Siege #4 Review
Siege #4 marks the end of one of the most satisfying events from Marvel in some time. When it began, I questioned if this series was going to do the exact same thing that Secret Invasion and Civil War did – force us to have to continue reading just to get to the end of the full story. Each of the previously mentioned stories didn’t have an ending that really left much of a lasting impression with anyone. We had to wait for the true end of Civil War until Captain America #25 when Steve Rogers was “assassinated”. And for Secret Invasion, the end was quick and left much to be desired – Osborn points gun at Skrull Queen and pulls the trigger.
Siege #4
Brian Michael Bendis did something else with Siege. Claiming this was the culmination of seven years of plotting and planning, it would have been embarrassing if his early work with the Avengers turned out to be truly awful on an epic scale or if this story didn’t really have a conclusion. But thankfully, it did. Spoilers on the way…
This final chapter opens with the Sentry, who has been taken over by his darker Void personality, literally killing the heroes assembled in the ruins of Asgard. Loki, knowing what the Sentry is capable of and what he is doing, prays for forgiveness from Odin as he uses the Norn Stones he took back from the Hood to give the heroes the power they need to withstand the Sentry’s power. The Sentry realizes this is Loki’s doing and attacks the God of Mischief. Thor and Iron Man rush to Loki’s aid, but is too late. Loki is torn apart.
While Captain America tries to get answers from Osborn, an enraged Thor takes on the Sentry again. Iron Man takes control of the heavily damaged H.A.M.M.E.R. helicarrier and uses it to knock the Sentry out of the sky, reverting him back to Robert Reynolds. Reynolds begs the heroes to kill him and Thor refuses, but as the Void reasserts itself over Reynolds, Thor delivers a killing blow. The Watchtower disappears from the roof of Avengers Tower and Thor takes Reynolds’ body to space and throws him into the sun.
Steve Rogers drops Osborn off with the other captured villains and makes the others promise that everyone will be persecuted by a jury and locked away forever for what they’ve done. Rogers then is summoned by the President and installed as the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. The heroes celebrate the overturning of the Superhuman Registration Act as all the Avengers assemble on top of Avengers Tower. Thor arrives with the most well-known Asgardians to deliver a gift to help everyone remember the sacrifice and honor they all displayed in fighting alongside them – a piece of Asgard that takes the place of the Watchtower on top of the Avengers’ building.
And so, the Heroic Age begins…
A lot of readers will likely say, “Hey… This wasn’t so great. We knew how it was going to end and nothing was left to really knock our socks off.” I have to admit that the only real surprise was who delivered the final blow of the battle. But sometimes it isn’t the shock and surprise that makes a story great. We’ve seen the ads for months about the Heroic Age. We knew this was Osborn’s curtain call for the Dark Reign. We knew the Sentry would have to die.
All that said, knowing what we knew to be how this was going to end, I really have to tip my cap to Bendis for actually bringing something to a close in a solid manner. Yes, as I mentioned before, most Marvel events only act as a piece of a puzzle and that has detracted so much from the stories they tell, but I think this is a different story. Siege is how the heroes were able to move beyond the dark times they were put in over the past decade or so and come together to do what they should be doing. They put aside their differences to make the world right again. This is a stepping stone for the Heroic Age, but it’s a true end to the past seven years of troubling times.
Olivier Coipel’s art is a little more subtle in this issue than the others. The previous issues had bombastic art to go hand-in-hand with the battle. This one was the resolution piece, but his art still captures the tone of what is going on. Agony, sadness, anger, happiness… It’s here and the portrayal of it shows how strong Coipel is in all artistic areas. He can tell the big heart-pounding story and the joyous conclusion, even if not everyone survived it.
All-in-all, I’m not disappointed one bit. Siege lived up to everything it was advertised to be.
I want to know what you think of this issue. Did I hit the nail on the head or are my praises undeserved? Write a comment and tell me what you felt!
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| From start to finish, Siege did what it said it would do… Bring the heroes back to make the world a better place. Art and story were top-notch for all four issues. | I expected to see a few more deaths based on the solicits, but I can hardly be upset about the outcome. |
| Rating |
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6 Comments
I have to disagree. This was the most pathetic issue by far, with too many bombastic statements and heroic posing detracting from what could otherwise be a non stop action fest, albeit one with proper suspense. This entire story felt staged. There was no menace at all from the Void or even the hint that he might win. Out of nowhere come the stones…oops, the Void does creepy speak, and off go the stones and we are back to..where? The only good thing was Iron Man and the Bullet…and even that was done without truly showing what the nature of his powers – in otherwords his control over technology, are. Way back, I read an Iron Man comic where he takes on Namor, and says something cheesy like “The power of a 1000 transistors now flows through me”,nobody else will ever know this…but the thing was that it didnt sound cheesy when combined with the art work. It literally flowed. The battle was epic. This fight between Void and the “heroes” was anything but epic. It appeared sad – with Captain America’s shield going whizzz…and Thor hitting him with lightning with Thor talk in between…but it just didnt flow together….there simply did not seem to be any sense of menace. And the last “hero pose” with Cap and the revised Avengers – gimme a break. I know comics are an escape from reality, but it again, seemed just too cheesy. All in all, out of 10, I would give this issue a 3 for being heavily underwhelming.
