We’re back to Avengers land. And just in time for Dark Reign, the story of Norman Osborn given near absolute power by the US government. Which is… a lot more messed up than it was in 2009. But, since it’s the story of Norman Osborn, and he’s a pretty big part of our purview here, to say nothing of the ever-more-complicated situation with the Avengers books vis a vie this blog’s whole purpose and whatnot, I’ve decided to cover the whole picture and not just the Avengers title Spider-Man appears in. Which means covering Dark Avengers. But before we get to that, I’ve decided it means showing bits of 2 issues of Iron Man.
As we’ve discussed in the past, Invincible Iron Man was launched by Matt Fraction, Salvador Larocca & Frank D’Armata as a 2nd monthly Iron Man title, but the main one was cancelled shortly thereafter. We saw Spider-Man appear in #7, and now, a mere month later, The whole world’s fallen apart around Tony. This kicks of a long, absolutely wild ride that is one of the most interesting Iron Man stories of all time, but which, by necessity, takes him off into his own little corner of the Marvel U for awhile. When George W. Bush failed to prevent 9/11 from happening right under his nose, he was somehow able to parlay that into convincing the American people he was the only person who could prevent a similar event from happening again. Mass hysteria. But, when you’re the head of SHIELD who let an alien invasion happen without noticing, well, the Marvel U is less forgiving, as it turns out. And that’s before a deranged mass murderer gets your job.We’re not actually going to cover this issue or the one to follow, just bits relevant to our main plot. Thus, as various Iron Man plotlines proceed and Maria Hill grapples with losing her job, we find Tony going to see Osborn…
We have discussed before Larocca being one of the guys who traced celebrities endlessly in this period. His Tony Stark is that one guy from Lost, I dunno, I didn’t watch Lost. As a proud tracer, you’d think he might trace Tommy Lee Jones for Osborn, like his tracin’ buddy Mike Deodato, for consistency, but no. Well, after Tony and Maria leave, later in the evening, Osborn immediately opens the Superhuman Registration database, but his searches come up empty for everyone he tries (Spider-Man is first, of course). He becomes enraged and thrashes his computer.
We soon learn that Matt Fraction has unfortunately played on the old “people only use 10% of their brain” myth to announce Tony has stashed the Registration database in his own brain using the Extremis process. And that is going to prove one costly choice.
There’s a lot less Norman Osborn in #9, but not none. As Tony begins the crazy process of basically erasing his own brain, we go back to…
Larocca tracing that one picture of whoever that is over and over is so pathetic. It’s Greg Land pathetic. None of the tracers are usually as bad as Land. Well, HAMMER goons fail to assassinate Maria Hill in a bloody conflict, and Tony Stark tells Pepper Potts she’s the new boss of Stark as he begins shuffling off on his insane mission to keep the Registration database and other info out of Osborn’s hands. And as for Osborn…
And that’s where we leave Iron Man. Tony goes on a really incredible adventure that’s totally worth seeking out, even marred by the shoddy tracing. But that brings is to Dark Avengers #1.
