Posted on: August 20th, 2009 Dark Avengers Vol 1 or Mental Illness is a Hoot!
Know what I generally struggle with in comic books? “The big words?” No, jerk. I have a hard time with moral codes of conduct. Sometimes, people have to do bad things for the right reasons. However, most of the time, heroes don’t kill their enemies and when they do, they’re seen as the threat. I get it; don’t worry. Heroes do right. They’re the proverbial “Man in the White Hat” standing for justice and taking down the “Man in the Black Hat”. Characters have become more complex over time but generally speaking, that’s how these things go. We want our do-good-ers to…do good. Otherwise, they’d be do-bad-ders and nobody likes them. No, wait. I do. I really do.
Perhaps that’s why I get such a kick out of books like Secret Six, Deadpool and The Dark Avengers. Are they good? Are they bad? Who knows, but they there’s a good chance they will shoot you without regrets.
Now, do you like witty banter? Symbiotes? Schizophrenia? Pretty girls getting their heads popped off? Well, if you answered yes to any of those (hopefully not the latter), then give Dark Avengers a shot. What’s that? You don’t know what you’re getting into? Don’t worry, timid reader that’s never heard of Wikipedia-I’ll tell you.
Norman Osborn’s in charge now. “Of what?” EVERYTHING. “Oh Dear.” Yeah, S.H.I.E.L.D. is now H.A.M.M.E.R. and he’s put together a new doppelganger Avengers team with Osborn himself as Rich-Guy-In-A-Suit-That-Totally-Isn’t-Iron-Man. Let’s call him Iron Patriot for fun. We have Moonstone as the new Ms. Marvel, Bullseye as Hawkeye, SonofaWolverine Daken as his father’s namesake, Venom as Spider-Man, Noh-Varr as Captain Marvel and then there’s Sentry and Ares. “That seems…unstable.” Well, yes it does and it is. But boy, is it a lot of fun. Can a team of psychoactive medicated Super Villains share a tower without driving each other crazy? Probably not.
I laughed a lot throughout this series. Brian Michael Bendis is a snappy writer, which you already know if you’ve read his Spider-Man. Put him behind Bullseye and Mac Gargan’s Venom and you get win. What really stands out in this book is Bendis’s portrayal of the internal battles of schizophrenia. Have you ever seen anyone’s portrayal of a person with a mental disorder and just known in your gut that they were waaay off? It’s like watching “Tell Your Children” (aka “Reefer Madness”) and seeing what happens if you smoke marijuana. It’s kind of hard to watch. Bendis nails it here though (the mental disorder, not the weed-try to keep up). I also liked that a shower and a hamburger can really turn things around for you if you’re mentally ill. Isn’t that nice?
Mike Deodato’s art is a little touch and go for me. For the most part, it’s solid. His forms are simple but the details are there. Turns out, Norman Osborn is a dead ringer for Tommy Lee Jones. He could have told me about a dream he had about his father and how this is no country for old men and I would not have been shaken. There are times where Deodato missed and missed hard. Early in the sixth book, there is a panel where Osborn for some ungodly reason looks like a very angry chipmunk. No joke; it’s pretty terrible. In what could have been an amazing panel of a man that is pushing himself into darkness, we get an irritated rodent. Sorry Mike, you killed the moment. You can tell that he’s much more comfortable with close up shots than he is with panoramic views. They get a little rough but, hey-most of the time, he gets the close-ups right, so who cares?
I suppose you could read Thunderbolts before this trade but honestly you don’t need to. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, the brief recap page will fill you right in. I’ve been enjoying the run and now that the trade’s out, Ben Rankel can finally read it. Volume 1 collects issues #1-6.
2 Responses to “Dark Avengers Vol 1 or Mental Illness is a Hoot!”
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Ben Rankel Says:
August 20th, 2009 at 8:49 amI really appreciate that I made this article.
I have a dirty confession to make though, I’ve read everything Dark Reign already. I didn’t want to wait for TPB.
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Ryan Ferrier Says:
August 20th, 2009 at 1:40 pmI’m actually going to pick this up on the weekend; I am a HUGE Thunderbolts! fan, especially Ellis’ recent run, and this looks to capture that tone. I’m not the biggest Bendis fan, but I’ll give it a shot. And yeah, I dig Deodato’s art except when he throws in obvious likenesses in there, with Norman Osbourne/TLJ.