Marvel’s several short stories relating to an event comic tend to be a mostly disappointing mixed bag.  I’m sure it didn’t help that I originally read this as Marvel’s Dark Reign Mad Men, which would have been much cooler.

These are the tales of Spymaster, Jack-O-Lantern, The Gamma Corps, and other characters you’ve either never heard of, or were hoping you wouldn’t have to read about again.  I mean, Gamma Corps?  Really?  Do they need to exist outside of the context of World War Hulk.  I tried giving copies of that series away on Free Comic Book Day last year, and both small children and post-thirty fanboys used the staple bindings to carve up my face.  Maybe someone out there was clamoring for more Gamma Corps, but I think that person would have been appeased with a stick figure, pencil flip book drawn by Rob Liefeld’s pet tarantula, Cable.

That was, perhaps, a tad harsh.  I’m just saying: Gamma Corps?

The stories ranged from ok to not bad.  While the spymaster story was a complete tale, some of them (such as the Atlantean guy who’s not Namor, and Doom story) are teasers for future storylines.

If you LOVED Dark X-Men: The Beginning, then this is the book for you this week.