Secret Invasion: Hammer Time

by Liana

How does the old song go? If I had a hammer, I’d @#%* up Skrulls in the morning, I’d @#%* up Skrulls in the evening....Man, if only someone in the Marvel Universe had a hammer, all our heroes’ troubles would be solved.


Oh @#%* yeah! Who loves you now!


New Avengers #44
Brian Michael Bendis, Billy Tan

The Internet told me this was an important issue of NA that would explain everything to me. And since I believe EVERYTHING the Internet tells me, I brought it home and read it first. Well, it does tell you how the Skrulls infiltrated Earth. That is, it tells you how the Skrulls stole from Reed Richards’ mind the method by which they could shapeshift even their DNA so as to be undetectable by any of Earth’s heroes or technologies. So, you ready for this? When the Illuminati went to the Skrull Throneworld, Skrullerdome, to tell the Skrulls that they would not tolerate any more attempted Earth invasions, they were captured for a short time. Obviously, they escaped, but the Skrulls managed to clone them all with super sophisticated Skrull technology (I wonder who has the superior technology, the Skrulls or the Shi’ar?) that allowed the Skrulls to create scenarios where the cloned heroes would discuss what they should do to prepare against another Skrull invasion. That’s right. Skrull cloning technology included the ability to transfer all intelligence, thoughts and ability to apply existing thoughts to new thoughts....yeah, it’s a little farfetched, but we’ll accept it. Through these experiments, the Skrulls learned that Reed Richards has in his mind--and therefore in his clone’s mind--the knowledge the Skrulls seek. Unfortunately, their mindreader isn’t smart enough to understand what Reed’s thinking, so they have to try something tricky. The set up a scenario with the clone and SkrullSue and SkrullFranklin that tricks SkrullCloneReed into writing it all down. And there you have it. This is how the Skrulls snuck their dirty butts onto our planet. And it’s why Reed Richard is SkrullEnemy Numero Uno and our only hope. Grade: B


Secret Invasion #6
Brian Michael Bendis, Leinil Francis Yu

Why are so many people bored with this event? Aside from issue #4, which was a steaming pile of Nothing Happened, I think it’s been terrific fun. This issue sees Mar-Skrull finding Marvel Boy, the Skrull Empress reuniting with her Skrull forces at the Inititative’s headquarters, delusional civilians welcoming the Skrulls as saviors, Earth’s heroes flying from the Savage Land to the now-destroyed New York City, and the return of everybody’s favorite Norse god, walking tall and carrying a BIG hammer. Look out, Skrullscum! There is the odd coloring on the plane from the Savage Land (Punisher is blonde), and the art is the typical muddied affair for this series....that is until the last two-page spread. You know, where our heroes--Avengers, Young Avengers, Thunderbolts, those D-listers the Hood collected, Nick Fury’s strangers, Wolverine (now that I think about it, was he not fighting Skrulls in San Francisco?)--and the Skrulls finally face off against each other. It’s real purty. Dan stared at it for several minutes. I think he drooled too, but I didn’t point it out for fear of embarrassing him. Clearly, Yu has been rushing through every single panel so that he could put all his efforts into that battle. Grade: B+


Secret invasion: Inhumans #2
Joe Pokaski, Tom Raney

What's the next best thing to a big hammer for @#%*ing up Skrulls? Crazy long kickass hair. This mini-series isn’t only the best SI tie-in, it’s better than Secret Invasion itself. In fact, I don’t know if I’m enjoying any Marvel comic as much as I am this one. I used to think that I wanted Sean McKeever to come back to Marvel just to write a new Inhumans series, but now, I don’t know who Joe Pokaski is, but if he doesn’t get an ongoing Inhumans series after this, then I’m going to have to believe that Joe Quesada is on crack or he hates me. Or both. I mean, come on, who could hate me? Crack addicts, that’s who. Although, with Emma Frost’s ever-growing prominence in the MU, I suppose I already could be running with the crack addict theory. But I think this it was they call a digression. Karnak, Gorgon and Crystal kick all kinds of dirty Skrullbutt while Medusa gets extra nasty with her husband’s impersonator, subjecting him to repeated doses of terrigen mists to torture Black Bolt’s location out of him. Then Medusa takes a small, elite team to rescue her husband. I think she leaves Lockjaw in charge. Sure, Maximus is king, but I think he’s busy cowering somewhere. I was surprised to learn that Medusa and Black Bolt have a son. How did I miss that? I was even more surprised when the Skrulls stole Black Bolt’s voice. Holy *. This book is so cool. Grade: A
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Secret Invasion #5: Now with 500% More Tie-Ins

by Liana

Marvel thought it would be a good idea to release Secret Invasion #5 at the same time as FOUR of its tie-ins. Apparently, the powers that be at Marvel believe their fans have an abundance of cash burning holes in their pockets and are doing everything they can to save the pants! A noble campaign, for sure. Well, I only got two of their tie-ins (Inhumans and X-Men), but I added three back-issues (Fantastic Four) to the pile. As we’re keeping score, that’s six skrullicious comics in one week. I have a feeling Marvel’s pockets are in better shape than mine right now.








