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Dark Avengers #3

May 2009
Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Deodato Jr.

Story Name:

(no title given)


Synopsis

Dark Avengers #3 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Last issue the Dark Avengers came to Latveria to help Dr Doom fight Morgana Le Fay. Iron Patriot/Norman Osborn thought they'd won when he played his trump card and got Sentry to tear her head off. But she came back from that and now Sentry is apparently disintegrated.

But before we return to the ongoing fight we get a flashback to some days ago. Sentry in his Watchtower perched atop Avengers Tower gets a visit from Osborn who's come to introduce himself as his new neighbour - the new owner of the Tower below. NO's read the file on Bob Reynolds and knows what to expect. And he's got a plan.

Bob/Sentry is very unsure of himself, almost childlike. His wife Lindy is afraid of him because of his evil alternate self the Void, and spends most of her time sleeping.

Norman commiserates and admits that he too has an evil other self the Green Goblin. He too hears a voice in his head telling him to do bad things. But his good side is in control now, and he wants to help Bob to reach the same place.

Reynolds knows that the Void is part of him but still thinks they are 2 separate persons. But he admits that he can't be sure which 1 he is even at this moment. Osborn latches on to that as proof that there is only one person - Sentry/Void.

Bob also admits that there was no Void before the event that made him the Sentry. Norman claims that the Void is another result of the changes that gave him his powers. But that was a physical change in his system, like the chemical imbalance that produced the Goblin. And he Norman is proof that it is possible control your system with a combination of mind and medication.

He persuades Bob to start with the mantra "There is no Void". And as proof he asks the Void to strike him down - with no response. The next step is for Bob to shower, shave, eat and sleep. Reynolds says Sentry doesn't need to do any of those things. But Norman says he should do them because he likes to do them, and because they remind him he is human. He opines that Bob denying his humanity created a void which the Void stepped in to fill.

NO offers to help BR every step of his recovery. And to make that easier he wants Sentry to be a part of his new (Dark) Avengers. And he leaves Bob to clean himself up as he orders in some food for them. But Lindy is still almost-catatonic.

To link the 2 parts of the story together we now see Morgana in 690 AD mystically viewing this bit of the future. She goes on to scan the lives of all the DAv up to the point where Sentry killed her last issue. Now she is prepared to go back to the future and face them again. (She gives a hand-waving explanation why she can't change the future before the point where she's killed.)

And now here she is with her monster/demon horde fighting the rest of the DAv. (Doom is still hors de combat.) Iron Patriot orders Victoria Hand not to send in HAMMER backup troops - if God of War Ares can't defeat these foes then mere humans have no chance. Instead he orders her to send him all the info she can get on Morgana. Meanwhile Ares slugs his way towards the witch, but she turns him to stone with a spell.

Hawkeye/Bullseye is up next and peppers her with arrows. Which appears to kill her - again. The others gather round Victor von Doom who is awake but can't move. And then Morgana returns - again.

IP holds her off with a force field. But she takes over Spider-Man/Venom, like last issue, and this time he goes after Hawkeye. Then Patriot grabs Doom and flies off (despite Victor refusing to accept help), leaving Captain Marvel/Marvel Boy, Ms Marvel/Moonstone and Wolverine/Daken facing the monsters.

Osborn asks Doom how he would defeat Le Fay. Victor says he'd use his armour's abilities to go back in time and stop her before she starts this battle. But he can't do anything because she's mystically frozen his body. Norman then tries to persuade him to (mentally?) drop his cyber-security and let him control the armour under Doom's instructions. Von Doom is dead set against such sacrilege.

Morgana attacks the pair on a flying dragon waving a magic sword. Doom relents and lets Osborn in. They create a time cube with a preset destination, and IP flies them into it as Morgana screams her rage.

Back in 690 AD Morgana is casting the spell she uses to scan time for Dr Doom as we saw in #1. But this 'time' it doesn't show her a future but her own present with Doom and Patriot standing behind her. She turns and sees it's true.

 

Review / Commentaries


Dark Avengers #3 Review by (May 15, 2017)
The Marvel Chronology Project has the Osborn/Sentry flashback within the series of events related in #1 - the gathering of the new Avengers team. In particular it's after he recruits Victoria Hand and Bullseye and before Ms Marvel (Carol Danvers) turns him down and he replaces her with Moonstone.

Bob Reynolds seemed to have his life sorted out at the end of his 2nd limited series when he banished Void into the Sun. But his problems have returned since then in Mighty Avengers. He learned Lindy is afraid of him in MA#7, and he became afraid of his own power after the climax of World War Hulk. Then in Secret Invasion a Skrull-Vision played on his fears and he turned into the Void to save his own wife. It was this that put Lindy in the state she's in now.

Morgana Le Fay's appearances here are obviously scattered in time and in the sequence of this storyline.
The 1st 690 AD bit is in between parts of last issue. She has just been killed by Sentry, but now back in the past she plans how to do better next time before returning to the present to resume the fight at the end of last issue. I still don't understand how she pulls this off.
Then we have the bulk of this issue - the battle during which she presumably she pulls the same trick after getting killed by Hawkeye.
Then her final AD 690 app is set *before* she's done *any* of this story arc - and the armoured duo are going to stop her before she can start.


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Preview Pages




Mike Deodato Jr.
Mike Deodato Jr.
Rainier Beredo
Mike Deodato Jr. (Cover Penciler)
Mike Deodato Jr. (Cover Inker)
Rainier Beredo (Cover Colorist)