The Multiversity

Writer: Grant Morrison

Artists: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Walden Wong, Ben Oliver, Frank Quitely, Cameron Stewart, Marcus To, Paulo Siqueira, Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Sandra Hope, Mark Irwin, Jonathan Glapion, Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Keith Champagne, Jaime Mendoza, Eber Ferreira

Publisher: DC

The concept of the multiverse, for better or worse, has been integral to DC Comics’ storytelling throughout the decades. All types of crises have collapsed, rebirthed, and fundamentally changed how multiple universes interact with each other. It can be quite confusing. Sometimes, it can be confusing and good.

The Multiversity is one such good execution of the multiverse concept. It doesn’t just feature lesser-known alternative Earths, but it gives the DC Multiverse much needed form and structure.

Cosmic Neighborhood Watch

The two issues that bookend The Multiversity is a wild two-part story about a bunch of superheroes plucked from multiple realities to fight the threat of The Gentry.

This multiversal Justice League of sorts is almost too overwhelming as familiar versions of popular heroes mingle with obscure characters from DC’s long history. This cast of dozens even include analogs of Marvel characters like the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man.

The value of The Multiversity #1 and #2 falls mostly on its function to make sense of the larger story. For anyone who is not a fan of Morrison’s sometimes incoherent high concept shenanigans, this could be a chore to read. But if you have a fundamental understanding of DC Comics, you might have a lot of fun.

There’s Something In Here With Us

Each of the 6 one-shots, plus the guidebook, feature stories that have different characters from different worlds, each told in a different way than the others.

We have pulp world war-era heroes fighting an assortment of DC villains and monsters in The Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors of the Counter-World. There’s a bunch of bored young superheroes just trying to amuse themselves with parties and social media in The Just. Charlton characters as a throwback to Watchmen — which is based on Charlton characters — in Pax Americana. A fun Captain Marvel (not that one) family superhero story in Thunderworld Adventures. A grim and gritty look into a world where Superman was raised by Hitler, drawn by Jim Lee, in Mastermen.

And then there’s Ultra Comics, the haunted and cursed comic book. It’s a comic book issue that is also a major plot device in The Multiversity. It’s ridiculously meta. More importantly, it works. Morrison manages to make the reader scared of actually turning the page because you’ll never know what you might let into your head.

If your imagination is wild enough, reading Ultra Comics might make you question reality. It might make you feel unsafe inside your own mind. The villains of the story aren’t just threatening the DC multiverse. They’re also threatening you, the reader.

IN CONCLUSION

Grant Morrison running wild on alternate realities is something that can become an unreadable mess, but that’s not the case here. The Multiversity can be too meta and crazy at times, but for the most part, it is coherent even with the weirdest ideas crashing into each other.

The army of amazing artists is a great complement to the dizzying plot and strange words. Ivan Reis brings big crossover event feels to the bookend issues. Frank Quitely’s panels on Pax Americana is rigid, calculated, and beautiful. Cameron Stewart makes the old-fashioned, wholesome, and fun Thunderworld Adventures story a joy to read.

The Multiversity is some of the best comics that came out of the mess that is the DC Multiverse. It deserves to be reread multiple times even though we are never sure about what we’re letting into our heads whenever we do.

It goes into The List as the new #1 and sets a record as our first 5-star rating on Long Box. Hurray, cosmic parasites!

The Multiversity Deluxe Edition is available now wherever fine comic books are sold.

The post The Multiversity Review: Be Careful What You Let Into Your Head appeared first on Long Box.

The Immortal She-Hulk #1: The Three Deaths of Jennifer Walters

Writer: Al Ewing

Artist: Jon Davis-Hunt

Color Artist: Marcio Menyz

Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

Publisher: Marvel

Death in comics usually doesn’t stick. Characters often get taken off the board to make room for a new editorial direction or a publisher’s harebrained idea to make some easy money.

The Immortal She-Hulk is one of the rare times when death adds a whole new layer to a character that makes her story so far richer and her future much more compelling.

We go through all the three deaths of She-Hulk a.k.a. Jennifer Walters. From her origin story to Civil War II, and all the way to the recent Empyre event, she goes through the trauma of dying.

There’s more to her just biting it, though. Something sinister is happening that ties into the Immortal Hulk series. It’s an interesting wrinkle to being a Hulk — particularly a dead Hulk — and it’s great.

But while the whole Below-Place situation is fascinating, the real meat of The Immortal She-Hulk is Shulkie/Jen facing her immortality.

She is told that it’s nothing. Dying and coming back multiple times didn’t change her. She is told that her immortality doesn’t exist. She shouldn’t worry about it. She’s told to ignore her traumatic experience. Deny it. Forget it.