Secret Invasion #5 was much better than last month’s borefest. Lots happens and most of it makes sense, despite Leinil Yu’s muddled artwork (seriously, has this guy always been so….not great?). Apparently, the ship that landed in the Savage Land really was full of Skrulls, though it seems the Skrulls themselves didn’t realize they were actually Skrulls. There’s some kind of secret agent/hypnotism angle working here (see the X-Men tie-in review below). In fact, it’s starting to look like some of these Skrulls aren’t really on board with what they’re doing. Take the case of Captain Marvel. He was definitely identified as a Skrull last issue, right? Because he’s not too happy about that now and it looks like he’s going to do something about it. Also not very happy about how things are going down? HawkeyeRonin. He thought he wife was back from the dead, but it turned out she was just another damn dirty Skrull. But, if one man has cornered the market on pissed-off retribution, it’s Reed Richards. Agent Brand (turns out she totally kicks ass) rescued his strecthiness, and now he’s shooting some fantastic gizmo to determine the pink from the green. This is how we find out Tony Stark isn’t a Skrull after all. Bummer. Not a bummer? Agent Hill (turns out she also kicks ass) teaching SkrullJarvis a lesson, despite his best efforts to not learn it. There were a few problems with this issue, but they’re hardly worth focusing on. Secret Invasion is back to being fun, so I’m just going to enjoy it. B+


Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1-3 was sitting on the shelf, the “compleat” run, when I went to the comic shop. I decided I wasn’t really interested, but then Dan pointed out it was drawn by Barry Kitson. I swooned for a moment as I flashed back to the happiness that was Kitson and Waid’s Legion of Super-Heroes, then had Dan grab all three issues, despite having not loved Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s writing in the past. So, what have Johnny and Ben (and the kids) been up to while Reed’s been stretched to capacity (I forget where Sue’s been)? They’ve been hanging out in the Negative Zone, thanks to Johnny’s ex-skrullover, Lyja. Giant bugs yadda yadda yadda lover’s spat blah blah blah Lyja is going to stay in the Negative Zone ho hum. Franklin has the son-of-a-genius idea to raid his dad’s prison to find someone to fix the transporter back to the real world, so they end up forming an alliance with the Tinkerer, who is now apparently a harmless old grandpa. Okay, sure. This mini-series was okay, but nothing special unless you’ve been screaming inside wondering where in the green hell Lyja has been all this time. I haven’t. B-


Secret Invasion: X-Men #1 is here to remind you that Nightcrawler can be rendered semi-retarded by simply questioning his faith. The Skrulls invade San Francisco and are shocked to be confronted by our merry mutants. Somebody did some bad recon, but don’t worry, he got shot in the head for his shoddy work. It’s in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge that we learn of a mysterious purple orb that is here to save our souls (and may be controlling the Skrulls; perhaps it is how He of “He loves you” fame is pushing his agenda?). And, when it comes to souls, no one is more tortured and confused than Nightcrawler, whose IQ drops to seventeen as soon as he comes in contact with the clearly evil ball of trickery. I hate the way Cary Nord draws the X-Men, but I love the way he draws the Skrulls, so the art’s a toss up. I like how Mike Carey writes Cyclops (totally badass), but everyone else is kind of just there, doing exactly what you expect of them. I can’t believe this is going to be four issues, or that I’ll actually get them all. C+


Secret Invasion: Inhumans #1 is the best thing to come out of this event so far. Tom Raney’s boobtacular handling of Crystal aside, the art is really good and the writing by Joe Pokaski (what’s this guy done that I would know?) is spot on. The Inhumans are as wonderfully inbred and angry as you expect. Maximus makes a scary and bored king and Medusa is coming into her own as one of my favorite women in all of comics. The Skrulls are planning to use Black Bolt as the “greatest weapon the Empire has ever unleashed.” I’m thinking this desire to use all of Earth’s heroes as weapons against Earth’s forces isn’t going to work out in the end. Just a hunch. I don’t want to tell you too much about this issue because, if you’re going to read anything Secret Invasion related, I want it to be this. A- Read more!

