Reilly2040's Blog

While I’ve by no means been buying more than a fraction of Marvel’s Dark Reign titles, I’ve still been enjoying what I’ve bought a lot, so I figured it made sense to do a more general catchup than focus on specific issues.

Iron Man I’ve talked about in depth on the blog before, so I’ll not really go over that again, except to say that its been great.

The other main Dark Reign titles I’ve been buying have been War Machine, Dark Avengers, and lately Ms Marvel.

Dark Avengers has been a bit of a mixed bag.   In that, I love the basic idea for the series and the team composition, and I think that seeing how this team react to their new public personas should be interesting.  However the first arc has been tied up with a big fight alongside Doom against Morgana Le Fay.  For myself I’d rather have seen more about the team trying to settle into their new roles as the “official” Avengers team.  The Doom/Morgana storyline has been fun, but just not what I was expecting.

However Ms Marvel has currently been exactly what I was looking for.  With Carol Danvers seemingly (recent solicits have her back) dead, Moonstone is now the only Ms Marvel in town, and so has been headlining the book.

While its only been two issues so far, its been fun seeing Moonstone fit into the role of Ms Marvel.  Obviously the general public have no idea who she really is, so we see them reacting to her killing escaping villains for example.   The latest issue is the first of  storyarc that saw her go up against AIM.  Of course, Osborn wanted to offer them a deal, but the fun in this story is seeing the different viewpoints.  We have the version that Osborn gives to the public, but then we have Moonstone’s report to Osborn.  However this plays over the third version of events, which is what actually happened, so we’re seeing that Moonstone is more than happy to try and play Osborn at his own game.

Its this aspect that I think makes Moonstone one of the most interesting of the Dark Avengers.  The likes of Venom and Bullseye, its a question of how long Norman can keep them on a leash.  With Moonstone, there’s a feeling that she could be Norman’s equal in many ways, and will only be willing to play Osborn’s game as long as it suits her.

War Machine has so far been operating a story largely removed from Dark Reign.  Osborn did show up for a bit though, with War Machine telling him to stuff it, so its a bet he’ll have a larger role in later issues, and of course, Ares is part of the Dark Avengers (and to be honest, this series has probably had the best characterisation of Ares so far, its not to be missed if you like the character).  The latest issue sees Rhodey and his team about to launch an attack on a US military base where an Ultimo virus was being developed, so its a safe bet Osborn and HAMMER will be keen to get their hands on him.

However, there’s probably another aspect to it.  We’ve seen Osborn find one of Tony’s armouries in Dark Avengers, and retrofit (or at least copy, its not clear) one of the suits.  However we also know from Iron Man that while Osborn has Tony’s suits, he’s been unable to properly use them.  He can’t access the repulsor technology that is key to Tony’s technology.  He’s tried to get it from Pepper’s suit, and I wonder if he’s wanting to get at Rhodey’s cyborg body to try and unlock the Iron Man technology for himself.

Overall I’m finding Dark Reign a big success so far.  Marvel have been really great with their big events introducing big change to the Marvel Universe, whose impact is felt across the line.  First with Civil War, and now with Secret Invasion/Dark Reign.  There’s a very strong feeling that the Marvel Universe is currently a very dangerous place to be a superhero in.

Bit of a low-key comics week for me this week, although I noticed how I picked up more Marvel than DC titles for the first time in a while (3 Marvel vs 2 DC). Sadly Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks #1 which I was really looking forward to, didn’t seem to make it to my local comic shop.

The biggest issue this week for me was probably Ms Marvel #37. It represents a huge gamble by Marvel, and I must admit, I’m quite surprised and unsure of this direction. The final issue of the End of Ms Marvel arc sees Carol, who’s powers have been increasingly unreliable, forced to push herself to her limit against her opponent. Doing so however pushes her powers over the edge, and unable to control the energy, she explodes and dies.

