The Main Event Comic Book Reviews 6.07.08: Secret Invasion #3, JSA #16
Posted by Dennis Twigg on 06.07.2008
The Main Event continues with the Secret Invasion and kneels before Gog!
Secret Invasion #3 General: Near the halfway point of the Secret Invasion, things begin to heat up as the Skrulls take to the ground. After a red-hot first issue and a good, but not great, second issue, do Brian Michael Bendis and Lenil Yu deliver in the third? Writing: The shit really starts to hit the fan in New York City as the beleaguered Young Avengers and Initiative Recruits try to hold the line against the new breed of Super-Duper Skrulls. We only see a bit of the Savage land, but we do make it back to Thunderbolt Mountain and check in with Shield . The mind games continue as a possibly insane revelation is made, or is it all just smoke and mirrors? The body count seems to rise (who can say which ‘deaths' will stick?) and we get a nice climatic ending promising some fun mayhem next issue. Art: Yu is either growing on me or he's getting a steadier hand. His characters, from top to bottom, look distinct. He has an unenviable task with a bunch of D-list Initiative members showing up (to be trounced). I don't read The Initiative, and I recognize only a few of them, but they do all maintain a distinct appearance. The big action moments look sufficiently brutal, and even Lu's faces have made great progress. Overall Score: B. Some fun action, interesting developments, and solid storytelling, but nothing to really wow me.
JSA #16 General: Coming off a rather disappointing arc, Geoff Johns starts a new tale (with the help of Alex Ross). Can he recapture the magic that kicked the book off? Writing: The concept of the issue is pretty neat, dealing with a full-fledged God, and his origin is novel as well. Some of the interactions with him are clunky, and watching the JSA stand around slack-jawed about what to do is not exactly typical comic book faire. That being said, Johns excels when he zeroes in his narrative focus, in this instance focus on the grim and troubled Damage. The nagging annoyance of extraneous past arcs continue (why do we need Kingdom Come Superman in this book?), but that's to be expected. The reemergence of a JSA member and now uber-villian also shows promise. Art: The art is solid as usual, though seeing a huge smiling God prancing around throughout most of it is somewhat… unusual. The God origin page is also well-conceived with great lettering and artistic placement. Overall Score: B. Johns seems to manage to write well enough to keep me buying this book (still), but not so well that I really want to heap praise upon it.
