Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
215,624
edits
Dark Reign (comics): Difference between revisions
bot-edit: replaced potholed link to redirect with potholed link to destination page
m (revise quote template spacing) |
(bot-edit: replaced potholed link to redirect with potholed link to destination page) |
||
| (6 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 14:
Has nothing to do with the [[Dark Reign]] game series.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Abusive Parents]]: While Ares has been [[Genre Savvy]] to the point that he left Nick Fury take care of his son (which was what Phobos wanted) because of being afraid he would start to abuse him emotionally or physically, right now his son from ancient times is hellbent on revenge for the merciless neglect ''he'' received.
** Hera has a classically dim view of her children/half-children/other relatives, and won't hesitate to chuck one out of a thirtieth story window if they talk back to her.
* [[All There in the Manual]] / [[Guide Dang It]]: For many people {{spoiler|the way the Void was defeated and killed at the end of Siege}} was idiotic. It does make a lot more sense if you had read [[Dark Avengers]]... and ''every single'' interview with [[Brian Bendis]] published between the end of [[Secret Invasion]] and Siege issue four.
* [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]]: Does {{spoiler|being turned into the big bang to create a new frikkin' ''dimension'' count? If so, then Wasp.}} While Dan Slott expressing his annoyance with the end of [[Secret Invasion]] lead to some hints of possible alternate dimension solutions coming into play, pretty much ''nobody'' expected {{spoiler|for her to actually ''be'' the dimension in question.}}
* [[American Robot]]: Normon's Iron Patriot persona, [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|deliberately]] meant to [[Expy|echo]] both [[Captain America (comics)]] and [[Iron Man]]. {{spoiler|However, star-shaped ARC Reactors [[Death By Genre Savvy|don't]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|exactly]] [[Awesome but Impractical|work]] [[Shut UP, Hannibal|well]] }}.
* [[Anti-Hero Substitute]]: Hard to count (or easy- it's inverted as most of these guys are '''villains''.
** [[Dark Avengers]] for Avengers
*** Bullseye for Hawkeye, Venom for Spider-Man, Daken for [[Wolverine]], Moonstone for [[Ms. Marvel]], Noh-Varr for [[Captain Mar-Vell|Captain Marvel]]. Also possibly Iron Patriot (Norman) for [[Iron Man]] ''and'' [[Captain America (comics)]]. And by proxy, Ares for Thor (since they're both, you know, gods and all).
** The Cabal for The Illuminati
** Dark X-Men for [[X-Men]]
Line 52:
** Many readers think he looks a lot like the witness sketches of the original (there was also a copycat in New York) real life Zodiac Killer. Whether or not he's supposed to ''be'' that Zodiac, ramped up to a higher level of villainy, is never made clear, though for it to be possible, de-aging or other comic book alterations would have to be in play.
** And of course Sentry is, as always, an Ersatz Superman.
* [[Calling the Old Man Out]] Harry finally does this To Norman.
* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: Zodiac, right to the point he went against Osborn because he finds his good publicity as an insult to those who commit crimes "for the sake of mischief".
* [[Chekhov's Boomerang]]: In his own mini-series Bullseye got a copy of his old costume as a part of story's villains plan to manipulate him. Later, when Osborn ordered him to go after [[Daredevil]], Lester dressed in that costume.
Line 58:
** And he even arranged things like Whirlwind's stint as Osborn's chauffeur and Manslaughter Marsdale's coma before the series started.
** Loki is this as well, manipulating Thor, all Asgardians, Norman, Hood and Mighty Avengers any way he wants to, even after some of them realized that.
* [[Continuity Nod]]: All over the place, but surprisingly, there's a nicely subtle one in the otherwise balls-out Zodiac miniseries. Osborn hires Whirlwind as his chauffeur, with a snide reference to his prior work history. ''Way'' back in the classic ''Avengers'' and ''Marvel Feature'' comics, David Cannon had worked under a false name as Wasp's chauffeur while planning an inheritance heist and kidnapping.
* [[Costume Copycat]]: Most of Dark Avengers members wear the outfits of existing superheroes and Clint took Ronin's identity and costume, used by Echo before [[Civil War]]. It was even parodied:
{{quote|'''Ronin:''' ''So that's Bullseye? Bullseye, the crazy assassin?! Dressed like me?!''
Line 89:
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: From the looks of things, {{spoiler|The Sentry/The Void}} is, and always has been this.
