Every Thursday (Possibly Friday, depending on if I can get through them all) I will be reading and reviewing all the comics I purchase. Thursday is new comics day here, as opposed to Wednesday in the States, so apologies if your times are mixed up. Also, the date is in English format; that's Date/Month/Year, just so you don't get confused.
A lot of what I say may not necessarily make sense, since the blog is new and the stories are not. We're jumping into them, but I'll brief you on the over-arching story in Marvel right now, Dark Reign, and then any reviews pertaining to it can sort of make sense. It may not ALL be in absolute chronological order, but this is all from memory, and a LOT has happened.
What Is Dark Reign?
Dark Reign is the latest umbrella story arc (Covers everything) in the Marvel Universe. Here's what it's about in a nutshell, and what caused it.
A while ago there was Civil War, A team of superhero reality stars, the New Mutants, raided the H.Q. of a villainous group. The group turned out to be more than they could handle and Nitro, one of the villains, spontaneously combusted an entire neighbourhood. The casualty list was 612, including some of the New Mutants. The government passed the S.R.A. (Superhuman Registration Act) in light of this. It was a bill that required all people with powers or alter egos to register with S.H.I.E.L.D. (Run by the excellent and bullish character, Maria Hill, in Nick Fury's disgraced absense) as official law enforcement. The alternative was, essentially, incarceration in the Negative Zone, a part of sub-space. This ended with Captain America (The leader of the anti-registration groups) surrendering after a huge final battle in which both sides realised they put at risk the very civilians they were trying to protect.
Captain America was assassinated some time after and Tony Stark, now acting director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was forced to deal with an invasion of Skrulls. Skrulls being a shape-shifting race that can imitate people. They had been infiltrating Earth for ages after stealing genetic info from other heroes of Earth MANY years go. Slowly but surely they'd been unknowingly taking the place of other heroes. Eventually this all spilled out in a rather excellent tale of paranoia and conflict called Secret Invasion. During this time, Deadpool was sent, by Nick Fury, to recover info on how to kill a Skrull Queen. This info was stolen mid-transmission by Norman Osborn, formerly the Green Goblin and then-leader of the reformed supervillain group known as the Thunderbolts. He used this info to kill the Skrull Queen and make himself a hero.
This is where Dark Reign begins. Norman Osborn was essentially treated like, and became, a hero of the people. Naturally he was still the same old Osborn, but his plan was to achieve power unlike he'd possessed before. With this new found status, he began to put his plan into motion. Tony Stark stepped down as S.H.I.E.L.D. director (Maybe he was fired, can't quite recall) for allegedly being slack enough that the invasion happened, and Norman Osborn reformed S.H.I.E.L.D. into H.A.M.M.E.R., giving its employees the chance to switch sides or become fugitives.
First Osborn formed The Cabal (Since disbanded for multiple reasons), an evil counterpart to the Illuminati (Also disbanded). This included Emma Frost, Dr. Doom, Loki, himself and the Hood. He formed his own team of Avengers (Known to readers as the Dark Avengers, and in their series) and even
used Tony Stark's armours to become the Iron Patriot. Each member of his team is a villain masquerading as a hero they can mimic. Bullseye became the new Hawkeye, Venom (Mac Gargan) became the new Spider-Man, Daken (Wolverine's son) took his father's place, while Moonstone and Marvel Boy took the places of Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel. Sentry and Ares, both hero and neutral respectively, joined out of a mixture of manipulation and naivety. Marvel Boy has since left, after realising the team was not what it seemed, and Norman Osborn has been carrying out items on his list. On "The List" are a number of things he feels need to change. For example; kill Spider-Man, kill the Punisher and a number of other intriguing tasks.
So that's basically it. They've had interactions here and there. The X-Men were dragged into it and forced to exile themselves to an island in the ocean, known as Utopia. The New Avengers (What would amount to the main Avengers team on the forces of good's side) have been struggling to break Norman's facade and make the public see that THEY are the real heroes. Likewise with the Mighty Avengers. I won't describe what's been happening in ALL the issues, but that's Dark Reign. We're heading into the final part of Dark Reign soon, called Siege, which will continue for the first half of 2010. It consists of Norman Osborn finally losing grip on his sanity (After struggling to keep his Goblin persona under wraps) and biting off more than he can chew.
There, Dark Reign. Everything's shit for our heroes everywhere, and the bad guys have the power, but the tide is turning. So begins Siege in January.
For those who wish to get the proper backstory on all this (Either you'll already know or probably won't care) without reading the comics, you can go to the following link and just search for the appropriate titles:
The Marvel Comics Database.
Pretty much everything that's ever happened in Marvel has been recorded there. If you need help narrowing the search, just ask me.
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RIGHT, whew.
What did I buy today? Here's what I bought today:
Dark Avengers #11.
Brian Michael Bendis continues an enthralling run on what is essentially the main series in Dark Reign (Considering that unlike other story arcs, Dark Reign has no central issues). Norman Osborn has sent Sentry to investigate disappearances in Dinosaur, Colorado and are horrified when Sentry disappears into thin air. The team goes to investigate and out of nowhere, Norman Osborn is confronted with the damned souls of the demon Zarathos, the Beyonder, Mephisto, Enchantress and Molecule Man heading them all up.
In this issue, it's revealed that Molecule Man has been hiding out in an illusory town. By my estimation he has been making people disappear so that nobody discovers him. I'm not entirely sure if the aforementioned company he's keeping are products of his powers and imagination, but whatever. He claims he wants to be left alone, and for various reasons will not kill Norman Osborn. He psychologically tortures and divides all the other Dark Avengers, appearing to kill Sentry (Which I doubt is the case) and severely incapacitate the others. He won't kill them because, according to him, the government would then send Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four to figure out a way to re-incarcerate him (Reed being arguably the smartest Earth man to ever live, with one other contender).
