Siege #4

Siege was originally never on my "must read list" mostly because it was under my radar. But a few weeks ago I finally picked it up and read it and as such these are my thoughts (on the main book only, I haven't read the tie-ins). 
 
Some Spoilers
 
As a whole, Seige is a very good book. I've always liked Bendis' work and he certainly knows how to make an entertaining story. The entire thing is in essence a final clash between the forces that Steve and Tony have unleshed in Thor's absents and a wrap up for the Sentry's story. It is an explosion of action, filled with little quirky moments as I expect and love from both Bendis and Marvel in general with a dash of awsome that makes a fast paced final battle as it was ment to be. However, perhaps it was a little too fast. I've always been a fan with slower paced things (hence my love of Naruto) as it give more digestion time for what's happening. Take this book in comparison to my favorite Crisis Crossover book, Secret Invasion. That book had an exellent blend of action and great character moments (like the conversation between Luke Cage and Wolverine or Mr. Fantastic's actions when he finally gets back in the action). That is what made the book for me. In Seige, while a moment is never lost, a moment is also rarely spared so while we have great action, good character moments like Ares and Heimdal's fight and Norman talking with the Green Goblin. This causes much passed up character moments and explanations that would have mad the book much more coherent. The story overall is very good but far too condenced (I blame the people who complaned about how long Secret Invasion was). 
 
Something I feel I must adress is Loki. Loki has always been know as the one who would destroy Asgard both in and out of comics, but his motives for doing so vary from writer to writer. Bendis however sees Loki in a more sympathetic light, making him out to try and restore the way things were in the past with Asgard as a separate relm. However this  "hero-like" portrayle is not out of character for him (I recall him willingly owing Spider-Man a favor) and truly touching as one of the best of the few character moments we get as he empowers the heroes to go "Rainbow Super Saiyan" (no, I'm not kidding and it's AWSOME).

The art work is ok for me. Everyone looks awsome (comlimenting the story) and Coipel's backgrounds are top notch. While my favorite artist will always be John Romita Jr., if I had to pick a person to draw the entire Marvel Universe for its crossovers, I'd pick Coipel. Dispite a few wierd flibs, it flows great, looks great and totally compliments the strory. (Plus it has the BEST Ms. Marvel shot EVER while the heroes are being powered up by Loki. COIPEL FOR THE NEXT MS. MARVEL ARTIST!)  
  
Now here comes a pet problem of mine. The Sentry. I'm not a fan but I don't hate him. The only time I ever really liked the guy was in World War Hulk, where he was something of a more heroic foil to the Hulk, someone who had his own massive internal demons but had a more heroic image then Hulk. In essence the Gamera to Hulk's Godzilla. In all other cases he was just an expy for a crazy Superman. Something that the Marvel Universe has no real place for. However while in this book he makes use of an aspect I never really thought much of for him. The Void. The Void was AWSOME in this book. He gives the feel of, as Green Goblin put it "The angel of death." and if I had to pick an Ultimate enemy for the Marvel Universe, it would be The Void. Granted he dosen't do that much but neither did Boba Fett. And also Robert, Sentry/Void's human form, gets a little redeming moment where he begs Thor to kill him and later holds back the Void's power so Thor can deliver the killing blow when there is no other choice.
 
So over all I have no major problems with Seige and give it Four Spider-Man punches to Goblin's face out of five.