The team is rebooted for the Dark Reign era. Actually, not so much “rebooted” as reaffirmed: They were already outlaws. Now they’re still outlaws, only they’re against Osborn. Issue #1 begins by letting everyone know where we are…
That might be the best summary of Marvel 2005-2009 as any I’ve seen.
This issue is the launch of an actual series–not a miniseries–so it spends. a good amount of time orienting readers to the characters involved, pitting them against Osborn’s Avengers team, and setting the group on a track to hunt down the son of Mandarin, which will be their first story arc.
To be fair, the Atlas Foundation, which funds the Agents, has a dragon named Lao that eats Man Mountain Marko. So, Osborn’s got a reason to hunt them down.
This issue also has got a solid Wolverine back-up from the World War II, when the original Agents of Atlas were kicking around the pages of Timely Comics.
In all, a solid start to this book about a group only nerds have ever heard of but, frankly, that is very easy to enjoy.