The 2017 Thor Thor: Ragnarok Ornament Is A Let-Down!

The Good: Good balance, General sculpt
The Bad: Terrible paint job, Lame coloring, Expensive for the quality
The Basics: The 2017 Thor from Thor: Ragnarok Hallmark ornament is one of the unfortunate failures of the 2017 ornament line, despite generally having good sculpted aspects.


The Marvel Cinematic Universe is well-represented in the Hallmark Keepsake ornaments. Or, more accurately, certain characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe seem to get made into Hallmark Keepsake ornaments over and over and over again. So, while consumers continue to wait for a Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Black Widow or Black Panther ornament, they get multiples of other major characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This year, Hallmark has released yet another Thor ornament, this time from Thor: Ragnarok. It is, sadly, an uninspired execution of the character, though the broad strokes are all right.

The 2017 Thor is a common, late-release, mass-produced Hallmark ornament that is one of two Thor: Ragnarok ornaments and one of several Marvel comics ornaments produced by Hallmark this year. For those unfamiliar with it, in Thor: Ragnarok (reviewed here!), Thor finds himself for a time on a distant world where he is forced to fight in a gladiatorial contest. It is Thor, with his helmet on, in an action pose, which is the subject of the Thor Thor: Ragnorak ornament.

Basics

The Thor ornament recreates the God Of Thunder in solid plastic, predictably without his hammer. The ornament, released in 2017, is an poor recreation of the heroic character as he appears in the cinematic rendition of Thor from Thor: Ragnarok. In addition to having very few attributes that are directly analogous to Chris Hemsworth, the 2017 Thor Ragnarok ornament appears to be incredibly sloppy on the painted details, making it a very tough sell for fans or collectors.

Thor is the helmeted warrior of Asgard, with a sword raised, leaping forward in an action pose. Thor is armored, though his arms are exposed and the sculpted detailing arguably reaches its peak with the ornament's biceps. Hallmark did comparatively fine veining for the helmet wings, but in general the 2017 Thor ornament is light on sculpted details that make it distinct or interesting. The Hallmark 2017 Thor ornament is made of a durable plastic and has him in an action pose. This Thor: Ragnarok ornament measures out at 5" tall, 3 1/2" wide and 2" deep.

The coloring for the Thor ornament is done in monotones. In other words, Thor’s skin is all one color, as is his outfit. Between the lack of realism to the sculpt and to the coloring, the Thor from Thor: Ragnarok ornament is underwhelming and indistinct. The paint job, which includes the war paint the character was adorned with, seems to be ill-applied. I checked five different copies and the faces on each looked terrible with the beard, skin tones and war paint each being applied differently and with very little success. The costume for this Thor is similarly colored in monotones, which make it look much less like the cinematic rendition of Thor.

Features

As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, Thor could have a function like a sound chip or light effect, but does not. This is just an ornament, a low-cost (comparatively) option for those who might not want to shell out for the more expensive Marvel ornaments. This Thor simply hangs on a tree.

Balance

As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake Thor ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate Marvel Universe Christmas Tree, Thor is essential, but not this version. The ornament has a brass hook loop embedded in the top center of his helmet. From that hook, the Thor ornament hangs surprisingly level. Despite the other issues with this ornament, balance is not one of this ornament's problems!

Collectibility

Hallmark Keepsake began delving into the collectibles market in 1991 with Star Trek when it introduced the exceptionally limited edition original U.S.S. Enterprise ornament (click here for my review of that!). Since then, Hallmark has gotten into every major franchise from Disney to Twilight to the Marvel Comics universe. This Thor ornament was not at all limited. I would not bet, given the lack of inherent quality and how the other Marvel ornaments have met demand without leaving a lot of people wanting, and how little it looks like the cinematic version of Thor, that this will not be an incredible investment piece.

Overview

The 2017 Thor: Ragnarok Thor ornament is vague on most of its sculpted details, sloppy on its paint job and indistinct in its coloring details. That makes for a poor ornament not truly worth picking up.

For other Marvel Hallmark ornaments, please check out my reviews of:
2017 Spider-Man: A New Kind Of Hero Spider-Man: Homecoming ornament
2016 Team Captain America ornament
2011 Thor ornament
2010 Defender Of Justice Iron Man 2 ornament

2.5/10

For other ornament reviews, please check out my Ornament Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Forcing Humor Undermines Thor: Ragnarok

The Good: Hela and Heimdall have interesting arcs, One or two performance moments
The Bad: Forced humor, Simplistic plot, Obvious plot reversals, Light on character development, Special effects are surprisingly mediocre
The Basics: Thor: Ragnarok takes a surprisingly serious premise for a fantasy/action movie and undermines almost all of it with forced attempts at humor that often fall flat.


There is no real purpose in an American reviewer reviewing a Marvel Cinematic Universe film anymore. By the time a Marvel Studios film is released in the United States, it has been out in theaters in other countries for at least two weeks and die-hard fans who want spoilers have a tendency to look up the foreign press reviews while American reviewers are embargoed from publishing their reviews. So, when Thor: Ragnarok was released in theaters in the United States, I did not rush right out to see it. Instead, I waited for the first surge crowd to dissipate and then I saw the film a few days later. All of this in spite of me being generally psyched about Thor: Ragnarok from the latest preview trailers.

It was not long into Thor: Ragnarok, though, that I became certain that the best moments of the film had been put into the film's trailer. The big reveal of the Hulk was certainly gutted by the preview trailers, but what surprised me most was how much of the film's sense of menace was undermined by the near-constant attempts at humor. Ironically, the film's funniest moment was virtually buried by the reaction to the joke prior to it (in the full theater I was in, I found myself as the only one laughing when Tom Hiddleston's reaction shot - which was, admittedly, entirely dependent upon viewer's seeing The Avengers - at a key moment was focused on for too brief a moment after one of Chris Hemsworth's well-spoiled lines).

Thor: Ragnarok is a conceptual failure and one suspects after the hype for the film dies down, more and more fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be able to admit that the film is a painfully forced bridge movie. Despite the constant menace to Asgard, most of Thor: Ragnarok is actually about reconciling the final moments of Thor: The Dark World (reviewed here!) and re-integrating The Hulk and Thor into the narrative after the events of The Avengers: Age Of Ultron (reviewed here!). And to accomplish those rather simple goals, Thor meanders through his own film making dull jokes while the compelling original elements of Thor: Ragnarok are largely neglected.

The concept of Ragnarok is the end of the world, which in Thor: Ragnarok is supposed to come in the form of Surtur. So, in one of the few remarkably sensible plot points for Thor: Ragnarok, the first thing Thor does is kill Surtur and steal his magical helm so he cannot fulfill the prophecy of Ragnarok and destroy Asgard. Unfortunately, the menace of Ragnarok hangs over Asgard, but is quickly swept aside by a bevy of jokes that fall flat.

Thor, who had figured out how to prevent the prophesied end of Asgard had also already figured out that Odin had been replaced by Loki. But, alas, the big emotional moment of Thor somehow realizing that Loki is both still alive and has weakened Asgard's place in the Nine Realms through his decadence is not actually in Thor: Ragnarok. Thor and Loki take a brief trip to Earth where they search for Odin who promptly dies (or dies enough so that Asgard is now helpless).

And helpless Asgard is to the first-born of Odin, Hela: the Godess Of Death. Hela makes an excellent entrance, announcing herself to Thor and Loki and enlisting arguably the worst, most dimwitted d-rate sidekick villain of all time in the form of Scourge (poor Karl Urban!). Hela then immediately begins a campaign to take over Asgard and at this point, Thor: Ragnarok makes its fatal narrative divergence. Hela inadvertently knocks Thor and Loki out of Asgard by shoving them out of the Einstein-Rosenberg Bridge teleport. When that happens, Thor and Loki go on a grand comedic adventure and Hela and Heimdall are left holding the bag on the vastly more interesting and compelling Ragnarok plot.

Hela is an instantly intriguing villain and Cate Blanchett does the best she can with the material she is given for the firstborn of Odin. Hela reveals that Odin built Asgard on genocide and conquest, with Hela herself as Odin's executioner. The idea that something grand had some truly sinister origins is a distinctly American idea, yet the U.S. gets Thor: Ragnarok after most of the rest of the world. And in Thor: Ragnarok, the horror of how Odin built his empire is not given time within the narrative for reflection or emotional consequences for the characters. Instead, when Thor gets around to trying to stop Hela, he does so without any reflection on how his father betrayed him by not telling him the truth and/or making a philosophical argument to Hela that Odin evolved beyond his need for violence and conquest. Sadly, Thor: Ragnarok is all fisticuffs and little philosophy, which is truly disappointing because the inherent conflict between Hela and Heimdall is a compelling one.

