"What the hell is that?!"
What you need to know: Dark Avengers #15 continues the pre-Siege action. Yes, the banner is still a bit misleading. We get the official confirmation for Norman's secret weapon in case you were hoping for a last-minute swerve. We also continue the Sentry's story which means that the solicit about Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye was untrue.
The Good:
- Mike Deodato. Another stellar issue. Secret Avengers is really meant for him. I'm looking forward to it.
- Hawkeye's a jerk, but I like that. I'm glad that some of these Dark Avengers are still villains.
- You get a real sense of the Sentry/Void's power through his actions and people's reactions to him. I don't really know what could stop him. I'm sure this will be important to remember later on.
- The story makes sense. There's logic here, but it's point A to point B.
The Bad:
- I was holding out hope that the Sentry wasn't the secret weapon, but yeah, it is him. It makes sense, but it is underwhelming. It's also underwhelming because most readers had already pieced a lot of this issue together so there wasn't too much that was fresh. We knew it was Sentry and last we issue we got our reason why.
- Aside from Sentry and Hawkeye, a lot of the other Avengers are background players. It really is all about the Sentry and Hawkeye. I don't think they could carry a book.
- I don't like the misleading banner. This book doesn't tie-in to Siege. It's more like a prelude.
Overall:
It's a good book, but there's nothing surprising or new here. It is not 100% necessary. I'm a bit depressed because I would've felt that the Avengers books would end with a bang or would flesh out more of the Siege parts. I'm not getting either and that takes away from the enjoyment some. It's still readable, but it's not 4 or 5 worthy.
