Secret Invasion of My Pull List


I’ve been doing my best to avoid all things Secret Invasion. Considering I don’t read New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Ms. Marvel or Captain Marvel, and generally dislike anything written by Brian Michale Bendis, it seemed like a good idea to steer clear of all things Skrull. Trouble is that as long as you read a Marvel comic, you’re not going to be able to avoid the big summer crossover.

Out of the comics I read on a monthly basis, at least four are doing Secret Invasion crossovers (She-Hulk, X-Factor, Thunderbolts and Avengers: The Initiative), and another two are being combined into a mini-series while both regular series are on hiatus (Runaways and Young Avengers). While I’ve got another month before She-Hulk, X-Factor and Thunderbolts dive into the Invasion, Avengers: The Initiative and Runaways started this week.

Avengers The Initiative 14A:TI is an interesting situation, because Hank Pym’s been a major cast member since the series began over a year ago, and as we all know now, he’s been a Skrull the entire time. Another Skrull named Crusader has recently been making appearances in the book, although this Skrull- masquerading- as- a- human- superhero is actually a good guy. During the issue, Crusader realizes that Hank Pym is secretly a Skrull because he’s eating pickles and strawberries, just like Crusader does because it reminds him of a Skrullian fruit. On the other hand, he could just be pregnant. So Crusader spends the rest of the issue trying to come up with a way to out Pym wiothout outing himself in the process.

Meanwhile, the new 3-D Man is given his new assignment as part of Hawaii’s Initiative team. Longtime readers may know 3-D Man better as Delroy Garrett, who was named Triathalon when he was introduced in the spectacular Kurt Busiek/George Perez run on the Avengers in the late 90s. Delroy gets a fancy pair of goggles as a gift from one of the previous 3-D Men for graduation, and they just happen to have the ability to detect Skrulls when they’re incognito. Roddy Piper eat your heart out. But apparently this all makes sense because the previous 3-D Man got the goggles because he himself had to fight off a Skrull invasion in the 50s. That’s a nice bit of continuity there.

Readers now learn that the Initiative was all a plan to get a Skrull impersonating a human on every superteam in every state in the country to help with the secret invading and whatnot. Naturally there was one on 3-D Man’s new team, and he has to rush back to Camp Hammond to let everyone know the secret plan. But when he gets there, Crusader realizes 3-D Man will out him as a Skrull so he puts the whammy on 3-D Man’s goggles, making everyone appear as a Skrull. Wait, did I mention Crusader has a ring made from a Cosmic Cube that pretty much lets him do anything? That’s kind of important.

I was really impressed by this issue. I thought A:TI has been slipping in quality lately, and surprisingly joining up with the mega-crossover made it better. It certainly helped that “regular” aritst Stefano Caselli was back on the book, but even the story was a lot better. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the actual Invasion, but this little story about two men figuring out the secret plan and trying to find a way to stop it was pretty cool.

Runaways-YA 1The last time Runwayas and Young Avengers teamed up as a result of a mega-crossover, we got their absolutely craptacular Civil War mini-series. I probably would have skipped the Secret Invasion mini-series based on that if it wasn’t for one tiny fact: both teams have a Skrull as a member. When I heard about Secret Invasion I was really only concerned with how this would affect the existing Skrullls in books I read (and for the record, there’s also one in She-Hulk).

Not surprisingly, the first issue mostly focused on Xavin and Hulkling, the two Skrulls. When the bad Skrulls attack, Hulkling decides to try to use his status as a Skrull prince to reason with the invaders. Unfortunately, the invading army (which is apparently the Skrulllian equivalent of Al Qaeda?) doesn’t take too kindly to what the half-Kree Hulkling has to say. Hulkling proceeds to get his ass kicked by the evil Skrulls, but is saved in the nick of time by Xavin. Man, Hulkling’s lucky Joss Whedon wrote the Runways returning from 1907 in time to save his ass.

While I didn’t like Runaways/Young Avengers as much as A:TI (or Runaways or Young Avengers Presents, both of which also happened to ship this week), it was significantly better than the Civil War mini-series. The biggest complaint I really have is the art, which was a little bit too manga for my tastes.

Well, there’s one month down and Secret Invasion hasn’t ruined any of my favorite comics. In fact, it even made one a whole lot better. Man, I should skip Marvel’s mega-crossovers more often.