Secret Invasion #4: Skrullduggery

by Liana

Trite. Hackneyed. Stereotypical. That’s my overall review of Bendis and Yu’s Secret Invasion #4. Why? Because after a fun start, we’ve reached Bendis’ favorite destination, Cliché Point, where nothing happens. I hate to sound so unoriginal, but there you go. Let’s see if we can figure out why the events of this issue couldn’t happen over the course of four pages in the next and justify the handing over of $4.

The issue opens with the second best page of the book. The best is the last, but we’ll get to that later. We’re treated to a boring voiceover explaining that humans are greedy and stupid and they’ve already lost the war. This voiceover goes on for ten pages. And as you’re reading it, it comes across as just repeating the same thing over and over. Going through it a second time for examples, I can’t actually pinpoint anything specific. I guess that’s just one of those Bendisms that can’t be proven but are none-the-less true, like how ten minutes after you wash your car, a bird will crap on it.

But I said this was the second best page of the issue. That’s because the images we open with are of Reed Richard being tortured by the Skrulls by being stretched to capacity. It’s heartbreaking and awesome. Even Agent Brand, who has managed to float through space and onto a Skrull ship, is moved to tears, though it’s hard to tell whether those tears are for Reed or for all the monitor images of Earth under attack. Agent Brand, really? Okay. At least I also finally read Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? last night, so her presence isn’t totally out of nowhere anymore. But it’s still pretty random, no? Well, what I think I mean is that it seems pretty random to suddenly have the events of Astonishing X-Men more tied to current continuity than the other X-titles.

Oh, here’s a question: when Nick Fury puts together a team, is it always called the Howling Commandos? Just wondering. Also wondering why I’m supposed to care about this group of yahoos no one’s ever heard about before. Is it just because Fury found them? Because that isn’t working for me.

Is Tony Stark a Skrull or not? This seems to be the big question that isn’t going to be answered until the end. I can’t wait for three more issues of whining and wondering about that. I really like Jessiskrull’s attempts to convince him he is. It makes me want him to be one. But the Black Widow, who is being drawn to look like a man in some of these panels, doesn’t buy it for a second. She kills Ship Beast and Ship Jean Grey, who were Skrulls, incidentally. Dan was pretty disappointed about that, because he wanted Ship Beast to be Real Beast and thereby “undo stupid CatBeast and everything from Morrison’s stupid run.” Oh, Dan. Hey, something I liked! The codeword Wolverine has to use to prove he isn’t a Skrull is hysterical because it’s totally something you’d never expect him to say.

Black Widow says that Tony Stark is one of “five people on the planet who can stop this.” Who are the other four? Reed Richards, obviously. Nick Fury? That will only annoy me slightly, though I still don’t think it will make me care about his team. Agent Brand? I guess her history is mysterious enough that it could work, though that would still be kind of out of nowhere.

What about the Hood? Was I talking about random before? Because I had to do a wikipedia search on The Hood. I never heard of his 2002 Max series, I didn’t read Beyond! and I don’t read New Avengers or Daredevil. He's assembling his crime syndicate to fight the Skrulls, because the Skrulls winning is “bad for business.” If it’s the Hood, I’ll be really annoyed.

Maybe it’s these two guys? Which two guys? The two guys on the last page. You know who I mean. Mr. Krakaboom and Mr. Binoculars. I have to admit to getting pretty excited when I saw Thor coming down from the sky. Like, now we’re getting somewhere. And then to end on Cap, well, let’s just say that for the second I thought it was RealCap, I was super happy. Then I realized it could easily be BuckyCap and I let out a resigned sigh.

So Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Thor, Captain America and….Agent Brand? Is that who I’m going with? That just doesn’t seem quite right. OH! Especially since, as I said, I just read Who Do You Trust? and now know that Marvel Boy will randomly be a big player in all of this. And what about the Agents of Atlas? I think I need to spend more time at wikipedia today, because how are all these random people going to fit into things if, as Black Widow says, there are only five people who can stop this?

I love this storyline. It’s awesome. Seriously. But this issue, aside from the first and last pages, was really just an exercise in treading water. I have to give it a C+ and cross my fingers that next issue is action-packed Skrully goodness. Was it worth the $4? Meh. Read more!

