Comic Info
Comic Name: New Avengers (Volume 1)/Secret Invasion: Dark Reign
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Alex Maleev/Billy Tan
# of Issues: 4
Release Date: 2009
Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1
Reprints New Avengers (1) #48-50 and Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1 (February 2009-April 2009). The Skrull Invasion is over, but the Avengers find their troubles could just be beginning. Seen as a hero during the Skrull Invasion, Norman Osborn has been given the keys to the castle and now the nation’s security is under his command. As Luke Cage and Jessica Jones deal with their missing child, the Avengers find that Osborn has plans for the Avengers…and new alliances could prove deadly.
Written by Brian Michael Bendis, New Avengers Volume 10: Power is a Marvel Comics superhero collection. Following the events of Secret Invasion and New Avengers Volume 9: Secret Invasion—Book 2, the series features art by Alex Maleev and Billy Tan. The issues in the volume were also collected as part of New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection—Volume 4, Secret Invasion by Brian Michael Bendis Omnibus, and Luke Cage: Avenger among others.
Civil War and everything after Civil War were a downer for me, but Secret Invasion was the culmination of a bad period of Avengers. The characterizations, the confusing writing, and the art all didn’t work for me. New Avengers Volume 10: Power gets passed the horrible Secret Invasion line but follows it up with the disorganized and sloppy Dark Reign…which feels even worse after political events in recent years.
DC had Lex Luthor becoming President and Marvel had Norman Osborn taking charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. (and retooling it into the even stupider H.A.M.M.E.R…which was an anagram for nothing). It was a “day of villains” type storyline that went on for far too long and already pushed my fading lack of interest in all-stories Avengers to the edge. This collection starts with the basics of Dark Reign in the Secret Invasion: Dark Reign one-shot and does a poor job even establishing it here.
New Avengers (1) #48
The second story feels almost like a non-story bait-and-switch. In a dramatic moment after Secret Invasion, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones learn that they might have lost their child to the Skrulls…then they just get her back. It is painless and relatively quick. It felt like set-up for a bunch of new stories, but it just fizzles…it even fizzles more considering that Cage feels no obligation to Osborn, and as a result, Osborn has nothing to hold over him.
The only positive thing about this collection is the rebranding of the Thunderbolts as the Avengers. The newly minted Avengers were copies of the original New Avengers teams (with the intriguing add on of Marvel Boy) and they eventually spun-off into Dark Avengers. Dark Avengers had its moments but like most of Bendis’s superhero team storylines, it too was hacked to pieces by Event Series and choppy writing.
New Avengers 10: Power is a short collection of a series that maybe peaked after its first storyline in New Avengers 1: Breakout. Here, it has reached the 50th issue and I can honestly say that most of the issues leading up to New Avengers #50 are rather forgettable…but arguably even damaging to my view of the franchise in general. I love The Avengers, and I try to give them a chance, but New Avengers ended up testing my patience. New Avengers 10: Power was followed by New Avengers 11: Search for the Sorcerer Supreme.
Followed By:
New Avengers 11: Search for the Sorcerer Supreme
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