as the Staples ad goes ... well, that was easy. three birds, one event. take out
Norman Osborn? check. resolve
Bob/Sentry/Void thing? check. take out
Loki? check.
Bendis brings the payoff in 4 issues, though there may be yet unwritten stories or edited parts that ended up on the cutting room floor. nevertheless, i'm good with the ending, though other fanboys may not be, and will wail and gnash their teeth but grudgingly jostle for the front seat for the
Heroic Age. that's what the Interwebz are for.
ah, Norman, Norman. ah,
Dark Avengers #1 wasn't so long ago, was it, Iron Patriot? (ugh) how the mighty have fallen. and without your H.A.M.M.E.R. and your fancy armor, you're just another insane loony tune who needs to be locked up.
what's next for
Osborn? some or all of this would happen: the public would forget about all of these in two years, he'll escape and make trouble and/or clear his name, and he'll be somewhat powerful again pretty soon. so Marvel writers, if you're serious about "making him pay for his crimes" .... well, you better make sure. its a tired cliche to have them bad guys returning and returning for no good reason (and that goes for the heroes as well). and with the 'Heroic' theme that's coming, it looks like it may go easy on the villains as well (i doubt somebody wants to organize a firing squad, given that these a lot of these bad guys are pretty resilient).
Stark already did the Guantanamo thing. do you build a prison to hold these guys (the Raft? puh-leaze.) or do you have a permanent solution? more likely, they'll all still be running around like the rats they are.
now for
Bob Reynolds ... ah, the hero who
started out as a marketing gimmick, then became the figure we all know who had the power of a thousand or a million (i can never remember which) exploding suns, and who basically was the most powerful superbeing in all creation. and we can't have that, can we? look how they used him to get rid of the
Molecule Man (previously, the most powerful being around these parts, except that he didn't want the attention and nobody really cared about a nerd). am not sure if the Sentry went head to head with the
Beyonder, but of course, we just exist as a twinkle in the
Beyonder's eye. ah well. that was a good ten years, wasn't it?
and we can't talk about the
Sentry now without mentioning
Ares now, can we? i found him a much more interesting character than
Hercules, and he provided a lot of value for the
Avengers, be it regular or dark edition. i'm waiting for the salute to him. i wonder what
Phobos is thinking right now. there will always be a God of War, right? for these guys, they died here and now. let's not bring them back, ok? it just renders poignant events like these senseless (hello,
Steve Rogers).
so, about
Loki ...
i'm a little puzzled by his Asgardian loyalties and his sudden desire to help out the heroes, and eventually take one for the team. really? didn't he just sell out the Asgardians to
Dr. Doom to cut up? and now he's regretting the whole set up? boo hoo.
oh hey, remember this?
yes, that's
Loki's
Get Out of Being Dead free card, so you better expect him to show up somewhere down the road, expectedly to
Thor's surprise (y'know, you've been with
Loki with centuries and y'all still get punk'd by him all the goddamn time its already tiresome. yeah, you too now you can't kill him anymore. geez.).
a few more notes:
- when
Iron Man exhorts everyone to hit
The Void with everything they got, does
Spider-Man shoot webs at it? how about
Luke?
Cassie?
- even with that restored backup in his head, most of the guys think
Tony's still a douchebag, right? basically, that's the only lingering memento of
Civil War - the resentment.
- hey, look,
Maria Hill's still wearing her
S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform! she probably sleeps in that too (except when
Tony has to get in her pants - ohhhh! did i type that??)
- like i said ... the
Victoria Hand limited series coming soon!
-
Nick Fury has like 1,024 secret bases all over the world, and some of them are probably off limits to S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel but built with
S.H.I.E.L.D. money and resources. is he going to pass these things on to
Steve Rogers? will they be sharing them? (
"what are you doing here? it was my turn to use this as a secret hideout! yes, we did agree on it!")
- what did teh Asgardians put on top of Stark Tower? a piece of Asgard like an Alamo sign?
- who made a new cape for
Thor after he wrapped
Bob in it and sent him to the sun?
- yes,
Siege was an Avengers-centric event, but something of this magnitude shouldn't entail the presence of
Reed or some
X-Men? apparently,
Rogue had a thing with Bob (!) (
check out The Sentry: Fallen Sun on sale now! - Steve Wacker), and there are saucy details to be dished.
- hey, come to think of it, i never saw Earth's Scientist Supreme in the thick of things in this issue. neither was he in the big shindig at Stark Tower (
Iron Fist was there.
DD was there too, wouldn't his Hand colleagues frown on that?). is that a dis against
Hank Pym? is he going to be the villain in some big event soon?
and so
Siege comes to a close. goodbye,
Norman, its been fun. hey, wait,
didn't you have a baby with Menace?
