Comics: Skrullwatch

So since I've been bashing on the continuity of the major comic comics of late, as they grapple with mega-crossovers, it seems only fitting that when one looks promising, I should call it out as well.

Marvel announced its "Secret Invasion" event, and I was dubious - the universe has been in non-stop crisis mode, going from one event to the next for a couple years now with barely a breather between one catastrophe and the next. Things have been changed forever and changed back again so quickly that confusion reigns (As an example - Spiderman, who gained new powers, got an armored battlesuit, moved with the Avengers and revealed his secret identity to the world has now done none of those things and now unmarried and living with Aunt May once more). The core concept this latest crisis is that the Skrull, shape-changing aliens from the dawn of Marvel, are infiltrating earth, and have been posing as heroes, so no one can trust anyone. So the potential for additional confusion is wracked up even further.

But actually Secret Invasion does a pretty good job of an opening Act, which can be summarized as "Chase the hero(es) up a tree". Protective spaces stations are blown up, SHIELD Helicarriers are knocked out of the sky (again), the Baxter building falls into the Negative Zone, Iron Man's armor is fried, baddies are let out of various prisons, and a space shift crashes in the Savage Land of Antartica and lets out a bunch of what looks like Heroes from the '80s - are they the original or are they skrulls?

So, a grand tour of the Marvel Universe, filled with perils and mystery.

And there are the heroes that are being impersonated by Skrulls. For the continuity fans, this is actually pretty good, since the game is now - "When was the switch made?". A lot of characters are Skrully (Electra, Dum-Dum-Dugan, Black Bolt, Yellowjacket, and the Avengers' Butler, among others, and it adds a nice bonus to the regular crisis. Lord knows that a lot of character haven't been acting like themselves lately.

So this one looks like a good start, and worth checking out, particularly if you've fallen away from the MU because of its recent weirdnesses.

More later,