Secret Invasion: No longer a secret...

Marvel's newest cross-over extravaganza, Secret Invasion is based around Skrulls invading the earth. They've hidden themselves among us for years and positioned themselves to strike our most important assets (heroes, technology, government, military...etc).

A heavy handed writing attempt by the masterminds behind this story arc, I've found this series oddly compelling. Usually cross-overs are money sucks that, in the end, have very little effect on the future of the Marvel Universe. The last prominent one was when the Scarlet Witch de-mutated 90% of humanity, which was a major change for the X-titles but had little effect on everybody else. The war with the Hulk has practically been swept under the rug, nobody talks about it, there seems to be nearly zero effect on NYC or the heroes of the other books... in other words booooooring. But Secret Invasion has the seeds to change things in un-alterable ways, much as Civil War did.

Currently the question is now, will we win against the skrulls, but rather when. Next month? Next year? How long will Marvel keep the invasion going? The longer it lasts the more people and attitudes will change. I'd love to see this invasion lasting years, with the skrulls establishing serious beach heads and the Marvel heroes banning together (registered and unregistered) to fight at 'the front' and in a 'french resistance' (occupied territories).

A protracted war would solve the wandering and disillusioning problem of having two different Avengers teams. Reed Richards being down for the count would be an opportunity for new geniuses or old geniuses that have been languishing for a while (Forge, Doom, etc) a chance to save the world for a change. The entire world could be brought into a new era via a superhero/villian infantry and air force. The asgardians could go to war for humanity. The inhumans, Eternals and even Atlantis could be brought into the mix. This is a chance for a Intergalactic World War, the kind of thing that made characters like Cap in WWII and broke others (Toro).

But will it be that cool... doubtful. As usual, wait it out, see what happens, then buy the books when the come out in Graphic Novel format. Marvel has proven again and again that a good idea can be left to rot, so cross your fingers and wait for more reviews.