Siege: An Ill-Considered Review

Marvel's biggest event ever until the next one kicks off with the 8-page intro that's been freely available on the internet for awhile then cannonballs through plot points until we end up pretty much where the marketing said we would. This raises a question: has hype made first issues redundant? The sheer volume of previews and creator interviews has made it so that anyone with any interest at all in the series probably already knows the premise and more or less what is going to happen, at least initially, in the story. In this case it been made pretty clear that Norman Osborn is invading Asgard and the big three of Thor, Cap, and Iron Man will reunite to stop him. In this issue, Norman invades Asgard, Thor fights back, Iron Man is in a coma but near the battle zone , and Cap reacts to news of the invasion. The marketing was nothing if not truthful. Someone who had been carefully following news about Siege could probably leap straight into issue number 2 and not be lost. Yet in the experience of reading the story, it would feel like something was missing. Even knowing for a fact the issue exists and being able to guess almost exactly at its plot points, the overall experience of the story would not be complete without sitting down and actually reading it for yourself.

All of this probably has something to do with the fact that when it comes to plotting, novelty is overrated. Where fiction is concerned, the visceral experience of the story trumps everything. It's why people can watch the same movie over and over again. It's why comic book characters have runs that stretch back decades. It's why a cliched plot doesn't necessarily stand in the way of commercial success. Cliches can be boring, but properly applied they can also be comforting. The audience can relax, assured that the story is going somewhere they want it to go. We want to see the heroes unite and stop the bad guys. Knowing they will turns the experience into a victory march. The particular combination of words, images, and whatever else is entailed in the product trigger a pleasure center in the brain, a sensation the audience doesn't mind experiencing over and over.

Siege in particular seems interested in concentrating the story down to a collection of moments the audience wants to witness. The catastrophic inciting event. Osborn laying things out for his team. Ares rallying the troops. The ride into battle. Thor's arrival. The Cap reveal. With the exception of the opening, each of these points is hit hard then immediately left behind for the next one. Much as the marketing renders the first issue superfluous, audience familiarity with the story beats makes connective tissue unnecessary and we can just get the highlight reel, which is all we came to see anyway.