Comic Info
Comic Name: Secret Invasion
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Leinil Yu
# of Issues: 8
Release Date: 2009
Secret Invasion #3
Reprints Secret Invasion #1-8 (April 2008-January 2009). The Avengers have uncovered that the Skrulls are among us. Now no one can be trusted. As the Skrull make their attempt to grab the planet, the heroes of the world must unite after the Civil War in the hopes of stopping the Skrulls before Earth is overcome.
Written by Brian Michael Bendis, Secret Invasion was “Big Event” series for Marvel Comics and featured multiple tie-ins. The series featured art by Leinil Yu and became a massive best seller for Marvel Comics.
Marvel was already struggling for me by the time Secret Invasion was lining up. Bendis had taken up after the events of Civil War and crafted a story where all the characters were having in-fighting, and I did not care for the ideology of Captain America or Iron Man at this point. I had hope that Secret Invasion would right the wrongs of the Marvel Universe…I was wrong…it got worse.
To put it bluntly, I don’t like Secret Invasion (nor did I like the previous “big crossover event” Civil War). The story is confusing as hell and has no direction for most of the arc. Civil War at least had a solid first issue, Secret Invasion starts out with most of the characters acting like asses (and Bendis’s dialogue is horrible) and the big climatic fight reminds me of the lame fight in the mud puddle at the end of Matrix Revolutions. It was a big build up to a bad fight (that also took out the Wasp for some unknown reason).
I am also not a fan of Yu’s art. It looks underdeveloped, blocky, and with the inking and coloring it looks like everyone has pink-eye. Sometimes in comics you get a so-so story but compelling artwork. Other times you get great storytelling, but so-so artwork. Secret Invasion features neither great art or great storytelling.
Secret Invasion #4
The problem with the big crossover style is that writers like Bendis have forgotten the point of a limited series. The series is suppose to make sense in the context of the series. Secret Invasion makes no sense unless you are reading New Avengers and Mighty Avengers and all the associated titles. Marvel’s original Secret Wars is a great example of how a big series should be done. It had tons and tons of tie in comics, but they were stand alone and enriched the plot without being necessary to readers. They drove readers to the Secret Wars storyline instead of away from it. Abnett and Lanning get that with their space crossovers, but Bendis still doesn’t seem to follow it. A great example is the waste of time for the Captain Marvel Skrull. He had a big premiere and limited series that ran in conjunction with this series and then gets wasted unceremoniously…negating any point of reading the Captain Marvel limited series and confusing the hell out of people who didn’t.
I love Powers and I loved Alias, but besides that Bendis I feel has really struggled with the Avengers titles. It is a bad sign that the company keeps putting faith in him to make these big epics with lasting effects. I get that he is trying to make the teams grittier, but Jessica Jones is a great example of how his attempts to turn characters “gritty”. She was great in Alias but here in Secret Wars (and The Pulse) she loses her edge…much like Bendis writing. Plus, it is “Whom do you trust”…not “who do you trust”…at least get your slogan right.
