Dark Reign: Mister Negative

Dark Reign (Collected Editions)

by Fred Van Lente, Gianluca Gugliotta (Artist)

Spider-Man's most mysterious new enemy takes center stage in this story by Official Amazing Spider-Man Web-Head Fred Van Lente and newcomer Gianluca Gigliotta. One-half benevolent philanthropist/One-half underworld mastermind, Mr. Negative has carved out a substantial slice of the big apple for himself over the past year. But when the super-villain mastermind The Hood strikes at the heart of Mr. Negative's criminal operations with a whole horde of classic Arachno-Foes (including The Scorcher, Speed Demon, The Squid, and the long-awaited return of the White Rabbit), Spider-Man is left to clean up the mess between these two violent nemeses. Collects Dark Reign: Mister Negative #1-3.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Spider Man

96 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2009

About the author

Fred Van Lente is the New York Times-bestselling author of comics as varied as Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Taskmaster, MODOK's 11, Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Avenger, Weird Detective, and Cowboys & Aliens (upon which the 2011 movie was based), as well as the novels Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.

Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).

He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.

Reviews

[Tym · Rating 4 out of 5]

Art is pretty good but never gets to great. The story is pretty good though I feel that there wasn’t enough of a real ending, it felt like an opening salvo not a complete story.

[Terry Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A serviceable, if somewhat unremarkable, story involving a comer within Spider-Man's rogues gallery.

The story has virtually no substantial ties to Dark Reign, and leaves the reader at the same point at which began: uninterested in the antagonist, and ambivalent about the threat he poses.

Only for the die-hards.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually a pretty decent, self-contained story with a nice little set of beats to the plot that set it firmly in continuity but make it easy to miss this or enjoy it out of order from related series. Van Lente and Gugliotta make for a fine, fun team of craftsmen.

Fascinating way to show how tormented Spidey really is deep down, and where Parker Robbins stands in the spectrum (though Jeff Parker's Hood mini did a better job of making me believe he's a real dude.)

[James Dunphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A whole star goes into the fact that all 3 issues have BEAUTIFUL cover art. Aside from that I always like Chinatown gang wars so this just seemed to fit right in with my usual readings. Another interesting side piece in the "Dark Reign" saga.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short story, quite interesting take on spiderman.

[Tri · Rating 1 out of 5]

3/10

Asshole peter is awesome though

[Username · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hoped to see the conclusion of the Spiderman blood sample story...