Spoils of War - Darkness between the Stars

Bendis on Dark Reign:
'…it's not an event. Dark Reign is not another event I'm writing. It's like the Initiative label that a lot of books had after Civil War, which announced it was about this part of the Marvel Universe. That's what Dark Reign is going to be. So I want to make that very clear.'

I have a theory about Dark Reign. I believe that it is the reign of Dr. Doom. In fact, I believe that the 'evil illuminati' picture we saw a while back, with the dark eclipse in the background, is the cover of Secret Invasion: Dark Reign. We've already seen Doom make alliances with Namor and Loki. I think Doom is in custody at the moment, but during the chaos of SI, one of Namor's sleeper cells could easily break him out. And while the superheroes struggle to cope with the aftermath of the invasion, especially if a prominent superhero dies, Doom can make moves to solidify his power even more with an alliance with the Hood and whoever else that is. These people could exert an incredible behind-the scenes hold over the world. Taking over the world publicly is so old-school villain - why not take over the world secretly? If the superheroes don't know you rule it, they can't come after you.


Dark Reign: New Nation looks like it will be one of these anthology books that the X-Men department seem to like. It has six writers and three artists. But what is the new nation? Well, each of the characters in Doom's alliance has control over a 'nation' - Doom has Latveria, Namor has the worldwide sleeper cells, Loki's been manipulating Asgard, whilst the Hood builds a kingpin-like empire in New York, and Frost co-leads the X-Men (or if its another White Queen, the Hellfire Club).

Secret Invasion: Requeim (not its actual title) sounds like a Fallen Son-esque mini-series in which people react to the death of a major superhero. Take your pick. Iron Man is the odds on favourite, one of his books was cancelled, and his other book is classified till after SI. The Wasp is a possibility. She's a founding Avenger, and Pym seems to think she's the Skrull's ace card. What exactly was in that formula he gave her? There's also Ms Marvel - leader of the Mighty Avengers and poster-girl of the Initiative. Her death would be a major blow - and her book is also classified till after Secret Invasion. Note the absence of Mighty Avengers, which wasn't being cancelled. Mr Fantastic is an option too - we have no idea what the FF will look like after Miller's run and FF: Cosmic Sized is classified. The only others who's death would warrant a miniseries are Cap and Thor - both of whom have already died in major events. And they've only just returned. Thor's book is missing - but it's been late before.

I'm confused about FF: Cosmic Sized. Its $5, so it looks like the usual oversized annual rather than a tie-in to Dark Reign or War of Kings, so unless it involves someone's death, I don't know why they're keeping it under wraps. Equally strange is She-Hulk: Cosmic Collision. Where did that come from? Are Marvel testing the waters for a Lady Liberators series?

I forgot to mention Nova's solicitation yesterday, which confirms the return of the Nova Corps. Interesting move with War of Kings around the corner. Seriously guys, policing earth = bad idea. Didn't we just repel an invasion by an alien race who was merely trying to help us? You think we're gonna let the Nova Corps tell us what to do? (You may notice I'm assuming we win SI)

We also know where the Kree stand now - down but not out. Joe Pokaski says:
"Ronan has been rebuilding the Kree Empire slowly but surely since the Annihilation, specifically in terms of military strength," the writer explains. "But the Kree serve the Inhumans' particular needs in this aspect by flexing a strength they have always had in spades: Their intelligence, and their technology. That capacity plus Karnak's ability to harness it could mean the answers they are looking for."

This also goes a long way to explaining Black Bolt's involvement in War of Kings. Now we need an image of Ronan and Black Bolt shaking hands. That would be awesome.

Is Warren Angel and Archangel? X-Force seemed to indicate he was both, with the unconscious ability to switch between forms. Uncanny #500 hinted he may be able to consciously switch forms, as he inexplicably took out a Sentinel off-panel. But people who have read SI: X-Men seem to think that they are separate individuals. Could he have changed off-panel? Curiouser and curiouser .

And lastly, I promised I'd talk about the MDCU exclusive comics. They won't all be movie tie-ins - it sounds like they're going to use this to experiment with a number of new concepts. New being relative - they mentioned westerns, which they've done before, but not for a while. Also mentioned sci-fi, I assume this means sci-fi without superheroes. They also mentioned spotlights of major characters which sounds Marvel Knight-y to me. So it seems like there won't be any important in-continuity books exclusive to MDCU yet.