Secret Invasion #8 (OF 8)

Remember when Paul likened Secret Invasion to filming a slow-rotting corpse.   Secret Invasion 8 is a bit like finally reaching the big animal chase you were waiting for but you wasted so much film on the corpse, you have to film the chase in broken still shots devoid of any cohesion or gravitas.  Then, at the end, you decide to declare Norman Osborn the king of the jungle.  Just 'cause.

Bendis decided to stretch the whole "Is Tony a Skrull" scene into a multi-scene plot point over several issues.  The death of a founding Avenger?  Two pages.  Two pages with retrospective narration to almost give the "Oh, yeah, this happened" feel of the whole thing.  Same with Veranke's death which should have been the Hawkeye moment last issue.  That pretty much sums up my feelings of this series as a whole in a nutshell.  It was all build-up and build-up build-up to the point that the pay-off had to be cut out for more build-up.  And what was the ending?  More build-up to another event!  This entire series was a escalator to nowhere.  These moments should be epic in scale but they become literal afterthoughts in this issue.  The big ending should be a major "Holy Crap!" moment but it's so hurriedly and forcedly put together, it lacks any kind of weight to it at all.

Sadly, the rushed pace of this issue means more of it comes off as forced and even ludicrous, chief of which is the ascension of Norman Osborn as Head of US Security and the dissolution of SHIELD.  First of all, cheap shot kill of Skrull Queen or not, what is the President here snorting to give the keys of the castle to the Green Goblin? "Hey, guys, let's make the primary protector of the country the guy who takes meds to keep from turning into a mass murderer in green spandex!"  Somebody should be getting fired for that one.  The "Blame Tony for everything" mantra gets a little forced and heavy-handed as well not to mention that as a UN-based organization, the President has no authority to dismantle SHIELD.  Kick it out of US jurisdiction, yeah, and but not disband it.

Even the art stumbles around a bit in this issue.  Namor looks like an angry leprechaun.  There's some weird in-scene continuity going on (what's up with Spider-Man's mask?  When did Dr. Strange show up) and several characters are hard to determine who's who.   The pacing of beats, particularly the two deaths and the ending, is confusing and ill-built.  The composition of those scenes feel off-balance and odd.  Specifically, Veranke's death happens in a single sliver of a panel to the point that it takes the next page and a reread to figure out what exactly happened.  That's bad storytelling right there.

Overall, this was just not a good story.  That's really what it comes down to.  This had potential but  it meandered to the point of ridiculousness and then had to ham-fistedly shove everything into the right place for the next big money making crossover (of which I have ZERO confidence of being any good).  I'm just glad I read this off somebody else.  I'd be pissed if I spent four bucks on this.