Spoils of War - I Am Offended

In his WordBalloon interview, Jeph Loeb said he will be reuniting the original four defender in Hulk. Yes, those four defenders. I'm not sure how that's possible. Dr Strange had his powers and title stripped from him, the Silver Surfer is heralding for Galactus, and Namor is supposed to be a villain at the moment. They'll team up with Hulk to fight the Offenders, consisting of Rulk (apparently that’s what we're calling him) and three other villain who's names look vaguely familiar (Tigershark, Baron Mordo and Terrax). I'm a Defenders fan and I'm cringing already.

There is a way to do the story without them actually teaming up. They are, after all, the Defenders. Rulk could put his team together, only to have Hulk appear to take him down, the Surfer show up with orders from Galactus to capture Terrax, whilst Strange is after Mordo for some mystical reason and Namor is tracking his old nemesis Tigershark. They each take down their man, look at each other briefly, and leave. The thing is, I just don't see Surfer and Namor taking time off to help Hulk. They have bigger issues at stake. But maybe its best not to try and understand this comic. After all, Thor did show up spouting Shakespere.

On the flipside, Namor's upcoming battle with Hercules in Incredible Hercules promises to be good, especially with Greg Pak's hints about an appearance by Poisidon.

According to Lying in the Gutters, the cover solicited by Dynamic Forces for Dark Reign is the evil illuminati image. Just as I thought. The only difference is that the eclipse appears red instead of bluish. I have to decide before the end of the month - do I order Dark Reign or not? I haven't been getting Avengers or Secret Invasion, and I don't care one iota about Doom, Loki or the Hood. I do, however, care about Namor and Emma Frost. I don't mind Namor as a bad guy, but the Emma thing has me worried. I just hope its some sort of powerplay by her to protect the X-Men (like Scott's secret X-Force) that the writers have come up with as a way to put the X-Men and Avengers at odds with each other. If it is I want to read about it. If Emma's leaving the X-Men and going evil again - well, I think that's a really bad idea and don't want to read about it. And I'm already getting too many books in December.

I got an email to say that X-Factor #34 is waiting for me. But, still no #33. So what do I do? Read it, or wait?