SIEGE (2015) #1 Spoilertalk/Discussion: Keep Finding those Silver Linings, Princess

[CraigTheCylon]

Surprised no-one's beaten me to the punch here, 'cause this feels worth talking about.

Synopsis:
spoilers:

10 years ago, Abigail Brand is...somewhere in deep shadow, fighting a large humanoid named Ord. She kills him, and a digitized voice lectures her on her rebellious streak before consigning her to defend the Shield for the rest of her life. She welcomes the decision. In the present, Brand is woken by Leah, one of the 'Hel-Rangers' (those who fight deeper into the south to break attack waves before they reach the Shield) and Leonardo Da Vinci, who warns of scouting robots detecting a fresh assault. Along with Leah, Leonardo, Lady Katherine of Bishop, Miss-sorry-Ms. America Chavez, a geomancy-fluent Ben Grimm and some of the Endless Summers legion, Brand goes to deal with this assault, finding it to be the Giant-Ant-Men, a self-replicating man-sized bug army created when a Phalanx-infected Hank Pym thought he could reprogram the zombie horde to attack the Ultrons. After the battle, Brand and Leah have a talk about their respective lost loves, Henry McCoy and Illyana Rasputin. Illyana disappeared on Hel-Ranger duty a week previous and Leah is convinced she can still find her. This pleases Kang the Conqueror, who's angling to take Leah's second-in-command position. He's very confident. Brand attempts to dissuade him by telling of the last time the Shield failed: thirty years ago, it was broken in seven separate places, and the regions to the North were overrun by undead, Ultrons and Annihilus' drones, until they reached the borders of Doomstadt...then Doom teleported them all back down south and rebuilt the wall with barely a flex of his godly power. Brand is an orphan from one of the regions destroyed in that incident. In mid-argument, Kang's wrist computer starts bleeping, heralding the arrival of...also Kang, the same one but from the near future. He's dying, but before he vanishes he apologizes to Brand and warns her that Thanos has doomed them all. The last page spells it out - Time before the fall of the Shield: 20 days and counting.

end of spoilers

Initial thoughts:
- This is a pretty odd issue. There's a lot of solid character work for Abigail Brand, but there's a lot of other cast members who are barely introduced (they will presumably be important down the line) and while there's some big splash pages the after-the-fact narration robs the battles of their intensity. This isn't a war book about fighting, this is about the slow dread between all the death.
- Said splash pages are mostly handled by different art teams. I'm very partial to the Giant-Ant-Men one by James Stokoe. If you haven't read his Godzilla: The Half-Century War miniseries from IDW, do yourself a favour.
- The rest of the pages are by Filipe Andrade. His work here has an odd, almost painterly inks/colours job on it (compared to his Captain Marvel issues for example) that gives things a dreamlike haze that's curiously fitting.
- I have no idea what the hell is going on in that prologue. Anyone know?
- Interesting to note how deep the Battleworld brain conditioning goes. We know from the main Secret Wars series that Battleworld is only 8 years old, yet Brand has memories of its existence stretching back over 3 decades.
- That ending, though. I'm gonna go ahead and assume this is actively a spoiler for things to come in Secret Wars proper - granted, something more than a few of us had guessed was coming, but seeing it mentioned here makes the reality really hit home.

[nightw1ng]

The issue basically confirms but not outright saying what everyone suspected. The Shield looks like it was made from the Thing, because he seems to be a part of it. Perhaps a punishment from Doom in the same way he turned the Human Torch into the sun. The Thing is at least able to manifest a body and manipulate parts of the Shield into various forms to help defend against the hordes.

[Habis]

spoilers:

So we know that 20 days from know Thanos will break the wall and the Secret Wars will end. Well, Earth 616's heroes won't have time to go native, I guess... Also, this confirms that Doom is very powerful, but can barely use his power. The monsters from the Deadlands almost destroy the world and he didn't do anything until they were knocking his door...he seems to use every bit of his concentration to keep the world together and his own power in check. By the way, now we know why they can't travel to the past: A temporal minefield.

end of spoilers

[AJpyro]

I'm expecting black humor and at least 30-50 dead summers clones an issue. Gillen, make me proud.

[Tiamatty]

Awesome issue. Brand is her usual wonderful self. She and Leah have a great chemistry - I hope Leah doesn't leave the book completely. Kate and America get off quick to a fun chemistry.

Also, it appears this version of Leah is gay. It certainly reads like she was in a relationship with a version of Illyana. Leave it to Gillen to slip in casual LGBT content.

[nx01a]

>Endless Summers Legion ATTACK!!!
>Illyana! I hope she actually shows up alive and kicking.
>Pym is responsible for the replicating undead bugs. Way to mix the zombies and the Annihilation Wave, Hank. We knew you could do it!
>Gillen's Brand and Spurrier's Elsa Bloodstone seem VERY similar in terms of outlook, dialogue, and general badassedness.
>I quite enjoyed the issue. While there's no hope of anyone surviving, it's fun to read Gillen having fun with these characters before the meet their DOOM!

[RAINMESS]

I don't believe what the Abigail said about her childhood though. Like every-other citizen in Battleworld, her mind is recomposed by Doom. It can be just fiction.

