The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

So, the Dark Reign one-shot has been released and a few things have been explained.

The one-shot shows what happened just prior to and just after the meeting scene in Secret Invasion #8. Emma Frost has a nightmare, apparently about Kitty Pryde, before receiving a request from a Thunderbolts agent asking her to attend the meeting.

- Osborn points out that they are all deposed kings or leaders. They have lost what is theirs. He offers them a chance to get that back. All he wants is the credit for keeping them under control.

- To Doctor Doom he offers extradition back to Latveria. No charges for the Symbiote attack. He'll claim that Tony Stark was infected with a Skrull virus when Doom was arrested. Doom will get Latveria back.

- To Namor, he says he knows about the disorganised Atlantean sleeper cells all over America. He will leave them alone.

- To Emma Frost, he recognises her as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club and as a leader amongst the X-Men. He expects her people to register, but they will be left alone, free from the constant harassment they have suffered since M Day. There are plans afoot to move every remaining mutant to a concentration camp in Canada. That stops if she signs up. Plus he feels having a psychic around would keep everyone honest.

- To Loki he promises that her efforts to seize control of Asgard will be not be interfered with, and that it will be returned to the heavens where it belongs.

- To The Hood he insists that all of his people register and go legit publicly but once they do they get a free ride. They don't have to pay anything to him. As long as they don't do anything he can't publicly pardon they get a free pass on anything they do. He'll call them the Wisconsin Avengers or whatever they like, but as long as they don't touch a government facility they will walk for life.

- All he wants is for them to hit what he tells them to hit, but they won't have any problem with what he asks them to. If they try to betray him or each other, however, then his "friend" - a shadowy figure standing behind a door - will make them sorry.

- He promises that neither the Avengers, who will be dealt with within a week nor Tony Stark will be a problem at all.

- Once the meeting is over, only Doom and Namor remain. Continuing their new alliance from the recent Sub-Mariner miniseries, Doom says that they will go along with Osborn but when he destroys himself then Doom will get the land and Namor will get the seas. And if Osborn doesn't destroy himself then they should prepare for a battle the likes of which this dimension has never seen.

- Back at Thunderbolts mountain, Swordsman confronts Osborn, threatening to go public with all of Osborn's dirty secrets if he doesn't get the out he was promised. Osborn goes in to a psychotic rage, taking von Strucker's sword and running him through before pushing him off the mountain.

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

I liked this issue alot and I love this idea. Keep up the good work Marvel.

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

Someone spoil this for me! I can't take it!

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

It's probably The Void.

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

Bah. Doom would never go along with such nonsense. Doom would crush Osborn like the bug he is.

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

I'm going the other way - I reckon it's Bob. The Sentry crushed Doom. He's the one guy even Doom and Loki would be scared of.

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

I actually think that Osborn was hiding the Dark Avengers behind the door...but the Sentry is a good guess as well. I enjoyed it. The artwork could've been better, Namor looked like he was going bald...I enjoyed the exchange between Doom and Namor, Doom's the best. I'm really looking forward to the rest of Dark Reign.

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

So this is basically Marvel's ripoff of The Legion of Doom. Surprised it hasn't been done before. Hopefully this leads to Emma The Mansion Bicycle being given baddie status again. But I could never be so lucky.

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

Hardly.

Mansion Bicycle ? She went after Scott and she got him. That's it. The only person sleeping around in Marvel Comics these days is Clint Barton.

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

So basically more NuMarvel stupidity from the (alleged) brain of Joey Q...

How the mighty have fallen... :(:(:(

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

^What ? Care to be more specific ? I can't see anything stupid about this.

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

The whole insane "let's make the 616 continuity a carbon copy of the Ultimate-verse" mentality that Joey has. Jemas started the whole "dark universe" thing and Joey has followed right along with it.

Look at his numerous public statements about how Spider-Man should not be married (and he broke THAT up). How Captain America was "no longer relevant" (so he had him shot and replaced with "Captain FAKEerica", who uses a frakkin GUN, of all things. How he ruined New Warriors JUST to kick off this cokkamaime "Civil War" (remember when it was just the nutjobs like Gyrich who were calling for metas to line up for their "number"?)

The continuity ban. "No more mutants!" Avengers Disassembled. The war against Spider-Girl (5 times he cancelled the book, only to be overriden thanks to the fanbase!). Thunderbolts as metahuman Gestapo...in just under 5 years the "nu regime" has systematically OBLITERATED a rich, well written, well defined universe of 50 years standing and replaced it with "KewL, EDgee & relEVunt" Coffee Shop comics.

All in the name of "a new audience" that has NEVER materialized in sufficient numbers to offset the loss of life-long comics readers who kept Marvel going all those years...

Oh yes, lets also not forget "Wolverine must be in EVERY book, 'cuz he sells." Never mind if he doesn't BELONG in that book...

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

I don't read anything from the Ultimate universe except The Ultimates, which is nothing like anything I see in the 616.

Brand New Day has had its positive side as well. No more reliance on the same old villains, for a start.

And we got one of the best comic book stories ever written out of it.

The concept of a Superhuman Registration Act is hardly new.

You mean the one where Bendis was allowed to insert hints and clues about Secret Invasion in multiple titles going back years ? Or the New Avengers: Illuminati mini-series ? There's no continuity ban that I can see. Pick up an X-Men title, if anything there's too much continuity there.

You can blame Grant Morrison for that one. He wrote the entire Marvel universe in to a corner by saying that mutants would soon overtake normal humans.

Avengers Disassembled was necessary. It was necessary to make the Avengers important again after the X-Men had stolen all of their thunder.

Nobody cares about the MC2 universe anyway.

No, his writers have brought it in to the 21st century. Marvel's been crying out for people like Bendis, JMS, Dan Slott, Mark Millar, Ed Brubaker and co for years.

I can't speak for anyone else, but they lost me in the 80's and they got me back in 2001.

I can't disagree with that.

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

Promising issue, Namor looks like Joe Q, tho ;)

Re: The Dark Reign Begins... SPOILERS!
 

Bendis does need to have a word with Alex Maleev about that one, sure. :)