Top ten not so Heroic Heroes + Issue Sumarries of the The Dark Reign: Dark Avengers, Thunderbolts, Agents Of Atlas and Secret Warriors

Because Dark Reign had ton of villains posing as heroes, here is my top ten not so heroic heroes:

10 Scourge: This dude was the leader of losers of the third incarnation of the Thunderbolts, and he wore a mask to hide the fact that he was the overzealous ultra nationalistic homicidal drug addict Nuke, and I loved when he crossed paths with US Agent during the Siege, because it made the heroes question some of his vision of the world.   

9: Human Robot/M11: Now this character is a member of the Agents of Atlas that actually are heroes that pose as villains, but since this robot doesn't talk it seems it has its own agenda, and I love that it seems to have grudge againts Wolverine trying to blast him with his death rays ever time it gets.

8: Daken: This character is the totally evil and messed up son of Wolverine, that joins the Dark Avengers just to tic off his daddy. I love to hate this Character and I loved to see how he messed with the heads of his teammates.

7: Iron Patriot: Norman Osborne actually steals Tony Starks tec and makes a Armor for himself to become the alpha hero in charge, I enjoyed the dark Reign because how it actually made Osborne act like a hero at moments but was let down because I didn't see him have a climactic battle verse Tony or at least Spidy.

6: Dark Beast: Evil Hank is back and is posing as the original Beast again, in the Dark X-Men Norman's official mutant team and Dark Beast just seems to have a blast experimenting on Weapon  Omega.

5: Mystic: Also a member of  the Dark Avengers she actually posed as Xavier and latter took the appearance of Jean Grey, but  turns on Osborn when X-Man was reborn and her team tries to save him.   

4: Hawkeye/Bullseye: This character does all of Norman's dirty work, but his best moment during Dark Reign arc was when Bullseye destroys a building in Hell's Kitchen that kills a ton of people pushing Daredevil over the edge, kicking off the Shadow Land.

3: Ant-man Eric O'Grady: This dude was on the Thunderbolts and he had a hard time to stomach the  evil stuff the team did, he was actually was pooped by Luke Cage after a mission that can really mess with your head jajaja, but this  pushed Ant-man to actually try to be a real hero.

2: Sentry: This character mind is totally broken and Norman knew how manipulate him because he actually understood him, but Osborne was playing with fire because when the Void finally returned it cost him everything.

1: Ghost: I actually discovered how interesting this character  was during this story arc, I tend to not care about Iron Man's enemies but  I found it facinating how his anti establishment agenda made him want to screw Norman's plans and ruin most of the Thunderbolts missions.

 

Issue Sumarries:

Agents of Atlas 1-6: The 50's era reformed to help Jimmy Woo battle the Yellow Claw and the evil Atlas corporation, to discover that Yellow Claw was actually grooming Woo to become the leader of the criminal organization, because he is the heir to control the Organization. Woo take the job to try to stop the evilness of Atlas.  (Note I know that this title came out before the Dark Reign but since here where most of my Agents of Atlas stuff is I put it here)

The Dark Reign

Secret Invasion: Dark Reign 0

In the aftermath of the Secret Invasion, Norman Osborn astutely takes Tony Starks place as the head of Shield and creates his own group of Illuminati that he calls the Cabal. The members are White Queen, Loki (in a female form), the Hood, Namor, Doctor Doom and himself.

And in this issue Norman kills Andreas Von Strucker the Swords man, an ex pain in the butt from his former Thunderbolts team.

Rating: 7

Dark Reign: The Cabal

This issue has five stories that are related with each member of the cabal.

The first one is about Doom and his ambitions in the Cabal; the second one is about Emma Frost and her origins. The third story is about the Hood and how far he’s willing to go to be the top dog in the crime world; the fourth story is about the apparition of a mutant in Namor’s Atlantian community and the fifth story is about a pack that Loki makes with Doom.

