Thursday, May 20, 2010

Siege Reading Group Guide and Discussion Questions

Siege Reading Group Guide

Now that you've finished reading Marvel's Siege, you may enjoy getting together with your book group and discussing the series. We suggest finger snacks and light beverages for your book club meeting. Be sure to tell that one person in your reading group—you know the one I mean—that you're meeting tomorrow instead of tonight. Or, when they ring the doorbell, shut off all the lights and hide behind the couch. Ready?




Siege Reading Group Guide

1. Compare and contrast the character and role of Loki in "Siege" with that of tricksters and mischief-makers in other literature. Do you think he has more in common with Uncle Remus's Br'er Rabbit or Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King's It? What do you think Jack Kirby would have thought if he had lived to see Loki as a woman? If Loki had a team-up with any DC character, who do you think it would be? Batman? Is it Batman? Do you think he might team up with Batman? Wouldn't you buy that series?




Siege Reading Group Guide

2. What does HAMMER stand for? Is "Ham" the first word? Discuss.




Siege Reading Group Guide

3. In the first issue of Siege, the Chicago Bears are destroyed by an energy explosion that levels Soldier Field. What effect do you think this would have upon the remainder of the 2010 NFL season? If you were running a rotisserie NFL league and had picked the Bears, how would you re-arrange the rest of your season to compensate?




Siege Reading Group Guide

4. Do you think Oprah was at that football game? If she wasn't, couldn't it be possible that she was hit by energy flying outwards from the stadium, frying her instantly? Or, perhaps, a piece of falling debris sliced her in two? Maybe Dan LeFevour fell on her? How many ways can you think of that Oprah would die in the Marvel Universe?




Siege Reading Group Guide

5. What the heck is up with Norman Osborn's hair, anyway?




Siege Reading Group Guide

6. Examine and compare the death of Ares in Siege #2 to the deaths of Hamlet, Anna Karenina, Woody Woodpecker and two fictional characters of your choice. Use math and show your work. Were you eating dinner when you read that page where the Sentry ripped him in half?




Siege Reading Group Guide

7. Marvel-Earth's President Obama originally supported and backed up the actions of Norman Osborn. Is he a chump or a Skrull? Discuss and use examples from Secret Invasion, World War Hulk, and Fox News.




Siege Reading Group Guide

8. How many characters had the reset button pushed during Siege to erase all the actions of Civil War onwards? Is this (choose one) a cheap plot device or a corner Bendis couldn't write his way out of? What would you have done to redeem the following characters?: Tony Stark, Hank Pym, J. Jonah Jameson, Willie Lumpkin. For extra credit, use Teen Tony from The Crossing.




Siege Reading Group Guide

9. Broxton, Oklahoma, has no movie theaters. What do you think the residents of Broxton do in the evening? What time do you think they go to bed? If there was a movie theater in town, which three movies would it be running? Then, match each of these movies to one of the Warriors Three in personality and appeal, and postulate how much popcorn they buy. If one of the movies is Sex and the City 2, which of the Warriors would most like to see that?




Siege Reading Group Guide

10. If you were going to use the SHIELD helicarrier as a bullet, who would you drop it on? Would it be Oprah?




Siege Reading Group Guide

11. Why does Spider-Man feel so much anger and resentment towards Norman Osborn? Oh, yeah, that Gwen thing. Sorry, never mind about this question.




Siege Reading Group Guide

12. Apparently the Sentry was the most powerful and important superhero in the Marvel Universe since its beginning. Choose a major Marvel Comics event of the past and explain how he saved the world much better than anyone else. Extra points for explaining "Atlantis Attacks."




Siege Reading Group Guide

13. Match each one of the Dark Avengers to the Seven Deadly Sins. Now match each one of them to the Seven Dwarfs.




Siege Reading Group Guide

14. Believed to be murdered, both Captain America and Batman were actually hit by time bullets and sent careening through history. Which historical events do you think they got to team up together in? You'd buy a comic book based on that, right?




Siege Reading Group Guide

15. Where were the Pussycat Dolls during all this?


7 comments:

Brian Smith said...

Question 12: The Dire Wraiths were in reality defeated by the Sentry, and not Rom, who was actually Sentry's inept sidekick and OW I'm just kidding OW OW STOP HITTING ME OW

Matthew Craig said...

Loki played by Jon Pertwee, there.

And to answer Rhetorical Question 5: people what haven't heard of Fred MacMurray or Sid James probably don't know about sortin' out their cherubic curls with Dirty English Men's 7oz. Pomade.

"I'm a Dapper Dan Man!"

//\Oo/\\

Paul McCall said...

"5. What the heck is up with Norman Osborn's hair, anyway?"
Or, in this case, Tommy Lee Jones hair. You should do a post on the many faces of Norman Osborne during the whole Dark Reign thing. Has MARVEL never heard of a model sheet?

Evan Waters said...

9. Not a lot, probably drinking.

AVATAR would probably still be playing, let's say IRON MAN 2 (assuming it exists in its known state in the MU), probably DATE NIGHT to round things out.

Volstagg really likes DATE NIGHT.

SallyP said...

I managed to retain a reasonable amount of composure until I reached the line about comparing the evil Avengers to the Seven Deadly Sins...and then the Seven Dwarves. At which point, I lost it completely.

My dog is STILL hiding under the chair.

Zenith Comics said...

Brilliant! Well done sir :)

Servo said...

8. Every time Bendis writes anything about the Avengers, Baby Jesus cries. 'Nuff said.

9. They teamed up to make sure Jan made it to Bonwit's for the sale. And Yes...just for the two of the them, I'd buy it!

15. They were hanging out with the unleashed Shagg. Yea, Baby!

Great post, Bully. My stomach still hurts from laughing.