Raiders of the Last Shipment: War! Huh!

by Liana

“New this week!” Man, I don’t even know the last time I picked up a comic the day it came out. But after picking up the first two Secret Invasion issues over the weekend, I was all skrulled out and couldn’t wait for #3. Plus Dan’s monthly shipment arrived yesterday. I raided his pile (which was not nearly as hot as it sounds) and found a couple wars (Giant-Size X-Men and Fables #73) plus something altogether different (House of Mystery #1) and before I knew it, a batch of reviews started baking in my brain. Wild. Well you know what they say, nothing cures skrullanoia like cookies. What? They totally say that! Hey, anyone wanna guess how many parenthetical phrases I work into this post? Hint: it’s a lot. Let’s see what it’s all good for, y’all.


Secret Invasion 1-3 by Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Yu is all very interesting, as are most of Bendis' ideas. But, like most of his ideas, it's kind of confusing at this point and the dialogue is pretty annoying. Plus, I don't think the art is doing the book (or readers) any favors. I mean, who can tell what’s happening in the fight with the giant skrulls? And why doesn’t anyone have eyeballs? The guy at the comic shop didn’t answer those questions for me (maybe because I didn’t ask?) but he did ask me who I thought was a skrull. I said it better be Cyclops. He said they (the people at the comic shop) decided it's Emma Frost. I said whichever, as long as that whole business gets undone. Maybe they're BOTH skrulls! But then no, that would suck, because it means the real Scott and Emma were on the skrull ship together and maybe they fell in love there and then I’m still subjected to that drive-me-nuts storyline. God. When’s Phoenix going to come back and burn Emma out of our memories and then dump Scott’s jerk ass for good? Not soon enough, I say.

Anyway, he (guy at the comic shop) also said they (people at the comic shop) had a big discussion over whether what happened in the book really happened. Obviously I had no idea what he was talking about then. Now that I've read it, if it's what I think they were talking about, I'd say yeah and that it explains a lot. It’s the whole Tony thing, right? I believe it. And more, I like it. I don’t read any Avengers books, so I haven’t been privy to a lot of developments (like I didn’t know Spider-Woman was already revealed as the Skrull Queen until I read Comic By Comic’s review yesterday morning). And I don’t have to make every little look-who’s-a-skrull-now reveal work for whatever each character has been up to the last few years (until we start talking X-Men, that is). Which is great because I think a lot of it is going to be really hard to swallow. But Tony Stark as a brainwashed skrull hero works for me. It explains Civil War much more nicely than Tony just being an overzealous dumbass and maybe it means that DeadCap is also a skrull and I can stop treading water with BuckyCap in his title. Geez, this skrull business sure makes your brain work. I need some cookies. I give it a B, but I’m grading on a curve right now. Bendis has a lot of work to do if this isn’t going to be a total disaster.


House of Mystery #1 by Matthew Sturges and Luca Rossi is a tantalizing introduction to what looks to be a series filled with juicy tales of intrigue and creepiness. This issue is pretty much set-up, letting us know that Cain’s house has disappeared from The Dreaming, strange travelers hang out at a pub and don’t generally get to leave and a girl with a recurring dream is on the run from a weird couple. Make sense? Yeah, not to me either. But there’s a cool and gross little story from Bill Willingham and Ross Campbell (will these stories always appear and will these two always write them?) from one of the patrons. It’s all very intriguing and just the mood you expect from a Sandman spin-off. I give this a B+ because I’ll definitely be getting more of these, though it may work better for me in trade.


Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday (swoon) was really....odd. If we didn't already know (because of ridiculous delays) that something happened to Kitty, I think the ending would have been very moving. But that was all spoiled, so there was no "oh noes!" factor. The inclusion of every hero in New York was pretty dumb and pointless (unless total self-indulgence suddenly became a valid point), though I will say that Whedon wrote the FF's part very well. I liked that everything that happened brought it back around to the first story arc, but it sure made the twelve issues between the first arc and the last super pointless and even more irritating than they were when I read them (a hundred years ago). I mean, what did we get out of those? A stupid new character and some confusing Hellfire nonsense? Gee, thanks, Mr. Buffy. Now, I’ve seen at least one person online refer to this as the “best ever X-Men run” and maybe there are others who feel the same way. I haven’t looked at other reviews yet, but I have a hard time believing that many people think this tops Grant Morrison, the Chris Claremont/John Byrne stuff, Chuck Austen (just making sure you’re paying attention) and others I’m not thinking of at the moment. This issue was mostly solid and if not for the problems listed above may have bordered on excellent. Now we can all enjoy the non-phasing X-Men knowing that someday Kitty’s bullet will cross Havok’s path in Shi’ar space and everyone will come home safe and sound to a (hopefully) skrull-free world. A B+ finale to a C+ series.