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: You know something's wrong with you when you reveal your evil plan to somebody like ''Osborn'', and he calls you crazy. This happened with the goddess [[Incredible Hercules|Hera]].
** Also, Ares pointed out he may be a God of war, pain and murder. [[
* [[Evil Matriarch]]: Speaking of Hera, she's become this even more than she was in classical mythology. Kind of surprising, when just a couple of decades ago in comics continuity, she actually ''aided'' the Avengers when Zeus accused them of nearly killing Hercules, but justified in that she's lost more than a few screws since gaining control of the entire Greek pantheon.
* [[Eviler Than Thou]]: Mr. Negative (who is a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] of some guy and believes in a [[Balance Between Good and Evil]]) told [[The Hood]] that because he thrown out all what was good in him, he'll fall for sure.
Line 97:
* [[Fan Nickname]]: Lyra is called ''Thulkdra'' which was lampshaded when they put this nickname on one of her mini's variant covers. Molecule Man's team (despite being a {{spoiler|[[Red Herring]]}}) is called "The League Of Ultimate Evil [[My Friends and Zoidberg|And Enchantress]]".
** Bullseye in Hawkeye's costume is called "Bullhawk"
** Daken earned himself name [[Troll
* [[Femme Fatale]]: Moonstone, Madame Masque
* [[Final Battle]]: Siege
Line 131:
** Doc Samson, after Osborn used a [[Xanatos Gambit]] to force him into nearly killing [[Barack Obama]] and splashed it all over the news. {{spoiler|Samson has a [[Face Heel Turn]] completely unrelated to this incident, and thus doesn't really give a damn about it anymore.}}
* [[He's Back]]: {{spoiler|Steve Rogers}}.'''[[Avengers Assemble]]!'''
* [[Humans Are
* [[Humiliation Conga]]: Everything that's happened to Iron Man since Dark Reign began.
* [[Idiot Ball]]: Subverted with "Utopia" as the X-Men successfully outplay Norman and humiliate him via exposing his sadistic abuse of mutant prisoners for the whole world to see, then successfully flee to their new island home off the coast of California. Made even worse for Norman, in that Emma Frost also cuts a deal with Namor to get him to betray Norman, effectively robbing Norman of one third of the Cabal and alienating Doom (who doesn't take kindly to Norman's vows of revenge against his friend).
** Still, Norman and most of DA seems to carry them in ''Utopia'' (you know something's wrong if ''Bullseye'' becomes voice of reason)
*** He wasn't really the voice of reason; he was mostly just itching to kill people, even if he was [[Genre Savvy]] enough to realize that Osborn's plans wouldn't go as smoothly as he wanted. But at least Osborn was actually trying to impose civic order, and didn't spend the whole time wanting to go on a murder spree.
** The Spider-Man tie-ins are worse: Norman keeps dropping the ball on Spidey and vice versa. It's made worse when Marvel decided that Norman was affected by the One More Day reality warp, meaning he no longer knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man and seemingly doesn't care.
** Norman not killing Iron Man when he had him on life support and brain dead in the recent issue also counts, especially Norman had no problem beating Iron Man nearly to death in public prior to taking him into custody.
*** For that matter, beating the shit out of him on live camera in the first place. Prior public embarrassments may have been the result of people getting hold of information meant to remain secret, but the fact that Norman ignored Hand's warnings about the camera crew in the vicinity means this one's ''all'' on him.
* [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him]]: Spidey delivered it at last twice to Clint Barton and once to {{spoiler|Harry Osborn}}. Clint, however, has the balls to respond by pointing out how much misery Norman's been able to cause because of Peter's moral high horse.
** [[Critical Research Failure]]: The writers seem to have forgotten that Osborn has a [[Healing Factor]] and is thus damn hard to kill, particularly since Clint's grand plan seems to have been simply to shoot Norman with an arrow
* [[The Illegal]]: Now that Gyrich is in charge of S.W.O.R.D., he's declared ''every damn alien on the planet'' illegal, and is taking steps to deport them ''all'', even if they previously had government permission or clearance to live on Earth.
* [[I Have No Son]]: After the American Son story Harry is as good as dead to Norman. A [[Double Subversion]] since Norman's plan in that story was to have Harry ''murdered'' to garner him public sympathy.
** {{spoiler|Pregnant Lilly}} reappears in ''Ms. Marvel'' but mostly because Brian Reed is using this comic in his efforts to join ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' writing staff.
