Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This issue is a TV interview by Norman Osborn interspersed with 4 flashbacks. The comic times the whole thing as happening within 6 hours, but there's so much else happening in Dark Reign that it must be days if not weeks. Anyway what make sense is that the 1st fb occurs immediately after last issue and the 2nd fb not long after that, while the 3rd and 4th fbs happen just before the interview. I shall describe the contents of the issue in time order with the whole interview at the end.
The Dark Avengers are returning by quinjet from Latveria where they helped Dr Doom fight Morgan Le Fay. During the battle Sentry was destroyed, but when they get home to Avengers Tower they find him alive and floating in the air before their craft. Norman Osborn has gone out as Iron Patriot to meet him.
Osborn asks Sentry how he survived, but he doesn't seem to know - or even if he *has* survived because this might be the afterlife. Norman desperately wants to make sure Bob Reynolds is in control of Sentry and not the Void. He keeps repeating the mantra "There is no Void" which he taught Reynolds in #3. He finally persuades Bob to go to his wife Lindy Reynolds waiting for him in his Watchtower atop Avengers Tower.
Later the Avengers are having a meal and Victoria Hand hands out meds to Bullseye and Venom which keep some of their more violent tendencies under control. Mac Gargan complains that Bullseye threatened to kill him last issue because Venom attacked him (while under Morgan's control). Moonstone chides him, and Ares intercedes and tells them to act like Avengers instead of children. Bullseye replies sarcastically and the God of War backhands him. Bullseye swallows his meds and the insult - for now. Daken and Marvel Boy just eat their food.
Much later Ares goes home and finds his son Alexander absent, and several truancy notices hidden in his backpack.
Even later Moonstone invites Marvel Boy into her bedroom, observed by Bullseye.
Now we come to the interview. The interviewer Shannon Queller is only allowed to cover topics on a prepared list. Like that Osborn has been granted great power, by the elected government, to bring stability after the chaos of Civil War (and World War Hulk and Secret Invasion) and the death of Captain America.
Shannon asks about the accusations made by Clint Barton on TV (New Avengers #50) that Osborn used to be the psychopath Green Goblin and was put in a hospital for the criminally insane. And that his team of Avengers (whose secret identities have not been revealed) are also criminals. Norman admits the 1st but says it was due to a chemical imbalance he was born with, but he's all better now. And that it is well known that many of what the public thinks of as his crimes were committed by successors using the Goblin id, some of whom attacked *him*.
He also reminds her that Clint Barton himself was the criminal Hawkeye before he joined the Avengers alongside the ex-terrorist mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. They were given a 2nd chance and proved worthy. Now Osborn has been given the same chance. And he sees Barton as someone who has lost his heroes:- Cap dead, Tony Stark's failure during Secret Invasion. And Hawkeye himself died (Avengers Disassembled) and has somehow returned (due to Scarlet Witch at the end of House of M). These traumas have made him hide away and see conspiracies everywhere.
When pressed about his Avengers Norman refuses to reveal their identities, for their own protection. (The Superhero Registration Act means that heroes must tell the Government their ids, but the Government doesn't tell the public.)
Suddenly the interview is interrupted by news of an Atlantean attack on Los Angeles. Osborn rings Victoria Hand to roust the team.
Karla Sofen and Noh-Varr are in bed together and she's just remembered Osborn's scheduled interview. Moonstone tells Marvel Boy she wants to know how Norman spins the fact that his Avengers are psychos and murderers and he's Green Goblin. Somehow this is news to the Kree. Then they learn about the attack.
(Barton watches this interview at the end of NAv#54.)