Secret Invasion #3

Here's where we stand...Earth is fucking doomed.

SHIELD helicarrier in the ocean and Jarvis is demanding their surrender.

Thunderbolts getting their asses handed to them by a Skrullified Captain Marvel.

Army of Super Skrulls in Times Square.

New and Mighty Avengers fighting in the Savage Land.

Tony Stark and his armor are still screwed.

My thoughts?

I liked it but with major reservations.

It's a mostly straight forward action issue.

Captain Marvel, after trashing the Thunderbolts mountain compound, is torn between his apparent duties as a Skrull operative and the fact that he's, well, Captain Marvel, is approached by Norman Osbourne. I'm guessing that story will be handled in the Thunderbolts title.

SHIELD being approached by Skrull Jarvis...well, SHIELD is approached by Skrull Jarvis. It's like two pages. My guess is some of the early pages are teasers to connect the main series to the tie-ins. That's kind of disappointing cause it would be simpler to just let these events be addressed in the tie-ins.

What I did like was the stuff that occured in the Savage Land and in Manhattan. The Initiative recruits are activated to back up the Young Avengers who are fighting the Super Skrulls in Manhattan while back in the Savage Land Spider-Woman and Tony Stark...well, it's a major revelation.

[spoiler]

It could be big. It could be huge. It could suck massive donkey balls cause something like this happened in the 90s that completely ruined Iron Man and the Avengers until Onslaught/Heroes Reborn/Heroes Return re-jiggered the Marvel Universe and allowed writers like Kurt Busiek to fix these characters. It's not certain yet, Bendis still has time to backtrack a tad, but if he does reveal that Tony Stark is a Skrull than he better have a way to un-Skrull the guy cause this has been done before. Back in the 90s it was revealed that Tony Stark was an agent of Kang the Conqueror (since Avengers #1 way back when), killed him, and then brought the young Tony Stark into the present from the past. Yes, it was horrible. While the idea of a Skrull invasion is much more credible, and he's has been laying the groundwork for this for a while now, Bendis walking a thin line. Given that, I enjoyed the Spider-Woman Skrull revelation. She's been playing everyone for a while now, so this comes as no real surprise, but I hope to see her get her ass handed to her. That tight, sweet little ass. Mmmmmmmm.....

Now for the Manhattan stuff, we see the Young Avengers and the Initiative get their shit beat. The Hulkling, the Vision...some other guy I didn't recognize...they get brutally fucked. The Vision especially. I don't think they'll be fixing him anytime soon. Basically, they all get torn to pieces BUT at issues end we do see the one character Bendis has had in the shadows for a few years now, I believe since Secret War (note to self, pick up tpb of Secret War). Nick Fury and hiw Howling fucking Commandos. That's right, they come to beat down. I've always liked Nick Fury cause he doesn't fuck around and he looks like he's bringing the ass-whoopings.

All told, it's a flawed issue. It's looking like a flawed series too, but for whatever reason I can't stop picking up issues. I'm not gonna lie to myself, I'm picking up the next issue. I have to see where things go. Bendis is making it clear that things are gonna get worse. We've seen returns, revelations and major deaths occur but how he resolves everything is the big question. It's not a story that can be easily judged on an issue by issue basis, there is great potential the series takes a shit midway through, but I'm gonna follow it for as long as I can.