Superhero Media: Seige

Annihilation and 52 aside, I'm not the kind of comics fan that really goes in for the big "crossover" events. If I get the chance, I read them, some I like, most I don't, but I'm happy to co-opt ideas from them for supers games. Siege is one of those "events" that copped a lot of flak for being "continuity management" when it was being pushed by Marvel, and whilst I think there's more to it than that, the criticism is not unfair. Norman Osborn, the Iron Patriot and Director of HAMMER is manipulated by Loki into attacking Asgard, which is currently in the American Mid-West and ruled by Balder, who was revealed to be the bastard son of Odin. God, that's a lot to get out of the way for what is, essentially, a big fight comic. By the end of the fight, Steve Rogers is Director of SHIELD, Osborn is in prison and both Sentry and Ares are dead; basically a reset for the new paradigm. 

All of that works against the overall quality of the comics, but there are enough fun moments and not-overdone fan service to make it a fun read. Most of the "world building" happens in the bookends, leaving a fun romp in the middle where a host of classic Avengers battle an army of supervillains. Most of the big names get a fun panel or two, Spider-Man quips, Cap beats face and Iron Man is arrogant, all the hits. Actually, that's a good way to describe Siege, it's a new Avengers "album", but when you start to listen, there's only two new tracks and the rest are reversions of old hits. It's not bad, just not really that good either. One major moment that I have to talk about is the death of Ares at the hands of Sentry. I like the idea, no really, that a superpowered human gone rogue has the power to take down a literal god; there's a nice sense of rationalism versus religious dogma there, that has been explored better elsewhere. The problem is the [splash] panel in which it happens:

Now I'm no prude; I own the entire run of Garth Ennis Punisher MAX, I think A Serbian Film is brilliant and I regularly rewatch both Luther and Wire in the Blood, however... This is too much. For a comic that is meant to be read by a large swathe of Marvel fans, the fact that I can see Ares' spine shatter takes it beyond the acceptable for me. This could have been even more evocative in shadow, or stylised, almost anything but two-page gore porn. It really leaves a sour taste in the reader's mouth and spoils an otherwise fun comic. As an excuse to have dozens of heroes and villains beat on each other, Siege is good enough, but it's not Secret War or even Secret Wars. If you want to see where Marvel NOW! started to spawn from, maybe worth a look, otherwise pretty forgettable.