Secret Invasion - Atop the Fourth Wall
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- Welcome to Atop the Fourth Wall, where bad comics burn. In this episode, Event Comics Month 4 continues with Secret Invasion!
Check out more AT4W shirts at Shark Robot: sharkrobot.com...
Title Card Art by Viga: / vigasartroom
LAG can be found here: / thelastangrygeek
atopthefourthwa...
/ at4w
Originally released March 19th, 2022
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: Damn Obvious Assault.
#at4w #marvel
Would've been hilarious if a character was revealed as a Skrull in the fight, but then their counterpart was ALSO a Skrull, and then they just yelled, "wait hang on, show of hands, who here ISN'T a Skrull???" and they were all just Skrulls beating on each other due to misfiled paperwork.
a dramatic version of that kinda happened with how they had to keep replacing the hank pym skrull, as only posing as him caused them to develop mental issues
@@ianr.navahuber2195 Aawww... so Skrull hospitals legitimately had a "Hank Pym Recovery Ward"?
@@thomaspalazzolo5902 i heard they had at least 3
also, that tried to replicate deadpool's powers basically granted those skrulls "super cancer" and killed them
as ironically, deadpool's cancer is what keeps his hyper healing factor at bay from killing him
That would honestly be hilarious.
ua-cam.com/video/byV6LZyT_Dc/v-deo.html This cyanide and happiness skit but with skrulls
Ok, seriously, can we just give and F in the comments for the honor of the Skrull who had the brass balls to impersonate Dr. Doom?
Nah, Marvel will just insist the skrull was actually imitating a Doombot, just like that...incident with Squirrel Girl. Given the number of them he's built over the years I doubt even Vic is certain about how many Doombots are actually functional at this point anyway, so a spare showing up wouldn't even be a blip on the radar.
@@richmcgee434 he doesn't even know if he is a Doombot
@@richmcgee434 I like to think the Doombots keep building more Doombots for the same reason that Doom did.
@@CrisisComics Would that make them Victor von Neumann machines, then? :)
@@richmcgee434 By this point, Galactus is probably getting confused by the unusually high amount of metal in his diet...
"Pro Skrull protesters."
I, for one, welcome our new Skrull overlords.
"This is Kent Brockman"
@@eamonndeane587
"As I always say democracy doesn't work!"
Have you seen the world lately? Might be a step up.
Same
Theres an irony to linkara doing a sketch about doom complaining about imposters, immediately followed by maria hill only surviving because of a robot double. Missed opportunities: "Doom wishes to sue hill for copyright for using doom's methods!!!"
...Do you think some Skrulls impersonated Doombots?
"Because they were a Skrull" seems to be an easy fix to character problems in Marvel back then.
Funny story - but that's actually why I stopped reading Wolverine comics. Because there was a certain point where they just revealed that for a time Logan had been a Skrull. So all the stories you enjoyed in that period? All the investment you made in the character? Absolutely pointless!
Also an easy fix for a break up line
Worse than, "Just a Doombot"
@@louthegiantcookie Ah yes, the Erik Larsen run lol. I wonder why they did back then, because i'm sure that ghere were other ways to give Logan his adamantium back.
@@traverserthein-between9359 But not worse than "Deal with Mephisto."
That’s a torture technique. Lie to the subject, tell them the war is over or whatever. And get them to talk.
The lady Skrull only said that to get Reed to talk
Yup.
I feel that a lot of readers forget that, "Oh, lying is a thing"
Sometimes what people say in stories aren't reliable or is the truth.
Like Batman, he says that he's alone, but we all know he's not. He feels alone because of how emotionally closed off from the world he is.
Edit:
Adding onto to this,
Azula, in Avatar, who often tell lies to turn people over onto her side or in her favor.
@@ZatchZXman I know this because it’s a plot point in Skyrim. Ulfric Stormcloak (rebel leader) was lied to by the Thalmor (evil high elves) to get military secrets to capture the Imperial City. They hadn’t taken the city yet, but they told Ulfric they had.
(Granted I think I have the details wrong, but it was the same plot point)
@The Poet of Fall I'll take your word on that.
But that also raises a point of when the player chooses to lie too.
That ... makes a lot of sense actually.
@@ZatchZXman The event happened before the start of the game, it was used to inform the psychology of one of the main faction leaders.
