Three Years Ago

Victoria Hand is in a SHIELD boxing match with her fellow agent, Isabelle. Isabelle is trying to remind Victoria her place in the spy agency, reminding her that she is an accountant and how Director Nick Fury does not need one to tell him her opinions on how to combat global terrorism. Victoria insists that the way that Fury is running things, his wars against the likes of Hydra and AIM are never going to end. Isabelle warns her not to send the letter to Fury, but Victoria views doing so as a matter of principal.

A week later, Nick Fury is going over the budget with Dum Dum Dugan, Sharon Carter, and Countess de la Fontaine. As he does so, he finds the letter written by Victoria Hand. After reading it over, Fury dismisses it as it is not needed for the budget meeting and orders Sharon to deal with the matter.

Later, Victoria Hand returns to the apartment she shares with Isabelle with all of her work belongings in a box. When Isabelle asks if she’s been sacked, Victoria says it is worse: She is getting transferred to Portland, Oregon. Isabelle realizes that Victoria sent the letter to Fury against her advice. Furious with Victoria, Isabelle storms out of their apartment, telling her that their relationship is over.

Now

Victoria Hand has moved up in the ranks since then, as SHIELD became HAMMER she has been made the Deputy Director by its current head, Norman Osborn.[2] Osborn has mobilized his Dark Avengers and HAMMER to respond to the disappearances of people from the small Colorado town of Dinosaur. This was after the Sentry was seemingly killed on a scouting mission.[3] As they race to the location, Victoria is at command aboard the HAMMER helicarrier as the Dark Avengers — the Iron Patriot (Osborn himself), Ms. Marvel (Karla Sofen aka Moonstone), Hawkeye (actually Bullseye in disguise), Spider-Man (really Mac Gargan and the Venom Symbiote posing as the web-slinger), Wolverine (Daken, the son of Wolverine), and Ares — lead the charge. As they arrive, the Avengers suddenly vanish without a trace leaving Victoria to realize that she owes Nick Fury an apology.

This is because the town is under the control of the Molecule Man (Owen Reece).[4] After being captured, Norman finds himself stripped naked and brought before Reece in what appears to be Hell itself. Flanking him are what appear to be the Beyonder, Mephisto, Zarathos, and the Enchantress. Reece has been observing the outside world very closely and knew that eventually, someone like Norman Osborn would be put into a position of power. When Norman asks where he is and what happened to the rest of his team, it soon becomes clear that his surroundings and the Molecule Man’s consorts are all fabrications.

Osborn then surprises him by telling Owen to cut the crap and says if he wants something he needs to stop threatening him, bring back his team, and invite him in politely. Reece is stunned by the bluntness of Norman’s demands and admits that negotiation would be better than a fight. The Molecule Man then tells Norman that all he wants is to be left alone in Dinosaur, Colorado. Norman says that would be impossible since it is American soil and he can’t just give it away. Owen isn’t surprised and reminds Norman how easy it would be for him to kill him. However, he won’t, because in doing so he would just attract more attention to his little corner of the world, the opposite of what he wants. He figures eventually, it would draw out Reed Richards who would find a way to overcome his powers and incarcerate him again. Trying to reason, Osborn suggests that Owen just leave the country if he wants to be left alone. However, the Molecule Man refuses to go, saying that Dinosaur, Colorado is his home, where he grew up. Osborn says he and his team will leave as long as Owen frees the people he has kidnapped.

The Molecule Man is impressed by Norman’s lack of fear, and Osborn admits that he isn’t afraid of Owen because he isn’t threatening to kill him. Reece tells Osborn that there are fates worse than death and uses his powers to reshape the world around Norman. Suddenly, he is dressed like Spider-Man and is standing atop the Brooklyn Bridge. With him is a very pregnant Gwen Stacy who wants to know why Norman killed her. Panicking, Norman ends up walking off the the bridge and crashing into the waters below. As the scene changes, the Molecule Man speaks out to him. Suddenly, Norman is wearing his Green Goblin costume and is surrounded by the Avengers — the real Avengers — and Owen mocks him by saying that everyone even his own allies (the scene shifting to the Dark Avengers) — want to see him fail. The Molecule Man learned all of Norman’s secrets by reading his mind and has decided to help Osborn along to his eventual fall from grace.[5]

Meanwhile, in the real world, Victoria Hand is still thinking of what to do about this situation. She orders her panicking agents to remain calm while she tries to think of something.

At the same time, the other Avengers are being put through tormenting illusions. The Sentry (who wasn’t killed after all) finds himself in the local high school gymnasium. There he is confronted by the Molecule Man. He can be sympathetic about the Sentry because he can relate to his confused mind and unsure origins. He even believes that he and Bob could have been friends once upon a time. However, if he were to let the Sentry free now, Reynolds would kill him under orders from Norman, and that is something that Owen can’t have. So instead, he blows up the Sentry for the second time.[6] He then confronts Venom on the streets and forces the symbiote to attack its human host, leaving the two as a puddle of black muck. When he tries to understand the Dark Avengers motivations for posing as heroes, he confronts Ms. Marvel who tries to attack him, so he turns her back into stone. When Daken threatens to kill him, Owen combats his healing factor by having him be consumed by ever growing plant matter.[7]

Lastly, he pays a visit to Ares, who Owen isn’t sure if he has met in the past.[8] However, he is stuck trying to figure out what to do with these Dark Avengers. He has to let them go in some semblance of good health in a way that won’t leave him open to being found by Reed Richards. He then looks in on Bullseye, whom he has turned into water and contained in a bucket, something that has really pissed off the assassin. As the Molecule Man and his constructs revel over this, they then suggest that perhaps Owen is doing this on purpose because he secretly wants to fail. That’s when Victoria Hand arrives with her hands in the air saying that she wants to negotiate her surrender on behalf of the United States of America!

