Comic Book Review: Secret Invasion #3

The Revolution was highly unimpressed with Bendis’ pedestrian effort on Secret Invasion #2. My fears of Bendis failing to move the story along with a point and purpose seemed be materializing after last issue. Hopefully, Bendis will sharpen his focus and get this story rolling with some serious momentum with Secret Invasion #3. Let’s go ahead and hit this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Leinel Yu
Inks: Mark Morales

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin the SHIELD helicarrier floating in the ocean in the Bermuda Triangle. Mariah Hill and several SHIELD agents go to the flight deck to survey the damage. There they find Jarvis and some SHIELD agents already on the flight deck. Jarvis asks Mariah Hill if she is ready to offer her full and total surrender.

We cut to Thunderbolts Mountain where we see Captain Marvel kicking Venom’s ass. Normon Osborn approaches Captain Marvel and says that Captain Marvel does not act like who he appears to be. Osborn asks if Captain Marvel if he will have a drink with him and talk things out.

We hop over to Camp Hammond where the members of the Initiative are all being gathered together. Yellow Jacket arrives on the scene and tells everyone that New York is under attack by aliens, but he doesn’t know who they are exactly. Yellow Jacket tells the Initiative members that this is what they have been training for.

We shift to Time Square in New York where the Young Avengers are brawling with the Super Skrulls. Hulkling attempts to talk with the Super Skrulls figuring that the fact that he is half-Skrull might help. The Super Skrulls ignore Hulkling and continue their attack. The Super Skrulls get the upper hand and begin kicking ass on the Young Avengers. Suddenly, the cavalry arrives on the scene in the form of The Initiative members.

We slide over to the Savage Land where we see Spider-Woman attacking Echo. Echo tells Jessica to stop attacking. Echo says that she is not a Skrull. Spider-Woman responds “I know.” Spider-Woman then blasts Echo and takes Echo out.

We then see Tony working frantically to try and stop the Skrull virus that is infecting his tech. Spider-Woman walks into the lab and tells Tony that he can relax. That he did it. That his work on Earth is done. Spider-Woman says that Tony will go down in history as the greatest warrior in the Skrull armada. And that Tony will always and forever have the undying love of his queen. Spider-Woman then kisses Tony.

Tony yells “I am not a Skrull!” Spider-Woman explains that that is what Tony was trained to think. Spider-Woman says that she is sorry the truth had to be hidden from Tony. That Tony served the role of turning hero against hero and positioning himself as the world’s most important person.

Spider-Woman calls Tony by his Skrull name “Kr’Ali” and tells him that she praises him and loves him. That his day is well earned.

We cut back to Times Square where the Super Skrulls are laying a beating on both the Young Avengers and the Initiative members. Vision tells the Skrulls that they will not win. That others will come to stop them. The Super Skrulls answer back by blasting Vision’s head into little pieces. (Oookay. I guess Vision is to Bendis what Karate Kid is to Giffen.) We then see the Skrulls killing a member of the Initiative.

The Super Skrulls stand victorious over the bodies of all the fallen heroes. Suddenly, the Super Skrulls begin to vibrate and then explode. We then see that Nick Fury in his SHIELD uniform and his new Howling Commandos have arrived on the scene.

Comments
The Good: Secret Invasion #3 was an average read. This issue is much like your typical summer blockbuster movie: loud, fast and full of action. One thing is for sure, Bendis did not deliver a slow paced issue. Secret Invasion #3 gets moving quickly and before the reader can blink their eye they have already reached the end. The simple and direct story and copious amounts of action make this issue a fast read.

If you love action heavy issues then you will enjoy definitely enjoy Secret Invasion #3. The brawl between the Super Skrulls and the combined forces of the Young Avengers and the Initiative take up the majority of this issue. There are plenty of explosions, bodies flying and blasting to keep action fans satisfied.

Bendis delivers some solid dialogue. It isn’t anything impressive or special. But, the noticeable lack of “Bendis speak” is appreciated. I will admit that Bendis writes a particularly evil and devious Skrull queen. Her dialogue in the scene where she tries to play mind games with Tony was well delivered.

Even though I found the scène with Skrull Spider-Woman and Tony Stark to be largely devoid of suspense since we all know Tony isn’t a Skrull, it made sense that Skrull Spider-Woman would try to employ the same tactic that the Skrulls used against the Sentry to remove him from the battle. Tony is suffering from a virus and is clearly not himself and is in a delirious state. This is the perfect moment for some mind games to try and get Tony to think that he is a Skrull.

