LOTS of talking in this issue. That’s not a bad thing, just a notable one. It’s also heavily tied into the Siege event.

Osborn makes a site visit to the Initiative compound, and in preparation, Taskmaster has to prep all the crazies who work for him, which he does, and he also has a long conversation with Constrictor about how he thinks Norm is coming to offer Taskmaster a promotion. Constrictor has apparently become a confidant for Taskmaster and a close friend. Constrictor advises him to take whatever Osborn offers him.

At the visit, Osborn is impressed enough to offer him a seat at the Cabal. This leads to an interlude that recaps the scene in the one-shot Siege: The Cabal, where Doctor Doom (as a Doombot) nearly kills Taskmaster. And then it’s the next scene, days later, where Taskmaster quits the Cabal over having been shot by Doom.

In response, Osborn threatens to kill him. So Taskmaster decides to stick with Osborn, and is told that their next mission will be to invade Asgard.

Like I said, this is heavily tied into Siege.

d a spot on the Cabal, which he graciously accepts. From there we get a recap of what happened in Siege: The Cabal where the Dr. Doom robot blasts the hell out of Taskmaster and leaves him in a pool of blood. Taskmaster awakens a few days later in a hospital bed and is greeted by Osborn. Taskmaster tells Osborn that he isn’t cut out to be a member of the Cabal, and asks to leave, which infuriates Osborn. Osborn ruptures Taskmaster’s oxygen tank and pulls a lighter, telling Taskmaster to rethink his request. Taskmaster tells Osborn he’ll remain on board, and this issue concludes with Osborn informing Taskmaster that he was going to invade Asgard.

There were a few other secondary storylines that were advanced here as well, such as the Avengers Resistance team(basically the former New Warriors)learning of Osborn’s plans to attack Asgard right before he launched his attack, Tigra continuing her one woman attack against the Hood’s goons, and Justice and Ultra Girl rekindling their romance. Needless to say, this comic was packed full of stuff, and all of it was really good! The dialogue was wonderful, I especially enjoyed the conversation between Taskmaster and Constrictor, which did a great job of showing that not all super-villains were insane, out of control lunatics, but were just trying to make ends meet(albeit in an immoral way). I’ll tell you, when this series goes to the big comic shop in the sky, I for one am going to be quite upset.