First, let me apologize for getting hopes up about scans and reviews that were supposed to start yesterday. I thought they would. I even went to my comic book store to pick up this week’s issues but was disappointed when told they wouldn’t be out until today. Well, you are getting this review as I am reading the issue right now. Secret Invasion hasn’t been great, but it hasn’t been bad either, it has been good enough. That is until this week when it finally became the series I was hoping it would be, great!



Bendis manages to put out an issue about something and about nothing at the same time. This issue of Secret Invasion stood on the shoulders of my review of last week’s Batman RIP series. Like Morrison Bendis manages to set the tone of the environment, draw the reader in with just enough to give a perception of the situation as if you are learning something, but you are in actuality learning absolutely nothing. Instead you find yourself asking more questions and shrouded in more mystery. Unlike, Batman RIP this series has to rely on the environmental tones in order to make this style of writing compelling because there is no secrets, except, who is a Skrull and who is not? Bendis manages this very successfully.
I was really looking forward to Secret Invasion #4 for completely different reasons other than the ones, which I am conveying now. I just wanted to see the Howling Commando’s or as Marvel has dubbed them, “Nick Fury’s Secret Warrior’s.” I wasn’t even disappointed when I didn’t get an issue that focused on the appearance of Nick Fury after they were left as the cliff hanger in Secret Invasion #3. The story simply came together that well, and I don’t think you will find many complaints about it. The majority of the issue is written in narrative and it doesn’t become clear who is the narrator until ¾ of the issue is done and when you discover just who is narrating and to who they are weaving this tale it really explodes. Let me slow down and get you the beginning.



We finally see what has become of Reed Richards as he is the opening segment to this issue. He is up in space aboard a Skrull vessel being stretched to his limits. At first I thought it was a Skrull leader aboard this vessel telling Reed of his and Earth’s impending fate, but it is not. It definitely looks excruciating, but we are not kept their long, instead we get a shot of The Sentry up in space “freaking out,” by the way when is that little bit going to wrap itself up? I guess that would be my one complaint about this issue, how long does Bendis intend to use this as a crippling factor for the Sentry’s non-involvement? Following this it’s a shot of Ms. Marvel flying toward Earth before getting blasted by the Skrull version of the Big Three (Iron Man, Captain America and Thor).



The next few pages Leinel Yu does his work in conveying the frantic battle scene between the Skrulls and Nick Fury’s Secret Warriors, who I am going to call the New Howling Commando’s (Quake, Phobos, Yo Yo, Druid, Hellfire, and Stonewall. Nick Fury isn’t there for a full confrontation, it seems like he is just there in order to regroup the fallen heroes who defended the first wave of the Skrull Invasion. His newbie’s do an excellent job of rounding up the casualties and the injured before rifling down Ms. Marvel and teleporting out. Yes, Nick Fury rifled down Ms. Marvel and proclaimed her a Skrull, it is rather hard to tell if she is as she looks confused, but you really can’t tell with some of these Skrull agents. There goes Question #1, is Ms. Marvel really a Skrull agent?



After this we find out it is Jessica Drew who is narrating this whole issue to Tony Stark in the Savage Land, according to Natasha Romanova Jessica is trying to plant seeds of doubt in Tony’s head, this bares some credence because in Mighty Avengers #15 it is revealed that the Skrulls have figured out Tony’s new organic system and have pretty much just drugged him, but he is confused none the less. Agent Brand meanwhile is up in space trying to rescue Reed Richards from captivity. The Skrulls really have it out for our Versus overlords, the Illuminati. Maria Hill is also under persuasive argument to announce the surrender of Earth’s mightiest forces to the Skrull invasion. I am not sure what they hell that will do, that would be like Bush announcing we surrender to Terrorist. Yes, he is the president, but does that mean we stop the good fight? It may be demoralizing for a few, but ultimately it is just that his opinion.



The last couple of pages were what was unexpected for me and what really got me amped. After the heroes leave the city in refuge the citizens are left to fend for themselves and the Skrull invasion is having their war, but they are in for a very electrifying surprise, Thor is on the scene and he is prepared to show his might. This is definitely not something the Skrulls were expecting, they thought he was dead. I have been waiting to see how Thor’s return would fit into Marvel affairs and I am happy to see him integrated into this invasion, I see no reason why the other Asgardians would not be joining him in tow. As some of them made clear in Thor #9 they were definitely looking to the outside world and even possibly joining up with the “Avengers.” What is even better about this entrance to the story is what is going on the page before, the people are literally begging god to make this stop, and in arrives Thor, the god of Thunder to answer their prayers. I don’t know how this will fit into the Thor ongoing series and hope it doesn’t derail the writing Straczynski has going. On the checklist there seems to be probably some special issues of Thor being pinned as Secret Invasion: Thor #2 is supposed to be released in September. I don’t know if this is a mistake in printing and that is supposed to be Thor #12 as a Secret Invasion tie-in. either way, more importantly we also have our new Captain America eyeballing the arrival of his long dead friend on the battlefield.



Secret Invasion is finally off to being a great series and I love this read, I can’t wait for Secret Invasion #5 to hit shelves. I know other's will be pissed about the narrative and feel it was just a recap of everything stated already in the last three issues, but to me it helped set the tone, If this was the first issue or even the second or third issue it would have been praised high worthy of its caliber, but as a mid-point I think many will find problem with it. That’s it for now, look forward to more great titles to be reviewed this week.

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