I'm hoping that this series lives up to the hype. As a huge Thor fan, I've been apprehensive to see anyone but JMS handle the character, but it seems that Bendis if not being a bonafide Thor expert, at least respects the character enough to put him in his proper place in the Marvel (Avengers) heirarchy. I also have to agree with him doing a pretty awesome Loki. To date, Loki remains one of the biggest douchebags in comicdom and I'm eager to see how his endgame pans out.
Liked it a lot. Having Sentry knock him down and then dog-piling him was a good way of taking out Thor.
Plus, the one hit from the Sentry which floored Thor followed by the one hit from Thor that floored Sentry seemed more or less reasonable.
Plus the issue was fun. The problem is, Osborne doesn't seem particularly unbeatable. Asgard, plus the armies of Avengers and other heroes, seem like they should be able to beat him. Plus, apparently, the government wants to cut him off.
I'm pretty curious as to who Osborne's secret weapon is. Of the one's shown as possibilities, two seem to be off the board: X-Man (check out "Dark X-Men"😉 and Molecule Man (last couple issues of Dark Avengers).
On second thought, Molecule Man may be a good bet.
The Sentry's defeat of Owen, I think, was not because the Sentry is actually more powerful, overall. Rather, his control over his own molecules is greater than Owen Reese's is. Molecule Man couldn't beat the Sentry because he's basically powerless against him. It's similar to, say, pre-Kyle Rayner Green Lanterns. Hal was powerless against a yellow piece of cardboard, that cardboard is certainly not more powerful than him. While MM couldn't do anything to Robert, Robert certainly couldn't match his power.
With that in mind, Osborne could conceivably force Reese to work for him.
I don't think it's either Sentry or Molecule Man.
Sentry was elsewhere in Siege: The Cabal, when Norman introduced his weapon to Doom. Plus it didn't seem to fight like the Sentry or the Void, throwing around bolts of energy.
As for MM, well he was a surprise in Dark Avengers, he was an unknown threat to Osborn and the Dark Avengers, hiding away in central America. Whereas the secret weapon has been available to Norman since the beginning of Dark Reign, when he first gathered the Cabal.
Regarding who it really is; I just don't know. Marvelman? Some unknown A-lister from years back? The real Scarlet Witch?