The Invasion of the Dark Lava Men
The enjoyment continues to be lacking in the fifth or sixth part of Dark Avengers. I can't even remember what part we're on now because every issue has been basically the same thing: exposition towards a dark alternate universe with the promise that next issue the Dark AvengersThunderbolts are going to go into action.
There's just absolute no headway being made with this at all, and it's more aggravating knowing the book is cancelled in 2 issues time because this is literally going to be it. This one story arc. This one weak story arc. There's so much that could be done with this team and some of the characters and they're not going to meet that potential because the book is cancelled. And, on top of that, the one story arc we do get starring them is not only weak but also barely features them to instead consistently focus on the crazy twisted alternate universe counterparts to Iron Man, Doctor Strange or any other Marvel character but the ones the book professes to star.
What we have this issue: Skaar is still under Doctor Strange's spell, Moonstone is still "dead" courtesy of a typical fake-out, Ragnarok still spends a full issue unconscious (until the final page when he finally wakes up and has his first line of the relaunch "Noo...") and the rest of the team still don't have much to do except rely on SCIENCE AMORA's deus ex machina magic and instant plot powers. Trickshot at least gets to stab Doctor Strange's giant dragon. That's basically the first progress any of the team members have actually made since the book began.
It's kinda frustrating to see this book just miss the mark completely. I can blame Marvel editorial all I want for deliberately orchestrating this book's failure, but matter of fact is, this story has still been below average. We've never really had much of an introduction or character arcs for almost all these "starring" characters and this story has focused on anything but them. When team members like Ragnarok or Dumb Spider-God genuinely struggle to even appear in one panel for six consecutive issues, it's just not a good team book. I had high hopes that this book would win me around, but it's just not happening. With She-Hulk currently being Marvel's worst selling ongoing, maybe it's finally time for Jeff Parker to go to Image or somewhere that will treat him and his ideas a lot better that the way Marvel have.
