Siege Tie-ins for 2-24

My back is apparently conspiring against me, which means I'll have to do these reviews before I try home chriopractcy. Lets get to these.

Thunderbolts 141, New Avengers 62

Dark Wolverine 83, Avengers: The Initiative 33

New Avengers

I'm dealing with the worst of the bunch, first. IF this issue happened before Siege 1 I would not be so angry about it. As I said before, one of the little tricks Bendis likes to use is to use flashbacks for tie-in books to the larger story, pulling curtains aside to fill in small details for the audience. The problem with this is that it does nothing to reveal more about a character. This is the story to how Steve Rogers got the team together between Siege 1 and 2. Did we really need a 2 issue story on how Steve Rogers gets the team together? Couldnt I just assume the Avengers, you know, assemble?

Dark Wolverine

And continuing our trend of pointless tie-ins...

I kid, slightly. This story doesn't really impact the events of Siege, and the hopes that Daken stabbing Osborn through the chest at the end of DW 82 were real events were quickly dashed, as I expected. However, we get a little shout-out to the Thor: Disassembled series and Daken gets a nice bit of characterization, again, in this book that he never recieves in Dark Avengers.

Avengers: The Initiative

Gage does a superb job juggling the massive cast of this book, going between stories about Taskmater, Diamondback and Constrictor, Penance, and the New Warriors vs. The Hood. Theres nothing too amazing to crow about outside of good characterization of all the parties involved. Taskmaster quickly realizes he's in waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

over his head and gives a nice quip about the special kind of crazy needed to lay Siege to Norse Asgard. Plus, this issue, not a flashback or a fever dream. Its a nice bit of fleshing out contemporary events to the Siege and adding more story to Bendis' 4 issue mini event.

Thunderbolts

Alright, this one was the best. I've been digging Thunderbolts for almost a year now. The whoel group is fractured. Half of the group has to survive the bouts of violence out of the other half and the boss acts as if they're throw aways. This is Dark X-Men but in monthly format :D

You know whats alo good about this book? Its not a tie in that fleshes out the events already going on, its not a fever dream, its not a flashback, its an actual story that has some potential to impact on the greater narrative, if you believe the Thunderbolts will actually steal the spear of Odin and get it into Osborn's hands around Siege 4, and is completely new to the story as its being told. Holy Christ! This is a real tie-in! Jeff Parker's sense of irony is in top form, too, within the opening pages, as the remainder of the T-bolts gather to listen to Osborn praise their work/brief them on their current mission. Plus, this book features the miracles and fun of Pym-Science as the Mighty Avengers enter the fray in the end.