I have to confess that DC’s Final Crisis series is just not competing with Secret Invasion at all. Now that is not to say there are no good DC titles jumping off the shelves. Batman R.I.P. by Grant Morrison is a good read, though what he has begun on Final Crisis is crap. Justice Society of America is a hot title. Geoff Johns should have probably been the leader behind the direction of the Final Crisis series. If all I am going to get in Final Crisis is a rehash issue after issue of Grant Morrison’s alternate storylines like the Seven Soldiers series then I much rather not read the title. Justice League of America had been steam rolling up until that started its integration into the Final Crisis series. Either way Secret Invasion is a far better read than Final Crisis. You can get comic reviews for all those DC titles I mentioned over at Darkseid Revenge on TCGplayer, it’s in the blog roll in the left column.

All that said and out the way let’s actually looks at Secret Invasion #3, which is easily the best entry into the mega-blockbuster yet. There was a lot going on, but yet it was all coherent, there were little tidbits dropped here and there, but they were easy bread crumbs to follow. There were a lot of teams and locations, but it all fit together. There was a lot of fighting, but it flowed with the story. I can’t really find too many negatives about this issue, seriously, it was that good, and it single-handedly restored my faith in where Bendis intends to take the story.

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The main title to Secret Invasion finally feels like a main title and all of the other tie-in titles are finally actually tie-ins now. The story opens up with Jarvis and Maria Hill having a confrontation aboard the downed S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier in the middle of the ocean. Jarvis is there asking Maria pretty much to tender her resignation. This isn’t explored further, but it allows me to see where the tie-ins will pick up from. You can also say it puts S.H.I.E.L.D. on official notice that the invasion has begun. If Maria Hill was in doubt as to what was going on and why the Helicarrier went down, she doesn’t have to play guessing games now.

Pan from that little showdown to another in the Colorado Rockies where the Skrull Captain Marvel has single-handedly laid the smackdown on every Thunderbolt in the vicinity. The panel shot of Venom being tossed away is just amusing. There is obviously something wrong with the programming of these sleeper agents though. Osborn is able to use this to his advantage possibly for negotiations, negotiations for what who knows, he is a criminal as are the rest of the Thunderbolts no matter how you look at it.



The action keeps going; it does not slow down for a second. We had two tie-ins feed into the main story in a very clever way, no since in stopping there. We find ourselves at Camp Hammond where they are training the Initiative. Skrull Yellowjacket tells Gauntlet the situation in New York and tells him to suit up the recruits. It’s time to put these boys and girls to work. They Show up to back-up the Yong Avengers who have been trying to do the best they can against the Skrull invaders. I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying all of the Skrull-Morphs a.k.a. Super Skrulls, I especially liked the Wolverine/Cyclops combined Skrull leaping in the air shooting optic beams, hilarious!



The action here on every panel is dynamic and compelling, I couldn’t get enough of the visuals and finally felt the force of the Invasion, now if only they could get the Tie-Ins to blend better into the action going on this series would be great. They did a really good Job with the beginning of the titles but have fell short slightly a little in recent entries like Mighty Avengers.

Okay so now that the Tie-ins are almost completely enveloped in the story we get to find out what is up with a frantic Iron Man, who turns out to be a Skrull as well, or is he? Spider-Woman tells him that he is and we know she is a Skrull, matter of fact she is the Queen of Skrulls. Now that I think about it this is the worst part of the series, well not actually the series, but the whole of the Marvel Universe. Why? Because we know what this is, it is a retcon on the whole Civil War series, a way to exonerate the Iron Man character of any wrong doing by making him a Skrull sleeper agent. I seriously hope this is not the case. I mean that seriously undermines the Civil War series not that it was good anyway, but I am going to be angry about that.



Back in New York City the Young Avengers and the Initiative are on the losing side of this battle and they are losing badly. Vision’s head is exploded which is just awesome artwork, seriously some of the best. Seeing Wiccan get his butt leveled as well was just hilarious. The best part though was the Howling Commando’s showing up just in time to help these youngsters out, youngsters themselves, but led by Nick Fury, which should raise a lot of eyebrows. I am happiest about this the most because since Mighty Avengers #14 and #15 I think they were, I have been interested in this group the most. I know they are nothing but a bunch of back up sons and daughters to some what lame Super Villains but still these guys look cool and they are being led by Nick Fury. I can’t wait to see what they can do.



Get to your local Comic Shop and pick up this title, you’re missing out otherwise! There are 31 or something pages in each title. Imagine how much i am not telling you about in these reviews, let alone showing you! Check out DC’s Justice Society of America #16 at Darkseid Revenge on TCGplayer, it’s in the blog roll in the left column. I promise it’s a good read for fans of Alex Ross and DC.

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