Siege (comics)

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Olivier Coipel
Collects: Siege: The Cabal, Siege Prologue, Siege #1-4, Avengers: The Way Things Are

I make no bones about the fact that I kind of hate Marvels events. I crap all over them at every opportunity and for good reason. Most of them are terrible. The worst part being that they even drag down writers who are normally excellent. Modern Marvel events are, frankly, the pits.

So, it's kind of shocking to me that I found one I got some genuine enjoyment out of.

Norman Osborn - the big swinging dick in the US military after the inexplicable climax of Secret Invasion - decides that he doesn't like the fact that Asgard is on earth. When the President informs him that he's nuts for wanting to take on a bunch of Norse Gods, Norman decides he's going to go ahead and do it anyways. So, he and the Dark Avengers start their attack and it's going surprisingly well until a bunch of the real Avengers show up. A bunch of Thors friends show up to help him. Who could have EVER seen that coming? Norman's insane, sure, but come on.

It seems like every big event Bendis does is the "culmination of everything he's done on Avengers", but this is the one that comes closest to doing exactly that. Siege is the little bow on top of numerous plots Bendis has played with over the course of his long run on the Avengers books, from things that were there in the beginning such as the Sentry to more recent developments like Dark Reign and the Superhero Registration Act (Mark Miller instigated it, sure, but Bendis is the one who played with it the most). If you want to be cynical about it, this is the Marvel Universe finally moving back to a more manageable status quo, but we could do worse than getting a decent event comic out of it.

This event is the exact opposite of Bendis' usual style of decompression. At four issues, it doesn't waste any time. The war on Asgard is incited in the first, it plays out over the next two and the final obstacle is dealt with in the fourth. As such, Bendis gets straight to the point, putting in all of the little moments that were frankly long overdue. Without a padded number of issues, it finishes before it's worn out its welcome*.

The end result is a feeling that things of consequence are actually happening. One of the problems with Secret Invasion - the previous event Bendis handled -  is that it was about eighty percent filler. We'd waste entire issues on interludes with our heroes twiddling their thumbs in the Savage Land or a crashed ship full of "abducted heroes" that ended up being nothing more than a glorified fakeout. Whereas in Siege it doesn't feel like there are a string of wasted moments. Most every scene matters.

Barring a bit of tiring hyperviolence**, there isn't much wrong with the event. It's not the most exciting, gotta-get-all-the-tie-ins thing going, but the fact that I enjoyed it is significant. I didn't necessarily think it was great, but I admit that it may partly be due to my detachment with the linewide plots over at Marvel. A lack of investment kills some of the power of a book like this, because it really relies on how invested you are in the ongoing saga of the Marvel universe. Since I don't give much of a crap about the heroes going underground, who is in charge or whatever, it doesn't mean as much to me. I just stick with the books I like.

One other note; the presence of Olivier Coipel on art is welcome. It feels like there's a nice visual bridge from the Thor ongoing to this event due to his work on that book. Considering Asgard is a major part of this event, that's a handy thing to have in the plus column.

The Score: 7.5 out of 10

Pretty good work all around. If you are heavily invested in the ongoing saga of the Marvel universe, you'll get even more out of it than I did. I think if you're going to check out an event from Marvel, this is probably the one to go with. Or you could just give it a look if you're in the mood for a flashy superhero punch up with gods, bright spandex and clashes of epic proportions. You could do worse.

* This is a lesson that Marvel - geniuses that they are - promptly forgot two seconds later. The next event they did had eight issues. The one after that will clock in at a staggering twelve issues of two teams punching each other. Amazing how they learn nothing. Even more amazing is that people buy into it.

** I'm not one of those guys who thinks gore and heavy violence has no business in superhero comics, but I don't see any reason we needed to have someone ripped in half on panel in full view, complete with organs flying everywhere. Worse still, the trick isn't working anymore. What should have been shocking didn't even make me flinch. Comics ought to pull back for a while, because it feels like they've gone down this road for so long that it's old hat. Scenes like that should garner some kind of reaction.

Siege: Dark Avengers (comics)

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Mike Deodato, Chris Bachalo
Collects: Dark Avengers #13-16, Dark Avengers Annual #1

I am not a fan of the Sentry. At all. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I'm not a fan of Superman analogues in general, unless they're particularly well done. But the Sentry in general grates on my last nerve for multiple reasons.

Why is this relevant? Because this collection essentially focuses on The Sentry more than it does the titular team of "Dark Avengers".

Before the main Siege tie-in, we have the Bendis penned annual. In this, we catch up with Marvel Boy, whom Bendis sets up for the future, digging into his thoughts and his worries. It's illustrated by Chris Bachalo.

