Siege has completely failed to capture my interest.  Up to this point, Siege has been remarkably shallow, filled with poor dialogue and chock full of large gaps in logic.  Even so, I have to admit that I have been surprised that Blackest Night issues 1-7 have stomped Siege 1-2 in terms of sales numbers.  Marvel’s big events are usually sales monsters.  At any rate, hopefully, Bendis steps up his game with Siege #3 and delivers a more interesting and entertaining read.  Let’s go ahead and do this review for Siege #3.

Creative Team

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Pencils: Oliver Coipel

Inks: Mark Morales

Colors: Laura Martin

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Story Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with The President meeting with his cabinet and military leaders.  The President is being briefed on how Norman has marshaled the power of the entire Initiative Program and the Avengers in order to attack Asgard.  The President is shocked, shocked I say, to hear this news.  The President asks what they can do about this situation.  One of the Generals says that all they can do is hope for a miracle.

Another General breaks in and says that they just got news that they may have gotten a miracle.  That Captain America just showed at Asgard along with a bunch of his friends.  The general states that Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors are also on the scene.  The President is surprised and says “Nick Fury resurfaced?” (Why would the President be surprised?  He personally talked with Nick Fury in Secret Warriors #1.)

The General continues that it appears that Captain America and Nick Fury have teamed up.  The President responds “Are you KIDDING me?”  (Seriously, is it such a surprise that two characters that have an incredibly long history of working together in SHIELD would team-up?) 

The General continues that Captain America and Nick Fury have with them all the heroes that they have been training and their former teammates.  The President asks “Are we happy about this?” (No.  You should be depressed that America's greatest hero and greatest spy are now on the case battling a madman in Norman Osborn.  Seriously, has the President been replaced with someone who is completely brain dead?)

The General responds that they will just have to wait and see what happens.  The President then asks if the General said Captain America was among the heroes. (Yes, for the love of god, the General has already said that several times.)  The President then says that if Captain America is on the scene then they have nothing to worry about.

We cut to Asgard with Spider-Woman commenting how Asgard is a mess.  Ms. Marvel quips that “Welcome to wartime, Jess.” (Welcome to stupid dialogue is more like it.)  Our heroes then join the Asgardians in their battle against Norman’s army.  Balder is happy to see our heroes on the scene and helping them in this battle.

While we are watching the battle in Asgard, we get the narration of the President and the General.  The General tells him that Maria Hill is on the scene as well.  The President continues to repeat everything the General says like he is brain dead.  The General then tells the President that the Sentry is on Norman’s side and the Sentry is plowing through everyone.

The General says that there seems to be no limit to the Sentry’s power set.  The President asks what the Sentry’s file says.  The General responds that the file says that there is no limit to their power set.  (Seriously.  Scintillating dialogue.  I wonder how many different ways Bendis can find to say the same thing during this scene?)

Thor and the Sentry then lock horns.  Sentry takes Thor’s best shot and shrugs it off like it was nothing.  Captain America and the other Avengers surround Norman.  Suddenly, the Hood and his amazing band of D-listers appear on the scene and attack our heroes.  We see The President asking what just happened.  The General says that Parker Robbins is on the scene.  The President replies “Parker Robbins?” (Yes!  Just keep repeating the same dialogue!  Awesome.)

The President asks whose side the Hood is on.  (Umm, well, he is leading a band of known criminals.  I am thinking he is NOT on the side of the team that has Thor and Captain America on it.)  The General replies that the Hood is not on their side.

We cut to Broxton, Oklahoma and see Speed from the Young Avengers racing to where Tony is convalescing.  Speed arrives in Tony’s room.  Mariah Hill immediately starts shooting at Speed.  Speed yells for her to stop shooting.  Speed introduces himself and says he is with the Young Avengers.  Speed says that Captain America sent him.  Speed has a briefcase in his hands for Tony.

Throughout all of Speed’s dialogue, Maria keeps yelling for him to keep his hands in the air. (Three times to be exact!)  Tony then tells Maria to shut up.  Tony tells Speed to bring the briefcase to him.

