Comic Book Crossovers Part 3: Dark Reign, Utopia, Siege

When we last left, Norman Osborn killed the Skrull Queen and stopped the Skrull invasion. It was literally the shot heard around the world. Since Tony Stark let this invasion happen under his nose, the government thought his reign as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a complete failure. The U.S. government put Norman Osborn (You know, the Green Goblin) in charge of the nation's security. So...what now?

Dark Reign:

Norman Osborn's first order of business was to put together a small group of ruthless people to help him stay in power. So Osborn gets Emma Frost of the X-Men, ruler of Latveria Victor von Doom, current kingpin of super crime The Hood, The God of Mischief and Thor's brother Loki, and the King of Atlantis King Namor to sit in as his cabal. Norman tells them that he jus wants to be able to call on them when needed and that they will all receive the same from him. But if any of them get out of line, he has a way of handling them. A shadowy figure steps out and intimidates this group of tough individuals. The meeting adjourned and Dr. Doom and Namor stayed for a second and said that their plan will still go on. Doom stated that Osbron will lose it and go crazy like he always does and when that happens, Namor will get the land and he will get the sea. If not, then Doom said the planet will see a battle the likes it has never witnessed.

Dark Avengers:

Next step, he needed to transform his loyal Thunderbolt members (Bullseye, Moonstone, Venom) into something the public would accept. So he turned them into Avengers. Bullseye turned to Hawkeye, Moonstone to Ms. Marvel, and Venom into Spider-Man. Ares and Sentry stayed on the team, Marvel Boy joined (but later left when he realized the team was full of psychopaths and villains) and Norman recruited Wolverine's son Daken to dress as his dad. And what did Norman do? He got a guy named Ghost to get into Ironman's room full of his armor and Norman Osborn became the Iron Patriot and he would lead his team of Avengers into battle.

X-Men v.s. Dark Avengers and Dark X-Men:

So Norman Osborn was in charge and he had an idea of a few things that needed to be taken care of immediately. He made a hit list. Get rid of Spider-Man, kill the Punisher (which happened), arrest Luke Cage's Avengers, and maybe his top priority was dealing with the mutant issue. Norman brought in Emma Frost to keep the situation under control so he wouldn't look like a tyrant when he went in and dealt with it. But when riots break out in San Francisco, Norman Osborn has to step in. So Norman puts his own X-Men team together with Emma Frost as their leader. Daken, Cloak and Dagger, Mimic, and Omega. Emma then brings in Namor to round the team out. Norman goes on the local news with Professor Xavier by his side and explains that he is just here to help. But that wasn't Xavier. It was Mystique in disguise. Professor Xavier was locked away in a prison with Beast (who was captured after the first riot) and being experimented on to try and find a humane was to take away the mutant prisoners powers without pain. Too bad the Dr. Experimenting on them is torture aficionado The Dark Beast (Hank McCoy from the Age of Apocalypse. Evil Beast).

A week and some change goes by and Cyclops finally puts his plan into action after his science team finished their job. Cyclops sends X-Force (His team of his best killers and trackers. Wolverine, X-23, Domino, Archangel, and Warpath) to break into where Osborn was holding all the mutants prisoner. They make short work of Omega and Dark Beast and then Emma's team comes in. Just when odds looked bad, Emma and Namor take out Mimic and Daken. Emma, Namor, and Cloak and Dagger were working for Cyclops the whole time. After they escaped to Asteroid M that his science team raised from the ocean, Cyclops told the world that since people didn't want mutants in their country, he decided to leave and whatever happens next wasn't their responsibility. Norman Osborn and both his teams went on to attack the X-Men.

Osborn flew his team to the X-Men's new home and Cyclops sent non combatants away from the top. First, Osborn sent out Hawkeye. Cyclops realized it was Bullseye and immediately had Archangel take him away from the fight since he posed the biggest threat. X-23 would go after Daken and Wolverine went after Omega. Then the big guns. Sentry, Venom, Ares, and Norman the Iron Patriot. Cyclops being the leader he is planned for all of this. Namor kept Sentry busy while Emma and Professor Xavier got into his mind and sent him scared of himself and running into space. Moonstar borrowed the powers of Hela and became a Valkyrie once again and took Ares down. Colossus would handle Venom. Mimic was taken out by Iceman and the Young X-Men and Dark Beast was dealt with by Cyclops' science team who were more than happy to dish out some revenge for their friend Beast. While all this is going on, Iron Patriot is beating Cyclops down. Ms. Marvel tells Osborn that they can win without killing them all. Osborn tells her to go ahead, but she tells him no one gets away with genocide on TV. Osborn turns around and sees that all this was being recorded live. Cyclops smiles and tells him that he told him to surrender. Osborn and his teams leave tucked with their tails between their legs. This was Osborn's first big defeat since his rise to power.

