Arguing about Hancock, Jason Bateman, Gotham Chopra, Love Guru, Darrell Hammond, Kung Fu Panda, Teeth the movie, The Cool Kids, Twitter Feet, Avatar: The Last Airbender returns next week, perky positive girl, Mandy Moore, Weeds, Spider-Man, multidimensional superheroes, Kill All Parents, Vix #1, Secret Invasion and Final Crisis shirts at Hot Topic, scenesters, and more.
Tag Archive for 'Secret Invasion'
Neal takes the week off as we talk about The Simpsons season 12, Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, firing squads, ramen, canasta, Leona Lewis, Last Defenders #2, Thunderbolts #120, Secret Invasion Fantastic Four #1, Guardians of the Galaxy #1, X-Men Legacy #211, T’Challa, Black Panther movie, Avatar, and some more stuff.
Don’t get me wrong — I love Brian Michael Bendis’ concept here. There’s a Skrull infiltration of planet Earth and now we have no idea who is a genuine superhero and who isn’t (though it seems pretty obvious that Tony Stark is legit right now).
But I’ll be damned if I didn’t start cursing by the time I got to the end of Secret Invasion #2. I paid $3.99 for 22 pages of story that took place in two and a half settings over the course of what… maybe 10 minutes? I was just getting into the issue when all of a sudden BOOP! it was over.
REALLY? That’s all I get? It’s a well-made comic, please understand that. But it’s no better than the pre-Secret Invasion New Avengers stories and I’m paying a buck more to see Mark Morales and Laura Martin overwork Lenil Yu’s pencils. Martin and Morales are great artists — they just have a tough time blending in well with Yu’s more abstract line work.
If there is one extremely frustrating flaw that I can say I dislike unequivocally, it’s the recap page. The design going on in the background looks like an eight-year-old tried to make a magic eye poster in Photoshop and failed miserably. The design is full of so many saturated colors that I can barely read the text on the page. Marvel really needs to do something about this. I mean, what is wrong with white letters on a black background? Since when was readability uncool?
Overall, this is a good issue. But the value just isn’t here. I appreciate the work of Bendis, Yu, Morales, Martin, and letterer Chris Eliopoulos — I did buy the damn issue after all. But if this thing doesn’t turn itself around by Secret Invasion #3, I can guarantee you that #4 won’t be making it home with me.
We chitchat about the Unlicensed Attorneys at Law, UnlicensedAttorneys.com, Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton, 3:10 to Yuma, 27 Dresses, Katherine Heigl’s boobs, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason Segel’s penis, Mila Kunis, Meet the Spartans, Irina Palm, Mariah Carey, E=MC2, Jermaine Dupri, New Jack Swing, Teddy Riley, Midas Touch, 50 Cent, Tony Yayo, ghostwriters, Akon’s fabricated past, Fugees, Pras, Mya, Ghetto Supastar, ODB, Prince, Amelia Earhart, Truffle Shuffle, Avatar, Airbender, Black Panther, BET, Reginald Hudlin, Denys Cowan, Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury, Iron Man in The Incredible Hulk movie, Marvel Studios, Civil War 1, Mighty Avengers 12, and more.
I guess I expected Secret Invasion #1 to be a bit more shocking. Not that it wasn’t good - Lenil Yu’s pencils look strong with Mark Morales on inks and Laura Martin on colors; Brian Michael Bendis delivers a strong script. But the overall story felt much like your typical issue of New Avengers. That’s a good thing, of course. But not necessarily an event comic thing.
I certainly wasn’t out and out taken aback by any Skrull development that happened. Surprised a bit? Maybe here and there. But no “knock me on my ass” moments like the first issue of Civil War. I remember finishing Civil War #1 with my mouth agape, shocked at the words of Iron Man. It had attitude like the Bad Boys movies and hyper-real visuals. Secret Invasion, on the other hand, has a decidedly slow burn pace that feels more like a political thriller than a big action movie.
And I’m sure that’s the point. I imagine that Bendis wants this story to read a bit more mature and subtle than the past two Marvel Comics spring / summer events (the aforementioned Civil War and World War Hulk). To that end, he is successful. However, I didn’t drop my jaw anywhere. I didn’t even scream anything out loud, often a sign that I’m lost in the fictional illusion of the story to my delight.
But like I said, the book is good. I’m not going to be spoilerish, that is unless talking about the fulfillment of expectations counts as spoilers (which, this reader believes, can have way more spoiler potential than learning about the plot). It is excellent to see Luke Cage as a pivotal player in the Marvel Universe, even if Lenil Yu doesn’t know which way his tiara should be facing (ooo, watch out for spoilers!!!).
My favorite part of the issue? Three words: Reed Richards spaghetti. Mr. Fantastic needs to score a licensing deal with Ragu now. Visually, this moment is a close second only to Clor getting his robotic brains bashed out by Hercules. It’s creepy and fascinating at the same time.
Back in style as we talk about eggs, grammar, Kevin Smith movies, Estelle, American Boy, Day 26, Danity Kane, Bad Boy Records, songs about strippers, Teddy Pain, vocoders, Irina Palm, The Mist, Wedding Daze, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, Jason Biggs, Planet Terror, Death Proof, Grindhouse, Joox, Black Fist, Jordin Sparks, Chris Brown, Lil Mama, The Wire, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Daniel Clowes, Mighty Avengers 12, Black Panther 39, Ms Marvel 25, X-Men Legacy 209, New Avengers 39, Skrulls, Secret Invasion, supervillain psychology, Galactus, Batman, Identity Crisis, Green Arrow, and way too much more.
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