In general, I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure how accurate it is to whatever the character was like before Bendis used him, but he's likable here and to me that's what matters. Overall, aside from the tangential tie of what Marvel Boy was doing after he bolted from Osborns team, it doesn't have a lot to do with that book or the rest of the volumes contents. It doesn't matter, though, because it's a well written, enjoyable one-off, which is what more annuals should be.

Then there's the main arc, which focuses on the aforementioned Sentry. The character sucks, frankly. It's one thing when you look at his original purpose in his original miniseries. The problems started when he was brought into the regular Marvel Universe proper. There are a lot of reasons he sucks, but the big thing is that he's so powerful - the power of a million exploding suns or something - he not only doesn't really fit into Marvel all that well, but he presents a lot of problems for a narrative.

Some of Marvels biggest stories involved some big threats the heroes - essentially the underdogs - had to outwit and overcome. The Sentry presents a problem in that he's so friggin powerful a major event or the like either boils down to him swooping in to save the day or him having a really bad day and deciding to stay in his room. His insanity is typically used as a crutch to solve the dilemma of his power - oh my god I'm so powerful should I get involved in this fight oh no the Void waaaaah - which is a necessary measure to preserve some measure of suspense and in short, the character becomes very annoying very fast.

This tie-in and Siege in general end up being sort of a last hurrah for The Sentry, so Bendis takes the oppourtunity to dick around with some things and pull the trigger on Sentry losing his mind. The result is easily the most interesting story Sentry's been in for a while. Actually, barring the original miniseries and Age of the Sentry, it's probably the only interesting story he's ever been in.

Bendis sets up Sentry for his fall by essentially twisting what we know about him. Think "everything you know is wrong", only with a dude with the power of a god. Through his wife, we find that The Sentry was never really the paragon of virtue we thought he was. In fact, he started out nothing more than a thief and a junkie who got lucky when he was looking for a fix. Or was it really luck? The formula that made him the Sentry came with its downsides and lurking beneath the shiny surface lay a bunch of lies and deceit.

Is it the most interesting read this year? Not really. But it's more interesting than the typical Sentry centerpiece.

It's all essentially a lead-in to Siege, setting up the big moment near the end of that event. In that way, it adds a measure of depth to the event. Sure, it's not really required - given the characters history, it's no surprise when he loses his nut in Siege whether you've read this or not - but it gives you more of the hows and the whys of it all. So, in all, it stands as a pretty effective tie-in, enhancing the event without being necessary to understand it. Mark Millar - who penned Civil War - could take a few notes.

The last issue of Dark Avengers stands as an epilogue, not just for Dark Avengers and Siege, but for Dark Reign as a whole. Obviously, the heroes won the day - because geez, what else was going to happen? - so this wraps up Osborns reign and sets up the next step. Some expected things happen, a few aren't quite so obvious. Here we see Steve Rogers - who's to follow Osborn as the seemingly omnipresent man in charge as Osborn did to Stark before him - beginning his moves to bring things back.

Osborn, for his part, tries to justify everything to himself and tries to justify his vendetta against the heroes. We see the Green Goblin - or, to be literal, himself - to be his greatest enemy, fumbling everything he worked to achieve. Does he have a point or two buried in his madness? Maybe. But he's still the guy who dresses up in a goblin suit and throws pumpkin bombs at people. The fact that he was put in power to start with makes the people in charge look moronic.

The actual Dark Avengers issues are pencilled by Deadato. Do I need to tell you how good he is? His work is realistic, maybe even a bit darker and grimier. Look, I'm no art critic. But I know good work when I see it. Deadato's style definitely suits this story, one that wipes away the shiny finish and the pain on the Sentry to reveal the rust and rot below. All I can say is that when you go to read this book, you can rest assured it's going to look pretty. Just the names Chris Bachalo and Mike Deadato will tell you that much.

The Score: 7.5 out of 10

It's no slam dunk, must read comic book. It is what it is; a tie-in to a Marvel event. But it's still a pretty respectable one, especially considering the focus is the Sentry. I've read better tie-ins, but I've read worse ones as well. I'd say this is one of the few tie-ins worth your time if you decided you just got to have some supplemental material for Siege. It actually adds a thing or two to the proceedings.

Seige: X-Men (comics)

Writers: Daniel Way, Marjorie Liu, Kieron Gillen
Artists: Giuseppe Camuncoli, Niko Henrichon
Collects: Dark Wolverine #82-84, New Mutants #11, Siege: Storming Asgard - Heroes and Villains

So, from the long, not so proud tradition of useless tie-ins comes Siege: X-Men, a volume as pointless as the name is misleading. That whole X-Men thing? Might want to ignore it. This volume has only tangential ties to the X franchise, with only one issue of the four collected having anything to do with them. It should have been labeled a Dark Wolverine volume, but then I doubt anyone would have bought it.