Nothing makes one feel so alone than being told that their struggle, their trauma, the thing that keeps them awake at night is something that can easily be dismissed.

Being alone is an integral part of being a Hulk and that is put on the spotlight in this thoughtful story about facing one’s immortality when one is a big green superhero.

I’m not familiar with Jon Davis-Hunt’s work but I could get used to looking at more of his art. His details make the few action sequences come alive while also adding weight, emotion, and an unsettling feeling of upcoming horror to the non-action parts, which make up most of this comic.

Who I’m familiar with though is Al Ewing and he does a fantastic job here in repackaging Jennifer Walters’ history to tie into her current status and have it all matter. He makes me want to catch up on his entire Immortal Hulk run.

IN CONCLUSION

I don’t usually enjoy Hulk stories that don’t have a lot of punching in them, but this is the exception. The Immortal She-Hulk #1 is an excellent introspective look into how Jennifer Walters deals with death and immortality as sinister forces creep in from down below.

This goes into The List as the new #6.

The Immortal She-Hulk #1 is available now wherever fine comic books are sold.

The post The Immortal She-Hulk #1 Review: Facing One’s Immortality appeared first on Long Box.

X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong

Writer: Greg Pak

Penciller: Greg Land

Inker: Matt Ryan | Colorist: Justin Ponsor

Letterer: Clem Robins

Publisher: Marvel

The Phoenix Force and Jean Grey have been as integral to each as they both are to the X-Men. We’ve had many, many, many X-Men stories about the Phoenix, and this is one of those.

This mini-series doesn’t really add much to the story of Jean Grey, but it does give the Phoenix Force its own personality and character. The art isn’t full-on Greg Land porn faces yet, so it’s decent.

For Jean Grey fans in 2005, during one of the longest periods when she was dead, this was a nice little reminder that Jean Grey and the Phoenix Force existed. For everybody else, it’s non-essential.

X-Factor Vol. 2: Life and Death Matters

Writer: Peter David

Artists: Ariel Olivetti, Roy Allan Martinez, Dennis Calero, and Renato Arlem

Colorist: Jose Villarubia

Publisher: Marvel

Continuing his best run on X-Factor, Peter David continues to build his noir-inspired version of the team led by Madrox the Multiple Man with multiple plot threads, some of which pay off big-time later on in the series.

The combination of quirky characters, legitimately funny moments, and shocking twists make this a hell of a read.

The only thing that prevents this volume, which collects issues #7-12, from becoming truly amazing is the revolving door of artists and the unfortunate insertion of elements from the Civil War event. David manages to keep discussions of the Superhero Registration Act relevant in the weird world of X-Factor, but ultimately, it doesn’t have any real lasting impact to the series.

FF Vol. 1: Fantastic Faux

Writer: Matt Fraction

Artist: Mike Allred

Colorist: Laura Allred

Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Publisher: Marvel

It’s weird that FF Vol. 1 collects issues #4-8 because issues #1-3 are collected with the first volume of the main Fantastic Four series.

Weird publishing choices aside, this is a fantastic series that shows off Matt Fraction’s comedic writing skills without making things too goofy. On the visual side, Mike Allred’s art is always a highlight in any book.

Every member of the replacement Fantastic Four — the Fantastic Faux, if you will — gets to shine in this volume, particularly She-Hulk and Medusa. The rest of the cast, though many, don’t seem to get lost in the background as they are all uniquely fascinating. Some of them even have small yet delightful storylines. There’s nothing faux about the fun you’ll have reading this book.

Rapid Rankings

X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong enters The List at #14, but only because I’m a sucker for Jean Grey.

X-Factor Vol. 2: Life and Death Matters goes right above Empyre and right below Rachel Rising as the new #6.

FF Vol. 1: Fantastic Faux is a fast, enjoyable read so it deserves to be the new #9.

X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong, X-Factor Vol. 2: Life & Death Matters, and FF Vol. 1: Fantastic Faux are available now wherever fine comic books are sold.

Other Posts in the Rapid Reviews Series:

• Rapid Reviews #1: X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong, X-Factor, and FF

The post Rapid Reviews #1: X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong, X-Factor, and FF appeared first on Long Box.

Empyre #6

Story: Al Ewing and Dan Slott

Art: Valerio Schiti

Colors: Marte Gracia

Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Publisher: Marvel

A Cave of Scraps

Empyre #6 picks up right where #5 ended: Tony Stark and Reed Richards talking about two end-of-the-world scenarios happening at the same time like it’s just another Tuesday afternoon.

