Secret Invasion

Secret InvasionOk, the graphic novel review you’ve all been waiting for… Ok, not really I mean it did come out in 2009 after all, but it’s what I’ve been leading up to with the last two New Avengers books Secret Invasion 1 & Secret Invasion 2.  The good news is, as far as I can tell the Secret Invasion graphic novel is the best of the series, just as Civil War was the best of the Civil War trades.  The bad news is, well I’m not sure I have any bad news.

That said, there’s not a lot I can say about the plot of this book because it’s a secret, right.  So let’s get right to the spoiler.

Spoiler

There’s so much that goes on in this book I don’t really I can do it all justice, so I think in this one, I’m just going to cover the main points.  A Skrull ship crashes in the Savage Land and heroes spill out of it.  Some of them are Skrulls and some of them are heroes, but they all think that they are the heroes so they all brawl.

In the middle of everything Skrull Jarvis triggers an alien virus that shuts down every bit of Stark technology around the world, including the Helicarrier, prison security systems and the Iron Man armor, whoops!

While both groups of Avengers are battling Skrull heroes in the Savage Land a new and improved batch of Super Skrulls land in Times Square and start kicking some butt.  A bunch of hero groups show up and even some villains but the tide really turns when some missing heroes show up: Nick Fury and his Commandos, Thor and even Captain America – kinda.

I was introduced to Abigail/Agent Brand who is another hot hero with green hero.  She rescues Mr Fantastic who invents a gun to expose the Skrulls.  Then there’s more fighting and then Noh-Varr successor of Captain Mar-Vell shows up and tips the scales for the Earth.  So the Skrulls unleash their secret weapon, they grow Janet Pym.  I know, it sounds wierd and I’ve read it at least twice and I’m still unclear as to what they did with her, but Thor saved the Earth from her and Janet Pym died.

The Skrulls on Earth get beat down and Tony Stark flies up into space to attack the Skrull armada and ends up finding a Skrull shipped packed with the missing heroes, including Spider-Woman, woot!  I think she’s hot.

So the Skrulls are defeated, the heroes are back and the Earth is safe again, the cost the life of Wasp, Tony Stark’s credibility which forces the government to recall all their contracts with Stark and Norman ‘effing’ Osborn coming out a hero as he took the shot that killed the Skrull Queen.

There’s some other stuff that happened, but I think you get the drift.

So what was my take on this cross-over extravaganza?  I enjoyed it.  I’m one of those guys that thinks retconning is an actual fun and the idea of Skrulls invading the super human community and turning them against themselves was clever.  And, I was actually wrong about who I thought the Skrull heroes would be and I like being proven wrong.  My only disappointment was that I wish there were more undercover Skrull heroes.

Story
Artwork
Value
Can It Stand Alone
Cool Factor
Average