Dark Avengers #9

Background

Norman Osborn's Avengers have returned from San Francisco for some down time.

Recently Ares learned that his son Alexander has been skipping school and is determined to find out why.

Story Details

Victoria Hand makes her way to Norman's underground "workshop". The Secretary of Defense has called her personally since Osborn is not answering his phone. She tries to convince Osborn - through the closed door - to speak to him, but he refuses. She learns that she has been denied access to his workshop. She makes an excuse that he's out on a mission and promises that he'll call the moment he returns. Moments after she leaves, Osborn makes a half-hearted attempt to ask for help.

The Bronx: Ares wakes his son Alexander and informs him to get ready for school. During breakfast a news story about the mutant riots in San Francisco are discussed. Alexander reluctantly asks his father if what they did was right. Naturally Ares responds that it was right. Alexander is not convinced by his father's overly simple response and pushes the issue, asking how he knows its right. Some people think Osborn's methods are extreme. This quickly descends into a fatherly "because I said so" argument. Ares leaves the apartment to calm down.

The television anchor continues by citing recent polls that indicate 76% approval rating for Osborn's treatment of mutants. Quake soon arrives to pick him up and take him the new location of Nick Fury's Secret Warriors. She is unaware she is being followed by Ares on his motorcycle.

They arrive at Fury Safehouse #7 in SoHo. Today's assignment involves reading intel on A.I.M. much to the dismay of the team (excluding Quake). Fury's sensors warn him of Ares' presence, but they are unable to do anything about it. Wasting little time, Ares crashes through the abandoned barbershop front and stands face to face with Fury.

Ares demands to know what is going on. Fury sends everyone else out of the room and explains that they're training to fight back against Osborn's reign. His son has inherited powers that impress the veteran solider. He tells Ares that he needs to be trained how to properly use his powers. Ares breaks down and admits he can't raise his own son. He doesn't want Alexander to go through what he did with Zeus. He would rather not have his son run away elsewhere, so he allows Fury to continue to train him.

As he leaves, Ares warns Fury that if Alexander dies in battle, Zeus will make him burn in Hades forever. For his parting shot, Fury tells Ares that his association with Osborn is a huge mistake. They pack up their gear and move to the next safehouse as this one is now compromised. Fury knows Ares won't consciously betray them, but Osborn has psychics that could pull the information out of his head.

Avengers Tower: Bullseye, Venom III, Daken, and Moonstone sit down to breakfast. Daken is telling them the story of how he cut off one of Deadpool's hands.

The Sentry's tower: Sentry arrives and is met by his wife Lindy aiming a confiscated weapon from Noh Varr at him. She confesses she can't take this anymore. He's out of his mind and won't let her leave. She fires and hits him directly in the face. The Sentry falls to the ground, energy escaping from his ruined face.

Elsewhere, the door to Norman's workshop slowly opens.

General Comments

Ok, in this issue we are shown three things. Ares' son has been recruited by Nick Fury as part of the resistance against Norman Osborn. Osborn doesn't want to come out of his special place. And Lindy has serious domestic issues with Sentry.

The bulk of the issue focused on Ares, which turned out to be basically nothing. Ares wanted to find out why Alex was skipping school so he followed him to Fury's hideout. He understood that Alexander needed to find his own path as he did. He respects Fury enough to essentially give him custody of his son. This filled 16 pages. I think they could have done it and had the same impact in 8. Classic case of backseat writer, but there you have it.

Overall Rating

3 webs. Only two things of interest occur in this issue. Ares allows his son to join the resistance even though he associates with their enemy. And Lindy shot Sentry in the face with a space bazooka.

It was a decent read but when you break it down, not too much happened. Deodato's work is impeccable but this issue was missing the depth that the series showed prior to the Utopia crossover.

Footnote

Daken's story about cutting off Deadpool's hand occurred in Wolverine: Origins #24. Don't worry he regrew it.