Between the two of them, they have indeed seen things that make an exploding sun and violent threats from an angry teenager who can control plant life across the galaxy look like a relaxing day at the spa. It kind of took away some of the drama but it still made me look forward to this issue.

I was afraid that Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic will just swoop in and solve everything at once at the last minute, negating all the tension built in the past 5 issues. But they didn’t take the spotlight off of everybody else and they still played pivotal roles in saving everyone.

The rest of how the issue starts is a bit wonky, though. If you haven’t been reading the tie-in mini-series and monthly series, you’d be left scratching your head as Skrulls and the Kree are suddenly trying to kill each other.

It seems like the events from recent issues of Fantastic Four, where Spider-Man and Wolverine are back as members, tie directly into the events of Empyre #6. This is one of the most annoying things about crossover events, but I’ll let it pass since I still understood what was going on.

Once An Avenger…

One of the best things about the whole series is that it leans on character moments as much as it does on big explosions and epic widescreen battles.

We’ve seen a great character moment from The Thing last issue, and here we get a few from the rest of the Fantastic Four.

The Human Torch and Captain Marvel share a touching moment about unity, trust, and family.

The Invisible Woman shows grit, determination, and her willingness to sacrifice herself for the people she loves.

Mr. Fantastic shows how good of a friend he is even to a prick like Tony Stark by asking him if he’s okay. And he gives the best “Avengers Assemble” line in recent memory.

Even the Richards children channeled Dominic Toretto and solved their own troubles by relying on the concept of found family.

The Fantastic Four have just proven that they are the best Avengers, at least in Empyre.

Captain America had a great moment too, but he’s been absent for most of the series, so we can consider this as a cheap pop.

Long Live the King

I’ve been giving Black Panther crap for letting me down the past couple of issues, but he just revealed that he can simulate death by controlling his heartbeat. That’s pretty badass.

His gambit ended the Cotati threat and I have to give him props for that. He paid tribute to a fallen comrade while dealing the killing blow to an alien invasion.

And speaking of paying tribute, I’d like to take this time to offer my condolences to the fans, friends, and family of Chadwick Boseman, the MCU’s Black Panther, who passed away on August 28, 2020. Long live the king. Wakanda Forever.

We’re All in This Together

Al Ewing and Dan Slott have never shied away from extremely wholesome dialogue and moments bordering on being corny, and they’ve exhibited that prominently here.

We are treated with one satisfying moment after another, ranging from badass to warm and fuzzy. None is more fuzzy than when everyone — the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Kree, and the Skrulls — worked together to stop the sun from exploding.

It’s refreshing to see this kind of wholesomeness in an ocean of grim and gritty superhero comics. It’s superheroics at its purest.

IN CONCLUSION

Empyre #6 is a satisfying end to a series that took its time to get going. It’s a refreshing departure from other major crossover events focused on deaths of characters and universe-resetting stakes.

It’s a good Avengers story, a great Fantastic Four showcase, and a refreshing superhero event.

Empyre goes into The List as the new #6. This particular issue gets 4 stars.

Empyre #6 is available now wherever fine comic books are sold.

Other Posts in the Empyrean Evaluations Series:

• Empyre #1 Review: A Revolting Development
• Empyre #2 Review: A Sublime Song of Accusation
• Empyre #3 Review: Mommy’s Home
• Empyre #4 Review: Fooled Again
• Empyre #5 Review: Put Up Ya Dukes
• Empyre #6 Review: Grand Fynale

The post Empyre #6 Review: Grand Fynale appeared first on Long Box.

Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment

Story: Roger Stern, Bill Mantlo, and Gerry Conway

Pencils: Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, and Gene Colan

Inks: Mark Badger, Terry Austin, Tom Palmer, Mike Mignola, and P. Craig Russell

Publisher: Marvel

Doom Is a Man!

The story’s title might start with “Doctor Strange”, but this is a Doctor Doom story. It takes us deep into the complex human behind the iron mask. The characters all present their points of view through the lens of Victor Von Doom. From a bunch of Earth’s most powerful sorcerers to the Devil himself, they all play supporting roles in the story of Doom.

Roger Stern masterfully tells a story of how Doctor Doom enlists the aid of Doctor Strange to rescue the soul of his mother from the clutches of Mephisto. In a nutshell, Doctors Strange and Doom go to Hell, fight a bunch of demons, outwit the Devil himself, and save Mrs. Von Doom.

We get to see why Doctor Doom is such an engaging character. He’s so smart, he became a master of multiple fields of science. He is so driven, he trained to be highly adept in the mystic arts. His strength of will makes him one of the most dangerous beings in the known universe. He is a force of nature and not even Mephisto can stop him from achieving his goals.

