Marvel Comics - July, 2008 - $2.99 - 32pg. - Color

Writer: Christos N. Gage - Artist: Ben Oliver - Cover: Marko Djurdjevic

During a mission to take down a villain named Biohazard, Venom gets knocked across town and finds himself face to face with an old acquaintance called Whirlwind. He asks Mac (remember, the Scorpion Mac Gargan is currently in possession of the symbiote) to meet him later that night, giving him a temporary antidote for the nanobots in his bloodstream. He agrees and sneaks out of Thunderbolts mountain that night to find that Whirlwind, Tiger Shark, Boomerang and Mr. Hyde are all waiting for him. They offer him a permanent solution to his nanobots in exchange for a meeting to blackmail Norman Osborn. They blackmail him with the fact that he once stole Osborn’s plans for military robotics for Obadiah Stane, which forces him to agree. They both meet with the villains the next evening.

However, Norman did not come unprepared. The USB Drive he hands over that contains all the information is actually infused with the same materials he used for his pumpkin bombs, exploding in Boomerang’s face when he tries to use it. He takes a bit of punishment from Whirlwind before fighting back, then being clobbered by Mr. Hyde. Being the resourceful fighter he is, Norman punches Hyde in the crotch and throws a few more USB bombs, one catching him in the mouth, a nice Looney Tunes explosion coming out of his ears. All the while, Venom lets his symbiote creep into Tiger Shark’s mouth, effectively drowning (but not killing) him. As it turns out, Venom told Norman all about the trap, as well as his past indescretion against him. Norman calls it even and also allows him one day every month to leave the mountain and do as he pleases.

Now, unlike the X-Factor one-shot this week, I think this one was pointless. Aside from showing that both Mac and Norman have good planning and resourcefulness despite being somewhat insane, nothing really happened. And for the most part, we already knew that. The only reason I can see this issue being published is because of the horrible shipping schedule of the main series. They did the same thing a bit ago with a one-shot focusing on Radioactive Man. On top of being pointless, the art wasn’t really my bag. However, a Djurdjevic cover never hurts.

Writing: 8 - Story: 4 - Art: 6.5 - Cover: 8.5

Overall: 6.8

Marvel Comics - July, 2008 - $2.99 - 32pg. - Color

Writer: Peter David - Artist: Pablo Raimondi - Cover: Boo Cook

This one-shot focuses on Quicksilver, currently sitting in jail after attacking Layla Miller and almost killing her in Central Park (X-Factor #17-20). He has basically lost his mind and repeats the names of all the women in his life (including Layla) as well as that of his father’s codename Magneto. His breakdown escalates when he begins to see visions of these people, each attempting to convince him he isn’t the person he believes himself to be. Ultimately, Layla comes to him and relates a story of a philosopher who inferred that while he dreamed of being a butterfly, perhaps in his waking hours he was actually a butterfly dreaming to be a man. She questions Pietro if he is a human dreaming to be a mutant, or a mutant dreaming he is a human.

Pietro then looks out the window and witnesses a woman being beaten on a rooftop and then dragged and thrown off. He calls for the guards but they don’t listen, so he gets frustrated and declares he is a mutant, not a human. He begins to shake and suddenly finds that he is still in possession of his speed. He breaks the wall and saves the woman, telling her that his name is Quicksilver and he is a hero. He drops her off two hours away, telling her to leave her boyfriend, then continues to run around the world before losing control and hitting a plane, landing in the ocean where he is picked up by a cruise ship.

I think this could have worked fairly easily as epilogues or even as a solo issue inside the normal X-Factor series, but despite that, I really liked it. Not only does it give Pietro back his powers (albeit in a somewhat cheap way), it also sets him back on the path to being a good guy. Maybe he’ll realize the mistake he made during House of M (if you’ll remember, he’s the one who convinced his sister to remove all the mutants) and go find his sister and convince her to fix things for the mutant race, if that is even possible at this point. I also enjoyed seeing some Raimondi art again, been missing him on the normal series. Not sure why they asked Boo Cook to do the cover, I really didn’t like it. Should have just stuck with Raimondi.

