Post by goldenfist on Apr 3, 2008 8:11:11 GMT -5
Ign.com reviews Secret Invasion #1.
"Event burnout." It's a phrase I'm hearing more and more as time goes on. Comic readers complain, not unjustly, that publishers are dropping one major event after another, never leaving enough time for the ramifications of the last world-altering storyline to coalesce. What major crossover are we on now, anyway? War Complex - Hulk's Civil Annihilation of the Secret House of the Disassembled Messiah? Something like that? The hard and simple truth is that Marvel and DC will only publish these big events as long as the readers buy them in droves, along with dozens of tie-ins, one-shots, and spinoff books. With Secret Invasion #1 now upon us, the cycle perpetuates into 2008.
But that doesn't mean you should immediately write off Secret Invasion. Brian Michael Bendis has been building toward this event before Civil War was ever a Post-It note on Mark Millar's fridge. That lends the mini-series a certain level of legitimacy right off the bat. Even when Hulk was waging war on our favorite heroes, the real question in everyone's mind was "Who Do You Trust?" According to Newton's Second Law of Comics, a huge build-up leads to an equally huge payoff. While the first issue of Secret Invasion is understandably limited in the same way all first issues are, Bendis makes a concerted effort towards ratcheting up the excitement level and giving the story a firm kick in the pants. House of M this ain't.
In case you've managed to avoid every piece of news pertaining to a Marvel comic over the past few months, as well as the online previews, the offline previews, the interviews, the helpful IGN Reader's Guide, here's the deal. Shape-shifting Skrulls have infiltrated Earth, and they've secretly kidnapped a number of important figures in the superhuman community and replaced them. The Skrulls are planning a secretive invasion of Earth (get it?). After the stress and untold damage wrought by Civil War and World War Hulk, the remaining heroes aren't in much of a state to fight back. When anyone might be a Skrull, it's hard to know who to trust. In this way it's very pleasing to see how Marvel's latest event builds upon the earlier ones, even if only in this small capacity.
The major criticism leveled at Bendis' House of M script was its glacially slow pace. The entire first issue did little more than set up a conflict the following seven issues tiptoed through. In some ways it's just unfair to expect anything more from a first issue. Just because all the pre-release hype and preview material establish the conflict of a story doesn't mean the writer can skip to Act 2. Still, that didn't completely excuse House of M. Luckily, Bendis seems to realize this. The pacing of Secret Invasion is already much, much improved over House of M, and it's already making for a much, much superior read. We all know the Skrulls are going to invade. It's right in the darn title. So, in this issue they actually start invading. No packed rooms full of heroes bickering and trading witty banter. No flashbacks to life before everyone crashed on the island. Just complete and utter chaos. Good chaos, if such a thing is possible.
I won't say too much more for fear of spoiling what is undoubtedly one of Marvel's biggest single issues of the year. Essentially, this issue comes across as a much more epic installment of New Avengers. That's not just because of Leinil Yu's gritty pencils. For one thing, the New Avengers themselves take on something of a starring role. For another, those accursed Mighty Avengers thought balloons are nowhere to be found. More importantly, the overall tone of this book is dark – darker than House of M, darker than Civil War, and certainly darker than World War Hulk. Even Bendis' dialogue, which I always felt was best suited to street level characters, furthers the darker feeling. By and large the dialogue fits. The only thing that worries me is Bendis' interpretation of the Skrulls. Perhaps they're just trying to get into their roles as fake humans, but their dialogue doesn't exactly strike as being very "alien." Future issues will be the real judge in this regard.
One of my favorite parts of this issue was seeing some of the more obscure corners of the Marvel U. integrated into the story. If Bendis isn't the first writer besides Joss Whedon to use Agent Brand and S.W.O.R.D. in a story, he's the first to do so in a major way. Plenty of other faces show up in minor roles, some of them quite surprising. In case you were wondering, this issue is chock-full of revelations, betrayals, and the like. Some of them left me scratching my head, if only because they struck me as too ambitious and over the top to be taken seriously.
I've heard more than a few moans and groans regarding Leinil Yu's involvement in this book. Yes, his work on New Avengers was flawed, but it also showed a great deal of potential. I believe most of us on the Review Crew stated multiple times that we wished Yu would be assigned a separate inker in order to lend his muddy panels a bit more clarity. Not only did Marvel throw Civil War inker Mark Morales into the mix, they brought in Laura Martin, one of the best colorists in the biz. Together, Morales and Martin fix a huge amount of the problems that plagued Yu's New Avengers issues. The line work is much clearer and more defined. While the coloring doesn't immediately jump out and wow the reader, once the readers enter a, shall we say, sunnier set of surroundings, the difference is astounding. Yu's style still isn't perfect, mostly because of the occasionally wonky facial expression, but few readers will still complain about his involvement after this issue. Certain panels are nothing short of gorgeous.
Idiosyncrasies aside, the only major complaint I can lodge against this issue is that it doesn't give me enough. I want more Skrully revelations, as well as further explanation regarding the revelations it did give me. Like I said, this is a problem inherent to any first issue, and I'm just going to have to suck it up and wait 30 days for another helping. The fact that I can still feel this excited about an event after all these years is a good sign. I think Bendis has what it takes to pull this baby off.