So, three issues of Dark Wolverine in here; this is in some ways my introduction to Wolverines son Daken. Not exactly the best one. The whole of the "story" is that Daken dicks around Asgard for three issues while the siege occurs, occasionally finding some chicks of fate trying to lead him to bringing about Ragnarok. That's pretty much it.

Such could be an interesting story, but here's the thing; absolutely nothing happens in the course of these three issues. Nothing. We just see Daken douching it up, getting blown up occasionally, making team-mates uncomfortable and having occasional visions of the future from the fate chicks that lead nowhere and carry no consequence. This three issue tie-in isn't even an actual story; absolutely nothing of consequence happens, Daken is in the same place he started in at the end - because, you know, any instance where something goes badly for him turns out to be a vision of the possible future - and I couldn't discern any ongoing storyline for the character - other than the fact that he's just a prick and at some point he needs to get his comeuppance - so I don't even think it serves to advance anything at all.

As for Daken himself, I'm not sure what to think of him as a leading man. He is a douchebag of the highest caliber and if he has any redeeming qualities, I sure as hell didn't see them. When friggin Bullseye seems the sanest person around - to the point where he's the only one of the two of them even remotely concerned about the wellfare of the men under their command - something is seriously wrong. There isn't even any personal plot I can see to get attached to; apparently he's positioning everyone for a backstabbing, but other than occasionally mumbling about wanting to be a god we don't get a sense of what he wants to accomplish and how he plans to do it. I'm not adverse to villain centric comics at all, but I at least expect them to have a general idea of where the hell they're going, which this volume gave no indication of.

I'm left completely unsure of whether I even want to give the Dark Wolverine series the most remote of shots in trade. That might seem harsh to some, but consider this. The whole point of a tie-in is not to tell a great story within the framework of an event. That's what we want out of them - and certainly the comic companies would prefer we get them, since it's better for them in the long run - but a tie-in to an ongoing is usually to boost sales. They're hoping that someone, maybe looking for more action related to the ongoing event, will pick up a tie-in to a series they wouldn't spare a glance at otherwise, like what they see, get invested in the characters ongoing plots and stay on board.

As a tie-in, the Dark Wolverine issues fail on even the most basic levels; and it doesn't deliver on any others either. The art is the sole saving grace. As seems usual for me lately, I'm not familiar with Camuncoli, but the work speaks for itself. It's a bit... looser, for lack of a better word, than I'm used to, but the facial expressions are quite nice and some interesting use of panels can be found. This is the only good thing I can say about these issues, other than some decent dialogue and the fact that it's not an unreadable mess.

The only other actual comic collected is the New Mutants issue and it's the only thing in the book with the most remote tie to the X-Men. It doesn't deal with the whole team, though; only Dani Moonstar. It picks up on a plot point from a previous X-Men tale, where Dani made a deal with Hela - of Norse mythologies Hel - to get the power of a Valkyrie for a day, as per Cyclops plan. But bargains with creatures like Hela never come without a price and now the favor is being called in. Amidst the Siege, the fallen cannot move on to their afterlife, so Dani is trusted to be their guide. This doesn't go as planned, because of course Dani would rather save lives first before tending to those already dead.

It's a relatively solid one issue tie - a hell of a lot better than Dark Wolverine - with some really nice art. Niko Henrichon's style seems at home in the sort of granduer of Norse mythology, enough so that I might be interested in seeing it on a Thor book itself. The work seems to lack some heavy inking, which combined with the style gives it an interesting look I'm not sure I've seen too often outside of some work associated with the Fables franchise over at DC's Veritigo imprint.

Still, it's one good issue out of four; and good as it is, it's not worth picking up this volume alone; I'd sooner go out and get the back issue of it and I really don't deal in single issues much.

The only other thing collected is one of those books that gives out bios for important characters in a coming story. Marvel puts these out every once in a while, usually whenever an event is scheduled to hit. I guess they're Marvel's version of Secret Files. An okay read - one that does a fair job of getting you caught up on recent events with the main players - but it's of more use to people who want to read Siege itself. What's it's doing here, I haven't a clue. Best guess is that it was thrown in to pad out the volume, because for an X-Men tie-in volume the X-Men had jack all to do with Siege, so there wasn't much else to collect.

The Score: 5.5 out of 10

Put a wide berth between this volume and you. The only reason I even gave it a score this high is because I liked the New Mutants issue and the art was pretty good. But most of the volume fails as a tie-in, it fails as a story and it fails to do anything. It's not worth getting at all. Save your money and leave this trade on the shelf.