Marvel Comics Dark Reign: The Future?

[Mr Light]

I'm only buying trade collections of comic books now so I'm just seeing the first arcs of Dark Reign. It's an interesting premise. I've read the first trades for Dark Avengers, Punisher, Deadpool, New Avengers (10 & 11).

I was wondering if any end game on this story is in sight yet or has been previewed? Is this going to culminate in the next summer mega mini series crossover event or something?

So what's the situation with the Fifty States Initiative now? Have they all been turned to evil under Osbourn's rule? Have they run away? What series is this being covered in? I'll get the Avengers Initiative trade when it comes out. I know that Iron Man erased the Superhero Secret ID Database... so the gov no longer has any clue who the supers are? Have most of them just gone rogue like Spidey and the New Avengers then?

Have the New and Dark Avengers had a knockdown drag out fight yet? They've teased but avoided it in NA#50 and the Free Comic Book Day special.

Of everything I've read so far it sounds like the only real do-nothing of the Cabal is Namor. Has he done anything yet?

Has Cyke found out about Emma yet? Is she actually evil or just watching out for the mutants? I don't really bother with the X-trades.

And what is the fan reaction to Dark Reign so far? Yay or nay?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Have the New and Dark Avengers had a knockdown drag out fight yet? They've teased but avoided it in NA#50 and the Free Comic Book Day special.

That's happening in one of the Dark Reign: The List books.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Of everything I've read so far it sounds like the only real do-nothing of the Cabal is Namor. Has he done anything yet?

Has Cyke found out about Emma yet? Is she actually evil or just watching out for the mutants? I don't really bother with the X-trades.

Both Emma and Namor's role in the Cabal come to a head in the Dark Avengers/X-Men crossover "Utopia".

Spoiler: Utopia

Emma has seemingly been working with Cyclops since the begining as nothing Emma did during Utopia came as a surprise to him. Oh, and Namor is an X-Man now.

And what is the fan reaction to Dark Reign so far? Yay or nay?

I've enjoyed it. I know the idea of "Norman Osborn=hero" turned a lot of people off the story, but in truth he hasn't been portrayed as a hero at all. There is currently a media-fueled public perception within the MU of Osborn as a hero because he got off the lucky shot that ended the Skrull war, but he is as bad as he ever was.

The man who owns my LCS says that he believes that the current "Dark Reign- The List" mini will be the begining of the end of Norman's reign.

 

[Hound of UIster]

The 50-states initiative has been taken over by the Hood as a vehicle to give many of the lower tier supervillain muscle clean slates while secretly allowing them to commit illegal acts. It's day to day operations is being handled by the Taskmaster who has dug up Penance as his personal ace card. Both Gauntlet and Tigra have joined up with Justice's New Warriors team after learning of Osborn's decisions to confiscate Tigra's alien baby and chop off Gauntlet's arm.


The Cabal has fractured. Namor and Emma have formed an alliance that lead to the two of them breaking from Osborn and helping the X-Men create an island sanctuary free from interference. Loki and Doom have banded together to achieve their shared goal of ultimate power while waiting for Osborn to breakdown. The Hood has become Osborn's silent parter in crime, but lost his powers after tangling with the new Sorcerer Supreme.

The Dark and New Avengers have not yet fought. Osborn has steered clear of them and Captain America. Instead he has used the Hood's men against the New Avengers.

The upcoming List series is suppose to detail with Norman taking a more proactive step in clearing his enemies list:

-Spider-Man (Norman's no1 foe)
-the New Avengers
-the Hulk, one of Tony Stark's greatest failures as director SHIELD
-Nick Fury, a thorn in HAMMER's side since his theft of all the helicarriers and their crews
-Namor and the X-Men's island sanctuary nation, labelled a national security problem by Osborn
-Daredevil, the new leader of the Hand out to combat corruption in the Big Apple using its vast resouces
-the Punisher out to kill Osborn and the Hood and who has already taken a large bite out of the Hood's empire.
-Weapon Plus, not really an enemy, Osborn has set his sights on controlling it and its super sentinel thinktanks.

TPTB over at Marvel have stated that at the end of the day Norman does have an ultimate secret agenda for doing all this besides power for its own sake.

