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It ain’t a secret anymore.

Apparently it’s been four years in the making.  We were hit with the opening salvo a year ago in the form of an Skrully Electra.  And now it’s here.  What has been a really satisfying slow build up has now exploded into an intense, in-your-face declaration of war.  I enjoyed the first issue, but at the same time, I kinda wish we could go back to the prelude.

Part of the reason for this is that the title Secret Invasion is a bit of a misnomer.  It really isn’t a secret anymore…it’s a full out invasion.  While Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Reed Richards are investigating why the Skrulls are invisible to any detection powers, SHEILD tracks a Skrull transport that crash-lands in the Savage Land, and Iron Man’s Avengers go to investigate.  Except Luke Cage’s team of renegade Avengers decide to steal their Quinjet so they can get there first.  This delays Iron Man’s team all of three minutes and they have a stand off in front of the transport.  Then all hell breaks loose as the Skrulls attack at several strategic locations across the globe, each with a cultish “He loves you” mantra.

I had to read this twice to decide if it was a good issue or not.  What I liked about the months leading up the event (dubbed Secret Invasion: The Infiltration) the suspense of not knowing who was a Skrull and who wasn’t, how long they’ve been masquerading as our heroes, how long they’ve been here, how many there are, and what happened to the heroes they’ve replaced.  Those questions are quickly tossed out the window, and while we are not given the answers, they’re replaced with a flurry of battles, double crosses, and surprise reveals (and some not all that surprising).  I felt it was too much for the introductory issue of the event.  Despite all this, it was fun if a bit rushed.  I still really don’t like Leinil Yu’s artwork…the lines are too heavy, the proportions off, the action sequences are sloppy, and his females all look like Aunt May on Halloween.  Look at the attack on the Black Widow…probably one of the most sloppy representations of Spidey’s webs that I’ve ever seen.

Final word: it’s a good, if not great, opening that makes me intrigued for the rest of the series.

I just caught up on Kick-Ass. This comic should be called Ass Kicked, based on how often the main character gets beat up. I didn’t really think either issue was particularly awesome, but on the other hand, I was compelled to keep reading. I have to admit that I don’t particularly empathize with the main character or anything, but I do think it’s an interesting premise.

Jason clued us in to the controversy about the use of gay labels used in a negative context, unfortunately AFTER I’d already purchased these issues. Basically, my take on it was that if “bad guys” had used the terms demeaningly, then you could at least have that as an excuse, but it’s the main character who calls some spray painters “homos”, (and then proceeds to get beat up by them, which was not, I didn’t think, supposed to feel vindicating in the context of the book). This slander doesn’t appear again in the second issue, but, in protest, I will not be buying any more Kick-Ass issues.

I just upgraded wordpress to the latest version, which was a relatively major upgrade. Things look different on the admin side! So for all of you readers who are also contributors, look out! I’m curious what everyone thinks of the changes. The file uploader is supposed to be totally different now, so I’ll find out in a minute here whether that’s better.