Secret Invasion #1, 2
The best thing about Secret Invasion so far is that Mockingbird is in it. I have the entire run of West Coast Avengers and she’s totally great. Hawkeye totally went downhill after she died.
In #2. See Captain America call Iron Man “shellhead” was great too. It immediately lets you know what era these folks are supposed to be from. There’s a missed opportunity here, though. On that big double splash-page, Cap says “damn.” The Captain America of the time he’s supposed to represent wouldn’t have said damn in a comic. So, Bendis, one step forward, two steps back.
Anyway, this plot gets more dark and twisty with every passing moment. I hope it actually makes sense in the end, and that Bendis manages to avoid a Civil War-style anti-climax.
It’s also interesting to see how the Avengers books have basically become Secret Invasion extensions. No Avengers appeard in this week’s. Heck, I couldn’t even tell you which book it was.
Ultimate Human #3, 4
Ultimate Human 3 didn’t have any fighting between the Ultimate Greeg Goliath and Ultimate Shellhead. Grrrr.
Instead, it was the issue-long origin story of the Ultimate Leader. A pretty good origin, really. But couldn’t Ellis have broken this story up into chucks along the way? I wonder how it’ll play in trade form.
Anyway, the story suddenly shifted gears in the 3rd issue to be about the Leader and his plan to be the Ultimate human. Go figure.
The last issue featured very little. Tony tells Bruce he has to give up the Hulk-cure, and then the Hulk yells and throws people around. Tony’s sorry at the end.
Meh.
Avengers/Invaders #1
I haven’t read it yet. I’m about to. I’m pretty excited. I’ve read the entire Invaders series from the 70s. You used to be able to pick-up stacks of issues in quarter boxes at the cons. I grabbed those along with Shogun Warriors, believe it or not. The team was really fun, the historical setting made the book a little more interesting, and they have a killer rogues gallery. I hope some of the baddies make it to this series, too.
However, I’ve not been fond of Ross and Kreuger’s Project Superheroes. Like the incredibly similar The Twelve, it’s an overly-serious serious that is deeply reverent of a by-gone era. Yes, Ross’s covers are beautiful, and they may turn out to be well-wrought stories. For the moment though, they’re no fun to read.
Okay, now I’m gonna read it.
(Time passes …)
Okaythatwasprettydamnedgood.
I’m right at the end of the book, looking at the splash-page. I had just been thinking, “Is this how they’re going to bring Steve Rogers back?” Lo and behold, Iron Man seems to be thinking the same thing. Spidey’s emotional response to seeing Cap was great, too.
At first, I thought having the Thunderbolts in here made no sense at all, but when I see that they actually are going to tie this in with current events (Well, sorta. I notice no one’s called them Skrulls yet.) it makes sense.
The art’s pretty good. A little sketchy for my taste. I notice there’s no inker listed. Does that mean the colorist is doing the blacks, too? That would explain a little.
Is Steve Sadowski the first guy to try to show Spider-Man’s ears through his mask? It looks odd. I hope he stops.
The intro from Bucky worked really well. A decent bit of exposition that was useful even for me, but not too heavy-handed. It was actually really fun.
So, my one hope for the next issue is that they don’t waste too much time with fish-out-of-water jokes, and just get to the good stuff.
Oh, and I hope that Iron Man doesn’t use his nanites to upload all of Cap’s post-1943 memories into Steve’s brain.