red Skull) is going to be a downer, but Williamson hits the reader over the head, repeatedly with Magneto agonizing over his scenario. Just one acknowledgement of this would have been sufficient, since their interplay wasn't even the crux of this series. Crossbone's involvement also seemed really forced. Not that he was involved, but the way he was involved. There was no character development, he just shows up early in the story, and then disappears until the end, where he acts like hhe was the protagonist the entire time. It left the whole story feeling kind of hollow, and made me wonder what Williamson's point was.
Author's had pretty much free reign during this era. You could write a ridiculous fun story, you could use nostalgic characters to make bold statements about himanity or politics...you could do anything, continuity didn't matter, and Williamson just sort of placed a bunch of characters in the world, killed them at a brutal pace, and then just walked away.
The reprint of [b:Captain America (1968-1996) #367|25843505|Captain America (1968-1996) #367|Mark Gruenwald|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435945198l/25843505._SY75_.jpg|45708294] so far outshined the content of this book with how to play Magneto and Red Skull of each other that it almost seems mean that they included it in Williamson's collection.
It's not awful. If you're really into alternate world titles, this might be for you. It's just not as exciting as many of the other Secret Wars books. PIzarri's art is fairly pedestrain, too. Again, not bad, but not especially interesting. Though some of that may be the muddied nature of Beredo's colors. In some ways its blandness really matched the content of the story.
mjfmjfmjf's review
4.0
Odd Battle World story. And odd is better than I expect. Also better than I expected were the backup stories. These are reprints with garish colors and typically awful writing. Either my tolerance of this kind of thing has increased or this was a better one. And then a truly weird backup story in which Red Skull was living as a poor person in a Captain America dominated post-war Germany. Black and White with just a bit of red - it came off as kind of an Noir twist - and though it was kind of reaching - I basically liked it - definitely a nice surprise. 3.5 of 5.
tmaluck's review
3.0
Kind of falls apart after the main premise gets rolling, but the backup material was strong enough that I liked the trade overall.
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