Dark Reign, Speculation

Well, the solicits are finally declassified and we can now see the shape of the Marvel Universe in the upcoming Months. Osbourne is basically in charge of whatever replaces SHIELD as well as the Avengers and the Initiative. And he's assembled his Dark Illuminati and he appears to have a plan.

This looks interesting, I'm going to guess that we can expect to see the worst excesses of the SHRA, with everything getting more totalitarian. And we now have 4 Avengers books. From what we've seen in the solicits here's what I'm expecting

New Avengers: Well, they've always been the avengers on the run, so the heat will be turned up a notch, particularly as I reckon Osbourne is going to have a bit of a mad on for Spider-Man. Looks like Cap is joining their team though, wonder how well Bucky will play with the others and if he'll bring his support staff of Black Widow and Falcon to the team, possibly not since both are registered and could be insiders, but then again once caught aiding and abetting? who knows. A later cover shows Ms Marvel and Spider-Woman as well, could they be new additions? I'm guessing that the thrust of this series will be searching for where Skrull-Jarvis took Baby cage.

Mighty Avengers:Well, Dan Slott is writing so its got a lot going for it. He has been pretty vague about some aspects of the book and lineup, so far confirmed are Hank Pym, Jocasta and The Scarlet witch, Which is a shock. Possible other members include Hercules, Iron Man and US Agent. Slott has dropped hints that these avengers will be looking at worldwide threats, and may not be based in the US (I'm thinking the old Hydrobase perhaps) in order to stay clear of Norman Osbourne's reaches. Dan Slott says they will be the ray of light in Dark Reign.

Dark Avengers: The Wild card. My money is on this lot being Osbournes personal avengers, but the solicits don't seem to match what I say. Looking at some of the clearer shots we definitely Have Ares and Noh-Varr (marvel boy, possibly now Captain marvel) a woman in Ms Marvel's old outfit, Now I remember one of the Initiative taking to that suit (Power Woman or something, an old New Warrior regardless) The two mystery men, Someone in Spider-Man's black costume and Someone in Hawkeye's old suit. Shot in the dark but as the Thunderbolts lineup looks like all change and if my hunch on this lot ultimately being Norman Osbourne's avengers, could they be Venom and Bullseye? Finally we have the Iron patriot, or Iron man suit painted like Captain America, if so, WHo is in the suit, Normie himself? Abe Jenkins aka Beetle? The 1950s Cap?

Thunderbolts looks like a completely new, and mostly unrecognisable lineup but the writer impressed me last issue so I'll stick with it. The initiative is also on a new writer and will feature the return of Clor. One worry I have about this series, aside from can any writer live up to Dan Slott's run, is that from those cover solicits, it looks like Humberto Ramos on art. I really don't like his stuff and it may well be a deal breaker if the writing and stories aren't up to much. A shame as The Initiative has been a great title so far.

Overall, the future is dark, but looks damn interesting