Rating: 6

Dark Reign New Nation 1

We find the Agents of Atlas acting villainously to keep their cover as heroes, stealing from gold from Fort Knox and just discarding it latter.

Rating: 6

 

Dark Avengers (DA) 1-4

Norman Osborn establishes a new official Avengers team with mostly super villains using super heroes identities, and on their first mission they have to go up against Morgan Le Fey

 

Characters:                                                    

¿Heroes?: Iron Patriot/ Norman Osborne, Spider-man/Venom, Ms Marvel/Moonstone, Hawkeye/Bulleye, Wolverine/Daken, Captain Marvel/Marvel Boy,  Ares and Sentry.

Villain: Morgan Le Fey

Supporting: Victoria Hand, Ghost, Doom

                                                              

Issues Summary:

·         1 Morgan Le Fey takes vengeance on Doom, leveling most of Latveria. Meanwhile Norman presents his official Avengers team to the World.

·         2 The Dark Avengers are dispatch to aid Doom. The team arrives and Sentry rips Morgan’s head off and basically all hell breaks loose. Morgan uses her time travel to elude death each time and makes Sentry blow up. 

·         3   The battle rages on.

·         4 Osborne and Doom join forces and defeat Morgan

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Maria Hill abandons Shield

The Good:

·         Osborne uses Iron man’s armor, that’s freaking cool

·         And Sentry Ripping Morgan’s head of was pretty shocking.

·         Osborne has an interesting relationship with Sentry

                      

Rating: 9

Dark Reign Made Men One Shot

Part 1: Osborne uses Spy Master to get his revenge on Tony.

Part 2: Doom brings Attuma back to life, after being beheaded by the Sentry

Part 3: Return of the Jack O’Lantern

Part 4: Norman engages the Gamma Corps

Part 5: Return of the Enforcer          
 Rating: 2

Secret Warriors 2 So we discover Shield has been runned by Hydra for quite some time, and that Strucker has cleaned Hydra of Skrulls. Now the Baron is gathering the other heads of Hydra to make a move for total world domination and they bring back from death Gorgon.

Rating: 9

 

Secret Worriers 3 Fury sends his Secret Warrior to stop Hydra from taking over a Sheild out post. But to the surprise of the team they get their butts kicked by Gorgon, who hack slingshots arms off

Rating 9

Deadpool (DP) 8-9 Thunderbolts (TB) 130-131

Magnum Opus

Deadpool wants pay back, for how Norman screwed him over during the Secret Invasion and sending Tiger Shark to kill him, but he plays right into Osborn’s hands, who wants to eliminate Wade for good.

Characters:                                                    

Heroes: Deadpool, Taskmaster

Villain: Norman Osborne, Thunderbolts (Black Widow II, Ant-man III, Ghost, Paladin and Headsman)

                                                              

Issues Summary:

·         DP 8 Pool wants revenge on Osborn for what happened at the climax of the Secret Invasion and pays him a visit at his new office the Avengers Tower, little does he know that it’s a trap and the new Thunderbolts are waiting for him.

·         TB 130 Pool gets his butt kicked and barely escapes, in round II Widow lets him escape.

·         DP 9 Pool asks his bud Taskmaster if he can also dress up like him and both of them attack the Thunderbolts. Taskmaster gets captured.

·         TB 131 Pools saves Tasky and goes head to head against Norman Osborn and the Thunderbolts and gets his head cut off. But at the end Widow instead of incinerating the body puts Pool back together.

 

The Good:

·         Who is Black Widow II?

                      

Rating: 7

Agents of Atlas (AoA)

Issue 1 Mountain Man Marko (a really obscure Spider-man villain) under the orders of Norman Osborne penetrates one of Atlas’s investigation facilities; Woo and company give a swift butt kicking. Later Venus pays a visit to Osborne, and in through a video conference Woo offers a pact of none aggression with Hammer.

Rating: 8

Wolverine Agent of Atlas the issue shows a brief adventure that the Agents of Atlas had during the revolutionary war in Cuba where they crossed paths with Wolverine.    

Agent of Atlas Issues 2-4

Woo and his Agents pact a sale to Norman Osborn, of high Tec. weapons.

Characters:                                                    

Heroes:  Agents of Atlas

Villain: Norman Osborne, Sentry, Grizzly

Antagonist: Captain America (Bucky Cap.), New Avengers

                                                              

Issues Summary:

·         2 Woo meets with Grizzly to pact the sale of high Tec. weapons to Hammer. Later the Agents meet up with Osborne to show him the production of his new weapons

·         3 The Agents have a run in with Bucky Cap. He’s trying to stop this sale, Woo and crew escape, but this put Cap and the New Avengers hot on their trail.

·         4 Agents of Atlas battle the New Avenger.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Battling the New Avengers helps Woo establish that he and his agents are Villains, even though they are undercover heroes.

·         All the Weapons that they sold Osborne where bogus.

·         Grizzly will hold a grudge against the Agents of Atlas, and will lead a mission with the Thunderbolts against Woo’s crew.

The Good:

·         Human Robot has issues with Wolverine.

                      

Rating: 8

Thunderbolts 138

Mister X goes on a rogue mission, and the Bolt’s are sent to find there psycho teammate.

   

Thunderbolts 139-140

Norman wants pay back against the Agents of Atlas and he has sent his Thunderbolts to do the dirty work.

                                     

Characters:                                                    

Heroes: Agents of Atlas

Villains: Thunderbolts, Norman Osborne

Supporting:

                                                              

Issues Summary:

·         139 Norman sets the Agents of Atlas for a trap, with the Thunderbolts ready to take them out.

·         140 Teams battle, Woo’s team get away. Marvel leaves a hypnotic suggestion in Scourge to kill Osborne, but accidently kills Headman.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Death of Headman.

·         Grizzly joins the Thunderbolts.

Rating: 8

Dark Reign: Young Avengers 1-5

A New team of Young Avengers hits the town and they are confronted by the original team over the use of the name and if they are really heroes in the first place

Characters:                                                    

Heroes:  Original Young Avengers

Villain: Dark Avenger

Antagonist: New Evil Young Avengers

                                                              

Issues Summary:

·         1 New Team of Young Avengers appears and they have extreme methods at stopping crime.

·         2 Confronted by the original team over the use of their name and if they are really heroes.

·         3 The two team clash, new team agrees to go under trail to see if they are up to snuff.

·         4 New team methods are too dangerous.

·         5-6 Young Avengers clash with the New Team and with the Dark Avengers to a standstill, Osborn declares a tie and leaves.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Some of the evil young Avenger ends up as minions to Avengers Academy’s villain Jeremy Briggs.

The Bad:

·         Most of these new Characters never appear again.

The Good:

                      

Rating: 6

Thunderbolts Issue 132 Mr. X is recruited to join the Thunderbolts.  

 Rating 6

Secret Warriors 6 Fury and his Warriors after battling Hydra, they are able to steal a few ships from Hammer.

Rating 7

Utopia X

Dark Avenger/X-men crossover

Norman Osborn wants to stir thing up in San Francisco and agitate the Mutants so he can accuse Cyclops that can’t control his own people and giving him the excuse to put a team of mutants that are loyal to him the Dark X-men.

 

Characters:                                                    

Heroes: X-men, X-force, New Mutants  

Villain: Dark Avengers, Bio-sentinels

Antagonist: Dark X-men (Emma Frost, Dark Beast, Namor, Mimic, Cloak, Dagger Daken, Weapon Omega and Mystic who poses as Xavier)

Supporting: Hela

                                                              

Issues Summary:

·         Dark X-men the Beginning 1-3: Shows how Osborne recruits each member of the Dark X-men.

