Siege #2(of 4)

Well, instead of doing another Best of the Rest, or a Let's Talk About... post, like I was intending to do, I'll be looking at Siege #2 since my package of new comics arrived today. I honestly didn't expect to see this box 'o books arrive until Monday at the earliest, so I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised. Of course, I now have ANOTHER huge pile of comic books sitting in front of me, and no time to properly review them... Oh, and I won't be posting anything new tomorrow due to the Super Bowl. I'll check out any comments left for me as always, but that's going to be all I do blog-wise tomorrow. As for my Super Bowl prediction, I'm going with the Colts over the Saints. OK, that's enough about football, let's get to the comics!

Siege #2(of 4): Writer: BENDIS! Pencils: Olivier Coipel.

We begin with Ares battling against Balder, who is the reigning king of Asgard. However, Ares is under the impression that Loki is the current ruler of Asgard thanks to Norman "Marvel" Osborn. While the two god sons battle, Ares is approached by Heimdall, who informs Ares that he's been lied to, and that Balder is indeed the ruler of Asgard. Ares then realizes that he had been tricked by Osborn, and sets off to speak with his boss. Speaking of Osborn, before he is able to arrest or kill Thor, Thor is saved by Maria Hill, the former leader of SHIELD. After watching that play out on TV, Steve Rogers gathers the New Avengers, the Young Avengers and those yahoos Nick Fury hangs out with(the Secret Warriors), and announces that it's time to take the country back from Osborn. Osborn, having lost Thor, sends Daken loose to hunt down and kill Maria Hill for her interference. As soon as he gives the command, Osborn is attacked by Ares, who has had enough of Osborn's lies, and decides to kill him. Before he gets the chance though, the Sentry attacks Ares at Osborn's behest, and the two super-powerful members of the Dark Avengers tear into each other. Speaking of tearing, after a spirited battle, Sentry literally tears Ares in half, putting an end to the god of war. While that is going on, the Avengers are preparing to board one of Nick Fury's ships in order to get to Oklahoma. Bucky gives Steve his shield back, and Jarvis gives Steve a suitcase, which almost definitely holds Iron Man's armor, telling Steve that if he should run across Tony, he should give it to him. With that, the Avengers get on the plane and start flying to the sight of the battle for Asgard. Daken finds Thor and Maria Hill, and winds up getting fried by Thor's lightning for his troubles. Seeing the blast of electricity on the horizon, Osborn sends Sentry after Thor, hoping to put an end to the Thor problem, once and for all. This issue ends with Osborn looking up just in time to see the shield of Captain America hurtling towards him.

Meh... I definitely enjoyed the prior issue WAY more then this one. However, I think that was kind of the intention of this comic. The first issue set the stage and gave us the opening salvo of the Siege storyline, while this issue began moving the major players into position for the final two issues of this mini. The next two issues should give us Thor vs Sentry, along with Steve Rogers leading his Avengers forces against Osborn's forces, with Loki still lying in the weeds. That sounds like some good reading to me, although the scales seem to be tilting away from Osborn a little bit early for my liking... Sure, we all know Osborn is going to lose in the end, but by the end of the second issue of this mini, he already seems to be pretty outmatched, with the combined forces of the Avengers and Asgard standing against him. My guess is that Osborn is defeated by the end of the next issue, leaving Loki as the true power the heroes must defeat to end this storyline. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, let me get back to this issue. Sentry killing Ares really didn't have much of an impact for me. Besides the initial, "Huh, Sentry is strong enough to kill a god..." reaction, Ares death means very little in the long run. He's only been an Avenger for a relatively short amount of time, and he always seemed like a boring, run of the mill power character. The only thing Ares death really does is give us reason to believe that if Sentry can kill Ares, then maybe he's be able to kill Thor... Although we all know that ain't going to happen! The lack of Pym and his Mighty Avengers was kind of interesting to me, since you'd think Pym and his band of misfits would have been right alongside Steve and the other Avengers. Jarvis giving Steve the suitcase, which almost definitely holds Tony Stark's Iron Man armor was also a nice touch, since the moment Steve gives Tony the suitcase, the whole awful Civil War mess should finally be forgotten. Honestly, that's the only thing I'm looking for in this mini-series. All I want is to see Tony and Steve standing side-by-side again, without all that political, Civil War junk sullying their relationship. As long as I get that one scene, I'll be one happy Marvel-ite.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Note to self: don't piss the Sentry off...