We cut back to the White House where the General is telling the President that they have ground troops in the area and are prepared to carpet bomb the area.  The President does not want to bomb their heroes.  The General says that Osborn not only declared war on Asgard that he also declared war on the President and America. (He did?  Maybe he is guilty conducting an illegal attack on a foreign country, but probably not an attack on America.)

The President orders for them to leave the ground war to Captain America.  The President then orders that their military attack the HAMMER helicarrier and planes in the sky.  We then cut to the helicarrier that Mrs. Hand is in being shot down by U.S. military planes.  Mrs. Hand orders for everyone to abandon ship.

We cut back to Thor battling the Sentry.  Thor is not having much luck.  We then cut to Captain America fighting Norman Osborn.  Norman orders for his armor to give him full shields.  The armor then tells Norman that the shields are down due to an interface corruption.  Suddenly, we see Iron Man on the scene.  Iron Man says that the corruption is him.  (Sweet!  Tony is wearing is classic Bob Michelinie and Bob Layton suit of armor.  Iron Man was never better than he was during that era.)

Iron Man says that he is reclaiming the armor that Norman stole from him.  Iron Man says that Norman’s armor will be shut down for good in a  couple of seconds and then Captain America will kick Norman’s ass.  We see Norman’s armor vibrate as it shuts down.  Norman screams to the Sentry “Don’t let them win!  Bring it down!”

We see the Sentry blast off at super speed and smash into Asgard several times.  We see all of Asgard explode and crash into the ground.  Thor is bummed that he just had to see Asgard destroyed.  Again.

We cut back to Captain America, Iron Man and the other Avengers surrounding Norman.  Norman’s suit of armor then falls apart into little pieces all around Norman.  We see that Norman’s face is Goblin green and his teeth are yellow.  Norman rants like a nut about how the heroes have no idea what they have just done.  Norman repeats that dialogue several times.  (Naturally.)  Spider-Man then punches Norman and tells him to shut up.

Norman then says that the Sentry is going to kill them all.  That Norman was the only person who could stop the Sentry.  That only Norman knew who the Sentry really was.  Norman says that he was saving everyone from the Sentry.  We then see the Sentry is full Void form with some Scorpion creature behind him.  End of issue.

Comments

The Good: Siege #3 did have a couple of positive aspects to it.  This was certainly a fast and effortless read.  The reader is able to rocket through Siege #3 quickly.  This issue is easy to digest.  Siege continues to be a simple read that does not require the reader to know much at all about Marvel continuity.  I think that Siege #3 presents the same mass appeal of a standard issue Hollywood action movie.

To be sure, Bendis crams in tons of shouting, explosions, lightning and fire into this issue.  Action fans are sure to enjoy the wall to wall chaos that Bendis delivers in this issue.  Siege #3 is crackling full of kinetic energy as our heroes defeat Norman Osborn and witness the rise of the Void.  Many readers have been waiting for the moment when Norman Osborn falls in defeat and those readers got that pay-off in this issue.  Of course, it would not have been complete without the panel of Spider-Man giving his old nemesis a shot to the mouth.

Personally, my favorite moment of Siege #3 was when Tony showed up in his old school armor and applied the final blow to Norman Osborn.  As a long time Iron Man fan, it was a blast to see the classic Iron Man briefcase armor.  That was a cool touch.  It was also nice to see Tony get even with Norman by shutting down his armor and rendering him powerless and helpless at the feet of Captain America.

Oliver Coipel’s turned in by far and away his best effort on this title with Siege #3.  This issue had plenty of nice double page splash shots and dramatic one page splash shots.  I particularly liked the dramatic way that Coipel opened Siege #3 with back-to-back double page splash shots.  Coipel was finally able to convey to the reader a truly grand scope and feel to Siege’s story.  Coipel also succeeded in injecting plenty of emotion into each panel.    All of the various characters’ facial expressions were well done.

