Secret Invasion: Dark Reign One-Shot

Comixology had a sale on X-Men books. I've been curious about Namor's involvement with that team so this seemed like a good opportunity to educate myself.

Thus far, I'd only reviewed one X-Men book which featured Namor on the cover. It turned out that the Prince was barely involved in that issue so the the experience was underwhelming.

But this one is worse!

I failed to notice that it was written by Brian Michael Bendis and therefore was unprepared for the amount of filler I would be facing. On the flip side. I've enjoyed Alex Maleev's art in the past so I looked forward to seeing that. And initially, Maleev's work is quite gorgeous, as seen here when Emma Frost is having dream vision of some sort.

There is another city scene early on that I enjoyed quite a bit so I was optimistic.

That is, until Namor actually shows up.

When I laid eyes on this, I thought this was a "Dark X-Men" type of deal in which the characters were being impersonated. No way could this bum, who looks like he woke up in a dumpster behind a pub, be "the" prince of the blood, the avenging son, the savage sub-mariner! But no, that's him all right!

Following that greeting, Namor tries to flirt with Emma Frost, she tells him he smells and the normally proud, arrogant, hot-headed monarch just sits there dumbstruck. Terrible.

The deal here is that Norman Osborn has called in Dr. Doom, Namor, Frost, Loki and some clown called The Hood to offer an alliance of sorts.

Osborn spends the next 10 or 12 pages or so explaining to everyone why this deal is beneficial and hinting at some threat that can keep them all in line if required anyway.

During this time, we're fed a bunch of "thoughtful" and/or suspicious glances. The image below is actually a full page of material.

As if Bendis' lazy method of "stretch-writing" 10 pages of material into 24 wasn't bad enough, we get another dream sequence towards the end.

Frost is having the same nightmare that she had at the beginning of the book. Now I get that they want it to be clear that it is a recurring dream but they can't be bothered to modify the dialogue or art even slightly. In light of how much space Bendis wastes just on people saying hello, duplicated art feels even more like being given the finger.

This is a one-shot with no resolution to either Osborn's offer or to Frost's dream sequences yet includes a few pages dedicated to a preview of the Secret Warriors book. It isn't particularly good use of available resources.

I haven't read much from Bendis (for which I'm now thankful). I knew he had his detractors but now I understand better why he does. At least I got that much out of this book. Otherwise I paid $1 and didn't get my money's worth.