Stern’s expert grasp of Doom as a character is accompanied by some dark and moody art by Mike Mignola. While this was originally published back in 1989, Mignola’s art has aged well and still looks great 3 decades later.

There have been some good to great Doctor Doom stories since he was introduced back in 1962, but this might be the best story to read to truly understand what the character is made of.

Master of Menace!

The concept of Doctor Doom’s mom’s soul being trapped in Hell was nothing new. It was first introduced in a story in Astonishing Tales #8. In this story written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Gene Colan, it is established that Doctor Doom fights the Devil every year, on the night of Midsummer’s Eve, for the soul of his mother. Doom is so metal.

This short yet epic story with beautiful art by Colan is collected with the 2016 edition of Triumph and Torment.

Along with it, Doctor Strange #57 is also included just because one page featuring Doom drops hints of the then still upcoming Triumph and Torment graphic novel. The rest of the issue is just Doctor Strange dealing with the aftermath of his apprentice leaving. It’s a fun little story about Strange fending off wannabe disciples, but it barely registers as important or memorable.

Tales of Delusions and of Dreams!

Also included in the 2016 edition of Triumph and Torment is a couple of stories starring Namor the Sub-Mariner written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Mike Mignola.

These stories have nothing to do with Doctor Doom or his annual fight with the devil, but they’re both fun Namor stories featuring early Mike Mignola art.

Between Namor asking the god Neptune to turn a drowning white stallion into a white seahorse (Marvel Fanfare #16) and Namor travelling back in time to immediately fall in lust with a sexy pirate (Marvel Fanfare #43), this is classic Bill Mantlo craziness.

IN CONCLUSION

Overall, this 2016 edition of Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment is not just a great exhibit of Doctor Doom’s complexity as a character, but it’s also a good showcase for the works of some of the classic Marvel storytellers like Roger Stern, Bill Mantlo, and Gerry Conway as well as great comic book artists like Mike Mignola and Gene Colan.

This iconic Doctor Doom story goes to the very top of The List, dethroning Black Hammer Vol. 1 as the new #1. The short yet character-defining story from Astonishing Tales #8 is our new #6. The Namor stories from Marvel Fanfare #16 and #43, while short, were good glimpses at Namor as a character. They rank #13 and #17 respectively. And finally, Doctor Strange #57 goes to the very bottom of the list. It’s not horrible, but it has nothing to offer except for one page of Doctor Doom.

The whole collection gets an almost perfect rating of 4 1/2 stars.

Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment is available now wherever fine comic books are sold.

The post Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment Review: Dance with the Devil appeared first on Long Box.

Empyre #5

Story: Al Ewing and Dan Slott

Art: Valerio Schiti

Colors: Marte Gracia

Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Publisher: Marvel

Love Wins

I believe this is the first time a gay relationship has been featured prominently in a major Marvel event and it’s refreshing.

It turns out Wiccan and Hulkling had a Vegas wedding before all of this went down and it’s cute as hell. It’s well-written, charming, and wholesome. It’s a bright spot amidst all the doom and gloom that is not just happening in this series but outside of the comic book panel as well.

With that touching, lighthearted moment between two people who clearly love each other, we go right back to people punching each other in the face with the intent to kill.

The Immortal Thing

Empyre #5 brings us possibly the best moment of the series so far. The Cotati jerk inhabiting the dead body of Jennifer Walters Hulk is beating the living hell out of The Thing as the Invisible Woman and Mantis watch in horror.

Good ol’ Ben Grimm looks like he’s a goner — until Plant Zombie Hulk suggests he should just give up. And folks, if there’s one thing we should know about Benjamin J. Grimm, it is that he never ever gives up. Especially if you killed one of his friends, threatened his family, and implied that he can’t fight for the little guy. He will fight you. Hard.

Bleeding and beaten badly, The Thing punches back, stands up, and gets ready to fight some more. Because Ben Grimm never gives up.

The Thing has been one of the most entertaining parts of Empyre so far with his funny one-liners and quips. However, in this moment, he becomes the heart and soul of the series. If you’ve been reading Empyre and have been looking for a reason to care, this is it.

Black Panther’s Last Stand

I gave Black Panther a hard time in my Empyre #4 review because we were led to believe that he had a brilliant plan and it turned out it was just to fight the Cotati with the Star-Sword. I’m not taking it back.

That’s a pretty straightforward, underwhelming plan for a master strategist. It’s no surprise that it doesn’t work. Here, Black Panther suffers a devastating loss and fails to protect the Wakandan mound. The Cotati take the mound and they’re now about to take control of all non-sentient plant life in the galaxy.