The Bad: Siege #3 suffered from some glaring defects.  In general, this story continues to be rather unoriginal and mindless.  Siege #3 presents another thin read.  Bendis’ story is extremely flimsy.  There is no depth at all to this story.  There is absolutely nothing beyond what lies at the surface of this rather basic “action” story.   Siege continues to feel like an event that was sloppily thrown together at the very last minute.  Like the previous issues, Siege #3 reads like a rough draft rather than a polished finished product.

Siege continues to lack any soul or life of its own.  This creates an absence of any genuine emotion or drama in this story.  Bendis moves this story along in a mechanical fashion as if he was following a checklist from a “How To Write Big Events” manual.  “Big” character death in Ares’ death?  Check.  “Cataclysmic” destruction by taking out Asgard?  Check. 

Siege #3 comes across as a collection of perfunctory “cool” scenes without any real story or organic growth and purpose for those scenes.  The result is that the reader gets a story that is full of mostly sterile explosions and artificial “oh crap!” moments that are supposed to impress us and distract us from the fact that Siege lacks any heart.

Speaking of action, even though this issue seems action packed, much of it was a total miss for me.  The action scenes came across as strange as they were mostly just poised entrance scenes of Captain America and his crew, Iron Man, the Sentry and the Hood and his villains.  The action scenes seemed to consist mostly of the characters posing while explosions went off all around them.   There was very little actual combat between the characters.

The flow and plotting of this issue seemed odd.  Bendis had characters crash into the battle scene and then not seen or heard from again.  The Hood and his band of villains get a big splash page entrance and then are not seen again for the rest of the issue.  The scenes involving Captain America, Iron Man and the other Avengers surrounding Norman felt like there was nothing at all else going on around them.  The scenes with Thor and the Sentry seem to be largely filler as nothing at all happens in them and they added little substantive value to the story.

The dialogue in Siege #3 ranges from laughably bad in some parts to simply average in other parts.  The scene where Spider-Woman talks about what a mess Asgard is and Ms. Marvel answers “Welcome to wartime, Jess.” made me bust out loud laughing.  I am not too sure that was Bendis’ intention.  There were several moments like this where the dialogue was so cheesy, goofy and silly.

The narration between the President and his aide that ran through this entire issue became incredibly annoying after just one page.  Bendis succeeded in making the President sound like a complete moron.  I never got the impression that I was reading a conversation between the President and his Joint Chiefs of Staff.  It sounded more like a conversation between two dumb teen-agers.

I believe that the narration between the President and the General was supposed to be serious.  But, the fact is that the narration kept making me laugh with how naïve and dumb the President kept sounding.  Also, why would the President be so shocked about Nick Fury resurfacing?  The President met with Nick Fury in Secret Warriors #1 and was told that Nick was active once again.

The constant repeating of the same dialogue two or three times in the same scene throughout this issue became rather irritating.  It began to feel like Bendis was lacking any real content to this story so he compensated by simply repeating the same dialogue over and over in order to take up panels space and fluff up the story.

The character work in Siege #3 was completely absent.  All the characters talk in the same generic voice.  The characters move through the scenes more like cardboard cut-outs rather than three dimensional characters.  There is little to no chemistry between any of the characters at all.

I found Norman’s defeat to be incredibly anti-climactic.  Norman goes out in such an easy fashion.  With all the massive hype and build up of Dark Reign, it would have been much more interesting and entertaining to see Norman at the height of his game when battling the heroes in the climactic final scene.  The reader would have been on the edge of their seat watching the heroes struggling and finally succeeding to defeat Norman at the height of his power.  Norman going out with a bang like Pacino in Scarface would have been great.

Instead, Bendis has Norman go out with a whimper.  Instead of being on top of his game, Bendis has Norman come completely apart.  Bendis has Norman defeat himself and come apart at the seams.  This is the weakest and least in control that we have seen Norman since Dark Reign began.  Bendis has the heroes winning simply be default because Norman has totally lost it with the beginning of Siege #1.  This direction that Bendis chose was much less interesting or entertaining.

