Dark Reign: Zodiac

Dark Reign (Collected Editions)

by Joe Casey, Nathan Fox (Artist)

Norman Osborn may be running the show, but not every super-villain is going to accept the new world order. But who - or what - is ZODIAC? In this dark, brooding tale that snakes through the underbelly of the modern Marvel Universe, the new breed of super-villain has finally arrived The order of the day is "mischief for mischief's sake," and no one - neither hero nor villain - is safe Collects Dark Reign: Zodiac #1-3.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Science Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

Librarian note: there is more than one author with this name

Joe Casey is an American comic book writer. He has worked on titles such as Wildcats 3.0, Uncanny X-Men, The Intimates, Adventures of Superman, and G.I. Joe: America's Elite among others. As part of the comics creator group Man of Action Studios, Casey is one of the creators of the animated series Ben 10.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Casey

Reviews

[Arturo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess this book would be 'the ugly' in 'The good, the bad and ugly' type of storytelling. Zodiac just wants chaos, and to throw a wrench into Osborn's nwo. Destroying entire city clocks and putting(fooling) Osborn on the highest of alerts, to a coming threat. The group Zodiac kills to get started, all seems a little far fetched. What sticks out the most is the artist making everything as ugly as possible. The clown being a slob, and the lenghts Zodiac go thru just for chaos. Im not really sure how you follow a series thats not good vs evil, but chaos vs evil. It is interesting as it breaks all the rules, and the dialogue is written well enough to be a good read. Three issues was good for this type of story, but no more.

[Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Norman Osborn now has his supervillains being supeheroes, and Zodiac is a supervillain that wants to be a supervillain. So he fight Norman Osborn, and does supervillain things, while being a supervillain. And he runs around doing whatever happens until the end. The Fantastic Four are involved, for some reason. There are other D-list villains, too, who show up to stand around complaining.

[Terry Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've noticed that Marvel has a tendency of launching a new series, or a new character, during the collecting blitz of a major event.

Typically, the plot is only linked to the main storyline in the most cursory fashion and is little more than a cash grab.

And then...Joe Casey is given a chance, and the result share wonderful.

His character is one of the freshest and most intriguing I've discovered since returning to comics. In fact, after finishing this short volume, I looked up the character's bibliography to see what else had been done with him and was disappointed to see that he has altogether disappeared.

One hopes some enterprising young author finds him and we receive more tales soon. This is phenomenal stuff and well worthy of more.

[Eamon]

I strongly disliked this.

[James Dunphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my head I eternally compare superhero comic books to pro wrestling because they're basically the same exact thing told in different mediums. That said, this limited is how you try and introduce a strong heel (villain) into a comic book universe. Zodiac goes right for the top dog (Norman Osborn) with a motley crew of Z-level villains. I liked Zodiac a lot. He's almost like a Patrick Bateman meets Deadpool in a way. I wish Marvel was doing more with him currently. Definitely worth a read. It's one of the highlights of Dark Reign.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting new villain, would be intrigued to learn more about him. This story doesn't really give much away, except that he has a thing about Osborn

[Tym · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good story about differing ideals but the art was about the ugliest I’ve ever seen

[Tri · Rating 2 out of 5]

5