Writing: 9 - Story: 9 - Art: 9 - Cover: 5

Overall: 8

Marvel Comics - July, 2008 - $2.99 - 32pg. - Color

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis - Artist: Alex Maleev - Cover: Marko Djurdjevic

Before I jump into the review, first let me say if you haven’t read Secret War (5 issue mini-series back in 2004), I would HIGHLY suggest getting a trade or locating the issues somehow. It was a great series and was one of Bendis’ first works for Marvel after getting a contract, but more importantly he revealed in an interview that it was where he started working in his Secret Invasion storyline.

Anyway, the issue starts off with one of the main characters from Secret War who basically hasn’t been seen since: Daisy Johnson. She is talking to a man who looks a lot like the Ultimate version of Nick Fury, though it becomes clear very quickly that it actually is Nick using an image inducer. She basically explains the events of Secret War for the reader who may not know about it.  He then tells her he has been keeping a secret “Caterpillar File” on people who have powers, some of them not even knowing so. He wants to tap these people and get them on his side, mainly because he knows they’ll be trustworthy since he is basically the only person that knows about them, which would make it impossible for the Skrulls to have replaced them.

Daisy heads off and recruits each one. First, Ares’ son Alexander, who doesn’t know that he is actually Phobos, the God of Fear. She then finds a young woman named Yo Yo Rodriguez, daughter of a small-time villain known as the Griffin with some kind of speed/slingshot powers and the grandson of the original Phantom Rider, a man named J.T. Slade who has inherited a bit of the fire powers. She heads to Mutant Town to try and recruit Layla Miller (who was already waiting outside for Daisy), but she refuses and says the mutants need her. She also tells Daisy that she’ll survive this whole ordeal, but she’ll lose a lot in the process. Daisy then goes to Dr. Strange’s abandoned Sanctum to find the the next recruit (after traveling to Hawaii where he was supposed to be), the son of Dr. Druid who has a bit of magical/chemical powers but doesn’t know how to use them. Last but not least, Daisy bails a guy named Jerry Sledge out of prison, though we don’t get any inkling as to who he may be related to or what his powers are, except that he is quite a large man. Daisy gathers them up and Nick explains that the must listen to him or they’ll die, but what they will be doing will make the world a better place.

Two things confused me about this issue. First, after the Ares mini-series a while back, Alexander knows all about his demi-god status. However, Bendis portrays him as being clueless about his powers, as well as being a few years younger than he used to be. Bendis admitted on his message board he read the mini-series and just said “stay tuned” in response to people questioning him. Second, I’m not sure when this takes place, because after Messiah Complex, Layla is stuck in the future.

Anyway, aside from those two things, I really hope Mighty Avengers stays like this. The past two issues have been so good. The advert for this issue called these people the new Howling Commandos. I really hate that name, but they never mention it in the issue at all. Might have just been a selling point. I’m liking these characters though. They all have that disenchanted feel to them that Bendis loves to use with his characters. They have powers and they’re not even that thrilled about it, but they know that makes them special and they can do something with them. I’m assuming Nick’s comment at the end meant that everyone would be dead because of the Skrull invasion, not that they were specifically in danger themselves, so that really gives the gravity of it. If these people fail in whatever mission Nick has cooked up, humanity may die off at the hand of the Skrulls. I can’t wait for Fury to show up in the main Secret Invasion series. That will be excellent.

Writing: 9.0 - Story: 10 - Art: 9.5 - Cover: 9.0

Overall: 9.4

From left to right: Normal Cover, 1:20 Steve McNiven Variant, 1:50 Leinil Yu Cover, 1:75 McNiven Sketch Cover, Dynamic Forces Mel Rubi Cover. My aplogies that I could not find a cover with the logos on it for the DF Cover.

