Dark Avengers #16: Review

This issue fits inside Siege #4. But I have divided Siege #4 into 2 parts, and the 2nd part covers several days after the end of the 'siege' of Asgard itself. This issue and some others extend into that 2nd timeframe as well. I summarised the tie-ins the the 1st part of Siege #4 in Avengers: Initiative #35. In this Comments I will gather together the issues and part issues that fit in the aftermath phase.

In this issue the capture of the villains and the escape of Daken I have included in A:I#35's overview.

I pick up the story with New Avengers: Finale 1-shot where the team, including Wolverine who had kept out of Siege along with the rest of the X-Men, track down Hood and Madame Masque who are about to get replacement powers for Hood (after Loki took back the Norn Stones) from Masque's father Count Nefaria. All 3 plus Hood's cousin John King are arrested.

The Marvel Chronology Project's Siege timeline then has our bit where Thor gives Phobos the axe and helmet of Ares.

Then in Thor #610 Thor is reconciled with the Asgardians (he was banished for killing Bor), and he destroys the clone Ragnarok.

In Siege #4 the President gives Norman Osborn's job to Steve Rogers, who then oversees Osborn's incarceration in our issue, and interviews Victoria Hand and offers her a job. Osborn talks to Green Goblin in his cell.

In the remainder of NAv: Finale The Super Human Registration Act is abolished and the dissenting heroes are pardoned. Steve meets the Nav in Avengers Tower and they wonder what they'll do next.

The MCP inserts here the opening pages of American Son #1 where someone 'liberates' the American Son armour from Osborn's stash. During Dark Reign Norman made his son Harry wear it. The new owner will turn out to be Norman's other son Gabriel Stacy.

Then we have the bit in Av:I#35 where Tigra visits Hood in jail but refrains from hitting him.

In the Avengers: Prime mini-series Steve, Iron Man and Thor gather in Asgard to deal with the broken Rainbow Bridge. The 3 get swept into an adventure across the Asgardian realms, which helps mend the rifts between them.

Then Siege #4 ends with a party in Avengers Tower, which also occupies the end of Av:I#35 and the beginning of NAv v2 #1. Across these 3 issues we see:- The Rainbow Bridge is connected to the Tower roof, creating an Asgardian building to replace Sentry's Watchtower. Thor offers to rejoin the Avengers, and Rogers has a plan. Tigra brings her infant son William. Rogers offers Diamondback the job of running the continuing Initiative (but she never accepts it). (We also hear about what some other Initiative members are doing.) Tony Stark sells the rebuilt Avengers Mansion to Luke Cage for $1, and Rogers tells Luke he can run the independent New Avengers from there.

The last few pages of Siege: Embedded #4 give a Ben Urich-eye view of some of the above events.

Technically beyond the end of Siege #4 the Sentry: Fallen Sun 1-shot is a eulogy for the fallen hero. Sentry will be reborn in Uncanny Avengers (2012) #9-22 as 1 of the Apocalypse Twins' 4 Horsemen of Death. He'll wander off into space to find himself, then return in Dr Strange #382-385 and his own 2018 mini-series in a world within his mind.

What happens to DAv members afterwards? (I've already dealt with Ares' future in Av:I#35.)

While imprisoned Norman Osborn will have some involvement in the American Son mini-series and Avengers Academy. He'll be broken out by supporters in the Osborn mini-series but willingly returns to jail. However he'll be freed again in NAv(2010)#16.1 to lead his followers in a bid to regain power in #17-23 and Av(2101)#18-25.

Victoria Hand on the other hand is rehabilitated by working as Steve Rogers' liaison with Luke Cage's NAv.

Moonstone is also given a go at rehabilitation in Cage's new version of her old team Thunderbolts, but it doesn't work so well.

In Amazing Spider-Man #648-654 the Venom symbiote is removed from Mac Gargan but Gargan starts to die. Alistair Smythe breaks him out of jail and saves his life with a new version of his old Scorpion suit, and they go to take out some grudges against J Jonah Jameson.
Meanwhile the military will give the Venom symbiote to Flash Thompson in the 2011 Venom series.

Bullseye escapes on the way to prison so he can take part in Daredevil's Shadowland event where DD kills him then attempts to resurrect him as a members of the Hand. It will later turn out that the attempt was successful but left him in an iron lung from where he will mastermind a revenge plot.

Daken returns to his own Dark Wolverine series for a crossover with Wolverine: Origins involving Romulus. He'll continue his series for a few more issues before restarting it as Daken: Dark Wolverine.

How about the immediate future for the heroes in this issue?

In the 1st story in I Am An Avenger #2 Steve Rogers attends the funeral of the soldier killed by Daken, the only US Forces casualty. Then in Iron Man (2008) #25 Tony Stark begins to put his life back together (after recovering from his brain-death during Dark Reign). Thor visits him to offer to finance his new company with Asgardian gold, but Tony has his own ideas.

Those 2 are amongst the many in the opening pages of Av(2010)#1 invited by Rogers to be part of the several Avengers teams. Others include Bucky Barnes (continuing to be Captain America while Steve uses the ID Super-Soldier), Luke Cage, Spider-Woman and Wolverine. Bucky-Cap, IM, SpW and Thor will be in the Avengers. Cage will lead the New Av. Wolvie will be in both teams (along with Spider-Man). Meanwhile Rogers will lead the Secret Avengers (but don't tell anybody).

Nick Fury and Phobos will return to Secret Warriors business. Steve Rogers will attend a Howling Commandos reunion in flashbacks in SecWarr #17-19 (Fury invited him in Siege: Secret Warriors). Then Fury will get on with the current part of those issues. The SW themselves aren't involved in those issues so we won't see Phobos there until #20. But before then he'll be with the other Olympians in Hercules: Fall Of An Avenger #2 to mourn Herc's death.

We don't see Ms Marvel being asked to join in Av#1 but she will be part of NAv when their series slots in a bit later. However for now she is seen in the background with others when Steve tries to recruit Wonder Man in a later part of Av#1.

There are a few minor baddies involved too.

Strangely Chemistro is out on parole from Ryker's Island when he joins Deadly Nightshade's Flashmob to fight the new young Power Man in Shadowland: Power Man #2, and winds up back in Ryker's. But the revolving door spits him out again to join Mandarin's army to fight Iron Man.

Vector will bed seen with loads of other villains in SAv#29-30 before the rest of the U-Foes show up for SAv#32.