The SIEGE of Asgard has begun! And Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers are leading the charge! Osborn’s savvy use of the media fueled his rise to power but the very tools he’s been using may turn against him. It’s time to expose Norman’s true face to the world and uncover the secrets behind the attack on the gods! Witness the changing of the Marvel Universe firsthand!

I can’t believe how generic and off the mark that blurb is.  This is a unique story, telling Ben Urich’s adventures around the siege of Asgard.  He runs into an old media buddy Will Stern and together they rescue Volstagg, get arrested repeatedly, take part in the siege and save a bunch of people.  Weaving through that is the story of Todd Keller, a media personality that’s backing Norman Osborn as a true patriot.  It’s a rolling human interest story with a take from a non-superhuman perspective.

Brian Reed gives us a smart and funny story revolving around the sidelines of the Siege event.  Urich and Stern aren’t quite Abbot and Costello but the humour is there.  Volstagg is always a funny addition and he hams it up when the three of them end up on a road trip.  It does get serious at times with fighting, explosions and bystanders.  Keller as media warmonger is an interesting character and one we recognize immediately as “the villain” which he amply fulfills.

Part of the lightheartedness of the story is Chris Samnee’s art: it has a cartoonish all ages feel that prevails even amidst bloodshed and fighting.  It’s a loose and less detailed look with lots of black spots instead of line detail: to be honest I’m on the fence with it.  Lots of panel changes and page layouts: the story moves cleanly.

A decent amount of extras, all carried over from the Marvel Premiere hardcover published this summer of the same material.  Character designs with some pencil and inked page comparisons; very nice indeed.

Unfortunately Siege: Embedded is a sideline tale that didn’t need to be told.  It has a buddy film quality that is easily forgotten.  A quick and light read that doesn’t justify the $14.99 price tag.

Siege: Embedded
Marvel, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7851-4764-0

I was inspired to write this column after reading Siege #2.  The hero Sentry kills Ares by ripping him apart. Spoiler alert (I guess that should have gone first). The panel shows a lot of blood and pieces of flesh, even a section of spine. The imagery is very graphic, as it was intended to be, and the other characters in the story are shocked. This comic book is rated age 13 and up, which would be appropriate if we lived in ancient Sparta.

Hey Kids! Comics!

I should say that I am against censorship. People should be able to say whatever they wish (short of calling for criminal acts to be committed). I also believe that the creative community has a duty to inform the public about the product. This preserves creative license and allows the public to make an informed decision.

Comic book publishers used to submit stories to the Comics Code Authority. I will not go into great detail here (I’m sure my nerdy editor will add some sort of Wikipedia link*), but in short the CCA was a governing body that previewed comic books to determine if they were suitable for publication. Mad Magazine is a magazine instead of a comic book because they wanted to tell fart jokes and show the occasional damsel in a tight sweater.

At one time almost every major publisher submitted their books to the CCA, but on rare occasions companies would publish titles without the Code. The CCA did little to explain content to consumers, but it did ensure that books met a very basic level of child friendliness (although please check out Comic Book Daily’s section on Sleepy Sensors). In the last decade the CCA has largely become redundant, and Marvel Comics (who publish Siege) have come up with their own rating system. Having a comic book company design their own rating system is a lot like letting a restaurant rate their own food.

The CCA was very similar to the Hays Code that governed motion pictures. When a better system was needed the MPAA movie rating system was created. This system, while far from perfect, allows the public to identify movies by category and gives consumers a sense of what to expect. I didn’t anticipate graphic sex scenes in Up! and parents didn’t look at Saw VI and wonder if it was a great family movie.  Similar too is the ESRB rating system for video games. Parents know what to expect when they purchase Super Mario Galaxy and they know what to expect when they purchase Grand Theft Auto.  You should know that if you are buying GTA for your young child you are, by definition, a bad parent. The ESRB and MPAA ratings are determined by independent 3^rd parties. This is a necessary measure and ensures some uniformity across the ratings. The comic book industry needs to adopt a similar uniform ratings system.

Recently there has been a trend to more adult stories. “Comics aren’t just for kids!” has become the mantra of the industry. It is a varied medium and comics are no more exclusively for children than movies. But I’m just going to say it:  super-hero comics are for kids or they should be. Take that you nerds! Preacher is a great comic, but not for kids (again, if you read Preacher to your child at bedtime you are most definitely a bad parent). Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man were created for children, and writers should continue to write good stories that can be enjoyed by both adults and children.

The average superhero title should not have any stories with extremely graphic content nor should it talk about Spider-Man’s sexual appetite.  A parent should not have to ask if this Superman comic is appropriate for their 7 year-old. The comic book industry must be very short-sighted, and I mean Mr. Magoo short-sighted. Soon enough 35 year-old males grow old and die so if the comic industry is not drawing in new younger readers it will lose market share to video-games or twitter-face or whatever appalling social media tool will be the next big thing. Kids who read comics grow up and have more kids who read comics.

In short, comic books should have an independent rating system like movies or video games. These ratings would identify appropriate age ranges. It would also bring more readers to the medium and firmly establish the comic book industry as one that takes itself seriously.

*Ed note: Hey would you look at that, I did!

Anthony Falcone is a freelance writer living in Toronto. He is the Ayatollah of Rock N Rolla. If you have need of his services you can reach him at falcone.anthony@gmail.com. You can also view his elegant words of prose at www.thenerdalert.blogspot.com.

