Dark Avengers Omnibus

Dark Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis #1-3

by Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Deodato (Writer), Greg Horn (Illustrator)

Every issue of this groundbreaking series in one glorious oversized collection! There they are, a new team of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the sunlight gleaming off their smiling faces and an adoring crowd on hand to cheer them as they take the stage! Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye...You know them, you love them! They're your Avengers, and they are here to protect you! Except...things are not how they appear. With the real Avengers underground, who are these Avengers that look like them, and why have they been assembled? The Dark Reign has begun, and Dark Avengers are at the epicenter of Norman Osborn's insane plans for the Marvel Universe!

Collecting: Dark Avengers 1-12, 13-16, Annual; Dark Reign: The List Avengers

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes, Fantasy

400 pages, Hardcover

First published July 20, 2011

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

The top selling comic in the North American comic book market almost throughout its entire 16 issue run in 2009 and most of 2010, Bendis' extraordinary trailblazing mainstream comic book, where like the Thunderbolts, the main entire team are villains, but taken even further not looking for a new path but revelling in their power and the righteous quasi-insanity of the man with a mission, Norman Osborn! And when I say villains, I should clarify in this case psychotic villains!

The title that extended the legacies of Osborn, The Sentry, Moonstone, Venom and Bullseye, that brought to the fore Victoria Hand; that introduced the mainstream to Daken, son of Wolverine(!) and a truly audacious and remarkable interpretation of Ares God of War. Alongside Mike Deodato Jnr's just OK artwork and Fraction's almost-as-good 'Utopia' mini series this series is one of Marvels' best in my humble opinion. 9 out of 12 Four Star read.

2023, 2012 and 2011 read

[The Lion's Share · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I thought it was going to be an empty 'filler' story but it was actually quite intelligent and brimming with story and action.

Norman Osborn (haha Norman, what silly name) is in power, because he killed the queen of the skrulls during secret invasion, but basically he can't handle it. It seems he's not used to the hours needed to be the iron patriot, leader of the avengers and top cop! I love the way this ties in with the new avengers and leads up to siege, but the best part of this omnibus is how Norman controls these psycho avengers, especially the sentry, bullseye and Venom. His psycho analysis is basically give them what they want, which is give in to temptation. He uses them, but willingly to their liking. It's the perfect form of manipulation and Sentry makes an awesome weapon! Move over Superman!

Looking forward to reading siege now.

[Felix Zilich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Когда купил русский омнибус Dark Avengers, был уверен, поставлю его на полку, уважительно и одобряюще хмыкну, после чего с чистой совестью забуду о его существовании на пару лет. Не вышло, перечитал в первый же вечер.

Вторая половина нулевых, наверное, лучший период в истории издательства Marvel. Статус-кво рисованной вселенной тревожно менялся каждые пару месяцев. Без обмана и попыток дать задний ход. Собственно, именно в это время я и подсел впервые на потогонный «марвел», отказавшись от диеты из Vertigo и прочих «взрослых» радостей.

Закончилась великая эпоха, имхо, битвой за Асгард, и Dark Avengers - события непосредственно ей предшествующие. Перед нами - четвертый акт «Ричарда III», вторая сцена. «На день ли краткий эта слава нам, иль долго ею наслаждаться будем». Герой войны со скруллами Норман Осборн становится директором S.H.I.E.L.D.. Его враги и соперники - либо мертвы, либо в изгнании. Бывший «гоблин» сам начинает верить в собственное искупление, но Бирнамский лес уже стучится в его окна.

Ран Бендиса трудно назвать безупречным, слишком много отвлекающих моментов из параллельных онгоингов. В омнибусе, например, только 14 из 16 выпусков рана. Плюс симпатичный ежегодник про Но-варра, где он получает от высших сил новый белый доспех. Пропущены - два выпуска из кроссовера с «Утопией» (удивлён, что она по сей день, не издана на русском, кажется).

Ран Бендиса трудно назвать безупречным, но именно он стал тем триггером, который сподвигнул меня в декабре 2018 года перечитать (либо прочитать впервые) всю его восьмилетнюю работу на Avengers. Посмотрим насколько меня хватит.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this series. One of my favorite "Avengers" books.

[Graham Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Read in 2014, review from 2024)
In college after finishing up Brian Michael Bendis’ “New Avengers”, one of my favorite comics from high school and college, I doubled back and checked out his “Dark Avengers” series . The Dark Avengers were frequent foes in this period of Marvel, being Norman Osborn’s attempt to run his own Avengers team, the twist being they were various Marvel villains (Venom, Bullseye, etc.) disguised as Marvel heroes (Venom becomes Spider-Man, Bullseye becomes Hawkeye). Looking back in some ways this was Bendis’ version of Garth Ennis’ “The Boys” where we see the corrupted image of beloved superheroes where out of the public eye they are villainous scumbags (but with less gross sex kinks and better writing than Ennis (I know what I said)). Norman Osborn gets the bulk of the series’ focus as we see him play at being Nick Fury and run global security while simultaneously cutting deals with super villains, populate the Avengers with psychopaths and keep the Green Goblin under control. The rest of the Dark Avengers get some focus but nothing groundbreaking is revealed about them beyond Ares and Sentry (who while much nicer than Ennis’ Supes I think would fit in with Homelander, particularly once his full/real origin is revealed). The threats they face are mostly other supervillains so you’re supposed to root for the Dark Avengers but it would have been interesting if they had fought some traditional Marvel good guys like they do in other Marvel series at the time.

There’s some good content in “Dark Avengers”, it’s not as good as Bendis’ other Avengers series but it was entertaining to read when I was younger.

[✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not enough Morgan le Fay for my taste. Can do better.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 3 out of 5]

En el giro hacia la oscuridad que llegó después de Invasión Secreta, hubo una colección que se planteó como máximo exponente de ese nuevo horizonte, y fue precisamente esta, Los Vengadores Oscuros. Con Norman Osborn como responsable de todo lo relacionado con los superhéroes en Estados Unidos, y con su Cábala "sustituyendo" a los Illuminati de Tony Stark y Reed Richards, también los héroes más poderosos tenían que cambiar... Y Osborn decidió continuar el trabajo que había hecho con los Thunderbolts, llevando hasta Los Vengadores a algunos de ellos. Esta nueva etapa se encararía con una peculiar alineación del equipo: Ares y Vigía de los antiguos Poderosos Vengadores, Marvel Boy como nueva incorporación después de Invasión Secreta... y unos nuevos Miss Marvel, Ojo de Halcón y Spiderman, que realmente serían Piedra Lunar, Bullseye y Veneno; todos ellos dirigidos por el propio Osborn, convertido en Iron Patriot.

Reinado Oscuro fue un entorno no demasiado largo, así que no hubo muchas historias que contar en Vengadores Oscuros, donde sobre todo se ahondó en la naturaleza del Vigía y en la creciente locura de Osborn. Realmente, podemos hablar de tres historias para los Vengadores Oscuros: su enfrentamiento con Morgan Le Fey para ayudar al Doctor Muerte; su conflicto con la Patrulla-X que desembocaría en la creación de la Isla Nación de Utopía; y su batalla con el Hombre Molécula, antes de que Marvel decidiera dirigir a sus héroes a un nuevo horizonte, que llegaría después de Asedio.

Si cuando hablaba de Poderosos Vengadores de Dan Slott comentaba que el dibujo había sido un lastre para la serie, en este caso ocurre lo contrario, y el trabajo de Mike Deodato es absolutamente brillante, y la verdad es que no se me ocurre un dibujante que hubiera podido plasmar mejor las sombras de estos Vengadores Oscuros.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed this nostalgic trip through Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato’s villainous take on the Avengers. Spinning directly out of the Secret Invasion event, the Dark Avengers focuses on the redevelopment of the team under “reformed” supervillain Norman Osborn, who now calls himself the Iron Patriot. Most of the team consists of villains masquerading as heroes including Mac Gargan as Spider-Man and Bullseye as Hawkeye.

Given Bendis’ lengthy run on all things Avengers I found this series to be one of his strongest. The characterization is effective and the overall narrative focused. He uses several old Marvel villains such as Morgan Le Fay and the Molecule Man to great effect. The interplay between Osborn and The Sentry is also a welcome addition. It’s great to have consistent and beautiful art from Deadato across the entire 16 issues.

Despite the strengths of this series I believe it suffers like other Marvel comics that attempted to go shake up the status quo (i.e. Bucky Cap, Superior Spider-Man etc.) in that it ends before the full potential of its concept can be realized. The world that Bendis’ created post Secret Invasion had numerous layers to explore well beyond a year and a half of single issues. The potential to throw this unique Avengers roster against more threats (such as the Masters of Evil) and with so much tension existing within the team dynamic, the series wraps up quickly with much left on the table. Regardless this is an excellent collection that really shows what can be done with a team book, regardless of the morality of its characters.

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love bad guys. You can keep Iron Man and Captain America, I'll take Doctor Doom and Mephisto any day of the week. So, it goes without saying that a book all about a team of bad guys was right up my alley.
It was also a bit obvious what was going to happen (a group of mentally unstable, selfish murderers trying--and mostly failing--to hold a team together) but it was fun while it lasted! The art was also consistently good in these stories.
The only problem I had was with the ending: Ok, so the members of the Dark Avengers are all arrested and treated like scum for being bad guys. But wait! They are part of a program sanctioned by the president, are under the thumb of the registration act, and threatened with arrest if they don't do everything Norman tells them to. So does that mean they would be arrested no matter what choice they made? I get that bad guys have to be punished, but this doesn't seem very fair. The only person who gets a full pardon, a pat on the back, and a job offer--Victoria Hand--is the only one besides Norman who actually should be arrested and imprisoned because she was the only one who actually chose to be there in the first place! That's like arresting the low-tier Nazi grunts but hiring the Nazi general into the U.S. government with a handshake.

[Jesse Bradstreet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Dark Reign was the first major Avengers event dating back to Disassembled that I didn’t read in full when it came out. I kinda felt burnt out with them by the time I got to high school, which is a shame because this is one of the better ones. There’s no *real core book, and there’s probably over 300 titles that carry the dark reign stamp (not to mention ones that don’t but are related—I’ve read the captain America reborn and siege stories a few years ago) so I limited it mostly to the works of Brian Michael Bendis and Matt Fraction, and was pretty impressed. The core of the work was the dark avengers series, which is filled with really cool character moments and fun bits—one issue has a lengthy Norman Osborn interview section I really enjoyed. Always loved Bendis’ writing and he’s on point here. His New Avengers storyline is mostly really good as well, revolving around the villain The Hood, as well as the difficulties Luke Cage and Jessica Jones have during the “dark reign”. Fraction I chose because he also wrote a good chunk of the event, including a couple Dark Avengers issues, part of an X-Men crossover called “Utopia” that was just ok. His stories are overall not as engaging, although I did read a decent 12 issue Iron Man run by him that has its moments, with Stark being a man on the run. Overall had a lot of fun with this event!

[Eldon Farrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a child I read Marvel almost exclusively. This would've been the 80s and Marvel was king. The Bullpen and Stan's Soapbox and stories that defined a generation. Marvel was the undisputed house of ideas.

One of those ideas published in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man in the 70s became a classic of comic story telling. Issues 121 and 122 saw the death of Gwen Stacy and Spider-Man's nemesis Green Goblin - Norman Osborn in disguise. The story was amazing and showcased what made Marvel great.

What does any of this have to do with Dark Avengers? As much as those issues exemplified what made Marvel work, this story shows why it no longer works. Norman Osborn died and yet somehow...for whatever reason...he's alive again.

