The Secret Invasion tie-ins infiltrate most of the Marvel books this week:
Nova #16 — Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; Pencillers: Wellington Alves and Deraldo Burges; Inker: Scott Hanna
She-Hulk #32 — Writer: Peter David; Art: Vincenzo Cucca
Black Panther #40 — Writer: Jason Aaron; Artist: Jefte Palo
Avengers: The Initiative #16 — Dan Slott and Christos N. Gage; Art: Stefano Caselli
Amazing Spider-Man: Secret Invasion #1 (of 3) — Writer: Brian Reed; Pencils: Marco Santucci; Inks: Mark Pennington
Thunderbolts #123 — Writer: Christos N. Gage; Art: Fernando Blanco
None of these are particularly crucial to the story, so whether you get them will depend on your loyalty to the individual title. The Nova and She-Hulk books have a disconnect: Nova features the original Super-Skrull, Kl’rt, lately from the Annihilation crossovers, and (despite a last-panel cliffhanger) he’s pretty clearly a good guy, whereas in She-Hulk the same character is portrayed as a standard-issue villainous Skrull. Is that bad editing, or a clever plan? I guess we’ll have to keep reading to see, but I’m not hopeful. Black Panther might be interesting for the art (the inking, especially, is very Mike Mignola-esque), but the story moves away from last issue’s “the Panther’s three steps ahead of any stupid aliens” to not one, but two oops-it’s-a-Skrull reveals, and puts Storm into a standard damsel-held-hostage situation, which (again, unless it’s a clever plan) goes considerably against character. Over in Avengers: The Initiative the 3D Man hooks up with (finally!) the Skrull Kill Krew, and they go off to start killing Skrull sleeper agents in the various Initiative super-groups; it’s probably the best of the lot, since the Spider-Man mini doesn’t even have Spidey (just his supporting cast, and at that it’s mostly Jackpot, whom we don’t particularly care about), and the Thunderbolts tie-in, while OK, suffers by comparison with the Warren Ellis-written previous issues.
Guerillas #1 — Writer/Artist: Brahm Revel
Worth noting because it starts out as a standard Vietnam rookie in-country story, with all the usual stereotypes (is it a deliberate comics in-joke that the rookie has a “girlfriend” back home whose picture looks like Gwen Stacy?), and then veers into slaughter, and then delivers an M. Night Shyamalan-style twist ending. I don’t see where Revel can possibly go with that ending for his next issue, mind you, but I was impressed by its suddenness, and by its sneaky connection to the book’s title.
Teen Titans #62 — Writer: Sean McKeever; Pencils: Eddy Barrows; Inks: Ruy Jose
Another book that delivers a twist ending, and effectively, although its bloody demise of two supporting characters seems like a bad idea, in view of all the younger kids who presumably might be picking up this title based on the cartoon. I suspect the “too dark” and “thank God you got rid of them” factions are going to split pretty evenly on this book….
Superman #679 — Writer: James Robinson; Penciller: Renato Guerdes; Inker: Wilson Magalhaes
Mostly punching, against a seemingly-unbeatable foe, while the subplots aren’t particularly interesting (or logical), and the last-page reveal doesn’t exactly pull me eagerly into the next issue. Robinson’s been a good comics writer for a long time, but when your Superman issue mostly reminds the reader of Chuck Austen’s run, you’ve got a problem.
Catwoman #82 — Writer: Will Pfeifer; Penciller: David Lopez; Inker: Alvaro Lopez
Last issue (for now), and it’s mostly a running fight/chase/conversation with Batman. This incarnation of the title had a good two or three years at the beginning (with it’s more-practical reimagining of the character’s costume and motivation, not to mention some great art, first by Darwyn Cooke and then by others), but started to go astray about the time DC brought in Paul Gulacy, and Selina’s bra size suddenly increased exponentially. Pfeiffer’s done about as well as anyone could with her (although there’s a moment of self-realization toward the end that rings false), and the last-panel shot is as good a way to remember the smartass essence that makes Catwoman attractive.
Phil Mateer