War. Yeah. You want to know what it’s all good for? Fables #73 by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham has your answers. This series is rarely less than awesome and this issue, well, I read it last night and my girl parts are still tingling this morning (and that one is as hot as it sounds). The Fabletown army, led by Sinbad and Prince Charming, has invaded the Homelands and they mean business. What kind of business? They’re bringing guns to a swordfight. Oh hell yeah! Plus, they’ve got big ass bombs to blow up all the doorways out of the Homelands. And Bigby’s got his own tough ass army guarding the army’s escape route, which happens to be the last beanstalk to the Cloud Kingdom. And Blue’s traveling his ass all over the place, messengering news, supplies and bombs (and snake cakes) where needed. And Briar Rose is hiding her ass out in the Empire’s capital, waiting to prick her finger when the time is right. And Snow! Snow’s ass is commanding the whole thing from behind the scenes. Yay! Snow is so friggin’ awesome. What else? Oh, there is a slight dragon problem, but I have faith we’ll be able to handle those asses. I don’t like to think about this series too much because I don’t want to accidentally guess what’s coming up, but let me just say I don’t think naming this initiative “Operation Jack Ketch” is a coincidence. Total A+ and that A does NOT stand for “ass.”
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Number Ones: Batman, Captain Britain, Fantastic Four

by Bill

They’re brand spankin’ new series and number one first issues! But are they any good? Worth spending money to buy and time to read?

Included in this round:


How good are these? Decent? Maybe even genius (er...I mean genious)? Read and find out...



• Batman #676 (DC Comics) – by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel

• Captain Britain and MI13 #1 (Marvel Comics) – by Paul Cornell
and Leonard Kirk

• Secret Invasion Fantastic Four #1 (Marvel Comics) – by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Barry Kitson

Batman #676 (DC Comics) – by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel

Not a number one, but it is the first part of DC Comics’ months-long campaign promoting Batman R.I.P. so worth the look to whether Part One delivers on the hype.

In general, yes. The issue is jammed with quiet character moments, subtle intrigues to likely serve in subsequent acts, and a few not at all subtle scenes establishing more immediate menace.

Part One also delivers substance for a complaint: readers having not read recent events in Batman will be lost at two points in this.

#1- who is the woman? She was introduced in a scene with no name mention. But as she knows Bruce Wayne is Batman and is in a deep kiss with him, presumably she’s a major character. It would have been nice to have had a name to work with.

As bit of a digression…sequential storytelling tends to penalize the uninitiated. For routine stories a brief recap might serve to remind and give some high-level orientation, and that minimally should suffice. For a major new story to launch and seemingly not care about new participants lacks vision and editorial responsibility. Readers have complained time and again DC Comics’ failures in making their stories accessible to new readers; sadly Batman R.I.P. part one continues this unfortunate trend.

#2- scene setting in the final sequence. Regular Batman readers *may* recognize the setting as Arkham, unfortunately this never confirmed. This is another example of DC penalizing the uninitiated. More egregious is the perspective of the scene: it starts with a omni-present perspective as if walking into the unconfirmed Arkham Asylum, but shifts to another persepctive without explanation to how the introductory could really exist. As conveyed, the opening sequence creates a false tension. Visually it is glorious, Daniel does some exceptional work with each page. Storywise it culminates in something of a cheat.

On the very positive, the Joker as presented is terrifying. Visually he is menacing and truly villainous. His dialogue and demeanor establishes he’s the Crown-Prince of insane. This Joker is unlike any Joker seen before, and worth the cost of this comic to see.

Aside from this terrifying portrayal of the Joker, the double page spread of the Black Glove and Danse Macabre (whomever these characters are – are they new? Recurring?) is a visual treat. Finally, the interaction between Robin and Alfred is brilliantly done. The conversation and tenor is pitch perfect for both characters. Well done.

“Well done” is nothing unusual for Grant Morrison. He sweats ideas. Every blink of his eye generates an idea. The man is a creative force. It is obvious even to one not having read Batman for a few years that Morrison is tapping into something primal with the character’s myth. Any criticism of a reader becoming lost among the story is more attributed to final touch editing than to failure of the story. With the forces in play, this Batman title demands full-time creative support to ensure the little details are not lost among the major. Hopefully subsequent issues will have the DC team bringing their A-game just as Morrison and Daniel and the creative team clearly have done.

