Comic Book Review: Secret Invasion #7

The Revolution continues to be summarily unimpressed with Secret Invasion. Bendis has failed to give us anything more than a shallow and unoriginal read. And the pacing has been excruciatingly slow. Secret Invasion is the big event that just won’t end. I feel like we have been reading this story for a year. Anyway, I do not expect any great plot work or dialogue with Secret Invasion #7 so let’s hope that we at least get some entertaining mindless action. Let’s go ahead and hit this review.

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

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

Synopsis: We begin with the Secret Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Young Avengers, Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, Nick Fury and the new Howling Commandos and the Hood and his goons all united together and battling the Skrull super soldiers. The Skrull Queen orders her solider to target Reed Richards. In turn, Captain America orders the heroes to target the Skrull Queen.

We see Wasp battling Skrully Yellowjacket. Nick Fury and Norman Osborn are less than pleased with working with each other and they both comment that the other one should be in jail. Skrully Yellowjacket grows giant sized and attacks Wasp. Stature grows giant size and attacks Skrully Yellowjacket. Bullseye then fires a rocket launcher that blasts into one of Skrully Yellowjacket’s eyes and then blows up and takes Skrully Yellowjacket down.

Iron Man then tells the heroes that his armor is too badly damaged from the Skrull virus for him to stay in the fight. Iron Man leaves the brawlfest. (Of course. Bendis wouldn’t want Iron Man to get to much positive attention in this story.)

We then see Wolverine attacking Skrully Spider-Woman. Spider-Man comments that things cannot be so bad and that they will be okay since the Watcher has not appeared on the scene. Of course, right on cue, the Watcher appears to view the battle. Spider-Man is completely bummed.

We cut to Iron Man flying away from the fight. Iron Man attempts to contact the SHIELD helicarrier, but gets no response. Iron Man then attempts to contact Jarvis, but again he gets no response. We slide over to Avengers Tower where Jessica Jones hands her baby to Jarvis and asks him to look out for her child if both she and Luke die in the battle against the Skrulls. Jessica states that she cannot sit this battle out. That she must help Luke and the other heroes against the Skrulls.

Jessica flies off from the Avengers Tower just as Iron Man is arriving. We cut back to the brawlfest where a streaking object flies into the battlefield and causes a massive explosion. We see Marvel Boy step out from the center of the explosion. Marvel Boy states that he is a warrior of the Kree and that in the name of Captain Marvel and the Kree Empire that this war is over.

This rallies our heroes as the attack the Skrull super soldiers with renewed intensity. We see Jessica land next to Luke’s side. Jessica tells Luke that he was right about the Skrulls after all. Luke smiles and says this is the best day of his life.

Hawkeye then takes aim at Wolverine brawling in close with Skrully Spider-Woman. Hawkeye focuses and then fires an arrow through the Skrull Queen’s face. (Nice!) Skrully Yellowjacket gets back up and even though he is missing an eye, he still has his other one and freaks out at the sight of the Skrull Queen getting shot by Hawkeye.

Janet grows to giant size and energy begins to crackle forth from Janet. We see Jarvis turn back into his Skrull form. Skrully Jarvis tells Luke and Jessica’s baby that the Skrulls came here willing to die so that God’s will could be done. Skrully Jarvis says “They just do not understand. There is only one way this ends. They die. We die. It doesn’t matter. As long as the words of our prophet comes true”

We see giant sized Janet overflowing with massive amounts of energy and screaming. The energy consumes all of the heroes around her. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Secret Invasion #7 was a very ordinary issue. Still, there were some positives to this issue. Bendis finally delivers plenty of furious fighting. If you dig mindless brawlfests then you will certainly love this issue. The reader gets to watch tons of smashing and bashing as our heroes collide with the Skrull super soldiers. There is no shortage of action as this massive fight lasts the entire course of this issue.

I though the return of the one true Hawkeye was absolutely awesome. And I love the dramatic fashion in which Bendis pulls it off. We have the character named Hawkeye from the Young Avengers figuratively and literally giving way to the real deal in Clint Barton. I dig how the imitation Hawkeye falls in battle and the real Hawkeye reaches down and grabs her bow and shows that only one person is worthy of the codename Hawkeye.

