 Hey everyone, welcome to another exciting episode of A Week in Geekdom here on YouTube. My name is Giovanni Menendez and today we're going to review the Thanos Oversized Hardcover from Donnie Cates and Company. This is pretty spectacular. Welcome back guys and today we're going to be taking a look at this beautiful oversized hardcover collecting issues 13-18 of the Thanos series. The first annual Cosmic Ghostwriter 1-5 and Thanos Legacy No. 1. This is written by a ton of people and I'm just going to name them off the back of the book because there's way too many people involved here. Donnie Cates, Jeff Shaw, Dylan Burnett, Antonio Fabella, list goes on and on and on of the multiple talented people that worked on this book. And if you have no idea what this book is about, do not worry. You do not need to know much beforehand. You just need to know the facts that Thanos is sort of like this cosmic juggernaut of the Marvel history. And this is finally the tale of his long-awaited victory over the universe, if you will. The story first began with 12 issues written by Jeff Lemire and they were pretty fantastic. I did an overview review on the first book. I thought that first volume was a little bit too dramatic for its own good or something along those lines, whereas this book finds that sweet balance between an action epic and a moving kick-ass story at the same time. Donnie Cates exploded into the scene with his Thanos material, but beforehand he had done stuff over an image, etc. But Thanos was the book that everybody went, huh, Donnie Cates, he might be onto something. Now I didn't really care too much about Thanos, yes he is one of my favorite cosmic characters, but going into the story, I didn't know I needed this book until I read it. I thought it was just going to be another run of the mill storyline of this character, but what we get is an introspective look at a character that's more of an instrument of destruction, sort of like a powerful hurricane that forms up and just comes to town to wreck stuff and leaves and you don't know what happened. Usually that's the case with Thanos stories. And with this, you don't really need to read anything else, even though it's issue 13, it's sort of like a standalone story called Thanos wins, I guess, where the character gets dragged from his current timeline, the present Marvel timeline, into the far future, like I think it was thousands or millions of years, something like that, into the future where he meets an older King Thanos. And if you're wondering why that happened, well the book lets you know. It's a very quick story. But like I said, it's very analytical of the character and what he has gone through. Along the way, you meet the character of the Cosmic Ghost Rider. Now when that character first showed up, it was sort of like this mystery, who the heck was the Cosmic Ghost Rider? I tried not to spoil myself with the story, but you know how the internet is, and eventually I read it somewhere on mistake, whatever, but it's a pretty cool reveal. If you have no idea who the character is, once it happens, you're like, huh, that is pretty clever, that makes sense that somewhere along the line he would get twisted like that and become this version of the Ghost Rider persona. So without going too much into detail, those six issues that explore sort of what makes Thanos who he is in the future and the present, and all the versions of the character is pretty freaking spectacular. I didn't think I was going to like it like I said at the beginning, but I ended up really sympathizing over the character and what he has gone through and his quest to satisfy death and finally win her approval. But when you find out why the older version of Thanos summons are the current one that we know, it's pretty interesting. There are some shocking twists that this cover image might give you a hint as to what is happening in the book, but overall it's a fun, action-packed, epic storyline about a character that previously you knew him as a brute and yeah, there have been stellar writing from Starlin and many other writers that have tried to dissect what makes sort of this Overlord character so endearing after so many decades in the Marvel Universe. And I do believe Donnie finds a sweet spot of where there is a little bit of compassion, but at the same time you know that this guy is just a terrible character, like terrible in the sense that he's evil, not that he's a bad character. But he, you know, the things that he's done and he will do and just the fact that for example Minor Spoilers, he has the ghostwriter do the pen and stare so that he can relive all his glorious deeds which are horrible atrocities if you look at him, just tells you something about the character plus his fascination with death and really the essence of the character is reduced to something of a necessity. I made the joke about him being a hurricane, but I don't think that's too far off because aside from cameos and big storyline events, the character isn't used a ton. Like he's usually reserved for like a big heavy storyline or a big crossover. You don't see him on every single issue. Now yeah, that might have changed post the Marvel movies and all that stuff, but it tended to be like that I would like to think. But Kate is able to work the mentality of this character and find a way to show us what it would take for a bad guy to win and at what cost. Plus, the art by Jeff Shaw is immaculate. I loved it so much. It's very expressive, very freaking badass. Literally if I take off the dust jacket, it features one of my favorite images right there. Seriously, that is pretty freaking spectacular. And the art in it is just raw and visceral and the fights are brutal and everything looks pretty freaking epic like seriously. This is one of my favorite panels from the book and you can see both of them as well as a loving statue tribute to death. It is sort of a minor spoiler, but you will find out eventually why these two guys