Siege#1 REVIEW (The Marvel Event of 2010 is here!!!)

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis

Drawn by: Olivier Coipel w/ inks by Mark Morales

Price: $3.99 ("Cheap"!)

Publisher: Marvel Comics


Um just really quick nit-pick here put on the Marvel website it said that the cover was going to be cardstock, but the actual cover feels like a glossy cover (like the kind of cover Blackest Night is). I like cardstock covers a lot, so where is my cardstock cover Marvel?!?!? I haven't even started talking about the book and I'm already driving myself crazy!!! It doesn't really matter what the cover is. I like normal comic covers better instead of fancy cover crap (i.e. cardstock and glossy). Oh but then you'd be "degrading" the comic book if it doesn't have its fancy- schmancy cover... my bad...

So the book starts out with Volstagg coming to Midgard. He then tries to stop a robbery by slicing the van with the robber(s) in it which kills(?) them? The van is on fire so... yeah... I'm don't know much about Thor, but does Volstagg kill? That seems like a dumb question... anyway three super powered beings show up and take the fight to a football stadium thus causing a HUGE explosion killing thousands of people thus giving Norman Osborn and his Avengers/ friends to take siege (hah) of Asgard. Gee doesn't that concept seem familiar guys? *cough civalwar cough* So then Osborn assembles his Avengers, Ares gives a battle cry, blah blah blah blah blah. Some neat action sequences... some talking... some very nice Olivier Coipel art... Ares stands PERFECTLY balanced on a jet in mid-air... when Don Blake turns into Thor I thought that was cool with the jets flying overhead... more fighting... the Dark Avengers and the U-Foes (of all people) beat the crap out of Thor. So Thor can beat Sentry (basically Marvel's Superman) but he can't beat the U-Foes???... weird...

This is why Blackest Night is a hundred times better than Siege: Blackest Night has you emotionally connected to the characters immediately. Here in Siege...? Nope. None. I felt nothing when Thor was being pummeled and beat. I felt barely any emotional connection to any of the characters in this story. I know that sounds bad, but it's the truth. Plus Blackest Night is waaaaaaaaay more exciting than Siege. Man, I really wanted to like this comic book, but the truth is I didn't really care. One thing I did enjoy was that there was none of the usual Bendis decompression and this issue moves along nicely.

Here is the problem I'm having with this book. So after the 23-page story there is a script consisting only of dialogue called 'Ares War Plan Transcript'. It is a five page script, BUT in the transcript one page of dialogue was accidentally (most likely) printed, so that means that there is one page of the transcript missing. Marvel later released the missing page and the whole transcript as a free digital comic. But here's the thing... why not just release it as a digital comic INSTEAD OF printing it in this comic and charging people EXTRA for it, or even better: put the transcript in the book and DON'T charge extra for it. You also get a 3-page Cup O' Joe where Joe Quesada tries to convince people that this story is seven years in the making and to tell you about all this other previous stories you have to read to catch up on (We're talking 7 YEARS of story folks). Gee, isn't Marvel nice? You also get a Siege checklist. WOW! We haven't seen that before!!! It's not like we saw it in Marvel previews or on a postcard like thing that comic books shops were giving out for free or in Origins of Seige or in the new Marvel 2010 calender or on the internet or inside recent comic books! You also get a 5-page preview of Hulk#19 (which has nothing to do with Siege, btw). Who cares?!?

All in all this issue was rather disappointing. Was definitely not worth $3.99. It was like inflating a balloon y'know? You get excited and then some jerk comes along and pops the balloon thus deflating it. This event was rushed and is not seven years in the making (more like 7 days in the making) and it clearly shows. Well at least Bendis didn't do anything to piss me off like his occasional misogyny... his serious decompression... him writing my favorite characters not like themselves...

Rating: C+

I apologize for the lack of reviews/ posts on this blog. I've been kinda busy... Feel free to comment! I would greatly appreciate it! Take care everyone!