I’m sure anyone who reads comics at the moment is aware of the colossal event taking the Marvel 616 universe by storm. ‘Dark Reign’ books are hitting the shelves faster than it takes me to slurp up a bowl of spaghetti bolognaise (which is incredibly fast)!

I myself was excited once Secret Invasion ended earlier this year for what the future held in the Marvel Universe. Tony Stark got booted, and Norman Osborn became the boss of pretty much anything he wanted. Things were taking yet another drastic turn!

Thus began Dark Reign.

So we’ve seen a heck of a lot of Dark Reign books hitting our comic stores hard and fast for a good few months now, and to be honest, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t losing interest in this event. Ultimately, for two reasons, one being that Dark Reign is simply not going anywhere. Secondly, and most importantly, that Norman Osborn has been making more appearances than Wolverine of late, and this is blatant overkill. The amount of Dark Reign tie in’s that I am enjoying are few and far between, there aren’t many at all.

But there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon, as starting next week (June 24th) is the first chapter in a crossover event within Dark Reign that should appeal to a lot of you Marvelites.

This crossover is called ‘Utopia’ and it’s going to be written by Matt Fraction (the current writer of Uncanny X-Men) which makes me feel at ease and secure that the story is in safe hands. ‘Utopia’ will run between issues of Dark Avengers and Uncanny X-Men.darkreignutopiavar

Marvel has given a short and simple description of what this storyline will be about…

“After a mutant riot in San Francisco, Norman Osborn tries to enforce peace by creating his own team of Dark X-Men to serve in much the same way the Dark Avengers did, and using both his teams to bring down the real X-Men”.

Excited? I am!

Hopefully this short event will deal with the relationship between Emma Frost and Norman Osborn, because as we saw before in such issues as the Uncanny X-Men Annual #2 and the Secret Invasion: Dark Reign one shot, Emma Frost seems to be up to something mysterious, and I want to know more about what that is!

‘Utopia’ is a six issue crossover, and just to help you readers out, here is the official checklist of the issues you’ll need to get the whole story:

Chapter 01: Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1 (one-shot)
Chapter 02: Uncanny X-Men #513
Chapter 03: Dark Avengers #7
Chapter 04: Uncanny X-Men #514
Chapter 05: Dark Avengers #8
Chapter 06: Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus #1 (one-shot)
Epilogue: Dark X-Men: The Confession #1 (one-shot)

As for tie in’s to this upcoming ‘Utopia’ storyline, there will be a 3 issue mini-series called ‘Dark X-Men: The Beginning’ written by Paul Cornell (Captain Britain & MI13, Dr. Who), which apparently will explain how each character in the Dark X-Men joined up with the team in the first place. Another set of tie in’s will run through X-Men: Legacy #226-227, and it will show the events of the main ‘Utopia’ storyline through the eyes of Rouge and Danger. These tie in’s are not going to be essential to the ‘Utopia’ storyline, but who knows, they could be pretty cool!

This event will run from June through to September this year. So if you’re interested go pick up a copy of Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1 which hits shelves everywhere next week, June 24th!

Rob Andrews
Rob@comicimpact.com