Big Things Coming for Marvel

Dark Reign will be coming to an end soon. You can't tell from actually reading the series, but The List is spearheading the closing act to Osborn's rule. This December, all of Osborn's actions, alliances, and past deeds will come back to haunt him. The Siege is on!

From the looks of things, Loki seems to be at the forefront of Osborn's coming demise (something I predicted way back in May in my feature piece about Loki, My Favorite Villain. In countless books he's been building mysterious alliances, assembling teams, and empowering new allies. One of those alliances seems to be of the utmost importance. Of course, I'm talking about the team of Loki and Dr. Doom. From the first page of Dark Reign: The Cabal, we all knew Doom was not going to sit idly by with Osborn flaunting a delusional sense of power. Siege is the realization of Loki and Doom's assertion of true power.

Another cool thing coming out of Siege is the reunion of Marvel's holy trinity - Captain America, Iron Man and Thor. The three haven't fought together in almost 10 years, and for good reason. Captain America's been dead, Thor's been saving Asgard, and Iron Man's been an asshole. But Siege seems to be strong enough for the trio to put their differences aside and unite for a greater cause. In fact, this new direction is being touted as the largest shift in the Avengers Universe since Disassembled.

Siege isn't the only big thing coming in Marvel though. The X-Men have their own event going on in 2010 with Second Coming. Remember when I told you not drop Cable, even though it has been abysmal? Well this is why. Second Coming is about the Mutant Messiah's return to the X-Men and stems from the events of Cable #21. Writers are hinting strongly that Hope is actually Jean Grey and could either be the key to the survival of mutants or their downfall. Either way, I'm totally stoked for it. Heck, I've been reading Cable for two years solely for this purpose.

Siege will be a four part series starting in January, with a free prologue available digitally late December. Brian Bendis will be writing it with Olivier Coipel handling art duties. Also, read Siege: The Cabal in December to see Doom's role in all of this. Second Coming begins in 2010 and will be a 14 part crossover between Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, X-Men: Legacy, and New Mutants.