Comic Info
Comic Name: Dark Avengers
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Chris Bachalo/Mike Deodato
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2011
Dark Avengers (1) #14 Deadpool Variant Cover
Reprints Dark Avengers (1) #13-16 and Annual #1 (February 2010-July 2010). Norman Osborn’s Avengers are falling apart. Captain Marvel (aka Marvel Boy) is questioning Osborn’s leadership and is seen as a weak link by Fury and Captain America. Moonstone is flaunting her intelligence in Osborn’s face and constantly trying to undermine him. Osborn himself is slipping in and out of his Green Goblin persona and facing more and more pressure as he plots an invasion of Asgard. Osborn’s biggest problem however might by the Sentry who is slowly losing his grip on reality, and if the Sentry succumbs, will the world survive?
Written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Chris Bachalo (Dark Avengers (1) Annual #1) and Mike Deodato (Dark Avengers (1) #13-16), Siege: Dark Avengers was the tie-in collection for Bendis’ “Siege” story which wrapped up the universe spanning “Dark Reign” storyline.
I am pretty hard on Bendis nowadays because of his writing of the Avengers and his big series spanning crossover (including Siege) which have floundered and ruined multiple titles. I love/loved his Powers, Alias, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Daredevil, but really hated his Avengers, Secret Invasion, Secret War, and House of M which wrecked much of the Marvel Universe. Dark Avengers was on the fence of my like/dislike category and this collection is the reason why the series sometimes flies but often falls.
Dark Avengers (1) #15
The first thing is that the issues collected in the series are almost unreadable. If you didn’t following Siege (not many did), the stories aren’t stand-alone, but also not crossovers. This is one of Bendis biggest problems. Series like Secret Wars (not Secret War) were able to have a fun limited series that you could read independently and still had an effect on the rest of the universe with tie in and such. Here, you get half a story and that isn’t fair to readers of the series that are faithful to the development.
The next problem with Dark Avengers is the big flaw of the augmented role of the Sentry in the years under Bendis’ pen. The Sentry limited series by Paul Jenkins was really interesting and a great concept, but the second Sentry limited series was almost nonsense (and heavily tied to this collection). The Sentry was never meant to be a character for comics and he fails as a member of the Avengers because writers are never sure what to do with him. A nice, interesting character is turned into a mess.
Siege: Dark Avengers is a poor conclusion to a rather interesting series. Like the Thunderbolts, I love heroes as villains and Dark Avengers does provide that. Too many series spanning crossovers and unlikeable characters have ruined years of Marvel comics and chased readers away. I hope that Marvel starts to improve, but collections like this just drive me and other readers away.
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