Dark Avengers: The End is the Beginning

Title: Dark Avengers: The End is the Beginning

ISBN: 9780785161721
Price: $19.99
Publisher/Year: Marvel, 2013
Artist: Declan Shalvey, Kev Walker, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Neil Edwards
Writer: Jeff Parker
Collects: Dark Avengers #175-183

Rating: 2.5/5

Prior to reading this trade my knowledge of the Dark Avengers consisted of a few views of the Dark Avengers Wikipedia page so basically I did not know anything about the Dark Avengers. After reading this trade I still do not really know much about the Dark Avengers but my curiosity is very high.

The End is the Beginning on first reading was not a simple story to get my head around. A quick summary of the plot as I understood it is:

• The Thunderbolts team are lost in history and are trying to get back to their own time; and


• Luke Cage and Skaar, Son of Hulk and the Dark Avengers in the present day are on a secret mission in the nation of Sharzhad.

Although on the first read I found the story quite complex, on a second and third read I was able to get my head around what was going on and who each of the characters were. Jeff Parker the writer of the story did a good job of intertwining the two main stories as they were moving closer together.

My favorite panel both story and art wise came on the last page of the first issue in the trade. In this panel the Dark Avengers are re-introduced to Skaar after he threw them in prison. I cannot wait to go back and read some of the past issues of Dark Avengers.

The art in this trade looked great. There were quite a few different artists involved in this trade and it would take up too much space to name them all but in summary the pencilers were, Declan Shalvey, Kev Walker, Gabriel Hernandez-Walta and Neil Edwards.

If you are a new reader to Dark Avengers I would not recommend this as a jumping on point as although I have not read any past issues I think it will be more beneficial learning more about the Thunderbolts and Dark Avengers. I think I would have been able to appreciate this trade more if I knew more.