That leads me to one of the biggest defects of Siege: the lack of a great villain.  All big events need a great villain or a great threat.  Siege does not have that.  Norman could have filled that role if Bendis had chosen to have Norman at the top of his game like he has been in other titles during Dark Reign.  However, the Norman that we have gotten in Siege has been an emotional mess who has been relying on Loki and Sentry like a man with no legs clutches to his crutches.

That leaves the Sentry as the only other character to fill the role as the “great” villain of Siege.  Sorry, that completely fails with me.  The Sentry is a character that very few readers have found interesting.  Picking the Sentry as the “great” villain of Siege has done nothing but elicit a yawn from me.

The Sentry has been one of the most poorly handled characters in the Marvel Universe.  Not a single writer at Marvel has had a clue as to what to do with the Sentry’s character.  The result is that the majority of comic book readers are bored and disinterested with the Sentry and wish that he would just go away.

Bendis does absolutely nothing to grow the Sentry into an interesting character that would make his heel turn compelling and entertaining.  Bendis also does nothing at all to make the Sentry a fascinating villain.  Instead, the Sentry comes across as a generic “monster” villain.

It is also incredibly anti-climactic that the Sentry was the “secret” weapon that Norman has been hinting to during all of Dark Reign.  The Sentry was the most glaringly obvious choice to be the “mysterious” character that was Norman’s secret weapon.  That is why I was convinced that Bendis had a cool and original trick up his sleeve when it came to the identity of the “mysterious” character supporting Norman.  Instead, Bendis went the unoriginal and predictable route with this plot line.

The destruction of Asgard did absolutely nothing for me.  This felt like such an artificial “oh shit” moment.  What also hurts is that this feels like another recycled theme.  First, Bendis recycled the Stamford incident from Civil War with the Soldier Field event in Siege #1.  Now, we recycle the destruction of Asgard that we got in Thor 80-85 in 2005 where Asgard was destroyed during Ragnarok.  Plus, Asgard just returned in Thor #2 in October of 2007.  It seems goofy to destroy Asgard twice in five years.

It also seems silly to destroy Asgard just after Marvel brought it back and spent so many issues trying to reassemble the Asgardians during JMS’ run on Thor.  This seemed like a forced moment and reduced Asgard to nothing more than a cheap prop that was brought back in Thor just to be destroyed in Siege.

Another reason that the destruction of Asgard did little for me was because Bendis failed to properly build up this plot line and make me become emotionally invested in the attack on Asgard.  From the beginning, Norman’s sudden obsession with Asgard, to the point of acting contradictory to how he has conducted himself during Dark Reign, has seemed totally forced and out of nowhere.  I still have no idea why Norman would have such a mad-on for Asgard to the point that he would throw everything away just to attack it.  Bendis never properly grew this plot line in an organic and fully formed manner.

Coipel’s artwork had some defects in this issue.  Some of his panels looked rushed and sloppy.  Much of his backgrounds are non-existent.  For the most part, Coipel’s artwork has not risen to the level that I expect from a big event.  The artwork on Siege continues to pale in comparison with the artwork over on Blackest Night.

Overall: Siege #3 was another incredibly disappointing issue.  I have never thought that Bendis was a big event writer and Siege is simply confirming my beliefs on that matter.  If you enjoyed Siege #1 and #2 then I would certainly encourage you to get Siege #3.  You will probably enjoy this issue.  I would also recommend Siege #3 to action fans who do not care at all about dialogue, character work and a deep and complex story.  Readers who just enjoy fighting and seeing things get blown up should get plenty of entertainment value out of Siege #3.

However, for the rest of the readers out there I would recommend passing on Siege #3.  This issue is simply not worth your hard earned money.  All that matters is the aftermath of Siege: The Heroic Age.  I would suggest that readers skip on Siege and hop on board for the Heroic Age which should be much more entertaining and exciting.