Marvel Comics - July, 2008 - $3.99 - 32pg. - Color

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis - Artist: Leinil Yu - Cover: Gabrielle Dell’Otto

Issue two kicks off with the two groups staring each other down. The group from the crashed ship are confused as to why our heroes think they’re Skrull, themselves believing the heroes to be the Skrulls. Luke gets tired of it and a fight quickly breaks out, despite Ares trying to convince everyone it’s a trap and they should leave to face the real threat. During the fight, the Sentry is fighting the Skrull Vision, who changes mid-fight and impersonates the Void, scaring Sentry and making him run away like the little girl he is. Ronin (formerly Hawkeye, formerly dead) knocks out the Skrull Hawkeye and steals his bow and arrow, firing shots at the Skrull Beast and White Queen, as well as the Skrull Captain America, who blocks the shot, prompting Clint to wonder if he may be the real Cap. Shortly after a dinosaur breaks up the fight and everyone scatters.

Ms. Marvel escapes with Iron Man during the fight to an abandoned lab formerly used by Mutates, where he decides to use the one thing agains the Skrulls they can’t replicate: his brain. Back at the fight, Wolverine tracks Mockingbird to the side of a now-dead Skrull Hawkeye. She claims that she knew Skrulls were on their ship, but did not think he was one of them. Wolverine still thinks it to be an act and prepares to kill her, but Clint shoots him with an arrow and asks Mockingbird (to whom he was married) the meaning of October 12th. She explains that she had a miscarriage that they didn’t tell anyone about, though the assume the baby’s birthday would have been October 12th. This convinces him that she is the real Mockingbird and that she never really died. She also confirms that she thinks the Captain America on her ship is the real one and not a Skrull.

Back in New York, the Young Avengers can only help but watch as the Baxter Building continues to implode on itself. However, a Skrull ship descends upon the city, a cadre of Skrull warriors, all with mixed abilities come pouring out…

Hot damn, this series is GOOD. I loved that Ares turns out to be right and that crashed ship was just a ploy to pull the heroes away while the main strikeforce hit New York. One thing I really didn’t understand was how the Skrull Vision knew the Sentry was afraid of the Void. The Sentry is a new character and I don’t think the Skrulls would know about him at all, let alone his weakness. However, as if bringing back Hawkeye wasn’t enough for Bendis, now his wife Mockingbird is back after about 15 years. That should make for some good times. Should be interesting to see what Iron Man whips up in that Mutate lab…

Yu’s art showed some improvement this issue. His White Queen looked female in most panels this time. I really liked the Skrulls at the end, his Cyclops/Colossus/Wolverine Skrull was amazing.

Writing: 9.5 - Story: 10 - Art: 9.0 - Cover: 9.0

Overall: 9.4

Marvel Comics - June, 2008 - $2.99 - Color

Writer(s): Dan Slott, Christos N. Gage - Artist: Steve Uy - Cover: Steve Uy

“Changing of the Guard”

Avengers: The Initiative has probably been the best series released by Marvel with the exception of Captain America.  As the first class of this series evolved, so has this book in terms of story and art.  This  issue sees the first graduating class of Stamford, Connecticut while taking a step backwards.  This isn’t a bad issue, just disappointing after the epic “KIA” arc. 

The book starts with members of the first graduating class-Cloud 9, Hardball, Komodo- and Gauntlet preparing for Trauma’s funeral.  Gyrich, War Machine, and “Yellowjacket” preparing for a hearing from Iron Man, Ms Marvel, Valerie Cooper, and Senator Woodman(Superhuman Armed forces?).  Meanwhile Taskmaster and his Initiative class visit Dragonlord’s family of his untimely demise.  Fans of Taskmaster and Ant-Man will get a real kick out of this scene.

We then returns to the Camp Hammond funeral where Trauma turns out to be less dead than most people thought; the subtle humor in this scene is uncanny.  We then find Nighthawk handing purple hearts to those injured in the KIA arc including Constrictor and the very Skrully Crusader.  The scene with this Skrull is sort of anti-climatic in way, since it explains how Skrulls have remain undetected so far.  The book would have been better without it. 

