by Russell Burlingame
Secret Invasion #1
Marvel's new mega-event, Secret Invasion, has begun—and, of course, the first issue is our Hot Shot of the Week.
Replete with reveals about the Skrull invasion hinted to readers ages ago now, the first issue of the book is still fairly short on surprises until the final pages. Of the first three major "sleeeper agent" reveals, none of them has not been predicted and analyzed at length on message boards prior to the release of the book. Because of this lack of a surprise in the first thirty-or-so pages of the book, it relies heavily on dialogue and character interaction, rather than event-shocks. And on this score, it succeeds. It also successfully sets the stage for what looks to be a series both intriguing and potentially puzzling, with a group of "returned heroes," ostensibly escaped from the Skrull homeworld, that would totally twist the Marvel Universe to bits if they were all who they say they are. At least one of these characters is someone previously revealed as a Skrull in the issue, so the debate will undoubtedly rage on Internet message boards and in the Marvel Universe itself as to the veracity of these folks, lending substantially to the "Who do you trust?" that has been Secret Invasion's tagline since it was first announced.
Certain plot points are sure to draw derision from the fan community—after all, the crashing of the SHIELD Helicarrier is about as rare these days as the destruction of the X-Mansion or dislodging the globe atop the Daily Planet building, and the concept of replacing characters with what loosely amounts to "evil twins" is a fairly standard go-to in any dramatic storytelling—but Bendis is a truly gifted storyteller, and there's little question here why Marvel has put so many of their eggs in his basket. Like Geoff Johns over at DC, he seems to have an innate talent to take disparate story elements created by other people, combine them with dangling threads from his own work and between them weave a fascinating new tapestry. While Leinil Yu's art leaves something to be desired in a few sequences—frankly, his style does not lend itself to working with the "new" Iron Man and his ultra-high-tech armor—the book looks good, and Yu's simple, iconic style is going to make the collected editions of Secret Invasion a treasure.
Please Note: Because each time a book like this is released, it instantly becomes the "biggest book of the month," only the first and last issues of Secret Invasion and Final Crisis will qualify for Hot Shot of the Week status. Comic Related will, however, have a special Hot Shot Supplement dedicated to each issue of these books the week they come out.
Page last updated on April 6, 2008