Double Review: Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust?

We’ve got a monstrous dual review of Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? for you today, courtesy of David Uzumeri and Gavin Jasper. David takes the piece-by-piece tack and reviews each individual story, while Gavin goes ahead and looks at the complete work. Overall, though, Who Do You Trust? wins big.

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The modern Marvel event anthology one-shot was born as a result of necessity, the need to publish Civil War-related material in the wake of the main series’s massive scheduling problems. Civil War: Choosing Sides was fairly quickly (by editor Tom Brevoort’s own admission) thrown together by grabbing everyone with free time to do a little mini-prelude to an upcoming book. It was alright, and it’s a formula Marvel’s been experimenting with since, past the two X-Men: Divided We Stand specials to this, Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust?. And it’s clear that it’s become a significantly evolved idea.

The most incredible thing about this book is that there really isn’t a stinker in the five stories that make up this collection, and they all provide actual insight into the goings-on of Marvel’s big summer event. I’m sure that all of the “new” concepts introduced in this are merely teases of stuff Bendis came up with, but each of these stories either spotlight a group of characters without their own book or provide additional context to the events surrounding the main series, bridging gaps and reuniting familiar creative teams. I was really surprised by how much there was to like in this comic, and I’m genuinely concerned that in the deluge of Secret Invasion tie-ins and miniseries this gem might get lost in the shuffle, because this is something we need to see more of.

I’m gonna go through these stories one by one to try to show how broad this book’s mandate is and how well it’s pulled off.

First, Brian Reed and Lee Weeks reprise their low-selling but well-received Captain Marvel miniseries by bridging the end of that comic and his appearance in Secret Invasion #1. Due to the fact that it’s done by that same creative team, it feels less like a continuity patch and more like a natural extension, as it should; Brian Reed is definitely Bendis’s #2 man on Secret Invasion. If you liked the miniseries, you’ll like this; if not, it’ll sufficiently recap what happened and provide much-needed context to his appearance anyway. A really solid story.

Second, Mike Carey and Timothy Green II follow up on Agent Brand’s predicament from the end of SI #1, as well as extending her character from the revelations in Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1. It’s well-executed, if sometimes confusing - there’s a revelation at the end that feels more inevitable than shocking - but it also does a great job of fleshing out Brand’s character and giving her life past Whedon.

The third story is a very fun Wonder Man and Beast story by Christos N. Gage and Mike Perkins, riffing off of the changes in the Marvel Universe since the flexible time period of the Ship o’ Skrullz to today. It’s a strong piece, and although it’s not especially revelatory it takes a good look at the remains of Hank and Simon’s friendship through the lens of distrust provided by the tone and events of Secret Invasion itself. Despite the ‘action’ occurring around it, the focus is largely on the dialogue between the two, and it shines whether the characters involved are real or not. Strong work.

The fourth story is an absolute gem, and gives me way more hope for Secret Invasion’s eventual use of Grant Morrison’s Marvel Boy character. It’s by Zeb Wells and new newuniversal artist Steve Kurth, and effectively bridges Morrison’s original Marvel Boy, Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways, New Avengers: Illuminati #4 and Secret Invasion itself, but most importantly, it actually nails Noh-Varr’s idealistic cosmic punk-rock attitude. Morally ambiguous on the best of days, Noh-Varr should be one of the defining figures of this crossover, and it’s very nice to see him treated with the care he deserves.

The final story is, to my surprise, the weakest - although this is a strong overall package. Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk reprise their low-selling but very acclaimed miniseries Agents of Atlas. While it’s fun, and does provide another neat angle on Skrull motivations, it largely feels like returning to these characters for the sake of returning, rather than because of a new story - and while it’s awesome to keep in the Agents in the public eye, this is the only story I’m iffy about since, unlike the other ones, it really kind of does feel like filler. It’s still an enjoyable read, though, and Agents fans will, I’m sure, be very happy to see the band back together for these creators and characters.

Overall, this is a stunning package, and in fact the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If this is any indication, Marvel seems to have figured out how to put together an anthology one-shot of stories filling in narrative gaps and make it all pretty damn good, and as a result this is really just a great way to spend $3.99 if you’re waiting for the next major tie-in. I thoroughly enjoyed every story in this issue, and I hope that when (not if) Marvel does this again, it’s of similar quality.
David U.’s score:

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Over the past few years, with all the various comic mega-events shoved down our gullets, the idea of the tie-in comic has been make-or-break to the main series. House of M seemed to do it the best, where all the tie-ins were completely unnecessary to the main series, but were mostly well-written and made for a good expansion to what was going on. Annihilation dodged the bullet by having seemingly no real tie-ins at all. Infinite Crisis became a huge mess where you had to know a lot about what was going on in the smaller books to truly get the story. Civil War, as far as I’m concerned, is the worst offender. The main series was competently-written, if a little convoluted, and Millar wrote very fair versions of Captain America and Iron Man. Then you look at all the tie-ins where Captain America is the perfect god of morality and Iron Man is the king of all assholes. The only truly good tie-ins were the two Captain America/Iron Man one-shots.