As masterful as the storytelling is Tony Daniel’s artistry. Simply: he’s done fantastic work. Hopefully he will be able to maintain the regular schedule for the arc, since he’s really established the visual cue of the characters, notably the villains. Another hand may get the characters drawn well, but not necessarily portrayed correctly. Batman R.I.P. could be the storyline that catapults Daniel to the “next level” of acclaim in much the same manner as Perez (Judas Contract), Giffen (Great Darkness Saga), Quesada (Azrael), Adams (Longshot) among others handling key story-arcs. Nevertheless, it is one thing to write how terrifying the Joker or imposing the Danse Macabre is to be and quite another to deliver that to the page. For anyone who thought that Brian Bolland or Frank Miller portrayed the quintessential Joker, the final four pages of Batman #676 raises the bar.

This is a solid start even with the lack of information provided to new readers. It would have been astonishing if every reader coming aboard had an equal opportunity to understand the environment the story was working around.

$2.99. B+/Brilliant (A+/Astonishing for the art)


Captain Britain and MI13 #1 (Marvel Comics) – by Paul Cornell
and Leonard Kirk

So much was against Captain Britain and MI13 – a book stemming from Marvel’s Secret Invasion major event, a character having gone through multiple incarnations and book launches, a group of relative B-list heroes loosely banding under a (British) Government mandate – among several other hurdles to overcome.

Nevertheless, Captain Britain and MI13 quickly and effectively hits stride. Captain Britain indirectly acknowledged his prior roles and dismissed them without insult with his new intention as being Britain’s Captain America. It is a return to his roots not really seen since American readers were first introduced to the character in Marvel Team-Up. It is an honest and direct approach, easy to accept while returning character credibility. The more convoluted dimensions layered onto Captain Britain in the years since Team-Up offered entertainment but never seemed to adequately build from the foundation of English-myth and national hero. In but a few pages it seemed Captain Britain was finally home.

Equally impressive is the presentation of The Black Knight. The Knight commands some of the best dialogue exchanges with a touch of humor and a dose of self-depravation. More importantly, the character retains a nod to the legacy but a step toward new reign.

Paul Cornell manages these Captain Britain, The Black Knight and several other characters with capability, respect and innovation. It’s impressive to read and ultimately sense a consideration for characters. It will be interesting to learn what is in store with some of the other characters in MI13.

The big star of the book is Leonard Kirk. Kirk pours detail and attention to each panel, with pages loaded with depth and artistry. Kirk skimped on nothing, and even panels with no “all-out” action are loaded with “all-out” activity. Jesse Delperdang had to have gone nuts with what was presented, and no doubt relished the work and contributed to even more eye-dazzling detail. Kirk and Delperdang define what it means to be graphic artists.

The last page is an effective cliffhanger, and the teaser page for issue #2 very effective to entice readers’ return. Captain Britain and MI13 had everything to lose and be a mere footnote in the Secret Invasion mega-crossover. Fortunately and most surprisingly, issue #1 is a fantastic super hero adventure book, with much to look forward to.

$2.99. B+/Brilliant



Secret Invasion Fantastic Four #1 (Marvel Comics) – by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
and Barry Kitson

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is at his best when he’s allowed to write the Fantastic Four as a family, as more human than super-human or super-hero. His previous work in MK4 presented some of the most touching, human and entertaining scenes between the Family Four of any writer of the characters. As in MK4, Secret Invasion Fantastic Four contains similarly powerful and entertaining scenes.

Ben’s stating “I’m making Coq au Vin for Franklin and Val, Flamebrain, you want some?” followed by Johnny’s “Sue. Dinner. Ben. Cooking. Must. Stop.” is wondrously layered humor based on familiarity of the characters and their own familiarity to fans. Aguiire-Sacasa holds literate command over the Fantastic Four, most specifically for Ben and Johnny, so his return to the characters is welcome and entertaining.

Where Secret Invasion Fantastic Four doesn’t work so well is the involvement of that Secret Invasion and the Skrull conflict. The book is missing half the quartet, a noticeable absence. Aguirra-Sacasa is working with what Bendis left from the primary Secret Invasion series and although he does a capable job with these remnant pieces, the story nevertheless falters a bit while trying to tie into the event.

Kitson appears in step with Aguirra-Sacasa, with their best being the same Ben-Johnny character focused scenes. Every panel with Ben is a treat (both regards the story-scene and with how Kitson draws The Thing), while those with the Skrulls less effective or compelling. There is one exception: the last page. It’s not a shock ending, and in many respects was expected at some point due with the Secret Invasion premise, but having it revealed and out there allows for the story to continue without the distracting questions of “when will…?”

