Dark Reign #1So following on from the events of Secret Invasion #8, Marvel now brings us Dark Reign #1, which properly shows us the events behind the “evil illuminati” gathering at the end of that mini series.

Its a nice little one shot, although I’ll get the negative out of the way first, by saying what the heck’s happened to Namor? I get that he’s obviously fallen on some bad times, but there was nothing recognisable about the character. Nothing regal about him at all.

However, what this special did, was nicely lay out Norman’s gameplan. Now he’s successfully grabbed the reigns of power, he intends to keep them. And he’s doing it by making backroom deals with the forces who’ve caused the most trouble in the Marvel Universe over the years, with the goal being to make it look like he can keep them in line where Fury and SHIELD failed. However, just when you thought Norman’s transformation into Lex Luthor is complete, there’s a sting in the tail.

I enjoyed this special. Its a complete setup issue, and it makes the Marvel Universe an interesting place. With the supervillains all registered and running side operations for Norman, and the superheroes unpopular for dropping the ball over Secret Invasion (although that was hardly their fault), its a dangerous time to be wearing primary colours in the Marvel Universe.

I loved the little aside with Namor and Doom as well, where they both admit they’re going to play along until it all falls apart, and then swoop in and take over.

But the big shock was the ending, with Norman returning to Thunderbolts mountain only to be confronted by the Swordsman, who feels he’s been used by Osbourn and threatens to reveal to the world what he’s really like. At this point, the public face of Norman drops, and he snaps, grabbing Swordsman’s own sword and killing him. It was a nice surprise, and nicely underlined that the writers haven’t forgotten that this is the same character who has the habit of flying around on gliders chucking pumpkins at Spider-Man.

I’m really interested to see where things in the Marvel Universe go after this.  Say what you like about the Civil War and Secret Invasion mini-series, but there’s no denying that each established a big shakeup to the status quo in the Marvel Universe, that established some clear storytelling directions and introduced some interesting ideas into the universe.