Dark Avengers #16 Review
This marks the swan song of Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers. As Siege ends, there are some messes to clean up here and there. Brian Michael Bendis will be your janitor to help get those things put back in order.
Dark Avengers #16
At the start of the issue, Norman Osborn, as accompanied by Iron Man and Thor, arrives at Ryker’s Island where newly christened Captain Steve Rogers awaits for Osborn’s incarceration. Flashing back to the day before, the Avengers have Osborn’s team arrested, but not all of them plan on laying down without a fight. Moonstone takes off with Ms. Marvel hot on her tail (that sentence sure turned out a lot spicier than I thought). Bullseye makes a run for it, even managing to intercept Cap’s shield when Bucky wings it at him. Both villains are downed by hard hits from Iron Man and Luke Cage. Rogers stands over Victoria Hand and studies her.
Meanwhile, in Broxton, the Army has shown up to keep things under control and arrest all H.A.M.M.E.R. soldiers. Daken kills one soldier and steals his clothes to blend in. He tells everyone that an order came in to have everyone meet at the movie theater. When they assemble, Daken takes a belt full of grenades and blows them to kingdom come. He makes it out of town. Thor delivers Ares’ axe and helmet to Phobos who is clearly hiding some seriously deep and dark feelings. Cap meets with Victoria Hand and gives her a position with his new S.H.I.E.L.D. Finally, Osborn is put in his cell in Rykers. What seems like a conversation he’s having with someone like Rogers or Tony Stark, is actually his Green Goblin persona who says he’s stuck with him now.
I’d say this isn’t that bad of an issue. Nothing particularly exciting happens. It’s mainly a cleanup sort of thing. We do see that most of the Dark Avengers have been captured and will be locked up, but Daken is still out there giving reach arounds to dudes and licking stuff. We also see that Steve Rogers is going to run an interesting ship seeing how he appreciated Victoria Hand’s patriotism and ability to follow orders. It will be interesting to see what assignment he has for her.
For the most part, I got what I expected out of this. Good art from Mike Deodato and an adequate clean up job by Bendis. If anyone expected a huge cliffhanger or incident in this story to show that some of the villains aren’t going to be so easy to deal with will be disappointed. I guess they didn’t get the memo about the Heroic Age yet.
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Nice little wrap up by Bendis. Like what Deodato brought as far as art. Nice scene with Hand and Rogers and a creepy but cool final scene with Osborn. | Don’t expect too much. This is a soft landing for the series. Nothing too exciting happens. |
| Rating |
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics.
1 Comment
I really dug the conclusion of Dark Avengers. This issue was better than any Siege tie-in and better than the main book. The pacing was perfect, the dialogue wasn’t boring and repetitive, and the art was magnificent. For as aimless as this title became during the Utopia crossover, it really redeemed itself with this issue.