I’m reading Siege and enjoying it. I like the art, I like the story, and I especially like the pace. At four issues, things are moving along nicely. With the Heroic Age set to begin in May, I was a little surprised that Siege #4 was not on the schedule for April (it’s been pushed back to May 12). Instead, Marvel is giving us a series of 5 Siege one-shots focusing on Captain America, Spider-Man, Loki, the Young Avengers and Secret Warriors. The first of these shipped last week and I really wanted to give them a chance, but I’m sorry Marvel, I’m not buying into this. I didn’t read any of these books but it’s pretty clear that at least the Captain America and Spider-Man issues are extended fight scenes and essentially filler. The Loki issue might be great since he’s the mastermind behind what’s happening in Siege and this should give some insight. I didn’t buy it on principle alone. This is not Marvel’s fault, but I know myself. If I buy one of these, I’m going to want them all. They even have interlocking covers. No, I’m out for this.

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.

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Today was supposed to be something the comic buying world had not seen for a long time (if ever), a Wednesday (or Thursday) without new comic books.  Upon first hearing that comics’ central distributor, Diamond Distribution, would not be shipping new books this week, I was admittedly sad and disappointed. That seemed to quickly change to a sense of relief in having a week to catch up and save a few dollars (what can I say it’s a weird hobby).  I’ve come to find out that there will be new books today as some publishers have decided to work around Diamond.

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Three great special issues were released by Marvel in the past two weeks, unfortunately they shipped (and I subsequently read) in perhaps the exact reverse order they were intended.  All three books are written by Brian Bendis, the architect of the upcoming Siege event and writer of the Avengers titles for several years.  The books in questions are New Avengers Annual #3, Dark Avengers Annual #1 and Siege: The Cabal.  Read them in that order, but don’t read on unless you want to know why (consider that a SPOILER warning).

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