Review Score: 8.4 Impressive
(I know not everyone will agree with the review)
"Event burnout." It's a phrase I'm hearing more and more as time goes on. Comic readers complain, not unjustly, that publishers are dropping one major event after another, never leaving enough time for the ramifications of the last world-altering storyline to coalesce. What major crossover are we on now, anyway? War Complex - Hulk's Civil Annihilation of the Secret House of the Disassembled Messiah? Something like that? The hard and simple truth is that Marvel and DC will only publish these big events as long as the readers buy them in droves, along with dozens of tie-ins, one-shots, and spinoff books. With Secret Invasion #1 now upon us, the cycle perpetuates into 2008.
But that doesn't mean you should immediately write off Secret Invasion. Brian Michael Bendis has been building toward this event before Civil War was ever a Post-It note on Mark Millar's fridge. That lends the mini-series a certain level of legitimacy right off the bat. Even when Hulk was waging war on our favorite heroes, the real question in everyone's mind was "Who Do You Trust?" According to Newton's Second Law of Comics, a huge build-up leads to an equally huge payoff. While the first issue of Secret Invasion is understandably limited in the same way all first issues are, Bendis makes a concerted effort towards ratcheting up the excitement level and giving the story a firm kick in the pants. House of M this ain't.
In case you've managed to avoid every piece of news pertaining to a Marvel comic over the past few months, as well as the online previews, the offline previews, the interviews, the helpful IGN Reader's Guide, here's the deal. Shape-shifting Skrulls have infiltrated Earth, and they've secretly kidnapped a number of important figures in the superhuman community and replaced them. The Skrulls are planning a secretive invasion of Earth (get it?). After the stress and untold damage wrought by Civil War and World War Hulk, the remaining heroes aren't in much of a state to fight back. When anyone might be a Skrull, it's hard to know who to trust. In this way it's very pleasing to see how Marvel's latest event builds upon the earlier ones, even if only in this small capacity.
The major criticism leveled at Bendis' House of M script was its glacially slow pace. The entire first issue did little more than set up a conflict the following seven issues tiptoed through. In some ways it's just unfair to expect anything more from a first issue. Just because all the pre-release hype and preview material establish the conflict of a story doesn't mean the writer can skip to Act 2. Still, that didn't completely excuse House of M. Luckily, Bendis seems to realize this. The pacing of Secret Invasion is already much, much improved over House of M, and it's already making for a much, much superior read. We all know the Skrulls are going to invade. It's right in the darn title. So, in this issue they actually start invading. No packed rooms full of heroes bickering and trading witty banter. No flashbacks to life before everyone crashed on the island. Just complete and utter chaos. Good chaos, if such a thing is possible.
I won't say too much more for fear of spoiling what is undoubtedly one of Marvel's biggest single issues of the year. Essentially, this issue comes across as a much more epic installment of New Avengers. That's not just because of Leinil Yu's gritty pencils. For one thing, the New Avengers themselves take on something of a starring role. For another, those accursed Mighty Avengers thought balloons are nowhere to be found. More importantly, the overall tone of this book is dark – darker than House of M, darker than Civil War, and certainly darker than World War Hulk. Even Bendis' dialogue, which I always felt was best suited to street level characters, furthers the darker feeling. By and large the dialogue fits. The only thing that worries me is Bendis' interpretation of the Skrulls. Perhaps they're just trying to get into their roles as fake humans, but their dialogue doesn't exactly strike as being very "alien." Future issues will be the real judge in this regard.
One of my favorite parts of this issue was seeing some of the more obscure corners of the Marvel U. integrated into the story. If Bendis isn't the first writer besides Joss Whedon to use Agent Brand and S.W.O.R.D. in a story, he's the first to do so in a major way. Plenty of other faces show up in minor roles, some of them quite surprising. In case you were wondering, this issue is chock-full of revelations, betrayals, and the like. Some of them left me scratching my head, if only because they struck me as too ambitious and over the top to be taken seriously.
I've heard more than a few moans and groans regarding Leinil Yu's involvement in this book. Yes, his work on New Avengers was flawed, but it also showed a great deal of potential. I believe most of us on the Review Crew stated multiple times that we wished Yu would be assigned a separate inker in order to lend his muddy panels a bit more clarity. Not only did Marvel throw Civil War inker Mark Morales into the mix, they brought in Laura Martin, one of the best colorists in the biz. Together, Morales and Martin fix a huge amount of the problems that plagued Yu's New Avengers issues. The line work is much clearer and more defined. While the coloring doesn't immediately jump out and wow the reader, once the readers enter a, shall we say, sunnier set of surroundings, the difference is astounding. Yu's style still isn't perfect, mostly because of the occasionally wonky facial expression, but few readers will still complain about his involvement after this issue. Certain panels are nothing short of gorgeous.
Idiosyncrasies aside, the only major complaint I can lodge against this issue is that it doesn't give me enough. I want more Skrully revelations, as well as further explanation regarding the revelations it did give me. Like I said, this is a problem inherent to any first issue, and I'm just going to have to suck it up and wait 30 days for another helping. The fact that I can still feel this excited about an event after all these years is a good sign. I think Bendis has what it takes to pull this baby off.
Review Score: 8.4 Impressive
(I know not everyone will agree with the review)