How can you fight the forest? Not alone with a magic space sword, apparently.

The Hulkling in the Iron Mask

Over at the Kree/Skrull Alliance flagship, we get a Man in the Iron Mask moment as Wiccan, Captain Marvel, and the Human Torch arrive with Hulkling who they just rescued from a holding cell off-panel. They confront the pretender Hulkling before finding out that Pretender Hulkling has actually just pulled an Ozymandias (the Watchmen character, not the weird X-Men villain made of stone).

He has triggered the Pyre, which means the Earth’s sun is about to overload and burn everything to a crisp.

Time is running out. The Cotati is on the brink of galactic supremacy. The sun is about to explode. Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic have about 10 minutes to figure out how they can save everyone from both threats. Things are about to get interesting.

IN CONCLUSION

Empyre #5 makes up for the lull of issues #2 and #3 by presenting the Cotati as an actual threat, setting up a final showdown between our heroes and the Kree/Skrull Alliance, and giving The Thing an iconic heroic moment.

The Avengers and the Fantastic Four looked like chumps in the last four issues, but now they’re ready to remind everyone that they never stay down long. They’re getting ready to get back up, make a stand, and challenge all these alien jerks to put up their dukes.

Good stuff.

We’re going to save the ranking of Empyre in The List once the whole series is done. For now, this third issue gets 4 stars.

Empyre #5 is available now wherever fine comic books are sold.

Other Posts in the Empyrean Evaluations Series:

• Empyre #1 Review: A Revolting Development
• Empyre #2 Review: A Sublime Song of Accusation
• Empyre #3 Review: Mommy’s Home
• Empyre #4 Review: Fooled Again
• Empyre #5 Review: Put Up Ya Dukes
• Empyre #6 Review: Grand Fynale

The post Empyre #5 Review: Put Up Ya Dukes appeared first on Long Box.

If you’re into Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone, as well as Marvel comics and/or movies, Magic Duel is right up your alley. Here’s everything you need to know before you get started with the game.

Game Mechanics

Marvel Duel can be daunting at first, especially if you’re not familiar with the concept of CCG or auto chess (SPOILER: It’s not chess). But the game does a great job of holding your hand through your first game, which is your initial tutorial. There’s more tutorial content in the Hero Trial game mode.

The concept is relatively simple: You have a deck of character, equipment, and effect cards. From this pool of cards, you set and strengthen your front line, which can have up to 6 characters at a time, on the battlefield. Your goal is to have your front line wipe out your opponent’s front line so you can deal damage to your opponent. You battle 5 other players in a single match. Combat is automated, so characters attack other characters randomly.

This automated combat may not sit well with some players, but it offers a more interesting game dynamic to others.

There’s nothing like having the right combination of strategy, cards, and luck coming together to carry you right into your endgame as seen in the above Challenge Mode screenshot where three Thanoses (Thani? Thanosi?) are ready to deal the death blow to Madame Masque.

Super Heroes

Your deck will actually be composed of three superhero-specific decks and one neutral deck of 18 locked cards. Each of these “Super Heroes” — putting a quote on that because Elektra is at best an anti-hero and Hela is the Goddess of Death, definitely not heroic at all — have their own strengths and weaknesses, requiring their own unique deck building strategy.

1. Star-Lord – His GotG deck relies on members of the Guardians of the Galaxy coming together to make each other more powerful. It may take some time, but once you get the right combination of cards going, your front line could become near unstoppable.
2. Thor – His Asgardian deck is a defensive one. Armor can be built upon characters quickly but you’ll need a couple of characters like Thor and Throg (yes, the Frog of Thunder) to deal some damage.
3. Captain Marvel – Her Intergalactic War deck is all about dealing skill damage. The Marvels and their alien buddies can become a real nightmare as they become stronger and deal more damage as the battle goes on.
4. Iron Man – His Stark Industries deck relies heavily on shop upgrades. The shop, where you get your cards during combat — not to be confused with the game shop where you can buy in-game currency with real money — strengthens your cards as you upgrade it. If you survive early battles and quickly level up your shop, you’ll be pretty strong when you reach your endgame — not to be confused with Endgame where Iron Man dies.
5. Spider-Man – His Spider-Verse deck’s strategy is simple: overrun the opponent with powerful Spider-Verse characters. You have characters that summon other characters and characters that strengthen the summoned characters. It’s all about characters, you see.
6. Hela – Her Ragnarok deck banks on the Maverick skill, which triggers the first time you only have one character on your front line. It can be a challenge to trigger the Maverick skill at the right time, but if it’s done properly with a strengthened character, the end result for your opponent would be disastrous.
7. Elektra – Her Marvel Knights deck might be the most complicated of all decks as it requires you to complete quests to strengthen your front line. If you do get to set up your characters without dying, you’re going to have a pretty scary front line towards the end.

