Secret Invasion

The genius of Secret Invasion lies in the long term set-up – this isn’t just the annual contrived summer event blockbuster, but a storyline Bendis had been subtly threading through the Marvel books for years beforehand. Not only was this done in direct plot terms, but also thematically, the distrust in the superhero community engendered by the Civil War storyline being built on. I like that sort of attention to detail in a shared universe, it shows creators are paying attention to other people’s work and feeding off each other.

What it also means is that things are genuinely unpredictable, at the outset we simply have no idea who’s going to turn out to be a Skrull double, so hero on hero punch-ups are plentiful and there’s a show more genuine tension to exchanges between the Skrull Queen and Tony Stark where you can’t tell if she’s undermining key personnel or waking a sleeper agent. In a comics world which too often tends to the predictable and seen-it-all-before it’s quite refreshing. Of course, to a large extent, it’s an excuse for seven issues worth of punch-ups but when the fights are as beautifully rendered as Leinil Francis Yu manages here, even that’s forgivable.

Whether it’s reflective of a new paranoia about a religious enemy infiltrating the US, much as Civil War was about the limits of liberty in a state worried about security, or just the latest excuse for a punch-up fuelled by leftover monsters from an era of Cold War paranoia, I couldn’t possibly say. But as comics go, whatever any intended wider resonance, it’s one of the better summer blockbusters. show less

Secret Invasion is action packed with some big events, but my still limited superhero knowledge meant I was a little confused and lost in places! I spent a lot of time on Wikipedia and quizzing my Boyfriend to work out who was who.. and I still couldn't tell you them all!

The Skrulls have a clever plan to invade Earth. Over many years they have replaced heroes with identical Skrull agents, and now the superheroes have no idea who they can trust. Tony Stark, having positioned himself as the most powerful man on the planet (and head of SHIELD) is poisoned, Starktech is compromised and the Earth's defense is wide open. They're so busy fighting themselves the battle is almost over before the Skrull even attack, and then all the different show more powered people of earth must band together.

Like I said.. being somewhat of a Marvel newbie I only knew about 50% of the characters in this (and still only grasp about 70%)! It was fun to learn who they are though. The main headliners take the lead but this was also my first introduction to Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, The Wasp, Mar-vell and Spider-Woman. I had no clue who Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman was and she a pretty big role in this book! It was cool to see the comic book versions of Maria Hill, Mockingbird and Daisy Jones.

It's heavy on the action, which while being cool, involves about 20 characters (on each side) at a time so it's very busy and can be hard to work out exactly what the heck is going on! It all came to a bit of an abrupt end too.. but with some important events that will shake up the universe. Norman Osborne as head of SHIELD, WHAT?!

I believe Dark Reign follow on from this, so maybe I'll go there next.. I did enjoy reading this, it's made me more excited to read more! I've got such a long list of characters I want to check out. show less

I only started reading comics after the Marvel film Avengers was released. The first crossover event I read was Siege before going back to read Disassembled and Civil War. I had planned to skip Secret Invasion because it just didn't sound that interesting. That was until I watched the animated series, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, where a version of Secret Invasion comprised the season two arc. It peaked my interest in reading the comic event.

Unlike Civil War, for which Marvel published seven large hardcover omnibuses, Secret Invasion is not as massive. However, in this case, the tie-ins are almost more important than the main event because they set up the infiltration, the conspiracy, and who can and cannot be trusted. This show more collection of the actual main event is mostly a multi-faceted battle between the heroes and the now revealed Skrulls. What makes the battles so exciting is that ALL the heroes are involved: Young Avengers, New Warriors, Avengers, Mighty Avengers, etc. Even many villains join in against the invaders. To keep this from being one never-ending action sequence, the story also includes reunions as characters replaced by Skrulls return to fight alongside their family and friends, and readers learn about everyone who has been a bad guy in disguise.

Though I think this is the weakest of the crossover events I have read so far (and nowhere near the level of Siege or Civil War), it was a good story with lots of twists that require readers to pay attention while still having more than one surprise. After I finish the tie-ins, I will reread this because I think I’ll catch even more detail. Overall, a solid story that was well worth reading. show less

Great story. Love the art. Cross hatching? Classic. Clint looks so hot as Ronin.

I enjoyed this series, although it does seem to be another heroes vs heroes series. I am starting to miss the series of one big bad guy vs a bunch of different heroes. I'm probably reading the wrong series then since these major event series seem to just want to cram every character they can think of into these books. I swear one panel even had Howard the Duck in it.

Anyway, the story was interesting with the reveal of who was and was not a skrull (A shape shifting alien). The thing I wanted to know was how they gave these imposters the super powers of the people they are impersonating. Maybe that was discussed in one of the side issues for each individual character.

Next up is the Event Series "War of Kings".

A good story. The who-can-you-trust/who's-really-a-Skrull dynamic is compelling, especially until a fantastic weapon gets created. The tie-ins back to earlier stories seemed well done. And all the important people make an appearance in one form or another, with the return of off-screen or dead heroes.

The motivations for the Skrull invasion could have been better stated in this volume (rather than just the other tie-ins), but I didn't mind the excess of fight scenes that left room for.

I have to agree with a previous reviewer - this story line did not reach it's full potential. After a long set up going back to "New Avengers" #1 this series felt like it had been scripted by a WWE writer. After the early reveals are over the fighting starts. Every issue some new group or high powered individual shows up to throw their/his hat in the ring and the brawl continues. Given all the fighting very little damage is done to the heroes (with one exception). Thousands of Skrulls die, but no one else.
The conclusion was a good set up for Dark Reign, but the way it happened was too forced.
Unlike others I really liked the art. Yu has been drawing the Avengers for a while (if you've been following the regular series) and while I show more think Perez is the standard Yu has a contribution to make.
For a story that has had so much build up and such large implications this culmination is simply one big brawl that almost doesn't need text. show less