The book then goes back to the Hearing room where Gyrich continues to refute questions and allegations.  People familiar with the Alberto Gonzales case will find all elements of this conversation hilarious.  The committee then has Ultragirl explain the aftermath of the last KIA fight, including Iron Man letting the New New Warriors run away.  Iron Man’s patience with Gyrich then comes to a stop where he kicks him off of the Initiative program through a quirky series of events.  Afterwards, Iron Man unveils the new graduating class from Camp Hammond in their mostly brand new costumes.  After being assigned their new locations, we have a scene that is strangely eerie with Cloud 9 and her new “job”.

Wow.  This is a lot to deal with in a regular sized book.  Thankfully, Slott and Gage balance all parts of these stories very well, with only a few awkwardly placed scenes.  The subtle humor continues with quirky stuff from Ant-Man, Taskmaster, Gyrich, and Slapstick.  I hate to see Slott come in and out of this book in the near future, hopefully Gage will handle the new upcoming class until his permanent return.  The art is a mixed bag of reviews.  Steve Uy is NOTHING like Stefano Casselli, but he gets the job done for the Most part.

Writing: 8, Story: 8, Art: 6.5, Cover: 7.5

Overall 7.5

Marvel Comics - June, 2008 - $3.99 - Color

Writer: Matt Fraction - Artist(s): Patrick Zircher (First Half), Khari Evans(Second Half) - Cover: Marko Djurdjevic

I’ll admit, when I first heard of Matt Fraction’s series of one-shots to be released this year, I was a bit confused. Was there a problem with the main-stream Thor series that Marvel needed to make one shots for the character a la Thunderbolts? Upon reading this book, however, I found this book’s true purpose–to re-create old Norse tales and myths to create a beautiful comparison to the mainstream Thor, which is dealing with the god of thunder’s current affairs. This book turns out to be a wonderful creation of classic myths and comic book badassery hybrid.

Although the story of this book is MUCH better when read, I’ll deliver the gist of the entire book. As frost giants attack Asgard, Thor and Co. deliver a counter attack that accidently breaks part of the stone wall of Asgard. After defeating the giants, the gods feast upon the magic apples that makes them gods, all collected from the only person who can: The Enchantress. Anyway, good ol’ Loki manages to trick a mason who offers to fix the wall into what Loki and the Gods think is an impossible deal. The mason would win the Enchantress if he fixes the wall in six months. Needless to say, the mason almost finishes the wall until Loki stops him at the last minute. But the mason has a few tricks up his sleeve and, without ruining anything, Thor has to bust out his Step-brother.

The second part of the story isn’t as appealing, but still a good one nonetheless. The second story involves Loki being tricked into giving up the Enchantress for wealth and etc. With no one to pick the magic apples, the gods grew weak and eventually begged Thor for apples from his “reserve”. Thor rejects the gods and Odin turns to Loki to bring back the Enchantress. Loki runs into trouble and, by now, you know who comes to save everyone.

I loved the writing and story combined in this book. Fraction writes the story mostly through third person narratives with little word balloons. This creates a very mythical feel to the book combined with the excellent pencils of Patrick Zircher. The art in the first half of the book is spectacular, with a wide screen presentation creating a very dynamic and epic view point. The second half drawn by Khari Evans isn’t as good as the first, but it still has quite a bit of production value to it. This might very well be one of the best books so far this year.

Story: 9, Writing: 10, Art: 9.5, Cover: 9.5

Overall: 9.5

Marel Comics - June, 2008 - $2.99 - 32 Pages - Color

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis - Artist: Alex Maleev - Cover: Marko Djurdjevic

It’s amazing how bad Mighty Avengers has been considering the talent and characters contained in these pages. Bendis took a chance and tried a new (actually an old) writing style, using thought balloons and giving the series a bigger scale, dealing with Ultron and time travel and the like. However, it really backfired. The team dynamic was terrible and the thought balloons were used poorly and made the entire cast feel very juvenile, like we were watching a teen soap opera or something. Then Bendis begins his Secret Invasion plot through the entirety of the Marvel Universe and it must have clicked somewhere that his writing style in New Avengers was working, because he returned to it here. Darker, grittier, more personal. Everything I liked about Bendis really clicked and this is by far one of the best issues of anything he’s done. Oops, looks like I got caught up and forgot to explain what the issue was about!