 

[Turtletrekker]

TPTB over at Marvel have stated that at the end of the day Norman does have an ultimate secret agenda for doing all this besides power for its own sake.

I think it's obvious that ALL of this has somehow simply been Norman's way of destroying Spider-Man and all that he stands for totally and completely and forever. Norman has become to Spidey what the Red Skull is to Captain America. I think it's very telling that the last issue of The List will be the Spider-Man issue.

 

[Mr Light]

I'm trying to recall the timeline here but in the MarvelU is it Obama who handed the power over to Osborn? 'Cause I have a really hard time buying that. Bush, absolutely, makes perfect sense. But Obama? I can only hope after Dark Reign is over the MarvelU gets to be happy for a little with the heroes in charge and not trying to kill each other. It's been a pretty dark past 4-5 years!

 

[Turtletrekker]

^Nah, it was Bush. The first issue of Secret Warriors confirmed this when Fury snuck into the Oval Office to talk to Obama.

 

[Gojirob]

I'm trying to recall the timeline here but in the MarvelU is it Obama who handed the power over to Osborn? 'Cause I have a really hard time buying that. Bush, absolutely, makes perfect sense. But Obama? I can only hope after Dark Reign is over the MarvelU gets to be happy for a little with the heroes in charge and not trying to kill each other. It's been a pretty dark past 4-5 years!

I'm not much for 43/W myself, but given Marvel's sliding timescale, we have to remember that Rick Jones never told LBJ Banner's then-secret, Nixon was not the President Cap caught out as head of the Secret Empire, and so forth. In time, it will have been Obama that had Red Skull in his cabinet, and Bush who was given a wake-up call about Reed Richards' failed space mission. The guy who's in charge at the time the comic is written makes the brilliant/dumb choice, and given comic books' version of the US Government, they're gonna come off like a dupe or worse. The sliding timescale means that a story that once had a Kennedy-alike later will have Clinton. MU-Obama made the choice about Osborn because that was needed for the story and MU-McCain might have done the same, if not for Lehman Brothers.

 

[Turtletrekker]

MU-Obama made the choice about Osborn because that was needed for the story and MU-McCain might have done the same, if not for Lehman Brothers.

While your points about the sliding timescale and its effect on the story in the future are good ones, in the comics it was Bush that appointed Osborn to the position of power. In Secret Warriors #1, Nick Fury sneaks into the Oval Office and has a pow-wow with Obama. In this meeting Obama explicitly says that Osborn's "promotion" was a decision made by the previous administration.

 

[CaptainCanada]

MU-Obama made the choice about Osborn because that was needed for the story and MU-McCain might have done the same, if not for Lehman Brothers.

While your points about the sliding timescale and its effect on the story in the future are good ones, in the comics it was Bush that appointed Osborn to the position of power. In Secret Warriors #1, Nick Fury sneaks into the Oval Office and has a pow-wow with Obama. In this meeting Obama explicitly says that Osborn's "promotion" was a decision made by the previous administration.

Thunderbolts likewise confirms that; the first arc with Andy Diggle's new lineup was all about Norman staging an attack on Air Force One to convince Obama to keep him around.

As to "Dark Reign", I've enjoyed most of the parts that I've read. Norman being in charge requires a bit of suspension-of-disbelief, but it's got a heavily satirical edge, so fine.

 

[DarKush]

I'm enjoying Dark Reign, but the discussion about Obama has revived some questions I've had about his involvement. I think it was a mistake to have Obama involved. I know it was perhaps good for publicity, but I wish they had just created an original African-American president because I find it hard that Obama would go along with what Osborn has been doing, despite the staged attack. I'm sure there would be various factions in the administration who would want to take Osborn down or curtail his authority, and I see him engaged in a constant bureaucratic battle to maintain the control he has. With a fictional President I think it would be more plausible that Osborn is given such free reign. Also, I'm thinking that the cost of all the things Osborn is doing would be an issue too.

I also wonder when Dark Reign will end and if it will lead to another super crossover event.

 

[Mr Light]

I much prefer the DCU using fictional presidents, because using a real life Pressy who's only there for four years horribly dates and accelerates the internal timeline, since 4 years of comic book time is 48 issues and thus less than two months since most issues only take place over a day and run directly into the next one! Although I'm pretty sure I have some 80s DC comics with Reagan in them, I guess they altered that policy at some point.

