After the Skrull's Secret Invasion failed, the Dark Reign began. Norman Osborn made the kill shot against the Skrull Queen on national TV and was trumpeted as a hero. The government, blaming Iron Man for the Skrull takeover of StarkTech, gave Osborn near unlimited power, and the Dark Avengers were born.
Osborn used the group as his personal hit squad, working to de-legitimize the heroes who had spent years thwarting his plans. While the team did some good, it was still a group of villains controlled by a deeply disturbed man. He would resurrect the team once more, but there would be no pretenses of heroism in the second group. This list is going to look at some of the worst things the team did.
11 Norman Osborn's List
Norman Osborn wasn't a man to forget a slight, and when he gained power, he was going to make sure everyone who had stood against him paid for what they did. He made a list and used the tremendous powers at his disposal to persecute those who had always stood against him.
Targeting the remnants of the Avengers, the X-Men, Nick Fury's Secret Warriors, and others, Osborn used both the Dark Avengers and H.A.M.M.E.R. to strike against his foes. Osborn wasn't about to allow his enemies any peace.
10 Killing The Punisher
The Punisher has never been that much of a hero, but Osborn knew how dangerous he was. Frank Castle was not only an ex-Marine, but his years of crime-fighting had given him many skills, skills he could use to make Osborn's reign much shorter. Punisher was once able to sneak into the Baxter Building undetected by Mr. Fantastic. Osborn wasn't about to leave things to chance with him.
He sent Daken, Wolverine's son, and the team's version the mutant, after the Punisher. The two fought a brutal battle, but in the end, Punisher just couldn't stand up to Daken. Daken cut him to pieces... literally.
9 Driving The Avengers Into Hiding
After the Secret Invasion, Osborn's team and anyone he sanctioned became the only superhumans who could legally practice heroism. This drove many underground, but many of them had already been there because of the Superhuman Registration Act. However, with Osborn in control, things were a little more drastic.
The New Avengers, led by Luke Cage, were already underground, but the members of Iron Man's Mighty Avengers were also driven into hiding, leaving the safety of the world in the hands of a group of mad men and women.
8 Rebuilding Ragnarok
Ragnarok is the Thor clone/cyborg created by Iron Man and Mister Fantastic during the superhero civil war. It was vastly powerful and was quite deadly, killing Bill Foster, Giant Man, in its first mission. It was only used once more in the civil war, during the final battle, where it was felled by Hercules.
In his second stint with the Dark Avengers, Osborn had his allies in A.I.M. rebuild the murderous cyborg, and it joins the team. Luckily, Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Iron Fist are able to take it down before it could do too much damage this time, but Osborn took a big chance of rebuilding it in the first place.
7 Attacking The X-Men
The X-Men were having a hard time during the Dark Reign. With less than 200 mutants in the world, they had taken refuge in San Francisco. After an attack on them by Sentinels from the future looking to destroy Hope Summers before she could grow up, anti-mutant riots rocked the city, and Osborn and his Avengers came in to quell the riots and put mutants in their place.
Osborn formed his own team of X-Men and the opposing sides clashed. The whole thing backfired on Osborn, though, as the X-Men were able to repel his invasion and gain a new home by taking over the island of Alcatraz and renaming it Utopia.
6 Feeding Venom
During the Dark Reign, the Venom symbiote was bonded to Mac Gargan, the former Scorpion. For whatever reason, the symbiote and Gargan didn't gel nearly as well as Brock, and the symbiote did. The pairing was more bestial, and Gargan lost himself on many occasions while he was a member of the Thunderbolts.
After the Secret Invasion, H.A.M.M.E.R. inherited a lot of Skrull prisoners of war, and they disposed of them by feeding them to Venom. One could argue that they were too dangerous to be kept, but then again, they were prisoners and also some of the last of their race.
5 Unleashing Bullseye
Bullseye is one of the most dangerous non-powered human beings on the planet. He can kill anyone with nearly anything and is a frighteningly proficient hand to hand combatant. Osborn saw the potential in having him around and allowed him to take the guise of Hawkeye on his team.
Allowing Bullseye any kind of freedom is a very bad thing for everyone involved. Bullseye has no morals and lives for the rush of killing. He enjoys violence and loves to mentally torture his victims. While he wasn't exactly Osborn's biggest secret weapon, Bullseye was easily the second most dangerous member of the team.
4 Killing Lindy Reynolds
When Osborn took over Avengers Tower, he basically inherited the Sentry and his wife, Lindy. Osborn cultivated a relationship with the Sentry, trying to get on the hero's good side so he could manipulate the mega-powerful being into helping him. It mostly worked, but Osborn felt that the Sentry's wife was holding him back. So, he called on Bullseye.
A fake evacuation order of Avengers Tower was sounded, and Bullseye offered to fly her away in a helicopter. On the trip, he torments her verbally before finally strangling her and dumping her body in the ocean. When the Sentry asks what happened to her, Bullseye lies and says she committed suicide.
3 Unleashing The Void
The Void is the dark side of the Sentry, and it's the being that Osborn really wanted control of. However, Osborn never really understood what he was playing with. His manipulation of the Sentry was kind of easy. Bob Reynolds wasn't exactly a mental titan, but a damaged man who could be led by the nose by the right person. The Void, though, was a different story.
Osborn would use the Void when things were at their worst for the team, and this gave the Void tastes of power and freedom it hadn't had in a long time. Once Bullseye killed Lindy, the Void was basically in charge of the Sentry from then on.
2 Killing Ares
Ares was the Greek God Of War. A long-time villain who fought the likes of Thor and Hercules, he joined Iron Man's Mighty Avengers team after the superhero civil war and served the team. After the Secret Invasion, he would stay on with Osborn's team, hoping to keep the group of villains on the up and up.
During the Siege Of Asgard (more on that in the next entry), Ares finally realizes that Osborn has been lying to him the whole time and doesn't care about anything other than his personal power. As he prepares to kill Osborn, he is confronted by the Sentry. The two battle, but with the combined powers of the Sentry and the Void are just too much for him. The Sentry is able to rip him in half.
1 The Siege Of Asgard
Loki, desiring Asgard for himself, manipulates Osborn and his Avengers into attacking the now Earthbound realm. What follows is a series of bloody battles as Osborn, his Avengers, and members of the Initiative, all villains recruited by the Red Hood, attack the city. They are able to take down Thor, and when Ares realizes the error of what he's been doing, he's killed as well.
The real Avengers finally assemble and are able to break the Siege, but not before having to battle the Void at full power. While it spelled the end of his power trip, it was a costly one for all involved.