This was my most anticipated book of this week and it served as a good setup into how this whole Dark Reign thing is going to work out.  This begins with Emma Frost joining the likes of Doom, Loki, Namor, Hoodzy, and Stormin Norman in a meeting of the crazies.  When I first heard of Emma joining this group I thought she was out of place.  After Wheden's third arc I thought she was being developed by the X-writers into a  fairly good gal, aside from consistantly waking up topless. I guess she had enough of a bad streak to warrent consideration into this group.   Bendis does do a good job of explaining why she is there and why the other people are to joinng Osborn in his quest to take control of the world. Then after meeting the shadow friend they separate and Norman shows how he can be the kooky Uncle by killing Swordsman and yelling like Angelica Pickles about how he is in charge of the rest of the Rugrats.  Golly gee, he is still crazy, I hope the world will be okay. 
      I like Maleev here also.  He does a great Doom, but his Namor looks like an elf that scams on chicks in a New Jersey nightclub.  I've got a few nitpicks about the cover though.  Is the guy in the middle supposed to be Osborn because he looks like generic man #1. Also, I don't think Loki could magically enhance those boobs any bigger.  She looks like she is headed straight to the porn shoot after the Villian family picture. 
     Comedy aside, this is a good setup for things to come and is a good dosing of Dayquil for the cold that was Secret Invasion #8.  We should see some interesting things to come.