Dark Reign – The List: Avengers Review

 QUICK RECAP:
· Norman Osborn is the media darling.
· Clint Barton feels that he needs to kill the aforementioned darling.
· As leader of H.A.M.M.E.R., Osborn has a whole list of things to do.

DARK REIGN – THE LIST: AVENGERS
WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
ARTIST: Marko Djurdjevic
INKS: Mark Morales
COLOURS: Marte Gracia
LETTERS: Joe Caramagna

PLOT:
After hearing the declaration that the X-Men’s island, Utopia, is a Mutant Prison Camp, Clint Barton is convinced that Norman Osborn has to die. Spider-Man disagrees with Clint, as does everybody else, but they feel that they should at least help out the X-Men. It’s obvious that Clint doesn’t have a plan and he storms out when he realises that nobody’s going to side with him, apart from his wife, Mockingbird. Eventually, he sneaks away to take on Avengers Tower by himself…

He waits until the Sentry’s patrol of the city (away from the tower) to break in. He throws Venom out the window and shoots Bullseye. Wolverine Jr. (or Daken as he likes to be called) shows up and tangos with Barton until a good ol’ kick in the groin takes him out. Moonstone shows up and has a touching moment with Barton (they do have history from Thunderbolts) until the cameras turn on, she tries to burn him into dust and there’s a security lockdown. Barton gets Osborn alone in his office and shoots him point blank…

…Only to hit his personal forcefield, stolen from Nick Fury’s private collection. Ares steps in and takes down Barton, who is now under arrest.

That’s Point One on the list completed…

LIKES:
-Clint Barton actually being shown as a good fighter, which he is. He was trained by Captain America, after all.
-We get a resolution to a plotline which has been there since the start of Dark Reign.
-Spider-Man actually getting quite an important role in this issue.
-Good looking art.

DISLIKES:
-Fairly quick read.

THOUGHTS:
New Avengers is known for having a lot of talk in it. A lot. A kitchen table chat here, around the TV conversation there. We don’t get a lot of that in this issue. It’s more or less action most of the way through. Clint Barton, the former Hawkeye, means business and we do get slight signs of hesitation, but we know that he wants to kill Norman Osborn. Just like this issue, he isn’t just all talk. He kicks the stuffing out of half the “Dark” Avengers and gets to his destination, only to be beaten by bad luck and bad planning on his part. He was all alone in his decision and all alone in the battle and while he can hold his own, maybe he should have accepted some help on this mission and gone with the rest of his crew.

Marko Djurdjevic brings his excellent interior work (as readers of JMS’ Thor will be familiar with) to this book. He shows Clint’s anger and determination and even his desperation in the end. It’s nice when you get a story that looks good too, feels like you almost get your money’s worth. I say almost as this book is $3.99. Yeah, get used to this price for a while. Good thing these reviews are free, eh?

At least until the price bumps in mid-November, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come it, gang!

FAVOURITE QUOTE:
“It’s Venom! Venmom tried to escape!”

Yes. He did say Venmom.

OVERALL:
4 out of 5 webheads.