Marvel has lost the creativity that made them what they are. They destroy their storied history with ridiculous notions such as this.

Rant aside, the book isn't bad. It just left me asking why?

3 stars.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half, including the crossover I really enjoyed, the second half was good but nit as strong. It was still interesting.
There was an issue featuring Ares and the secret Warriors which should be in the Secret Warriors omnibus.

I liked the SIEGE tie ins weren't direct tie ins as the event showed what these characters were doing. More of a prologue and epilogue.

Shows the rise and fall of Osborn and Sentry mostly. Was it Molecule Man who shifted Osborn back to psychotic/sociopath or wad he always going in that direction?
Victoria Hand I felt was a baddie, but learned she just wanted the world to be better and being part of the establishment was the only way to do it.

Just speech by her to Commander Rofers in the last issue. Still relevant today.

[Vittorio Rainone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Al di là di quanto possa essere telefonato riformare i Vendicatori prendendo le sembianze dei vecchi eroi, al di là di quanto possa sembrare commerciale l'operazione, sta di fatto che seguire le avventure di un gruppo di rinnegati trasformati in riottosi tutori della legge diventa interessante se la narrazione è solida e i disegni sono all'altezza. Deodati Jr. ha fatto qui un grosso passo avanti rispetto agli orrori di THor il motore del mondo. Bendis tiene a freno la sua voglia di far parlare i personaggi e costruisce una trama solida, che gestisce bene i molti personaggi in gioco

[Zachary Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have fond memories of picking up this series in singles issues as it was coming out. This picks up after secret invasion where we see Norman Osborn of all people in charge. He assembles his own team of avengers with known criminals in the iconic roles. This was fun to read again and is worth a read for any fans of the Thunderbolts.

[Greg Enslen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent series of stories, packaged to be one of the best comic reads I've found. A long read, I've got my fingers crossed some or all of these stories eventually get told in the MCU. Bring on the Green Goblin!

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bendis made me give a crap about the Green Goblin and a cadre of psychopaths who want to save the world. Thunderbolts was an obvious Suicide Squad ripoff. Dark Avengers is something different. It asks the question: who are the villains in a world where people don’t trust their heroes?

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm surprised I enjoyed this as much as I did, but these are actually relatively good comics...in many ways I enjoyed this series more than Bendis' New Avengers.

[Gomezmr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This comic is so fantastic.

[Adrian Montanez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Say what you will about Bendis, but this was a great story.

[Valery Tzvetanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is so good . . . I couldn’t imagine that I’m going to like it so much. It is unbelievable. Bendis succeeded in making me care about the characters. I even liked them more than the New Avengers. They are finnier and darker than our usual suspects. I really enjoyed the humor inside. There are numerous situations involving sexual jokes even. Bendis is at his best. He presented Moonstone as nymphomaniac, ready to use her body for gaining advantage over her teammates. Venom is put on drugs that changed him into whining spineless scrub. Bullseye is a total maniac and I hate him for this. Daken came out of the closet and told his new teammates that Wolverine is his father. I really enjoyed the Sentry (one of my favorite’s new Marvel heroes) and Ares. Norman Osborn is a lunatic, but in this book we can see why he wanted to be the man in power and understand him better. We even see that Loki is messing with his head.
The art is wonderful. Mike Deodato can draw spectacular scenes. I felt some resemblance between Norman Osborn and Tommy Lee Jones. I don’t know if it was on purpose.
The first four issues are kind of dull. The Dark Avengers are fighting Morgana Le Fay while helping Dr. Doom coming home to Latveria. On the way back to Avenger’s tower Moonstone is seducing Marvel Boy and she was able to remove him from the team. She is starting to work on Bullseye after that. In the next issue, we see how Ares is trying to be good father to his son. Bendis did it so well that I almost felt what to be in his shoes is. This is may be may be my favorite issue in the whole omnibus. We are going to Dinosaur, Colorade afterwards and the Dark Avengers are facing Owen Reece aka the Molecule Man. He is mopping the floor with them, but the Sentry saves the day. He also understood from where his powers are coming from and how to control them. In the next issues the origin of the Sentry is revealed. That’s why I enjoyed this book. There is plenty of Sentry inside! Norman Osborn is trying to help Bob not to lose his mind. He was really good in it due to his experience with the green goblin inside him. However, Bullseye did something horrible, following an order of Norman Osborn. In this moment my warm feelings for the Iron Patriot came to an end. In the last issue we see the outcome of Siege. The Green Goblin and almost everyone left alive are imprisoned. My only remark is that you need to know what happens in Siege in order to understand the last issue. But this collection is big enough like this.
Let me put the long story short: It was a wonderful run; I will miss the Dark Avengers and the Sentry. I‘ll check the Thunderbolts series to see if I can find there something similar to them.

