Siege # 1
Brian Michael Bendis (w), Olivier Coipel (p), Mark Morales (i) Laura Martin (c). Marvel Comics.
Hey, remember Civil War, when Marvel was so public about the plot of the thing (even showing off the opening in previews) that by the time the first issue came out it was devoid of surprises? Well here we go again. I really don’t know what was supposed to grab my attention here. Was it the story? There’s nothing to see here that hasn’t been shown to us in every Marvel comic for a month. Was it the characterization? I’ve been reading (and enjoying) Dark Avengers for a year now and have seen plenty of Norman’s crazy, thanks. Was it the ending? Yeah… that’s not really anything. The brief intro to the fight scene was kinda cool, but an intro to a fight scene isn’t really anything to hang your hat on. I have high hopes for this event, but I think that this first issue was a misfire. The last thing I should be doing after the first issue of a major event is saying “yep, that’s exactly how I thought it would go.” – Owen Craig
Owen’s rating: 2.5 out of 5
I have to agree with Owen that this issue was pretty disappointing. Everything they said was going to happen happened, and nothing more. And because I had already read the first six pages of this story in preview form, the issue is only about 16 pages of new material. And that’s pretty light for an opening issue. There is a neat little transcript that becomes, essentially, a “deleted scene” from the comic, but there’s a terrible production mistake that just shows no one bothered to look at the soft proofs from the printer. That’s pretty embarrassing, guys and girls. [Note: I saw an interview where Bendis said it was a "printer mistake" and that "no one at Marvel screwed up" which is possible. But isn't it more fun to blame Marvel?] But, you know, it’s nicely drawn and stuff is happening, which is good. I just wish it was stuff I didn’t know about. — Miles Baker
Miles’ rating: 3 out of 5
Okay, not to start out on the negative here, but I’ve really enjoyed my recent “not buying Bendis comics” kick. I just don’t like how he voices characters. I also don’t like that the pretense for kicking off a war with Asgard is basically a rerun of the start of Civil War. I enjoy the art a lot though. But look, beyond the story there is a sort of back up feature including a necessary run down of the past seven years at Marvel courtesy of Joe Quesada (regarding the New Avengers “But what a team, huh?! Spider-Man AND Wolverine as Avengers?” Yes, Joe, surely you are a marketing genius.), pure dialogue between the Dark Avengers concerning how dumb it is to start a war with Asgard (a very good point), a page of which repeated itself (at least in my copy) which isn’t impressive, and finally a preview of the upcoming Fall of the Hulks storyline. I don’t care for any of these as backup materials; it just seems to me like a cynical slipshod way of getting us to pay for advertisements to other Marvel books. Not happy with it. – Isaac Mills
Isaac’s rating: 2.5 out of 5
The epic battle of Midgard and Asgard has begun. The mighty heroes of both worlds clash in a battle that has been seven years in the making. I’m just excited to see that the course I took in Indo-European myth will come in handy now. To be quite honest, my experience with Bendis’ work is limited, but I’m starting to see what the raving is all about. This issue sets the pace and sets up a solid stage for the events to come. However, what really seems to take the cake is the work done by Coipel, Morales, and Martin. The art is pretty fantastic. My only issue with it is that Loki, Ares, and Osborn all seem to have the same face. I mean, they could switch wardrobes and with some tailoring, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them. — Sandra Yao
Sandra’s Rating: 4 out of 5
Isaac, the opening of this issue is supposed to be like the opening of Civil War. Loki and Osborn are trying to create the same kind of event to get the American people on board with Osborn’s invasion of Asgard. They even named checked Stamford when they were coming up with the plan, so it is intentional and logical if you ask me.
I’m with Isaac, Miles. I get that it’s meant to recreate Civil War. I understand what Bendis is doing, but devoting 6 pages of your opening issue to a recreation of something we’ve already seen didn’t impress me. It would’ve made a really neat scene for that free preview issue we got a couple of weeks ago, but for a quarter of a 4-dollar opening to a major event it was a letdown. It’s pretty representative of my problem with this opening: we’ve seen everything here before. Bendis had better come out swinging with issue 2, because so far I’m not impressed.
Looks like I’m the only one who actually liked the issue. Probably more with the fact that I didn’t know much about any of it until reading it. I only read the preview issue after reading Siege.
whew, yup, Owen’s got my back.
I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m really pleased we were all basically on the same wavelength for this book (it’s cool Sandra, the art was pretty rockin’)
am I crazy to think this should have been a dollar?
But you couldn’t have had that event happen off-panel. And it lays in the groundwork for the Loki/Norman dynamic.
Yeah, super nerds like Owen, Isaac and myself already know these things, but that scene is for people like Sandra who are new to the story.
Getting that done in 6 pages is pretty decent. I think the book was thin too — but that scene wasn’t the problem, the pacing wasn’t the problem — it just needed more pages.
it’s true super nerds like us have an unfair, some might say super human, advantage in knowing about the stories that came before, but beyond that it just seems like they’re undercutting their own ability to sell civil way in trade format later by telling what can be a very similar story.
UNLESS they’re making the most subtle and awesome commentary about reader turnover, you know, how they’d tell the same story like 7 or so years later because they figure by then the guys reading comics were a whole new crop of readers. That kind of play on comics history is more a DC move, but I’d be really impressed if they could convince me that’s what they were going for.
I maintain that the biggest problem with the book doesn’t fall on Bendis, but falls on Marvel as a company. Running the intro to the book in almost every Marvel comic for a month ruined the surprise of the opening for us. Having Steve Rogers show up in 3 other comics last month ruined the ending moment. All this left us was an extended fight scene that, honestly, we knew was coming. Bravo.