* [[Ironic Echo]]: In-house ads for the event had the tagline "Accept Change", a [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|slightly more pragmatic]] version of Secret Invasion's tagline, "Embrace Change!"
Line 149:
*** [[Alternate Character Interpretation]]: She was clearly panicking and had been told to protect Tony at all costs. Plus, Tony screwed over the hero community-she might have thought (for some weird reason) that Speed was there for revenge (he's not the nicest Young Avenger, after all).
* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|Daken}}, he got away scot-free. Mister X also avoided arrest.
* [[Kick the Dog]]: Several villains, especially Norman, has a few. Lampshaded a little when Bullseye tossed a dog right into Venom's eye just to prove he can.
* [[Knight Templar]]: Seems to be how Norman Osborn sees himself in the epilogue issue of ''Dark Avengers''.
* [[La Résistance]]: New Warriors/Avengers Resistance.
* [[Late Arrival Spoiler]]: Kind of hard for the return of [[Captain America (comics)|Steve Rogers]] to be a surprise, given that it was ''blown all over mainstream news sites months ago''. In terms of the comics themselves, the [[Schedule Slip|delays on]] ''Captain America: Reborn'' mean that he had reappeared in at least three titles ''and a special'' before he was even supposed to be back.
* [[Leeroy Jenkins]]: Ares described himself as one, placing "checking out if you have enough ammo before rushing into the battle" at the list of things that are part of his sister's domain, not his.
* [[Legacy Character]]: Noh-Varr as the new Captain Marvel. Hank Pym as the new Wasp.
Line 166:
* [[Naive Newcomer]]: Noh-Varr, of sorts. He didn't even ''know'' the team he was in (the Dark Avengers) was mostly composed of supervillains until Moonstone let it slip one night after they had sex and were watching Norman on TV. As soon as he did, [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here|he dropped out without leaving a note on the fridge]].
* [[No One Could Survive That]]: [[Word of God]] says that's why {{spoiler|Ares}}' death was specifically demanded to be [[Nightmare Fuel|"as gory as possible"]] - as a signal he got [[Killed Off for Real]].
* [[Not So Different]]: Despite that Ares and War Machine are almost complete [[Foil
* [[Only Sane Man]]: You know something is ''messed up'' in a group when ''Venom'' looks like the normal one. He even lampshades it in his mini, saying that compared to the nutcases on his team, he looks like [[Tom Hanks]].
** Ares sometimes has to act like one, both doubting Osborn's actions and calling his teammates out when they act too crazy..
** Bullseye in the "Mission Briefing" of the Inititave's attack on Asgard that was included in ''Siege'' #1. He spends the entire thing essentially saying "Yes, BUT THEY ARE LITERALLY AN ARMY OF GODS".
* [[Out-Gambitted]]: Dracula by Pete Wisdom.
** And Osborn by Cyclops and Emma.
* [[Papa Wolf]]: Ares. When he heard about Phobos being hurt, he rushed to save him and murders a man who was taking care of him, [[Leeroy Jenkins|without even thinking twice]] about this information having come from ''[[Manipulative Bastard|Hera]].''
Line 178:
(Doom imagines himself killing Namor)
'''Doom:''' Doom. ''Always'' Doom. }}
* [[The Power of Trust]]: Inverted - people's lack of trust in Pym gave Chthon more power.
* [[Putting the Band Back Together]]: Fittingly, Siege ends {{spoiler|not just with the fall of Norman Osborn, but the reunification of the [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]].}}
* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: {{spoiler|Ares}}
Line 184:
* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: Subverted - {{spoiler|Kelda}} ''started'' to go on one after {{spoiler|Bill's}} death, only to be {{spoiler|[[Not Quite Dead|not ''quite'' killed]] by Doom}}, without doing any harm.
** Played more straight with Tigra. After what [[The Hood]] did to her, she's ''pissed'', and wastes no time starting to hand out the torture to the minions who assisted or were there to witness.
* [[Self-Made Orphan]]: Bullseye, who claims to have killed both of his parents {{spoiler|[[Double Subversion|Double Subverted]] when his father appears only to be murdered by Lester}}.
* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: As expected, Spider-Man gets the final one on Osborn.
* [[Sixth Ranger]]: [[Dracula]] wanted to become one for Cabal and his plan to conquer England was supposed to give him necessary position.
