Dark Avengers #190 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Neil Edwards (Artist), Sotocolor (Colorist)

The Story: The Dark Avengers discover the secret of this bizarre future and manages to save themselves and the world from what would destroy it.

The Review: Jeff Parker is capable of many things. He is a talented writer that seems to have a gift for characterization and development. Give him a character that is in sore need of definition and love and he’ll make wonders. He did this with the Red Hulk, the multiple villains from Thunderbolts, the golden age characters from Agent of Atlas among other characters. He can create depth and new angle to old tired character which makes him very enjoyable to read or pick new characters that seems to be set in a boring direction and set them up for much more enjoyable adventures.

Believe it or not, while he seemed to have trouble sometimes in this current arc in this strange new world of his, he succeeds in giving us a potable story thanks to a satisfying conclusion. In short, what he gives us is an explanation that is genuinely new and interesting on just how this world came to be and how twisted the reasons for its existence. When the whole reasoning is given, it does manage to bring out some theory and makes the whole story stronger for it.

Dark Avengers #188 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Neil Edwards, Terry Pallot (Artists), Chris Sotomayor (Colorist)

The Story: The Dark Avengers are trying to convince Daredevil and his gang of their intentions as Reed Richards tries to understand what is wrong with the world along with Skaar.

The Review: This is hard to admit, but I am beginning to wonder just how Jeff Parker can even conclude this whole thing in a satisfying way in just under two issues. What started as a big world building exercise seems to have become just this, only with a title that does not seem particularly fitting.

Indeed, is it just me or are the Dark Avengers kind of boring in this series? For a very long period of time, they did close to nothing, then as soon as they went on as a semi-formed team, they got their ass handed to them by a team of freedom fighter composed of Misty Knight, Iron Fist, Shang-Chi and a more monstrous Spider-Man. They are not particularly explored as characters, nor do their actions scenes are particularly interesting to watch.

Dark Avengers #186 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Mirco Pierfederici, Neil Edwards, (Artists), Chris Sotomayor (Colorist)

The Story: More shenanigans happen in this dark version of Manhattan as John Walker and the rest of the Dark Avengers gets up to speed on the situation.

The Review: It seems to me that Jeff Parker had pretty much the same problems on both of his Marvel titles lately, namely Red She-Hulk and Dark Avengers. Both those series have some great artists and some terrific concepts backing them up, but the past issues were only building some setup for the series to actually jump onto, creating a situation without actually involving the main player in any significant way until later. Red She-Hulk latest issue had gotten out of that unfortunate problem, but did the latest issue of Dark Avengers achieve the same objective?

Dark Avengers #185 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer) Neil Edwards (Artist), Chris Sotomayor (Colorist)

The Story: June Covington discovers more about the strange world she is in while this world’s version of Doctor Strange uses Moonstone and Skaar for his devious plans.

The Review: If there is one thing that Jeff Parker excels at, it’s writing smaller and lesser-known character, some of them unpopular and making them great. He’s done so during his run on Thunderbolts with various characters, but most prominently with General Thunderbolt Ross in Hulk. He can create wholly original stories set to those characters, making us root for them although there are several reasons why we shouldn’t in the first place. It is a pity however that he cannot seem to do the same with the Dark Avengers so far, as there is most assuredly potential here for him to work with. A bunch of unknown, almost blank slates characters just there for the grab, ready to be developed by someone with the talent and attitude to do so. The problem here, I do believe, lies in the pacing.