Secret Invasion #4 Review

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Leinil Francis Yu

After an extended argument with the One and Only, I am still not going to change my mind about the Secret Invasion. I am personally not offended by this popcorn comic book event, and I really did not have high hopes for this event. And with that, I am pretty ok with how its going. Theres an invasion, Skrulls take out the Avengers, smaller resistance groups trying to fight it, and the planning and the "secret" part of the invasion is taken care of in miniseries. And also, its not just taking place in just New York, but all over the world. And that is taken care of in other mini series (Captain Britain). I thought this issue moved the plot along to some extent. They move along the Stark plotline in Savage Land. He was crippled, but now Black Widow and Wolverine are trying to help out Stark. It is done in a way where there is obvious mistrust in the air. The battle in New York wages on, as Fury makes some tough decisions. We see the Hood. And the last page probably saved the issue in my opinion. Having Thor and Cap show up really helps the "big event" feel of this. Why should we take this Invasion seriously if Thor or Cap, Marvel's big guns, don't show up. Having them here will, in my opinion, pick things up in later issues. It is hard for me to just judge this event alone without considering the tie ins. So with all that included, I am just fine with how this is going. The art was really inconsistent, especially in the fight scenes in New York. Tough to follow.

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Secret Invasion #1 Review

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Leinil Yu

Summary:
We start the big event year's ago on the Skrull homeworld. It has been destroyed, and the Skrulls are going back to the Queen. Back to the present. Tony is going to tell us how he knows that the Skrulls have taken over this world. We see that Elektra was a Skrull. She is laid out, in Skrull form with her Elektra gear. Tony shows Pym and Reed this, and he says he doesn't trust them. We go to SWORD, which is a space station. They oversee a Skrull ship headed to Earth. I am not sure what time period this is in but just hang with me here. They call for Tony. Back to the Skrull-Tony scene. Tony receives word from SWORD that a Skrull ship has landed. Tony leaves to check out the scene, but he doesn't clue in Pym or Reed about it. Tony calls Spider-Woman and tells her whats up. Woman goes and tells Luke Cage of the Secret Avengers. Luke tells his crew they are going to raise some hell. Secret Avengers just jack Tony's Quinjet. Tony is just incredibly pissed by this predicament. Off to Savage Land. Dinosaurs attack the Quinjet. They luckily escape and track out on the Savage Land. They get to the ship, but the Avengers arrive too. Lots of tension between Luke and Stark. Luke ends up opening the ship. Just as he does this, the bigshot SHIELD hero on SWORD turns out to be a Skrull. He blows up SWORD! Tony gets plastered in jelly. The Butler of the Avengers is a Skrull. Shit just hit the fan here. ALIEN VIRUS DETECTED just goes off on all SHIELD stuff. Skrulls everywhere. Just kidding. But seriously, everything goes to hell. A prison holding villains gets opened up because of this virus thing. Everything goes to hell, seriously. I think Captain Marvel just revealed himself as a Skrull. Not sure though, but he did break into Thunderbolts Mountain. Sue is a Skrull. She goes into the Baxter building and opens up the negative zone. Ok so i am very lost here. A bunch of heroes (Cap, Wolverine, Tony) come out of the ship. They talk human, and they know who they are. The other heroes look on in bewilderment. Agent Brand, who is floating around in space, calls for help. A ton of Skrull ships come on in to Earth. Back to the lab. Reed figures out how to detect the Skrulls. Just as he makes this astonishing discovery, Pym blasts him in the head, and reveals himself to be a Skrull.

Comments:
That was a very fun issue. Nothing really too structured here, just a lot of chaos. I don't think we learn anything too significant. Pym is a Skrull. The Avengers Butler is a Skrull. Sue is a Skrull (or maybe not). Captain Marvel might be a Skrull. The whole fight between the SHIELD guys and the Secret Avengers was a bit distracting, but it was fun. I really was entertained by all the things that happened. I was totally against this Skrull thing like a year ago. I thought they were lame and they didn't do anything to pique my interest. BMB is really going to make Secret Invasion a fun read. I am looking forward to all of the issues. The art is fantastic. Like seriously, this is some of the best art I have seen. I guess all of the Big Events get big time artists, and Yu is definetely a big time artist. It is not really clear what happens with the Skrulls. It is clear that they are smart and they are intent on taking over the Earth. The whole scene where all the heroes come out of the ship confused the hell out of me. I have no idea, I'm just going to go with it. This is just a set up issue, so you can't really expect too much, but i was satisfied.

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