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Chapter 1, Street Justice, for lower PL games has a few interesting ideas, but it pretty much seems aimed at beginners and people who've never read Batman or Daredevil, or who've never watched a cop drama on DVD or TV. The much-mentioned villain the Monkey is kind of ho-hum. The lack of a box detailing NdT is a bit annoying. The villains Death and Taxes are just silly, lacking any real depth beyond being motivated to beat up superhumans. The Meek are most interesting, and fit in with GR's continuing stereotyping of conservatives and people of faith as unreasoning bigots and/or killers. The two other villains, Esquire and the Scarlet Lady, are okay, and could see using both as recurring threats in a low-PL game. The art in this section is generally good.
Chapter 2, Against the Gods, which deals with themes limited entirely to Greek/Roman mythology, really didn't do much for me. The art was kind of clunky, especially the pictures of Hercules, Ulysses, and Achilles, which almost appear to be the same person in three different outfits. Also, why PL 10 Achilles's Protection +10, Super-Constitution +7, and Armor +8 is a bit much given stacking limits. (These kinds of apparent errors creep into stat blocks throughout the book.)
Chapter 3, Legacy, is one of the stronger genre chapters. It deals with heroes who pick up the mantle laid down by a previous generation's hero, such as the host of comic book characters with a Roman numeral II or greater after their names. The NPC heroes are, by and large, interesting, but some of their descriptions seem to have gotten the short shrift. The historical gaffe with Lady Celtic is, I feel, made up for by the inclusion of the White Rose, a clear reference to the ultimately unsuccessful anti-Nazi pacificist movement in Germany. The art here is generally good, although Spitfire Jones looks decidedly Asian, which is strange given his British background.
Chapter 4, Freedom League, is so-so. By this point in time, I'm thinking the book has way to many stat blocks for NPC heroes and not enough villains. Also, as has been alluded to, the stat blocks in this section so show problems as well. I think that this is, in part, due to the format choices. For example, listing all powers and their relevant details as one sentence with semi-colons works well for someone like Black Avenger, who has few powers. For NPCs with longer power lists, the one-sentence format is a bit confusing, making it difficult to tell where one power ends and the next begins.
Chapter 5, Claremont Academy, is the second weakest genre chapter of the book. This is because I think the whole teenage angst, we hate mutants, X-pun team name schtick has been thoroughly done to death. It's time for people to finally stop beating this particular dead horse. The mutant academy motif is my least favorite genre for comics, but Against the Gods still comes in a bit worse since Chapter 5 has better art (although the figures are too stiff) and does include some good advice for people interested in running a teen hero campaign.
Chapter 6, Freedom City 2525, is, for me, the second strongest section after Legacy. It includes a good deal of info about future hero games, some decent artwork, a few villains (including the obligatory evil religious conservatives :rolleyes:). The Tyranny Legion has some dandy villains, but (amazingly!), not a single piece of artwork showing what they look like. This is glaring omission given their descriptions do not actually include any descriptions. What does Kalamus look like? I dunno.
The next chapter details power creation, and finally I reach a part of the book with some real utility. Careful study of Chapter 7 should help clear up a lot of those "how do extras, flaws, and power stunts work?" questions that so many people (myself included) have. I like the option for fractional power costs, which answers the question, "What happens if I flaw Amazing Save (Damage) and ignore the general rule that a power can't have a cost below 1 pp/rank?" It talks about partial extras, partial flaws, secondary effects with flaws and extras, and gives three detailed examples of power creation. The art in Chapter 7 is minimal and about average.
Chapter 8, Weaknesses, starts with an amusing Green Lantern/Green Arrow knock-off illustration. It introduces three levels of weaknesses for most weaknesses: minor (worth 2 pp), moderate (worth 5 pp), and major (worth 10 pp). It also throws in two new weaknesses: Antagonist and Suspicious. I personally don't think the game has much need for levels of weaknesses (except for the different types of Disabled), but I can see how many people will appreciate this chapter. The artwork in Chapter 8 is almost nonexistent.
Chapter 9, In Shining Armor Arrayed, details various types of powered armor. Out of the non-genre chapters, this is the second least useful to me. There's little in here I wouldn't have (or already haven't) come up with on my own. The new mechanical options are nice. The art is also very dynamic.
Chapter 10, Superhero Smackdown, is, for me, the least useful of all the chapters in the entire book. I'd have been quite happy if it had been excluded in favor of other material (such as pictures for the Tyranny Legion). I can't see that adding attacks of opportunity would do anything to improve M&M. None of the damage variants really caught my attention either. It all just seems like unnecessary, wargame-style complications that don't fit a supers game. The one thing I'd like to have seen was better use of knock-back, a comic book staple, but it doesn't merit mention.
Chapter 11, The Quality of Heroes, details an alternate hero point system in which heroes earn hero points for failures and setbacks during the adventure, making the heroes more heroic the more adversity they face. I like this chapter. It would need playtesting, but I think that this is the way hero points should've been done in the first place.
The book's final chapter presents 5 two-page capers. None of them are that spectacular, although. Three of them (Boosting the Booster (including yet more evil religious conservatives :rolleyes:), Clear for Launch, and Waxworks) are essentially the same plot. It's Rally Time, featuring Toy Boy and Sock'em Hockey Robots, is amusing. Walking in a Winter Wonder-Wasteland deserves fuller treatment in order to evoke the pathos of its features villain.
The Appendix includes the entire errata and corrections, which removes my need to buy the second printing of M&M. As always, an index would have been nice, but there isn't one. A book without an index is almost a crime against nature.
All in all, if Annual #1 were submitted to me as a school project, I'd give it a B to a B+.