are fighting each other or why he's fighting himself, but just look at how raw and intense everything is in this book. It's just turned up to 11. Shaw pulls no punches, man. It looks pretty freaking stunning in my honest opinion. Plus the colors, even though it's set in the far future and it's very post-apocalyptic, the colors are very indicative of that, but they are very expressive at the same time. Pretty damn colorful, especially when your freaking bad guy is purple, right? The Cosmic Ghostwriter design is pretty fantastic. I love his art. I love the art style used for it. And here's what I meant by the action being so literally popping. Look at that. That is awesome. Big ol' boom across the splash page. In my honest opinion. Also, I was a little bit disappointed with the gutter loss because you cannot see Thanos' face. Look at that. That looks terrible. Overall, a fantastic story. Now, you're probably wondering, hey, this book is thicker than just six issues. And you're right. It does contain the annual, which I thought was a complete waste of time. I will be completely honest with you guys. I did not care for that annual. Yeah, it kind of maybe moves the story along just a tiny inch or two, but overall, it's just a random assortment of Thanos stories, which I guess, you know, you could say like, oh, that's pretty freaking cool. But they're so uneven compared to the main storyline where I thought, man, do I really need to know about a Chibi Thanos? And let me look this up. I mean, you also had this Frasier Irving story. It gets all sci-fi trippy with that wonderful artwork. I'll give you that. That was pretty awesome. There's a Young Gamora storyline, which I thought sort of, you know, it gives you more insight into their relationship. But here, here is Chibi Thanos, which I will be completely honest with you guys. Even though I like the idea and it's pretty fun and funny at the same time, it has no business being in the middle of the book when you have something like this, which is so raw and visceral in the way it's drawn and stuff. Yeah, I didn't really like it that much, but it does further the story along for the Cosmic Ghostwriter, which leads into his mini-series. It was five issues, the Cosmic Ghostwriter stuff, I liked it. I thought it was pretty decent. I like the idea of continuing that character, even though he's supposed to be sort of like this anomaly, now he's in the main Marvel Universe. People really like the character. He's awesome. The book delves into the psychology of that twisted persona and what the character has become. And I thought, for the most part, it was handled pretty freaking well. It does go into some really weird, yet awesome territory with a certain baby that I thought was really cool. I actually really enjoyed that. It was a blast, almost all the way through. The art in it was really wild and crazy. It reminded me of reading something like Invincible, very stylized. I really enjoyed it. And definitely, I mean, you can sort of see the influence right there. It sort of does remind me of that. So that was good. It furthered the story along and the character was further developed because, you know, it was such a crazy introduction to the Cosmic Ghostwriter, a perfect way to get people accustomed to this new character is to, you know, explore his background a little bit and how he came to be. And just the idea that he made three deals with the devil, if you will, to get to where he is at the current moment, I thought that was extremely fascinating. Really loved that. And then to cap things off with this book, you get, what's the name of this? The Thanos Legacy Issue, which to my understanding, it was part of the renumbering when the Marvel Legacy stuff was happening. Basically, it's a short issue that sets up Thanos' involvement in the current Marvel series that are happening with the Cosmic stuff. Plus, it also explains what happened at the end of the Thanos win storyline and how that story ended the way it did. The Legacy one shot explains all of that and sets up the future to the stuff that's ongoing right now, which I have not read. So you can read this book by itself. You're not going to be lost. You're going to enjoy it. Kick-ass action, fantastic character designs and arts and all that stuff. Pretty fricking badass. I'm very happy that I read it before. You know, Thanos was sort of like this cosmic juggernaut. But with this book, you learn a little bit more about the character and you learn something new every day and what ticks in his head. And it may not be what everybody wants, but it's still a really fantastic look at a character that has been such an important part of the cosmic scene for so many years for Marvel Comics as a whole, that I thought, you know, what an explosive way, a dynamic, fun, interesting way for Donny Cates to make his debut, if you will, especially with a run like this. So do I recommend it? Hell, fricking yeah, you should read it. You can get the trade. I don't necessarily think you need. Well, the legacy issue is kind of important, but the cosmic ghost writer and the annual their extras, in my opinion, the main bulk. You can you can get it with the trade paper bag. But if you want to go all out and get the deluxe edition, again, the oversized hardcover, I should say, then yeah, go ahead and pick it up. Just fantastic. Antonio Fabella and Dylan Burnett. I forgot to mention these two. Yeah, the art in it is wonderful. Just overall a great examination of the mad Titan and just what makes him who he is. It was awesome. I liked it. Very kickass, epic and sort of like grandiose in scale for a character like this. Have you read the Thanos win storyline? Tell me what you thought down below. If you haven't read it, tell me what is your favorite Thanos centric storyline in the Marvel universe? Guys, as always, thank you so much for liking, commenting, subscribing to We Can Keep Them Here on YouTube. 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