Like always, Bendis manages to deliver a great hook ending. It is amazing how Bendis can generally bore me for an entire issue and then crank out a final page that immediately grabs my attention and gets me excited for the next issue. And Bendis does it once again with the ending of Secret Invasion #3 as we get the bad-assed appearance of Nick Fury in his SHIELD uniform with the SHIELD logo blazing and flanked by his new Howling Commandos. That is exactly how you end an issue in style.

This much anticipated public appearance of Nick Fury completely made up for what I found to be a rather predictable and pedestrian issue. I am more than ready to see Nick Fury play a central role in this Skrull invasion. And I am also greatly looking forward to Nick once again taking over the reins of SHIELD. One can only hope that Nick is once again the Director of SHIELD soon after Secret Invasion has concluded.

Without a doubt, I am looking forward to Nick Fury getting some love and enjoying the spotlight in the next issue. I’m also curious to see how his new Howling Commandos are able to operate as a team. If nothing else, this ending is an indication that we should be in store for plenty more action with Secret Invasion #4.

Leinel Yu and Mark Morales combine to deliver some solid artwork. Yu’s art on Secret Invasion is certainly better than his effort over on New Avengers leading up to this big event. Still, the art is nothing spectacular and not what I expect on a huge event like Secret Invasion. J.G. Jones’s art on Final Crisis or Steve McNiven’s art on Civil War are good examples of the level of art that I expect on a big event.

The Bad: Secret Invasion #3 was just an ordinary read. Secret Invasion was also a choppy read. Bendis jumps around in a random fashion creating many clunky and jarring scene transitions. This gives Secret Invasion #3 a rather poor flow. It seems that part of the plotting problems and the issues with the general flow of the story probably stem from Bendis typical struggles with juggling a large roster of characters. While Bendis will shine on issues that center on just one or maybe two characters, he wilts under the pressure of having to coordinate multiple characters during a major story.

Secret Invasion #3 was a pivotal issue in order to convince me that Bendis would be able to do on Secret Invasion what he failed to do with House of M, and that is deliver a tightly plotted big event that unfolds at a pleasant pace. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be in store for us. Exactly how many minutes have elapsed between Secret Invasion #1 and the end of Secret Invasion #3? It feels like about maybe 15-30 minutes to me.

Secret Invasion #3 is a poorly plotted issue. The fast pace and furious action is designed to keep the reader idly entertained so they don’t realize that nothing really happens in this issue. For the most part, Secret Invasion #3 is nothing but set-up. And when you are dealing with a story that is only eight issues long you just can’t still be performing set-up work in the third issue. Poor plotting is frequently the Achilles’ heel to most of Bendis’ work on New Avengers. Since Bendis has eight issues to fill and a shallow story to work with it appears that plot progression is going to move at a snail’s pace for much of this event.

We see Jarvis appear on the SHIELD helicarrier to ask for Hill’s surrender. Okay, that was not particularly interesting and it was also pure set-up. We get a two page scene of Norman Osborn asking Captain Marvel to settle down, have a drink and talk things out. That also was not particularly interesting and this plotline involving Captain Marvel is pretty much at exactly the same point where it ended back in Secret Invasion #1. We also get an unnecessary and useless scene of Skrull Spider-Woman taking down Echo that takes up several pages. That really seemed like Bendis was just stalling and trying to burn some extra pages.

That leaves the meat of Secret Invasion #3 consisting of the scene between Skrull Spider-Woman and Iron Man and the big brawlfest in Time Square. And neither of those plotlines were particularly riveting reads.

I was less than impressed with Bendis’ use of the Young Avengers and the Initiative characters. Again, this points to Bendis’ inability to deftly handle a large cast of characters. The Young Avengers and the Initiative members come across rather painfully as nothing more than pure cannon fodder in Bendis’ eyes. Bendis doesn’t even bother to introduce many of these characters. Yeah, I know we get the numerous tiny little headshots with names under them on the re-cap page for this issue. But, that tells me little to nothing about the Young Avengers characters or the Initiative characters. I don’t read the Young Avengers or the Initiative and had no idea who many of these characters were.

