So, the Dark Reign one-shot has been released and a few things have been explained.
The one-shot shows what happened just prior to and just after the meeting scene in Secret Invasion #8. Emma Frost has a nightmare, apparently about Kitty Pryde, before receiving a request from a Thunderbolts agent asking her to attend the meeting.
- Osborn points out that they are all deposed kings or leaders. They have lost what is theirs. He offers them a chance to get that back. All he wants is the credit for keeping them under control.
- To Doctor Doom he offers extradition back to Latveria. No charges for the Symbiote attack. He'll claim that Tony Stark was infected with a Skrull virus when Doom was arrested. Doom will get Latveria back.
- To Namor, he says he knows about the disorganised Atlantean sleeper cells all over America. He will leave them alone.
- To Emma Frost, he recognises her as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club and as a leader amongst the X-Men. He expects her people to register, but they will be left alone, free from the constant harassment they have suffered since M Day. There are plans afoot to move every remaining mutant to a concentration camp in Canada. That stops if she signs up. Plus he feels having a psychic around would keep everyone honest.
- To Loki he promises that her efforts to seize control of Asgard will be not be interfered with, and that it will be returned to the heavens where it belongs.
- To The Hood he insists that all of his people register and go legit publicly but once they do they get a free ride. They don't have to pay anything to him. As long as they don't do anything he can't publicly pardon they get a free pass on anything they do. He'll call them the Wisconsin Avengers or whatever they like, but as long as they don't touch a government facility they will walk for life.
- All he wants is for them to hit what he tells them to hit, but they won't have any problem with what he asks them to. If they try to betray him or each other, however, then his "friend" - a shadowy figure standing behind a door - will make them sorry.
- He promises that neither the Avengers, who will be dealt with within a week nor Tony Stark will be a problem at all.
- Once the meeting is over, only Doom and Namor remain. Continuing their new alliance from the recent Sub-Mariner miniseries, Doom says that they will go along with Osborn but when he destroys himself then Doom will get the land and Namor will get the seas. And if Osborn doesn't destroy himself then they should prepare for a battle the likes of which this dimension has never seen.
- Back at Thunderbolts mountain, Swordsman confronts Osborn, threatening to go public with all of Osborn's dirty secrets if he doesn't get the out he was promised. Osborn goes in to a psychotic rage, taking von Strucker's sword and running him through before pushing him off the mountain.
The one-shot shows what happened just prior to and just after the meeting scene in Secret Invasion #8. Emma Frost has a nightmare, apparently about Kitty Pryde, before receiving a request from a Thunderbolts agent asking her to attend the meeting.
- Osborn points out that they are all deposed kings or leaders. They have lost what is theirs. He offers them a chance to get that back. All he wants is the credit for keeping them under control.
- To Doctor Doom he offers extradition back to Latveria. No charges for the Symbiote attack. He'll claim that Tony Stark was infected with a Skrull virus when Doom was arrested. Doom will get Latveria back.
- To Namor, he says he knows about the disorganised Atlantean sleeper cells all over America. He will leave them alone.
- To Emma Frost, he recognises her as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club and as a leader amongst the X-Men. He expects her people to register, but they will be left alone, free from the constant harassment they have suffered since M Day. There are plans afoot to move every remaining mutant to a concentration camp in Canada. That stops if she signs up. Plus he feels having a psychic around would keep everyone honest.
- To Loki he promises that her efforts to seize control of Asgard will be not be interfered with, and that it will be returned to the heavens where it belongs.
- To The Hood he insists that all of his people register and go legit publicly but once they do they get a free ride. They don't have to pay anything to him. As long as they don't do anything he can't publicly pardon they get a free pass on anything they do. He'll call them the Wisconsin Avengers or whatever they like, but as long as they don't touch a government facility they will walk for life.
- All he wants is for them to hit what he tells them to hit, but they won't have any problem with what he asks them to. If they try to betray him or each other, however, then his "friend" - a shadowy figure standing behind a door - will make them sorry.
- He promises that neither the Avengers, who will be dealt with within a week nor Tony Stark will be a problem at all.
- Once the meeting is over, only Doom and Namor remain. Continuing their new alliance from the recent Sub-Mariner miniseries, Doom says that they will go along with Osborn but when he destroys himself then Doom will get the land and Namor will get the seas. And if Osborn doesn't destroy himself then they should prepare for a battle the likes of which this dimension has never seen.
- Back at Thunderbolts mountain, Swordsman confronts Osborn, threatening to go public with all of Osborn's dirty secrets if he doesn't get the out he was promised. Osborn goes in to a psychotic rage, taking von Strucker's sword and running him through before pushing him off the mountain.