If you thought I was done with Not-so-Secret Invasion, guess
again! It’s time to see if this event was worth taking up 8 months of
real time. I guess I’ll start at the usual place: the beginning. Hopefully,
this all makes some sense to the layman.
In the Beginning…
Secret Invasion as a concept was created by the event’s
writer, Brian Michael Bendis. At this point, he had been the main event person
for Marvel. He had stuff like Avengers Disassembled, Secret War, and House of M
under his belt. He also revamped the Avengers into the New Avengers. He even
had a small hand in Civil War. This was when
I really came into current comics stuff. I didn’t get much but I paid attention
online. Marvel’s Message Boards (and DC’s too) were a help in that regard. That
was how I kept up with Civil War and quite a few other books.
Talk about a shock for everyone.
Secret Invasion was pretty much a continuation of all that
came before in the MU (I almost said MCU). Civil War just ended, and the heroes
were still reeling from that. Captain America had died at this point. That’s
not even counting the other stuff that had gone down at that point. You also
had the cosmic event Annihilation play into this. By the way, that was an
awesome event. During Annihilation, the Skrulls’ homeworld was destroyed, so
Bendis decided to take that nugget and tie it in to his ongoing Avengers story.
After Civil War, Bendis started to weave in the idea of the
Skrulls taking over slowly through his Avengers books and a mini. He also gave
it a genesis in New Avengers: Illuminati, a miniseries that followed Marvel’s
Illuminati group. In the present day, the Avengers didn’t know who to trust.
You also had folk even switching sides because of all the confusion. It all was
put into a collection called Secret Invasion: The Infiltration. I re-read it
before I got into the full crossover this time and it got me excited.
Man, the Illuminati always had to mess something up!
The Event and Tie-Ins
Then, we got to the event itself which was released
throughout the latter half of 2008. From what I’ve gathered online, it wasn’t
as well received as it could be. Heck, in my recent read-through of the main
series, I didn’t think it was that great. We got to the “not-so-secret”
invasion and it was your standard fare of “Fighty McFightenstein” (Copyright
Andrew Leyland). The min-series started out strong, but it then slowed to a
halt for seven more issues. It wasn’t bad, but it felt like it wasn’t really
fleshed out. Also, Bendis decided to really draw out certain events that could have been shorter. It felt like
it could have been handled in four issues. I’ve already said my piece on the main series, though.
While the writing wasn't great, Nick Fury's quote is awesome.
Then, we get to the tie-ins which pretty much make this
event. I tried to read all I could on Marvel Unlimited but even I had my limit.
I skipped the Thunderbolts, The New Warriors, and X-Factor. Sorry, Peter David
fans! I also pulled my New Avengers tie-ins out of the box and read them. There
were even small mini-series for the X-Men, the Inhumans, Thor, and Spider-Man.
Yeah, there were a crapton of tie-ins. Most of them weren’t that great and just
your standard comic tie-in. You’d have folk fight Skrulls and that’s about it.
The New Avengers and Might Avengers covers did "Skrull Homages" to classic covers. This was pretty cool.
Luckily, there were some nice gems. While a lot of the
tie-ins show what else was going during the invasion, a few tie-ins tried to
give some backstory on how the invasion came about. Some also tried to give the
Skrulls a little depth and not just have them as aliens bent on world takeover.
They had a religious reason in wanting to rule Earth since it was prophesized
in their texts. If that sounds like something in the real world, then you’re
not the only one who noticed that. It even gets mentioned in most tie-ins that
these Skrulls have a Jihadist vibe to them. Here are some tie-ins I thought
were pretty good or showed different sides to the invasion:
New Avengers (#39-47) – This book touched on a few areas.
Most of the series revolved around how the invasion came to be. We found out
how the Skrulls were able to become undetectable. We also saw how Queen Veranke
became Jessica Drew and how she played everybody. The series also looked at
certain characters during the invasion like Spider-Man, Ka-Zar, the Hood, and
Jessica Jones. These tie-ins were fine for the most part. I thought the ones
that revolved around the Skrulls and Queen Veranke were pretty good.
Mighty Avengers (#12-20) – This was also used to show backstory and
some current events. We found out how Hank Pym and Elektra were replaced, and
we even got a story on how there was more than one Skrull Pym. We even find out
what Nick Fury was up to and how he assembled his Secret Warriors. With the
current events, we see what the Skrull Captain Marvel and Noh-Varr (Marvel Boy)
were up to during the invasion. We also got some aftermath with the real Hank
Pym as he found out about the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), his ex-wife, dying during
the battle. I felt this was one of the better tie-in books since we got
interesting stuff on the Skrullls and Nick Fury.
We even find out who was behind the Raft Breakout which led to the formation of the New Avengers.
Secret Invasion: Inhumans and Secret Invasion: War of Kings
– The Inhuman min-series revolved around how the Royal Family got back Black
Bolt. Remember that he too was replaced by a Skrull. The War of Kings one-shot
had Black Bolt and the Inhumans… waging war on the Skrulls and anyone else in
the way. Yeah, it goes there. These were two of the best books from the event. Even though
they don’t deal with anything on Earth, what happened with the Inhumans was cool.
It even makes me want to check out this War of Kings event.
So... why didn't we get this version of the Royal Family in the MCU? That horrid TV show doesn't count!
