I hate eating my words.
It was when Marvel was publishing [i]Secret Invasion[/i] that I decided a rule that I thought would better my reading experience, my comic book spending, and my emotions all at once. I decided I was going to boycott major comic book crossover events forever.
They all came out the same way: Civil War, World War Hulk, Secret Invasion, what have you. They start with this hook that gets you reading, you get curious enough to buy some tie-in issues, and a few issues in it starts to run out of steam. I kept buying issues, thinking it might get better, only for the remaining issues to be total disappointments that made me regret buying into the hype in the first place. The final issues would always contain these cop-out endings that really, in the end, were just marketing teasers for books being published after the event.
I mean, look at Civil War #7. Each page was almost an advertisement for a different title. "Spider-Man's in black! The Punisher is going to become the next Captain America! The Initiative is being assembled!" The end of Secret Invasion: "Norman Osborne's in charge! Look at how many books this is going to affect! Don't forget to buy the Dark Reign one-shot!" The gist of each of these endings? Buy more books. And each time I think: This is what the pressure was leading up to? This is what I've been conjecturing about for months? The experience is almost akin to that moment in A Christmas Story when Ralphie eagerly decodes a secret message from Little Orphan Annie only for it to read "Be sure to drink your ovaltine."
But then along came Siege. I'm a little older, a little wiser, so I know not to buy into this "AN EVENT SEVEN YEARS IN THE MAKING" bullshit. Sure, it may use the last seven years of continuity, but I highly highly doubt that seven years ago, the whole reason why Bendis was disassembling the Avengers and planning the House of M storyline was just so he could have Norman Osborn and company invade Asgard.
So why am I buying this then? The event just seems like too much fun not to. The whole concept - Norman Osborn leading the Dark Avengers up against Thor, the Asgardians, and the Avengers, will only lead in disaster. Everyone knows that this enormous hubris is going to end with his ass getting handed to him. Even Bullseye, possibly the most fearless allies Osborne has, were like "Hell no!" when Osborn gave the orders. It's like when Hitler tried to invade Russia.
This whole event has been really well paced. It's been packed full of action, illustrated by none other than the amazing Thor artist Olivier Coipel, whose art is so big and yet so clean that he even rivals greats like Bryan Hitch and John Cassaday. Thor was taken out in the first issue, and now the recently revived Steve Rogers is leading the Avengers after a rousing speech about taking back America. And in this issue, we see just exactly how powerful The Sentry really is. Turns out that whole power of a thousand exploding suns thing wasn't just an expression.
Looking forward to seeing how this pans out. Check back after Siege #4 is released to see if I end up resuming my boycott on crossover events.
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