Marvel Secret Invasion

[Dandontdare]

In the traditional Mighty Marvel Manner the TPBs of this will be numerous and cover every corner of the Marveliverse. Amazon currently shows 20 titles available for pre-order, and at least another 3 "currently unavailable". I ended up buying more and more of the Civil War books, but only regretted one or two (Yes, Thunderbolts, I'm looking at YOU!), but this is just getting silly.

Has anyone been following this and can guide me to the more relevant books? I don't buy the monthlies and try to avoid spoilers until the collected paperbacks come out and I know i'll just be unable to resist this. I'll maybe limit myself to about 6 (I'll definitely be including the outstanding Front Line series - the Civil war and World War Hulk ones were excellent). Needless to say, the War Machine and Deadpool books are unlikely to make the cut. Don't give a flying FOOM if those guys are skrulls or not.

[starscape]

Probably the Avengers and the Secret Invasion series are the only ones you actually need for the plot.  Virtually all the rest - even half decent ones like Thor:Secret Invasion and Inhumans: Secret Invasion are from essential.  Actually I wish they'd left Thor out.  There's no way the Skrulls should even have got close to fighting a race of gods.

I'm really enjoying the Avengers/Invaders crossover and Captain America these days.  Well worth checking these out.  I just know the Invaders will be sent back in time but I really hope they stick around.

Chris

STARSCAPE
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[Colin YNWA]

Too be honest really haven't thought much of Secret Invasion - paper thin concept dragged out to breaking point BUT the Captain Britain issues were really good and tell a better story in its four issues than the main time and Avengers do in how ever many that's been.

[starscape]

Ah well, there you go.  I thought the Captain Britain stories were some of the worst in the series.

[Colin YNWA]

Guess this is an appropriate place to rant about the ending. Man that was terrible.

The real travesty is people have been bemoaning DC for an age now about it being continuity heavy, 'cos Crisis rolls into Crisis. Its often said that you need to have been reading things for the last 3 years to have a clue what's happening; all those kinda things. I personally don't agree, but that's not the point. Never (well to my knowledge) before Secret Invasion has a major event been used to launch a subsequent event so blatantly.

I've made the point all along that Secret Invasion was a paper thin idea stretched to breaking point. The ending is therefore incredibly fitting. An ending with no real substance, [spoiler]told out of chronicle sequence with a single so called 'shock' to give it weight. Then they move the whole storyline of Secret Invasion aside, I felt as though embarrassed, as they finally realise they have just stretched a 4 part Avengers arc into a major event and spend the rest of the comic setting up the next event were the real shock supposedly lay. A shock that had nothing directly to do with the mini-series and the spin-offs that Marvels been building up to for so long. What we're had built up with such fanfare from Avengers 31. The seeds of which have been so cleverly planted since Bendis took over the Avengers (arh that's why those Skulls appeared in 503)[/spoiler] ends with a bare whimper, an embarrassed flashback.

Marvel truly has become what DC has been said to be. One long rolling chain of events that lurches unceremoniously from one Universe changing, it'll never be the same again, Earth shattering crossover to the next. For the present at least without even the good grace to satisfactorily finish the current event before starting the next and the Marvel Universe descends further into the grim, so called realistic (stop with that all ready, half of um fly for pities sake, realistic my...ahem) dark world it's become. It's so bleak and I want my comics to be fun and exciting and multicoloured. I accept that I'm out of step and so have to have the good grace to step aside and let the new readers enjoy their version of the Marvel Universe.

And rant over and relax!

[Bongo Jack]

It was a rather poor ending from where I was sitting, too.  [spoiler]"Never mind that teenage girl you raped and then murdered and whose children you then experimented upon in defiance of God and nature, Norman: have the President's job.  No, we insist - what we need is a man who shot an injured woman in the head live on television whilst gibbering and sweating to take control of this nation's security, because that'll never come back to haunt us."[/spoiler]
It's been done many times over, but I don't think I can recall the story ever having a finale where you look at it from the outside and can't see what was supposed to be so great that the makers think you'll be back for more, or will have goodwill enough to buy into spin-off titles.  A bit of a damp squib, really.

[Dandontdare]

Hmm, not getting good vibes there then! Thanks for the opinions - I must admit it's only in recent years that I've "reconnected" with a prolonged sequence of marvel continuity. I gave up round about the time the X-titles began multiplying beyond reason and things like Sandman and Preacher were coming out instead.

However, I've had the disposable inome in the last couple of years to actually BUY graphic novels instead of borrowing loads from the library. I bought Secret War / Avengers Disassembled / House of M / Decimation (just the main books, not the whole overblown run), and then several Civil War books, and the point is, I'm enjoying the ride. I liked Illuminati, and won't be able to resist one or two of this series - proably just the Avengers/Frontline ones. I prefer the way Marvel has handled the last few years of "big" developments, as I've given up on the whole Multiple-Earth-Ultimate-Infinite-ah-g'wan-just-one-more-Crisis bolloxthat DC keeeps trying to get me to buy every year. Marvel's may be moving quickly but the way things turned against the superheroes and the way that the tone of the Marvel universe shifted was done gradually over a couple of years and actually felt like a continuity rather than a big climax followed by "what do we do to top that?"

I'm also enjoying the Ultimate universe - Ultimate Human (Iron Man/Hulk/Leader) was a recent top addition. The ultimate spiderman and Xmen titles have gone on too long to remain extraordinary, but I'm still liking the rest.

As for the ercent Spidey shenanigans, it just makes me feel....tired.......so tired. At least that's another big chunk of Marvelosity I can safely give up.

[starscape]

Thing is, there are so many pointless heroes, I wish they'd just use these series to wipe them out and get back to a fairly small core.  I mean, honestly, who wanted [spoiler]Mockingbird[/spoiler] back for instance?