This is it! Seven years in the making- the shining achievement of comics! This is what we have been promised with Siege by Marvel Comics, the end of seven years of craziness that has been thrown at us from the begining of Avengers Disassembled through Dark Reign. A moment of grand design and, in one issue, the faith and the excitement I had built up over the years was decimated, to the point that right now, the only thing I'm hoping for is that we don't get the Beyonder coming in and snaping his fingers, making everything better (it's Bendis so that is always a possibility).
Let's start with the story, or better description, the multiple starts of different plotlines. First, the short set-up to everything, the same preview set-up we have seen in EVERY Marvel book for the past month or so, with only one new detail added and it's one that most everyone knew would happen (By the way I try very hard not to give spoilers, at least on the more recent items). Next cut to a scene with Norman and Ares, rush through that and then cut to a scene with Norman and the "Avengers", again cut from that to the President, from that cut to Asgard, cut to Sentry, cut to Thor and random villans fighting, cut to end...THE END! This book runs 20 actual story pages, not counting ads or the things in the back, and in all actuality NOTHING happens. Sure, we get the set-ups for the on going story, and it looks like there will be a lot going on, but just because something is busy doesn't mean that anything gets done. Right now I'll pick up issue two but I don't have high hopes for this series.
Now lets take a look at the good part of the book, the art. This is a very beautiful book, the characters stand out, there is no real wasted space on any of the pages, the two full page scenes are well drawn and detailed. It's a shame that Coipel doesn't have much story to show us. All the characters stand out, and you can tell who is who. For the most part. Mark Morales does some very nice inks and helps give the art a breath of life you don't see very often in books. The colors are in tune with the settings, never too bright or too dark. This will be a very pretty book if this is the team for the whole series, and is definitely a mark in the "win"catagory for this book. If only the writer gave these obviously talented artist something more to create, then this would have been a full "win."
Overall, this is just a "meh," great art, minimum story, high expectations. It's almost like Marvel of the last 7 years is trying to be Image Comics of the 1990's. I just hope Siege brings a decent end to all the events, without alienating all the new fans they have built.
I'm Gnome, this is my tale.
