Carol Danvers is watching TV…
…When Brian Michael Bendis offers us a purely meta moment: As “big” as Dark Reign appears to be, it won’t change anything and won’t matter–and it will end by restoring all Earth’s 616 characters to their standard roles of hero-and-villain, more or less. He’s TELLING us this WHILE he’s writing Dark Reign. I love that.
I mean, I TRULY love that. When I pick up a Marvel comic I expect some continuity and through-lines, but I don’t want them to make it impossible for me to follow. I want Spider-Man to be a hero and Green Goblin to be villain, whether I’m reading a 1969 book or one from 2009. And generally, Marvel delivers just that.
Anyway, these issues deal with Doctor Strange having been stripped of his role since he used black magic to help the Avengers. The sequences with Doc Strange are illustrated by Chris Bachalo. I go back-and-forth on his very distinctive, cartoonish style. It really needs to be on a project where it suits, otherwise, it’s distracting and annoying. Here, it works.
See what I mean? That’s a great sequence.
Dormammu promises that once Hood kills Doctor Strange, Hood will become Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme–but Hood has to get to Strange before it’s too late.
We next see the Doctor himself having breakfast with Wiccan, where he tells him he is going to assign someone the new role of Sorcerer Supreme. And maybe Wiccan wants the job? But Hood interrupts, and Strange has to face off against him.
In counterpoint to Doctor Strange’s story, the New Avengers are trying to pick a new leader. The role goes to Clint Barton, with Carol Danvers as his second, but during the conversation, this happens…
It’s cute that Jessica Jones went to High School with him but…Wasn’t the whole point of Brand New Day and Peter’s deal with the Devil that he needed to keep his identity secret after its compromise led to Aunt May’s death? WTF? Why are we going back on that so soon? Luke gets jealous of Peter’s past relationship with Jessica.
Anyway, at this point the stories merge as the team goes to help Doctor Strange, who has been seriously wounded by Hood. Hood is being gradually transformed into a horrifying monster by Dormammu, and it’s causing him pain.
The team goes to New Orleans to talk with Son of Satan, but Hood beats them there and attacks Damon Hellstrom while his partner, Madame Masque, shoots down the Avengers’ Quinjet.
Since Wolverine is in the plane, this counts as an X-Man in a crashing plane–so I can use my tag!
While the Avengers take out Madame Masque outside, Damon and Hood battle inside.
Hood demands that Hellstrom turn over the Eye of Agamatto, but it turns out that Dr. Strange didn’t give it to Damon.
He gave it to Jericho Drumm, who emerges from this arc as the new Sorcerer Supreme. Brother Voodoo rapidly exorcises Dormammu from The Hood in the big final battle.
Hood is badly burned and hospitalized, and his magical hood destroyed. But he gets a visit from Loki so…He’ll be back.
At the very end, Norman Osborn goes head-to-head in the media war Clint Barton has been waging, and seems to be winning. Seeing that he won’t be able to defeat Osborn in the court of public opinion, Barton resolves to kill him.
English (US) · 