·         Dark Avengers/X-men: Utopia USA: Norman Osborn wants to stir thing up in San Francisco and agitate the Mutants. Mutants start to riot and Osborne sends in his Dark Avengers to control the situation but they find themselves countered by the X-men.

·         Uncanny X-men (UXM) 513: Beast was captured in the initial riots, he discover the man in cell next to his has Charles Xavier prisoner. Norman forms a team of X-men that serve his interests.

·         X-men Legacy 226-227 Gambit, Rogue and Danger are teleported by Pixie to San Francisco when the havoc starts to give a hand to the X-men battling the Dark Avengers and saving mutants. Gambit, Rogue and Danger go toe to toe against Ares and Moonstone.

·         Dark Avengers (DA) 7 Dark Beast starts experimenting on Beast while the Dark X-men kick the snot out of a group of Mutant rioters.

·         UXM 514 Things start to heat up between the Dark Avengers and the Dark X-Men. The Dark X-men hit the town trying to stop an attack of Bio-Sentinels.

·         DA 8 Dani Moonstar make a pact with Hela to gain more powers, X-force infiltrates the Dark X-men’s base take down Dark Beast and liberate the mutant prisoners, with the help of the Dark X-men that have changed their loyalties to Cyclops crew.

·         Dark Avengers/X-men: Exodus USA: Cyclops refloats Asteroid M offering it as a safe place for mutants. Every X-men Team defeats the Dark Avengers.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Utopia island

·         Dani Moonstar is in debt to Hela, this have a profound effect in the New Mutant series.

·         The Dark X-man will be responsible in bringing X-man back from the dead.

·         Namor will become an important member to the X-men.

·         The Voids invades White Queens Mind

·         X-men abandon the Grey Malagan Facilities. 

The Bad:

·         Didn’t Cable have something very similar to utopia till very recently?

The Good:

·         Utopia island is made out of the old Asteroid M

X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas

Add caption

Venus has gone missing and Woo and crew try to use Cererbro without permission from the X-Men, sparking a conflict betweenthe two teams. 

Characters:

Heroes:  X-Men

Antagonist:  Agents of Atlas

Issue Summary: 

·         XVA 1: X-Men are establishing themselves on Utopia, while the Agents of Atlas invade their old base Graymalkin Industries to use Cerebro, sparking a battle with the Mutants, the Agent get away.

·         XVA 2: X-Men find Atlas's hide out sparking a colosal battle, when Marvel Boy's power interact with Xavier's reminding the teams that they were allies back in the day and the villain aspect of their image is just a façade.  We discover that the Greek goddes Aphodity actual has kidnapped Venus but she's saved by her team mate.

Thunderbolts (TB) 133-136 and Secret Warriors (SW) 8-10

These are actual two separate storyline that overlap, but we see how Osborn traps Nick Fury, and how Fury screws Norman over, and plants the seed of decent in his subordinates.   

Characters:                                                    

Heroes: Secret Warrior, Black Widow, Nick Fury

Villains: Norman Osborn, HAMMER, Dark Avengers, Thunderbolts

Supporting: Mach IV, Techno

                                                              

Issues Summary:

·         TB 135 Osborn start a man hunt to capture Songbird an ex Thunderbolt that he thought was dead. We discover that Black Widow II is actually reporting to Nick Fury.

·         TB 136 Norman sends the Thunderbolts to capture Song Bird, Black Widow II shows to Song Bird that she is really the original Black Widow and help her escape to one of Fury’s safe houses with the Thunderbolts hot on their trail.

·         TB 137 Widow and Song Bird accidently allow the Thunderbolts and The Dark Avengers find them, and they are captured with Nick Fury. He orders the Thunderbolts to execute Widow and Song Bird. The Thunderbolts battle amongst themselves over to execute the heroes Widow and Bird gets away

·         SW 8 Norman executes Nicky Fury, it was really a LMD with a Phobos in inside who zaps Osborne with his fear powers, while the Secret Warriors ambush the bad guys.  