With Secret Invasion, the issues of New Avengers and Mighty Avengers, whether good or bad, are in a class of their own. After all, Secret Invasion is Bendis’ big cumulative storyline tying together a lot of loose ends from those series. They’re more like extended scenes and extra issues to the miniseries than anything else. Discarding those, I honestly haven’t read too many of the Invasion tie-ins. Yes, Captain Marvel was completely amazing and Hercules is a blast regardless of what story it’s linked to, but I’m not a regular reader of Ms. Marvel and I haven’t picked up Captain Britain yet, so I can’t comment on them.

That brings us to Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? This one-shot, based on five different stories, gives us more details on certain characters and their roles in the series. The five writers, Brian Reed, Mike Carey, Christos N. Gage, Zeb Wells and Jeff Parker keep things extremely competent and diverse in topic, while staying true to the series.

First up is Reed’s follow-up to Captain Marvel. This gives us more of an explanation towards Marvel’s actions in the first and third Invasion issues. When people read the first issue, they initially figured that his programming was making him attack the Thunderbolts. Then Captain Marvel #5 came out and made people think that Marvel was out to kill one or two Skrulls that had infiltrated the Thunderbolts. The brief scene in Invasion #3 outright confused people and forced speculation. Finally, we have a better idea of what’s going on, while looking forward to what his dealings with Norman Osborn will bring.

It answers just enough questions and succeeds in the same way as Reed and Weeks’ miniseries. You may think you know where the story is going to lead, but it swerves you in a way that seems almost natural and a breath of fresh air. Then you have to wonder what will happen next. It cements just what a great character Khn’nr is. He’s a Skrull traitor based on the soul and appearance of a Kree traitor. Now it goes even deeper.

The second story, featuring Mike Carey’s take on Agent Brand, takes place between the end of Invasion #1 and the upcoming fourth issue. It’s low on action, but works in a way to give more background to the invasion lead-in. What really helps out this story is the timing. The last couple issues of Astonishing X-Men pushed Brand into a far more likable character than the first installment of Invasion, adding to the list of easily dropped Marvel characters that Bendis has decided to latch onto. With the latest Astonishing still fresh in our mind, fans should look forward to getting to see more of SWORD’s director. Had this come out a couple months earlier, I doubt it would have come off as exciting.

Gage writes yet another Invasion side-story taking place in the Savage Land after the random dinosaur attack. This time it’s about the Mighty Avengers version of Wonder Man and Beast from the Skrull Throwback Brigade being stuck in an underground cave. The true Beast and Wonder Man are longtime friends, so the obvious distrust burns like a torch. Simon wants to believe Hank so hard, but just won’t let himself. It’s a well-played scene and the ending fits well, but I honestly haven’t read much of the Beast/Wonder Man team-ups in old Avengers to truly appreciate it. Plus I just find Wonder Man to be a tremendous tool. But that’s just me.

Next is a story about Marvel Boy, written by Zeb Wells. Since Marvel hasn’t gotten around to reprinting Morrison’s initial miniseries about the character, I only have his one issue of Illuminati and the mediocre Runaways/Young Avengers crossover to go on. What I get is that he’s a wild card in all of this. Bendis kept it very non-descriptive for Marvel Boy’s brief appearance in the first issue of Invasion #1, where he just says, “Time to go,” and leaves. Okay, now what? Two issues later and nothing’s happened with him. What’s his angle?

This story takes place moments before that throwaway scene, where Marvel Boy’s home, the Cube, is compromised by the Skrulls. While there’s a lot of confusion in the goings on of the story, we at least understand where Noh-Varr stands on all of this. It’s interesting that while Noh-Varr and Khn’nr are each meant to replace the original Mar-Vell in their own ways, they each take a complete opposite stance in terms of the Skrull invasion. I can’t wait to see what happens when they finally cross paths.

The final story features the Agents of Atlas, a mostly-ignored secret superhero team made up of old 50’s Atlas characters. They’d fall into obscurity if it were not for writer Jeff Parker forcing them into nearly everything he writes. The story is more about the idea of a team finally going after Skrulls at their own game. Though the heroes are charismatic and easy to get behind, the story almost makes them look like the bad guys. The Skrulls are shown to not be malicious and the way one of them – the narrator – is dealt with is so harsh and gruesome that you have to feel sorry for him.

Who Do You Trust? is what tie-ins should be. Not only do we stray away from continuity headaches and characteristic discrepancies, but it gives great background to the event and makes you want to read the next issue of Secret Invasion even more than the last issue of Secret Invasion did.

Now give us an Agents of Atlas ongoing already, Marvel. And reprint Marvel Boy while you’re at it!
Gavin’s score: