Dark Reign
Post-Secret Invasion (2008), Norman Osborn is made the head of all government superheroes, "officially" disbanding the Thunderbolts and setting up his own team of Avengers made up of former team members. He assembles an off-the-books black-ops team to perform missions that are considered too sensitive or gritty for his team to carry out. This iteration would end with issue #143.
Members
Ant-Man III / Black Ant
Alter Ego: Eric O'Grady
First Appearance: The Irredeemable Ant-Man #1
Black Widow
Alter Ego: Yelena Belova/Natasha Romanova
First Appearance: Inhumans #5/Tales of Suspense #52
Ghost
Alter Ego: "John Morley"
First Appearance: Iron Man Vol. 1, #219
Headsman
Alter Ego: Cleavon Twain
First Appearance: Untold Tales of Spider-Man #8
Headsman was a employee of Norman Osborn. After successive failed attempts at defeating a certain wall-crawling superhero, he joined Norman Osborn's black ops Thunderbolts team.
- Boom, Headshot!: Killed this way by the Scourge when he had an hypnotic suggestion triggered to kill Norman Osborn. Scourge shot through a hologram and hit him instead.
- In the Hood: Has an executioner's hood that also comes with a mask that hides his face.
- Punny Name: Cleavon Twain = "cleave in twain," which translates to "cut in half"
- Purple Is Powerful: Wears a purple hood.
- Redeeming Replacement: His brother Cody Twain intended to become one for his brother; sadly it never came to be.
Paladin
Alter Ego: Paul Dennis (alias)
First Appearance: Daredevil Vol. 1, #150
A benevolent and honorable mercenary. Paladin has frequently fought alongside superheroes against some of his dubious employers.
- Badass Normal: No apparent powers, only lots of skill and training.
- Cool Shades: His helmet usually has red tinted shades.
- Mysterious Past: Nobody knows about Paladin's early life, not even his real name.
- Noble Demon: He might be a mercenary, but he prefers to use non-lethal weapons and he's rather honorable most of the time. He even turned on Norman Osborn's agenda during Siege.
- Only in It for the Money: Always. Paladin's side is whoever's bankrolling him. Osborn just happens to pay money.
- Purple Is Powerful: His default outfit has purple in it.
Mister X
First Appearance: Wolverine Vol. 1, #159
An assassin and serial killer, Mister X is notably dangerous because he possesses low-level telepathic abilities that allow him to read his opponents' minds in combat and predict their moves accordingly.- Berserk Button: Mister X hates being deprived of a kill or defeated, which is the main reason for his vendetta against Wolverine, the one foe he literally cannot defeat in combat as Wolverine either lets himself go berserk to negate X's advantage or relies on his Healing Factor rather than actually fighting X.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Mister X relies in combat on the fact that he can read people's minds and tell what they're about to do. Oh, and the fact that he's a kung fu master, but it's his ability to predict moves that gives him the edge he needs. The problem with Mr. X's ability is that it only lets him read his opponent's mind, but not to understand it. Wolverine manages to beat him by flying into a rage that he can't process, Amadeus Cho thinks in formulas and Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness to confuse him, Iron Fist uses unpredictable Drunken Boxing, Songbird hits him with an undodgeable area attack, and Quicksilver just moves and thinks too fast for him to keep up (while mocking Mr. X about how he'll know every attack is coming but be unable to do a damn thing about it). Scourge and Deadpool also give him a hard time by virtue of being insane. Basically, after his first couple of arcs, his role in the Marvel Universe is to be a whipping boy so that more popular characters can show off their guile.
- Crippling Overspecialization: X's reliance on his telepathy means that he can be defeated if facing an opponent who doesn't think, such as Wolverine provoking himself into a berserker state of mind.
- For the Evulz: Mister X has taken on various contract assassinations just because he likes killing people.
- Logical Weakness: In addition to aforementioned overspecialization, his telepathy also has two other drawbacks — he can read the minds of his enemies, but he's still got the reaction times of a human (which had him on the receiving end of a sound thrashing by Quicksilver), and he also has to be able to understand the thoughts he's reading, so if they belong to someone smarter than him, like Amadeus Cho... there's not a thing he can really do.
- Sinister Shades: He's almost never seen without a pair.
- Tattooed Crook: His body is covered in tattoos.
- Weak, but Skilled: While a skilled fighter, Mister X is physically only human, with the result that he was defeated by Quicksilver because Pietro moves too fast for Mister X to counter him.
- Would Hurt a Child: Mister X once tried to lure Wolverine in to fight him by taking a kindergarten class hostage.