FALLEN (Not Final Title)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
(W) To Be Announced
(A) Tom Raney
Cover by Leinil Yu

The SIEGE has ended and taken its toll on both sides of the battle field. The event seven years in the making has claimed many lives, and in this, its final chapter, a universe comes together to mourn (CLASSIFIED).  The shocking death that ended the fight and gave birth to a new Heroic Age is remembered as a writer (CLASSIFIED) returns to lead the farewells.

Which looks very much like Sentry of course. Who has been having quite a rough time of it mentally or late. And as some point out, all you need is Paul Jenkins’ name attached to make it a shoo-in.

But let’s be serious for a few seconds; Sentry is a fun character and lots has been done with him recently, but for a very long time it seemed that he was more of a hindrance. This is the most powerful being in the world, World War Hulk should have literally taken all of ten minutes – send in Sentry, kick him into the sun – but no, that makes for crappy events.

So instead we’ve had them spend a few panels explaining away using the Sentry and the event continues.

oh and is that Dr. Doom’s hand holding Sentry’s cape?

WTF??!?!

He then went on to post this: “This is just one store” with this accompanying photo:

Marvel has been criticized for their trade in promotion, (for every 50 stripped covers of the Blackest Night tie-in comics sent to Marvel, you will qualify to receive one FREE Siege #3 Deadpool Variant,) and Brevoort himself seems to not be making many fans with these tweets. What do you guys think?

Story by Brian Michael Bendis

Art by Olivier Coipel and Mark Morales

Lettered by Chris Eliopoulos

Coloured by Laura Martin

Okay.. if you’re not familiar with the last ….ugh, seven years of Marvel history: you might want to read this primer by our good friends at Newsarama. It’s not really necessary to know everything that happened. (In fact – to be honest – it’s best to forget Secret Invasion, as that series basically ended with Barack Obama exclaiming in disbelief that it even happened.)

Siege #1 is a first issue. It’s a lot of set up.. which is okay, but there aren’t any BIG moments, no big reveals, no F$@& Yeah moments… the ending is literally just someone realizing that they need to move to action. I’ll give it this though – I never thought Bendis could tell ANY story in four issues.. and the fact that he’s actually managed to compress enough into twenty pages to make it seemed compressed for Bendis.

Of course, the book is $3.99 – so there’s more to the book: a Hulk preview, a guide to the last few years in marvel continuity by Joey Quesada and a info-dump wherein Bendis writes out the minutes of a Dark Avengers meeting – Yes, they’re all about as interesting as you’d think.

So what does happen in this book? Let me give it to you point form:

• Loki and Osborne plan a ‘incident’
• the incident involves Volstagg basically frying everyone in Wrigley Field.
• Norman Osborne goes to war with Asgard without President Obama’s permission.
• Thor shows up.
• Sentry Beats up Thor
• Captain America – chilling out, wearing trackpants and his Captain America shirt, watching the tv… is moved to action.

It’s a good issue.. but it’s a first issue. There’s no surprises, we don’t learn who Osborne’s secret weapon is, there’s no twists, no nothing.. You can’t judge the event by it’s first issue, They’re a thankless task… but Bendis does it admirably.. however saying that.. at 22 pages of actual story, I’d have much rather paid less than $3.99.

Marvel has been hyping up their ‘mini’ event Siege for the last month now. It’s the culmination of all the plots and themes that have been present in Dark Reign and this is the final act. (I suppose the The List was the rising action, but all it really did was set up plotlines for other titles or were just fun romps – I’m looking at you Wolverine.)

Well Marvel.com released this image today of a new teaser image from the upcoming “Siege” event which features Norman Osborn in the hands of Captain America/Bucky…who’s obviously been pushed to the edge.

Will Bucky do it? Will he kill Norman Osborn?

No.

It makes no sense, it’s got to be Spidey who’ll be the main force in taking down Osborn, but I’m sure that there’ll be some really heavy handed Iron Patriot vs. New Cap battle that’ll be some sort of thinly veiled commentary on the whole ‘real’ america vs the rest of america.
Naw, not really.. I’ve just been watching way too many youtube clips of Fox News.

We had it up before in a grainy you-tube version, now take a gander at it in glorious hi-res. Marvel is going full steam ahead with it’s promotion campaign for The Siege – Bendis’ ‘logical’ next step in the overrall Dark Reign storyline.

While I like Bendis a lot – his Daredevil run being high up on my list of great comic books – I find that he usually can’t end things… but hey, maybe this time it’ll be different.

You might also get a kick out of these teaser images, and some pages from the upcoming Siege: The Cabal one shot, which has beautiful Michael Lark artwork. Lark is hands down one of the best artists working today and any work we get from him is a huge coup for the comic book industry.

SIEGE: THE CABAL #1
COVER BY: David Finch
WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
PENCILS: Michael Lark
INKS: Stefano Gaudiano
THE STORY:
THE SIEGE STARTS HERE!! Remember when you were first introduced to the Cabal, the gathering of the most sinister members of the Marvel Universe, and you said to yourself: Well, that’s going to blow up in everyone’s face! Well, you were right and it happens right here!! Norman Osborn faces off with Doctor Doom and his mysterious threat to Doom is revealed. All of this is setting the stage for next month’s explosive event: SIEGE! One-Shot/Rated T …$3.99
IN STORES: December 2, 2009

What do you think?

399311 as the combination?

I’m going to open comments on this one!