Dark Avengers #1

$3.99 argh. Pass.

I think I'll wait for the fan reaction to see if I'll start checking this out.

I think I'm gonna hear Josh screaming:

WHAT THE FU---!!?

All the way to Jersey when he sees the 'Hawkeye' in this comic. :)

I bet it'd sound more like:

"That's Bulls---!!"

;-) 

Why did you put dashes in "Bullseye?"  Is "Bullseye" a bad word?

Because it's Bullseye.  Right?

I am confused if you're attempting to be facetious.  Please see below for explanation of humor attempt.

Yes, from what I hear, it is in fact Bullseye, but I was implying that regarding 'Hawkeye' in this issue,  an appropriate response would be either "That's bullshit!!", or "That's Bullseye!!", which censored (either for language or spoilers) would be "That's Bulls---!!"  I guess that's too obtuse though.  Oh well.  Maybe next month, folks!

screw this book this sounds like bullshit. bullseye as hawkeye, iron patriot is obviously osborn, the venom looking character is mac gargan, as for the others i dont think i care.

flip through it in the store to see if its ok or not then figure it out from there

I just read the secret invasion trade for the first time this weekend and i am so geeked for this title. Hope it rocks.

Moonstone and Daken, I believe.  Yeah, I'm totally on the fence too.

Oh goodness! This might be the first major Bendis book I pass on in years!

I want to see what its all about.  I'll pick up this one to find out.  I dont want it to suck

Can't wait.

So many haters!  The last few issues of Thunderbolts show what these characters have done recently.  The potential this book has is exciting.  It could suck I guess, but lets hope for a good story.  I would love to see a Bullseye in Hawkeye costume destroying his reputation.

I'm pulling for Bendis on this one.

dark avengers
hawkeye:bullseye
mrs marvel: moonstone
wolverine: Draken
spiderman:venom
ironman, norman

I guess this is what conor was mentioning when the internet kinda ruins any reveals and spoils everything.

Cause for the last couple of months everyone could see the covers for the issues and can clearly tell who is what judging from those covers. It's a shame, cause now that I know what the roster is.....it's basically Thunderbolts v.2 with the subtile: Trying to ruin the real heroes rep even though they are unregistered or unlikable anyways so why bother?

So yeah....sorry got on a rant there. Anyways the internet ruined the reveals here if there are any shocking ones left.

The amount of hating on this before it has even come out is impressive. I'm hopful. Even if it is kind of stupid, even if it's 3.99, even if it's a forced attempt to stir up fanboy controversy, it still seems like it could be very fun.

I was disappointed with SI as much as the next guy, but even I don't wish this title any bad.  I hope its good and people enjoy it, just not my cup of tea.  That might change if I hear good things though

Silly me. I was hoping this would be some kind of fun, Avengers Forever-esque team of parallel universe Avengers united for a story I wouldn't have to read everything Bendis to understand. I guess I'll pass.

I think I'll drop Mighty and start reading this. The art for godsake!

im just looking foreward to see a group of Avengers who have the potential to not just butte heads with the New Avengers, but possibly kill them instead of letting them leave as the SHIELD troops show up.

I drink the Bendis Kool-Aid and it is tasty, tasty, tasty.

This will be awesome.

The Iron-patriot is dr. doom….. that’s my guess

I actually think that Luke Cage is either the Black Suited Spidey (because of the build) or the Iron Patriot.

I am picking this up out of curiosity. i am in the wish there was more happening off the island camp for SI but i do love Norman Orborn. They dont get much smarter or more twisted than him. So I am hoping this is good.

Daken only has two claws out the nuckles right?  On the cover it looks like three.

@Handsaw

He has that third claw that comes from the underside of his wrist. 

I thought the wolvierne person was pretty clearly a lady. look at the face. And the boob. I hope black spidey isn't just gargan venom. That would be kind of boring. I doubt Norman is the iron patriot. Bullsyes as hawkeye does sound like a definete possiblity, but It seemed unlikely that the line-up here would be that similar to the old thunderbolts book. Of course i don't know how many of the people mentioned earliar are guesses or are geniune spoilers based on something I don't know about. So. Anyways.

