Look, I'm going to spoil the living hell out of the end of this week's Iron Man #18, because it's too cool not to share.

But if you haven't read it yet, well, you don't want to read this post. Unless you don't read Iron Man, in which case maybe this will make you want to read it.

Whatever. Spoilage will commence after the 5 Iron Man images. See you then...





Still with us? OK, here we go...

Here's the situation: Last time we saw the Mandarin, he revealed that each of his rings actually held the soul of an alien being, and he was trying to free them (in order to better rule the world, of course). Then, he kinda died, but the body and rings were never recovered (duh).

Meanwhile, in this issue Tony and his newly discovered brother are going to completely remake the world in order to save it, because Stark=Arrogant ass (you can look it up...that's literally in the dictionary*)! (*editor's note--no it's not**) (**author's note--but it should be!)

So, anyway, at the very end of this issue, out of absolutely nowhere...







Holy crap, Kieron Gillen is totally stealing the Green Lantern riff and applying it to the Mandarin!! His rings are going to create the Mandarin Corps!!

How is it possible that no one else has thought of this in the past 50 years?!?

Now let's just hope Gillen doesn't go so far as to adopt the "emotional spectrum"...

Oh, Kieron Gillen...

...if only more modern comic writers felt that way...

From Journey Into Mystery #638

I unreservedly acknowledge that this is probably just me and my warped perceptions...but it sure seems that, in this scene in this week's Journey Into Mystery #630...

...that maybe, just maybe, Kieron Gillen might be making a wee bit of a veiled comment on the lameness of the Big Bad in Fear Itself, and the way he was pretty much unnamed, unexplained, and uncharacterized throughout the series.

I'm just sayin'.

For this and all posts today, SPOILER ALERT for Siege and the 95 Avengers titles released Wednesday...SPOILERS start after the Avengers logo...



In the one-shot Siege:Loki, Thor scribe Kieron Gillen gives us the story behind Loki's urging Norman Osborn to attack Asgard. Loki, it turns out, feels trapped by predestination...

...and sees but one way out for himself:

Yup, he's going to "burn clean" Asgard. And after egging on Osborn, Loki goes through incredibly elaborate machinations with the Disir, Mephisto and Hela to exempt himself from spending eternity with the Asgardians. As he witnesses Asgard in flames, he tells Mephisto:


So, yeah, he wanted Asgard to be destroyed. And he declares that mischief is a "toy" he's "discarded." Now he's interested in "mayhem."

Great story, well done, great motivation, everybody loved it.

But Bendis wasn't having any of that. Nope, from the first page of Siege #4, Loki is crying like a little baby, shocked--shocked, I tell you--that something has destroyed Asgard:

Ah, suddenly, Loki didn't mean to destroy Asgard. He was only interested in mischief. He wanted Asgard to be in glory.

None of which is consistent in the least, of course, with what Gillen told us in his Loki story. Unless you want to believe that Loki was so unhinged by the success of his plan he suddenly recanted. He's suddenly pissed that Sentry destroyed Asgard, when he started this whole plan to destroy Asgard in the first place.

Not that Bendis has a history of caring what any other writers do. But you think that someone at Marvel, some editor or something, could at least make sure their writers are telling the same story, especially when they're hyping it as the story of the half-decade.

Too bad. Loki deserved better than to be turned into a simpering fool.