Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Siege #1Siege #1 of 4
Marvel Comics
Bendis, Coipel, Morales & Martin

Marvel kicks off the big event with this issue and it puzzled the heck out of me. Make no mistake this event gets under way quickly in this issue and wastes no time with getting right into the action. The comic is a fine story but I felt like the "story" occurred somewhere outside of this issue. I have no idea where but I couldn't help but think that things were happening off panel that were really relevant. And if I hadn't read the Origins of Siege issue I would have been even worse off.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThis issue contains the setup to the battle between Earth and Asgard. It contains Osborn blowing off the President and going against orders to commence with the invasion. It has Osborn "convincing" his Avengers to invade. It has the invasion as well as one of the big three entering the battle and getting thrown down.

The comic book contains a lot of action to say the least. But is it all forced? The only way to know is to compare it to previous events like Civil War or Secret Invasion and I would say yes, this issue moves much faster than either of those first issues. However this only has four issues to tell the whole story whereas those had seven or eight.

Part of the problem with the racing through this issue is the progression of events. On one page Ares is at polar opposites with Osborn about the invasion. Ares is finally convinced of the invasion and then is seen rallying the troops right before the invasion. Does this make sense at all? Wouldn't Ares be hesitant no matter what he agrees to with Osborn? The presentation here gives the appearance that Ares drank the Osborn Kool-Aid which seems wrong.

Another problem here is the act of the invasion. Asgard is filled with immortals. They know the invasion is coming and they are amassed right on their doorstep and the best they can do it ride out on horses? Does that seem even remotely reasonable? It's cool to look at but it seems kind of silly. All we are missing was the obligatory "pour it on!" being shouted by someone on the frontline.

The artwork does a great job of presenting the battle as it reaches the contact point. There are tons of people flying at top speed ready for the crash at the other end. The comic certainly has an epic feel to it in the art department all over the place.

This comic reminds me a lot of the old DC versus Marvel type stories where the two sides have to fight in the first issue or two so that by the third issue they can team up for the big battle against the common foe in the fourth issue. It just feels like this is going to be cool to read in the moment but isn't going to really "matter" in the long term.

The issue isn't helped in that this issue contains Ares War Plan Transcript which omits one of the four pages. It turns out to have been a very key page. The missing page is available on Marvel's website at the digital comics shop for free, but still an error is an error.

I wasn't crazy about the launch of this event and I'm not sure there was enough here to hook me in for future issues. If you like your stories to be really quick and to the point with a lot of action you might really enjoy this though.

2.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles