Marvel’s Siege of Asgard

Posted by ptb under *like, Comics |

Yesterday saw the much anticipated release of Marvel’s Siege #1. Advertised as “seven years in the making” (some of which is quickly recapped here), Siege promises to be the culmination of a large portion of Marvel history from 2004’s Avengers Disassembled through the current Dark Reign of Norman Osborn. All of the major series published over that time including House of M, Civil War, and Secret Invasion are touched on and a special edition of Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada’s Cup o’ Joe column is even included in the book to get everyone up to speed on the groundwork that’s been laid for this story.

Loki, the Norse god of mischief, has convinced Norman Osborn that Asgard, currently floating over Oklahoma, is a threat to Osborn’s power. They’ve even gone so far as to fabricate an incident, reminiscent of the one that precipitated the superhero Civil War, to push their agenda forward giving Osborn an excuse to attack. As Osborn’s forces go on the offensive, a threat no single hero could stand against is clearly presented. All the while, we see the heart and soul of the Avengers – Thor, Iron Man and Captain America – begin to take their places in the conflict, with the central story elements harkening back to what first brought the Avengers together decades ago. The Avengers’ “Big Three” have not stood side-by-side in years (due to some of them being dead at different points) and it’s incredibly exciting to seem them set to converge.

Combining the talents of writer Brian Bendis and artist Oliver Coipel, who first worked together on House of M, is once again brilliant. The story is engaging and beautiful, promising to be a fun ride at an efficient four issues. The only thing remotely bad about it was a printing error in some of the backup material where a block of text appeared twice on consecutive pages. Marvel quickly acted to make up for the mistake by making the material available free from their website. Unfortunately that doesn’t make the book everyone paid for right, but it’s minor in light of the quality of the primary material in the book.

Does it live up to the hype? It’s certainly a good start. The story is solid and I really liked the presentation of the book (glossy cover and meaningful back-up material). I’ve been reading all of the events leading up to this book, but I think most will find it very accessible. If you’re interested, check out the Siege trailer. Marvel has also made some of the prologue material from last week’s Origins of Siege available through their website as well as the first seven pages of Siege #1. Siege opened strong and really looks to be something special. Pick one up at a comic shop near you.

UPDATE: Also, watch your step for SPOILERS in the comments section.

Tags: Avengers, Brian Bendis, comic books, Dark Reign, House of M, Marvel, Oliver Coipel, Siege

Kevinmld said,

Except when it doesn’t make any sense. I just want to scream out spoilers… But the bottom line is this story builds in part off of a Captain America special that came out a few weeks ago that in turn builds off of a mini-series that hasn’t even finished being published yet due to delays.

Luckily the Captain America special spells out the ending of that mini-series clearly to the point that I think anyone who read the special and goes on to purchase the rest of the miniseries is basically a rube. The special ends with “to be continued in Siege #1…” only for Siege #1 to completely ignore the ending of that special.

Stupid Marvel. I never learn. I guess that makes me the rube.
ptb said,

Kevin, we can certainly talk about the books out there if you want to. I’ve held off reading “Who Will Wield the Shield?” because I was waiting for Reborn 6 (call me a rube), but I’ll have it spoiled for me for the sake of discussion.

SPOILERS follow after this post.
Kevinmld said,

So I won’t spoil all of what Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield reveals about the end of the Captain America: Reborn series (hint: EVERYTHING). But the basic idea is Steve Rogers is the original Captain America and has been believed dead for the last few years, but was really unstuck in time; reliving moments of his life over and over. Rogers before returning to his body actually gets a glimpse of the future that convinces him that he must give up being Captain America or he will cause the death of his former sidekick Bucky (also the current Captain America).

As a result, Rogers decides to ask Bucky to stay on as Captain America and Bucky reluctantly agrees to do so.

Steve then sets up a secret meeting with the President of the United States to let him know that he will not be returning to action… Maybe ever. The President responds mysteriously that he has a “strange feeling” that this country is going to need to call on him for something much bigger than being Captain America. Duhn duhn duuuuh. “To be continued in SIEGE! where sure enough we find Steve Rogers in costume ready for action. Unless his new role is to be this crazy old retired superhero who still hangs out in his old costume at all times, but does nothing but whine about the new kids who are stomping on his lawn… which might actually be all kinds of awesome.

Anyway, WWWTS was important enough to rush out before the ending of the series that preceded it… But not important enough to be considered in the one that follows… SIEGE!
ptb said,

That sucks, but all of the scheduling around Reborn has sucked. The New Avengers and Dark Avengers Annuals that came out last month were both set after Reborn and revealed that Steve Rogers was back.

In NA, he was clearly meeting the team for the first time after his resurrection and was in costume. In DA, he was seen with Bucky at the end of the issue watching Marvel Boy. Bucky was in costume as Captain America, and Steve was wearing something similar to an old SHIELD uniform.

Could it just be for identification purposes that he’s in costume at the end of Siege? He’s only on one panel. It may have been done to clarify who the blonde guy watching TV was.
Kevinmld said,

Who cares? In that case they think we’re idiots. They could have just shown the shield hanging on the wall or something. Maybe he’s the crazy evil Cap from the fifties.
Jay said,

Just read SIEGE from [administrative deletion]. I thought it was killer except they pulled out for the best part of the book. How’s Thor getting pwned going to be a bird’s eye view? Unless next issue’s plan is to open on the brutality…

As for the Cap stuff… Not really that bent. I haven’t gotten to Cap: Reborn or Shield Wield but was there ever any doubt? Is there EVER? Steve’s going to be Cap again and he’s always going to be Cap. It does kinda stink when the books drop out of order, especially when there’s still an element of surprise– but one thing’s got nothing to do with the other. Like DC doesn’t drop books like that, Kev? Didn’t they just show their action figures, months before their story dropped?

For this Cap shit, we’re all just on the ride, not the ending. Bucky-Cap turned out so awesome and was so unlikely, it’s the baby with the bathwater if they went through with getting rid of him, now. Think they get rid of Bat-Dick when that shit is through?