Dark Reign: New Nation (2009)

This one-shot is (I guess) the official launch of Marvel’s Dark Reign phase although, honestly, it feels like there’s lots of “jump on” points for this overarching story and most of the short tales contained in this issue are dispensable.  Not bad or anything, just not essential.  One cool thing about this collection is that every story is used to precede a new #1 issue–so it gives readers a taste before they commit to buying into a series (or miniseries).

Nick Fury’s Secret Warriors get a soft launch (which they’ve already gotten in the Secret Invasion event) as Nick pays respects to Captain America’s tomb.

The Agents of Atlas remind us that they exist in advance of their second miniseries and tbh they’re a breath of fresh air.  Unlike the rest of the deeply cynical Dark Reign universe, the Atlas Corporation is actually doing good in the world but they’re pretending to be bad.

Here, they steal some gold from Norman Osborn.  It’s a quick little heist, and lots of fun.  Fun is in short supply during Dark Reign, which is another reason to love AoA.

War Machine gets a few pages too, where Rhodey hunts down a villain with tech that could cause mass deaths.  We learn that War Machine has “brakes” in his armor that prevent him from killing so, instead, he disarms the villain and lets him get eaten by bears.

Cool.  Nice to have a hero other than Punisher who believes that sometimes death is the best solution to a criminal problem.

Skrull Kill Krew are given some time by this book, but not by me.  This idea just doesn’t work without Grant Morrison scripting (and it barely worked even with Morrison).  Then we close with Clint “Ronin” Barton and Bobbi “Mockingbird” Morse.  Bobbi just returned from being “dead” (kidnapped by skrulls) and Clint just returned from being actually dead (but then resurrected by Scarlet Witch in the aftermath of House of M).

She’s all upset at having been missing for 20+ years so she dumps Clint.  But don’t worry, they’ll be reunited in the New Avengers soft relaunch.