Secret Invasion # 5: Well, At Least Something Happens!

It's a bit of a surreal summer for me this year. I mean, I've quit my job, I've self-published my first ever book and am starting to write a second, and the two main comic events of the year (Final Crisis and Secret Invasion) are just... weird.

Here we have Secret Invasion # 5 (of 8), meaning that we've passed the midway mark of what is supposed to be a fairly significant Marvel Comics happening, regardless of whether you measure that in terms of hype, impact to the comic universe itself, or simply length of mini-series (8 issues ain't short!) And yet, through the first half of the series up to this point, remarkably little happening has... well, happened! In the 5th issue, at least, you can kind of see a turning point forming, as Reed Richards takes center stage and makes with the deus ex machina (although, in this case, it's more like "god with the machine!") When you're surrounded by shape-shifting aliens and anyone you know could actually be one, it's kind of handy to have the Skrull Illuminator 9000 (not an actual brand name... as far as I know). And since it didn't exist yet, Reed of course invents it, using only a piece of disgarded chewing gum, an old copy of TV Guide, and a Wii-mote! But hey, that's what makes him Mr Fantastic (not to be confused with Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, Henry Pym, or Amadeus Cho... all members of the Marvel Universe who could do the same!)

And that's an exciting moment, I'll grant, when Reed turns the SI9000 (not its real name!) on a pack of "heroes" and about half of them suddenly appear unmistakably Skrully (despite retaining their superhero costumes). At that point, the rest turn on the exposed ones, and... um, gun them down? Seems a little extreme to me, but you know. At that point, I have to admit, I thought of a path for the series to take that would really impress me: what if Reed wasn't actually Reed, but instead a Skrull, and what if his SI9000 (I made that name up!) was actually showing randomly-selected humans as Skrulls!? How cool of a double-twist would that be, if good guys turned on other good guys and shot their lights out (permanent-like)? Unfortunately, that seems a little unlikely, since some marquis characters were terminated (most notably Susan Richards of the Fantastic Four and the Mighty Thor), but that would've been something!

In general, though, this was another bleh issue of a way-too-padded series. Each new issue makes for about 5 minutes of entertainment, most of it forgettable. There've been remarkably few surprises to date, and that's never a good sign in an "event" like this.