[Fokken]

Also, it appears this version of Leah is gay. It certainly reads like she was in a relationship with a version of Illyana. Leave it to Gillen to slip in casual LGBT content.

According to a previous interview on Marvel's site, Gillen stated that Leah and Yana are best friends.

There’s Abigail Brand. The main difference [from the S.W.O.R.D. series] is that she’s considerably older; 39 or so. There’s Leah of Hel, who is basically a twin-blade warlock Red Sonya character in a full length emerald chainmail. Leah’s best friend is fellow-demon sorceress Illyanna Rasputin, who rides an enormous metallic colossus into battle.

I believe the parallel Leah was drawing between losing Henry and losing Illyana was simply to add emphasis of their significance to Brand and Leah respectively.

Unless, of course, Gillen has decided to alter that initial intent.

[Byakko]

The issue basically confirms but not outright saying what everyone suspected. The Shield looks like it was made from the Thing, because he seems to be a part of it. Perhaps a punishment from Doom in the same way he turned the Human Torch into the sun. The Thing is at least able to manifest a body and manipulate parts of the Shield into various forms to help defend against the hordes.

He doesn't seem to be fully uncomfortable, at least when he was called he just came up from the Shield and talked like he was in no pain or anything like that.

Though that shot of where the Shield was broken through, you can see his pained face.

I honestly thought it was going to be a bait-and-switch at first, like the Ross-Thing in Future Imperfect. Like his name is Grimm, or he is called a 'Grimm' and there are multiple golem-like creatures like him across the wall, like the Endless Summer clones.

[Omega Alpha]

spoilers:

Also, this confirms that Doom is very powerful, but can barely use his power. The monsters from the Deadlands almost destroy the world and he didn't do anything until they were knocking his door...he seems to use every bit of his concentration to keep the world together and his own power in check. .

end of spoilers

Except for the fact this allegedly happened 30 years ago, and Battleworld exists for 8 years, so it's likely that it never happened in the first place.

[Iron Maiden]

I wonder if in some respects they gave the writers of the tie too little information. IIRC in the first issue of Runaways, they talk about the school having a 60 year tradition. These kind of inconsistencies are confusing if some of the regions of Battleworld believe they have a longer history than others.

I suppose this can be explained away as the reason why Stephen and Victor were so rigid about the different segments of Battleworld staying apart, probably to prevent them cross-contaminating each other. Just how much do the barons know since they seem to be the only ones allowed to travel since they have to go to the High Court?

[Omega Alpha]

I wonder if in some respects they gave the writers of the tie too little information. IIRC in the first issue of Runaways, they talk about the school having a 60 year tradition. These kind of inconsistencies are confusing if some of the regions of Battleworld believe they have a longer history than others.

I suppose this can be explained away as the reason why Stephen and Victor were so rigid about the different segments of Battleworld staying apart, probably to prevent them cross-contaminating each other. Just how much do the barons know since they seem to be the only ones allowed to travel since they have to go to the High Court?

The people of Battleworld don't know the world is only 8 years old, only Doom and Strange are aware of it.

[Iron Maiden]

The people of Battleworld don't know the world is only 8 years old, only Doom and Strange are aware of it.

I realize that but it does get confusing when the other titles throw around different dates. Maybe it might be better handled if the characters just say "as far back as I remember, this has always been so" or something like that. That is a bit in line with what Strange says about the issue of memory.

[Habis]

Except for the fact this allegedly happened 30 years ago, and Battleworld exists for 8 years, so it's likely that it never happened in the first place.

Why would Doom give people false memories that make him look bad? I think that happened shortly after the creation of Battleworld, but when he tweaked the minds of his subjects to make them believe that they had always lived on Battleworld the memories of the event were somehow pushed back to 30 years before

[jackolover]

Yeah, it's hard one to explain why Brand thinks back her whole life is on Battleworld, 30 years ago she was orphaned and wanted to do war, 10 years ago she got her wish, and now, she is top dog after Fury, the previous boss, disappeared. (Can't be more than a couple of years that Fury is gone). But I can't believe Brand is 39 years old. The art is a little indistinguishable, so she maybe aged. I get the feeling if Fury came back in charge, Brand feels it would be worse than the threats over the other side of the wall.

Certainly, the SHIELD breach flashback where Doom allows the hoard to kill people in the southern states till they reach Doomstadt, smacks of punishment to the Domains, because Strange would have reported and sent the Thors as support. That this was not done speaks volumes to Dooms siege mentality, and reminds me of Wayward Pines, spoilers:

and the times the citizens rioted and they had to start again.

end of spoilers.

I thought the first issue gives good buildup to the leader of the SHIELD, Abigail Brand, filling in the landscape of the breach, the rebellious nature of Brand, and her confident know-all approach to attacks. I particularly liked Rosenbergs colours, and are those speckles in the sky, or stars, together with a floating Knowhere? The confirmation of Ben Grimms association with the wall is welcome, in that it's a strange use of his talents in the very flexing way he can be stretched over such a vast distance. Is there an amalgamation of Ben and Reed here?