This book is pretty much the original Thunderbolts concept in a nutshell.

In fact, I'm probably dropping Thunderbolts, or at least filing this in its place with my Thunderbolts comics.

is it just me or does "dark avengers" sound stupid?

it's like the name you think up for your high school band or something 

Dark Avengers looks and sounds like a book from the early 90's written by Scott Lobdell and drawn by Rob Liefield. And from what i hear of the concept thats not to far off.

The Iron Patriot design is awesome! 

Bring it on!

$3.99 is a bit much though...

I thought about getting this but 3.99 killed it for me. That and Bendis has seemed to have lost his way and I am no longer sure if he knows what he is really doing anymore. After reading Geoff Johns GL and JSA, Bendis Star has waned for me.

Hopefully it's good

This book's on my boycott list (due to the price/page count); however, it's on my ifanboy pull so as I don't forget to double check the page count.  If it so happens to have extra pages, I'll gladly hop on.  Doubt Marvel would have changed that though *sigh*.

I am only now reaching the point where Bendis is writing anything I want to read again.

@Nealappeal-There was an image floating around that had the New Avengers facing off against the Dark Avengers.  In that, and Also the preview for this issue at CBR or Newsarama, you can see Daken's horribly ugly arm tatoos.  So it is indeed him that is dressed in the brown Wolverine suit.  How and why he joins the group might be interesting.  Than again, he is a horrible character...

I found out that Marvel Boys a member of the team.:( I really hope Bendis doesn't turn Marvel Boy into the new Sentry. Cuz, Bendis kinda ruined the Sentry.

i have never read anything with Daken at all so i hope bendis explains him a little for those of us who like wolverine but don't give a crap about his son

Yay - the Reverse-Thunderbolts.  Maybe they will get sent to that weird Marvel Universe mirror Earth on the other side of the Sun (only remembered when convenient, i.e. Jeph Loeb story).

remember kids, there was that issue of mighty avengers with tony stark and dr. doom where Bendis combined how similar the two character were

@drakedangerz darn it.

Is this $3.99 and more pages... or just $3.99 and not even the possibility of a reach around? 

i re-thought about this and now i might get it. its intriging but if it stays at 3.99 i might drop it if the first issue doesnt catch me at all

I figure it's worth giving the first issue a shot.  If it actually interweaves with the NA story, I'm sure I'll keep going with it, but like Jimski reminded us this week, that's what Mighty was supposed to do too. We shall see.

@rayclark it appears the second issue will also be 3.99

Pretty sure the news was that this comic will be one of the few ongoings that will now be $3.99.  Same with New Avengers I believe.

It kinda sucks that Avenger (the only line i really read) is the first to go $3.99

the granov variant is the best cover i've seen in a long time

No thanks. I'm sick of books created just to fit into the current status quo, because once that changes(like every four months it changes), the book becomes irrelevant. 

Wow. This has an average rating of 9. Outta site, my man...

$3.99 LOL no thanks.

I bet that Iron Patriot is Beetle - or a robot controlled by Norman.  Unless they give him dialogue, then it is clearly Doctor Druid.

Ok it got me. No six issue first arc putting the team together. One issue and it's done. Thank god there is not another Ronin fiasco where we have to wait 6-8 months to find out who Iron Patriot, or anyone for that matter, is.

Wow sorry I pulled this one from DCBS months ago cause it was heavily discounted.  I haven't read it yet and frankly I just don't care. I'm not a big reactionary guy like many comic fans are, but Secret Invasion REALLY put me off a lot of what Marvel is doing. 

Question: When does an event stop being an event???

Answer: When it never ends, and each "event" is a DIRECT set-up for another "Event" month, after month, after month, aft.........