While I’m not a regular reader of the Ms Marvel title (just picking up the odd issues that look interesting), I’m finding this move a big gamble by Marvel. With Carol dead, Moonstone will become the title character of this book. Carol had only really recently been brought back to the fore-front of the Marvel Universe as Ms Marvel, so to replace her at a point where she’s just regained popularity seems a strange move. Granted we don’t know quite where they’re going with this plot (other than Moonstone taking over the book), but I can’t help but think this has the potential to backfire badly. The next issue stands to lose the Carol fans unless there’s a big twist ahead (while Carol exploded, we’ve seen energy-based heroes come back after dissipating before).

Of course, its also likely that that this is exactly the kind of thing they’re planning, and by using Moonstone and Dark Reign as a focus point in this way, they’ll attract a lot of attention to the title before Carol comes back.   Heck, I’m blogging about it, and I won’t be the only one

On the DC side of things, I picked up Oracle: The Cure #1, and Wonder Woman #30. Again, I’m unsure where DC are going with Barbara Gordon and Oracle at the moment, so that means I’m approaching this series with a degree of trepidation, however its a solid first issue. With only three issues in this mini, I would have perhaps expected a faster pace in the first issue and a bit more happening, but nonetheless its always fun to see the Oracle/Calculator rivalry. I’ve mentioned before how much I love just the concept of Oracle, and so the Calculator as the villain’s equivalent has always been something I’ve really enjoyed. Here we see them both attempting to track down the remains of the Anti-Life Equation from the internet. While Barbara’s motives aren’t clear (possibly she’s after it to make sure no one else gets it), the Calculator’s seem to be tied in with his daughter being in hospital. I’ll definitely be picking up the remaining two issues of this series to see where it goes (indeed, this is probably the only Battle for the Cowl tie-in I’m picking up).

Wonder Woman #30 continues the Rise of the Olympian storyline. While I freely admit I’ve just been buying Wonder Woman for this story, which sounded interesting, I’m very much enjoying it. Unsurprisingly Gail Simone brings her usual excellent grasp of the characters as she turns Wonder Woman’s world upside down. In this issue, the focus is very much on Wonder Woman’s rage at what the society have done by unleashing Genocide, and her fury is brilliantly captured as she tears through the Society’s headquarters (the highlight of the issue for me was probably the image of Faust putting on his coat the minute he saw Diana approaching on the security cameras ). While not appearing in this issue, I’ve been enjoying Gail’s handling of Diana, Donna and Cassie in this story. Its nice to see the three of them together.

My Marvel purchases are rounded off with War Machine #4 and Captain America #48. War Machine’s a series I’ve been enjoying a lot, although it has to be said, some of its been a bit daft so far, with Jim’s new ability to rebuild himself from nearby machinary (the half-tank War Machine was so over-the-top it worked, but I think I’d like to see this ability used in moderation throughout the run).  There’s heavy Dark Reign influence here as well, with Ares forcing Jim to examine his motivations for his recent actions in probably the most effective scenes of this series so far.  While it would’ve been easy to just through in Ares as an obligatory Dark Reign tie-in, Greg Pak really makes great use of him, as we see him break through to Jim in a way none of his friends have been able to since Jim became a cyborg.  Jim’s conversation with Bethany where he says he’s ready to become human again works well, as it contrasts nicely with his denial of his humanity throughout the opening issues.

Captain America continues to be one of the best comics on the market.  The finale of the recent storyline sees Bucky, Black Widow and Namor teaming up to rescue the body of the original Human Torch, who’s been turned into a bioweapon by an insane scientist, determined to reduce Earth’s population.  Again, like War Machine, its the character moments that probably best define this issue, with Bucky determined to try and face some of the actions he committed while the Winter Soldier.   Saying that, I’ll be glad to see him back and continuing to establish himself as Cap in future issues.  I’m really loving the pairing of Bucky and Black Widow in this title as well.  These two characters work well together, and I similarly love the way Ed Brubaker has weaved in events from World War II throughout his run.  Its really given the title a sense of its history and helped give it a unique voice.