Dark Avengers #4

For anyone not up with the times, I'll catch you up to speed. Recently Norman Osborn has become the leader of America's super-human police force, known as H.A.M.M.E.R. He's put together his own Avengers team consisting of people he can relate with. Being a psychotic killer, of course he chooses villains. Osborn has also formed an alliance with some other leaders of the super-human community, forming his own cabal. Those members aren't quite as obvious. Emma Frost (co-leader of the X-Men), Namor (ruler of Atlantis), The Hood (new Kingpin of crime), Loki (God of mischief), and Doctor Doom (king of bad-assery/Latveria) make up this cabal. The premise of the cabal is that they will work together to keep their respective groups in power. Currently Doctor Doom is in trouble and Osborn runs to help him. This is where Dark Avengers #4 picks up.

The opening arc comes to a close in this issue. Osborn and Doom finally get rid of Morgan Le Fay, albeit in a bit of a confusing way. I still have no idea how Doom is healed all of sudden and able to out-magic Morgan Le Fay in that particular time period even though that iteration of her was supposed to be the source of her attack. Who knows? Bendis's characterization of Doom in this issue is spot-on. He's very condescending and arrogant going so far as to call Osborn "ignorant" for not understanding the time-travel elements of this story. This also serves as a pretty amusing wink to the reader to just accept the story and not try to over think it. Bendis also shows that wily-ol-Doom is not as weak as he would have Osborn believe.

Bendis also deserves some credit for exploring some new character dynamics. Bullseye doesn't like to be messed with, especially when it comes from a teammate. I am very much looking forward to seeing how Bullseye will reek havoc within the team. The final page, courtesy of the incredible art of Mike Deodato Jr., shows that the Sentry might be too big a task for even Norman Osborn to handle. And most importantly, Ares's lustful eye for Moonstone is hilarious. When she and Marvel Boy have what seems like a "moment" I could already feel the beating Ares will give him, hopefully soon.

Of course, the art in this issue was great. Mike Deodato Jr. is one of Marvel's best and his shadowy style mostly fits awesomely with this title. One particular scene where Moonstone shoots Morgan Le Fay comes to mind. He depicts Moonstone's personality brilliantly with her use of intangibility at the very last second and mimicking a gun-shot to blast her. The shading seemed a little off in that panel but he more than makes up for it with the 4 pages he uses to show how Doom might be pulling the wool over Osborn's eyes. Speaking of panels, his panel layout, as always, is creative and perfectly adds to the chaos and intensity of the story.

The best thing about this arc, however, is that it only took four issues instead of the standard six issue story to open a new series. Four issues works great for two reasons. First of all, the story didn't need to be drawn out. This arc didn't feel slow at all despite basically being just one huge fight scene. Secondly, four issues works well because we can finally get to the heart of Dark Avengers. The premise isn't an Osborn and Doom odd couple pairing. Dark Avengers is about Osborn having free reign to control the super-human community with his band of villains. With this arc over maybe we can find out how he responds to Clint Barton's rant, how exactly he will police the super-human community, and whether his team can control themselves in public so as not to expose their secret identities.