Osborn would later go on TV and spin this into a win saying that he and his team of heroes drove the evil mutants away. Cyclops didn't seem to care. His people were safe on their island and they had a place to call their own.

Changes:

From this, The X-Men found their own home on Utopia. Because Beast felt like Cyclops just left him to be tortured, Beast left the X-Men. Emma had a slither of the Void in her head for a little while leaving her cold and emotionless in her diamond form for a short time. Namor joined the X-men.

Siege:
It was time for Norman Osborn to give Loki what he wanted. Loki wanted Asgard back in the heavens, but it wasn't as easy as it sounds and it doesn't sound easy at all. First, they needed a reason to invade Asgard. Something to sell to the government. So Loki and Osborn found decided to use Volstagg of Asgard as their pawn. Volstagg would attempt to thwart the U-Foes from attacking him and inadvertently killed a stadium full of people in Soldier's Field. SO now Norman had his reason for attacking Asgard. While Norman is making a plan, he consults with Ares (the literal God of War) for a plan. Ares refuses because the gods are his people. Norman lies to Ares and says that Loki is in charge of Asgard and that Balder and Thor had been kicked out. Ares sat for a second and told Norman that he would "Rip your head off. Armor and all.". So Ares gave a speech to H.A.M.M.E.R., The Hood's Gang, and Norman's Avengers to get them prepared for the battle at hand and it was off to Asgard.

Before Osborn and his people could arrive, Loki warned Balder that Osborn was coming and Balder prepared his forces. Meanwhile, Donald Blake (Thor's human form) working in Broxton (a few miles away from Asgard). Once he realized Asgard was being attacked, Thor immediately went to defend his home even if he was banned from entering Asgard ever again. Thor fought off the Sentry and then was immediately ganged up on by Iron Patriot and about ten other super powered beings. Osborn than put Thor under arrest. Watching Live was Captain America who was not going to stand for this. Cap immediately put his team back together (Luke Cage's Avengers, Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors minus Ares' son Phobos, and the Young Avengers) and made their way to Asgard in Fury's teleporting plane.

While Cap is getting his team together and making his way to Asgard, Ares is fighting Balder and explaining why he brought this fight to him and the people of Asgard. Heimdall appears and tells Ares that he is being used by Osborn and has fallen victim to Loki's games. Ares was not happy. Meanwhile, former commander of S.H.I.E.L.D. Maria Hill helped Thor escape Osbron and his team's clutches. Just as Osborn is about to go after, Ares jump Osborn and tells him what he said he was going to do. Norman than sicks Sentry on him. Sentry was no longer the Golden Guardian of Good. He was now his evil alter ego The Void. Ares put up a decent fight, but in the end, The Void was just too powerful and Sentry ripped the God of War in half. Osbron ordered Daken to track Thor and as soon as Daken tracks him down, Thor greets him with a giant lightning bolt and tells Osborn that he will never surrender. Osbron sends Sentry after him, but is immediately hit in the face with Captain America's shield. The heroes have arrived.

The good guys take the fight to them and take control in every way possible. Even when Osborn calls in more reinforcement, the heroes still keep control. Eventually Ironman shows up in his old armor and takes control of his old armor and reveals that Osbron is wearing Green Goblin face paint under the mask. Osbron orders Sentry to stop fight Thor and destroy Asgard. With a few well-placed strikes, Sentry takes down Asgard and completely turn into the Void and starts to take out everybody. Friend or foe.

Loki didn't realize that that letting loose Sentry would cause so much destruction and felt bad that he caused all of this. So he took the Norn Stones power away from The Hood and gave it to the heroes. The heroes would do all they could, but eventually the Void realized it was Loki's power that was aiding the heroes and then ripped him in half (Sentry has a thing and sticks with it). All looked hopeless, but in a rage over the death of his brother Thor went at The Void and began attacking Loki with his second wind. Iron Man had Thor get Void to the open field and when that happened, Ironman used his control over machines to turn the H.A.M.M.E.R. helicarrier into a bullet and The Void returned to his human for Robert Reynolds. After finding out that he caused all of this, Robert asked them to kill him. The Avengers refused and he turned into the Void once again and Thor had no choice but to kill him. Thor would take Robert Reynolds' bones to the sun and let them burn there.

After everything was said and done, the president asked Steve Rogers to take over as top cop, but Rogers would only do it if he would overturn the Super Hero Registration Act. He got rid of the bill and heroes could be heroes again.

Changes:

Everything went back to normal. Heroes could be heroes again the way they wanted. While that stayed the same, a bunch of things changed. Luke Cage became head of the Thunderbolts program giving villains a chance to reform. Steve Rogers wouldn't dawn the Captain America uniform anymore and Bucky kept the mantle. Luke still ran the Avengers, but he could pick his own team and wasn't under Cap's thumb. He even got ownership of the old Avenger's mansion. Also, young heroes were forced to train. That was the one thing it seemed that was something that had to stay the same.