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A review by cajonist
Dark Avengers, Volume 1: Assemble by Brian Michael Bendis
3.0
A decent outing from Bendis and his team. It was a solid foray, if not inspiring, into the "(reformed?) villains as heroes" model of comic writing. I enjoyed the contrasting approaches to this shown by the various characters, from Norman Osbourne, who is an evil, manipulative man masquerading as a good one, to The Sentry, a good but deeply disturbed man, to Bullseye who is still an evil man and doesn't care much who knows. This volume starts strongly with good comics up to halfway but tapers off pretty poorly after that.
Overall: Three stars
Issue #1: This was a good read where, for once, Brian Michael Bendis actually took the time to fully introduce the full cast of new Avengers and the storyline thus far. The way Norman Osbourne dresses each of his dark Avengers in the mantle of a former Avenger is interesting and so there's some fun choices to be made here like giving Bullseye a Hawkeye outfit and so on. The artwork here is the same as in Secret Initiative and I'm simply not a fan.
Three stars.
Issue #2: Enough exposition time for some action. Morgana Le Fay is angry at Von Doom and the Dark Avengers are deployed to help a brother out. The artwork is transformed here and we see Le Fay in all her glory plus all her fell beasts. The Sentinel also gets to flex is considerable muscle. Decent spots of humour in places.
Four stars.
Issue #3: This, I really enjoyed. Here we see Norman Osbourne as master manipulator. In this issue we get to see how Norman Osbourne took advantage of The Sentinel and convinced him to remain with the Avengers after all of the morally upright characters left. Really well written. We also learn more about Le Fay vs. The Dark Avengers. Really nice artwork here.
Four stars.
Issue #4: Not much happens here. The battle concludes and that's about it.
Two stars.
Issue #5: The cliffhanger from issue #4 is followed through on. Again, some good stuff from Norman Osbourne here as we start to see that he's definitely not all above board. He also plays a blinder in front of the TV cameras dissembling as regards the origins of his Dark Avengers which is pretty hilarious hypocrisy considering this event is post-Civil War/Superhuman Registration Act.
Three stars.
Issue #6: Namor shows up. Thankfully in this issue he's not balding, middle-aged, and overweight but practically elven in his bone structure. (Seriously, what the fuck Secret Initiative?) A bit of consistency isn't to be expected I know but the difference between the two is pretty galling considering both had the same writer. Is Namor tired and middle-aged or isn't he? The cover photo is of Marvel Boy battling some kind of spooky space creature, no idea why as he's not even in the issue. Is it meant to be where he is? I don't know. The Sentinel is put to a pretty depraved use in this one and the wheels begin to come off the wagon of Norman Osbourne's sanity. Artwork is fucking gorgeous. Especially the scenes involving The Sentinel flying around but the comic isn't up to much.
Two stars.
Overall: Three stars
Issue #1: This was a good read where, for once, Brian Michael Bendis actually took the time to fully introduce the full cast of new Avengers and the storyline thus far. The way Norman Osbourne dresses each of his dark Avengers in the mantle of a former Avenger is interesting and so there's some fun choices to be made here like giving Bullseye a Hawkeye outfit and so on. The artwork here is the same as in Secret Initiative and I'm simply not a fan.
Three stars.
Issue #2: Enough exposition time for some action. Morgana Le Fay is angry at Von Doom and the Dark Avengers are deployed to help a brother out. The artwork is transformed here and we see Le Fay in all her glory plus all her fell beasts. The Sentinel also gets to flex is considerable muscle. Decent spots of humour in places.
Four stars.
Issue #3: This, I really enjoyed. Here we see Norman Osbourne as master manipulator. In this issue we get to see how Norman Osbourne took advantage of The Sentinel and convinced him to remain with the Avengers after all of the morally upright characters left. Really well written. We also learn more about Le Fay vs. The Dark Avengers. Really nice artwork here.
Four stars.
Issue #4: Not much happens here. The battle concludes and that's about it.
Two stars.
Issue #5: The cliffhanger from issue #4 is followed through on. Again, some good stuff from Norman Osbourne here as we start to see that he's definitely not all above board. He also plays a blinder in front of the TV cameras dissembling as regards the origins of his Dark Avengers which is pretty hilarious hypocrisy considering this event is post-Civil War/Superhuman Registration Act.
Three stars.
Issue #6: Namor shows up. Thankfully in this issue he's not balding, middle-aged, and overweight but practically elven in his bone structure. (Seriously, what the fuck Secret Initiative?) A bit of consistency isn't to be expected I know but the difference between the two is pretty galling considering both had the same writer. Is Namor tired and middle-aged or isn't he? The cover photo is of Marvel Boy battling some kind of spooky space creature, no idea why as he's not even in the issue. Is it meant to be where he is? I don't know. The Sentinel is put to a pretty depraved use in this one and the wheels begin to come off the wagon of Norman Osbourne's sanity. Artwork is fucking gorgeous. Especially the scenes involving The Sentinel flying around but the comic isn't up to much.
Two stars.