Marvel’s “Siege” Storyline (also known as “the reason I keep going back to the comic shop”)

23Apr10

I’ve been doing my best to get onboard with the SIEGE storyline crossing over into all of the Marvel comics. And trust me when I say it hasn’t been easy. I mean it requires going back back back to the CIVIL WAR storyline, which I read a couple of issues of, but nothing from specific character driven comics, like Spider-man or X-men. I think I just picked up the one where Spider-man outs himself. And then CIVIL WAR segued into the SECRET INVASION of the Skrulls, which really threw me off but has me excited to read (I’ve always found the Skrulls to be interesting).

And now we have Norman Osborn trying to take over Asgard. Talk about “high concept ideas”. I would have never thought of this storyline and am greatly impressed with the amazing scope Marvel has developed in their storytelling during my absence from the medium. These events are truly affecting the characters AND the Marvel Universe as a whole.

Now some would argue that the entire re-vamp of Spider-man was a clear sign that Marvel still tends to write themselves into a corner and comes up with bullshit ways to resolve said conundrums, but I think I’ve discussed the Spider-man situation previously, to some level.

I remember the first Marvel Universe big cross-over I read was THE SECRET WARS. I had no idea what I was getting into, and even though it really wasn’t a great idea, it was still a lot of fun for a kid relatively new to comic books. And it introduced Spidey’s black costume (Venom) and allowed us to see how the Marvel Universe was holding up without their standard stable of heroes. It was fun reading Spider-man comics without Spider-man present. And reading the X-men with the second string team having to hold the shit together.

And from there it seemed that most of Marvel’s big summer cross-over events revolved mostly around the X-men. And as an avid reading of all things “X”, I loved it. It fit right into my comic book reading world. But this meant I didn’t pick up too many AVENGERS or HULK or any comic that was not affected by the X-men’s latest epic, world-ending nemesis.

But CIVIL WAR, SECRET INVASION and SIEGE seem to remedy that. Currently I have only read a few issues and issue tie-ins, but Marvel has done a great job of making the specific hero comics (Dark Wolverine, for example) to a very personal level while keeping the SIEGE comic itself very large scale. Does that make sense? yeah, I don’t know. Maybe the best example might be that at the end of SIEGE #2 Asgard comes crumbling down… and that’s the end of the issue. We see it from a very wide spectator point of view. But in THE AVENGERS, Asgard comes crumbling down and we see some of our heroes crushed under the rubble or buried alive, others believing them dead.

When I explained the plot of SIEGE to my 19 year-old daughter she said “That sounds stupid” (clause: she is not a comic book fan unless it involves cute animals). And it does sound stupid, but it also sounds ballsy and epic and I look forward to reading more.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment