Part of the Marvel: Untold range from Aconyte Books, David Guymer’s The Patriot List turns the tables on the usual Marvel norms and tells a tale of villains pretending to be heroes, featuring the Dark Avengers under the leadership of the brilliant but troubled Norman Osborn. In the wake of a Skrull invasion and the failure of SHIELD, Osborn is now in control of a new team of Avengers, which sees – unbeknown to the general public – hand-picked (and, unsurprisingly, difficult to manage) super-villains masquerading as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Despite the incredible power he wields, Osborn isn’t exactly the most stable of characters, and when a list detailing potential replacements for his faux-Avengers is stolen from under his nose, his response is somewhat less than subtle.
Fans of the Marvel comics may recognise this as following on from the Secret Invasion storyline, but for those of us less well versed in comic book lore the key concepts are introduced quickly and effectively – Osborn at the head of HAMMER turning peacekeeping into occupation; a truly dysfunctional team held together by coercion, force and the impressive personality of Victoria Hand. It’s a great setup, giving Guymer the opportunity to really have fun bringing this group of reprobates to life – and with Osborn’s Avengers formed of the unhinged Venom, irredeemable Bullseye, Ares (the god of war), Daken (Wolverine’s manipulative son), murderous psychiatrist Moonstone and the godlike, schizophrenic Sentry, this really is a team of the villainous and the unhinged. Awful though they may be, it’s great fun to read about their varying attempts at being heroes – some just enjoying the irony and the opportunities for violence, others actually wanting to be heroes, without really knowing how.
The plot itself is pretty straightforward, with the theft of the list having somewhat unintended consequences but primarily generating a lot of snarky bickering, a lot of fighting (and infighting), and a lot of collateral damage. That’s almost the backdrop though – anyone looking for superpowered action will find plenty of it, but the main draw of the book is the enjoyable back and forth of watching anti-heroes work and remembering that they’re really not anti-heroes, but rather out and out villains. Variously described as “small boys in capes” or “the Earth’s greatest team of surly teenagers”, none of them are exactly likeable, and they’re certainly not admirable, but it’s never less than entertaining to watch them work, fight, complain, plot against each other, and generally be despicable. Along the way there’s an interesting question posed of what people are prepared to tolerate from their ‘heroes’.
If there’s a downside to this book it’s that with a lot of point of view characters, there isn’t really a central protagonist. Osborn is arguably the core character as the man in charge of the Avengers, and it’s interesting to see him veer from hyper-capable to rage-fuelled and unhinged, craving validation and respect, but it certainly isn’t a book ‘about’ him. Moonstone and the Sentry have perhaps the most psychologically interesting arcs, but again their stories are wrapped up in everything that’s going on rather than being the focus of the book. Thankfully though, any lack of cohesion is easily balanced out by the fun factor of just sitting back and enjoying reading about these satisfyingly awful characters. In truth, to get absolutely everything out of this it probably is good to be familiar with the Secret Invasion, the Thunderbolts etc., but even if not it only requires a few things to be taken on faith for everything to still make sense, and as an antidote to the usual heroic Marvel fare this makes for a genuinely entertaining read.
Review copy provided by the publisher
See also: David Guymer Talks The Patriot List.
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