·         SW 9 All he breaks loose any army of Nick Furys jump in to give the heroes out to escape.

The Good:

·         Scourge really is Nuke a Z list bady from Wolvies rogue gallery.  

·         It was cool to think that Fury was dead.

Rating: 7

                      

The Dark Reign the List-Daredevil: Bulleye attacks hell Kitchen killing tons of innocent people, Daredevil tries to stop him but fails, pushing DD over the edge.

Repercussions and Lasting effects: As the Leader of the Hand, Daredevil will create shadow land.

Rating: 10

 Avenger Vs. Agents of Atlas 1-4

Add caption

Some type of temporal phenomena/Entity that menacing existence throws the Agents of Atlas back in time, so they end up teaming up with one of the Avengers first lineups.  They discover that the entity is actually Henry Pym that had interacted with Kang's helmet and peaked into the time stream discovering that Wasp would die in the future, leaving his mind trapped in the time stream.  

The Dark Reign the List Secret Warriors: Nick Fury discovers the existence of Leviathan.

Repercussions and Lasting effects: Has a colossal impact in the series.

The Good: its super cool to see another organization that competes with Shield and Hydra.

Rating: 10


Secret Warriors 10 Phobos is officially accepted to become a deity, after being accepted by the council of god pantheons. 

Secret Warriors 11-12 Leviathan starts to makes its move on Hydra, and we discover the origin of Hive.

Rating 8

Thunderbolts 136-137

Osborne kidnaps and brain wash Iron Fist to get back over Luke Cage’s betraying him, but everything goes south for Norman. Luke punches the snot out every member of the Thunderbolts and gets his friend back.

                      

Rating: 8

Dark Avengers Annual 1 (2010)

Marvel Boy abandons the Dark Avengers, he finds a Kree safe house and communicates with the Supreme Intelligence that gives him a power upgrade with a pair of Nega-Band and he becomes the Protector.

 Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·        Protector will become a member of the real Avengers

·        He’ll have a relevant role during the Avengers vs. X-men Cross-over.

The Siege

Loki has been pushing Normans Osborne buttons during the whole Dark Reign, now he has pushed him to set up the Asgardian Volstagg for a mass murder similar to the one in Stanford, legitimizing an invasion of Asgard, so Loki can finally get his vengeance and rule over the Asgardians.   

                                     

Characters:                                                    

Heroes: New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Young Avengers, Asgardians, Thor, Maria Hill, Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors, Dani Moonstone and Renegade Avengers

Villains: Loki, Dark Avengers, Thunderbolts, the Hood and his crew, the Initiative, UFOs and Sentry/Void

                                                              

Issues Summary:

·         1 Loki set up Volstagg for the mass murder of a whole Stadium full of American Football fans. So the US government reaches the conclusion that it most invade Asgard that has been floating over Oklahoma for some time now. So Osborne gets all of his assets prepare to attack. Osborne’s men start the battle and find a strong resistance from the Asgardians being lead by Thor. But Thor is defeated Osborne and his men.

·         Siege: Loki makes a pack with Mephisto to give him the Disir, in exchange a small place in Hel for Hela to send her dead.

·         Avengers: The Initiative (AI) 32 We see the battle from Taskmaster’s point of view.

·         2 Steve Rogers forms a formidable force of Heroes to help Thor. Now in the battle Ares rebels against Osborne do to the fact that he considerers the Asgardian his cousins and for this Norman send Sentry to kill him.   

·         AI 33 The Battle  rages on for Taskmaster, meanwhile the Renegade Avengers engage with the Hood’s forces back in camp Hammond
New Mutants 11: Dani Moonstar ties to save dead asgardians from the Disir that want to eat thier souls.

·         Siege: Spider-man; Spidy battles Venom and defeats him.

·         AI 34 The Hood abandons his fight with the Renegade Avengers to join Norman.

