Some quick hits for now, just to offload all that stuff that's buzzing around in my head these past few weeks. There comes a time when due to my diverse interests, I supersaturate my brain, and I wanna write about everything.Of course, there's no way I can do that, so I instead end up writing about nothing.I suppose I'll be writing entries like these more often in the future.---Secret Invasion - I'm holding off on writing a review of Secret Invasion 7. It's a brawl. The tiny bit involving Spider-Man is the only truly amusing bit in the whole comic, with the rest being a mindless, stupid, senseless fight with no sense of tension whatsoever. People, this is how NOT to invade another planet. Take notes. Given this, I'll wait till the final issue before rendering judgment, on the slight chance that this pointless charade is actually leading to something profound. I'm not hopeful though.Gundam 00 (season 2) - Macross Frontier's wondrous mecha design and CG sequences have spoiled my brain, to the point where watching Gundam 00 is an arduous experience. The mecha design in Gundam 00 isn't bad, taken in a void. Problem is, I end up comparing it to both Macross Frontier and Gundam Seed/Seed Destiny, and by comparison, 00's mecha SUCKS. The only truly aesthetically pleasing mecha in both seasons for me was the Gundam Kyrios, and they stuck a knife in me by wrecking it at the end of season 1. The remaining mecha range from decent (Gundam 00-Exia Fusion), to hideous (Gundam Seravee and its giant Gundam head... don't get me started). Add the fact that Gundam 00 hosts a set of jaded main characters who are even more boring than Hiro Yui and Judo Ashita and we have ourselves a problem.Star Wars, the Clone Wars - No, this is the CG series, not that disgusting second Lucas movie. It is shockingly entertaining. Likely because Lucas isn't writing the dialogue. Watch a few eps and see for yourself what a wonderful world Star Wars could be when its creator takes a few steps back.Batman RIP - Is this bit of Morrison confusion over yet? Because I'm waiting for Neil Gaiman to take over. Seriously.US Presidential Election - Congratulations, President Obama. You deserved it. You're inheriting a nation that's sliding downhill. I hope you realize you won because you're the only one capable of saving that country. Godspeed.Super Robot Wars - Look! Bandai made something with CG mecha! Lots of CG mecha! Why is Gundam 00 so crappy then? Ugh. Here I am ranting about 00 again.
CSI - Both Grissom and Warrick are leaving now? Can Lawrence Fishburne really take over, or is this show finally jumping the shark? We'll have to see.
Next Generation Console - Yes, I still want a Wii, but I'm so caught up in retro-gaming at the moment, I probably won't bother yet. Besides, no one can find a Wii. All of them have been presold till next year. Someone said that right now, Nintendo could put its name on a bag of dirt and it will sell. I kinda agree. Ah, poor Sony, how far you've fallen.
Avatar - Have they cast Aang yet? PLEASE don't let it be some white kid.
On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One - The name says it all. I never thought a game co-developed by Penny Arcade would be so good. It's fun. Seriously. Play it. You can spare the 750php.
World of Goo - See what I mentioned about the game above? This is different. But still addictive. Horribly addictive. And sticky.
Hand-Made Greeting Cards - Wow. Our little home business is picking up. Orders are starting to come in. Must be the Christmas season. Anyone else want some handcrafted greetings?
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That's it. Back to watching Clone Wars.
After suffering from a "Fantastic" overdose in issue 5, Secret Invasion 6 promises something much better from the cover alone. Tony Stark bashing aside, that's the original Avengers trinity seen on the cover, composed of Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man.Okay, technically, it's NOT the original trinity per se. Iron Man is now pumped up by the Extremis virus. Thor now has the Odinpower and brought himself back from oblivion post-Ragnarok, and with Steve Rogers still dead, that's the Bucky Barnes incarnation of Cap we're seeing (hence the uncharacteristic gun). Personally, I don't care. The issue is worth it just seeing these three in the same place at the same time, and without being at each others' throats.Most of the issue focuses on bringing everyone together for a grand confrontation in Central Park, an action largely evoked by Thor without prior consultation. This means that come issue 7, we are going to get a battle worthy of the record books. Earth's superheroes versus the Skrull invasion force. That's something to look forward to. The fanboy in me rejoices.Of course, the tactical strategist in me is screaming bloody murder.Imagine you're the Skrulls. You got all these metahumans gathering in a single location, metahumans bent on stopping your invasion plans, most likely by killing every single one of you. Does it make sense that you meet them on the ground, in a classic standoff, your warskrulls facing the heroes at speaking distance? Especially when you have these hovering around the city?
