Reviews Without Pity: Dark Reign: The List- Avengers

Dark Reign: The List- Avengers (#1 of #8) Review
Writer: Bendis
Artist: Mark Djurdjevic

OK, Dark Reign seems FINALLY to advance after nearly a year of spinning it's wheels. Granted, it's in Uncanny X-Men (under Matt Fraction) of all places where the plot advances, but hey it's finally advancing towards SOMETHING.

"Dark Reign: The List" is Marvel's way of doing a big event while not really doing a big event. Eight one-shots, focusing on a single plot as Norman Osborn starts going after the eight biggest threats against his tyranny: Clint "Hawkeye/Ronin" Barton, Daredevil, the X-Men, the Secret Warriors of Nick Fury, Punisher, Hulk, Wolverine, and Spider-Man. Furthermore, each list is done by that creative team's writers, so in theory each book can be read by itself as far as affecting (in theory) only that character's title if you are not incline to buy the rest of the books.

Decent idea in theory, but it's a lame idea since we only have Marvel's word that this is a "big" event and will actually affect the main books. After all, two arcs since Civil War and Norman Osborn's rise to power within the US Government has barely affected Spider-Man while at the same time I don't see Bendis sticking his neck out to bring Norman's new mistress, Menace, into Dark Avengers as far as Norman trotting his baby mamma around for the world to see.

But let's get onto the issue in front of me: the X-Men kicking Norman's ass in public and totally and utterly exposing his evil schemes for quelling the "mutant problem" have made Norman telling Ares that they need to start going on offensive and remove those "problems" that are still running. And by problems, Norman means those super-heroes who he hasn't neutralized yet. Hence the list of threats that Norman decide need to be taken down ASAP.

Elsewhere, Bendis's wholesale character derailment of Clint Barton aka Hawkeye but now stuck with the lame-ass "Ronin" alter-ego, continues like a freight train as he once again calls for the Avengers to kill Norman Osborn. Bendis's obsession with destroying Hawkeye by portraying him as a blood-thirsty, "Kill Them All" type is even more sad and insulting to the intelligence of fans when you consider that Hawkeye has (until Bendis got his fat fingers on him) NEVER ADVOCATED MURDER. Hell, he was outright willing to divorce his wife Mockingbird when she took a human life, and the man she killed RAPED HER! A plot point Bendis opts to ignore outright, I might add, as if such a MAJOR DEFINING MOMENT in Mockingbird's history NEVER HAPPENED! That's the sort of of quality "I didn't do the research and proud of it" hack writing that I'm praying will get Bendis shitcanned from Marvel as soon as Disney starts throwing it's weight around Marvel as far as seeing the mismanaged "inmates running the crazy house" crap Bendis and his ilk have been getting away with.

Oh and to just hammer home Bendis's contempt for the audience, he has all of the other New Avengers yell at Clint for daring to say that they should kill Norman. Even after Clint raises the only sane logical point in this "Everyone Hate Hawkeye" moment of contempt that Bendis is tossing at us, as Clint reminds us that Spidey could have stopped Norman's rise to power YEARS AGO if he only had the balls to do something. But given that Marvel is being run by people who think writing Spider-Man as an irresponsible douchebag who drinks and has drunk sex with a woman and then stays quiet when a villain disguised as him initiates sex with said woman, not telling her that she was effectively "raped" by a super-villain is the type of hero people relate to, said line is the closest we've had to anyone calling out Peter for his non-handling of Norman Osborn ever since Norman got handed control over the Thunderbolts about three years ago.

The only good thing comes from this issue is Clint Barton single-handedly taking down most of the Dark Avengers until of course he reaches Ares, who defeats Clint without breaking a sweat as Norman declares Hawkeye under arrest. Clint utterly owning Bullseye and Daken in combat (and Bendis, in a shock of shock, having Moonstone and Clint refer back to their days on the Thunderbolts) uplift what for the most part is a boring issue that mainly consists of Bendis giving the middle finger to Hawkeye fans.

The book also has previews for the next two "The List" issues: Daredevil and X-Men. While the Daredevil preview is a full-on preview, the X-Men one omits all dialogue bubbles and features random pages from the actual book.

Final Thoughts: Horrible issue with the exception of Hawkeye kicking Dark Avengers butts. And who knows when Bendis will follow up on this plot point. Knowing him, I could see him just plain forgetting that Clint was captured and never mention him again.....