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Maybe we should all just wait for the trade collection.

After only three issues, I'm already thinking that Secret Invasion is going to read very nicely as a trade.  Bendis's pacing, where he'll drop complete subplots for two or three issues, is making the book kind of frustrating right now.  The first issue established the depth of the Skrulls invasion, touching every possible location from the Savage Land to the Baxter Building to the Raft prison and even to the Thunderbolt's mountain headquarters.  Yet since issue #1, we haven't seen anything about the Raft or the Baxter Building and only return to the Thunderbolt's headquarters two issues later.  In #2, we saw a reunion between a recently resurrected Hawkeye and a maybe-never-really-dead Mockingbird in the Savage Land and that part of the story isn't even touched on here in the subsequent issue.

In issue 3, we see the two-pronged Skrull attack, as they continue to keep the combined Avengers off guard in the Savage Land while a battalion of Super Skrulls fight the Young Avengers in New York City.  Well to be fair, the majority of this issue shows the NYC battle as the Initiatives, the Avengers in training, are sent in by a Skrull secret agent.  The battle is chaotic, rushed and confusing.  It's probably what an epic battle in the middle of New York would be like.  Yeah, with Skrulls walking around in uniforms that look like the heroes whose power they have, it looks kind of silly.  A giant Avenger Super Skrull who has Giant Man's red and blue costume is just ludicrous.  But with a legion of Super Skrulls running around, it's an easy way to identify who and what each Skrull is capable of.  And let's be hones, it's probably not that much sillier than getting bitten by a radioactive spider and living is.

Later in the issue, Bendis finally addresses what the fans have thought and/or hoped for for a long time now; the true motives and nature of Tony Stark.  As the Skrulls continue to make their move, they take away the one thing that may be Tony Stark's greatest attributes; his confidence in the righteousness of his actions.  In a short but effective scene, we see Tony still disabled by the computer virus from the first issue, taken out of the fight mentally as well as physically.  With his armor down for the count, a character (who's been revealed to be a Skrull elsewhere) says a few simple words to Tony; "Your work on earth is done."  With that, Tony is at least momentarily incapacitated as he has to question every action he's taken probably since the Kree/Skrull war.  It's simple, effective and just because we knew this had to be coming, is no less powerful than all the costumed fights going on in New York.

Leinel Yu and Mark Morales continue to shine on the artwork.  Yu's unique, Europeanesque style can be dark and moody  while at times a bit too overpowering if it's reproduced directly from his pencils (see New Avengers).  With Mark Morales' smooth inked line over Yu's pencils, the artwork is sharp and vibrant, without losing any of Yu's flair for line and shadow. 

Bendis has been full of big ideas and story elements ever since he started working at Marvel and now they're starting to become clearer.  The Avengers, Spider-Woman, Nick Fury and the Young Avengers have all been thrown into this larger story that's been around since Secret War #1.  Unfortunately Marvel had to go and decide that this story needed to be their big event book this year, tying in elements from all of their books and therefore diluting the uniqueness and focus of Secret Invasion.  As an Avengers book, the overall story works but when the Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four are brought into it, you see the weakness of Secret Invasion as well as the weakness of crossovers in general.  Even for talented writers and artists, it's hard to give all the separate story elements their due.

Secret Invasion #2
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by: Leinel Francis Yu
Inked by: Mark Morales
Colored by: Laura Martin
Lettered by: Chris Eliopulos


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