Longbox Special: Under Siege

Last week, Marvel gave me a break by not putting out any Siege stuff and this week they went easy on me again by just putting out the one book to talk about.  So without further ado, let’s get back to it...

This week, we return to The Sentry with Dark Avengers #14, but not until we get to see Norman Osborn and Victoria Hand have it out a bit.  They get into a debate about Osborn talking with a psychotherapist and Ms. Hand winning out.  This was one of my favorite parts about this book just because Bendis handles the exchange skillfully and also manages to make me feel sympathetic for Osborn.  The whole scene portrays him as a real man who, while certainly working his own agenda, has more complicated things going on inside his head.  Hand is presented as a person who not only thinks that Osborn has done some good work but who is also compassionate towards his history and situation and doesn’t want to see him fall into being a super-villain again.

Following another great scene with Hand putting her foot down with Moonstone (Osborn’s Ms. Marvel), we pick up where last issue left off with The Void preparing to level the world as a way to punish Robert Reynolds and his wife Lindy, who tried to kill him fearing where things were going.  Osborn suits up and takes off to have a chat with Sentry’s alter ego/nemesis in an attempt to talk him down.  This is another great scene, mainly because of the juxtaposition with the previous discussion Osborn had with Hand.  If anything, this is a manifestation of Hand’s fear of Osborn becoming the Green Goblin again and losing everything.  Having finally talked things out, Osborn begins to put things in motion to solve what he sees as the big problem with Sentry... Lindy.

This week’s tie in material really doesn’t move forward the events in Asgard in that they take place three days before.  However, this book does seem to be presenting the method by which Osborn gains the level of control over Sentry that he exhibits in the main book.  There’s also a lot of development with Hand and Osborn’s professional relationship and I’m really interested in seeing if Hand has an agenda of her own in all of this.