Comic Book Guy: Out of the Darkness

This week in the Marvel universe saw the end of an event continually pushed as ‘seven years in the making’. The four-part Siege focused on Norman Osborn and the Dark Avengers’ assault on Asgard, with the emergence of The Sentry as his alter ego, the all powerful Void – or not so powerful it turns out (he is ultimately defeated). This is not in itself a spoiler as Marvel have tended to pre-empt most event finales by setting up the next chapter in previews many months beforehand. Therefore Siege, written by Brian Michael Bendis, culminates in an epilogue that sets up the next phase of the Marvel universe and puts each piece in place, rather than focus on a climatic final battle.

Most of the impact of the issue is lost through this curse of advertising future issues: having almost all the characters involved standing fit and well on the preview to next month’s front cover isn’t exactly anti-spoiler. With regard to the characters that are not present, their fate is all too obvious. Siege is by no means a bad book, even though the writing is not as high level as, say, Civil War. Olivier Coipel’s artwork is sumptuous, explosive and does justice to the epic battle between men and gods, even if the emotional heart is left wanting. The end of Siege will give birth to The Heroic Age, as Marvel steps back from events that left any new reader years behind in the story arc to focus on more episodic issues.

The timing of this runs parallel to the end of DC’s Blackest Night, an event which saw the entire universe under threat in many cross over issues – eventually launching into its own brilliantly titled new series, Brightest Day. Both powerhouse publishers are finally taking the long overdue step away from the word “dark” in the Comic Book world. The past decade had seen each progressive book or movie sequel seemingly use this phrase as a secret password to success. On the movie side of the business, The Dark Knight may very well be to blame for this since it set the bench mark in box office success, critical acclaim and Oscar glory. But the adjective has lost all resonance after six Harry Potter sequels shoving it down our throats; it’s now become synonymous with moody teens and turned into a cliché. So it’s finally time to step back and let heroes be heroes in the cold light of day, and let new readers jump into the respective universes without fear of getting too lost in history.

Viva la Heroic revolucion.