Overall, Secret Invasion Fantastic Four offers fans of the mega-crossover more substance on the Sue/Reed scenes from the Bendis/Yu Secret Invasion, gives fans of Aguirra-Sacasa’s Fantastic Four a refill dose, and provides for an entertaining setup for issue #2.

$2.99. Grade: B/Brainy

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Driveby Comic Reviews (April '08, Part 1)

by Chris

I buy my comics online at Mail Order Comics and have them shipped to me on a monthly basis. I'll be posting reviews of the previous month's comics in batches of five or six. I won't be reviewing every single issue...just the ones about which I have something to say. This time around, I've got Secret Invasion #1, Checkmate #25, Justice League of America #20, Fables #72, and Hulk #3.

SECRET INVASION #1
I've seen comments from people after the reveal in this issue about "Poor Aunt May". Guess what? There's no need to feel sorry for her. Why? Never happened. Peter & MJ never got married. Aunt May never found out out Peter being Spider-Man (or did she just conveniently "forget"?). Peter never moves his family into Avengers tower. So, don't feel sorry for Aunt May. My One More Day rant over, this issue could have used some tightening up. For an introductory issue, we only really get teased as to what's about to happen. Four pages to show all the inmates from superpowered prisons breaking
up? Was that really necessary? Bendis is just abusing his decompression tendencies here. That aside, I enjoyed the issue. We're treated to a sense of impending doom, the heroes start to realize just how big this problem is, and we get a couple of pretty big WHAT THE--?! moments in the last couple of pages. Add in some gorgeous Leneil Yu artwork (sure, he can't draw women's faces, but he excels at drawing action scenes) and you've got a pretty entertaining book. Looking forward to issue 2 and I really hope that Bendis will find some way to avoid his usual "all buildup with no real payoff" results. Grade: B+


CHECKMATE #25
I'm really going to miss Greg Rucka on this book. He brings a very strong military sensibility to this book that I just can't see Bruce Jones duplicating. While Checkmate hasn't been my favorite book since it launched two years ago, it's been very solid. The rotating art teams didn't hurt the book since most of the artists had quite similar styles. That said, I really enjoyed this issue's focus on the Rooks. These were brand new characters that hadn't been seen before and was a really nice change of pace from seeing all the big guns in action. Rucka's sense of cutting edge military technology here added a sense of gritty realism enhanced by the fantastical elements that go along with a superhero universe. My one complaint is that Kobra seems to have been overused in this series. They seem to pop up every few months. It would be nice to populate the book with more variety in terms of antagonists. Grade: A-


JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #20
I've been enjoying Dwayne McDuffie's run on this book, but this issue was disappointing. It didn't even read like a Justice League book. It felt more like a fill in issue of The Flash with a guest appearance by Wonder Woman. It was competently written and McDuffie certainly captured the distinct voices of the two heroes and I know it's important to get those character moments in between all the action, but there was something missing here. When I'm reading a JLA book, I expect the threat to be of some massive scale and Queen Bee stealing transporter technology just
didn't give me the feeling of impending doom. On the bright side, it had some gorgeous artwork by Ethan Van Sciver. That fact doesn't save this issue from mediocrity, however. Grade: C


FABLES #72
Month in and month out, Fables is consistently one of the best books on the stands. This month is no exception. This is the conclusion of the story arc wherein Cinderella, the ass kicking super spy, extracts Pinocchio from the Homelands. This arc being the first one where we really see Cinderella (at least to my recollection), it is an amazing debut. I am already fascinated by
this character. She's beautiful, she's smart, and she can kick the crap out of you. As usual, Willingham does an excellent job of smoothly blending character moments in with the action. In addition, while action isn't really Buckingham's strong suit, he's more than up for the job in this case. Grade: A


HULK #3
His collaborations with Tim Sale aside, Jeph Loeb is the Michael Bay of comic books. His stories are big, loud action blockbusters (remember, he did write the screenplay for Commando). Some people complain about the fact that his stories have no substance. Yeah, well, sometimes I just want to shut off my brain and read a book where things get blowed up. This book delivers that in spades. Sure, some of the dialogue might be kinda corny and Rick calling himself A-Bomb sounds like he's trying too hard, but dang it, this book is fun. A red Hulk that uses a gun? Rick suddenly turning into a new Abomination? What the heck is going on here?! I have no idea, but I look forward to finding out. The pace so far has seemed slow, but that could be due to the late shipping. Grade: B
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General Reviews 5/7: "Run Away!"

by the General

Far be it for me to interrupt Jon's Mighty Hulk Marathon, but I know for a fact that if I don't get these reviews typed up and posted today, they'll end up bundled in with next weeks comic reviews. Or forgotten in the mists of time. But, before I get into reviewing things, I need to go on record stating that Jon is 100% Correct about at least one thing: Lockjaw is a mutated inhuman. Not a dog.

