Dark Avengers #16 (2010): Series Ends

This issue takes place after Siege #4 and starts with Osborn in custody, arriving at the Raft for imprisonment. Through flashbacks, we see Victoria Hand and the Dark Avengers all being rounded up, along with the HAMMER soldiers who stormed Asgard. Daken escapes, of course. This is all fairly perfunctory. The best part of the issue should have happened in Secret Warriors, which is the scene where Thor tells Phobos that his father, Ares, is dead–and gives the boy his dad’s axe and helmet. Actually, the redemption of Maria Hill is also an important and good scene. Hill is a civil servant and a patriot and, as such, following Osborn was a version of “the right thing to do.” Government employees don’t get to pick their bosses, and Osborn was appointed by the President. Steve Rogers understands this and gives her a job in his new version of SHIELD. That may feel facile to some readers, but as a person who spent most of his life serving his country–regardless of President or personal politics–I totally get it. The only disconnect here is that Steve did not express similar sentiments towards Tony Stark, who also was duly appointed as leader of SHIELD and who agreed to follow a law (the Sup...