I understand that people complain about events... but Dark Reign isn't one.  There is no main book to follow.  People probably wouldn't be complaining about these stories if Marvel hadn't branded Civil War and Secret Invasion as events.  If they were story points happening in all (or selected) books then people would probably congratulate them for keeping a coherent, collected universe.  Right now it just seems stupid to complain that a serial, ongoing medium has stories that are ongoing. Stuff like this just seems like the logical follow up to the ending of Secret Invasion.  I loved most of the Initiative branded books (even though I wasn't a huge fan of Civil War itself) so I expect to enjoy alot of the Dark Reign titles.  Invincible Iron Man is great so far. Really liking the direction that NA is taking. Hopefully, this follows suit.

@anson17   *stands up and starts the "slow clap"*  well said sir

@anson17  Excuse me? 

It is not stupid to want closure to a story that has been built up fpr months and months but instead just peters out into yet ANOTHER bunch of 'event' titles (Wether it's an ongoing or not).  And let's end this line of discussion here and now as I'm not going to get into the semantics of the word 'event' with you.  But I must say the fact you aren't considering this an 'event' very much lends credence to my question and answer above.

For me all I need to do is look at the latest Justice Society arc to see how a big story ENDS.  Good stories don't have to spin off from what came before everytime.  Being unable to end your story is poor writing in my opinion and not any sort of "logical" progression as you suggest.  Please show me in the book of comic rules that the medium is only full of 'stories that are ongoing'? Cause I've got box loads of titles that say different.  A good writer can tie things up and start with something fresh next issue. 

I think it's great you are excited about these books, but you don't see me calling that notion stupid do you?

Yeah I dont know if anyone knows this. But there are a bunch of 'Dark Reign' side stories come out in the future. The advance solicts for April shows a bunch of mini's for FF, more one-shots, and even more mini's (sorry just going by memory here).

So this is a start of something, what I dont know.

regarding the reveal being ruined by the internet, i just stay away from the internet from monday to wednesday until i read the books. not the entire internet mind you (entire+internet=entirenet?), just the sites and message boards that might spoil something for me. obviously the roster was meant to be secret until now, and being that im not that familiar with the post zemo t-bolts, i was able to keep myself in the dark (pun intended) until i read this.

And yeah, I hate that these characters are dressed up as my favorite heroes, but I don't hate Bendis or Marvel for doing it, I hate Norman Osborn for doing it. And isn't that the point? He's just the kind of asshole that would pull this shit.

And let's not put the blame on ruining this reveal for anyone squarely on the internet. The blame resides with people who use the internet to ruin the reveal. D'uh.

 Is it just me or did Norman Osborn look like Tommy Lee Jones? 

@Joe - probably. He was blatantly based on Mr. Jones in Deodato's run on Thunderbolts with Ellis.

wow not bad at all i have to say. but not too sure how i feel a bout this new cast of "Avengers" not really exciting just a re-vamp. i am intrested in the new Mighty Avenger line though

I clapped and giggled when I turned to the first non-previewed page and saw that it was almost solid text. Bless you, Bendis.

the one thing i didn't like about this issue was how big ares looks and how small his head was. it looked strange and took me out of the book

I don't know why everyone worries about events.  This isn't really an event.  Avengers books are always about the overall world and characters.  Osborn is the new leader.  That isn't an event, but a regular story people close to him react on.  It's a story where Stark gets whats coming to him.

@Hawkboy.  Wasn't the last arc of JSA a sequel to Kingdom Come?(I'm way behind on that title, so I'm clarifying) Aslo, sorry I used the word"stupid" normally I stay away from that but I was using a computer missing at least 10 keys so I was already frustrated. 