In a short flashback to the Secret War, the heroes involved find out they were only working for a LMD (life-model decoy) of Nick Fury and not the real man. He explains to them that they will never see him again and hopes that one day they will understand why he brainwashed them to forget what he asked them to do. This was over three years ago real-time. Nick’s story picks up one month later (comics-time) in hiding with S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Countess Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (that’s a mouthful) who he is also having, um, “relations” with. Being the ultra-careful man he is, he follows her out one day using a cloaking device and sees her meeting with someone, talking about “the Queen” and being “in place.”

When she returns to their apartment, Fury demands to know who she really is though she pretends like he is just being paranoid. Without thinking twice, he shoots her in the head and she falls dead, reverting to her true Skrull form. He cloaks again and leaves her body in place, hiding across the street and watching as other Skrull agents come to claim it. A few weeks later he sneaks onto the S.H.I.E.L.D. hellicarrier (pretty impressive considering it’s a flying fortress) and more specifically into the personal quarters of Maria Hill, the woman who took over his job as director. He warns her that she isn’t safe and there are those around her who aren’t who they say they are, though he never directly links the Skrulls. He then simply leaves and jumps off the carrier, cloaking again and disappearing. Two months after that, he meets with Spider-Woman and tells her directly about the Skrull threat. He then goes into seclusion with a wall of photos, some circled in either blue or red ink. What do they mean? What does he know? The Secret Invasion has only begun…

See what I mean? You didn’t even have to read that issue to know it was excellent. Fast-paced, tons of revelations and awesome characterization and personal interactions. Espionage, dry wit and humor, etc. Bendis at his best. Plus he gets back in the saddle with Alex Maleev on art whose style fits absolutely perfectly with this tone of story. I can’t even believe I’m saying this since he’s one of the best cover artists of the past few years, but Marko’s cover is by far the worst part of this issue and it’s still pretty good. Tie-ins are usually just a cash cow for Marvel, but this one is a must have.

Writing: 10 - Story: 10 - Art: 10 - Cover: 8

Overall: 9.5

Normal Cover, Brandon Peterson Incentive, Secret Skrull Variant

Marvel Comics - June, 2008 - $2.99 - Color

Writer: Marc Guggenheim - Artist: Yanick Paquette - Cover: Terry Dodson

“Final Genesis”

Young X-Men is basically going to replace the New X-Men title in the wake of Messiah Complex, which to be honest I am a bit upset about since New X-Men had pretty much been my favorite X-title for a while now. Rockslide, Dust and Blindfold will continue to be a large part of the story with Wolf Cub making the jump from supporting character to team member. There are also two new mutants (how they can keep introducing new mutants after Decimation, I really don’t know), one named Greymalkin who has not been introduced and whose powers are unknown and the other named Ink, who somehow is granted powers when he gets tattoos. In this issue he gets a bio-hazard sign which can make anyone he touches sick. He already has an explosion on his left arm and some kind of webbed pattern on his left forearm. It is assumed he could put wings on his back and be able to fly, among other things. Pretty cool characters, I’d say.

Anyway, this issue basically just sets things up for the direction of the series. It begins in a dream sequence where Blindfold sees a currently non-existent team of X-Men battling the X-Men’s old foe Donald Pierce, who ends up killing one of the young mutants though it does not show which. She believes she can change this outcome and gets ready to leave her aunt’s house and return to Xavier’s. Elsewhere, Wolf Cub is in Germany visiting Maximus Lobo for revenge, Maximus having tried to kidnap the boy a while back to train him as part of his “Dominant Species” in which he believes the wolf-like mutants are the true evolution of the species. Maximus is now depowered and luckily Cyclops shows up to stop Wolf Cub from doing anything he’ll regret, telling the boy if he wants somebody to hurt, he’ll point him at the “right targets.”

