Reviews

Storm Marvel

The new Storm Marvel came out last week and boy is it a beast. It was made with the somewhat popular Prodigy core and with the very popular Virtual Gravity cover stock, while both the Prodigy and Gravity were at 4000-grit finishes the Marvel comes out at a 2000-grit finish. I'll be the first to tell you that I was pretty sceptical about getting this ball especially after having the Prodigy and not being too happy with it at all, even when I shot 300 with it. For me the Prodigy did not live up to the Master Line, I expected less hook than anything in the Premier series and more hook than anything in the Thunder series; instead what I got was a $200 ball that was being out hooked by the Hy-Road and Reign Supreme, only thing I gave it was when it did hit in the pocket it hit pretty hard. Well after shooting 300 with the Reign Supreme on January 14, I decided that I should try a new ball with the decision being between the Marvel and the Victory Road; the Victory Road was too close to the other two, so that left the Marvel. With a deep breath I took it out of the box, laid it out with the usual pin up in the middle of my bridge and the cg kicked 1/2 an inch right and drilled it.

Well I finished drilling it about 5 minutes before league so there was no chance I was going to be able to throw it before I bowled. At my house, this is what goes on on a normal Saturday; the mechanics strip the lanes and put the normal house shot, so this is the only day that a clean back end is ever seen, but the only morning league takes up the low end of the house. The high end is barely used and after league is done cosmic starts with many parties bowling on that side; when 5 o'clock rolls by and that is over the mechanics come out and oil again only they don't strip the lanes. So now we have freshly oiled fronts with back ends flooded with the party carry down; a 36-37ft. house shot is now a 60ft. pattern of no hook whatsoever. In practice the ball went dead straight, "here we go again" popped up into my head, but by the end of warming up and after building in a track I had to start moving left. The whole first game was a battle, I couldn't keep the ball from hooking through the nose and had to keep moving and moving, I finished with a 219. The second game started out the same, but half way through I finally found that point where I was so far left that the ball could not over hook any more and struck out with 6 for 246. Now I just new I was going to tear up the next game, this ball was hooking way to well and hitting way too hard not to. I started out with a double, but that was quickly erased as I threw on the wrong side for #2, oops so it actually turned out to be strike spare. After that though I was dead on, I had the whole right side of the lane, it was amazing; if I missed outside of the 5 board it came screaming back to the pocket and if I missed inside of the 15 it held and all that energy saved not hooking was unleashed on the pins. I strung 8 in a row leading up to the 10th frame where I let go of my first shot knowing I threw a flat shot and sure enough there was my 10 pin I deserved. Spare strike and there was 259, finishing up the night with 724.

My second night throwing the ball didn't go too well, but to be honest I started drinking and really didn't care too much about scoring well, so we will just skip this part of the story.

Wednesday the 21st, was a much better day. I practiced a little before my afternoon class and couldn't wait to get back on the lanes after. 9 o'clock rolled around and I showed up just as league was finishing up, I heard many people complaining about how bad the lanes were, so this kinda made me start rethinking whether tonight was a good night to practice, but I'm not one to run away from tough conditions or one to just not bowl, I enjoy it too much. So my buddy and I got a pair and boy were they toasted on the outside, my very first ball went from 20 to 3 and hooked brooklyn for a strike, but the Marvel had no problem swinging the whole lane, it didn't die on its way back and it didn't hook up early. 11 bombed strikes later, we sit at the table staring up at my 5th career 300 game, 2nd one shot in practice. I used my Reign Supreme 2nd game and threw 244 and used my Natural Pearl for a 247 in the 3rd game for my highest ever series of 791, practice or not this was something I was pretty proud of.

The Marvel is an amazing ball, I am very happy with it and can't believe this is coming off a ball that in my opinion was a dud. This is the big hooking symmetrical ball that I have been looking for and while it wasn't a pearl like I was hoping for this dull serviced ball has quite a bit of skid and snap too it. I wish that I could get another to drill with the pin down to see how this ball reacts. I told my girlfriend and my friends that I would have been surprised if I didn't shoot 300 with this ball and sure enough I throw one barely 5 days after drilling it up. Anyone looking for a hard hooking, pin crushing, symmetric ball, look no further, this is exactly what you want, Storm in my opinion has redeemed itself and the Master series. It is everything that you would want in a ball and more, I am still in shock with how awesome this ball is, scary to think that I was so close to not drilling it up and trying something like a Hammer Taboo or a Roto Grip Theory. Being a Storm guy that's no bueno to be choosing something else before I even give the ball a chance; we'll see what's next.

Any questions or comments about the Marvel or any other Storm products feel free to comment below.