Dark Reign: The List; Marvel Comics at their Best

 While the Siege on Asgard fumbles along in the current pages of Marvel Comics, I saw the need to step back and look at some of the best books related to the Dark Reign storyline. While in some ways Dark Reign looks like it’s already over, in others it looks far from finished as Norman Osborne continues to fight everyone as the Iron Patriot, and fights as himself from behind the scenes in the story lines tagged with the overarching caption, “The List.”  These books were incredibly well written and enjoyable so I write a quick review advising anyone with interest in back issue comics so seek these “List” books out, and skip Siege if you have a tight wallet in these days of four dollar comic books.

First off I tried the Avengers: The List, and absolutely loved it.  Not only is Hawkeye back from the dead in rare form, but so is his wife, one of my long time favorite characters: the lovely Mockingbird.  Hawkeye is pissed and as usual he flaps his gums.  Calling out all the Avengers to face the facts he insists they should take the fight to Osborne and his trademarked Avengers. (Strange how Marvel, one of the better defenders of trademarked characters should make a villain out of a businessman: Hello Disney!)  Hawkeye gets no support except from his wife who he refuses to risk.  Instead he takes on the Dark Avengers solo and as one can expect he fails miserably.  The consequences are unclear, but the whole pretense of the comic: that Hawkeye is willing to fight for his beliefs even in the face of overwhelming odds, brings back why the powerless bowman is a force to be reckoned with.  Bottom line: I was excited about “The List” books.

From there I went to “The X-Men The List” and hell if it wasn’t even better.  Here there was a complete story, from Osborne’s creation of a monster so terrible it will consume all of the Atlanteans anywhere in the deep blue sea.  This is his punishment for Namor’s betrayal at the end of the Dark X-Men storyline.  I won’t tell you which x-wife Namor has to face down, but I will say she is so powered up she makes a match for Namor who has no choice but to kill her in the end.  Endlessly angry he flies directly to Osborne and tells him in no uncertain terms this is it, it’s over, the end, Norman is about to die.  But instead of a fight he gets a big smile from Osborne and then returns to Island X without exacting revenge.  This lack of revenge seems like a great cliffhanger to add even more suspense to Osborne’s story.

Finally I have to make mention of the Spider-Man The List book, simply because it was one of the greatest comic books of all of 2009 in my opinion.  This book immediately catches one up with Spiderman’s take on Osborne and the need to take him out is similar to that of Hawkeye’s.  Only Spiderman succeeds where all the other heroes fail.  Without giving too much away, I have to say that the end of this feels like the end of the Iron Patriot’s story, but then I know Osborne goes on to fight the fight against Asgard in The Siege.  This story line is far from over but it has been great fun.

When I first heard of Dark Reign’s incredible ambitions as a cross over series, I seriously decided to put colleting these books wholesale aside and save myself a good 200$s (no exaggeration, this storyline is long and there are a ton of books that fit the puzzle together piece by piece).  Now I wish I had gone with it and thrown my dollars to the winds.  So why am I not excited about Siege?  Well, without getting Marvel on my case, let me just say that an attack on Asgard which is now located in Oklahoma instead of at the end of the Bifrost Bridge, doesn’t excite me in the least.  I am not a heavy Thor fan, as I would find it strange for Jesus or Mary Magdalene to become characters in comic books.  To some people with faith in Odinism it must be annoying.

In short, the Dark Reign books are more exciting because of the scope of the problems Osborne introduces.  In The List books he is everywhere with a plan for every eventuality.  Having such a grand villain allows for such grand plots and I love it, love it, love it.  Kudos Marvel on a long story well told.