Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Secret Invasion #5 of 8
Marvel Comics
Bendis, Yu, Morals & Martin

The heroes gain some sort of advantage in this issue. This issue removes the veil of “who do you trust?” and it gets us to an even playing field. Some of the turning of the tide feels a little forced, but it was still an entertaining read. The main problem I have with this story is total detachment from the bad guys for the reader. I cant name one Skrull and frankly, I couldn’t care less if they all died or just melted under the global warming of the sun. In all this was an entertaining comic.

The issue begins with a super recap page. At this point I haven’t read any tie in issues and only one mini series issue (X-Men) so this recap page helps loop everything in that I might have missed.

The issue touches base on a few fronts that probably have a lot more story in the tie in issues. For example, a one page conversation between Norman Osborn and Captain Marvel. This is probably really relevant with the tie-ins, but for me, it was almost a non factor because I am not picking up the other issues. Also, the pages that reestablishes Nick Fury as the alpha dog. This is good info to have but I really have no context for it at this point.

After the Skrulls get their message out through the media outlets we return to the main story. The Director of SWORD gets to Reed Richards and helps to take out a couple of ships. Captain Marvel shows up to help out. But the most important part of this scene is the quick science of Richards. He makes a little device that will reveal who the Skrulls are. So they take off to the Savage Land where we find out who has been lying all this time.

The SHIELD helicarrier isn’t throwing in the towel just yet either. SHIELD used an old Nick Fury trick to keep the Skrulls at bay. Basically, SHIELD fights back. So it appears multiple fronts are starting to crack the Skrulls.

The issue is a good story. It has action, reveals, some more mystery and a real sense of good versus evil. The artwork is very good. It is a little confusing with some of the extreme close-ups of the characters, but I managed to get through it okay.

One piece to the story that I didn’t care for was the exclusion of Thor and Captain America who seemed to be teased in New York at the end of the previous issue. At leas they could have teased them again in this issue or something.

I liked the Nick Fury part because, let’s face it, Fury is mentioned all over the place. It’s nice to see who this dude is again and why he is such a tough guy.

I do think it is a problem that the Skrulls are faceless essentially. None of them have names (in this issue at least) and they all just seem to be droid-like. They might as well be Stormtroopers or pawns. They don’t really seem too menacing either. This could change, but in this issue it is hard to see why the heroes couldn’t clean them off Earth in seven and half minutes.

A solid issue. It’s a fun read. It uses a ton of characters, but none too much so that its overkill. The issue sets up the pending big battle. The series has been to my liking despite the fact that I am avoiding the tie-ins. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment.

4 out of 5 geek goggles


Secret Invasion #5 (Yu Variant Cover Edition)