Therapist: You don't seem like yourself lately.
Skrull: OH CRAP! He knows!
Therapist: I mean a superhero coming to therapy? That's kind of rare here.
And then the Skrull just pours his heart out about the trauma of losing your home planet.
*laughs weakly* how true
Then the therapist looks directly into the camera like he’s on the office
Oh sorry, I left my amnesia gas at home... which I no longer have....
Well, time to abduct you too buddy.
@@atiredfloridian777 funny enough in a recent comic as of this comment's writing, Jed MacKay's Moon Knight, Moon knight goes to therapy almost every 1 or 2 issues as a "so this is what happened to me recently" either at the beginning or at the end as a framing device
it is actually good. sure he only started going because its part of the deal with the avengers to proof he is turstworthy but it is still really good
I'm surprised that linkara didn't point out the panel where Jarvis turns into a skrull when holding Jessica's baby and the baby looks at the reader and is pointing to Jarvis with a "oh shit, look at this plot twist!" Kind of expression on her face. Reading that back in the day totally killed my ability to take this event seriously.
Though I do have to admit that a 4th wall breaking baby is kinda of funny, it was just so out of place with what I thought was the tone they were going for
Hearing about this story I can't help but think of Godzilla: Final Wars and how the aliens in that movie somehow had a subtler invasion plan than the skrulls, and there's nothing really subtle about that movie.
Also
*Meanwhile In Space*
Rom: I feel like I should be doing something...eh, it's probably nothing
hell, in that one the aliens dropped their subtle strategy cause one of them found the subtle approach boring, killed his boss and took over because he wanted to see some kaiju murder humans, dammit
Seriously, he may be over the top but X is probably the best godzilla villain by a mile.
Rom: I should DO something!
Also Rom: Should I DO something?
Rom: ... I should DO something!
I love Final Wars
@@sarafontanini7051 GGGIIIIIIIIGGGGAAAAAANNNNN
RIISSEEEEE!!!!!
Keep in mind. That film also had a potshot at Roland Emmerich's Godzilla that was simply called "Zilla"
Apparently the artist for this book, Leinil Francis Yu, had a thing for sneaking in Howard the Duck into his art whenever he could. Like whenever there was a random group shot of a bunch of heroes, Howard would just inexplicably be there. This included a piece of promotional art for Secret Invasion. When asked if this meant that Howard was going to be part of the then upcoming event, editor in chief Joe Quesada made it very apparent in his reader response column that he wasn't. And that he was more than a little annoyed at Yu's tendency for giving the guy constant cameos. It got to a point where apparently Bendis specifically told Yu NOT to include Howard in any of the art for the actual event.
36:12 Aaand there's Howard. Has a cameo in the issue after this as well.
This man is my new personal hero
like Oda with Pandaman
I have to argue about this whole video, and apparently, I have to be against all of the people who voted the poll.
Lenil Yu is one out of the few excellent Marvel artists out there and it's a shame how he's being rejected here. I come from a different country, so all the marketing and build up USA received I was not present for, therefore I was not hyped, I was not happy, but I was not sad either.
The pay offs for certain characters and screen character attention are actually worth the reading. I'd TOTALLY pay to see "Fake Sue" change in the way Yu portrays her, it makes sense on the way he handles anatomy and does not feel like he got it out of his pants- does give you the urge for John Carpenter to direct Secret Invasion. Unlike X-Men 3 it got a whole lot of hype which then was totally rejected after the fans watched it----- rightfully so----- this whole Secret Invasion anti-popularity is news to me and I 100% disagree with.
What I'm saying is that: Wolverine Origins would've sucked either with marketing or without. It was horrible, and everyone hated it. What I hear from Linkara and what people are saying here so far is: I wanted this but I got this, instead of: this is terrible because the writer is bad.
This is a pure 100% Skrull comic invasion- for a channel where bad comics burn. It just does not deserve it.
@@catalinamelo9932 not sure why you’re saying this in reply to this comment.
@@mathieuleader8601 Not quite. Pandaman was technically the first published piece of art Oda ever did.
Pandaman was originally a character designed for a contest for the manga "Kinnikuman", where readers could sent in designs for wrestlers that would actually get featured in the manga. And yeah, Pandaman appeared once because Oda won, so there is more to why Oda still includes him to this very day.