There are currently only seven Super Heroes available in the game, but it’s going to be really exciting to see new ones down the line. There are currently characters that are curiously not included in the game like Captain America, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, so it would be interesting to see if they’ll be included if ever the game adds more themed decks.

Deck Building

Deck building in Marvel Duel can seem a bit weird even for longtime CCG players. You’re required to pick 3 Super Heroes, each having their own exclusive set of cards. You have to pick 10 cards per Super Hero, with up to 4 copies of each card. You’re also required to pick 10 cards for a fourth neutral deck, which brings your total to 40 cards. You can’t use a deck if it has less than that.

There’s a set of 18 “locked cards”, also up to 4 copies each, that becomes available to you in your matches. These locked cards can’t be edited. This brings the total of available cards in your pool per battle to 58. MATH!

This type of deck building makes the game experience more chaotic and fun. You can be forced to build your front line around, say, Spider-Verse characters in the beginning but if later draws constantly give you cards from other decks, you’ll be forced to make a choice: throw out your symbiote-filled front line in favor of Asgardian thunder and lightning or stay the course?

You will also be forced to think about the potential synergies not just between related characters, but characters across decks as well. You can go as deep as you want in your deck building strategy and that’s neat.

You can find strategies for each deck on the Marvel Duel website to help you get started.

Game Modes

Once you have your custom deck (or decks; you can create up to 10) ready, you can take it out for a spin in the different game modes. However, before you get into ranked matches, you should go through training and some trials first.

1. Training – This game mode lets you practice using your deck against A.I. disguised as Iron Man, Thor, and other characters. This is good if you’re still working out the kinks of your custom deck.
2. Adventure – This category has 3 game modes: Hero Trial, Challenge Mode, and an unnamed one that is still “coming soon”. Hero Trial is a fun tutorial mode that teaches you the basics of how to use each of the Super Hero-themed decks. Challenge Mode is where you bring your custom deck to really put it to the test. Both accessible modes in Adventure give you plenty of rewards, including cards, so it’s good to go through these so you can enhance your custom decks further.
3. Duel – This is the main game mode category of Marvel Duel. You can battle with no pressure in Casual Mode or you can try to go up the leaderboards by engaging in ranked battles in Ladder Mode. There are rewards based on your rank sent weekly and at the end of the season. Rewards are also given whenever you go up a rank.

What Next?

Now that you know the basics, you’re ready to fire up Marvel Duel on your Android or iOS device. However, like most digital CCG titles, this is better viewed and experienced in larger screens. If you’re partial to using the PC, it’s a good idea to use an Android emulator for this. You could get a better look at the beautiful card art too boot. Chewie agrees.

Marvel Duel is available now for iOS and Android devices. Note that this is confirmed to NOT be a global release title, so it’s only currently available in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

The post Marvel Duel Beginner’s Guide: Big Deck Energy appeared first on Long Box.

Empyre #4

Story: Al Ewing and Dan Slott

Art: Valerio Schiti

Colors: Marte Gracia

Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Publisher: Marvel

Your Boyfriend Wants to Blow Up the Sun

I praised the character work done on Hulkling last issue. It’s something the character desperately needed to make his story matter for most people who haven’t been following his arc since his Young Avengers days. And now we get an obviously out-of-character Hulkling casually suggesting blowing up Earth’s sun to get rid of the Cotati.

Hulking went from heroic reluctant space emperor to sassy intergalactic mad man real quick. He’s definitely not himself.

We finally get to see the Human Torch and Captain Marvel being badasses, though. From all the talking we saw in the past couple of issues, it’s quite thrilling to see two hotshot superheroes facing insurmountable odds, ready to kick some alien booty. Too bad the action doesn’t last long.

Black Panther, Master Strategist

Empyre #4 is narrated by T’Challa, the Black Panther. We get an understanding of how his mind works here. He gives us an idea of his possible solutions to the Cotati problem and the gravity of the situation. He ponders whether he is a weak king — perhaps a weak man. But he’s definitely a good strategist, at least according to the Swordsman.

It was teased in the previous issue that he has a clever plan to use Hulkling’s magic space sword in the fight against the Cotati. It turns out his clever plan was to just use the sword like how any self-respecting Wakandan uses a sword — swing it at enemies while shouting “WAKANDA FOREVER!”

