Secret Invasion Review – “Secret Invasion #7”

The penultimate chapter is upon us. How are the heroes (and villains) faring?

General Information

Title: Secret Invasion #7

Author: Brian Michael Bendis

Illustrator(s): Leinil Francis Yu (penciles), Mark Morales (inks), Laura Martin and Emily Warren (colours)

Cover Date: December 2008

Cover Price: $3.99 US, $4.50 Can

Detailed coverage of all applicable issues of all Secret Invasion related titles can be found at this address. It may not be updated again until issue 8 hits so I can tell exactly which background is and isn’t needed.

Premise

It’s a great big fight. The forces that amassed on both sides and starting fighting in issue six are still fighting at the end of issue seven. It’s a good fight, with some fun character interactions, but there’s not much more here than a fight.

High Point

Spider-Man: Hey, you know what, this ain’t so bad, all things considered.
Iron Fist: How’s that exactly?

Spider-Man: These big earth shakers, I’ve been around them. You know what you have to worry, is when Uatu shows up.
Iron Fist: Who?
Spider-Man: The Watcher! Big alien bald guy in charge of watching when the truly insane stuff happens. He’s not here so that must mean we’re going to be okay and — On come on…

The Watcher appears.

Low Point

Noh-Varr’s entrance to battle is great, but he pretty much vanishes after that point.

The Scores

This isn’t original. It’s a lot of fun, but we’ve seen fights before in a comic or two. I give it 2 out of 6.

The artwork is great. These are some mighty dense pages, loaded to the gills with characters both human and skrull, and we can always tell exactly who they are and what they’re doing. That’s tough in this much combat. I give it 5 out of 6.

The story is minimal. There are a couple of major moments, including the latest cliffhanger ending, but most of it was fighting with good dialogue. I give it 4 out of 6.

The characterization is well captured. There are a LOT of characters here (I counted 48, and probably missed some) and many of them get appropriate little moments of dialogue that work well for the individual, including (but not limited to) Spider-Man, Nick Fury, Norman Osborn, Noh-Varr, the Hood, Captain America, Hawkeye (Clint Barton), Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. It’s a huge cast to balance, and they’re all in character from start to finish. I give it 6 out of 6.

The emotional response is much better than you might have guessed from the story and originality scores. This is summer popcorn fodder at its best. If you like action scenes in comics, pick this up. It’s a great one. I give it 6 out of 6.

The flow is good. When the entire comic is a single fight scene, with few short interludes to cover characters moving to and from battle, it flows very nicely from one panel to the next. I give it 6 out of 6.

Overall, this comic delivers on its promises. Yes, there have been fight scenes before, and there have been more cerebral comics before, but this didn’t pretend to be anything but the big combat climax in an eight issue fight. In that respect, it delivers handily. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total, Secret Invasion #7 receives 34 out of 42.

Secret Invasion Review Checklists

Background reviews:

Infiltration reviews:

Main Event reviews (including date the last issue should be available):

Aftermath (Dark Reign) reviews:

  • Avengers: The Iniative #20-?
  • Dark Reign: New Nation
  • Invincible Iron Man #8-?
  • Ms. Marvel #34-?
  • New Avengers #48-?
  • Secret Invasion: Dark Reign
  • Secret Invasion: Requiem #1
  • War Machine #1-?
  • several unannounced titles, I’m sure