I have been waiting for Hawkeye to return in all his glory and what a long wait it has been. But, this scene almost made the interminably long wait worth it. I greatly appreciated that Bendis allowed Hawkeye to deliver the killing blow to the Skrull Queen. It was wonderfully choreographed. After all that Bendis has done to butcher Hawkeye’s character, he certainly owed it to Clint to let him grab the spotlight in this battle.

Bendis ends Secret Invasion #7 with a solid hook ending. It is revealed that the serum that Skrully Hank gave Janet in Mighty Avengers #15 was nothing more than part of the Skrull’s plan to defeat Earth’s heroes. The reader knew that Skrully Hank was up to something by conveniently giving Janet a new and improved serum just before Secret Invasion broke out.

We also learn from Skrully Jarvis that the Skrulls do not care if they die or not as long as the worlds of the prophet must come true. This cements the fact that this Skrull invasion is a jihadist war where they are quite content to sacrifice their lives for their religious cause. This was a bit of a swerve as most readers figured that the Skrulls wanted to survive this war and populate Earth.

All in all, the ending was flashy enough to get the reader interested in coming back for the final issue. It is a quality cliffhanger that appropriately places our heroes in a seemingly no-win situation as we head into the final issue. I have a sneaking suspicion that since Bendis made right with Hawkeye in this issue that Bendis will make right with Tony Stark and let Tony play the role of the white knight who rides to the rescue in the next issue.

The Bad: Secret Invasion #7 continues the trend of this big event being rather pedestrian. Secret Invasion #7 has such a mechanical and unoriginal feel to it. It seems as if Bendis is mindlessly going through all of the perfunctory motions and giving us the requisite elements that a generic big event is supposed to possess. There is absolutely no soul at all to this story.

Honestly, Secret Invasion has felt like an endless story. And Secret Invasion #7 continues that impression. I swear that there are fight scenes in Dragon Ball Z that have less exposition and that are not as drawn out as what we have gotten on Secret Invasion.

The plotting on Secret Invasion continues to be a disappointment. Secret Invasion #7 has a complete and total lack of depth and substance. Secret Invasion continues to be a shallow one trick pony.

Yet, here we are in Secret Invasion #7 with Jessica hanging out with Jarvis in the Avengers Tower. It seems as if Jarvis had never left the tower at all. I have no idea how Jarvis would have first, survived the blast when the Helicarrier exploded and second, how he zipped back to Avengers Tower in from the Bermuda Triangle in such a short period of time. And Jarvis appears to have been relaxing in Avengers Tower for quite some time. It just felt odd and awkward.

The dialogue has been a serious disappointment during this event and Secret Invasion #7 is no exception. Bendis serves up dialogue that alternates between being generic at certain points and being downright cheesy at other points. All of the characters talk the same. It appears as if Bendis has put forth practically no time and effort at all in the dialogue in this issue. At certain points, the reader gets the impression that they are reading a rough draft rather than the final polished script.

I do not think it was a wise idea by Bendis to use a tiny quick scene in a Secret Invasion tie-in issue as the basis for the big huge swerve at the climax of this story. If the reader has only been following Secret Invasion itself then there is absolutely no pay-off with the reveal that the serum Skrully Hank gave Janet was part of the Skrull’s attack plans. The reader feels as if Bendis is bringing something totally out of left field and the “surprise” is completely lost on the reader. Bendis should not require the reader to have to read every single Secret Invasion tie-in issue in order to understand everything that goes on in Secret Invasion itself.

Yu and Morales create some ugly messy art in this issue. I simply do like Yu’s style of artwork in the least bit. It is a personal preference. If find Yu’s artwork to look too sketchy. And his characters’ faces are simply hideous.

Overall: Secret Invasion #7 will certainly appeal to action fans. If you have been waiting for the moment when our heroes get to mindless smash and bash Skrulls like six-year old kids at whack-a-mole booth in a carnival then you will love Secret Invasion #7.

For me, this is just a case of too little, too late. We have had to wait seven issues before finally getting to see some quality fighting between our heroes and the Skrulls. And the story is so one-dimensional and slow that my interest waned somewhere around Secret Invasion #3.

Readers who have been disappointed with Secret Invasion up to this point will not get anything in Secret Invasion #7 that is likely to change their opinion. This big event is still not tailored to readers who crave excellent plot work, strong character work and finely crafted dialogue.