Heimdall spends Thor: Ragnarok as a fugitive. He creates an underground railroad intended to save as many of the Asgardians as he possibly can from being murdered by Hela and her army of the undead. Heimdall does what he can to avoid direct conflict with Hela - despite the fact that the Asgardians are being hunted because of him and his theft of the sword that unlocks the bifrost - and instead concerns himself with actually trying to save Asgard. Heimdall is, easily, the smartest character in Thor: Ragnarok as he attempts to get people out of the way of the Goddess Of Death as opposed to *snicker* trying to find a way to kill her.

Seriously, when Thor comes back to Asgard and starts hacking and stabbing at Hela, the sequence is about as ridiculous as Wonder Woman trying to subdue the god of war by fighting him physically in Wonder Woman (reviewed here!). The Goddess Of Death cannot, logically, be killed by . . . well, death. Death empowers the Goddess Of Death; her demise would have to come from a nontraditional means, much like the only way to defeat a God Of War would be through creating a lasting peace.

So, while Thor: Ragnarok has the seeds of a great, truly epic, story of the destruction of Asgard and the attempt to save its people, Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost and Taika Waititi instead send Thor and Loki into a comedic adventure on an alien world where they are reunited with the Hulk, meet the last surviving Valyrie (which is an elite fighting order, not an individual character) and meander their way back to Asgard. In the previous Thor films, the humor worked by contrast. Thor encountered humans who had very different views on the world compared to the arrogant God and humor resulted. In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor just runs around making jokes. And he plays them off an often humorless Loki and Bruce Banner, arguably the least funny character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

By the time Thor gets around to trying to interface with the true menace of Ragnarok on Asgard, Thor is a buffoon who is impossible to empathize with who hardly seems up to the task of fighting for his homeland. And given that Thor has lost his hammer and been granted super lightning powers by the time he has to take on Hela, the character the viewer has seen for four prior films is virtually unrecognizable.

For other Marvel Cinematic Universe works, please check out my reviews of:
"Havoc In The Hidden Land" - Inhumans
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 4
Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase 1 - Avengers Assemble

4/10

For other film reviews, please visit my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Wait . . . Marvel Fans Don't Love The Marvel Vibranium Card Set?!

The Good: Excellent artwork, Good writing, Decent quality/look, Cool bonus cards, Nice balance between source material and fodder for card collectors
The Bad: Terrible sketch cards, Strangely low collectible value
The Basics: The Marvel Vibranium trading card set from Upper Deck is a neat set that might be near-impossible to collect, but it is surprisingly cool for the majority of the set.


Every now and then, I run into a set of trading cards that I consider collecting, is of interest to me and I look into for the purposes of review and find myself fairly baffled by it. The Marvel Vibranium set from Upper Deck is one such set. The Marvel Vibranium set is surprisingly cool and what left me surprised about the set was that for some reason, it did not resonate with collectors. For sure, the set has problems - all of the sketch cards I could find were pretty much garbage (even though they fit the concept of the set surprisingly well!) and the collectibility is in the set is in the "damn near impossible" range. But, Upper Deck (to the best of my knowledge) did not pioneer the unrealistic collectibility level that made it so only four people could create a true master set of cards for a set.

The Marvel Vibranium trading cards is a mostly solid set that provides a surprisingly similar format to Marvel trading card collectors following Rittenhouse Archives giving up the license to Marvel Comics cards. As such, the foil-based Marvel Vibranium set is chock full of parallel cards and rich with creative chase cards like patch and sketch cards. Unlike most trading card sets, the Marvel Vibranium set actually goes out of its way to pay homage to the creators of the comic book source material by including autographed trading cards of the artists for key issues of various Marvel Comics!

Basics/Set Composition

The Marvel Vibranium trading card set was a fairly inventive set of cards, though it bore a lot of similarities in structure to the Rittenhouse Archives 2014 Marvel Universe trading cards (reviewed here!), though the differences in the parallel cards were a bit more dramatic and the volume of basic bonus cards was a bit more hefty. Properly assembled, the set is a collection of 1014 trading cards from Upper Deck. All of the cards are available in boxes or cases of Marvel Vibranium cards, which is a nice touch! The cards were originally released in boxes that contained twenty packs of five cards each. Boxes tended to run in the $75 - $90 range and generally had only one major "hit" card per box.

Collation in the Marvel Vibranium set was all right, but given how massive the set is, it took multiple cases to complete even the most basic set and the idea of having to buy 257 cases in order to make a true master set would be absolutely ludicrous to all but the most die-hard fans. The Marvel Vibranium set is pretty massive and it is a decent representation of where Marvel Comics went in 2015 with the massive Axis crossover and does a decent job of integrating various Marvel Comics universes into a single set.

Common Cards

The common card set consists of 90 trading cards, which are printed on beautiful foil cardstock and have a glossy UV resistant coating. The Marvel Vibranium cards do not seem to warp or curl the way most foil cards do, which gives one the impression that these will be more durable for collectors in perpetuity. The Marvel Vibranium set features cards that are character-centered and feature writing based mostly on the Axis storyline from Marvel Comics.

The common cards look wonderful, featuring as they do a solid character image on a silver background that represents Vibranium. The cards are universally in portrait format, though most of the cards feature knee and above artwork of the character they depict.

The backs of the Marvel Vibranium cards are well written, detailing character depicted's role in the major crossover event. The cards are revelatory for the plot of the event, but most fans who are likely to be entranced by the Marvel Vibranium cards will already know the salient details of the crossover event.

Collation on this set was fair, but it generally took more than one box to complete a complete ninety-card set.

Chase Cards

There are 924 chase cards in the Marvel Vibranium set, with all of them found in the boxes and packs of cards. The bonus cards that can be found within the boxes were the Raw, Molten, Refined, Radiance and Bar parallel cards, Rookie Pow-Ore cards, Rookie Heroes, Universal Heroes, When Worlds Collide, In Memoriam, Patch and Double patch cards, Dual comic autograph cards and their variants and Metal Engraving sketch cards. Most of the chase cards are limited to only one of the style per box and some of the parallels were found only one per case, which enhances the value of the boxes and cases and makes it very tough to complete a whole set. The final level of chase "card" are the printing plates and the 257 printing plates would require a collector to purchase as many cases with absolutely ideal collation in order to complete a true master set!

The most basic bonus card in the set are the 90 raw parallel cards. The parallel cards are a strange standard in recent releases from Upper Deck and other card companies. The raw parallel cards are somewhat cool; the straight silver background of the common cards is replaced with a cracked, sparkle background that looks like semi-crystalline rock! The Raw Parallels are found about six per box, so collectors would take at least two cases to complete a single set of these cards!

The parallel cards did not stop there, though, with the Marvel Vibranium set. Three per box there is a Molten parallel card (individually numbered to 299), one per box were the Refined parallel cards (individually numbered to 99), one in every other box was a Radiance parallel (limited to 50 of each card) and one per case there was a Bar parallel card (individually numbered to 5). The Molten parallel cards are arguably the most distinctive of the parallel cards as they feature a distinctive red background. Refined Parallel cards replace the smooth, clean foil background with a a silver and black crystalline fractal background, while the Radiance background is a blockish background pattern. The Bar Parallels have a fine metallic checkerboard pattern to them and they are printed on a dramatically thicker cardstock. My experiences with the Marvel Vibranium cards led to a disturbing disappointment with the Bar Parallels; at only one per case, there is the risk one will pull a lame character's card, but even the awesome characters come with some liabilities. The Bar card we pulled was 1/5, which should have been incredible (especially considering it featured an awesome character!), but the back of the card featured a noticeable flaw in the card's UV coating, which prevents the ultra rare card from being considered truly mint!

Usually in these reviews, I spend a lot of time and space evaluating the individual chase sets, but with the Marvel Vibranium cards that is somewhat pointless. The five major chase cards: Rookie Heroes, In Memoriam, Universal Heroes, When Worlds Collide, and Heroes Pow-ore cards are remarkably similar, down to the fact that all but the Universal Heroes cards are in portrait orientation. The Universal Heroes cards are the only cards in the basic bonus set that are in landscape orientation, which is weird, but makes sense that each of the cards in that chase set feature three different versions of the character on the front of the card. All five of the chase sets are simple foil cards, that feature large images of characters (and with When Worlds Collide, scenes) and the backs with fairly basic text on the characters and scenes. The bonus cards have minimal differentiation, down to the fact that their rarities are so similar that none of the five subsets can be completed with an entire CASE of cards! The Rookies are, obviously, new characters in the Axis and Secret Wars crossovers, while the In Memoriam cards are tributes to the characters (or versions of characters) who were killed off in 2015. Heroes Pow-ore cards are like game cards with stats for major super heroes, detailing power ratings for the characters as if they were playable characters in a game. All of the basic chase cards - 20 Heroes Pow-ore, 20 In Memoriam, 10 Rookie Heroes, 20 Universal Heroes, and 20 When Worlds Collide cards - are fairly rare, foil, and brightly colored, which maintains the format of the common sets. They look decent and fit the set very well.

One of the best-executed concepts in the Marvel Vibranium card set are the Patch cards. Landscape oriented and triple-thick, the patch cards are like costume cards in other sets. Unlike costume cards, the twenty-five patch and twenty-five double patch cards feature cutaway windows that reveal 1" square puffy patches of the character heads of the characters depicted on the patch cards. Well-colored and matching the foil cards surprisingly well, the patch cards are cool ways to immortalize beloved characters like Iron Man, Ghost Rider and cool pairs of characters like Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen! Whether or not the patch cards are resonating with the fans, they are one of the best-executed, coolest, chase cards that Upper Deck produced for the Marvel Vibranium set!

What does not appear to have resonated with fans, absolutely inexplicably, are the dual autograph cards. Upper Deck created twenty-two dual autograph cards of popular covers giving the artists (usually penciller and inker) the chance to sign each foil card. Upper Deck also made ten variant dual-autograph cards featuring some of the coolest variant covers from the crossover events and got them signed (as near as I can tell, always in blue). The autograph cards are an awesome tribute to the artists who create the comic books that are the source material for the set and that is inherently cool . . . but, for some reason, collectors do not seem willing to shell out for the dual autograph cards at the prices that similar one-per-case trading cards! Despite that, all of the autographs I have found have been crisp, clear and awesome looking for the dual autograph and variant dual autograph cards.

At the other end of the rating spectrum are the Metal Engraving Sketch Cards. The Marvel Vibranium cards, like so many trading card sets these days, feature sketch cards, in this case on a semi-foil card. The 45 artists who produced cards for the Marvel Vibranium set seemed almost universally unable to make great art on these cards. While Sharon Gauthier seemed to produce some cool cards, she was the exception to the rule. When truly amazing artists who have produced incredible works for other sets, like Melike Acar, Mitch Ballard and Jeffrey Benitz were unable to produce sketches of similar quality levels to their works on other sets suggests that the medium was not an ideal one. As such, the Bar parallels and some of the printing plates easily eclipse the value of the sketch cards.

As with many sets of cards, Upper Deck released the printing plates - magenta, cyan, yellow and black - as trading cards. All 90 common cards, the dual autograph and variant dual autograph cards, and all five chase cards have printing plate cards included in the set, for 257 printing plates limited to four of each. As such, there can only truly be four complete sets of Marvel Vibranium trading cards.

Non-Box/Pack Cards

Unlike most "modern" trading card releases, there are no cards for the Marvel Vibranium trading card set that are not found in boxes of the cards!

Overall

The Marvel Vibranium trading card set is objectively cool, despite the sheer rarity of some of the parallels and the low quality of the sketch cards, which makes it surprising to me that they have not resonated with collectors in a way that they has maintained their value in the marketplace.

This is a set of trading cards I proudly sell in my online store! Please feel free to shop by checking out my current Marvel Vibranium Trading Cards Inventory!

For reviews of other Marvel trading cards, please check out my reviews of:
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 trading cards
Marvel 75th Anniversary trading cards
Dangerous Divas Series 2 trading cards

6.5/10

For other trading card reviews, be sure to check out my Trading Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Trippy And Engaging, Doctor Strange Is One Of Marvel Studios Best Films!

The Good: Decent performances, Engaging characters, Amazing effects, Good plot progression
The Bad: Less-developed supporting characters/villain, Creates some weird continuity issues with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Basics: Doctor Strange is one of the most impressive Marvel Cinematic Universe films, but it still has a few objective shortcomings that force the viewer to accept conceits over a concrete story.


One of the true joys of the current phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that characters who have not appeared in volumes that I have read of the Marvel Comics source material are getting focused upon in the films. While Doctor Strange is apparently an incredibly popular and enduring character from Marvel Comics, when my wife turned to me during our viewing of Doctor Strange and asked, "Is that how magic is represented in the books?" I was suddenly forced to admit, "I have absolutely no clue!" There is something very refreshing about going into a Marvel Studios film with no preconceptions of what the film ought to be.

Being so unfettered by expectations at the outset, it was very easy to watch Doctor Strange as an objective viewer. Indeed, as one who is not overly wowed by spectacle, the early hype for the film being the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Inception (reviewed here!) only made me wary of Doctor Strange. Fortunately, Doctor Strange manages to be its own entity and when it fails to do that, it is derivative of other Marvel Cinematic Universe films (and, oddly, Green Lantern, reviewed here!), not Inception.

A library filled with magical tomes is attacked by Kaecilius and his followers and while he is forced to retreat when The Ancient One appears, he manages to escape with a handful of key pages from an important volume in the library and his followers behead the librarian. In America, Doctor Stephen Strange is an acclaimed neurosurgeon who works in the same hospital as Christine Palmer, a doctor he once dated. After saving the life of a person who was shot and appeared dead to another doctor, Strange is headed to a speaking engagement when he gets in a horrible car accident. He awakens to discover that his hands have been almost completely destroyed and after several surgeries, he is still unable to reliably hold tools, much less do delicate work with them needed to continue to be a neurosurgeon. His physical therapist tells him about Jonathan Pangborn, a man once confined to a wheelchair who now not only walks, but is playing basketball when Strange tracks him down. Pangborn tells Stephen Strange about Kamar-Taj, a place he want in Nepal where he learned the mystic arts and recovered the use of his legs. So, Strange spends the last of his money to go there.

Rescued off the streets of Nepal by Mordo, Stephen Strange is taken to Kamar-Taj where he is introduced to The Ancient One. The Ancient One initially rejects teaching Strange how to overcome his injuries because he is arrogant and bound by a very literal, scientific view. But, after having some out-of-body, trans-dimensional and teleportation experiences, Stephen Strange throws himself into the study of the magical arts. While Mordo takes Strange under his wing, the new librarian, Wong, is more annoyed by the newcomer. But Wong tells Dr. Strange about Kaecilius and the book that Kaecilius desecrated. In exploring the magical artifacts of Kamar-Taj and learning about the three magical centers on Earth that are protecting the planet from transdimensional attacks, Doctor Strange develops his ability and learns of the true threat that Kaecilius, as a devotee of the dark lord Dormammu, represents. As Kaecilius attempts to pull Earth into the dark dimension ruled by Dormammu, Strange, The Ancient One, Wong, and Mordo must stop them!

Doctor Strange officially brings the supernatural into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a way that plays lip service to the supernatural being a different form of science (which is how Thor described his abilities to Jane). As one still watching Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., there was momentary delight in noticing that one book was missing in the library's chained section (presumably the Dark Hold, which has appeared on the television series!), but while Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been belaboring explaining what the Dark Hold contains, Doctor Strange asks viewers to accept its premise, rather than spending a ton of time explaining it. So, while Strange questions such things as being able to read what The Ancient One describes as the source code of the universe and he accurately points out that reading about it would still leave him waving his hands in the air with nothing happening, Doctor Strange quickly transitions into the Doctor opening portals with ease in the library of Kamar-Taj.

Despite the abruptness of the development of his skills (personally, I think it would have been interesting to being Stephen Strange's narrative earlier and illustrate him studying intensively for his medical degrees to play off how he applies himself to learn the mystical arts later), Doctor Stephen Strange develops in a surprisingly compelling way over the course of Doctor Strange. Strange is smart enough to make his abilities seem plausible once he gives up his preconceptions of what he has been trained to accept. Strange learns fast, questions a lot and retains an ethical core that makes him rightly heroic, without being stale to watch.

The Ancient One is compelling and well-embodied by Tilda Swinton and she is a delight in each scene she is in. While Rachel McAdams does fine as Christine Palmer, she is not given enough to do to make the viewer feel that Palmer is a well-rounded and compelling character. That is a bit of a disappointment, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe did something similar already with Natalie Portman's character in the Thor corner of the universe. In a similar way, Mads Mikkelsen does an adequate job of playing Kaecilius, but the more one considers his character, the less satisfying (and more generic) his role is in Doctor Strange. Kaecilius is looking to tap into power from the dark realm controlled by Dormammu based on a nebulous trauma that brought him to The Ancient One in the past. Doctor Strange does a poor job of selling that idea that only Dormammu has the power to prolong life, that a traumatized guy like Kaecilius would want to live as an immortal instead of either rewrite time or be put out of his misery, and/or that Dormammu would want to share any of his powers with Kaecilius.

Without knowing any of the source material, the post-credit defection of one of the film's main characters seemed both abrupt and sloppy. As well, it was one of the few derivative elements in Doctor Strange. For those who saw Green Lantern and enjoyed it, one of the enduring issues with the film was that Sinestro made a compelling argument that the Guardians ought to fight Parallax with the power it drew upon; fear. The post-credit sequence of Green Lantern had, after all of the conflict had passed, Sinestro making the transition into a Yellow Lantern with no context, no threat, and an entirely inorganic sense of character motion based on where the film had left him. In a virtually identical way, the second post-credit scene to Doctor Strange does a lot to completely undermine and redefine one of the most likable characters in the movie.

That said, Doctor Strange has a lot going for it. Stephen Strange is an interesting character . . . even if his incredible skill makes viewers who love the Marvel Cinematic Universe films ask "If he is such a gifted neurosurgeon, why didn't Tony Stark call upon him to remove the shrapnel menacing his heart right after Iron Man?!" Strange is snarky, brilliant and has a wit that makes his love of trivia seem more playful than annoying. Stephen Strange is one of Benedict Cumberbatch's best roles. Perhaps the highest compliment one might pay about Cumberbatch is that, despite there being numerous similarities between Stephen Strange and Cumberbatch's rendition of Sherlock Holmes, one never feels like they are watching Cumberbatch play his Sherlock character in Doctor Strange.

The rest of the cast does great work supporting the protagonist's journey. Rachel McAdams plays surprise, shock, and the remnants of love well for Palmer, Tilda Swinton is both mysterious and convincing as The Ancient One. Mads Mikkelsen is off to a good start for the final Quarter of 2016 as Kaecilius and both Benedict Wong and Chiwetel Ejiofor make their supporting sorcerer roles memorable; far more than guys delivering excessive exposition.

And director Scott Derrickson makes Doctor Strange look suitably amazing and he moves the film at a pace that keeps it engaging the entire run. The result is an overwhelmingly satisfying Marvel Cinematic Universe film that gets great work out of its principles and turns the franchise in a very different, but mostly incredible and enjoyable, direction.

For other movies currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
Oasis: Supersonic
The Accountant
My Blind Brother
Cardboard Boxer
The Whole Truth

8.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Celebration For Ten Marvel Trading Card Fans: The Marvel 75th Anniversary Trading Cards Still Impress!

The Good: Good artwork, Neat writing, Archive Cuts are very cool, Some cool sketches
The Bad: Preponderance of parallel sets, Odd chase set numbers, Some mediocre sketches
The Basics: The 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary trading card set continues to innovate with comic book trading cards, surprisingly well . . . despite some eccentricities!


Over the last year, I've become a pretty big fan of trading cards outside the Star Trek trading cards that initially got me into trading card collecting. Most of the ones I have encountered over the last year have had sketch cards as the neatest premium. But the set that first got me intrigued by just what comic book based trading cards could do was the Rittenhouse Archives Marvel 75th Anniversary trading card set.

The 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary trading cards are cool, despite being plagued by the usual complaint I have with comic book-based trading cards (parallel sets . . . so many parallel sets! In this case five versions of the common card set!) and several of the chase sets not being generated in 9-card increments (the standard for card sets because trading card pages generally hold nine cards each). The creation of the new Archive Cuts trading cards is a neat one and between them and some incredible sketch cards, the Marvel 75th Anniversary cards are bound to keep drawing interest from comic book trading card enthusiasts for years to come!

Basics/Set Composition

The 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary trading card set is a character-centered trading card set. The common cards provide vital statistics on the ninety characters Rittenhouse Archives chose as their essential characters for the anniversary and the bonus cards do not waste text on repeating information on those characters. Properly assembled, the set is a collection of 720 trading cards and the official binder from Rittenhouse Archives. All but one hundred three of the cards are available in boxes or cases of 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary cards and ninety-three of those cards are available in an archive box from the set. The cards were originally released in boxes that contained twenty-four packs of five cards each. Boxes tended to run in the $75 - $90 range and guaranteed one common set and one sketch card per box.

Collation in the 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary set was remarkably good, but the set is oppressive to attempt to collect. In order to get the multicase incentives, one has to buy eighteen cases to get an Archive Box, but to assemble a true master set, it would take 90 CASES of the trading cards with absolutely ideal collation to complete the Diamond Parallel set and thus make a true master set. The Diamond Parallel set weeds out the casual and die-hard collectors of the Marvel 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary trading cards.

Common Cards

The common card set consists of 90 trading cards, which are printed with great color contrast and a hefty cardstock which has a glossy UV resistant coating. The 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary set features ninety cards featuring the biggest characters from the Marvel Comic Book Universe, both heroes and villains. The sweeping nature of the set allows it to include members of the disparate franchises - Avengers, X-Men, street level heroes like Daredevil, and their various enemies.

The common cards look good with a background image featuring the character in a classic appearance and a foreground image in the corner with a recent or more refined drawing of the character. The cards are universally in portrait format and have an extensive border, the character's name and background lines that change for the parallel sets. Rittenhouse Archives chose characters generally make sense for collectors and fans to love, though a couple of them are odd selections - like Magik, Ka-zar and Speedball.

The backs of the 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary cards are well written, though the backs are more like blurbs like sports cards, with various vital statistics included. These cards give the character, their mundane name, their first appearance, notable powers and the like. These make the cards a cool reference tool for those who don't want to have to pick up a Marvel Encyclopedia or trudge through the Marvel Wiki.

Collation on this set was excellent, so the common sets averaged one and almost a half per box, which was good for collectors (I consistently managed to assemble four sets from every three boxes I opened).

Chase Cards

There are 630 chase cards in the 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary set, with 527 found in the boxes of cards and the remaining one hundred three available outside the boxes and packs. The bonus cards that can be found within the boxes were the sapphire, emerald, and diamond parallel cards, X-Men Evolution, X-Men Evolution Gold Parallel, Die-Cut Panel bursts, Sticker cards, Archive Cuts (from three different eras), Marvel 75th Anniversary and sketch cards. Most of the chase cards are limited to only one of the style per box and some of the parallels were found only one or two per case, which enhances the value of the boxes and cases.

The most basic bonus card in the set are the 90 sapphire parallel cards. The parallel cards are a strange standard in recent releases from Rittenhouse Archives and other card companies. The sapphire parallel cards are rather unimaginative. The parallel cards are essentially the common cards reprinted as foil cards with blue bars on the sides of the front. The sapphire parallel cards pop well for most of the cards for the color contrast relative to the common cards. The basic parallel cards are found about four per box, so collectors would take almost two complete cases to assemble a single set of these cards!

As has become the trend, there are more parallel cards than that in the 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary set. One per box there is an emerald parallel card (individually numbered to 100) and one per case there is a diamond parallel card (individually numbered to 10). The emerald parallel cards feature the side bars in green and the "diamond" is essentially a foil version of the common card with gold borders on the front of the card in foil. While the one-per-box emerald parallel cards are not oppressive to collect (especially given that more boxes are required to complete the sketch card set), the one-per-case Diamond parallel cards are virtually impossible to collect and are predictably pricey.

One per box are cards from the thirteen-card X-Men Evolution card set. These simple cards feature several images on the front of each landscape-oriented card of each of the X-Men (heroes and villains) as they have appeared through different comic book ages. The cards show how drastically different characters like Beast, Magneto, and Wolverine have appeared through the years. This set is odd in that Rittenhouse Archives made 13 cards (which is more than a single case to complete!) instead of either nine or eighteen cards, which would better fit the standard trading card pages.

The X-Men Evolution cards are replicated as "Gold" Parallel cards found two per case. The "Gold" Parallel cards have the same artwork, but the blue bars on the front of the standard chase cards are replaced with a sickly brownish color. The backs of these cards have an individual collector's number with each copy being numbered to 100. This is a mediocre parallel card.

Like the X-Men Evolution cards, one per box of Marvel 75th Anniversary trading cards are one of nine Die-Cut Panel Burst cards and one of 18 sticker cards! The Die-Cut Panel Burst cards are a neat concept with an execution that is a little harder to enjoy. The die-cut cards do not have the standard trading card shape and one each one has a single large image of the character on it. The nine die-cut panel burst cards are nine of the most popular Marvel characters (all men, though. . .) and given how they are atypically cut, the corners are hard to keep mint. They look pretty cool, though.

The 18 card sticker set is a retro-looking sticker set and it continues the sticker card set from the 70th Anniversary set Rittenhouse Archives produced, with far greater rarity than the cards in that release. These are neat-enough and the character choices are more diverse than the Die-Cut Panel Burst set.