Secret Invasion is one of those events where the build-up and tie-ins were better than the event itself.
So you mean 99% of modern events
Count in Convergence too
@@SuperEasywalker convergence was that by design though
No kidding. The only thing I've read related to Secret Invasion was the Deadpool tie in, which is where Norman Osborne obtained the info on how to kill the Skrull queen.
Agreed. I read it a while ago and found it hard to be invested since do many of the big pivotal things were clearly happening in tie ins.
Wait a minute. A really obvious invasion led by an alien who claims they've won despite holding no territory. Several heroes appearing in older costumes. Endless fight scenes with little character focus. An easily destroyed armada. "Humans suck and we shall conquer." ""No! Humans are awesome! Never give up!"
My God, Secret Invasion is Power Rangers: Super Megaforce!
No no no no...
They're ALL Skrulls, It's Far too Complex for you to Understand....
@@eamonndeane587 Well one thing's for sure: this Event wasn't a Super Mega Win.
@@chaoticjusticezero Honestly with all my frustrations with Brian Michael Bendis' writing these days, I just wish I could tell him to "Super Mega SHUT UP!!!!"
Soooo blame Tzachor?
@@rodimusriderv2368 A superhero show written by Brian Michael Bendis and produced by Jonathan Tzachor would be an absolute disaster.
18:27 That line was used word for word for an episode of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Yeah and it was really weird hearing that since I thought it was originally for the show.
That, and the reveal she was using an LMD, plus the line that "Nick Fury was right". Honestly, EMH was an adaptation done right: Keep the best stuff and put your own spin on the rest.
Wait, that wasn’t a line the show invented? XD
@@Drakespawn85 so true!!!
They did a waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better job with Secret Invasion in the "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" animated series than they did in the actual comics.
Hindsight and all that
From what I've heard, both that show and the comic did Secret Invasion better than the live-action show.
the mcu could not even make it a phase/season long mystery no cram everything into 6 episodes and a few old cameos and misdirection while making the conclusion lets just have a good super skrull with everyone power's making everyone kinda pointless and on top of that lets remove a lot of Samuel l Jackson street cred as FRICKEN NICK I ACTUALLY WOULD BRING THE AVENGER INTO THIS BATTLE BECAUSE I'M NOT AN AFEN IDIOT FURY.
So much better than the actual MCU TV show adaptation that we got.
@@chrisdonovan4075hell they didn't even hire a VFX artist to make some photoshop for the credits. What made you think it's going to be good
"You know, I'm something of an avenger myself."
"And as a HERO.....
DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I SACRIFICED BECAUSE OF A EDITORIAL MANDATE!!!!"
“Imagine what we could accomplish together. Together… we can *be* justice.”
The sad thing is that a criminally underrated cartoon called "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" managed to create a really good adaptation of the Secret Invasion storyline only about a decade ago. Hopefully, the upcoming Disney+ series of the same name will be great as well.
I miss that show but god I hate the skulls along with the cause of it all Galactus.
i wouldnt say its underrated but its not talked about it as much as it was used to
God that was a decade ago wasn't it...
My gods! I grew up with it too, but do you guys ever shut up about it?!
@@sparrowjones6222 I mean, we take a break every now and then, but not recently.
I find the idea of Skrulls who have impersonated a character for so long that they actually started to feel like the real deal fascinating and definitely worthy of exploring further. Like, delving deeper into the idea of "if a hero is a fake/Skrull, but they still embody the ideals of said hero, is it still fake?", and if humanity would be willing to accept them as a hero or just a fake based solely on their identity, it just feels like Secret Invasion just goes "Skrull = bad" and, sure, I can understand why and a couple of exceptions do show up, but it still feels like wasted potential.
Gotta admit though, "My god has a hammer" is a pretty metal one-liner.
I tried to use that line during a debate once. The guy I was talking to said "Jesus would be a crappy carpenter if HE didn't use a hammer!!!"
It also hits the nail of the problem. X)
It'd be better if they actually came up with it. "My god carries a hammer, your god died nailed to a tree" has been a popular slogan for viking wanna-bes for quite awhile.
Well by 2099, there are people who worship Thor (including Punisher 2099's murdered family), so yeah, that line is probably pretty popular in 2099 among the Church of Thor crowd!
I can’t believe the big man missed “Skrullverine” lol.
Thanks for the review, cheers!
