So, Marvel’s latest blockbuster event — Siege — wrapped up this week, and it actually turned out to be one of their best in a few years.

Of course these mammoth events have become standard operating procedure for the “Big Two”; the last one at the House of Ideas, Secret Invasion, really stunk. Siege, however, was a great read because of three key factors.

First: It was short. In an effort to fill out trade paperbacks, story arcs usually run about six issues these days — and most don’t need to run that long. Siege, on the other hand, clocked in at four issues and, as a result, the story was a lot tighter and fast-paced.

Second: There weren’t a lot of tie-in books. OK, Marvel seemed to throw in a bunch of one-shot tie-ins near the end of the series, but the entire saga was essentially told in two major books (That’s not counting the Avengers books). And you truly only had to read the main Siege series to follow the story.

Third: It was action-packed. Writer Brian Michael Bendis, who penned the series, built a career out of “talking head” books, so it was refreshing to see him pull back on his own (sometimes-cliché) traits and serve up a straight-up superhero mega-battle.

Oh and one bonus point: The end of Siege ended years of dangling plot points and set up a new regime in the Marvel Universe that should please fans of all stripes. If you haven’t read Siege yet, scoop up the back issues and dig in.