Dark Reign - The Cabal

Dark Reign - The Cabal
A selection of short stories staring the villians who make up Norman Osborne's ruling group. Lots of villains plotting and the sparkling gem is the Dr. Doom story "... And I'll Get The Land". The art is varied and well considered, I enjoyed this one shot of villainy.

New Avengers #51

New Avengers #51

Well Dr. Strange is having a bit of a magical mentor moment setting up supernatural things to come. Great dialogue as the issue of Spiderman’s identity and the new avengers is resolved and more than one plot is set up. I'm really quite enjoying this and becoming fond of Bendis's writing, I loved the Jessica Jones and Spiderman conversation.

Dark Avengers #3

Dark Avengers #3
The Dark Avengers fight Dr. Doom's battles for him as Morgana Le Fay has him helpless. A large section of the issue has a dialogue between Norman Osborn and the Sentry about their psychosis (nothing interesting has been done with psycho Bob in quite some time, it's good to see some movement). The monster on villain slugfest that takes up the rest of the issue is nice and brutal.

Dark Reign Files

Dark Reign Files
Another one of these list books, telling you who all the Z-list villains are and what the big guys are up to. Wow there are some stupid ones in here, check out the living cauldron guy, Diamondhead or Man-Bull for a laugh. Nothing interesting or worthwhile.

Deadpool #8

Deadpool #8
Up until now this run on Deadpool has been light and funny, but the dialogue in this issue seems flat. The premise is good Deadpool versus the Norman Osborne of dark reign and as a result the new thunderbolts team. Lets hope things pick up in this crossover.

New Avengers #50

New Avengers #50
The New Avengers react to Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers (reviewed previously) with some smart dialog. The real gem is the 8 or so pages of guest artists giving each of the new avengers their due. Bendis is still tying together Dark Reign nicely, I'll be following more of the new avengers.

Dark Reign

Dark Avengers #1

Looks like Dark Avengers will be a continuation of what Warren Ellis did with the Thunderbolts recently. Tommy Lee Osborn is a great reinvention of a character that will carry this book. The line up of faux heroes is in some ways obscure to a non Marvel fanboy. The art follows on the style from Thunderbolts and Bullseye has an excellent reaction to becoming an avenger.

Thunderbolts #128

With Tommy Lee Osborn taking on the visible side of things in Dark Avengers (taking the rest of the Thunderbolts with him), this new team is pitched as the covert and nasty end of his work. It's good to see the new Antman hasn't been forgotten, but it's to early to tell if this new Thunderbolts have any chemistry as a team. An adequate first issue for a new line up, but nothing special.