i 100% agree with you this issue was really disappointing siege and the second half of dark reign were rushed sentry stories and were poorly executed with norman all of a sudden wanting to destroy asgard sentry getting ultra powerful just to get smacked down with a lightning bolt talk about anti climatic
I have to agree. I don’t know what’s going on with all these reviewers ignoring all the faults of this issue alone and rating it higher than it should be. There’s some type of large disconnect going on. And why the heck did Bendis not even explain why Norman randomly had his face painted like Green Goblin (to the point where his hair was purple in last issue). I thought that was supposed to be a plot point… silly me for expecting things to be expanded upon.
I have to agree this issue was a disappointment. Bendis has built up the Void to be this invincible threat. Bob had a completely broken will before SIEGE even began. Loki set this whole thing up. Yet Loki regrets it somehow. Loki who came out of nowhere and hadn’t even been in the event befor hand. If you didn’t reat the Loki one-shot or Thor you would not have a clue as to what he is doing in Asgard. The Void spends the entire issue floating there not attacking at all. Thor’s lightning is completely ineffective against the Void one moment. But all of a sudden later it is effective? The Void is able to withstand anything thrown at before and simply reform, but a helicarrier crashing into it is meant to somehow knock him back into Reynolds state? I wonder what some official reviewers are thinking.
For an event that I didn’t care for at all, but thought I would love before I read it, this issue was decent. I think that much of the reason why this issue didn’t bother me stems from the fact that I knew what was going to happen before I read it, most of us did. Ok, so I didn’t think that Loki would die, since there aren’t very many good villains in the Marvel Universe (and he happens to be one of the better villains). Also, I guessed that Phobos would kill Sentry, and was wrong. That said, they basically spoiled the event by releasing Mighty Avengers and New Avengers two weeks ago, as well as releasing the “Fallen” one-shot teaser on the net. It was quite easy to guess that Sentry was the one that was going to die from the blacked out image. To show Sentry dead (along with the title) on the cover and release it the same day as the conclusion to the event, which contains the death of the character, is just silly. Fallen should have come out next week. I love how they put a “read after Siege #4″ on the first page of Fallen, as if it’s not obvious. C’mon, Marvel.
I’m jazzed about the Heroic Age, hopefully we’ll get some Avengers stories that are much different from the ones we’ve grown used to reading.
Siege #4 was OK to me. Mainly because I don’t expect a lot out of comics anymore. I am not an avid collector. I don’t follow any particuler title, even though I am a big Thor and Avengers fan. I’ve been reading comics since the middle 70″ and I am disgusted with the plight of comics. It bothers me when someone says comics are “TOO CHESSY”. What’s wrong with that? These are super heroes and fictional characters. THEY ARE NOT REAL!!!!. And, I don’t need them to be real. I have my real life and real world. Comics are entertainment and a escape from reality and that is all they are to me. I do not need to be intellectially challenged by a damn comic book. But that’s what has happened to comics today. Mostly everyone wants them to look and be realistic. I don’t. I want the action and adventure form the late 60′s, 70′s, and early 80′s. I can’t stand this mess that’s out there now. I can’t stand the rough and unfinish art. The characters are also drawn like real people in which they look like nerds. I don’t like that. I miss the days when the characters were drawn larger than life. Hell, I miss the classic art. I would have never thought that everyone would view classic art as cartoonish. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! That’s because most of the fans can’t think for themselves, as in all industries. The companies dictate what is the latest trends and most people jump on board. I can think for myself and I refuse to buy this mess. So since I don’t expect much, I liked Siege #4 because it did allow Thor to kill Sentry. Which, Sentry should have nver been created in the first place. Thor was created originally to Marvel’s answer to Superman. Thor could/should have been given Sentry/Superman like abilties from the start like the Hanna Barbara character ‘The Mighty Mightor”. Mightor had Superman like powers and a magic club. The difference was that Mightor performed Superman like feats without the magic club. Marvel years later, realized that they wanted a character with Superman like abilties and created Sentry. I love Stan Lee, but he fumble the ball. At the beginning, Thor did perform some Superman feats and did demonstrate Superman like abilities like superbreath. But, they were written out of the book. So, Siege #4 was OK to me because, AGAIN, I don’t expect much from comics anyway.