Dark Avengers Annual 1
Between the Mike Deodato art and the Norman Osborne-run team, Dark Avengers is basically a sequel to Warren Ellis' run on Thunderbolts. But even with Brian Michael Bendis at the helm, it isn't as good. It's not as balls-out insane, and focuses too much on plot instead of character. What made Thunderbolts fun was the insanity (literal, sometimes) of the bad-guys-masquerading-as-good, and their pure inability to maintain that facade. Here, the missions take priority, and they involve people that even Bendis can't make interesting.
Paging through the issues and talking about things as they come up:
I'm a fan of Victoria Hand. She's taken on the uneviable task of executing Norman Osborne's vision, and somehow manages to not come across as a bad person. She genuinely treats the job as an opportunity to do good in the world, and performs it professionally and ably. It's a view that Steve Rogers shares, and he rewards her patriotism with a job at the reinstated SHIELD at the end of the book.
After Norman puts together his team, Bendis spends three issues having them fight Morgana Le Fay. It's pretty much a snoozefest. A bunch of beating up monsters and flashy spells, but nothing more. Then some random stuff with Namor, who has yet to be an exciting character in any storyline ever.
There's a nice issue with Ares and his son Alexander, but it's really an installment of Secret Warriors in disguise, telling a story from that title from a different POV.
I don't know why Bendis has such a fractured sense of continuity with Dark Avengers. Examples: Lindy blows off Sentry's head in issue nine, and doesn't continue the scene for another three issues. Noh-Varr runs away from the team in issue five, and then there's no follow up for over half a year. It's a disjointed way to tell a story, and it feels like bad editing to me.
The rest of the trade is a race to see whether Norman falls apart before the Sentry. The Sentry continues to be one of the most boring Marvel characters in existence. I don't care about his struggle with the Void, I don't care about his relationship with his wife, and I don't understand what Norman's master plan with him was. He's a Superman-level guy, and like his inspiration, can only be stopped by the imagination of the writer. He's too powerful.
Bendis isn't up to the task. Under his pen, Bob Reynolds goes crazy, then gets talked down by Norman. Goes crazy as the Void, then gets talked down. I don't how many times this happens, but it feels like four or five times, and it's tedious each time. Not at all the thing to hang the crux of your title on to.
The final issue is a nice coda to the Siege event. We see what happens to each of the remaining Dark Avengers, and Bendis excels at these little character beats. (Particularly the aforementioned conversation between Steve Rogers and Hand.)
On the art side, Deodato does his usual stellar work. Rain Beredo hands in some truly beautiful coloring jobs. Check out what he does when Bullseye murders Lindy. (Which Bendis fails to infuse with any tension or tragedy.)
On the other hand, there is a systemic failure of page layouts throughout the entire run. I don't know if I should blame Bendis or Deodato, but there are numerous instances where the reading flow for double-page spreads are horribly unclear:
When presented in a comic format across two pages, the natural inclination is to read the eight panels on the left side, then the eight on the right. There are no hints that the reader needs to break with tradition and read all four panels across the top. It creates a terrible break in the reading experience as the reader needs to pause and figure out which order to tackle the panels.
This cover reminds me of the classic Fall of the Mutants ad:
Regret buying? No
Would buy again? No
Would read again? Yes
Rating: Nice
New Avengers 38-54
Secret Invasion: Dark Reign
The whole House of M/Civil War/Secret Invasion/Siege run of Marvel events really messed with the flow of New Avengers. No where is it more evident than in this trade. Is there any sense of continuity from issue to issue? Let's take a look:
38: It's an issue of Bendis/Gaydos Alias, as Luke and Jessica deal with her signing on the side of Tony Stark in order to provide a measure of safety for her daughter.
39: Maya prevents the Skrulls from replacing her in this issue of Bendis/Mack Daredevil.
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| Mack painting Echo again! |
40: Jim Cheung illustrates Veranke's rise to power in the Skrull empire.
41: In an appendix entry to Secret Invasion, the readers learn more about SHIELD's vibranium raid in the Savage Land.
42: We return to Veranke and discover how she replaced Jessica Drew. Apparently David Finch's shot of Spider-Woman in the first New Avengers arc is worth drawing a second time. (To be fair, it was remarkable enough for me to remark on it the first time around.)
43: Back to the Savage Land, and the Skrull Captain America's backstory is revealed right before he dies.
44: This issue was really cool. In order to figure out a way to avoid detection on Earth, the Skrulls clone Reed Richards and fool him into developing a solution. And then they blow his head off. It's a sweet idea, and well executed by Bendis and Billy Tan. (Though Tan is really outclassed by Gaydos, Maleev, Bachalo, and Cheung in this trade.)
45: Flashback to the House of M Era, and how the subsequent "No more mutants" aided the Skrulls in achieving their invasion plans.
46: The Hood and his minions discover the presence of Skrulls on Earth.
47: Another issue of Alias, as Luke tells his daughter about when he fell in love with Jessica. These Gaydos issues really should be reprinted in Alias, not here.
Secret Invasion: Dark Reign: Norman Osborne forms his version of the Illuminati. He sounds exactly like the Hood, who even calls him out on it.
In a rare complete fail by Alex Maleev, Namor looks like Leisure Suit Larry.
Or Manu Ginobli.
Norman kills Swordsman, in a scene that really belongs in Dark Avengers 1.
48, 49: In the first multi-issue story of the trade, Luke and Jessica retrieve their kidnapped daughter, tying up a thread from the end of Secret Invasion.
And seriously, what is it with drawing full-length Spider-Women on the left half of the left page of issues?
50: The Avengers try to lure the Dark Avengers into a fight, but Osborne sics the Hood's gang on them instead. Big fight. Billy Tan puts Spider-Woman in some weird ass poses.
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| How is that kicking leg attached to her body? |
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| I'm just saying that maybe Manara wasn't the first person to draw Spider-Woman like this. |
David Aja's guest page shows why he was so perfect for Iron Fist.
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| I'm so in love with the flow of his action. |
51-54: With all the events finally over, Bendis devotes a full four issues to Brother Voodoo, the new Sorcerer Supreme. Was this Bachalo's audition for Doctor Strange seven years later?
I give Billy Tan shit, but this fight sequence was pretty sweet:
Regret buying? No
Would buy again? Yes
Would read again? Yes
Rating: Nice
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