It ends with Victoria Hand, Osborn's assistant, surrendering to Molecule Man in hopes of getting the Dark Avengers back.
This is obviously starting the downfall of Osborn; Molecule Man was REALLY getting at him regarding the inevitable snapping of his resolve. A very nice build up issue that really showed the instability of Norman Osborn and also shows that like him or not, Bendis is doing a respectable job coupled up with Mike Deodato's robust artwork. I love this series, in fact, it might just be my favourite current series going aside from New Avengers.
Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #5.
Not Deadpool's main series, but his first ever SECOND on-going series. This isn't part of Deadpool's current story in the main series, it's just an additional side comic series featuring the character. When I first heard of this, I really feared they were starting to view Deadpool as their cash cow, and they are (That's for next week, see end of post). However, as the main series began to SEVERELY decline after the first 12 issues, this series is going from strength to strength. I wasn't sure until about three issues in, but this is SUCH a fun, enjoyable and exciting read. Deadpool himself, again, loses a lot of the lethality his character deserves, but the action he's involved in is so much fun that it almost compensates.
Deadpool was sent by A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) to retrieve a bioweapon from the Savage Land. This weapon turns out to be Zombie Deadpool's head, from the Marvel Zombies mini-series' alternate universe. Unfortunately for Deadpool, Hydra are also after the head and so the story continues. Scientist Betty Swanson is caught in the crossfire as A.I.M.'s on-site researcher and is dragged along for the ride, which involves dinosaurs, cavemen, zombie dinosaurs and so forth. She's your typical action movie chick; busty, blonde, repulsed by the supposed main character who happens to have a huge hard-on for her etc.
It plays like the most glorious, gratuitious action flick and I really cannot get enough of it. MAJOR props to Victor Gischler. The art is pretty damn amazing too. Bong Dazo (I believe) is doing this story justice.
In this issue, Deadpool, Headpool and Dr. Swanson all escape. They give Headpool to A.I.M. before Deadpool has an attack of realisation; they want to use it as a weapon to zombify the world. He proceeds to steal the head back, escape on a ship with Swanson in reluctant-tow, and destroy the opposing Hydra ship in what is a very hilarious and exciting space fight. The issue ends with them setting course for Florida to take Headpool home.
Amazingly fun series. Not perfect Deadpool, but very good and the best Deadpool series of the three that are out.
Additionally, I love the fact that from issue two onward the covers have been parodies of movies. Jaws (#2), Dawn of the Dead (#3), Scarface (#4) and Pretty Woman (#5). Next month's one is Alien, and after that I believe it's The Usual Suspects! Very fun.
Thor #603,
This comic has been out for a while, but I picked it up today.
After coming back from the dead only to end up being cast out of Asgard by being tricked into killing one of his own (By Loki, see Thor #600/#601), Thor has been a rather displaced soul. The basis of this current arc is him searching for his scattered Asgardian bretheren sleeping within their Earthbound forms.
Loki has moved all Asgardians to Latveria and the company of Dr. Doom. Why? In one of Marvel's more sinister plots; Loki wants Thor dead. Not disgraced, dead. In this issue we see that the pact between the two come to light. In return for an upgraded army of Doombots, designed to kill Donald Blake (Thor's Earth form), Dr. Doom will be allowed to kill or experiment on as many of the Asgardians as he desires. The endgame, Doom's endgame at least, is to achieve immortality from these Asgardians. The chilling end to this issue, and J. Michael Straczynski's EPIC regular run, sees Dr. Doom vivisect the Asgardian Endrik. Upon seeing him live for a full five minutes after his heart is removed, he salivates at the idea of what could be achieved by doing this to someone of Thor's power; not just a regular Asgardian. It's one of the most potent moments of dread that I've felt for Marvel's heroes in a while. Straczynski did this so well.
This convo is overheard by Bill, a member of the townsfolk in which Thor and many of his Earthbound Asgardian bretheren had been residing. Since their time on Earth, Kelda -an Asgardian- has since fallen for Bill due to his humanity and ability to make even an immortal feel the appreciation of time. He runs to Castle Doom to see what's going on and, after hearing the aforementioned conversation between Loki and Doom regarding their plans, is blasted out of the castle and to the floor after being spotted.
A fight breaks out and eventually Bill is stabbed by Loki's followers. Balder, Kelda's king and current ruler of Asgard/all Asgardians, arrives just in time to see this and needless to say, is appalled to see this happen to a friend he has come to respect.
I thoroughly enjoyed this issue and it really does give me the feeling of the darkness before the...well, even darker. A foreboding and thick air of impending doom (No pun intended) currently surrounds this story and I'm loving it. The dialogue between Loki and Dr. Doom is just utterly brilliant, and the art by Marko Djurdjevic is nothing short of mindblowingly immaculate.
I cannot wait for Thor #604 in December. It's a notoriously late title with regards to releases, so I hope that Kieron Gillen is capable of taking up the mantle of what is one of the best on-going comics right now, especially considering that Siege is HEAVILY involving Thor and Asgard...but more on that as it unfolds.
For now, that's all I've got for you guys.
I did buy three additional comics today. I also got Realm of Kings #1 of 1, Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1 of 5 and Dark Reign: The List (The Amazing Spider-Man). Normally I'd have reviewed those today too, but given that I had to do partial Civil War/Secret Invasion and sizeable Dark Reign recaps, I am tired. So, tomorrow I shall review the second lot of Thursday's comics. In future, it'll all be on the one day, but give me a break!
Until then, peace.
-The Mast
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