Genius: Siege (Comics) | Review

What happens when Napoleon's strategic brilliance manifests in a 17-year-old girl from South Central Los Angeles? Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman answer that question with devastating clarity in Genius: Siege. This isn't just another coming-of-age story set against urban struggle. It's a full-scale war thriller where the protagonist holds all the tactical advantages.

The series won Top Cow's 2008 Pilot Season competition but took six years to reach publication. That delay proved strangely prophetic. By 2014, America was grappling with Ferguson and renewed scrutiny of police violence, making Destiny's war feel less like fiction and more like inevitable collision.

Destiny Ajaye watched police kill her parents as a child. Instead of breaking, she sharpened herself into something far more dangerous. This collection gathers the original Pilot Season issue plus the five-part weekly miniseries that launched in 2014. Artist Afua Richardson brings South Central to life with unflinching realism.

Destiny Ajaye possesses the kind of military genius that only appears once in a generation. Her intellect rivals history's greatest tacticians but circumstances of birth placed her in South Central rather than West Point. Growing up surrounded by gang violence taught her lessons most generals never learn.

After years navigating street politics and gang hierarchies, Destiny makes an impossible decision. She unites rival gangs across racial and territorial lines, forging them into a disciplined fighting force with singular purpose. Then she does the unthinkable: she secedes three blocks of South Central from the Union and declares war on the LAPD.

The premise sounds absurd until you watch her execute it. Destiny doesn't just throw bodies at a problem. She studies police tactics, identifies systemic weaknesses and exploits them with surgical precision. Every ambush, every strategic retreat, every feint serves a larger tactical objective most people can't even see yet.

Detective Reginald Grey becomes the story's reluctant Fox Mulder. For years he's warned his superiors about someone uniting the gangs, building an army right under their noses. Nobody believed him. They laughed him out of meetings and dismissed his theories as paranoid nonsense until body bags started piling up.

The violence escalates quickly as Destiny's forces systematically dismantle SWAT teams and elite tactical units. Bernardin and Freeman don't glorify the bloodshed but they don't shy away from showing its consequences either. Both sides suffer losses. The body count rises with each engagement, forcing readers to confront uncomfortable questions about revolution and change.

What makes Siege compelling isn't just tactical warfare. It's watching Destiny grapple with the weight of command. She sends people to die for her vision, carries that burden without flinching and still questions whether the cost justifies the outcome. Her genius separates her from everyone, even those fighting beside her.

The creative team frames Destiny's war as a statement rather than a sustainable victory. She knows she can't win long-term against the full might of law enforcement. But she can force the world to acknowledge that her community matters, that ignoring systemic problems carries consequences nobody wants to face directly.

Supporting characters like Gerald and Chavonne provide necessary perspective on Destiny's leadership. They believe in her vision enough to risk everything but they're also watching their friends die for abstract ideals. Their loyalty gets tested repeatedly as casualties mount and the endgame remains unclear to everyone except Destiny.

The story contextualizes Destiny's actions within broader discussions about police violence, systemic racism and community empowerment. Published in 2014 around the time of Ferguson, Siege feels uncomfortably prescient. The issues it tackles haven't diminished with time; they've only become more urgent and more publicly acknowledged across America.

Bernardin and Freeman refuse to make Destiny conventionally heroic. She manipulates people, sacrifices pawns and crosses moral boundaries most would never consider. But her motivations remain understandable even when her methods disturb. She's fighting a system designed to crush her community and she's using the only weapons available to someone in her position.

The collection ends with consequences rather than resolution. Destiny's siege forces a reckoning but lasting change requires more than tactical victories. This arc serves as foundation for Genius: Cartel, which picks up with Destiny imprisoned in a government facility for prodigies, facing new battles on different terrain.

Afua Richardson delivers career-defining work throughout this collection. Her South Central feels lived-in and authentic, capturing both beauty and brutality without romanticizing either. Character designs balance distinctive features with realistic proportions, making even background characters feel like actual people rather than generic props.

Richardson excels at action choreography, rendering combat with kinetic energy that never sacrifices clarity. You can track every tactical movement and understand spatial relationships between combatants. Her panel layouts control pacing brilliantly, using varied compositions to build tension during quieter strategic planning moments.

The color work enhances mood without calling attention to itself. Richardson employs muted palettes for planning sequences, then shifts to harsher lighting during combat. Night scenes feel genuinely dark and dangerous. Every visual choice serves the narrative rather than existing for purely aesthetic reasons.

Bernardin and Freeman's script crackles with authenticity. The dialogue sounds natural without falling into stereotype, giving characters distinct voices that reveal personality. Destiny speaks with measured precision, while her lieutenants bring different communication styles reflecting their backgrounds.

Genius: Siege succeeds as both gripping military thriller and unflinching social commentary. Bernardin, Freeman and Richardson craft a story that refuses easy answers while delivering spectacular tactical warfare. The creative team treats their subject matter with respect.

This collection works best for readers who appreciate morally complex protagonists willing to explore uncomfortable territory. The violence serves narrative purpose but remains graphic. Destiny's methods force difficult questions about revolution and whether ends justify means.

Richardson's artwork elevates already strong writing into something memorable. Her visual storytelling matches the script's intensity, creating complete aesthetic experience. Every panel choice contributes to building a world that feels dangerously real.

The timing of Siege's publication in 2014 proved both blessing and curse. The story resonated powerfully amid national conversations about police violence. Networks reportedly struggled adapting it for television, uncomfortable with depicting officers as antagonists regardless of narrative context.

You can read Genius: Siege in print through the collected trade paperback edition, which brings the first five issues in one volume. It is also available digitally on Amazon Kindle, ComiXology and Image Comics app, so you can read it instantly without hunting down single issues.