I do get why you're sick of it.  I just think that there are two kinds of comics.  Most of my favorite stories have ends like Y: The Last Man or Preacher.  Those were planned to have an ending.  Most Marvel and DC books have been continuing story threads and building characters for the last 60 years.  None of these stories have an ultimate end.  I (like most people) wasn't satisfied with Secret Invasion's ending, mostly due to the fact that it was told in flashback, but I do think it set up an interesting new world, which is normally the point of those kinds of stories. I , like the iFanboys would have liked to see a skrull occupation because it would have been something incredibly different, but what would the end of issue 8 have been?  A Skrull taking down one of earth's heroes, cementing their victory.  We got the opposite of that in SI with Osborn taking out Veranke.  What would have been a satisfying end to you? (or anyone for that matter) 

I'm just worried that the term "event" has gotten too much negative stigma attatched to it.  I think if it's looked at as a way to boost sales instead of "Oh my god it must be an amazing story because it's an EVENT!" then people would stop being so dissapointed by them.  I don't expect any more out of an Event book than I do any other monthly.  It's kind of like expecting the Super Bowl to be the best game of football you watch all year, even though they tend to be mild to boring in most cases. It's still just a game of football, in the same way that an Event comic is still a comic.  

Why did people not get event fatigued when Sinestro Corps ended with a "HERE'S WHAT'S NEXT!" moment in the same veign as revealing the cabal?

@RoiVampire Thanks.

I'm thankful that I don't like this. I don't have to read any Dark Reign titles now. Cheaper...

I nearly closed the book when when on the third page I saw the caption "Three weeks earlier" Are you kidding me?! We've had 8 months of time displaced storytelling in Avengers!! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 

@AlexG

Defintitely agree with you on that criticism.  A linear story would seem revolutionary at this point. haha.

I really dug this book. excited for the next one. I'm really excited for the Fury comics they had the add for in the back. No one's soldiers or something? anyways...

anyone else ses Osborn's strong resemblance to Tommy Less Jones? 

@Fvcksick: The Fury book is SECRET WARRIORS.  And the Tommy Lee Jones thing was discused further up the comments, but yes, it's intentional.

@Anson17

 Apology accepted and appreciated (So many on the internet don't show that kind of class).   And I do see where you are coming from, I really do.  As for the JSA, I'm not against sequels or multi-part stories if told well.  Tell me a good story and not a story that you've devised to simply drag on.  Both Kingdom Come and the JSA arc are separate stories that work alone (But at the same time... together) and both finish the different stories they are telling.  Also, Kingdom Come wasn't written specifically with a continuing JSA arc in mind to create more product that DC can sell. 

 Now don't get me wrong I know comics are a business and I get that, and i understand why things are done the way they are. And believe me It's really only been Secret Invasion that has made me seemingly bitter against the whole one 'event' leading into another problem I see happening with alarming frequency these days.

Anyhow I'm old and particularly crabby today.  Basically, comics can shut me up by giving me good content and not just ways to perpetuate a LOT of content. As long as they are good I'll keep happy!  Hopefully Marvel will prove me wrong and all this 'Dark Reign' event branding will be some good reading!

So, anything in here that would affect Invincible Iron Man?

Was glad to hear this was more than 22pages of story.  Hopefully DCBS still has a copy I can grab.

It was OK, but pick of the week? Mighty was so much better. 

I flipped threw Mighty because I was curious on who the new team was. The new Mighty Avengers will probably be shoved down my throat one way or another so I just wanted to see if this team was any good. First page I saw when I was at my LCS? Norman Osborne is Iron Patriot. Great! Now I dont have to read Dark Avengers to get the only character I didnt know who was in the team. Cause just by looking at the cover for this I could tell who everyone was, making the mystery team not that much of a mysterious.

I do know who else is on the team; Ares, the new Marvel Boy, and Sentry. Sentry still doesnt make any sense to me. Can someone explain to me how he got back from Jupiter after his crying fit in SI? Plus why is he a working for a villain when he clearly has the mentallity of Superman? Ala that he knows who is bad or good and why he thinks Osborn is a born again hero.

@thenextchampion  um i would explain it to you if i knew the answers but since bendis hasn't explained it yet i don't feel like i've missed anything. Bendis said over on newsarama that the motivations behind sentry will be explained in the next several issues. Sit tight man, it's called storytelling.

@Roi: Yeah but Sentry leaving in SI and then the Void helping his wife seemed to be a big factor for Bendis.....But it's like he's ignored those two story aspects. Why do I need to wait a couple of more months to get that answer? When he rightfully should've made this more clearer in SI?

@TNC Who's to say, other than the author himself, when he should make story points clear. Here you are, wondering about the sentry and his loyalties because it hasn't all been spelled out for you. It's as the dark knight taught us "all part of the plan." He will tell us when he's good and ready and unless marvel fires him it won't be a loose end for any longer than it was intended to be.

@Hawkboy.  Hopefully something will come out of it that you can get in on.  It's looking like a strong showing so far. Hopefully the momentum keeps carrying.  We all know that Bendis has great starts, but can tend to peter out a little bit.

@TNC The sentry thing was actually handled really well in DA #1. It was simple and short, but it worked. Basically it was a "He's helping me, I need to do this" moment.  The art really sold it.  His eyes were perfect for it (maybe that's just me) 

The SI connection has yet to be dealt with, but I'm sure that thread will get picked up on eventually. We'll just have to wait and see. I'll try and remember to let you know if it comes up.

@Anson17 I didn't see anyone comment in response to your question, so I will. People didn't get event fatigue from Sinestro Corps War mainly because the "Set-Up" page at the end of it was setting up an event 2 years in the offing. If memory serves, it says Summer 2009 in the middle of the page. So, while we were getting a tease, we were also being told, you don't need to buy every single issue of GL/GLC from now till 2009, you can if you want, but know Blackest Night is in a little less than 2 years. Whereas SI set-up an "event"/thematic tone for the comics literally one week after the last event ended. To many fans, this felt a bit stifling. As if, "We're not even being given a month to sort out what happened Post-SI, we're jumping full force into a new status quo that seems oddly shaped like an event?"

As for this issue... well, what can I say? I didn't enjoy it, but I think I'll stick around for one more issue. The concept isn't really that new, nor is it really interesting, but it might be fun. However, I have to say, I can't see staying on this title, or it surviving past 12 issues either. I'm already down 2 of 4 Avengers titles. And New, despite Luke Cage, is slowly slipping.

This book was awesome, but the Secret Warriors preview took my breath away.

Forgot to mention: I'm curious as to why this made POW, now that I've read the issue I'll have to check it out.

@PraxJarvin. I'm glad someone responded to that. I agree that they are two very differnt beasts, I just figured that people should take a look at that one and discuss it a little bit.  I think that Dark Reign is post-SI. It just happens to have a title.  It is the direct fallout from the previous story. Like i said earlier, I definitely get why people are sick of events, but if you look at them as nothing more than just another story, then that's all they are.  I think we've beaten this dead horse into a second death by this point, but I'm glad that we could have an interesting conversation about it.

Man, no Ronin??? lol

The thing I hate about Bendis' writing is that he doesn't write characters like they have sounded for years, he writes them like Bendis characters.  And Deodato's "Norman Lee Jones" bugs me...but I still liked this inspite of that.  I just wish that someone had told me to make sure to read this before I did Thunderbolts.

I'd pay 4.99 if every issue is as awesome as this one!!!

I was convinced I'd hate it - wanted to hate it, but in the end it really wasn't bad.  I'm not a deodato fan, but even he wasn't bad here.

i figured this would be the most picked book on iFanboy. im rather surprised its not...huh?

http://fromthelongbox.blogspot.com/

i am kind of new reading comic booksi but i thought it was pretty sick does anyone know when the new one comes out?

@truegamer47 - In February, but I don't know the exact date.

Originally I was only planning on getting the first issue and then stopping because I didn't think it would be as good as it was and didn't want to spend $4 on a monthly title. But now I am definatelly going to stick with it for a little while longer.

yea i really thought it was good and the artist was really sweet i cant wait for the second one

Daken, Sentry and more Norman Osbourne,,gave it a try, but with this line-up no way I can keep buying.

all the dudes have very big leg muscles.... they should play rugby union

@edward  thats how they should settle the dark avengers vs. new avengers. just a big game of Rugby