Dark Avengers #12 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mike Deodato & Greg Horn (art), Rain Beredo (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: Victoria Hand tries to negotiate with Molecule Man.

What’s Good: Much of what made last month’s issue good is furthered this month.  Molecule Man in particular continues to be written well by Bendis.  He’s a bizarre concoction of social ineptitude that ends up sounding oddly child-like.  At times, he sounds innocent in his inability to converse, and at other times, he’s violently petulant.

Once again though, the real star is Victoria Hand. Bendis has made the most of what may appear to be a “filler arc” by using it to make a fully developed character out of her.  Bendis thrusts her into the middle of the action this month and we see her slowly settling into a leadership role and using her natural intelligence to get by.  Nonetheless, Bendis makes it clear that this is new territory for the character; she stutters during her negotiations with Reese, despite her tactics being sound.  The real moment this month for Hand, though, comes with her finally standing up to Osborn and asserting herself.  She makes demands of Osborn and becomes the first character to actually force Osborn to face up to his limitations and his history.  The fact that Bendis has given the up till now characterless Hand the personality to make this  believable in just a couple of issues is testament to his success with the character this month.