[J'aime · Rating 5 out of 5]

I began reading Marvel comics with "Journey into Mystery, Vol. 1: Fear Itself" and then found myself working backward to "Siege" out of sheer curiosity. I wanted to see how the characters got where they were. I loved Siege and decided to read Dark Reign; only it has no central event arc, unless you count the Dark Avengers.

Villains have occasionally gotten a mini-series, or one-shot, but this is the first full-run I have seen that puts the villains at the forefront of everything. This is their series and our usual heroes make only the rare cameo. Upon ascending to power as Tony Stark/Nick Fury's replacement, Norman Osborn creates his own team of Avengers - substituting our beloved heroes with their villain counterparts (e.g. Venom becomes "Spider-man", Bullseye becomes "Hawkeye", etc.) - and Osborn taking the lead as the Iron Patriot. Osborn wrangles them in with promises of power, glory and money. But these people put the "I" in team! What is surprising about the book is that the team does manage to successfully accomplish some missions. They are skilled, but beyond dysfunctional. Interspersed among the stories are meetings of Osborn's cabal of villains, and flashes of Loki who is manipulating Osborn. The art and the story-telling are perfectly in sync and completely engaging. As befits a group of villains, the story often gets very dark and violent - including more than one murder.

One weakness of the collection is that it sometimes focuses too much on Osborn and Sentry's psychological issues. Both are hanging onto sanity by a thread (Sentry's thread in on fire, I think) and their psychotic episodes take up a lot of pages, to the detriment of the other members. Moonstone, and her sexual crusade to bed all her team-mates, does get plenty of screen-time which definitely makes this rated T for teen. I was also disappointed that issues 7 & 8 were missing. I understand that they were so intertwined in the X-Men story as to not stand alone, but a couple of paragraphs setting the stage could have helped integrate them so the collection was actually complete.

Overall, this is an excellent collection! The book has beautiful production values - bound in leather, with hot foil stamping and sewn binding that made it easy to read. I'm almost sad that Siege brought the Dark Avengers to an end. They were a lot of fun and gave me a hell of an entertaining ride! Highly recommended.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series was an absolute blast. It had the potential to be a little ridiculous: the Avengers controlled exclusively by villains and maniacs? The concept seems a little hard to sell, particularly with the lingering question "Why doesn't someone just arrest them?" But Bendis does a remarkable job making this huge undertaking just as fun and believable as his other fantastic Avengers titles.

That said, some of the Avengers go too underdeveloped. Venom is barely in it, and Moonstone is just a nymphomaniac for no discernible reason. But it's the massive foes this team faces, and the disorganized, often counterintuitive methods with which they combat them, that make this so much fun. Every story pulses with energy, particularly anything focused on The Sentry, Bendis's favorite crazy Superman.

One drawback to this collection is the number of events that have to happen "offscreen." Dark Avengers worked as kind of a central hub for the Dark Reign storyline, but occasionally stories bled off into other titles. There's a big chunk missing that's collected in "Avengers/X-Men: Utopia," for instance, not to mention the fact that the actual climax of this series occurs in "Siege," which is also not collected here. But, if you can forgive those exclusions, this is a highly enjoyable, popcorn superhero story well worth your time.

[Lissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although billed as an "omnibus," this collection is much more like a oversized-hardcover (think Fraction's Invincible Iron Man) instead of what I picture as a Marvel omnibus (which are the size of a phone book and weigh a ton). Also, this collection doesn't include the two issues of the Dark Avengers that took place during the Utopia crossover with the X-Men (while they probably wouldn't have made sense out of context, the completist in me wishes they were included).

Still, I enjoyed the Dark Avengers immensely, especially the first two trades' worth of material that is included here (Assemble and Molecule Man). The team's dynamics are hilarious as they try to settle into comradeship, especially under not-so-stable leadership. The third trade's worth of material, which is what occurred during the Siege event, isn't as strong, but it's interesting to watch the team completely disband.

I'd recommend this as a buy for fans of the Dark Avengers or the Dark Reign event in general. For the more casual reader, I'd recommend borrowing the trades.

[Elia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bendis picks up where Warren Ellis left off on his Thunderbolts by making a flagship Avengers title starring Norman Osborn and a depraved group of killers and schizoids. It's united to that Ellis run by artist Mike Deodato, so yes, we still get Tommy Lee Osborn. I loved Ellis' run on Thunderbolts, but like much of Bendis' big runs this one suffers from event-itis, in that it's so high profile, that it's constantly interrupted by other events (Utopia and Siege) where huge plot progressions happen that Bendis has to cover for. The beginning of this is excellent though, 9 issues where Bendis can start the team uninterrupted, and the great work done Ares, and Sentry, but like I said, reading this run alone, it's incomplete and these characters don't get their endings here.

[Sergio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. I liked the story and how it progresses from a good and hopeful beginning, through the first signs of breakdown to the worst kind of demise. The arworknis also very good. However I found the way the female characters always posed as if they were models a bit jarring. They did it in the most unprobable situations and places. The coloring creates A mood that is always dark and menacing, very relevant to the whole story. I would've liked to see the other story arcs mentioned, Dark X-Men and the attack on Asgard. The inclusion of these woul've really rounded out the experience. Other than that, very good read.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

The entire Dark Avengers run is finally collected in one massive volume! Beginning with the team's formation and first mission (to help Doctor Doom), the Omnibus collects the vast storylines that both helped and hurt the title's run. While the Molecule Man storyline adds a unique twist to the Sentry, the middle and concluding issues serve only to remind readers of crossover events like the Dark X-Men and Siege. Admittedly, I am a fan of this crew of twisted Avengers; this collection serves to remind me of how great they could have been without the massive Marvel events getting in their way.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. I think I would've liked it better if it hadn't excluded the side-arcs to the story line. That being said, who honestly felt it was a good idea to allow Norman Osborn to take over the new S.H.I.E.L.D program? Even if the man is supposedly sane, you'd think his past actions would've made the people making the decisions just rule him out for fear he might have a schizo attack during a time of world crisis.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, Bendis lingering long on the crazies and their inevitable loss of control. A lot of it would be nonsensical without having read other event collections, and that is the only reason I won't score it higher. It is very talktalktalk but given how absurdly superpowered the cast is, this sort of strained bantering is preferable to ultraviolence, though to be fair the ultraviolence is rather stunningly depicted.

[Eric Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite omnibuses ever, and definitely the number one graphic novel in the awsome dark reign storyline.

The interactions with the various villains (posing to be heroes) is completely different from other books such as new avengers. They could care less about saving the world and more about their own personal goals.

Haven't read it in quite a while so might need to have another read some day.

4.7

[Nicolas Ronvel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Une lecture sans passion, que j'ai arrêtée à l'arrivée d'Utopia. La constitution du groupe, la toute première partie, est intéressante. Elle casse les stéréotypes et arrive à trouver un "méchant" correspondant à un Avengers classique. Mais le reste n'est que de la baston basique, sans rien derrière pour relever le niveau. Dommage.