In Afghanistan, Dust is busy protecting small villages from the Taliban when again Cyclops shows up and recruits her. At the Xavier Institute (which is destroyed), Blindfold finds no traces of her friends, but is followed by a shadowy figure (most likely Greymalkin). In California, the boy known as Ink is getting his Bio-Hazard tattoo I mentioned above and tests it out on a cop there to arrest him. In jail, Cyclops shows up and breaks him out, disguised as a police officer. In Florida, Rockslide and Blindfold are having lunch as Blindfold explains the dream she had. Rockslide asks how they are supposed to find the other mutants from her dream, to which she replies, “look to your right” where Cyclops has been sitting the entire time. He scolds Rockslide for not noticing and asks him to join the team, though he refuses to go unless Blindfold is included, considering the scope of the dream she had.

Inside the Danger Cave, Cyclops explains to the team (sans Greymalkin) that their first target is a group of mutants who have banded together as a new Brootherhood of Evil Mutants, though the team is comprised of Cannonball, Magma, Sunspot and Moonstar… some of the original New Mutants of the 80’s. Why exactly they are now calling themselves Evil is a mystery and frankly Cannonball was a good guy just the week before during Messiah Complex, so this is a very strange turn of events.

This issue makes me thing Cyclops is a Skrull. Not because of the secret Skrull cover where it shows him a bit Skrully, but because of how violent he has become. First he puts together the new X-Force team and flat-out condones killing, now he is putting together a new team of younger mutants who he feels he can “point” at certain “targets.” Sounds fishy to me. The line-up is alright. The new guy Ink should be cool, but I’m not a big Wolf Cub fan. Have to see what exactly Greymalkin can do but his appearance isn’t anything special. He’s grey, we get it. The art is pretty good, but again nothing special. Pretty much indifferent on that front. Fairly weak opening issue and not a lot of team dynamic yet, but we’ll see where it goes.

Writing: 8.5 - Story: 7.5 - Art: 7.5 - Cover: 7.0

Overall: 7.625

Note: Cover score is based on normal shipping cover only.

From left to right: Normal Cover, Blank Cover, 1:25 McNiven Variant, 1:50 Yu Variant, 1:75 McNiven Sketch Variant, Dynamic Forces Mel Rubi Variant… There is also a Midtown Comics Variant, though that image is identical to the 1:50 Yu Variant, just with the Midtown Comics logo on it. There was also a 2nd printing released this week.

Marvel Comics - June, 2008 - $3.99 - Color

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis - Artist: Leinil Francis Yu - Cover: Gabrielle Dell’Otto

Secret Invasion kicks off years in the past on what appears to be the Skrull homeworld, a shadowy group of Skrulls beginning the plot that is now taking form as the Secret Invasion. Back in the present, Iron Man shows Mr. Fantastic and Henry Pym the Elektra Skrull to figure out exactly how they are able to avoid detection by any of earth’s heroes. Meanwhile on the S.W.O.R.D. command ship, Dum Dum Dugan is meeting with Agent Brand when a Skrull ship is spotting crashing to Earth. At Avengers Tower, Spider-Woman learns of the ship from Iron Man, then calls to tell Luke Cage and the New Avengers about it while Jarvis looks on in disapproval.

Luke calls on an old friend (Cloak) to drop them on top of Avengers Tower to steal one of Iron Man’s planes to quickly reach the crash site in the Savage Land. Tony and the Mighty Avengers show up minutes later and takes up pursuit. When they reach the Savage Land and find the wreckage, the Mighty Avengers show up to arrest them, but at that moment the first strikes of the Secret Invasion are made. Dum Dum Dugan blows up the S.W.O.R.D. command ship and Jarvis downloads a virus that runs through every piece of Stark technology on Earth (and in space), both reciting the line “He loves you…” as they unleash these attacks.

Tony immediately begins to seize when the virus hits him, as all of his satellites, prisons and other facilities shut down. Elsewhere, the Thunderbolts are attacked by Captain Marvel, who was confirmed to be a Skrull operative, though he decided to go against his brethren and fight for the good guys, so it was a bit confusing why exactly he did this. At the Baxter Building, someone from a tour group switches from a normal person to Sue Storm and implodes the entire building, sending it to the Negative Zone. Back in the Savage Land, both Avengers teams continue to argue about the situation when from the wreckage emerges over a dozen Marvel heroes (in their 70’s outfits), claiming themselves to be the real thing and not understanding who the real heroes are.