The 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary set is the second of three Marvel Comics trading card sets from Rittenhouse Archives released in 2014 to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Marvel Comics. In the 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary trading cards, there are twenty-five Marvel 75th Anniversary cards. These cards are reminiscent of the Marvel Comics trading cards from the 1990s with big, full-bleed artwork featuring character "paintings" of major Marvel Comics characters. Each of these cards is limited to 75 (and individually numbered on the back) and they were found two per case in the 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary set. They look amazing!

The Marvel 75th Anniversary trading cards include three different sets of Archive Cuts trading cards. The Archive Cuts trading cards are a cool new concept that are like costume cards for comic book enthusiasts! The Archive Cuts cards are trading cards with embedded panels from comic books in them. Rittenhouse Archives cut up several prime issues of Marvel Comics comic books from the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Age of comic books. Comic book collectors might never be able to get a pristine copy of Captain America #34 or Iron Man #13, but now collectors can get single panels (one of 51 or one of 37, respectively) from books like that! Each Archive Cuts card is unique and Rittenhouse Archives did an amazing job of finding intriguing issues and images for all of the Archive Cuts cards I've yet seen. There are 16 Bronze Age, 17 Silver Age, and 8 Golden Age cards found in the boxes - one per era per case.

The grail of comic book based trading cards these days are the sketch cards and the 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary cards are no exception. 138 artists contributed unique, hand-drawn sketch cards for the 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary trading card set and they are, as one might expect, a truly mixed bag, based on the artist and their choice of subject. Fan favorite artists like Rhiannon Owens, Peejay Catacultan, Jomar Bulda, Erik Maell, Francois Chartier, and MJ San Juan contributed and these have quickly become some of the most popular, best-selling sketches Rittenhouse Archives has released featuring Marvel Comics characters! There are always duds, but the Marvel 75th Anniversary set seems to have fewer than usual!

Non-Box/Pack Cards

As with most "modern" trading card releases - certainly the ones from Rittenhouse Archives - not all of the cards needed to make a true master set are available in the boxes of these trading cards. In this set, there are ninety-three cards exclusive to the archive box and an additional ten cards that cannot be found in the boxes. The archive boxes possess a ninety-card Ruby parallel set that yet again recreates the common set, this time with a red foil borders (and seem to be more susceptible to foil card curling than the other three parallel card styles in this set). Each card in this set is numbered to 50, though archive boxes do not contain matching number sets. Also in the archive box are three Archive Cuts cards - one per era unique to the archive boxes.

There is the usual promo card which foreshadowed the series release which is common enough to find (P1). There is also a card exclusive to the 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary trading card binder. Both promotional cards remain fairly well-available in the secondary market.

The remaining eight cards are the casetoppers, the multicase incentive cards and the Rittenhouse Rewards card. The casetoppers are very basic art deco cards of five popular Marvel Comics characters. These cards are not even foil cards. This is a particularly boring casetopper and they have not held any sort of value in the secondary market since the card's release.

The multicase incentive sketch cards, however, are highly coveted and very cool, having generally high value even now. Artist Warren Martinek contributed a sketch card that was given to dealers with every 6-case purchase. These sketch cards expertly recreated the covers of significant Marvel Comics issues and given the smaller scale, that is a pretty incredible feat in most cases. The nine-case incentive card was a painted art card from Mick or Matt Glebe and these painted cards live up to the reputation that the Glebe brothers have built in the trading card community. The characters and artwork are incredible!

The final card for the 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary set is a Rittenhouse Rewards card. Available only by redeeming wrappers with Rittenhouse Archives, there is a Spiderwoman Die-Cut Panel Burst card. It adds a tenth card to the nine-card set (which is irksome from a collector's perspective as trading card pages are nine-card pages) and follows the format to the Die-Cut Panel Burst set. It is not a terribly exciting card, but the wrapper "cost" is not very high, so it tends to leave collectors generally pleased with it.

Overall

The 2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary trading card set is a true celebration of the characters who made Marvel Comics an enduring institution. The set is enough to excite collectors and despite the irksome nature of the parallel cards, the Archive Cuts cards are enough to reinvigorate interest in the Marvel-based cards.

For reviews of other Marvel trading cards, please check out my reviews of:
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 trading cards
2014 Marvel Universe trading cards
Spider-Man Archives SD09 Promotional Card

7/10

For other trading card reviews, be sure to check out my Trading Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Good Concept Over And Over And Over And Over Again: 2014 Marvel Universe Trading Cards!

The Good: Excellent artwork, Good writing, Some awesome sketches
The Bad: Unremarkable parallel sets, Some lesser sketch cards, Collectible value
The Basics: The 2014 Marvel Universe trading card set is an interesting blend of incredible and mundane, making for a set that ends up as average as opposed to exceptional.


Like many people, I wear many (metaphorical) hats. And, like many people, I sometimes find the different roles I take on in conflict with one another. I try to balance them, but sometimes the different roles I have fall dramatically out of balance. Three roles I have that come into conflict with each other are my job as a reviewer of many things I encounter, my love of collectible trading cards, and my business selling the same. I seldom feel a sense of conflict, even when the aspects of my life do contradict. I started my business selling trading cards because I had my own collection and it grew out of hand; I started reviewing trading cards because I love reviewing and I wanted to try reviewing things outside movies, music, toys, and food. But, sometimes, I encounter a trading card set that using my own objective standards, I cannot rate very highly. Such reviews, naturally, have the potential to hurt my business selling the trading cards and they have the potential to harm the relationships I have with the manufacturers of the trading cards (which could both hurt my business and my own collecting!). Fortunately, the manufacturers of trading cards either don't know me, don't care about my reviews or, in the case of the wonderful Rittenhouse Archives, are very patient with me (and have pretty thick skins!). The reason I keep reviewing trading cards is because Non-Sport Update (reviewed here!) has "reviews" which are completely non-discriminatory and read more like sell sheets for the various manufacturers. Objective reviewers can help guide collectors far better than their reviews.

In the case of the 2014 Marvel Universe trading cards, an objective review reveals that the set is a weird contradiction of excellent and dull. The set has a very cool common set and some truly amazing sketch cards, as well as fairly decent bonus cards. But the set is fleshed out by parallel sets that repeat over and over the basic common and chase sets . . . in fairly unremarkable ways.

Basics/Set Composition

The 2014 Marvel Universe trading card set followed a content format similar to Rittenhouse Archives impressive Marvel Universe set from 2011, in that it focused on big story arcs within the Marvel Comics Universe. The format was such a winning one that Cryptozoic aped it with their Epic Battles trading card set (reviewed here!) for the DC Comic Universe. Properly assembled, the set is a collection of 703 trading cards and the official binder from Rittenhouse Archives. All but ninety-seven of the cards are available in boxes or cases of 2014 Marvel Universe cards and ninety-one of those cards are available in an archive box from thje set. The cards were originally released in boxes that contained twenty-four packs of five cards each. Boxes tended to run in the $75 - $90 range and guaranteed one common set and one sketch card per box.

Collation in the 2014 Marvel Universe set was remarkably good, but the set is oppressive to attempt to collect. In order to get the multicase incentives, one has to buy eighteen cases to get an Archive Box, but to assemble a true master set, it would take 90 CASES of the trading cards with absolutely ideal collation to complete the Diamond Parallel set and, presumable, the whole set. Given how unremarkable the Diamond Parallel set is, it seems far too high a price to be a genuine collector of the Marvel 2014 Marvel Universe trading cards.

Common Cards

The common card set consists of 90 trading cards, which are printed on beautiful foil cardstock and have a glossy UV resistant coating. The 2014 Marvel Universe cards do not seem to warp or curl the way most foil cards do, which gives one the impression that these will be more durable for collectors in perpetuity. The 2014 Marvel Universe set features nine cards per major Marvel Comics crossover event, detailing the plot of each storyline.

The common cards look wonderful, featuring as they do a solid character image with a gold background depicting the cover of an issue of the book from the storyline the card represents. The cards are universally in portrait format, though most of the cards feature full-body artwork of the character they depict.

The backs of the 2014 Marvel Universe cards are well written, detailing the plot of each major crossover story. In fact, these trading cards were so compellingly written that they inspired me to read the crossover story The House Of M (reviewed here!). This set of trading cards includes cards focused on the Avengers/Defenders War, Mutant Masscre, Evolutionary War, Operation: Galactic Storm, the Onslaught Saga, House Of M, Annihilation Conquest, Dark Reign, Chaos War and Age Of Ultron. These stories are massive crossovers and the card set does a decent job of including characters from many of the disparate books they represent, like including cards for the Age Of Ultron storyline that feature Wolverine, Spider-Man and Invisible Woman. Those only familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be pleasantly surprised by the variations in the book versions of the stories included on the 2014 Marvel Universe trading cards!