This doesn't even include the ships in orbit.WTF?!Whatever happened to the concept of orbital bombardment?"Oh look, the heroes are all in Central Park.""Is that so?""Yes, what do we do?""Tell all ships in range to bombard their coordinates. Heavy energy weapons only.""Yes, my Queen."I know that would kill everyone, yes. But you wanna invade a planet, you gotta do it properly. However, it seems to me that we're in slam bang surreal mode here. If Nick Fury, Bucky, Reed, and Tony can be stupid enough to expose themselves en masse in one place like that, I suppose the Skrulls can be that stupid too.Universal stupidity is catchy.Here's what's coming next month:
So Secret Invasion 5 is out, and I have to say it's the most disappointing of the 5 issues that are out so far. Which means that it's the ONLY disappointing issue that has come out, as the previous 4 were amazing.There were some nice highlights in this issue, like how Agent Brand performs very nicely after her spotlight in Astonishing X-Men, and how the Skrull propaganda machine makes its planetary announcements by revealing themselves as famous personalities who were disguised all this time (including Oprah, Tom Cruise, Bin Laden, and our very own President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo). But all of that was overshadowed by one of my pet peeves.Reed Richards.Brand manages to free him, and you can anticipate that the series is going to go downhill from here. Mr. Fantastic is Marvel's equivalent of Deus Ex in a stretchable bag. The guy can work miracles using nothing more than a toothbrush, a pocket calculator, and a few rubber bands. You put Reed Richards into any scenario, and instantly, it transforms into "what MAGICAL device will Mr. Fantastic create to FIX ANYTHING." Seriously. Put him in any situation, and that's what he does. He's so smart he can beat GALACTUS. He makes me PUKE.His presence takes out the effort other characters have put up to that point and throws it in the dust like so much garbage. "Don't worry. Everything you worked for will easily be fixed with no effort using the mystical properties of my Fantastic Dream Beam!"In the case of SI#5, from the time that it takes to go from high orbit to the Savage Land, he manages to whip up a Skrull Revalation Ray using Skrull equipment. Yes. A Skrull Revalation Ray. You fire it, and every disguised Skrull in the area suddenly reveals his Skrull form. Wow. All that hype about "Who Can You Trust?" and now it's undone by Mr. Fantastic. I am so disgusted I can't write anymore. Forget it.---PS. GMA is a Skrull. That explains SO MUCH.
Secret Invasion issue 4 hit the stands last week, and the series is maintaining its pacing nicely. The Tony Stark "Is he, or isn't he?" mind play continues, with Queen Veranke / Spider-Woman pulling on one end and Natasha Romanova / Black Widow tugging on the other. I'm personally hoping that Tony's sanity snaps before either of the two ladies wins.This comic also has Nick Fury and his new commandos temporarily repulsing the Skrull offensive just long enough to rescue the remains of the Initiative and the Young Avengers. We also see snippets of the invasion as events happened in other places. This is how you do a special series. Hey, DC! Are you guys paying attention?Hmm... I think the greatness of this issue is best exemplified by the pics themselves...---
If you can provide a few panels of Reed Richards being tortured in every Marvel comic, I would buy them all. Okay. READ them all at least. Maybe not buy. Ehehe.
Same thing goes for Nick Fury blasting Ms Marvel. Like he said, "A Skrull's a Skrull." Give it to her Nick! She deserves it for siding with Tony!
Speaking of Tony, here he is continuing his lovely chat with Queen Veranke. Kl'riki Dulu. Nice name. He should keep it even after the invasion is over.
Phoenix and Beast are revealed to be Skrulls after Black Widow pumps them full of incendiary rounds. I could tell that "Jean" was a Skrull from the beginning, but I was hoping that we'd get the old Beast back. Hank McCoy as a cat mutant still doesn't feel right for me.
Woohoo! Go Jarvis-Skrull! What's Maria Hill supposed to do when even her own people are Skrulls? She should be happy it's raining. No one will notice her pissing in her uniform.---Oh, while Marvel is still teaching DC how to do a special series properly, they might as well add one more lesson. Guys, THIS is how you do a last page cliffhanger:
You know what this means? It's the Avengers trinity back in action, together, in Secret Invasion 5! Post-Ragnarok Thor, Buck Barnes Captain America, and finally, Kl'riki Dulu Iron Man! It's a veritable Avengers Rennaisance! What a mess! I can't wait for the next one.