Master strategist indeed.

You’re Such a Stupid Animal

The Cotati are master strategists as well. As Quoi and the Swordsman seemingly entertain Mantis, Jen Walters Hulk, Thing, and Invisible Woman’s diplomatic mission, we get another heel turn.

Just like how the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were blindsided by the plant people in the first issue, and just like how the Human Torch and Captain Marvel were jumped by assumed allies earlier in this issue, the diplomatic Avengers/Fantastic Four contingent was sucker-punched by one of their own.

Ben Grimm definitely didn’t like the backstabbing.

The heroes got fooled once again. Both the Avengers and the Fantastic Four look like chumps after these successive betrayals. Things don’t look good for them and I can’t wait to see where it all goes.

IN CONCLUSION

With Empyre #4, the series is back in business. The story is now moving forward with enticing twists. Together with some good art, let’s hope this positive momentum carries over into the next couple of issues.

We’re going to save the ranking of Empyre in The List once the whole series is done. For now, this third issue gets 3 and 1/2 stars.

Empyre #4 is available now wherever fine comic books are sold.

Other Posts in the Empyrean Evaluations Series:

• Empyre #1 Review: A Revolting Development
• Empyre #2 Review: A Sublime Song of Accusation
• Empyre #3 Review: Mommy’s Home
• Empyre #4 Review: Fooled Again
• Empyre #5 Review: Put Up Ya Dukes
• Empyre #6 Review: Grand Fynale

The post Empyre #4 Review: Fooled Again appeared first on Long Box.

Empyre #3

Story: Al Ewing and Dan Slott

Art: Valerio Schiti

Colors: Marte Gracia

Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Publisher: Marvel

Reed Richards: Knows Your Password

Good news: we’re finally done with picking up the pieces after Empyre #1. There’s hardly any exposition here. Bad news: we’re just setting up the rest of the story.

There are a lot of moving parts here so things aren’t as slow as you’d expect from an issue where everyone just talks except for a few glimpses of super-heroes fighting plant people.

That’s not to say all the talking isn’t interesting, though. We follow every member of the Fantastic Four who are scattered across Earth and space. We get some funny and some genuinely surprising exchanges between members of Marvel’s first family and other characters.

We start with Reed Richard, Mr. Fantastic, at Avengers Mountain where he bears witness to Tony Stark’s self-loathing and pity party. They’re supposed to be figuring out how the Cotati’s plant-control powers work, but instead, they’re having a debate on how everything is or is not Tony Stark’s fault.

Plant people are wreaking havoc across the globe and there’s another alien armada right outside Earth’s door. Way to make everything about you, Tony.

This doesn’t really contribute much to the larger Empyre story, but it’s a nice little moment between two of Marvel’s biggest brains.

Also, Reed Richards probably knows all of our passwords.

Ben Grimm: Not a Linguist

Over at the Wakandan border, we get a short but cute exchange between Ben Grimm and Shuri about knowledge and language. We finally know what “Yibambe!” means and it’s not what Ben Grimm thinks.

I feel like they just inserted these couple of pages with The Thing and Shuri so they could say there’s some action in Empyre #3. We’re half-way through the main series and they’re still holding back on big moments beyond the first issue’s heel turn.

Everything still looks pretty, though. Valerio Schiti and Marte Gracia are still killing it on art whether The Thing is punching some poor plant people in the face or characters are just talking about things they’re going to do next.

Speaking of which, we take a short look at Quoi and the Swordsman being nefarious and vague before going to the next Fantastic Four member.

Sue Richards: Diplomat-ish

The Invisible Woman is with Black Panther and Hulk (the Jennifer Walters one) at the palace of Wakanda, playing welcome party to Mantis, the mother of Quoi. The plan is to use diplomacy to end the conflict. Seeing that this is a comic book cross-over event, I don’t see it ending with people politely saying “Oops, sorry about trying to kill you!” and moving on with their lives.

Following the setting-up-the-rest-of-the-story motif, we get a bit of exposition here before everyone vaguely announces what they’re going to do next. Definitely not the bad ass return of Mantis I was expecting.

Johnny Storm: Voice of Reason

The planning and the talking continue IN SPAAACE with the Human Torch, Captain Marvel, and the Kree/Skrull Alliance gang.

It’s good to see some character work on Hulkling here since he’s one of the focal characters on the event and we barely know what he’s thinking or feeling, particularly in these past couple of issues. Now he’s showing some balls and even a heroic stance, which finally makes him an interesting character especially for people who haven’t been following the story of the Young Avengers.

