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First off the bad stuff (and there is not much)...
There are a couple of typos and/or grammatical errors here and there--including the funny-as-hell "it's a passing of the guard" comment in the opening comic strip (I think its either a changingof the guard, or a passing of the torch), and an improper use of "Repelling" in place of "Rappelling".
But this is nitpicking. The errors were small enough and innocuous enough to leave my enjoyment of the book untouched.
Space-wasters in the meat of the book include the "All Wigger" graffiti artists Tag Team (no black or Hispanic kid in there at all?...maybe I misunderstand the RL scene) and the "Shallow Teenage Girl" group, The Clique.
I suspect others may have use for them both, but they kind of fell on deaf ears here (Deaf Ears? Blind Eyes maybe? Ok...revoke my Metaphor License), but even this criticism is simply a statement of my personal preferences. Tag Team and The Clique are produced with the same care and attention that has clearly been lavished on the rest of the book.
Now, onto the good.
The art is--as usual--beautiful, Genre-appropriate and dynamic. I don't think there is a "dud" in the entire book art-wise (Ms. Martian's feet look funny, but, well, she's a alien...who am I to guess at alien physiology?)
If you think that M&M has previously done a good job with their art then you will not be disappointed. The work of Ramon Perezstands out to my eye as the most appealing, but again; we are talking subjective preferences vs. objective fact. Even the introductory comic is good (it makes The Pugilist, who I have been lukewarm on up until now, seem really cool).
Moving on, the first chapter is (for me) of incredible utility. A whole chapter on Mooks; the "hired help" that supervillains hire by the score. Thugs, Combat Droids, Vampire Minions, Spies, Ninjas, Sky Pirates, Cultists...and many, many more. This chapter is going to see a lot of use in my game.
The meat of the book, the CROOKS themselves are a really well-realized bunch. My main complaint about the old Champions material was that, by and large, the endless stream of villain books all seemed to be filled with characters that I could have thought of myself, but was too lazy to stat out.
This book is packed with really imaginative stuff (Though the absence of a more complete writeup on Gepetto, my favorite Iconic Baddie from the core book was kind of saddening).
Standouts in this chapter (IMO) are...
<*>Moodswing: For having the most innovative use of the M&M ruleset yet seen.
<*>Murder Man and Butcher Boy: For finally giving a good example of the sidekick feat in use.
<*>Beholder and Spasm: For showing us that disturbing content will make it into general Green Ronin releases.
<*>Czar, The Nihilist, and Iron Cross: For showing us that GR and SU understand that Soviets, Zombies, and Nazis have a guaranteed place in the genre, but can all be re-imagined and come out fresh:)
Anyway, moving on; the new rules for Villain Player Characters look cool. The feats are interesting and well-balanced, including total genre gems like Diplomatic Immunity and Human Shield as well as some nice examples of weaknesses appropriate to villains (Quirk: Braggart and Dull Witted for example)
Despite this being a "Villain" supplement, the rules for the Legal System (something that has been a long time coming in super-games IMO) will see use in my campaign even with PC's as heroes.
Finally...I love the glimpse we are given of Super Unicorn's META-4 Setting. I loved Freedom City; indeed, felt it was the best RPG product of any type last year, but if the META-4 setting is produced to the same quality standards that we've seen from M&M thus far, I suspect it will be a lot of folks (at least those who grew up in the same era of comics I did) default setting. It's history cleverly takes into account not only real-world politcal history, but th history of the comic book industry as well.
That pretty much tells the whole story. If you play M&M you owe it to yourself to grab this book.
...And by "Grab" I mean purchase:)