Instead, I took Bendis’ cue and dismissed the Young Avengers and the Initiative as pure cannon fodder and, therefore, the death of Photon had zero impact on me at all. (I guess his name is Photon judging by the headshots on the re-cap page.) In fact, all of the characters could have been killed and it would have had little to no impact on me at all because Bendis views them as simple cannon fodder and it rubs off on the reader. The writer can easily influence the reader’s impression and view of certain characters. And when a writer dismisses and discounts certain characters then so will the reader.

The fight scene is general was just your standard issue brawl. This was pretty much like the beginning of a tag-team fight in the old WWF. The smaller less popular face goes first and gets the hell beat out of him. After taking a beating for an immeasurable amount of time he finally tags in the big popular face that comes into the ring like a house on fire and kicks ass on all the heels.

We know that the Young Avengers and the Initiative were going to get punked out in this fight. We saw it coming from a mile away. Now, Nick Fury gets to ride to the scene and kick ass. Fight scenes that are too predictable and methodical usually bore me.

And what is up with Bendis killing Vision once again? Talk about an incredibly unoriginal and worn out concept. Seriously, there should be a statute of limitations on how many times a writer can kill a specific character in a set period of time. And it comes across as completely uncreative. We have seen this before and it has the unintentional consequence of making the reader scoff and roll their eyes when it happens again in this issue.

I found the Skrull Spider-Woman and Iron Man scene to be completely lacking in suspense and excitement. This was also a rather predictable scene. We all know that Iron Man is not a Skrull. Marvel has made such a big deal that the events of Civil War were not the result of some plan by a bunch of villains. Marvel also has consistently said that of all the characters who could be Skrulls that Tony would not be one of them. And I believe Marvel. I don’t think that they would want to completely eviscerate Civil War by revealing that the Skrulls were behind the Registration Act and that Tony only supported the Act because he was a Skrull.

In fact at Wizard World Philly, Brevoort gave an interview concerning the sweet looking cover for Secret Invasion #6. Here is the relevant part of the interview:

“IGN Comics: Iron Man has also been content to let a new Captain America slide under his SHIELD radar. With Secret Invasion seeming to force these two together to face the Skrull threat, does this begin to undermine Stark’s position of authority, that he needs heroes like Captain America and Thor despite the fact that they want nothing to with his Registration Act?

Brevoort: That’s the least of Iron Man’s worries at this point. His technology’s been crashed, he himself is directly feeling the effects of the anti-Stark Tech virus, SHIELD is down, the world is in flames, the 50-State Initiative has been compromised – there’ll be a point when it’s maybe time to pay the piper for some of this stuff, but right now fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with Captain America, if that’s what it takes to reclaim the planet, isn’t much of a sacrifice. Tony’s going to have to do a lot worse before this is done.

IGN Comics: Is this the real deal or is there a possibility we’re looking at one to three Skrulls here?

Brevoort: No, real deal. I figure we should come clean on this question at least once during the event.”

Also, Bendis appears to clue the reader that Tony is not a Skrull since he makes a point of focusing on Tony’s eyes and they never change to that Skrully green color. There are also other clues in the previous Secret Invasion tie-in issues that Tony isn’t one of the Skrulls.

I get the nagging feeling Secret Invasion is going to continue to be a rather thin and shallow read. And that is to be expected from a story that revolves a very basic concept that we have seen over and over again as recently as Battlestar Galactica or back in 1988 in the Rowdy Roddy Piper flick “They Live” to even farther back in the 1958 movie “I Married a Monster from Outer Space” and the 1956 movie “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

It appears that Secret Invasion is not going to be terribly clever or original. Nor do I expect that we are going to get a textured, deep and complex read at any point. Secret Invasion is beginning to come across as a story that is all flash and no substance. And at no point does Bendis engage the reader or ask them to do any work at all while reading this story. Secret Invasion #3 certainly is not an issue you need to read multiple times in order to gain a new insight or perspective into the story.

Overall: Secret Invasion #3 is an enjoyable mindless diversion with plenty of action and good enough artwork that will provide the reader with some nice cotton candy for the brain for about 10 to 15 minutes. Bendis delivers an accessible issue that is easy to read and should have mass appeal and be a strong seller. If you dig fluff entertainment along the lines of cheesy sci-fi television shows then you will certainly dig Secret Invasions #3.

Readers who like a fast and accessible read with tons of action should certainly give Secret Invasion #3 a try. You will not be disappointed. However, if you are a reader who prefers comic books that possess a more measured pace, strong plotting, quality character work, well crafted dialogue and a thick and dense story that engages your mind then I’d recommend that you pass on Secret Invasion #3.