With that said, on to the reviews...

Secret Invasion #2 (Bendis and Yu) - Secret Invasion #2 answers the age old question: What happens when 30-odd superheroes are attacked by one Tyrannosaurus Rex? The answer: "Run away!" OK, to be fair, about half that number are probably skrulls. And at least it wasn't a killer bunny. But still, are you telling me that Wolverine is the only hero who will leap onto the T-Rex's foot, while the Phoenix and Thor head for the high ground? Well, OK then.


But, aside from that complaint and the general feeling that not that much happened this issue, I liked this comic quite a bit. It wasn't as excellent as the initial issue of Secret Invasion, but still had enough heroes punching each other to make it feel like it was a Big Deal™. Plus, the final spread has me eager to see what happens when the heroes finally stop mucking around with dinosaurs in the Savage Land and get to actually fight the skrull invasion. A just above average B-.

Young X-Men #2 (Guggenheim and Paquette) - I was a bit ho-hum about the first issue of this title. But, with this issue, my interest was piqued more and I am starting to get a sense of tone and direction. I think its pretty much a given that the X-line requires a New Mutants/X-Men title where a group of younger and less-experienced mutants learn to become heroes. But, over the last few years, it seems like Marvel has been struggling to find the right tone for that title. I personally thought that the initial relaunch of New Mutants was a bit of a snooze-fest. And while I liked the last year or two of New X-Men, I know most people found it too dark (wimps!). Which makes this new direction a little odd, since the route they seem to be taking is that of the original X-Force: Young mutants being trained as soldiers.

That said, this book does manage to have one foot set heavily in past continuity, while remaining fairly new and accessible feeling, which is nice. There's an interesting generational conflict that is being set up in this arc that I'm eager to see play out. So, while this title isn't amazing yet, I'll give it a better than average B-, with hopes that each issue will continue to improve on the issue before it.

X-Factor: The Quick and the Dead #1 (David and Raimondi) - X-Factor tends to be a title that I run hot and cold with. I can usually appreciate that it's a quality comic, but at the same time the tone never quite works for me and I have general issues with Peter David stemming back to his online persona. That said, I've thought that the rise and fall of Quicksilver has been one of the more interesting character arcs that spun out of House of M years ago. And with the character at rock bottom, I was interested to see where they'd take him next. Sadly, this issue didn't impress me much.

After a number of inner-monologues with visions of people from his life while sitting battered in a jail cell, Pietro discovers that he's got his super-speed back when he happens to notice a man about to throw a woman off a neighboring rooftop. After saving her, Pietro spends the rest of the issue running around, rejoicing in his newly returned powers and talking vaguely about second chances and how he is going to do things right this time. Maybe I should have put spoilers on the last couple sentences... except the entire thing is as uninteresting as my summary makes it sound. The fact that Raimondi can't really convey the sense of speed and velocity needed for the second half of the story only helps to reinforce how run-off-the-mill this story is. It's a definitely "been there, done that" feeling D+.

Spoiler Theories! - I thought I'd mention two people who I'm pretty sure are skrulls. First off Carol Danvers in Secret Invasion. For proof look no further than the wordless panel of her face when she is talking to Tony in the burnt-out compound after the T-Rex attack. I remember Bendis saying something about how he's laced the last couple years of his comics with "skrull panels." And if that isn't a skrull panel, I don't know what is.

Also, I'm pretty sure that Cyclops over in Young X-men is a skrull. At the very least, he's not Cyclops. I think the first piece of evidence lies in his behavior obviously, and the fact that he's seemed to gain Wolverine's ability to appear in pretty much every X-title every month. And, the second piece of evidence comes in this weeks issue, where Santos says (while looking at his portable Cerebro unit): "Mine says there are only five muties in this room. We are one shy." I'm guessing Cyke isn't a mutie... because he's a skrull!

End theories.

One final note: You might notice that I didn't pick up Cable this week. I just couldn't bring myself to. The first two issues where just so drag-ass with their pacing that I didn't feel it was worth dropping the $3 on it this week. Maybe if there is a slow week later this month, I'll break down and pick it up. But, until then...
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