Editor's Note: Dark Avengers #6 arrives in stores tomorrow, June 24.

The opening pages of Dark Avengers #6 see Norman Osborn call his "cabal" together for their long-mooted reunion meeting, only to find that he and his co-conspirators may not be seeing eye-to-eye as far as the Dark Avengers' activities are concerned. However, even Namor's objections don't stop him from taking decisive action over the Atlantean attacks that we saw at the end of the previous issue.

It's a surprisingly swift resolution of the subplot that began in issue #5, but what's really impressive isn't how quickly Bendis chooses to wrap up the plot thread (although it is rather out-of-character for the writer to take a story from A to B with such a minimum of fuss), but how he chooses to have Norman address the problem. I won't spoil his reaction here, but it's a move that accomplishes two things: the first is that it deepens Osborn's relationship with one of his Dark Avengers even further, doing psychological damage that could come back to haunt either one of them in future. The second is that it gives Norman a chance to show just how cold and calculating he can be when it comes to PR and political spin, electing to intentionally keep one of the Atlantean criminals alive so as to make a public example of him, thus bolstering his reputation in the public eye.

It also makes for a powerful piece of storytelling. The sequence that shows Norman's harsh response to the Atlantean terrorists is illustrated so perfectly by Deodato and Conrad that no words are necessary -- and Bendis clearly appreciates this, letting several pages of "silent" artwork speak for themselves.

Other parts of the issue are slightly less dazzling, but still fairly entertaining, dealing as they do with the precariousness of Norman's position as head of the Cabal, and his own fragile mental health. The opening scene shows how the former Green Goblin is getting a little too used to ordering his cohorts around like lackeys, sowing seeds for a possible future rebellion with the disrespectful way in which he responds to Namor's posturing. And the closing scene feels like it could have come straight out of Warren Ellis's Thunderbolts, showing that Norman's grip on sanity remains tenuous, to say the least.

This is an entertaining book that got off to a rocky start with an ill-advised time-travelling jaunt to Latveria that made issues #2-4 painful to read. However, the last couple of issues have seen the title begin to come into its own, with a mixture of cynical politics and interesting dysfunctional personalities that combine to make it perversely enjoyable. My only concern is that the next few issues are going to see the title thrown into a crossover with the X-Men, just as it seemed to be finding its feet. Let's hope that it manages to recapture its current mojo once that story is over.

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