Black Panther (#39-41) – These tie-ins were written by Jason
Aaron. I guess Reginald Hudlin was on vacation because I really liked these
tie-ins. It shows Wakanda going up against a small Skrull armada. Wakanda does
something to thee Skrulls’ tech, so it becomes a brutal ground battle. Black
Panther gets to be awesome as usual and we end up following the Skrull
commander who runs the armada. The artwork isn’t the best but there were some
cool images.
Avengers: The Initiative (#14-19) – This centered on the
young register heroes while they face off the invasion. Since Skrull Pym was
one of the head folk for the Initiative, the Skrulls were able to sneak in an
agent on each state team. While they deal with that and the main battle in New
York, we also follow one of the Skrull agents disguised as a hero called the
Crusader. He ended up liking human culture and helped the heroes. While I
wasn’t too impressed with these tie-ins, I did like that we got another view on
the Skrulls through Crusader.
Secret Invasion: Frontline – This five-part mini was a lot
like Civil War: Frontline since it looked at the regular people during the
event. It centered on reporter Ben Urich and a few folks as they try to survive
through the invasion in New York. It’s fine for the most part since it does
show the “Average Joe” side of the invasion.
This feels strangely relevant.
Secret Invasion:
X-Men – This was another fine mini that had the X-Men defend San Francisco from
the Skrulls. At this point, they and all mutants (post House of M) relocated
there. The story was nice, but I wasn’t a big fan of the art for all the
issues. Still, it was nice to see the X-Men pull a few tricks on the Skrulls…
like giving them the Legacy virus. Yeah. They went there.
So... when is this guy coming back? I miss him.
Ms. Marvel (#28-30) – In these tie-ins, we find out what Ms.
Marvel was up to in New York. It’s pretty much her fighting Skrulls in New York
and kicking all sorts of alien butt. I also gotta say that the artist was
definitely invoking Ed Benes with the artwork. I can kind of see why Carol
Danvers has a new (and better) costume. Still… MAN, SHE GOT THE LOOK!
Captain Britain and MI: 13 (#1-4) – This was a weird one.
Basically, the Skrulls wanted to take over magic, so they go the London and
enter Avalon, the source of all magic or something. Captain Britain, Pete
Wisdom, and other British heroes must stop that from happening. Even though
this was weird, it was fun. I may even check out the rest of this series since
it was written by Paul Cornell.
Guardians of the Galaxy (#4-6) – This also doesn’t take
place on Earth, but it does play with the paranoia the Skrulls brought. It also
presented some Skrulls in a way that was interesting. The Guardians (this
version of the team anyway) were also cool and you got their story pushed
forward which is a rarity with tie-ins.
Secret Invasion: Thor – This one has the Skrulls attack New
Asgard in Oklahoma. Yeah, that’s a long story. Just read JMS’s run on the
character. Anyway, Thor/Donald Blake not only has to deal with the Skrull
invasion, he has to help deliver a baby. It’s got good artwork and we get Beta
Ray Bill. It’s cool overall.
Cool.
Secret Invasion: Dark Reign –This is the last one I’ll be
mentioning here. This is pretty much the aftermath of Secret Invasion. Here, we
see the meeting that Norman Osborn was having with his cabal of villains/former
villains in the final issue of the event. It sets up what “Dark Reign”, the new
era, will pretty much be about.
Okay, this is cool and all, but why does Namor looks so... horrible???
The Aftermath
While Secret Invasion wasn’t as good as it could be, it did
set up some cool things in the Marvel Universe. Norman Osborn being the leader
of a new SHIELD-like organization may be weird, but it does sound interesting.
At least I thought that anyway. We got a period of stories under the banner called
Dark Reign. Since Osborn oversaw H.A.M.M.E.R., things obviously weren’t going
to go well for the heroes. Also add the fact that he made his Thunderbolts team
into the Dark Avengers and you get some interesting things happening.
At least someone brought Wolverine's cool brown and tan costume back.
The New Avengers were still on the run, but they were being
chased by the Dark Avengers this time. Iron Man ended up going on the run as
well in an arc called “World’s Most Wanted.” Basically, he had information on
almost every superhero and wasn’t going to give that to Osborn. We also had a
title that revolved around the Dark Avengers themselves. We even got a cool
title called Secret Warriors that revolved around Nick Fury and his new team.
We also had stuff with Captain America that didn’t officially tie into Dark
Reign. In the end, all that stuff tied into an event called Siege… and that’s
where I think I’ll end this thing. I
don’t want to stay here and wax on about current Marvel all day.
…………………………………………………
So, I think Secret Invasion was a
fine event overall. While the main series left little to be desired, the
tie-ins did help flesh it out a bit. The build-up and aftermath were also
pretty good for the most part. In fact, it shares some similarity to Civil War
since it too had a somewhat subpar main series and good tie-ins. I would say
that Civil War was more interesting story-wise. Still, at least Secret
Invasion didn’t have too many stupid moments. It also was just more fun which
is always good.
As for Secret Invasion’s legacy,
there isn’t much of one from what I can tell. It did get loosely adapted in
Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. There’s also been talk of it being used in
the MCU somewhere. I kind of hope that isn’t the case at least for now. You
gotta have build-up with something like this.Well, I'm off to bed. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and
be careful out there. If you see my Skrull doppelganger out there, tell him to
come home.
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