 

[Gojirob]

MU-Obama made the choice about Osborn because that was needed for the story and MU-McCain might have done the same, if not for Lehman Brothers.

While your points about the sliding timescale and its effect on the story in the future are good ones, in the comics it was Bush that appointed Osborn to the position of power. In Secret Warriors #1, Nick Fury sneaks into the Oval Office and has a pow-wow with Obama. In this meeting Obama explicitly says that Osborn's "promotion" was a decision made by the previous administration.

I stand corrected. Still, any POTUS in comics is eventually forced to carry what TVTropes calls the Idiot Ball. Its kind of like what they say about the economy--whose in when its good or bad does more to the election than anything else. Obama will for now be the POTUS during the Dark Reign, and will be infuriatingly fooled more than a few times.

I hope that the return of Steve Rogers plays a huge part in ending this. I also will say--take the stories in a different direction. If this is the playing out of what started with Disassembled, then let's look at other types of conflicts. Heroes on the outs with everyone is now officially old, IMO.

When I did peek in at NA, I noted neo-unmasked Peter (Don't Call Me That!) increasingly at odds with the team. Could he exit back to the MA at some point?

 

[The Evil Dead]

Yeah, they should just have fictional Presidents. After all that insane global catastrophes and events the 616 Earth has been through, it's absurd that they'd have the same string of Presidents that we have, it would be a divergent timeline.

 

[barnaclelapse]

I much prefer the DCU using fictional presidents, because using a real life Pressy who's only there for four years horribly dates and accelerates the internal timeline, since 4 years of comic book time is 48 issues and thus less than two months since most issues only take place over a day and run directly into the next one! Although I'm pretty sure I have some 80s DC comics with Reagan in them, I guess they altered that policy at some point.

Exactly. It just seems to me like it would be easier to create a fictional president anyway.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Marvel wants to keep the fictional universe as close to ours as possible, so using the real president makes sense.

I much prefer the DCU using fictional presidents, because using a real life Pressy who's only there for four years horribly dates and accelerates the internal timeline, since 4 years of comic book time is 48 issues and thus less than two months since most issues only take place over a day and run directly into the next one! Although I'm pretty sure I have some 80s DC comics with Reagan in them, I guess they altered that policy at some point.

DC used the real president until 2000, when Luthor was elected, but since his departure who holds the office has been somewhat confused; Luthor's VP Ross held it for a bit, then in some comics it was a guy named Horne, and a lot of cameos in the last few years drew a Dubya-esque figure.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I've enjoyed Dark Reign. The fracturing of the Marvel Universe continues...I think it's only a matter of time before we see it coming back together. Bendis has a plan...and no it's not to piss everyone off...I look at the events of the past five or seven years as a deconstructing and reassembling process. In fact i can see maybe in a year or so Captain America (Steve Rogers) exclaiming "Avengers...REASSEMBLE!" with Tony and Thor along side him. I see this happening with the release of Captain America and The Avengers movies.

As for the future of Dark Reign....Bendis said at Comic con this year that it will run towards the end of the year. Not sure if that means the main Dark Reign storyline or elements from it but the LIST really sets up the finale for it. I'm still hoping against hope that Peter will be the one to finally take down Norman and for Norman to go Green Goblin on everyone arse!

 

[Turtletrekker]

DC used the real president until 2000, when Luthor was elected...

And somehow I was envious of the residents of the DCU...

 

[Mr Light]

He did rebuild Gotham City and offer all that Brainiac 13 future technology for free didn't he? Man, I wish those Superman trades were back in print. I'd love to see all the issues of President Lex along with Ed McGuiness artwork.

 

[Hound of UIster]

I've enjoyed Dark Reign. The fracturing of the Marvel Universe continues...I think it's only a matter of time before we see it coming back together. Bendis has a plan...

No he doesn't. There is a good body of evidence that he is making it up as he goes such as Ronin being Echo not Daredevil (which occured after a reporter spilled the beans), the Skrulls being the mysterious antagonists in NA or the rise of Osborn, that was a reaction to the popularity of the character after his appearances in the Ellis penned Thunderbolts. I thnk in his defense Bendis has more of a general idea of where he is going rather than a detailed roadmap that has been worked out to the last detail for the next 2 years.