Collation on this set was excellent, so the common sets averaged one and almost a half per box, which was good for collectors (I consistently managed to assemble four sets from every three boxes I opened).

Chase Cards

There are 613 chase cards in the 2014 Marvel Universe set, with 516 found in the boxes of cards and the remaining ninety-seven available outside the boxes and packs. The bonus cards that can be found within the boxes were the sapphire, emerald, and diamond parallel cards, Marvel Greatest Battles Thor Expansion (and the two parallel sets of these cards), Marvel Greatest Battles Captain America Expansion (and the two parallel sets of these cards), Artist Drafts, Shadowbox, Avengers Origins, Heroes and Villains Expansion, Marvel 75th Anniversary and sketch cards. Most of the chase cards are limited to only one of the style per box and some of the parallels were found only one per case, which enhances the value of the boxes and cases.

The most basic bonus card in the set are the 90 sapphire parallel cards. The parallel cards are a strange standard in recent releases from Rittenhouse Archives and other card companies. The sapphire parallel cards are rather unimaginative. The parallel cards are essentially the common cards reprinted with a blue background to replace the gold rendition of the comic book covers on each card. The sapphire parallel cards play well for some of the covers, offering greater contrast with the foreground subjects and they are found about four per box, so collectors would take almost two cases to complete a single set of these cards!

The parallel cards did not stop there, though, with the 2014 Marvel Universe set. One per box there is an emerald parallel card (individually numbered to 100) and one per case there is a diamond parallel card (individually numbered to 10). The emerald parallel cards feature the background comic book covers rendered in green and the "diamond" is a washed-out silver background. None of the parallel cards render the background comic book covers with all of the original colors they possessed, which is a little disappointing (though it would have been worse had the common cards been rendered with the "pure" comic book covers and then the parallels had diluted, single-color versions of them!). While the one-per-box emerald parallel cards are not oppressive to collect (especially given that more boxes are required to complete the sketch card set), the one-per-case Diamond parallel cards are harder to find and very expensive. As a collector, the Diamond parallels represent an interesting collector's conundrum: to collect a complete set of 2014 Marvel Universe cards makes one an elite collector in the industry. As a dealer, the Diamond parallel cards represent a problematic toss-up: the Diamond Parallels represent a potential high-value card to help justify the investment in a case of these cards, but the parallel cards of less popular characters or less well-rendered characters fail to yield the same enthusiasm in the marketplace as main characters. So, for example, a case that has a parallel card of 24 featuring one of the New Mutants (a character line that did not survive very long with readers!) is inherently worth less than a case with a diamond parallel card of card 82, which features the very popular Captain America. Regardless, in the many boxes and cases, collectors are asked to shell out a lot of money to just keep assembling the common set over and over again.

Two per box are cards from the nine-card Artist Draft set. The Artist Draft cards are replicas of the original, uncolored, artwork for important covers from various storylines, like House Of M, Dark Avengers and Nova. The backs, not wasting more text on the crossover events, illustrate the finished version of each cover. These are pretty neat, albeit very basic, trading cards. There is nothing inherently special about them - they are not foil or printed on acetate, etc. - but they look very cool and afford card collectors and comic book fans a wonderful, uncommon, view of their favorite books!

There are two expansion sets for the popular Marvel Greatest Battles trading cards - one nine-card set that focuses on Thor, another that focuses on Captain America. These cards nicely expand the prior set's common cards with new artwork and fans of James Bond cards are very familiar with the concept. Both nine-card expansions take nine boxes (with ideal collation) to assemble the sets. The expansion cards are replicated with parallels (red and gold, found two and one per case, respectively) and they are very average parallel cards. The parallels are individually numbered, which is nice, but it does not make them "pop" any more than the original cards.

There are three bonus card sets where the components are found one in every other box: 6 Shadowbox cards, 5 Avengers Origins cards, and 9 Heroes & Villains Expansion cards. While the Shadowbox cards are incredible, overthick trading cards with a beautiful three-dimensional quality to them, the other two chase sets are somewhat unextraordinary. Here, however, is an excellent place to stop and take note of one of the wonderful aspects of the 2014 Marvel Universe trading cards. Virtually every box of the 2014 Marvel Universe trading cards has exceptional inherent value to it. While Rittenhouse Archives only guarantees a common set and a sketch card in each box, every box I opened also included two of the chase cards that were found one in every other box or a chase card with higher rarity (like the parallels to the chase cards or the Diamond parallel).

The 2014 Marvel Universe set is the first of three Marvel Comics trading card sets from Rittenhouse Archives released in 2014 to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Marvel Comics. In the 2014 Marvel Universe trading cards, there are twenty-five Marvel 75th Anniversary cards. These cards are reminiscent of the Marvel Comics trading cards from the 1990s with big, full-bleed artwork featuring character "paintings" of major Marvel Comics characters. Each of these cards is limited to 75 (and individually numbered on the back) and they were found two per case in the 2014 Marvel Universe set. They look amazing!

The grail of comic book based trading cards these days are the sketch cards and the 2014 Marvel Universe cards are no exception. 138 artists contributed unique, hand-drawn sketch cards for the 2014 Marvel Universe trading card set and they are, as one might expect, a truly mixed bag, based on the artist and their choice of subject. While fan favorite artists like Rhiannon Owens, Mick Glebe, Jomar Bulda, Jofel B. Cube, and Elvin A. Hernandez contributed, there has been a surprising lack of interest in the collector's market for sketch cards from this set. After opening a couple of cases, I was surprised by how few exciting, high-quality sketch cards were in the set. It was as if the artists who contributed were experiencing sketch card fatigue and the market responded with indifference. To be fair, Out of three cases, I pulled sketched from none of the "a-list" sketch card artists who contributed to the set. That said, in researching the set, there were no sketch cards I saw that made me actually say "wow." I was most impressed by a Marcio Cabreira sketch I pulled featuring Ultron's army; the level of detail was exceptional. Rittenhouse Archives has not provided any data on the rarity of each artist's sketch cards, so fans who are trying to complete the set would seem to have a fairly good chance at completing their sets even now.

Non-Box/Pack Cards

As with most "modern" trading card releases - certainly the ones from Rittenhouse Archives - not all of the cards needed to make a true master set are available in the boxes of these trading cards. In this set, there are ninety-one cards exclusive to the archive box and an additional six cards that cannot be found in the boxes. The archive boxes possess a ninety-card Ruby parallel set that yet again recreates the common set, this time with a red background for the comic book card. Each card in this set is numbered to 50, though archive boxes do not contain matching number sets. Also in the archive box is an exclusive oversized sketch card by popular sketch card artist Meghan Hetrick.

There is the usual promo card which foreshadowed the series release which is common enough to find (P1). There is also a card exclusive to the 2014 Marvel Universe trading card binder. Both promotional cards remain fairly well-available in the secondary market.

The remaining four cards are the casetopper, the multicase incentive cards and the Rittenhouse Rewards card. The casetopper is a simple lenticular card of Bishop and Apocalypse. This is a surprisingly lackluster casetopper, which might explain why it has depreciated significantly in the secondary market.

The multicase incentive sketch cards, however, are highly coveted and very cool, having generally high value even now. Artist Anthony Tan contributed a sketch card that was given to dealers with every 6-case purchase and comic book artist Melike Acar had the nine-case incentive card. Every one of the incentive cards I've seen has featured incredible artwork, though some of the subjects of the sketch cards are more obscure than popular.

The final card for the 2014 Marvel Universe set is a Rittenhouse Rewards card. Available only by redeeming wrappers with Rittenhouse Archives, there is the AD19 Artist Draft card. It adds a tenth card to the nine-card set (which is irksome from a collector's perspective as trading card pages are nine-card pages) and follows the format to the Artist Draft set perfectly with the cover of Dark Avengers #1. It is not a terribly exciting card, but the wrapper "cost" is not very high, so it tends to leave collectors generally pleased with it.

Overall

The 2014 Marvel Universe trading card set is nice, but repetitive. It's a tough sell as it relies upon so many other sets for understanding and appreciating its full value - whatwith so many of the bonus cards simply continuing or expanding prior sets. The set is oppressive to try to collect, but it looks beautiful when it is collected. In other words, it is an out-of-balance set that, rather miraculously, balances out . . . at least for the ten collectors who can make an absolute master set of them!

For reviews of other Marvel or comic book-themed trading cards, please check out my reviews of:
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 trading cards
DC Comics Super-Villains trading cards
Spider-Man Archives SD09 Promotional Card

5/10

For other trading card reviews, be sure to check out my Trading Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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More Complicated Than Fun: Lego Marvel Super Heroes Disappoints!

