Dark Avengers #12
Credits[1]
The Dark Avengers — Iron Patriot (Norman Osborn), Ms. Marvel (Karla Sofen), Hawkeye (actually Bullseye in disguise), Spider-Man (Mac Gargan and the Venom symbiote posing as the web-head), Wolverine (really his son Daken), Ares, and the Sentry (Bob Reynolds) — have come to Dinosaur, Colorado to save the population from the Molecule Man (Owen Reece). However, the powerful Reece uses his ability to rearrange molecules to place them constrain them.
For Norman Osborn, it is being force to live his worst nightmares. In particular, he is forced to live a scenario where he — as the Green Goblin — is being terrorized by his arch-nemesis, Spider-Man.[2]
As Norman is living this nightmare, his second-in-command, Victoria Hand, has come to the Molecule Man to negotiate surrender on behalf of the United States of America. This comes to a shock to Owen, as there is a HAMMER helicarrier in the horizon. Victoria explains that nobody wants to fight him because he is too powerful, the Avengers were all they had and he took them out within moments, hence the surrender. The Molecule Man consults the constructs of the Beyonder, Mephisto, Zarathos and the Enchantress for advice. However, none of them can reach a consensus on if they should trust the Hand woman or not. Victoria then asks why Owen chose Dinosaur as his domain and he tells her he was born here.[3] As he uses his power to strip away her combat armor, she explains that the government will leave him alone if he restores the Avengers and releases them along with the 44 other people he has captured for passing through town.
As the Molecule Man confers with his “court”, back at the local high school, the Sentry reforms his body in great agony. When the process is complete his eyes are as black as ink and they are angry.
Meanwhile, the Molecule Man takes Victoria to Norman Osborn who is still incapacitated after Owen rearranged the molecules in his mind. When Hand tells Reese to revive him, he says he already undid the damage done and now its up to Norman to pull himself out of the trap he has found himself in. That’s when the Sentry strikes the Molecule Man with lightning and ambushes him. As Victoria tries to revive Norman Osborn, the Molecule Man blows the Sentry apart. However, Bob reforms his body, and explains that he discovered that his powers allow him to manipulate molecules as well. Owen Reese finds himself now facing someone with powers equal to his own and doesn’t like it one bit. Seeing the fight, the HAMMER helicarrier deploys fighter planes to intercept, but Owen is quickly able to deflect them.
Back on the ground, Victoria tries to send orders to stand down, but Reese is jamming her communications. Norman finally comes around and orders everyone to retreat. However, their loss quickly turns around when the Sentry overpowers the Molecule Man and threatens to destroy him unless he restores everything back to normal. However, after Owen does as he is told, the Sentry disintegrates him.[4]
In the aftermath of the battle, the Sentry returns to the Dark Avengers and tells them that he has finally learned the truth about his powers. Norman and Ms. Marvel express their concerns over Bob’s mental health and they convince him to start seeing Karla for psychiatrically help. Much to their surprise, the Sentry agrees and flies back to his home. One he is gone, Ms. Marvel warns Norman that the Sentry is a big enough problem that he’ll make the Scarlet Witch seem like nothing.[5]
Later, back at Avengers Tower, Victoria finds her boss in Tony Stark’s Iron Man vault again. She gets him to come out as she has concerns about his mental health on top of her concerns with the Sentry. Surprisingly, Norman agrees and tells Victoria to arrange it and commends her for guts to confront him like this. Osborn then returns to the lab where he suddenly collapses to the floor. He then claws at his face, wondering why this face won’t come off. As Osborn’s dueling personalities war with one another, he is unaware that Loki is standing over him.[6]
Recurring Characters
Dark Avengers (Iron Patriot, Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ares, Sentry), Molecule Man, Loki, HAMMER (Victoria Hand)
Continuity Notes
The cover to this issue pays homage to Avengers #314.
The opening splash page here pays homage to the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #39. Osborn operated one and off as the Green Goblin starting in Amazing Spider-Man #14 and primarily fought Spider-Man.
Owen Reece states here that he was born in Dinosaur, Colorado. However, this contradicts Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #7, Deluxe Edition #9, Master Edition #31, and A to Z #7. All of these sources state that he was born in Brooklyn, New York. For more on this see below.
The Molecule Man isn’t dead, just scattered to the four winds. He is reformed by Doctor Doom in New Avengers (vol. 3) #27.
Around the time of this story, the Scarlet Witch had went mad on two different occasions. The first, she decimated the OG Avengers as seen in Avengers #500-503. Not long after that, she temporarily altered reality into one where mutants were the dominant species. After she was forced to change everything back, she de-powered most of the world’s mutants, as seen in House of M #1-8. This will remain the status quo until Avengers vs X-Men #12.
As per Amazing Spider-Man #40, Norman Osborn was driven insane when his original Goblin Formula blew up in his face. He has had a tenuous grasp on his sanity ever since but had been undergoing regular treatment since Thunderbolts #110. However, he has been slowly pushed over the edge so his Green Goblin persona comes out, as revealed in Siege: Prologue #1.
Where was the Molecule Man Born?
As I stated above, the Molecule Man stating that he was born in Dinosaur, Colorado, conflicts with previous references which all state he was born in Brooklyn. The only publication that seems to verify Dinosaur as his place of birth, is Marvel Fact Files #107. However, this is a licensed publication put out by Eaglemoss Productions. Third party publishers have, in the past, have been proven incorrect because they are doing their research with unreliable sources.
Case in point, Marvel Fact Files #107 was published sometime in mid to late 2015. At the time, the only resource available that stated Dinosaur as his place of birth (other than this issue) was the profile I did for the Molecule Man over on the Garbage Database in October, 2014. I don’t think it is unfair to assume that Fact Files cribbed their information from my profile due to the volume in which they were pumping out material on a bi-weekly basis. I would not be surprised if they pulled from that wiki as other third party guidebook publishers (looking at you DK, cribbing my TRN creation and passing it off as your own work), have done this in the past.
At the time, I accepted the statement made in this issue at face value with out considering all the available evidence.
A decade of research later, I don’t stand by my original work as it wasn’t as thoroughly vetted. I think the assertion is questionable as best. As of this writing (October, 2024), there has been no official clarification on the matter from Marvel specifically. Unless there is some verification in another official source (be it in a handbook, or in story), then one cannot merely toss out one answer in favor of the other. Particularly when you consider how Owen Reece has a history of mental instability that is rife through his entire career, and is very prominent during this story arc. One could argue that Owen’s believe that he was born in Dinosaur is due to some kind of delusion tied into his mental health status at the time.
