{"id":3107,"date":"2009-02-25T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2009-02-25T06:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=3107"},"modified":"2009-02-25T23:05:02","modified_gmt":"2009-02-25T23:05:02","slug":"secret-invasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2009\/02\/25\/secret-invasion\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret Invasion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Brian Michael Bendis<\/strong>, Leinil Francis Yu<\/strong> & Mark Morales<\/strong> (Marvel)
\nISBN: 978-1-84653-405-8<\/p>\n

The Skrulls are shape-shifting aliens who have threatened Earth since the second issue of Fantastic Four<\/strong>, and have long been a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. After decades of use and misuse the insidious invaders were made the stars of a colossal braided mega-crossover event beginning in April 2008 and running through all the company’s titles until Christmas.<\/p>\n

The premise is simple: the would-be conquerors have undergone a mass religious conversion and are now utterly dedicated to taking Earth as their new homeworld. To this end they have replaced a number of key Earth denizens – including a number of superheroes. When the lid is lifted no defender of the Earth truly knows who is on their side…<\/p>\n

This volume is just one of many collecting the vast number of episodes in this saga, and contains all eight issues of the core miniseries, the one-shot spin-off Who Do You Trust?<\/strong> and the illustrated text book Skrulls<\/strong> which claims to provide a listing and biography for every shape-shifter yet encountered in the Marvel Universe (but if they left any out could you<\/em><\/strong> tell?).<\/p>\n

Fast-paced, well-drawn and suitably spectacular, this is a twisty-turny tale and quite enjoyable – if overly-complex in some places. When the heroes discover the plot they shift into high-gear, but everything gets really sticky when a Skrull ship crashes releasing a band of missing heroes who ought to be the originals that were replaced: but are they…?<\/p>\n

Rather than give anything away let me just say that if you like this sort of thing you’ll love it, and a detailed familiarity is not vital to your understanding. However, for a fuller understanding, as well as the relevant 22 Secret Invasion volume that accompany this, you might want to seek out Secret Invasion: the Infiltration<\/strong>, Secret War<\/strong> (2004), Avengers Disassembled<\/strong>, and Annihilation<\/strong> volumes 1-3, as well as various Avengers: Illuminati<\/strong> issues.<\/p>\n

Despite all that this is still a solid light adventure read, the kind of stuff-and-nonsense we all need occasionally and one that can honestly stand on its own two feet – or are those tentacles…?<\/p>\n