The Good: Fun, Challenging, Moments of coolness
The Bad: Very glitchy, Camera perspective issues, Overly complicated
The Basics: Lego Marvel Super Heroes is a tougher game to play and win than most of the Lego based video games, especially because the game freezes up periodically!


My wonderful wife has been working hard the last few years to get me to relax. Over the last year, she had gotten me a handful of video games and some of them have truly tickled me. Based on her success with keeping me engaged with LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (reviewed here!), she recently picked me up the Playstation 3 version of LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. Unfortunately, unlike the other Lego video games she has gotten me, the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes did not land. In addition to being surprisingly glitchy - the game freezes up at some key moments - the game is much more complicated than it is fun, mostly because of characters the player is forced to play with on the various levels.

Basics

Lego Marvel Super Heroes is a video game that encompasses most of the Marvel universe, uninhibited by the various companies that have rights to different Marvel properties. As a result, the players are able to play Avengers, X-Men, Spider-Man and memvers of the Fantastic Four, as well as the full array of Marvel villains from Dr. Doom to Loki! The entire Marvel universe is recreated in LEGO form, though it occurs mostly in and above New York City. Animated with the joint structure of Lego mini-figures, one or two players team up and run around New York City, as seen through the lens of the Marvel Universe.

Almost exclusively focused on the characters of Marvel Universe, players run around shooting, jumping, using telekinesis, slinging webs and using magnetic powers to achieve goals and kill minions being used by the major villains. With the destruction of each minion, Lego pieces explode and change to coins. Players collect coins to purchase new characters as they are unlocked as the game progresses. By using the left and right keys, one may toggle between the characters they have available and as one becomes more adept in the game, it helps to assemble a team that allows the player to toggle between mutants, shooters, telekinetics, and diggers. The first time through each level, players are forced to use between one and four specific characters, without the ability to create a team of one's choice.

After the successful completion of a level, the player may replay levels to find minikit pieces and rescue Stan Lee (who is on each level needing rescue, but is often behind an obstacle for which a different character is required). In the free play mode, the character may wander more and find things at their own pace, as well as enjoy levels outside of a time limit or imminent threat.

Story

Set in the Marvel universe, the essential plot of LEGO Marvel Super Heroes focuses on the heroes trying to stop a cadre of super-villains in advance of an attack by Galactus. The Silver Surfer arrives on Earth where his board is fragmented and the cosmic bricks becomes objects that the super-villains are obsessed with collecting. The various X-Men, Marvel geniuses, Avengers and vigilantes work to try to stop the villains and collect all the Cosmic Bricks before the villains can harness their power!

Game Progression

Lego Marvel Super Heroes is a pretty straightforward video game with a view that is usually slightly back from the character the player is playing. The net effect is that the view is like being followed around by a camera, as opposed to a first-person shooter style game. The perspective issue actually becomes problematic at times when the “camera” does not follow the view of the player. Sometimes, that means that players cannot actually take advantage of the bonuses that come up on screen because the line of sight is blocked by other characters (usually, this happens when one is jumping off the helicarrier).

Lego Marvel Super Heroes also have levels where the perspective is back away from the various characters. That causes problems when characters have to move into the background, but there are objects that block the view. On several levels, there are points where one has to try the bomb or throwing object highlights just to see what is on the level!

Effects

The Lego Marvel Super Heroes game was designed for high definition systems, like the Playstation 3 (reviewed here!). We played it on the Playstation 3 connected to our Sony Bravia HD TV (reviewed here!) and it looked and sounded good. Directions from Agent Coulson are essential to hear and throughout the game, they are clear and audible. The figures have an unsurprisingly blockish form to them, which makes sense because they are Lego renditions of the characters. The backgrounds and buildings, however, are more impressive in the way they are represented.

The sound effects are accurate to the sound effects from the Marvel Cinematic Universe's films. When things are destroyed, though they sound like Lego blocks rattling around.

Replayability

Because Lego Marvel Super Heroes has the linear narrative and the free play available for each level, but given how frustrating most of the levels are because of the characters one is forced to play with, it is hard to want to go back to replay the levels with the ideal character combinations. Moreover, if one wanders around New York City between levels, the holographic Agent Coulson that guides a player to the next obstacle has a tendency to disappear. It is easy to get lost between levels and waste a lot of time trying to remember where one is supposed to be headed. Unfortunately, to unlock more bonus levels and earn all of the gold bricks, one must go back and do better, find quest objects hidden throughout, and earn more money.

Overall

The Lego Marvel Super Heroes is frequently problematic with the perspective and the game freezes up on multiple levels. Between that and the sheer volume of tasks to complete after one has already won the main plot of the game, this is a Lego-based game that is not as accessible or enjoyable as the others I have tried.

For other Marvel products, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Marvel Universe She-Hulk Action Figure
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 trading cards
2014 Hulk Smash! Hallmark Ornament

4/10

For other video game reviews, please check out my Software Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Avengers In, Avengers Out, Avengers In Again: The Avengers: Age Of Ultron Barely Reaches Average!

The Good: Performances are fine, Generally good direction
The Bad: Unrelenting effects sequences/splintered cast makes for a strangely underdeveloped couple of hours.
The Basics: With The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Joss Whedon has a rare stumble into mediocrity that advances the Marvel Cinematic Universe into a particularly unthrilling direction.


I have been worried lately that I will never again fall in love with a new work of art. I listen to a lot of music, watch and review a lot of television and movies and I try to experience food on multiple levels when I am introduced to new culinary delights. Having critical standards has led to a number of conversations around my house between my wife and I. She has voiced a concern that my idea of a "perfect film" is virtually unattainable and when I spend a significant amount of time after a viewing trying to find something wrong with a movie just to not give it a perfect ten, I am actually delivering a contrived rating that works to deny perfection, as opposed to celebrate it.

With The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, I fear no such contrivance. The Avengers: Age Of Ultron was easily the film I was most unabashedly excited about seeing this year, so it was the one I was also at the greatest risk of rating high based on prejudice in favor of the film. The irony for me is that X-Men: Days Of Future Past (reviewed here!) last year came with so much less hype and delivered such a vastly superior film that I was not genuinely prepared for how mediocre The Avengers: Age Of Ultron actually was.

To his credit, Joss Whedon had a herculean task at hand when he penned and directed The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. The Avengers: Age Of Ultron is a sequel to Whedon's The Avengers (reviewed here!) and the marketing department at Marvel Entertainment/Disney has worked overtime to leak its forthcoming schedule of Marvel films. Joss Whedon had to try to top a superhero team origin story that brought together disparate heroes and made them into a group that could fight a single villain and his incredible army. Where do you go after that?

The problem Whedon faced conceptually within the narrative of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was that he had one film to introduce and defeat a new villain that could hold his own in the imagination of the viewer with Loki (the adversary from The Avengers), while servicing a sprawling cast of established heroes and making that work within the confines of the stories told since The Avengers. From a studio, practical moviemaking point of view, Whedon had to wrestle with reorganizing characters so the franchise could survive if significant actors decided to leave when their contracts came up and that meant adding new cast members to the mix. With all those pressures upon him, Whedon had to write an entertaining super hero story that could entertain and set up the next, known, installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

That's a lot of balls in the air for anyone and the only real hope for the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes in the promises made outside the actual film The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Writer/Director Joss Whedon has promised that The Avengers: Age Of Ultron will have a slew of deleted scenes and unseen footage when it drops on Blu-Ray. One has to hope that there will be a director's cut because as it is, The Avengers: Age Of Ultron is something of a mess.

At the core of my issue with watching The Avengers: Age Of Ultron is the fact that so much of it felt like it had been done before that I kept waiting for the movie to begin, to get engaging, to thrill me, to show me something new, to surprise me, to . . . well, you get the picture; I just kept repeating and rephrasing things without actually saying anything fundamentally new. The Avengers: Age Of Ultron feels a lot like that. In fact, were one to do a double-feature, one suspects that if one dozed off at any point in the Chitauri attack on New York City in The Avengers and awoke at virtually any point in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, they would feel like they were in the same movie.

The Avengers: Age Of Ultron goes from one sprawling, fast-paced, CG-encrusted action sequence to another to another to another with breaks that are surprisingly uninteresting. Much of The Avengers: Age Of Ultron is like watching The Avengers blended with outtakes or b-roll footage from Iron Man 3 (reviewed here!). It is chaotic, warlike, easy to lose track of and takes a long time to get through before it gets to anything truly good. And in the quiet, character-building moments, The Avengers: Age Of Ultron focuses on the least-impressive Avenger, belabors the set-up to Captain America: Civil War and entirely jerks the audience around. We'll come back to that.