·         3 Steve Rogers and his forces attack, but the Hood enters the battle with his legion of villains, while Thor battles Sentry. But Sentry does something super crazy he destroys Asgard itself. And Osborne is finally defeated, but the Void is back. Loki astonished how his plans end up destroying what he wanted attacks the Sentry and gets killed.

·         AI 35 Fallout from the destruction of Asgard.

·         Siege: Captain America, Both Caps, Steve and Bucky battle and defeat Crossfire and Razor Fist, two of Hood’s Men.

·         Siege Young Avengers; The kids battle the Wrecking Crew who are trying steal anything of value from the ruins of Asgard.

·         Siege Secret Warrior Phobos flipsout that his dad has been killed by Sentry.

    Thunderbolts 141 143, Thunderbolts are sent in to Asgard retrieve Odin’s spear but they find themselves battling Pym’s Mighty Avengers. The Avengers win but a high cost.

·         4 Heroes ban together, and Thor kills Sentry/Void.

  Dark Avenger 16 It’s the end of Osborne’s Avengers, everything went wrong with the Siege of Asgard, and Norman is imprisoned like most of the Dark Avengers except for Daken that is able to escape. 
The Sentry: Fallen Sun;Sentry’s Funeral

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Sentry Kill Ares

·         Sentry destroys Asgard.

·         Loki gets killed, but his isn’t as lasting as Ares’s.

·         Sentry/Void dies.

·         No more Watch Tower.

·         End of the Super Hero Registration and Initiative.

·         Steve Rogers Becomes the head of Shield.

·         Mac Gargan loses the Venom symbiot.

·         The Disir will be very relevant in future New Mutant titles.

·         US Agent loses a arm and a leg in the battle against Scourge.

The Bad:

The Good:

·         Wow Ares death is pretty shocking, but destroying Asgard was brilliant.

Rating: 10

Secret Warriors 13-16

War rages on between Hydra and Leviathan, with key player changing their alliances.

 

Characters:                                                    

Heroes: Nick Fury, Secret Warriors

Villains: Hydra, Leviathan

Supporting:

                                                              

Issues Summary:

·         13 The mystery grows ¿ Who is the Kraken?

·         14 Madam Hydra betrays Hydra and joins Leviathan, Viper is executed trying to stop her.

·         15 Hive brings Viper back from death; she becomes the New Madam Hydra.

·         16 The Original Kraken is dead? So who is the guy that is all chumy with Strucker

  

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Viper comes back from the dead thanks to Hive and becomes Madam Hydra.

·         Sebastian Doctor Druid’s kid is kicked off the Secret Warriors.

·         Orion Leviathans leader is reborn.

·         J T James betrays the Secret Warriors.

The Good:

·         Madam Hydra was Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Fury’s Girl friend

Rating: 9

Secret Warriors 17-18

Hydra attacks one of Fury’s Transport ships and everything go from bad to worse.

Secret Warriors 20-23

War rages on between Hydra and Leviathan, and the Nick Fury Secret Warriors make their move.

Characters:                                                    

Heroes: Nick Fury, Secret Warriors

Villains: Hydra, Leviathan

Supporting:

                                                              

Issues Summary:

·         20 Fury makes his move on Hydra attacking their main base Gehena.

·         21 Phobos faces off against Gorgon and to my shock the kid gets killed.

·         22 The Secret Warriors escape, Kraken turns on Strucker.

·         23 Sebastian help the Secret Warriors escape Gehena.

Repercussions and Lasting effects:

·         Gorgon kills Phobos

·         Sebastian is back on the Team

·         Nick Fury lets Hellfire die because he knows he was a Hydra double agent.

The Bad:

·         Phobos dies that sucks.

The Good:

·         Fury Finally lands a near fatal blow on Hydra

Rating: 9

Secret Warriors 24 Fury visits his sons grave and Kraken is there to receive him