The Creators – Tom Taylor – Writer, Iban Coello – Artist, Brian Reber – Colours, Joe Sabino – Letters

The Players – Spider-Man, Mary Jane, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Moon Girl, Devil Dinosaur, Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, Vision, Scarlet Witch, The Watcher, Living Tribunal, Apocalypse, The Unmaker

The Story – The Earth is being attacked from within. A team is sent to stop whatever it is. They fail.

The Take – There have been many alternate timeline stories in the Marvel Universe and while some might groan over getting another, the fact of the matter is that Marvel usually does a great job with them and Dark Ages turns out to be another. The creative team of Tom Taylor and Iban Coello do an exceptional job with this first issue – introducing the threat, the history behind it and what happens in the present, all of it leading up to the status quo in the title. Narrated by Spider-Man, it finds the Earth being assaulted by what seems like earthquakes and tremors but they are stronger than any felt before. Moon Girl discovers what is happening, warns Reed Richards when the Watcher shows up to tell them all that threatens them and a team is soon dispatched, carefully selected to take out the creature that threatens the planet’s existence. The result of such leads into the title of the book as the Earth enters an age of darkness, technology no longer viable thereby plunging humanity back to a time where they now have to rely upon things they had long ago given up. Taylor usually writes a compelling story and it is no different here, it grabbing the reader from the first as they immediately know that something crazy is going to pass, both from the cover and title of the book and the way it begins with Spidey’s narration, talking as if something has already happened. There is a lot of exciting action throughout courtesy of Coello and he definitely makes this new threat in the Unmaker impressive. When the book leaves off, there are some very interesting character designs that Coello shows off before the second issue hits which leave readers wanting more of course, both seeing where the book leads and what these particular characters are going to do. For a first issue, this book does everything right and while it might not have any lasting consequences, at least one might assume, it turns out to be quite a thrilling read meaning the second issue cannot come fast enough.

Worth It? – Yes.