Comically Challenged: Siege/Siege Embedded

Often times, a large complaint I get to hear is that event stories are worthless. They’re nothing but a gimmick to rob you of your hard earned cash. The stories are predictable and sometimes it’s nice to have things remain at the status quo and not change completely. And you know what I say to all those Negative Nancies? “You’re right”.

Those are ALL solid points. Thing of it is, there are a lot of awesome things about events too. There are some stories that are too great to be told in a 3-book arc or even 8-book mini series. Part of the magic of the Marvel Universe or the DC Universe is that one incident can affect the lives of nearly every character. It wasn’t always that way; but it changed because it gave the characters dimension. And, although working within a budget can limit this, events enable you to try out new books or read new characters that become favorites.

Here this finds us at the topic of Siege. This Marvel event was going to be huge. Cap was back, Tony Stark was still ostracized, Asgard’s just hanging out in Oklahoma, and Norman Osborn has more power than a crazy man should have. First, we knew Captain America was going to make a triumphant return. Second, we knew Norman was going to be taken down. Would it be by Cap? Spidey? Ben Urich? (Well, that last one wasn’t too much of a threat). Lastly, we knew The Sentry (or ‘Bob’ as I lovingly refer to him) was a wee bit too dangerous for his own good. How do you stop him? Via a Norse God with a hammer.

The final book in the Siege mini-series hit today. Written by Brian Michael Bendis, penciled by Oliver Coipel, inked by Mark Morales, colored by Laura Martin. Guess what happened? EVERYTHING WE THOUGHT. There was no big surprise, no major twist-we were given precisely what was set-up to happen. That makes for an anti-climatic finish. That makes for a weak event. For as much buzz as this event was getting, at the end of the day, it was just a means to an end: to get the Avengers back.

One more time, why are multiple titles under one event good? Because sometimes, the story is improved when there are other points of view. For instance, this week’s finale to the Siege Embedded mini-series. The same goings on are happening in this book. Good guy #1 still hits bad guy #3, it’s just told through the eyes of another character. That character is Ben Urich in Siege Embedded. Written by Brian Reed and art by Chris Samnee. Ben’s not a super hero. He’s just a hard-working journalist that stands up for what he believes in. This mini-series made the event work for me. I read Siege merely to understand what was going on in Ben’s environment. So Ben and his old buddy Will Stern go to Chicago to write about the devastation left when Volstagg (my favorite Asgardian) inadvertently blew up Soldier Field. Whoops. Then the two journalists decide to take a road trip with Volstagg to Oklahoma, where Asgard and all this fighting is going down. It takes some effort but they finally get to the battlefield and they just watch. They see god vs. god, hero vs government sanctioned “hero”.

This title was superior to Siege in several ways. One, it was funnier. Siege was appropriately serious, but Embedded had Volstagg in the back of a news van answering a quiz in a woman’s magazine while eating pork rinds. In my book, that means it wins. Embedded’s art was much simpler, but we’re dealing with simple men. I think it works to the advantage of the characterizations of Ben and Will. Embedded had Ben Urich as the narrator. You get to hear the thoughts of a man that saw the madness of Osborn on a regular basis and lived with the hope that one day The Avengers would make everything right again. Consequently, you also get to see and hear his reactions when all of his hopes come true. He’s scared, relieved, hopeful, and awe-struck by the ‘epic battle’ before him. Through his narration, we start to feel what (ideally) Siege should have made us feel on its own.

Does that mean Siege was not worth the printing? Of course it should have been made. Seeing Coipel put the reflection of Norman Osborn’s face in the shield of Captain America was nearly worth the price of the 4 books. Siege was important to the Marvel Universe, it just simply failed at captivating me as a reader.  Can you read Siege Embedded without Siege?  No.  Can you read Siege without Siege Embedded?  Yes, but you really shouldn’t.  Not if you like reading stories with heart and substance.  I guess now we just sit back and wait for the barrage of Avengers titles to hit the stand…