I love Marvel. I am unapologitically a Marvel fanboy. But my faith in the company is starting to waver after the onslaught every new “Earth shattering” event that Marvel has thrown at us these past few years. And the latest in this line of comics, Dark Reign, sure doesn’t look like its going to buck the trend.

Let’s start with the art. If you are going to present a comic as one of the biggest events of the year wouldn’t it make since to have it look good. Dark Reign is a travestiy. Facial features never match the emotions that are being expressed. Namor looks like a drunkin’ slob. Norman Osborn doesn’t resemble Norman Osborn at all. In fact his facial characteristics seem to vary on every page. And Loki’s breasts…Dear God, don’t get me started on that. I swear they just keep getting bigger and bigger.

As for the story, I’ve always liked the general idea of a group of villians banning together rule the world, wreck havoc, gain vengance etc. But what bothers me in Dark Reign was the character dialogue. Namor doesn’t talk like this. Every time Namor opened his mouth I was dragged out of this world. These are characters that we, as readers, have developed long relationships and to suddenly have developed, fully fleashed out character start talking like a absent minded, babbiling idiot is embarrising.

The art is horrible, the writing is horrible, and, overall, this book was just plain horrible.