A Crisis of Chronology: Avengers Disassembled – Siege

Advertised as an event “seven years in the making,” Siege was the finale of Marvel’s chain of status quo shaking events following Brian Michael Bendis’ 2004 event Avengers Disassembled. As such, I thought that I would compile a list of the important stories from Disassembled to Siege for this week’s helping of A Crisis of Chronology. If you’re ready to see what makes up seven years of constantly shifting status quo, follow the jump.

Since there is a LOT on this list there is no way I can comment on the various titles as I normally do. Instead, I will start out with a few notes:

While this list focuses on certain titles, even the ones that I use extensively do not have every single trade on the list. While they may undoubtedly be important to that title, for the purposes of this list sacrifices had to be made; it’s massive enough as is!

Sorry X-Fans, but there is very little X-Men-related content on this list; including the X-Men status quo would have nearly doubled the list’s length. Astonishing X-Men was included because it is easily accessible and is somewhat needed for House of M, and Utopia because it crossed with Dark Avengers. The same follows for post-OMD Spider-Man; there’s just so much to keep track of. Expect a 2000’s-era X-Men list in the somewhat near future, though.

When doing lists of this size, I have to make some sacrifices in terms of chronology. Since this list is by trade rather than by issue, there is some overlap at points, but I assembled the list as best as I could to read smoothly. To get everything perfect chronology-wise, I would have to go issue by issue, and if you expect me to do that for seven whole years of Marvel comics I think you’re a mean person.

There were lots of good things that had to be left off because they weren’t too important to this list (Alias, Fantastic Four, etc). It makes me sad too. The plus side is that a lot of this list is of pretty high quality, whereas I’ve read lots of bad stuff in the past because of my weird obsession with continuity.

Since he’s a big figure in Dark Avengers/Siege, you may be wondering why the original mini introducing The Sentry isn’t on this list. Well, first of all it’s before Disassembled, but more importantly Bendis presents The Sentry much differently than Jenkins did in his original mini, so you might as well be exposed to him through the second volume of New Avengers. Read the original mini if you’re curious though, as it’s pretty good. Same goes for The Hood.

Not so much a note on the list, but just an observation: I find it interesting that were it not for Warren Ellis’ amazing Thunderbolts, Dark Reign/Siege probably never would have happened. Huh.

Dark Reign: The List had surprisingly very little effect on this reading order. The only ones that were really important in this context were Secret Warriors (which was reprinted in the second trade) and New Avengers. Instead of buying the whole trade, I would just try to find a back issue of New Avengers: The List and read it sometime between Power Loss and Siege.

Yes, yes, there’s no Annihilation. Follow my previous Cosmic Marvel list for that.

I think that’s all that has to be said. If you’re daring, scroll down a bit more for the list in all of its glory. Have a friend nearby to catch you in case you faint. As always, there may be some spots for debate (especially when working on something of this size) so be sure to leave some feedback. Also, if you have any questions about certain titles, feel free to ask in the comments.

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