Norman Osborn becomes the Infraggable Krunk

[flint_marko]

It's revealed in a flashback that Monica Rappaccini gave Norman the powers of the Super-Adaptoid.

In the present, Norman copies the powers of the Red Hulk and hulks out. He battles the Avengers until Quake causes an earthquake in the center of his heart.









Cap later says that Osborn is in a deep coma, his brain is fried, "and his body, well, he has no one to blame but himself."

There's also a mention of having the new Dark Avengers (who were defeated in New Avengers #23, which hasn't come out yet) joining the Thunderbolts Initiative, which is possibly connected to Thunderbolts being renamed Dark Avengers with #175.

Comments

[mrstatham]

To be honest, as much as I'm glad Bendis' tenure on Avengers is finally winding down (and he's still putting out great stuff like Scarlet and Takio), I really like what Bendis pushed for with Osborn. He really elevated him to become a huge threat to every hero, and that is a rare, rare kind of development for a guy who started out as just one character's arch-nemesis.

But I really liked it. This story might've squandered what the amazing Osborn mini set up, but at the same time, I think Bendis realises the need for Norman to be put on ice for a little while. The scope of Dark Reign, Siege, and now this have really made him too big to touch, at least for a while, IMO.

[benuben]

Most of the character development was done in Thunderbolts, Bendis just got him into the right place.

Anyway, I loved the idea of Norman Osborn being this kind of threat and I still kind of do, but I have huge problems with execution. Most importantly: I don't buy it. I don't someone like this could be such threat.

I can understand putting Norman on ice (instead of letting some writer finally use him in Spider-Man story), but he could atleast make him go down with bang. If this is the only way he knows, then he sure as hell should not be main Norman Osborn writer.

[lultam]

Don't get me wrong, Ellis's Thunderbolts definitely did a lot of the ground work but Dark Avengers really cemented Norman as one of the big bads in the MU.

[jlbarnett]

personally that's the kind of development I dislike. Especially since at some point he'll be back to going one on one with his original hero, which will no longer make sense.

[mrstatham]

Well, that won't be Bendis' fault. Comics are cyclical, after all. I just think it's nice when someone pushes for some kind of development. Otherwise we wouldn't even have the whole cyclical nature of comics and they'd just go nowhere.