Line 196:
** Which is quite silly, like saying that Kim Jong Il is good because North Korea isn't Burma. Just because something is worse doesn't make it okay.
** It's especially silly because Osborn was ''in'' the Stark Administration and thats how he came to power in the first place!
** One of the last pages of ''[[Grand Finale|Siege]]'' shows the skyline of New York, as a digitally written " {{spoiler|Superhero Registration Act thrown out}}" scrolls on a building. It almost seems the panel originally had confetti in it, really. Just add confetti and you'll have evidence that most of the writers had really ''had enough'' of the bucketload of crap [[Joe Quesada]] has put the [[Marvel Universe]] through. But since Quesada (as you can see in his comments about ''Siege'' in the pages of the miniseries itself) was so ''proud'' of the whole [[From a Certain Point of View|epic]] saga made up of the various [[Story Arc
* [[Tangled Family Tree]]: Considering Ultron originally ''created'' Jocasta to be his bride, the fact that they finally marry (albeit a "political marriage", as she still really hates him) isn't too bad. Then you remember that Jocasta's brain is based off his "mother". And that he created her, making himself her "father" in a sense. And she was dating ''his'' "father" at the time...who was her brain-source's ex-husband. Jesus Christ, this family.
* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: War Machine provides trope page's image.
* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: {{spoiler|After pulling off a major [[Xanatos Roulette]] in [[Secret Invasion]], this quickly becomes Norman Osborn's role over the course of the storyline, as every other member of the Cabal betrays him for their own purposes by the end.}} It's rather strongly foreshadowed from the beginning, though, and doesn't really lead to [[Villain Decay]] since, as a Spidey villain, even though he's totally out of his league he's still punching above his weight.
* [[This Is for Emphasis, Bitch|This Is For Emphasis, Bitch!]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20091007102332/http://oddandfunnycomics.blogspot.com/2009/08/oh-its-on-now-bitch.html Pym's reaction] when Reed Richards said he know more about Pym Particles than him.
** [[Oh No You Didn't|Oh, No He Didn't!]]: Amadeus Cho says "Ooh, snap!" in response to this. [[Spit Take|Stature's reaction]] can also count.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: The whole premise of Dark Reign is the United States government giving [[Complete Monster|Norman]] [[Axe Crazy|Osborn]], who is known to have been the Green Goblin, authority over superhuman affairs, who in turn demonizes and makes outlaws of the superhero community save the Fantastic Four. While the government's stupidity could be accepted, the fact is that the American public actually embraced Osborn and joined in the demonizing of the superheros. It really makes one wonder why the heroes don't just let Galactus eat the planet.
* [[Took a Level
** Osborn doing this is the premise of the series; its also his second in just over a decade, the first being when he came [[Back
* [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]]: Norman stars in this story arc. Also, thanks to him, Henry Gyrich has one with S.W.O.R.D., and Taskmaster and Hood with The Initiative. But considering the wild parties he likes to throw and all, Taskmaster's story is perhaps more [[Bait and Switch Tyrant]].
** It's worth nothing that Gyring managed then to be pain even in Osborn's butt, making him possibly biggest tyrant of them all.
Line 221:
* [[Wild Mass Guessing]]: Marvel encouraged this when it came to the identity of Osborn's mysterious and scary friend. One popular [[Epileptic Tree]] was that it's the newly-acquired Marvelman/Miracleman.
* [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]: It's been awhile since we've seen Molecule Man, but considering that he {{spoiler|made imaginary friend duplicates of some of the most powerful figures in the Marvelverse, created his own pocket dimension to live in, and is vanishing anyone who gets too close to it}}, the years clearly have not been kind to his brain. Also, Sentry. In spades. Even once the Void's {{spoiler|no longer in his head (and is off wrecking hell on the X-Men)}}, he's still a walking ball of about a billion neuroses.
** [[With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility|Fittingly enough]], this is also what happens to Osborn, as while he's always been batshit crazy, the pressures of his new job as the top dog cause him to slowly break, after years of more or less managing to keep his Goblin side under control.
* [[The Worf Effect]]: Sentry suffers from it sooo much. Being all powerful doesn't really help much when you're too neurotic to use it effectively in a fight.
** It happens so often that it's really scary when he becomes serious in ''Siege''.
Line 239:
[[Category:Marvel Universe]]
[[Category:Dark Reign]]
[[Category:Comic
[[Category:
| |||