SECRET INVASION 1: THE REVIEW (SPOILERS)

I am the type of person who likes to read spoilers, and last night I've been all over the net looking for early reviews of what happened to Marvel's event of 2008... SECRET INVASION.

There have been alot of mixed reviews about the first issue of this series, and it actually makes me wonder why. The kick off issues of the last two events were actually critically successful, but this one... not so much. But nonetheless, I am coming in to this series really excited about what will happen.

Now I truly understand why there are haters. Not that the story was terrible, because for me it's not. It's actually awesome. But if you come in to this series really with no previous knowledge of what's been happening in the Marvel Universe the last year and a half, this series will have no weight... no bearing. Simply because you wouldn't really know what's going on. In fact, I think that the people who will truly enjoy this series would be those who've been following Bendis' work for the last few years. This is as they say the payoff for our patience.

This is the start of the next phase of the Skrull's plans of invading our planet (hence the Invasion in the title). And it does start with a bang!!! A really big bang!!! A lot of players are being revealed as Skrulls, and in this issue there were about 3 major reveals. Dum Dum Dugan who destroyed the SWORD space station, Jarvis who planted a very destructive virus that caused extensive damage to Marvel Universe's most famous landmarks and Henry Pym who let's just say made a mess out of Mr. Fantastic.

Comparing this with Bendis' other event title House of M, he did improve a lot in terms of pacing and storytelling. And everything is really more interesting now, more questions are being asked. Who else is a Skrull? How can they be stopped? What now?

The book has three cliffhangers in it and all are relatively interesting and exciting. There's one that I'm sure will raise alot of eyebrows (this probably is where newbies will be lost as well). It is, in true Marvel tradition going to be another huge event and I'm in it for the whole run (no plans though of getting all the tie-ins). It may even be as big or even bigger than the Civil War event. Hopefully, the strength of this series will be consistent all throughout.

I saved this for last as I am a proud Filipino, Leinil Francis Yu, the artist for this event is AMAZING!!! It's detailed, the expressions are great and the panel with Hank Pym and Mr. Fantastic that I told you earlier about is very disturbing (in a positive art critique way). It certainly helps with the inks of Mark Morales (can anyone tell me if he's Filipino as well?) and the colors of Laura Martin. Yu should be recognized here in the Philippines as he's putting our country in the map as well by being in this project alone. His work here hopefully will put his name along side other great artists like Jim Lee or Steve McNiven or John Romita Jr.

Call me bias, but this is a good start if only because I've been reading this story from it's inception during Avengers Disassembled, New Avengers 1 and Secret War. Can't wait for Nick Fury to show up and kick Skrully ass!!!

Rating: 8.5/10