Recurring Characters

Dark Avengers (Iron Patriot, Ms. Marvel. Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ares, Sentry), Molecule Man, HAMMER (Victoria Hand), (in flashback) SHIELD (Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Sharon Carter, Valentina de la Fontaine)

Continuity Notes

1. This issue pays homage to Spider-Man #1.

2. Victoria became Deputy Director after Norman Osborn was named the new Director of National Security in Secret Invasion #8, after he killed the leader of a Skrull invasion of Earth. His first order of business was replacing SHIELD with HAMMER. This will remain the status quo until Siege #4.

3. The Sentry went kablewey last issue. As we’ll discover later, he wasn’t killed off.

4. The Molecule Man states that he got his nom de plume from Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. This is per his first appearance in Fantastic Four #20.

5. The whole situation with Gwen Stacy, particularly her being pregnant, is a complicated situation. Allow me to explain:

   • First of all, Norman Osborn had a long criminal career as the Green Goblin, which started in Amazing Spider-Man #14. An arch-nemesis of Spider-Man, and after learning that the wall-crawler was secretly Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man #39, Osborn later targeted Parker’s girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. He is responsible for her death atop the Brooklyn Bridge in Amazing Spider-Man #121.

   • Gwen being pregnant, was something was was revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #509-514. At the time, everyone was led to believe that — prior to her death, and during a period she and Peter were broken up (circa Amazing Spider-Man #61) — Gwen had an affair with Norman Osborn and became pregnant. Running off to Europe (Amazing Spider-Man #119) she allegedly gave birth to twin children in secret and that Osborn secreted them away for years.

   • However, a few years after this revelation it was later revealed that this entire thing was a massive deception created by Norman’s son, Harry Osborn, as a revenge scheme from beyond the grave. Gwen actually never had an affair with Osborn and never got pregnant. The twin children were actually created in a lab using Osborn and Stacy DNA, and false memories of the affair were implanted in the minds of Norman Osborn and Mary Jane Watson by Mysterio to sell the deceptions. See Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #73 for that big reveal.

6. Owen can relate to the Sentry because both have mental health issues and the true source of their powers remains a mystery to them. Let’s break that down:

   • Owen’s mental health issues were explained in Secret Wars II #6. He gained his powers during an accident while experimenting at an atomic plant in Fantastic Four #20. In Fantastic Four #319, it was suggested that Reece’s powers were connected to the Beyonder and that they were destined to become one as a new Cosmic Cube, an end goal orchestrated by the enigmatic Beyonders (plural). While this did temporarily come to pass (between that issue and Fantastic Four Annual #21), it was later revealed that Owen and every variant of him in the multiverse were actually created by the Beyonders as living kill switches when they decided to end all creation, as explained in New Avengers (vol. 3) #33.

   • As for the Sentry, he has a history of mental health problems as well stemming from his childhood of abuse and addiction. He had drank a formula that was an attempt at recreating the Super Soldier Serum that created Captain America. This was all detailed in Sentry #1-5, Sentry/The Void #1, New Avengers #7-10 and Sentry (vol. 2) #1-8. However, the idea that the Sentry is something more has been hinted at in Dark Avengers #2. Dark Avengers #13 will suggest that the Sentry’s dark half, the Void, has existed as early as 1600 BC. The true source of his untapped power has yet to be explored as of this writing (October, 2024).

7. When Daken threatens to kill the Molecule Man, Owen remarks that he had the same issue with his father, the real Wolverine. Reece was nearly killed by Logan in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #6.

8. Owen states that he thinks he might have met Ares before, however, as of this writing this prior meeting has yet to be depicted. It could be that Owen is mistaken.

Topical References

• Victoria Hand’s flashback in this story is stated as happening three years ago. This can be considered a factual reference given the situation. She was working at SHIELD at the same time as Nick Fury, Sharon Carter, and the Countess. The main story takes place in “Year 13” of publications (Nov 2009-Oct 2013), making the flashback as taking place during “Year 10” of publications (Nov 1997-Oct 2001), a time period where the three referenced agents were all active within SHIELD.

• Nick Fury refers to Dum Dum as a “regular Dick Tracy”. This is a comic strip that began publication in 1931. The titular character is a police detective who fights crime and with a unique recurring rogues gallery. A reference like this would usually be considered a topical reference, however, Dick Tracy would have been published when Nick Fury was growing up, as an anachronistic character whose life is prolonged by the Infinity Formula, it would not be unusual for him to reference something from the 20th Century.