Teen Titans- The hunt for Raven

The hunt for Raven is a graphic novel that is held at Menai and Sutherland libraries. This graphic novel collects the "Teen Titans" comics numbers 79 to 87.

This book covers two separate storylines- one leads into the other. The first story beings with Virgil aka "Static" leaving the team to go back to his home town when he learns that a virus is causing havok there. As soon as Static gets to his home town he starts fighting crime, but eventually gets in to more trouble than he can handle. Meanwhile the rest of the "Teen Titans" debate amongst themselves as to whether they should have gone with Static. By the time they make up their minds, it might already be too late....
The next few issues in this story arc centre on the Teen Titan's search for Static and Static's own story. Near the end of the story though, things get interesting as the writers throw the reader a curve ball by bringing back a couple of Teen Titans who regular readers thought had "retired". The first story is quite enjoyable, however, I believe that the return of the two missing Teen Titans could have been handled better. It seems strange that the rest of the Teen Titans aren't asking them lots of questions upon their return such as "where were you?".

The second story in this collection revolves around the kidnapping of the Teen Titan called Raven. The rescue turns out to be a difficult task as it turns out that she has been taken to another dimension! In order to activate a doorway to the other dimension, the team splits into two with "Aquagirl" & "Bombshell" going into the ocean to activate the doorway while the others, led by the team leader, Cassie, head through.
Of course, the team that goes through the doorway soon learns that just finding Raven is going to be very challenging in itself. While Cassie's team fights their enemies in the alternate dimension, Aquagirl & Bombshell also manage to find trouble in the ocean. After the ensuing battles at least one of the Teen Titans will lose their powers- permanently!
The art in a graphic novel can make or break the enjoyment for a lot of readers and I am happy to report that it appears that all of the art is consistent and very clear and adds to the story's enjoyment (at least in this readers humble opinion!).
I would recommend this collection to anyone looking for some light escapist entertainment.
-Michael

Teen Titans- The hunt for Raven

Ultimate Iron Man II by Orson Scott Card

This is the sequel to “Ultimate Iron Man” so it is recommended that you read that before this. Ultimate Iron Man II originally appeared over the course of 5 months in Marvel comics and is presented here in collected form as 5 chapters. This story features Tony Stark as a young adult in another action packed adventure.

At the beginning of the story, we learn that somebody wants to kill Howard Stark (Tony’s father) even though he is in prison. Tony then sets about trying to find out who is behind the evil plot. Along the way Tony also has to deal with a group of terrorists who have stolen one or more nuclear bombs. On more than one occasion, Tony finds his regenerative abilities very handy in getting him out of a tight situation.

In the last chapter, we will finally get to meet the person with the grudge against Tony Stark and his father and we learn that they will stop at nothing to get their hands on Tony’s “Iron Man” suit of armour. The author keeps us guessing as to the fate of the major characters right up to the end of the story.

If you like graphic novels and if you liked the first “Ultimate Iron Man” you will like this story.

Ultimate Iron Man II by Orson Scott Card

X-Men the onslaught saga: book 4 (graphic novel)

This is the final volume of the “onslaught” saga- the library has the first three volumes as well. In this volume we see the heroes of the Marvel universe confront “Onslaught” one final time. However, at the end of the day a high price will be paid in order to achieve victory.

This book is divided into two parts- the first part deals with the final battle with “Onslaught” & the second part deals with the aftermath of the battle. The first part is a high quality story as you are drawn in to see if the heroes will prevail in their battle against “Onslaught”. The second part, however, is a big let down, as the stories attempt to deal with how Cable and especially Professor X find the will to continue on after facing their personal demons. It would have been hard for the best writers to try to keep the reader focused after the final “Onslaught” showdown anyway.

The illustrations are a major part of any graphic novel and the illustrations throughout this story are all excellent- having poor illustrations in a book really affects the enjoyment of the story.

As a final treat the publisher has included a feature called X-Men: Road to Onslaught at the end which goes into some detail into how the creature called “Onslaught” was born.
I would recommend Onslaught: the complete epic to anybody who enjoys Marvel comics, especially the X-Men.

X-Men the onslaught saga: book 4 (graphic novel)