November Marvel Previews |
Secret Invasion #5
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Leinil Yu, Mark Morales, and Laura Martin with Emily Warren
Review by Ryan Stevens
In this installment of Marvel’s 2008 Summer Blockbuster, the skrull invasion of earth continues, as dangling plot threads get tied up and characters are brought together. The pace speeds up to a merciless clip as scenes flash by in instants as Agent Brand, Maria Hill, the heroes in the Savage Land, and the Thunderbolts all finally solve their individual predicaments that have been going on since issue one. Frankly, it’s good to see this finally happening, seeing as we’re about to enter the story’s final act.
Brian Michael Bendis shows the deftness and skill required to write these company-wide crossovers, where a writer must be able to adequately script characters of all shapes and sizes. Where lesser writers may falter and be forced to make people act out of character to move the plot along, Bendis is able to keep things moving without compromising the characters. The plot has its good moments, like Agent Brand dealing with her captors, and bad moments, such as a skrull “reveal” that just about everyone saw coming. One thing seemed to dawn on me while I read this issue: Brian Michael Bendis must HATE Hawkeye, if this issue (and some of Bendis’ past material) is any indication. Seriously, Bendis just seems to have a problem with Clint Barton, whom he won‘t allow to have any happy moments.
Leinil Yu’s formerly indistinguishable art is definitely getting better, but he still has plenty of room for improvement. Just like Bendis, Yu has his good moments, (one panel with a furious Reed Richards is gold), and bad moments (the last page is lacking the necessary punch). However, given time, I’m sure Yu will continue to improve to the point that, by series’ end, his art will be extremely pleasurable. However, I’m sure that Yu’s improvement is partially thanks to the unsung heroes of comics, the colorists (Laura Martin and Emily Warren) and inker (Mark Morales), who go over Yu’s chicken scratch, smooth out the edges, and color it in to make it look so fabulous. Without them, this issue would surely not be nearly as easy on the eyes.
So far, Secret Invasion has been an extremely enjoyable Summer crossover, more contained to the main series than Civil War, and more suspenseful than World War Hulk. However, both of those crossovers dropped the ball miserably in their final chapters, so only time will tell if Secret Invasion can follow through with the goods all the way to finish line.
7 sneaky skrulls out of 10
Comment on this review HERE!
|
Booster Gold #11 |