Speaking of showing a surprising amount of character, Johnny Storm plays the adult in the room. You know you’re in big trouble when the main voice of reason in your space armada’s group of leaders is the Human flamin’ Torch.

Space is where the meat of the story is in Empyre #3 mainly because of a couple of shocking reveals. More shocking than Johnny Storm being everyone’s mature uncle is the horrific actions of one the characters. I can’t imagine that terrible act not having any consequences down the line.

The other shocking reveal is the true identity of one of the members of Hulking’s crew. Not going to spoil it here, but it’s a doozy. Things are going to get really interesting now. Hopefully.

IN CONCLUSION

Empyre #3 is not as full of exposition as Empyre #2, but it still dangerously feels like the series is treading water. Ewing and Slott drop some fascinating hints about where we’re going next, but for now, we’re still waiting for things to pick back up again.

We’re going to save the ranking of Empyre in The List once the whole series is done. For now, this third issue gets 3 stars.

Empyre #3 is available now wherever fine comic books are sold.

Other Posts in the Empyrean Evaluations Series:

• Empyre #1 Review: A Revolting Development
• Empyre #2 Review: A Sublime Song of Accusation
• Empyre #3 Review: Mommy’s Home
• Empyre #4 Review: Fooled Again
• Empyre #5 Review: Put Up Ya Dukes
• Empyre #6 Review: Grand Fynale

The post Empyre #3 Review: Mommy’s Home appeared first on Long Box.

Empyre #2

Story: Al Ewing and Dan Slott

Art: Valerio Schiti

Colors: Marte Gracia

Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Publisher: Marvel

Celestial Explainer

I consider myself a pretty big Marvel guy who knows way too much about Marvel characters, artifacts, events, and other fictional things. So I was surprised to learn that the main villain of Empyre is a pre-existing character who made his first appearance in Fantastic Four #325 back in 1989.

Quoi, half-human half-plant son of Mantis, turns out to be an ally of the Avengers. He has been a good guy for a while now. This gives his heel turn from the previous issue a bit more weight.

Quoi and the Cotati turning on the Avengers and laying waste to the Kree/Skrull Alliance along with the Fantastic Four was an explosive turn of events, so it makes sense for writers Al Ewing and Dan Slott to turn the dial back down a bit in Empyre #2. A bit of a bummer, but completely understandable.

So we get Quoi pretty much giving the Avengers a recap of what his people have been doing in the shadows in the past few months. We spend almost half of the issue listening to the villain explaining his villainy.

So far, Quoi, the Celestial Messiah, sounds like another generic monologuing super-villain. He even does the old shouting-vague-threats-before-escaping bit. I hope gets fleshed out more as the series progresses.

Carol the Accuser

While the first half of the issue is full of exposition, we get a bit more excitement in the second half as Captain Marvel joins the Kree/Skrull Alliance and the Fantastic Four in figuring out their next steps.

Saving the Thing from being eaten alive from the inside by microscopic seeds and cleansing an entire space ship containing thousands of Kree and Skrulls of deadly plant matter is definitely more compelling than Quoi being a dick to Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America.

Captain Marvel gets the spotlight here as she gets a temporary power-up from Hulkling’s magical Sword of Space and gets handed Ronan’s hammer to become part of the Kree Accuser Corps. This sets her up as a powerhouse that can be used against the threat of the Cotati.

Captain frickin’ Marvel with a big ass hammer that sings a song of accusation. So that’s something to look forward to. Unless her story plays out in her own monthly series or a separate Empyre tie-in series, never to be heard from in the main series again. Let’s hope that’s not the case.

The Coming of the Pyre

Ewing and Slott probably realized that there’s too much exposition in this issue and they wanted to keep everyone interested, so they threw in a hint of things to come: the death of a world at the hands of Whatzisname. Yep, that works.

IN CONCLUSION

With things being dialed down to re-establish where everyone is at after the big things that went down last issue, Empyre #2 feels a bit more tame and less event-y. It’s not as exciting as the first one, but still, somebody got stabbed with a magic space sword. So it’s still a good read.

We’re going to save the ranking of Empyre in The List once the whole series is done. For now, this second issue gets 3 stars.

Empyre #2 is available now wherever fine comic books are sold.

Other Posts in the Empyrean Evaluations Series:

• Empyre #1 Review: A Revolting Development
• Empyre #2 Review: A Sublime Song of Accusation
• Empyre #3 Review: Mommy’s Home
• Empyre #4 Review: Fooled Again
• Empyre #5 Review: Put Up Ya Dukes
• Empyre #6 Review: Grand Fynale

The post Empyre #2 Review: A Sublime Song of Accusation appeared first on Long Box.