Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1 (Marvel – Bendis / Maleev)
The Invasion is over!! There are winners and there are losers and in this major one-shot from the Eisner award-winning team of Bendis and Maleev, (New Avengers: Illuminati, Civil War: The Confession) the stage is set for the next major era in Marvel Comics. Hold onto your beenies, boys, because you have NEVER seen your universe turned upside down like this!!
It has been quite a long time since I have seen a mainstream comic that has such a discrepancy between the writing and the art. I almost didn’t get this because the art was so awful. I’m not exaggerating, I’m not being biased (even though I think Maleev is almost as a big as a jerk as Rob Liefeld – check out The Dork List), everyone is talking about how this art is horrible!
From page to page and frame to frame, the characters shift and have completely different looks, going from over-the-top superstar to scrawny loser and back again in mere moments. Greg made the comment “Why does Namor look like the one-eyed crewman from Pirates of the Caribbean?”
Bendis’ plot of have Osborne collect these “kings” and “queen” to help support him almost works. He explains how this cabal of six were brought together and to what purpose. And it almost works. Almost… Really… I see where this can go… the implications across all of the Marvel books… and some of the new books coming, a new role for Nick Fury, new dynamics for Iron Man and War Machine, what will the Initiative do… I start to think that Marvel might have it, but then I see Namor with a 14″ forehead or Loki with oogly misshapen eyes and I lose it again.
Maleev might have it gold with his Civil War one-shot, but it is not happening here.
I am intrigued as to where Dark Reign might go, but I hole Joe finds a hole for Maleev and buries him.
Grade: Story – B+
Grade: Art – incomplete (an F might imply effort on behalf of the artist)
Note From Greg: I Say Thee Nay! I refused to pick this up because the art was so God awful! I say that F does not imply effort because he obviously did not put any into this. You suck Maleev! You suck as a person and now we have further proof you suck as an artist!
