The Main Event Comic Book Reviews: Secret Invasion #2, Mighty Avengers #13
Posted by Dennis Twigg on 05.10.2008
The Main Event Continues to Examine The Secret Invasion!
Secret Invasion #2
General: With Bendis churning out ancillary Secret Invasion tie-ins like New Avengers and Mighty Avengers the next installment of the main book has hit the stand. On the heels of the huge "what the hell" final page of the last issue we get a big superhero brawl between two groups of heroes; each certain the others are Skrull imposters. Writing: The book sticks with the aforementioned throw down in the Savage Land, and does so competently. Bendis reasonably handles certain issues (like why wouldn't Sentry just win by himself) and A LOT of characters get great moments with small amounts of dialogue. Coming off the heels of a white-hot first issue, this issue fails to knock your socks off like the first one, but it is just good solid storytelling. A few mark-out geek moments occur and Ronin (Clint Barton) takes a pretty big role in the overall plot beats. Moreover, the Skrull suspicions and combat (and ensuing paranoia) feels organic. Things zip along nicely. Art: Yu has a lot of bodies, a lot of costumes to handle (some of which are highly similar such as web-armpit Spidey and modern Spidey) but he manages that aspect well. Yu struggles in his non-costume moments. When the Young Avengers show up in New York City costumeless, I had no clue whom they were until I really scrutinize the panels. Even so, Yu quickly redeems himself with another very interesting big splash panel ending. Overall Score: B. Probably better than most issues of Civil War, the only real dig comes in having to live up to the first issue's events and Yu's limitations as an artist (which we already knew about).
Mighty Avengers #13
General: Just like Secret Invasion has to live up to an excellent last issue, Mighty Avengers has the same unenviable task. We continue taking a peek into Nick Fury's Secret Invasion brewing counter insurgency, but this time through the eyes of new allies as it looks like the Howling Commandos may be back. Writing: To be honest, I don't even KNOW the name of the character that was the focus of this issue (never read Secret War) and the background I got from reading this issue was sketchy, but she serves as an adequate framing device. Again, I really have to praise the book for adding some spice to Secret Invasion without feeling either mandatory or extraneous. The other thing I really dug, is that Secret Invasion has an excellent internal logic. Nick Fury is smart sneaky bastard and his game plan makes great sense. The biggest problem with it is the rather formulaic team building (everyone join up!) nature, but continuity buffs will love the nods to more obscure Marvel characters and even X-Fans will be atwitter at the appearance of someone that knows stuff. Art: Maalev's art is good, but the Nick Fury solo issue felt more like Maalev's home turf. I like his style, but this book's premise did not fit his art as snugly as it did last issue. Not every scene needed Maalev's moody feel, but they did not necessarily look bad. Overall Score: B-. Nothing amazing going on here, but I thoroughly enjoyed the issue. My complaints are that, while perhaps necessary, it was more formulaic and less interesting than the first Fury story. The rating may be harsh in the sense I am glad I made the purchase, it just isn't a must-have.
