Buy Pile Report: Secret Invasion

Again, I apologize for the tardiness, but I did want to make sure to get on here and weigh in on Secret Invasion #8.

Coming into this event, I was burnt toast when it came to Marvel's events. "House of M" was a miserable failure that took entirely too long. "Civil War" felt rushed, overly theatrical and miniscule in scope. And could "World War Hulk" be anymore anti-climactic? All the while, Marvel has pumped tie-in issue after tie-in issue onto the market.

And my biggest problem with all of these tie-ins was that while the stories took 10 minutes to read, all told, none of them had a true ending, opting instead of roll the end of the story into the upcoming Marvel books — which I would be OK with, if Marvel then took some time to explore the world those consequences had created.

After "Civil War," Marvel only took a year or so (which is about two weeks in comic time nowadays) to explore this Registered World. After "World War Hulk," just about nothing was changed.

Which brings us to "Secret Invasion," a tie-in which I simply could not resist, despite how burned-out I was, just because the potential of this Skrull inserection was endless.

Eight issues and countless tie-ins later, I am more then underwhelmed. Brian Bendis successfully established a tone of mistrust (I refuse to use the tagline Marvel shoved down our throats) and, in the first couple of issues and tie-ins, established a tone of hopelessness.

But then Marvel refused to live in that world. Suddenly Reed Richards showed up, fresh off of his torture, with a magic gun to show who is a skrull and who is a human. What luck! Suddenly Tony Stark, fresh off being drugged and sick as a dog, had a backup suit and he was magically cured of his ills.

It all just wrapped up way too easily. And instead of being wrapped up in a blaze of glory, all of this issue was a setup for Marvel's next big thing "Dark Reign." The whole issue was narrated past-tense in order to set up the "Dark Reign" reveal.

Is it too much to ask for a contained story that actually fulfills its promise?

All this series was was a good setup and one good battle, followed by a promotion to spend more money. Say what you will about DC's events, but at least they FEEL over, even if plotlines carry over from one event to the next. Marvel just refuses to pay anything off, even when it has a GREAT idea.

No, check that, Brian Bendis refuses to pay anything off. No wonder the only thing he writes that I can stomach is "Ultimate Spider-man." The man has milked more money out of comic book readers and has given less in return than any writer in history.