Friday, December 4, 2009

Siege: The Cabal #1

I should really know better by now. I just don't agree with how Bendis paces his comics. There are some nice moments in this, but by far the biggest forward momentum hits in the preview to Siege #1.

Osborn is starting to crack. He's listening to the Goblin side of his personality more and more, and it doesn't help that Loki it totally pulling his strings. In fact, with Loki so active in the Hood's life right now, along with his talk about the catalyst for the Marvel Civil War, I'm starting to wonder if Bendis' big Avengers story has really been a showdown with Loki, the first Avengers villain. I do hope so. If Loki was involved in kicking off the Marvel Civil War, even better.

I'm not up to date on my X-Men comics, but I guess Osborn and Namor had some kind of fight, and within the cabal Dr. Doom has Namor's back. When Doom and Osborn face off over their differences, Osborn calls in his mysterious supporter to take out Doom. I feel a bit robbed that we don't find out who this mystery guy is, it is pretty annoying. I'm pretty sure Marvel hinted that the helper would be revealed this issue. In any case, the backup can't take out a Doombot, so Doom zaps Taskmaster and then disgorges a horde of tiny bug doombots. (Taskmaster better not be killed, I don't think he is, but the possibility is there). Eventually Sentry assists in stopping the 'bots. Osborn gets really fired up and now wants to prove his worth by taking out Asgard. And Loki has some ideas on how to do that...

Michael Lark's realistic style works well for most of the characters. Doom is imposing and I love the design on the doom-bugs. Taskmaster's suit looked a bit off, but I suppose he's just a supporting character in this. I like the poses the Hood uses too; he really seems like a guy trying to live up to his rep.

Fair

2 comments:

jbaker said...

I won't give away the details to Osborn and Namor's falling out but they can be found in the Utopia crossover and in The List: X-Men. And you're correct that Bendis all but said that this mystery man's identity would be revealed here which was the main reason I bought this. Who his he? And is He the voice in Osborn's head?

Thinking back to Civil War, Osborn joins the Thunderbolt program and then kills an Atlantean. During interrogation, Osborn is clearly having a mental breakdown until a shadowy figure appears and drags him away kicking and screaming in fear. We next see him cool, calm, collected and director of the Thunderbolts. Similiar scenarios have been playing out ever since, most recently in Dark Avengers.

Although I was disappointed with this issue, I'm still looking forward to the Siege.

Timbotron said...

Was that in Civil War Frontline? I didn't pay close attention and blanked the whole thing from my mind when I sold the series to the used bookstore.

I'm not keeping up well with Dark Avengers either. But Siege looks good!