Out in space, Agent Brand and her crew are trapped in gelatenous bubbles that provide them air, but that will run out in ten minutes time. That is the least of their concern however, as an entire Skrull armada is now en route to Earth. Back in the lab with the Elektra Skrull, Mr. Fantastic believes he has learned how the Skrulls have avoided detection. Pym admits he does too, then proceeds to use some sort of matter disruptor to blow Mr. Fantastic apart and leave him hanging about the room like silly putty. Pym reverts to his true Skrull form, stating “He even loves you.”

Wow, when Bendis said he would come out swinging, he wasn’t exaggerating. Three reveals in the first issue alone and nothing short of huge players in the Marvel Universe. Dugan, Jarvis and Pym.. those are some big mainstays! Overall I really enjoyed this. It definitely sets up just how seriously the Skrulls are taking this, sending people to infiltrate, then immediately following up with their entire armada. I loved th subtle reference to how out of the loop Skrulls have been by having all the imposters in the 70’s outfits, since the Skrulls really haven’t been a player in the MU since the Kree-Skrull war. This is definitely going to be a fun series. I also liked the riff on New Avengers #1 with the cover art. The interior art is good, but Yu sometimes can’t hit the females quite right. He likes bold chins, which just don’t work on women. Check out Emma Frost in the 70’s heroes spread. Totally looks like a man.

Writing: 9.5 - Story: 10.0 - Art: 8.5 - Cover: 9.0

Overall: 9.25

Note: Cover score is based on the normal shipping cover only.

Marvel Comics-April, 2008-$2.99-Color

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis - Artist: Jim Cheung - Cover Artist: Aleksi Briclot

This story is a Secret Invasion Tie-In for Marvel. The story starts off right after the events of New Avengers: Illuminati #1. The issue starts with the Skrull King, Dorreck, arguing with and eventually imprisoning Princess Veranke. The argument effectively portrays the sad state the Skrull Empire is in as Dorreck and Verkanke’s fight represents the fight between science and religion. Dorreck eventually orders his “Priest of Science” and War Council in reverse bio-engineering the DNA of the recently escaped Illuminati. Valanke is then left on a deserted planet, muttering the words: “He loves me.”

The Story then fast-forwards to what appears to be Reed Richards recovering from a recent Galactus incident. However, it quickly becomes clear that this isn’t the case as a nurse immediately blows Reed’s head up(Damn). The nurse turns out to be Emperor Dorreck and the Reed Richards was just a clone, used to extract information about Galactus(Or at least tried to). Emperor Dorreck explains this outburst through a quirky and clever use of FF history.

Another fast-forward leads to Galactus consuming the throne world and a scene depicted in the first pages of Secret Invasion #1. Veranke turns out to be the hooded figure and quickly takes over the Skrull Empire as Queen. She immediately targets Earth as their rightful property and forms a plan of action. The science priest then explains to the queen how the skrulls can match the Earthlings’ biological composition, making them undetectable. He also unveils a new Super-Skrull with fully customizable powers. The nail in the coffin is Skrull Elektra demonstrating how she has already infiltrated Earth’s ranks. Queen Veranke immediately wants to become part of the infiltration and asks for the perfect candidate for her to impersonate. I won’t spoil it, but that person’s name rhymes with Slider-Showman.

This issue effectively depicted the Skrulls’ intentions and plans in infiltrating Earth. The story is very effective in making these D-list alien villains seem more menacing than most Marvel villains out there. The writing is spot-on with Bendis writing believable Skrull dialog and a clever use of some small bread crumbs he has been dropping. Jim Cheung’s art is excellent with excellent changes in the P.O.V of the reader. His pencils are extremely detailed well-balanced.

Writing: 8.5 - Story: 8.5 - Art: 9 - Cover: 7.5

Overall: 8.4