The Wry's Rants for May 12 comics, with a Rant on Siege

The New Avengers Finale One Shot

Brought to you by the combo of Brian Michael Bendis and Bryan Hitch/Stuart Immonen, this is the final New Avengers until next month's New Avenger's #1 (shouldn't that be New New Avengers?). This issue finally ends the on-again off-again story that these guys have had with the Hood. Hood and Masque had fled the scene during Siege and went to her dad for help, who just happens to be Count Nefaria. The Avengers track them down and chaos erupts in the form of a fight scene. Also some flashback scenes at the end of the issue with various artists from various points during the series.
Well, if you've been getting New Avengers then you should pretty much pick this up as well. If you haven't been getting it, then there's no need to unless you want to find out what happens with the Hood.


Birds Of Prey #1

Ah, it's Gail Simone and Ed Benes, and they're back on Birds of Prey. It's been a long time since these two have been on this title together, and personally I'm glad they're back. This issue is basically Oracle forming the team again, this time with the roster of Black Canary, Lady Blackhawk, Huntress, Hawk and Dove. Most of the issue is spent bring everyone together, but the story why they're brought together is that Oracle got some files delivered to her that she wasn't expecting. It was files on about a dozen heros/villians, but the info on them were complete. All their secrets, all their habits, all their behaviours. And Oracle wants to find out who sent this to her and why.
Good title, good writing, and great art. It's nice seeing Benes's art so clean (it seemed really scratchy on Justice League) and I hope he sticks around for awhile. Definitely recommended.


Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1

Now it's time to get things fixed. This is a six issue miniseries by Grant Morrison and Chris Sprouse, and it's about getting Bruce Wayne back into the modern day DC universe. Grant was the one who put him there so it's makes sense that he should be the one to correct it. The first issue has Batman in the caveman era, but apparently he doesn't remember anything. He's found by one tribe that's being hunted by another tribe led by Vandal Savage. After dealing with that situation Bruce gets transported to another time era. It also has Superman, Booster Gold and Green Lantern (Jordan) looking for him and to get him back.
Well, it's Grant Morrison, which to me is a bad thing. I was not a fan of Final Crisis, and I HATED Batman R.I.P., so I'm wondering how this could go wrong as well. Usually Grant starts off his stories fine, but then the middle gets all wacked out, and then the story ends, hopefully with an actual resolution. Get this if you're a Morrison fan, if you're a Batman fan then get this if you don't mind Morrison. If you don't like Morrison then I'd advise against getting it.

Siege #4

It THE Marvel event! (just ask them) And it's now coming to a close, by Brian Michael Bendis and Oliver Coipel. At this point it's no longer about invading Asgard as it's about stopping the Sentry in his void mode. In a surprising move, Loki actually helps out once he sees how much out of hand this has gotten. Once it's all over, the Avengers are back, Steve Rogers is now running S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Registration Act is no more. It's not really doing anything new, just a reset more than anything.
What's my opinion of this issue/story? Well, we can just use that to segue into the following rant:

The Wry's Rant on SIEGE

So THIS is the big ending of this seven year epic by Bendis? Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Disassembled, I liked New Avengers, Civil War was fun (although the ending was abrupt), Secret Invasion was good (just the main story, all the tie-ins were unnecessary), and Dark Avengers was surprising well done. I just got the feeling that this story was more or less resetting the status quo other than changing it.
You have Steve Rogers now running SHIELD, which I have no problem with since Bucky will stay as Captain America. They got rid of the Registration Act, which again I agree with as that has run it's course. Don't know what to think of the 14 new Avenger titles are starting during the next few months, though. And I thought all the SIEGE one shots were a waste of time. Seriously. You could have not read any of them and you wouldn't have missed a thing.
I like Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man #1 was when I started reading his stuff), and the fact that he had this huge story in this head that was able to publish is very cool (it's like Geoff Johns and his Green Lantern work). Was this a good story? I thought so. Did it wraps things up? Absolutely. I just don't think SIEGE was the epic story that Marvel was making it out to be.