
Sometimes a comic-book event will be announced, have a handful of issues lead up to it, happen and make some changes, and then we get back to business as usual after a bit. That's how it is with Marvel and DC. One event that happened back in the 2000s had a clever hook, however. "Secret Invasion," came a bit after the critically divisive, "Civil War," which was the first big Marvel event I read as it came out and relatively enjoyed. The cool idea of, "Secret Invasion," was the idea was that it had, in essence, been in the works for decades. Through some continuity tweaks (sometimes referred to as a retcon) it was hinted that the seeds were planted way back during the first Kree-Skrull war event in, "Avengers," comics long ago. A ton of tie-in comics showed how the Skrulls had been infiltrating every facet of our planet--including superheroes--and planned to conquer Earth. That was a Hell of a hook but then the, "Secret Invasion," comic itself (written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu) happened, and over eight issues led up to little more than a big brawl and the Skrull Queen getting shot by Norman Osborn with a special bullet. Yep.
The Skrulls used all their skills, knowledge, and so forth to end up just getting in fisticuffs with all the heroes and villains who teamed up to defend Earth--quite an anticlimax. While this did lead into the interesting Dark Reign era of Norman Osborn running his own team of Dark Avengers (that had some cool stories), "Secret Invasion," itself was like an epic song building up to a sonic zenith and once you hit what seems to be the big peak you get a big and wet fart sound. It is a fitting metaphor as, "Secret Invasion," shit the bed even if the fallout of, "Dark Reign," was cool. Even if the preceeding, "Civil War," wasn't the best Marvel event, it wrapped up in a wild way with Captain America surrendering to the United States after rebelling and seeming to be assassinated in the epilogue tie-ins.

"Secret Invasion," beautifully set up a big event but failed at the most important aspect--the event itself. Since then there have been better Marvel event comics ("Avengers Vs. X-Men," had its moments and I dug the 2015, "Secret Wars,") and even worse ones ("Fear Itself," "Civil War II," and, "Secret Empire," were wretched). Still, nothing seemed to squander as much potential as, "Secret Invasion," did. The Disney+ show which loosely adapted the series was universally panned too so perhaps the whole, "Secret Invasion," works better in theory than in practice.