Secret Invasion has been a mixed bag for me. The core series has tried to cover so much ground of the invasion itself that it’s been spread too thin, delivering short and surprisingly unsatisfying vignettes. The logical assumption would be to turn tie-in issues in titles like Mighty and New Avengers, in the hopes that those vignettes would be expanded upon. This just doesn’t happen. I understand Bendis is using the Avengers titles to rewind and reveal how the Skrulls have been crafting their dastardly plan all throughout Avengers history. What I don’t understand is what criteria he uses to choose these moments. Skrull Elektra in Mighty Avengers? Sure, there were a few interesting moments, but by and large, it seemed unnecessary. This is the precisely what’s going on in New Avengers #43.
As with most of the ship-side heroes thus far, Captain America proved to be yet another red herring. Was anyone honestly surprised? Couldn’t a few panels in Secret Invasion suffice to let us know he wasn’t the real deal? It worked for the myriad of Skrulls dispensed before this. The heroes had a hunch it wasn’t Cap because he was killed months before. We, the readers, know it’s not Cap because the issue wasn’t written by Ed Brubaker *. Bendis has to know that at least some of us are going into this issue with that in mind. Unless this Skrull is going to have an important role later on, I felt it was useless to expand upon his personal history. Yes, we get to see the inner workings of a Skrull sleeper agent. Yes, we see that the Skrulls want to break the Marvel heroes. We know they’ll do absolutely everything they can to beat them from the inside, even sacrifice their own lives. At this point, I can’t help but feel like I’ve seen this several times before. I will say it was neat to see the Cap Skrull’s altered memories and what happened to bring the Skrull ship to the Savage Land. Even that particular sequence didn’t really seem pivotal, though; it was just a “that’s how that happened” moment.
Touching upon the art quickly, I thought Billy Tan’s pencils were actually very good. I’ve heard mixed opinions of his work back during Messiah Complex, but I never really had a problem with it, and I certainly don’t now.
Issues like this are difficult for me to review. By no means is it bad. The art is good. There are no problems with the story writing or dialog itself. The problem comes in framing this story against the grand scheme of Secret Invasion. The issue feels ancillary at best and I just can’t help but feel that Secret Invasion, in both series and tie-ins, is starting to tread water.
* Oh, come on. You really think Marvel’s going to mess with Brubaker’s Cap title? Anything sizeable to happen to Cap will happen in Captain America.
Story: 3 - Good
Art: 4 - Very Good
