Longbox Special: Under Siege

Not too long ago I wrote up my review for the first issue of Marvel’s latest event, “Siege”. Well, I decided I would take a hand at writing a weekly bit about the books coming out that looks at the tie-ins. This past week we got installments of Dark Avengers and Dark Wolverine...

Dark Avengers #13 gives a bit of insight into the character of The Sentry. I admit to not having what one would consider a comprehensive understanding of this guy, I didn’t read any of the stuff that introduced him. What I’ve come to understand is that he’s a Superman-like character as far as his powers but has that wonderful quirk of being mentally unstable. Not only is he The Sentry but he is also his own arch-nemesis, The Void.


It is revealed that Robert “Bob” Reynolds, the guy who became The Sentry, is that he was not some innocent, bright-eyed kid who wandered into a lab and drank a serum that he shouldn’t have and gained the powers that he did. It turns out Bob was a junkie and was looking for his next high by rooting through a lab for materials. He drank a serum, got that first spike of power, and like most junkies he wanted more.


It’s also revealed that what is understood about The Void, that it’s just a darker impulses of Bob, is wrong. Apparently The Void is in some way connected to the wrath of God. The force that killed all the first-born of Egypt but spared the Israelites who marked their door with the blood of a lamb? The Void.


The thing that confuses me though is that I thought The Void had been locked up inside the mind of Scott Summers after Emma Frost had extracted it from Bob and held it in her mind by remaining in her diamond form. Hopefully this will not go unnoticed and will be further explained next issue.

Dark Wolverine #82 is my first exposure to the book since the Wolverine title was changed for “Dark Reign”. This is another situation where the character is new to me save for a small amount of exposure in the other X-books that led up to “Dark Reign”. What I know is that Daken is Wolverine’s son and that he hates his dad, of course, and seems to swing on both sides of the sexual orientation fence.


This issue raises questions about just why Daken is involved with Osborn and there’s a teasing of some kind of secret that he’s managed to keep from the H.A.M.M.E.R leader. He is also tied to the Asgardians as entities that I can only assume are a kind of Norse version of the Sisters of Fate, watch Daken from afar and comment that he is the bringer of Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse.


Daken is definitely playing his own agenda in all of this and there is what seems to be an 11th hour betrayal in the middle of the siege on Asgard. How this will all play into the bigger picture of the main story is unclear, if it will happen at all. More than likely, this will all just play into a hopeful advancement of the character that will extend past the event.


These two books were both solid background pieces on characters involved with Osborn’s plan. However, I wouldn’t consider either of them essential reading to understand the larger story, at least as far as it stands now. If you like The Sentry or Daken, you’ll certainly want to pick these up as they are solid character pieces.