Comic Impressions - War of Dark Invasion

Events.

2008 almost every comic series was constantly woven into one event or another. While it's a boon to continuity and lesser-known characters looking for a little spotlight, it's not so great for readers, since getting the whole story requires a significant investment. I'm betting this boosts trade paperback sales, but if it does it's only at the expense of direct monthly issues.

I didn't pay attention to Secret Invasion. Too complicated. The plan was to see how it looked as a completed story after all was said and done, then consider buying the trades. Turns out the whole thing wasn't exactly mind-blowing, so I'm content to pick up the key points from wikis and aftermath issues. To me, the whole thing felt like a retcon.

Now we have Dark Reign. The premise is a little more interesting to me than Invasion. Everything has been shaken up in a more interesting way than "who is a Skrull and who can you trust?". The most powerful man in the world is a known supervillain and psychotic, Norman Osborn, a.k.a The Green Goblin. the line between heroes and villains is no longer about the superhuman registration law and the 50-state initiative, it's all about Norman and weather you're with him or against him. Some see him at a danger, some see him as just another boss or someone to be bargained with, and some see him as an ally.

At some point Marvel has to get off the event-leading-into-event train and leave the 616 in a good position to breed epics, but they're not saying if Dark Reign is the last or not. For now, I'm reading. Iron Man looks to be taking a good turn in this event, Tony Stark and his allies being the most wanted people in America at this point. Looking forward to Dark Avengers, though I hope that they revamp Hawkeye's costume at some point, since the one he had in Ultimates was awesome. I'm very skeptical about The Initiative, since it's looking like a slow and painful death if the script doesn't pick up.

In the X-books... X-FORCE ROCKS! Other than that, I'm interested in what Emma Frost is doing most of all. She's sort of the Queen of mutantkind, Scott Summers being the king. Scott is acting without her in the best interests of the species, and she's left out. Now, anyone who knows Frost knows that's completely unacceptable to her, so what should she do? Ororo (Storm, Queen of Wakanda, but you knew that, right?) suggested that if she considers herself a queen, she should start acting like one. If her intentions are truly aligned with Scott's, then they will meet along that path at some point. So, she accepts an invitation from Osborn to a secret meeting with all these leaders (mostly villains) and says to Frost if mutants stay out of his way, H.A.M.M.E.R. will stay out of theirs. She accepts, for now.

X-Fernius is a bit of a surprisingly good read. 2 issues in, its an attempt at fixing the most convoluted and confusing story on Marvel history, that of Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina. So far it's doing a good job at progressing the story, and hopefully when all is said and done she'll be a viable character for the future.

Still reading Nova, though the story is lacking the punch it once had. Guardians of the Galaxy is still a great read with perfect pace, writing and art. More people should be reading this one.

I may drop Skarr: Son of the Hulk from my pull list. I tried to give this one the benefit of the doubt, but I'm just not happy with it. It's a good sign to drop a book when you end up not caring where the story is going.

Reading Green Lantern titles. Everything is revving up for the War of Light event, which I can't wait for. I was a little concerned that after the event all these new Lantern corps will disappear, but when the more I read the less I think that's about to happen. I think DC saw how well Marvel reinvigorated their space stories and is trying to do the same with theirs. I hope they succeed.

o7