What's with the number of Captain Americas floating around in the Marvel universe these days? For a guy who was assassinated and officially died, he's certainly manifested in different places. Let's see, besides the original dead one, we have former sidekick Bucky, aka. Winter Soldier being the pseudo-official replacement, aka. the Cap with a gun, with another possible Cap wannabe emerging from the Red Skull's present plotting. Then there's the Cap from the past in Avengers-Invaders. Then there's the Captain America that emerged from the Skrull vessel in Secret Invasion.Am I missing any other Captain America? There may just be one or two more...---And speaking of Secret Invasion, just for the record, she can be my queen any day...
Jessica Drew / Queen Veranke. You have to admit she looks good on a throne.
Before we begin, here's the wall I'm talking about (image borrowed with thanks from the Wizarduniverse.com website since I'm presently too lazy to get my own scan):
It shows Nick Fury, when he was still in hiding, some time prior to the invasion, mulling over a wall of heroes. Obviously he's busied himself trying to determine who might be a Skrull, and who isn't. Thing is, he's got these circles around some pictures. Some are blue and some are red. Now I know it's a tease from the author. But I can't help myself.Let's take this wall from what we know so far up to Secret Invasion #3. The ones encircled in red are: Wolverine, the Sentry, Hulkling and Doctor Strange.The ones encircled in blue are: Daredevil, Spider-Man, Lockjaw, Namor and Stature.First, let us try assuming the extreme, that one color represents identified Skrulls, and the other represents confirmed non-Skrulls. A Skrull version of Daredevil was recently seen in an issue of New Avengers just prior to the invasion, trying to get rid of and possibly replace Echo. Also, it was confirmed in Mighty Avengers 14 that the Skrulls were unable to copy Sentry's power set, and thus were unable to replace him. This would imply that Wolverine, Hulkling and Dr Strange are normal, and that Spidey, Lockjaw, Namor and Stature are Skrulls. Given the events of One More Day, this means that reality was altered and Spidey's marriage removed because Mephisto got tricked by a Skrull shapeshifter. Seriously, highly unlikely.If Spidey was a Skrull, then this would make OMD a hundred times more absurd, if that were possible. Besides, it's very possible that the real DD was very active at the time the fake one attacked Echo (as with the Invisible Woman as correlated between SI#1 and SI: Fantastic Four #1). Meaning the DD-Skrull was only temporarily taking DD's form to trick Echo that one time. That brings us to our second interpretation of the circles, that red means confirmed normals, and blue means SUSPECTED Skrulls. This seems a more feasible and open interpretation of Fury's paranoia wall. Note that Fury could easily make errors. At this time, confirmed Skrull replacement Black Bolt is not even circled. Also, Fury himself confided in Spider Woman, even after observing her for days, because he believed at least in part that she was the original article. And we know by this time that she was actually the Skrull Queen, Veranke herself.Thus, I wouldn't be too serious about the wall. If Fury can make an error, anyone can.
Talking about this third installment of the Secret Invasion mini-series, I could discuss how incredibly potent the new warskrulls are as they take out the Young Avengers and multiple members of the Initiative. Or I could talk about the official return of Nick Fury and his attempt to turn the tide of battle, with his new Howling Commandos in tow. Or I could even mention how cool Jarvis-Skrull was when he asked Maria Hill for the unconditional surrender of S.H.I.E.L.D., while still dressed in his normal butler outfit.But I'll leave those things as minor events, at least compared to this little zinger:
Jessica Drew, aka Spider Woman, aka Skrull Queen-in-disguise, coolly and casually performs in what is either the greatest reveal of the series (be it suspected or not by the readers), or what is definitely a solidly destabilizing mind-fuck on Tony Stark.
This totally blew me away. Besides being a great piece of writing, the scene has so many implications, even though the going theory of course is that Tony really isn't a Skrull, since that would be too easy an "out" for everything Tony has been doing from the Civil War onward. He's Marvel's biggest goat right now, the can everyone gets to kick, the jerk people love to hate. To make him into one of the sleeper Skrull agents would sully all the work the writers have done into making him the Marvel U's Greatest HEEL Ever.Even previous weasels like Henry Peter Gyrich have nothing on what Tony has now, and I doubt that simplifying his actions as part of his subliminal sleeper-Skrull programming would be the decision the Marvel bullpen would make to restore his hero reputation among the readership.
No. Tony's road to redemption is going to be hard, painful, and paved with broken parts.
But despite my beliefs, I tip my hat off to the Skrull Queen. A masterful stroke.
Indeed, who can you trust?
