This piece is going to include spoilers for Ultimate Spider-Man #160 AKA "The Death of Spider-Man" Part 5. Though I suspect it's rather difficult for anyone who is a big enough Spider-Man fan to come to this website to not know what happens in the story.

This is it! This is the shadow every single comic book creator has been chasing for forty years, the long twisted shadow of the greatest comic book villain ever created, (no, not Rob Liefeld) Norman Osborn!

Oh, pipe down with your Joker talk and your Doctor Doom whining, I don't want to hear it! Norman Osborn was the finest villain ever concocted. And my point is extremely well illustrated in a recent issue of Tangled Web where comic book scribe Ron Zimmerman fashioned a scene with all of Spider-Man's villains sitting in a bar trading war stories. The issue ends with Norman Osborn revealing himself and bragging the ultimate Spider-Man villain brag: "I killed the woman he loves." The other villains fall silent. They have nothing to top that.

This has to be the best of the Clone Saga series so far. To all Spider-Man fans out there, this issue is a must read, as it finally breaks away considerably from the original Clone Saga series in the 90's.

I was reading Dark Avengers 11 and 12 again today. A while back, I did an extremely short review on Dark Avengers 1-10, thinking that Dark Avengers 11 would have something about Spider-Man worth writing about. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and I never got about reviewing the issue.

With Dark Avengers 13 ( featuring Siege) set for release today, I thought it might be worth doing a short review on some interesting points I found in Dark Avengers 12.

For starters, the first page of the issue shows Norman Osborn, in an imagination created by the Molecule man, being haunted by an ugly Spider-Man as depicted below.

Dark Reign: The list Spider-man is the best Spider-man related comic I have read since Who was Ben Reilly? (Amazing Spider-Man 608,609,610) The story as we know involves Norman Osborn going through a checklist of things he wants done. As the cover page suggests, the last thing on his list is to kill Spider-man.


The art for this comic is spectacular. After reading comics with weird art like Amazing Spider-Man 611 and Amazing Spider-Man 612, this comic is like a pain killer. In the preview, we can see that Peter Parker is upset with himself for allowing Norman Osborn to rise to the power he currently holds. He, much like is American Son, is planning to take Norman down once and for all, through the press, again.















The story
The preview ends with Peter consulting with other "Frontline" staff, including Norah who managed to sneak into the Avengers Tower in American Son, on ways to expose Norman. Apparently, Norah had stolen some blueprints to the Avengers Tower during her last visit.



The next scene is most humorous as Norman is explaining to his secretary how he is going to kill Spider-man. He walks into the room and finds Spider-man sitting there, conviniently downloading some files into a pendrive.



Iron patriot grows furious and their reunion evolves into an ultimate showdown between the Iron Patriot and Spidey. Spider-man's humor during the fight never ceases to amaze me. After being hit by one of Iron Patriots beams, the public take it upon themselves to beat the friendly neighborhood Spider-man, as usual.

Elsewhere we see people all over New York watching the fight. Some rooting for Iron Patriot, while others, including Harry, supporting Spider-man. The fight ends with Spider-man barely making an escape in the crowd of civilians.

While searching the crowd, Norman spots Peter Parker who was sending the files in the pendrive to all his contacts, from the media. Norman, as the Iron Patriot tries to hurt Peter but is forced to stop when Peter explains that he is an American tax paying citizen. Make sure you read the panel below.



The story ends with Norah, absolutely mad at Peter for sending the files on the pendrive to Betty Brant, reporter of the DB, as well.

Following this, we see Ben Urich and Jessica Jones a couple of years ago ( Pre OMD), investigating an old murder by Norman Osborn, leading them to his office door. Upon reaching there however, they bump into the Green Goblin himself.

At this point the art changes, much to my liking, resembling the art during the JMS run.


This is essentially just an old story in which Luke Cage, boyfriend of the pregnant Jessica Jones, takes down Norman Osborn with Spider-man and exposing him as the Green Goblin. Ben Urich, now the owner of Frontline was the one who wrote the article exposing Norman Osborn for the Daily Bugle back then.



Personal thoughts - This comic was most enjoyable, and unexpected, even to the point of adding some old stories in with what I call 'good art.' Its interesting to read words like 'Daily Bugle' appearing, and 'Parker!' coming out from the mouth of the Goblin.

Siege is supposed to be the next big event that will take place in the Marvel Universe, after Dark Reign. I'm guessing soon after Norman fails to complete his final task on the list, his reign will come to an end. And there after we'll have Siege.

• Dark Reign: The list - Amazing Spider-Man # 1 Preview
• Dark Reign: The list - The Amazing Spider-Man

So due to hype created about Mephisto appearing in Dark Avengers #10, I took it upon myself to find a preview for Dark Avengers # 11. I actually like what I saw. As such, I decided to catch up on all the Dark Avengers's comics from 1 -10. Reviewing Dark Avengers will not be a normal thing here though.

In my opinion, the story is really nothing to jump for joy about. I like the team that Norman Osborn has put together however - a bunch of crooks that are doing good, in a way.

I do have a slight problem understanding how Sentry is still standing in issue # 10, after his head was blown off in issue # 9.

Towards the end of what I have read so far, Norman is being haunted by his old Goblin self. Also, I have a feeling that the Void, Sentry's/Bob's alter ego has taken control.

I find it strange that Daken is tall when he is not in his wolverine costume, but is as short as his father when he is wearing the costume.




Here is the jist of what I got.

• Norman is now Iron Patriot, trying to control his Goblin personality from taking over his mind

• The Sentry has two personalities - like Norman, and is trying to keep in under control, with Norman's help

• Ms. Marvel / former Moonstone is a slut - makes the personal lives of the Dark Avengers interesting though

• Noh- Varr is the Dark Capt. Marvel, who quits the team when he learns it is made up of villians

• Ares is of course a Greek god of war. He has a son that he does not know how to show love to. His son, with his fathers knowledge - unknown to the rest of the team, is working under Nick Fury

• Daken (Wolverine's son) is Wolverine with a mow-hawk.

• Hawkeye or bullseye, has an interesting personality, but is mostly not interesting

• Venom - Macgargan/ former Scorpion, is now Spider-man. He needs some medication to stop him from eating everyone. Not to mention keep his Spider-man image. Of late, he has been taking too much medication and is behaving feminine

Okay,
So I do not usually, and have not been following the Dark Avengers. However, there has been some recent hype about Dark Avengers # 10 with the return of Mephisto. I have not yet read it, but I believe fans are hoping to see One More Day addresses in the next issue - Dark Avengers # 11

Here is a quick summary for what happened in Dark Avengers # 10 by Combustible Pumpkins on the Spider-man reviews discussion board.

To sum it up, folks were disappearing in a small town so Norman sent the Sentry over where he mysteriously disappears. Norman arrives shortly afterward with Hammer and the rest of the DA only for them to disappear as well. Last scene Norman's in front of five or six villains who were mostly cosmically or mystically powered, one of them being Mesphito. A lot of us were hoping the OMD deal would turn out a big event to straighten out BND's continuity since it's in quite a mess now.