Secret Invasion #1
This review written by James Hunt on Apr.03, 2008.
Ummm… wow. Bendis has really polished up his “event” writing since House of M, taking more than a leaf out of Mark “Civil War” Millar’s book – instead of an issue of slow building setup, we’re instantly thrown into the action. Skrulls all over the place. The sense of shit hitting the fan is almost palpable, and the utter creepiness of having the skrulls saying “He Loves You” before they blow themselves up is great. Bendis has modified the skrulls – originally a cold war communist metaphor, they now serve as the Marvel Universe’s answer to religious fanaticism.
Perhaps the best thing about this issue is that it makes me want to go back and read some of those comics that we know are contributing to the Skrull arc. Secret War, Avengers Disassembled, New Avengers and Civil War – they all contain references, apparently, and now that we know at least one fairly major character who’s a skrull, it’s time to go back and see just what the clues were. The best twists put everything that came before it in a new light. If we know that Hank Pym’s a skrull, suddenly certain comics take on new meaning when read again.
In just a few scenes, Bendis manages to show the entire Marvel Universe being turned on its head incredibly effectively, including scenes of Marvel Boy, the Thunderbolts and SWORD reacting the the Skrull’s first move. Yu’s pencils throughout the book are amazing – much tighter than his recent Avengers issues, and having him draw so many heroes is a real treat. Let’s hope that he gets it out on time though – I can only Marvel have learnt their lesson with that…
The big cliffhanger moment is a tough one to wrap my head around. A bunch of 70s heroes returning to earth is an interesting visual idea – seeing the Marvel heroes fighting their past selves – but it remains to be seen who’s a skrull and who’s not, and now we have twice the chance of having to guess. Who’s the real Luke Cage? Why are the skrulls that just arrived so out of date? It’s an odd moment, but by no means as terrifying as some of the other stuff in the issue – the sight of the Skrull armada is pretty harrowing, and seeing the Baxter building get sucked into the negative zone is a definite double-take moment. As the start of a crossover, it’s ticking all the boxes, and while it’s hard to quantify, I feel like it’s off to a better start than Civil War.
April 3rd, 2008 on 1:25 pm
Enjoyed this, yeah. Would have been nice if there’d been more than just the one “FUCKBEANS!!!” Skrull reveal, particularly as it wasn’t a particularly surprising one; but he hit the story beats quite nicely for a first part, I thought.
My bet is that one or two of the people in the ship will be “real” versions. The rest of them, in Cylon sleeper-esque fashion, probably all THINK they’re the originals, and don’t know they’re Skrulls.
Yu’s in really good form here, too – probably his best since Superman:Birthright. And I LOVE the b-movie-style logo, even though the re-using of the New Avengers cover smacks a bit of Marvel Zombies-esque gimmickry…
April 4th, 2008 on 9:53 am
Hi
I’m enjoying the site, but can you give a warning when you’re going to give spoilers, I haven’t had a chance to pick this issue up yet!
Cheers.