Siege #4 (OF 4)

So here we are - the end of the event that Marvel put out as "7 years in the making".  This was Bendis' chance to end all the shenanigans with the villains running the universe in style.  Even with a couple of books already getting into the Heroic Age, I still had high hopes that it would deliver an epic finish, especially after seeing that last page in issue #3 of the Void ready to cut loose.  And when it was all said and done, I only had one word to say...

Meh.

I won't say the issue was a total waste, but with the book delayed and set up as a double-length issue, I almost felt like we should have got more bang out of it.  Siege #4 (to me at least) feels like it just wanted to end and get to Heroic Age already rather than actually telling a compelling tale that has the heroes let the villains know, "We're running the universe now, suckers!"

Some points to consider to back up my claim:

1)  The battle with the Void was pretty mediocre.  Going back to that last page in #3, you get  a real sense of what he's really capable of by beautiful art behind Copiel's pencils.  Then we get into #4 and I saw nothing jaw-dropping beyond Iron Man's Hellicarrier "bullet".  Visually speaking, you'd think we'd get something more dramatic out of Loki giving the heroes the magical stones, but even that seemed to be downplayed too.

2) Where the heck are the Asgardians beyond Thor?  They seemed to drop off completely from this book as if they had no say in the outcome of this battle.  Volstagg briefly comes in to stop Osborn, but that's it.  I would expect a god-like race to be full of rage and wanting to express the same kind of anger Thor was experiencing (which admittedly was portrayed very well)

3) Loki's motivations for sacrificing himself seemed totally contrived.  Nothing natural about it to me.  Here's a guy who tricks Osborn and his teams into taking out Asgard, saying it should not be here any more.  And now he acts sorrowful about the whole situation?  I'm sure one could say Loki's actions were that they were all an act and he was trying to play a martyr, but I just see an oversight there from Bendis.

Despite my misgivings about the story as a whole and some characters, I can't deny the work Copiel did with his pencils in this series.  I honestly wish Bendis gave him more to play with to really make this feel more epic, but Copiel did good with what was given.  He's a penciler I'll definitely continue to follow in other books down the road.

Overall, Siege achieved what it set out to do in wrapping things up and setting up future books and storylines, but you could say that was what made this a double-edged sword as well.  It was too focused on getting over the hurdle rather than on the journey itself.  I'll definitely be on the bandwagon and checking out the 10,000 Avengers books coming out for Heroic Age; I just wish Siege could have bid farewell in a relatively epic fashion.