By Daniel Way & Marjorie Liu (writers), Stephen Segovia (artist), Marte Garcia (colors)
The Story: Uh-oh, the video footage that first got Daken into trouble has somehow gone viral, and Norman Osborn is determined to tear apart his organization to find the leak. When the culprit is killed in a car accident though, Osborn decides the next best thing to do is stage a superhuman prison break that his Wolverine can resolve in a more heroic fashion. Daken agrees to the PR stunt, but not necessarily for the reason Osborn thinks.
The Good: I like that this comic continues to be one of the better examples of what “Dark Reign” is capable of. From the opening sequence of Bunny’s tragic “accident”, it’s clear that this is one comic that’s not afraid to flirt with evil. Way and Liu have been crafting stories full of subterfuge and manipulation, and in the eye of their gathering storm stands Daken, observing all the chaos around him with cold detachment. Even when he’s surrounded by Marvel’s most villainous bunch of bastards, it’s still Daken who somehow proves to be the biggest threat of them all. We know he’s up to something, we know he’s got a plan, but what is it, and why? The fact that we know so little about Daken’s motives makes him far more dangerous than a whack job like Bullseye, and that in turn makes for some good reading.
The Not So Good: Way and Liu are doing a great job handling Daken’s character, when he’s actually in his comic. With exception to his cameos in the beginning and end of this issue, Daken barely even showed up for the rest of the story, and that’s a real problem when so far he’s the only thing making it worth reading. I think the writers need to decide if they are going to continue making Daken a shadowy, secretive presence, or if they’re going to begin revealing Daken’s agenda, because “Dark Regin” will not last forever and at the rate they’re going the storyline will have ended before they finally get to the point, and I don’t know if I’ll want to stick around until then. I’m actually disappointed to see Segovia on this book, whose work I’d last seen in the pages of Mighty Avengers. Here, his art tends to remind me of Leinel Yu’s, and that would have been fine if Camuncoli hadn’t already left such a big impression on me! Here’s to hoping he returns next month, because I sure missed his work here.
Conclusion: Daken continues to impress me as a character, but I’m not sure how long that will last before I get bored and move on. Way and Liu need to do something with this plot soon to reassure readers that it is actually going somewhere.
Grade: C+
-Tony Rakittke