That’s right. Mike Deodato, Jr. is back. Tracers stay winning. For all that Deodato’s “art” only gets more awkward, lifeless and unappealing as more and more of it is just him tracing Poser models, Bendis is ride or die for him for some reason. Bendis was way into the Thunderbolts series by Warren Ellis and Deodato, and now, he’s kind of decided to do it himself. The cover, of course, references New Avengers #1’s by now iconic cover. Who or what are the Dark Avengers? Bendis, Deodato, and his inseparable colorist Rain Beredo are gonna introduce us. We begin in the very unexpected place of Morgan Le Fay’s lair in 690 AD. Also, Bendis insists on calling her Morganna Le Fay. He is the only person to do so. She wants to know where in time Dr. Doom is. One of the funny things about Bendis was always how he wore he comics that made an impact on him on his sleeve as a writer. People reference the Kree/Skrull War every 5 minutes in his comics, like it just happened. And that time Iron Man and Dr. Doom were thrown back to the time of Camelot and got involved in Arthurian legend? Well, he loves that, too. Le Fay thinks of Doom as her betrayer due to that story, and she spots him around the table with Osborn & Co. at the end of Secret Invasion 8, which feels like I read it 4,000 years ago, at this point. Meanwhile, in the present:
Marvel Boy, the Sentry, Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, Ares, Wolverine, Hawkeye, and Spider-Man. Right? Weeeeell…
Boy, this stuff hits different now. Well, next, we see Osborn fire Maria Hill, so she can run off to be in Iron Man. I didn’t read the version of Thunderbolts starring Norman running a bunch of villains in a kind of Suicide Squad situation. Despite being a big fan of Warren Ellis (THAT investment sure paid off!), that book featured both Mike Deodato art and Norman Osborn, 2 things I considered grave mistakes within the comics industry, and I wanted no part of them. Which means, I don’t know if Deo started tracing 3D models there or here, but he’s doing it here. Not for every single panel. That would come later. But there’s no mistaking it. If you’re someone who’s ever played around with software like Poser, especially back then, when the models were less convincing, it’s so easy to spot. And jarring. And infuriating. At any rate, Hill says she’s going to be there when Norman implodes. I don’t think she will, actually, but I don’t remember. He sends her out, calls Bullseye in, saying he did well against the Skrulls, and they’re moving to Avengers Tower. Bullseye is understandably shocked.Speaking of, we cut to said Tower, “five days ago,” where Ms. Marvel arrives to find Norman. He explains Stark used SHIELD funding to rebuild the tower after World War Hulk, so it belongs to him now. She resigns from the Avengers.
The Tommy Lee Jones thing is so jarring. Everyone else looks like a generic superhero drawing and he looks like a PERSON. Like a photograph of a head taped on a cartoon body.
So, Osborn goes to hand Moonstone, who was his field leader for the Thunderbolts, a Ms. Marvel costume and tell her she’s the new Ms. Marvel. They’re both blonde, who’d even notice the difference? Then we cut to the prison in Thunderbolts Mountain, where a skrull is tossed in a cell and told to turn into Spider-Man, where Venom then proceeds to eat him.
Har har. So, Venom is the new Spider-Man. Next up, we need a Wolverine. That’s where things get really dopey. See, once Logan remembered his whole life at the end of House of M, they started showing you all kinds of stuff. One of them was his son, Daken. Daken is a Japanese guy with a giant mohawk, tribal tattoos right off the wall of a tattoo parlor on exactly, precisely one half of his body, and a Wolverine healing factor and Wolverine claws. But his middle one comes out of the bottom of his wrist instead of the back of his hand. He’s a dumber looking, evil version of his dad. He has always struck me as a lazy evil twin character and also a bad visual design. But he has his fans, and now he’s been found by Osborn and Ares in New Orleans, and Osborn is offering him the Wolverine job largely to upset Logan, which appeals to Daken. Then Norman goes to the prison Marvel Boy is being held in, compliments his actions during the Secret Invasion, and offers him the role of Captain Marvel.
Norman has brought in the Ghost, last seen in these parts way back in ASM, Vol. 2 #16 (Were we ever so young?) to use his unique abilities to get inside a big room Tony Stark left locked an inaccessible. Ghost, I think, will be part of the new Thunderbolts team, a comic I still didn’t read and don’t really know about. Ghosty does his thing, and…
Well, that seems bad. Then we cut to Latveria, this morning, as Thunderbolts agents bring Dr. Doom home. But when they get out of the helicopter, things go bad…
Morgan(na) Le Fay, of course.
And there you have it, as crazy as that is. The idea that all these villains would be running around as the Avengers, and no one would notice, was pretty absurd to me. Warren Ellis’ Thunderbolts was, by all accounts, a book about Osborn’s warped mind and psychological horror and things, and that’s just not in Bendis’ kit, he’s not gonna be able to do that, even as he’s trying to do that. I don’t think this book is terribly successful. But it’s the law of the land for 16 issues. The Mighty Avengers still exist in an altered form, but now shunted off to being the irrelevant Avengers book that never ties into the main story. These are the new Avengers. But wait, if they’re the new Avengers, what about the New Avengers?