Several months ago, based on the hints of Molecule Man being the big bad behind Norman Osborn's latest craziness, I picked up Dark Avengers #11. I'm a HUGE fan of Brian Michael Bendis, whether it be Sam & Twtch, Alias among other things. However, somewhere around the mid-40's issues of Ultimate Spider-Man, something changed.
His writing didn't feel the same and many stories fell into one or all of the following
categories:
- the dialoge felt the same for everyone. Peter Parker and Luke Cage should not speak the same way as Captain America and vice versa.
- what many people call "decompression" I call "stretching the story to sell a trade."
Geoff Johns has stated publicly that when writing the Avengers, he was told to make stories longer, allegedly for that very reason.
Even with this against him, I really dug Dark Avengers #11! Based on this alone, I picked up all the past issues of Dark Avengers less the Utopia crossover nonsense and dug that as well!
Was I getting back into Marvel's big events? Apparently so! SIEGE was coming! The return of Captain America, Iron Man and Thor in the Avengers! The end of Norman's run of lunacy! I was on board and excited for a Marvel event after the mess that was House of M and the delays and continuity snafus of Civil War drove me away completely.
So, what did I think of Siege #1? Well, before the story itself, there are a myriad of shipping and technical issues to address, so spoilers ahoy!:
- This story takes place before the events in Invincible Iron Man. I don't read it, so there is no explanation as to why Tony is laid up in bed being worked on by Donald Blake.
- This story ALSO takes place before the end of Captain America: Reborn, adding to the multiple list of Bendis penned issues that blow the end of Ed Brubaker's story.
- The big war room log in the back is printed wrong. The first page is re-printed on the third page. You can find the correction on Marvel's website, but c'mon guys, the event "Seven Years in the Making" MAY need a bit of closer attention.
Loki used Norman's craziness to convince him to attack Asgard (currently hovering above the mid west) due to an orchestrated event to make it look like Volstagg EDIT: thanks DJ! (one of the Warriors Three) blew up a full football stadium.
Bendis addresses in an interview on CBR here that Loki's idea is to make it seem like the events of Civil war all over again, so don't be claiming HE'S unoriginal, Loki is!
Loki then goes to Balder, who is somehow in charge of Asgard (again, I didn't read Thor so I'm not sure why Odin's not in charge) that he tried to stop Norman from attacking to no avail. Which I think is what happens in 90% of every Loki story as well. I can buy Norman falling for this, he's CRAZY! But this would be the umpteenth time the Asgardians have fallen for Loki's same exact plan.
Also, I have a bone to pick with this "Seven Years in the Making" the ads for Siege likes to make mention of. I defy anyone to draw lines of comparison to the events of House of M to not only this storyline, but any storyline! Even the head muckity muck of Marvel (which actually sounds cool to me) Joe Quesada in this issues can only draw the lines that:
- House of M is the first time Bendis has worked with Olivier Coipel
- and Scarlet Witch caused Disassembled
The "No More Mutants" garbage is just that. Mutants that lost powers have them back, there has been a New X-Men book with TONS of new characters and there some new red-headed savior mutant child floating around the pages of Cable. So yeah, "No More Mutants" my foot!
So the story itself feels a bit light and I already have the feeling to get the REAL story, you're going to have to read all the other tie-in books as well. I planned on sticking with Dark Avengers and maybe checking out New Avengers but so far, I'm having my doubts about getting back into these Marvel events.
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