I’m still trying to limit myself a bit with some of the Dark Reign titles, however this month I’ve still found myself picking up a few extra books, just to see the new status quo.
Out of all the books this month though, the must-buy really had to be Dark Avengers #1, which saw Norman setting up the new “official” Avengers team of the Marvel Universe.
In terms of the identities of the Dark Avengers, there weren’t too many surprises. I had been hoping for a twist and it not to be Norman in the Iron Patriot suit, but they’d all been pretty much guessed before the issue itself hit the stands (most being Norman’s Thunderbolts team in new identities).
The surprise was instead that these villains are actually assuming the identities of the heroes, with Venom now known as Spider-Man, Moonstone as Ms Marvel and Bullseye as Hawkeye. This is going so far as to have Moonstone taking over the Ms Marvel title (a move that could backfire if not written carefully). Of course, how this would really work in the Marvel U is questionable. Anyone seeing Carol Danvers flying around, or Peter in his red-and-blues are going to know straight away that they’re the proper versions and the ones in the Avengers are just fakes. It’ll be interesting to see how this gets addressed.
For me though, the big moment of the book was when Norman discovers one of Tony’s armouries hidden in Avengers tower.
Ignoring the fact that Tony was a complete idiot for leaving it there after Norman took over (although maybe he’s left some safeguards that’ll come up in future issues – Norman flying around in a nicked suit of Tony’s armour may bite him on the backside bigstyle), this is a huge event.
Tony’s always been incredibly protective of his armours. He went nuts during the armour wars after discovering that some of his (much older) Iron Man designs had leaked to supervillains. Now Norman Osbourne has access to entire array of armours, up to one of Tony’s most recent designs (going by the look of the Iron Patriot suit). The catastrophe for Tony this represents is huge, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how it gets addressed in the Iron Man monthly.
I’m quietly hoping one of the armours in that room is actually one of Tony’s old teleprescence suits. It’d be nice to see Tony turn the tables on Norman’s discovery by it giving him a “man” inside Norman’s operations at Avengers Tower.
One thing I will agree with Norman on though, is the scrapping of that red-and-gold helicarrier. That thing looked ugly. What was Tony thinking?
Reilly2040's Blog 
Tony was thinking Bling!
Scrapping is a waste of public money, I’d repaint it, sicne its norman, Green and Purple. I was surprised that the armours were still intact, In “Legacy of Doom” Tony is destroying his old suits precicely because he was worried that someone might nick one. It is possible that he keeps at least one version of each, for that inevitable time he has to wear an old suit. I’d like to see Tony use eitehr the Negator pack or the trick he used on Jim Rhodes, hacking Norman’s armour and shutting it down.
Didn’t know Moonstone was taking over the Ms Marvel title. COudl be wierd, particularly since we’ve been on an interestings tory involving Carol being more of a spy. COudl eb a nice touch with carol working in the background out of costume. Are we going to have a spidey title that is entirely Matt gargan Venom?
Still, looks interesting, doubt it will last beyond the run of Dark Reign, unless they pull a Thudnerbolts, but would Moonstone really do that twice?
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I will say this for the Helicarrier. It looked like a yellow submarine, which was kinda cool. But yeah, Osbourne just getting it painted green and purple would’ve been funnier 😀
I really hope they properly address the issue of Osbourne having access to Tony’s armours. Its such a big thing, and leaving them behind is really out of character for the Tony we’re seeing, who’d taken all those precautions regarding Norman’s takeover of SHIELD.
I’m wondering if Moonstone will take over the title as Ms Marvel, but it’ll still feature Carol in a B-plot following her trying to take down Norman. Although I don’t read the book, I know its popular, and ousting Carol entirely from it would probably be a big mistake. Venom replacing Spider-Man though would at least be better than One More Day 😉
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I think it definitely needs to be addressed that there are two Ms Marvels running around. I reckon Tony leaving behind teh armours is eitehr a product of his extremis addled system or, more likely part of Tony Starks Emergency Contingency #2344763: An alien invasion has you outsted, SHIELD has been taken over by someone elses villain, and you’re not at your best. Leave Armour as too tempting a prize so you can use it to take him down.
If Tony was still extremised properly, he coudl use that armour as a dirty great trap. He has been seen remotely controlling loads of suits before. On teh otehr hand, it coudl just show how much of a hurry he was in and what he spent time to do.
1. Clear out registration database
2. Plant Virus in HAMMER computers
3. Leave Kipper in Desk
4. Subscribe avengers tower to all direct mailing companies
5. Take all the lightbulbs
6. Destroy or remove all my suits of Armour
He was sadly a bit ambitious with the lightbulbs.
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However, amusingly Norman still hasn’t figured out where that smell’s coming from.
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ANd he did stub his toe on the way into teh bathroom, That stings for Ages
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