The Four Color Media Monitor

And while we're on the subject of Avengers and Brian Bendis, let's also take a look at some fluff-coating that the MSM has been doing in their coverage of Secret Invasion. I see that the Pennsylvania Express-Times has taken to fawning a bit over Bendis, at the expense of past writers who did much better:

The Skrulls were among the initial villains of the Marvel universe, first appearing in "The Fantastic Four No. 2."

While popular, the Skrulls were never taken as a serious threat by readers or comic book creators.

Wow, didn't the buffoon who wrote that puff piece ever read the Kree-Skrull War, written by Roy Thomas, back in 1971-72? That sure is some way to dismiss and obscure the masters of yesterday for the hacks of today, I'll say. He actually does mention Thomas's much superior story at the end of the column, but by then, any impact that could be made has been nullified.

Fortunately, Brian Michael Bendis saw the Skrulls as a deadly and dangerous enemy.

Now with "Secret Invasion No. 1," out, he proves how evil the Skrulls are.

If he's trying to prove that they're evil enough to do what's spoken about in the previous topic, on the assumption that they did, I think I'll have to disagree - the Skrulls wouldn't resort to sexism. And didn't Roy Thomas already prove how evil they were, when he had at least one of them disguise himself as a judge, while the others took steps to deceive the Avengers and lure them into a trap? What about that?

There's a lot going on in this first issue and it all plays to Bendis' strengths.

It features much of the character interaction Bendis is known for.

What about the crude, juvenile dialogue Bendis is starting to become known for too?

While there is no big fight scene in this issue, there is plenty of action and four long-time heroes are revealed as Skrulls.

I had predicted last week that two of those heroes would be Skrulls, the other two were surprises.

Oh, I'll bet. As soon as I find out who the Skrully agents are, I'll be telling here, and helping anyone who hasn't found out yet to save a lot of money. I find that part about no big fight scene suspicious too - during House of M, it was pretty slow at the beginning, and the rest wasn't much better. Why wouldn't I be surprised if this turns out to be as slow - and padded - as quite a few of Bendis' other works?

With their agents in place the Skrulls strike quickly and take out most of Earth's defenses.

These scenes of destruction are where artist Leinil Yu shines. I'm not a big fan of Yu's work but he does a great job in this book.

The splash pages are uncluttered by text boxes, allowing the images to tell the story of the surprise attack better than any writer could.

Whoa, what's that? Splash pages? Meaning, there's more than one or two? Why do I get the feeling that this is but another clue to how padded this could be? That narrative boxes were largely dropped in past years, IMO, is one of the ways in which comics were dumbed down. Even Alan Moore didn't stray far from narrative boxes when he was writing Swamp Thing in the mid-80s!

All of Earth's heroes are caught by surprise. There isn't even time to cry out for help.

By the end of the first issue, S.H.I.E.L.D. is in bad shape, S.W.O.R.D.'s satellite headquarters explodes, the Fantastic Four's headquarters has been destroyed, the Thunderbolts are under attack, both teams of Avengers are trapped in the Savage Land, all the imprisoned super-villains are released and a Skrull armada is headed to Earth.

Things aren't looking good.

Nope, they're not. I am not interested in seeing the FF's Baxter Building HQ blown to smithereens again, like it was in the mid-80s. Come to think of it, I'm not interested in seeing Four Freedoms Plaza suffer the same fate again either. Why all the nihilism lately? Most writers years before didn't resort to the kind of mad destruction Secret Invasion seems to feature, and that was a good thing.

Bendis has been planning "Secret Invasion" since 2004's "Secret War" and he has been building it up in "New Avengers."

With ties to the history of Marvel comics starting with the "Kree/Skrull War" and including the highly successful "Civil War," the long planning around this story is what will make the book a success.

Sometimes, even long planning can still be for naught. And, if some of the info I found on this page at CBR is correct, Secret Invasion is selling far less than Civil War did. I'd attribute that fact to how Marvel insisted on forcing constant crossovers galore down everybody's throats for at least 4 years now, and when it's that bad, and that tasteless, it should be no wonder if people are getting tired of even the latest one. So to the Express-Times, please, do stop fluff-coating Bendis already, for heaven's sake. His writing is not worth the paper it's printed on.

Labels: dreadful writers, marvel comics, msm propaganda