What is it about? The Avengers: Age Of Ultron follows in the wake of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (reviewed here!) with The Avengers - Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and the Hulk - working to clean-up the problems left in the world from the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. In Sokovia, they hit upon the motherload: Baron Strucker and Dr. List have a laboratory where they have the scepter Loki used, along with corpses of Chitauri vessels and two powerful (for lack of a better term) metahumans. When the Avengers break in to put an end to the H.Y.D.R.A. lab, the twins Pietro (who has superspeed, much like The Flash) and Wanda Maximoff (who is not actually magical, but has the ability to influence neurons in the brain to make people see things and has telekinetic powers over matter and energy) escape. As the battle for the H.Y.D.R.A. base is winding down, Wanda returns and uses her powers on Tony Stark, who sees a nightmarish image of the Earth under attack by legions of the creature/ships that attacked New York City with the Chitauri.

Their mission successful and the scepter recovered, the Avengers return to New York City and Avengers Tower where they plan to put the problems that have been lingering behind them. The recovery of the scepter will allow Thor to return it to Asgard and remove the lingering influence of Loki from Earth, the destruction of Strucker's organization and lab effectively decimates S.H.I.E.L.D.'s biggest enemy (which removes a big psychic burden from Captain America). Only Tony Stark is not over-the-moon thrilled about the campaign. While studying the scepter, Stark realizes that the glowing piece at its tip is not a brainwashing device, but rather a complex program or neural network, comparable to (but vastly more complex and alien than) Jarvis (Stark's A.I.). He pitches an idea to Dr. Bruce Banner; they can use the alien a.i. in their mothballed planetary defense project, Ultron. Bypassing the rest of the group, Stark and Banner activate the alien intelligence and then go off to a party celebrating the victory of the Avengers over the Earth's enemies. While they party, the alien a.i. kills Jarvis and takes control of the Avengers's robotic army (a collection of flight suits much like those in Iron Man 3, which are now serviced through Avengers Headquarters).

After the main party, the a.i. reveals itself as Ultron by attacking the Avengers using the Avengers robots. Calling for human evolution through the extinction of the Avengers, Ultron disappears into every computer on earth when his robotic body is compromised, but in the attack, his forces make off with the scepter. Needless to say, the other Avengers are pissed at Stark and Banner (especially Thor, who now has to try to find and recover the scepter yet again!) and they soon become terrified that Ultron will break into computers that have nuclear launch codes and obliterate the Earth. Ultron makes a new body and heads with the Maximoff twins (who want nothing more than revenge upon Tony Stark for the death of their family) to the African nation of Wakanda. There, Ultron acquires Vibranium he needs for his nefarious plan and when the Avengers track him down, they are set upon by Wanda and Pietro. Wanda influences Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk before she is stopped by Hawkeye. Shaken, the team retreats to a safe house where they try to figure out what UItron wants and how to stop him. Their brainstorming leads them to Dr. Helen Cho's skin-growth machine where Ultron is attempting to create the entity that will be the downfall of the Avengers. But in the process, Wanda sees Ultron's plan and his idea of peace comes through an extinction-level event and she (and her brother) are forced to choose sides in the battle for the fate of the planet.

Writing out the plot for The Avengers: Age Of Ultron actually makes the movie sound really interesting and engaging. On screen, it didn't seem as awesome, though (much like the way some of the plots to Star Trek: Enterprise sound pretty good, but then when one turns on the show and the characters start talking, the dialogue and acting are so bad, it doesn't matter what is going on, the show is virtually unwatchable the way it tries to tell the story). The film opens with a big battle, montage/regroup/party, post-party battle, characters argue, Wakanda battle, moody safe house scene, extended climactic battle. It's a lot of fighting. And, try as he might, Joss Whedon and the special effects department don't have a lot they can do that hasn't been mined by The Avengers and Iron Man 3 (Whedon had a real disadvantage in that Ultron's robot army is basically made up of shiny silver Iron Man-style suits).

So, it comes down to character. Tony Stark gets one or two quips (they've been in the trailers), Bruce Banner is predictably conflicted, and Nick Fury pops up for a dramatic speech just at the right time. But Ultron never pops - he's General Grievous from Revenge Of The Sith (reviewed here!) meets any generic Decepticon. Ultron is the real shock; he's such a monolithic villain. Even James Spader voicing him cannot make him seem less generic and, therefore, entirely un-frightening. Will The Avengers unite to find a way to stop Ultron? Gosh, I hope so. Come to think of it, if they just crashed the world's power grid long enough for every computer in the world to actually shut down, wouldn't that have stopped him?! The point being, it would be a surprise if the Avengers couldn't stop Ultron more than any real revelation that they can.

Of the new characters, that leaves Wanda, Pietro, Vision, and Laura. Wanda and Pietro are motivated by a sense of revenge that is adequately explained in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. It's not so satisfactorily explained to make viewers feel satisfied when Pietro doesn't kill Tony Stark in the film's first twelve minutes. Seriously; Pietro stands, watching the completely vulnerable Tony Stark take possession of the scepter when all he had to do was run over at super-speeds, kill his family's mortal enemy . . . movie over. Vision is engaging to watch, but is just about as generic as Ultron. And Laura . . .

. . . Laura gives Joss Whedon an excuse to keep Hawkeye in the mix in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Hawkeye is, as the film openly acknowledges, an archer in a team that includes a super soldier, a demigod, a trained assassin, a raging lab experiment, and an armored weapon equivalent to a small army. So, Hawkeye is given a sudden, abrupt, backstory and when the Avengers arrive at Laura's safe house, it humanizes the archer and gives the viewer an emotional root. And Whedon uses all the momentum with Hawkeye to set up one of his famous reversals and it would be truly nitpicky to say that doesn't work. Whedon pulls off his final-act reversal with Hawkeye and that is one of the few treats of The Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

Of the big three (Thor, Iron Man and Captain America), The Avengers: Age Of Ultron is unfortunately fractured. One has to guess that a number of the scenes Whedon could put back into the film center around Thor and his large chunk of time away from The Avengers entering the mysterious pool and leading to the resolution that brings him back. Thor sits out a surprising and significant chunk of The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. That gives Tony Stark and Steve Rogers a lot of time on screen to disagree. Rogers is, reasonably, pissed because Tony Stark does in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron exactly what Pierce did in Captain America: The Winter Soldier; he tried to anticipate world problems and stop them before they ever occur. Stark's characterization here makes sense: he is reeling from fear that Earth cannot protect itself and he doesn't want to debate with the team the merits of having a global defense system. When it goes wrong, Rogers climbs off his high horse to yell at him and Stark yells back. But the conflict between Stark and Rogers never quite boils up to the level where it would create a credible schism to result in Captain America: Civil War. In fact, while the conflict between Stark and Rogers is essential for that, Whedon takes a big crap on the writer who has to create that film with where he leaves Stark. And while Rogers moralizes, he's essentially the same guy we've been seeing. This time, he's already so disillusioned from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s actions in The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, he doesn't seem particularly surprised when one of his teammates screws him (and humanity) over.

The other big character arc in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron is just a colossal mindfuck for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After finally figuring out how to make The Hulk interesting and truly work, The Avengers: Age Of Ultron belabors a romantic relationship between Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow). Mortgaging the chemistry Romanoff and Rogers developed throughout Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Avengers: Age Of Ultron teases a "will they or won't they" through most of the film. The result is particularly unsatisfying, if for no other reason than that Joss Whedon (who is both incredibly intelligent and remarkably personable, at least in interviews!) perpetrates the stereotype that incredibly smart people are emotional idiots. Bruce Banner can be absolutely brilliant, but to offset that, he can't have enough emotional maturity to face his demons, ask for help, or accept the compassion and love of someone who fits him surprisingly well.

The acting in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron is good. But, that's it. The Avengers: Age Of Ultron is not bursting with big emotional scenes that allow the actors to actually do much in the way of stretching. In fact, newcomer (to the franchise) Elizabeth Olsen is given the character with the biggest emotional journey. Wanda transitions from angry to triumphant (her smile at seeing Tony Stark shaken after she mojos him is wonderful) to horrified when she realizes Ultron's plan is embodied well by Olsen's performance. Olsen has good emotional range for her eyes, posture and body language to sell the conflicted emotional states of Wanda well. Sadly, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is not given as much in the way of big moments to make Pietro pop.

So, Joss Whedon had a tough task with The Avengers: Age Of Ultron and the fact that he has already said there is much more to the movie than viewers will see in the theaters virtually guarantees a time when he admits that the theater version is not the film he intended to make. The Avengers: Age Of Ultron contains noticeable narrative gaps, some troubling gaffes and a "ho-hum this is *supposed to be* adventure" feel to it that makes one wonder if more will actually be better when the longer version is eventually revealed.

5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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