Marvel Saga: Secret Invasion

Background

As it has recently been revealed, there Skrulls living amongst us. That is to say, the shape-shifting alien race of green-hued Skrulls have been systematically replacing Earth Heroes for years in an effort to infiltrate us, in order to overthrow us, and ultimately conquer the Earth. All of this was recently revealed when the New Avengers went to Japan to fight Electra and The Hand, only to kill Electra and discover (upon her death) that she was actually a Skrull.

Story 'Secret Invasion Saga'

Iron Man, as the Director of SHIELD has tasked Maria Hill with culling through old records of various intelligence agencies to glean what little information there is about the Skrulls, in order for him to develop a plan on how to combat the threat.

The rest of this story is a systematic review of virtually every Skrull incursion and/or conflict since the dawn of (Marvel) time. With the story itself constructed of art from all of those precious comics, and a running commentary (told in the form of captions) as Iron Man runs through all of the information that Hill has transmitted to him.

General Comments

While this could have potentially been a dry re-reading of Marvel History, it actually read quite well. John Rhett Thomas did a good job to summarize all of Marvel heroes' interactions with the Skrulls, and laid them out in an easy to understand fashion so that even if you weren't fully versed in every single intersection of these two races, you could be quickly brought up to speed for this Summer's upcoming Secret Invasion company-wide crossover event.

Overall Rating

As difficult as this could have been, it reads quite well, and serves as required reading for anyone who has the patience (and capital) to sit through yet another company-wide crossover event. I initially gave this comic a rating of three webs, but then took back half a web because it does mean yet another year of "event"-driven storyline, which will probably be retconed as soon as it is over (which, sadly, seems to fast becoming Marvel SOP).

Footnote

As a "selling point" for this comic, it is a freebie. I think that this was very wise of Marvel to give the fans something as a lead-in to the actual storyline, this way, anyone who doesn't have an encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel's nearly-50-year history, can be easily brought up to speed on what has gone on before so that they will be prepared for what is yet to come.