We pick up immediately where last issue ended - the Savage Land. A bunch of 70s-lookin’ heroes have piled out of a crashed Skrull ship and confronted the modern heroes. A fight ensures.

After the killer setup of last issue, this one actually becomes something of a disappointment - it’s mainly composed of people pounding on each other. As readers, we can’t be sure who’s a skrull and who isn’t, and we only get some very minor hints when a couple of the 70s heroes are killed in a… dinosaur attack. Well, it is the Savage Land, I suppose.

The issue also seems to confirm at least one resurrection, though the nerd in me would be amiss if I didn’t point out it does so at the expense of a couple of (admittedly bad) issues of Thunderbolts and one of Busiek’s Avengers run from back in the day. Ho hum. Unless the character turns out to be a skrull after all, that is…

Unfortunately, Bendis and Co. have so expertly established that telling Skrull from Human is virtually impossible that we can’t even believe the test that leads our heroes to believe the resurrected character actually is who they claim to be. Some of the skrulls don’t even know that they’re skrulls, so the cover must be pretty deep - does it involve brain-scans and such that could convey otherwise forgotten information? Maybe! Who knows? It’s a little frustrating, because we’re unable to take the events at face value, even now. Still, with one apparent resurrection, I can’t help wondering who’s going to be the first person to die because they get mistaken for a Skrull…

The fight in the Savage Land, does, at least, prove to have a point beyond throwing a spanner into Marvel Universe continuity - with both Avengers groups distracted in the Savage Land, the Baxter building opens up and out spill a bunch of armoured, super-powered Skrulls, with only half of the Young Avengers on hand to help out. Things can’t end well.

Still, plot-wise the massive fight scene that takes up 3/4 of the issue makes it all seem a bit… thin on the ground. I was hoping for a little more payoff and a bit more plot. Yu’s art looks better than it ever has, so seeing him draw all these characters makes up for that to some degree, but as ever, Bendis’ event pacing needs a little more work, and less of an eye on the trade release, where this fight will no doubt read very well indeed.

Tags: Brian Michael Bendis, Leinil Yu, secret invasion
Publisher: Marvel