It deals with the aftermath of the "Secret Invasion" storyline, which resulted in a shift of power in the Marvel Universe toward Norman Osborn.

"[4] The story-line begins with the release of Secret Invasion: Dark Reign, a one-shot by Brian Michael Bendis (writer) and Alex Maleev (art), in December 2008.

[5] Initial promotional images for the story-line included a series of "We Lost, They Won" images showing: a severed robotic head of Iron Man, Emma Frost holding Cyclops's blood-covered visor, the new Captain America bowing to Norman Osborn's Iron Patriot form, Daken's Wolverine form looking down, Thor motionless on Loki's female form, Venom's Spider-Man appearance defeating Spider-Man, Henry Pym's Wasp alias (with Wasp's picture in the background), and the Green Goblin (which quotes that "He won").

Deadpool plays a large part in this, as he is supposed to send the information on how to kill the Skrull Queen Veranke to Nick Fury.

[6] Osborn simultaneously forms an alliance called the Cabal with Doctor Doom, Emma Frost, Namor, Loki, and the Hood.

[7] "The Hood, of course, may not be acting of his own volition, since he has an unholy alliance with the Dread Dormammu, who may want the zombies and the virus that creates them for his own nefarious purposes.

Written by Rick Remender, Jonathan Hickman, Matt Fraction, Kieron Gillen, and Peter Milligan, this one-shot features five vignettes that provide further information about the motivations of the members of the Cabal.

[citation needed] The comic sees Victoria Hand collecting info about Norman Osborn's past.

Their first act is to attack Fort Knox and steal the gold reserve, which Osborn planned on using to finance a secret weapons system.

His sister Shuri is trained as the next Panther, with the mantle passing onto her officially after T'Challa awakens from his coma and attempts to recover from his injuries.

Written by Bendis, the series chronicles the aftermath of the U.S. government's disbanding of the federally sanctioned superhero team, the Avengers, and its reconstruction under Osborn's control.

This series, co-plotted by Bendis with Jonathan Hickman writing,[24][25][26] was launched as part of the Dark Reign story-line.

He manages to take several notable aliens into custody including Noh-Varr, Adam X, Beta Ray Bill, Jazinda, Karolina Dean, and Hepzibah.

Moon Knight returns to New York after faking his death with Jake Lockley as his dominant personality, but still struggles against his violent nature and is hounded by Khonshu in the form of a small imaginary tormentor resembling a man in the Moon Knight costume with a bird skull who goads him to kill.

"[30] This all leads directly to a confrontation with the new Thunderbolts team (now composed of black ops mercenaries) in "Magnum Opus", which crosses over between Deadpool (vol.

embryos (creations of the organization Advanced Idea Mechanics [AIM]), and a character known as the "Storyteller" and reclaims the title of Ms. Marvel from Karla Sofen.

[33][34] Written by Andy Diggle and drawn by Tom Raney, this five-issue limited series follows the adventures of Bullseye in his identity as Dark Avengers member Hawkeye.

"[35][36] Written by Frank Tieri with art by Mateus Santolouco,[37] the story shows Grim Reaper assembling a new Lethal Legion to combat Osborn.

"[21] A three-issue mini-series written by Fred Van Lente about a gang-war between Cabal member The Hood and Spider-Man foe Mister Negative.

Van Lente says: "One of the major subplots of the book is Betty Brant, who in the 'New Ways to Die' arc of The Amazing Spider-Man was assigned the job of digging up as much dirt as she possibly could on Martin Li... She's continuing that investigation in the Mister Negative series and inadvertently digs closer and closer to his actual origin and her life will be put in jeopardy as a result.

[40] On the genesis of the series, the writer notes: "The whole Marvel Universe thinks Spider-Man is living in Avengers Tower, when it's really Mac Gargan, who has a long history as a sociopath.

It details the story of Dark X-Men members and how they come to join this team and the return of X-Man to Marvel Universe.

A five-issue limited series, it shows how Doctor Voodoo faces the consequences of becoming Sorcerer Supreme and also takes down Nightmare.

A collection of one-shots dealing with different characters in the Marvel Universe who are hunted by Osborn, The List sets the status quo for many books.