Think we can all agree Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes told the best Secret Invasion story. Really interested to see how the Disney+ show will handle it if we’ve only met good Skrulls before. Maybe Veranke is leading an evil faction under everyone’s noses.
Yeah, looking forward to the upcoming Disney + show! Hope they do the storyline better like how the MCU did with Civil War!!
@@thatonea-hole i kinda get the feeling that story might take inspiration from the meet the skrulls comic where a family of skrulls tries to accomplish their mission while also being hunted while doing it
I was just about to say that myself.
It will be interesting to see exactly what they're doing with the Skrulls, if anything. The set up at least is pretty cool.
I will *forever* hate Jeph Loeb for having that show cancelled and then turning Marvel Animation into the modern day Hanna-Barbera.
The bit about the tie-ins reminds me that I'd like to see Linkara do a "Tie-in Month" as a companion to Event Comics Month, where he goes over the tie-ins and points out the best, the worst, the ones that had the least reason to exist, etc.
It's funny, I started this video ready to defend Secret Invasion as a great story that I had fond memories of. But after seeing the video, I realized all the stuff I loved was in tie ins.
That'd be an insane amount of comics he'd have to cover though. Even if he'd only be doing brief summaries of each he'd still have to read a ton of them and grab a lot of panels for the reviews. Given how long just the event comics take, let alone bigger projects like the retrospectives, I can't see him doing a Tie-In month.
@@aros0018 also tie in mean you need to know the plots of the heroes leding IN to the tie in and if you don't care you will not get much
Two of my favorites were Crisis on Infinite Earths and Invasion!. With Crisis, they let the regular series tie in as much or as little as they wanted. For example, Batman books simply had red skies in the background and just told their regular stories. Blue Devil had a wacky romp through alternate universes. Justice League dealt with the aftermath of the old satellite HQ blowing up in the main Crisis series (admittedly, they blew it up a second time in a different way).
Invasion! had the heroes fighting the side battles initiated in the main title. They were more localized, while the main series handled the bigger picture. They were complete stories of their own and you didn't need the main series to understand, just know an alien invasion was going on.
Agreed, I wanted to see him do the tie-ins for convergence since the blue beetle retrospective.
Especially would love to hear his thoughts on the ones for Kyle rayner & parallax, super boy and the legion of superheroes, batgirl, and marvel family tie-ins.
Amazing how Avengers Earth's mightiest heroes managed to do Secret Wars better then the books. Seriously, Secret Invasion is one of those events where the build-up and tie-ins are better than the event itself. And EHM managed to fix that.
I mean EMH did a lot of stories better than the comics at times. It’s probably a reason people began enjoying characters like Hawkeye, Wasp or Panther before their movie counterparts were better developed.
@@benwasserman8223 Agreed..... although my only complain was that in the episodes after secret invasion, where they try to clear hulk's name from red hulk's crimes, the one who gets the spotlight is captain america...
i get it, skrull captain america betrayed hulk's trust... but would it have been so bad to share spotlight with hawkeye and wasp? the other 2 avengers hulk considered very good friends?
to the point hawkeye in that show is one of the few people who prefered to hang out with hulk as friends over banner?
That’s because given the medium it gets right to the point.
@@ianr.navahuber2195 I mean Cap was the only one to not give up on Hulk everyone else did
@@markmagician2471 which i still call out as lazy writing about how hawkeye would just give up on hulk
i can believe wasp considering hank pym at the time also passed through the same so wasp would be busy, but hawkeye giving up on hulk is just lazy writing, especially considering early on in the season they accuse him of being a skrull and despite the team disbanding, he remains on the avengers and proves that he is loyal and trustworthy.
if he had been written more in character, he wouldn't have given up on hulk, especially considering he is one of his best friends
I have to say, Secret Invasion really seems like it once-and-for-all proves that the civilians in the Marvel Universe are dumber than a bag of hammers. Because their reaction was to say "let's put Norman Osborn, a man who's psychotic when he's *on* his meds, in charge of all our superheroes."
To be fair, after his return Osborn did a PR campaign to make everyone think he was never the Green Goblin. So it's not that far outside the realm of possibility that he could get that position. And he was mostly a Spider-Man villain before his death, so most of the Superhero community likely would only know about him through second hand information from Peter, assuming he told them given how personal Osborn was as a villain to him.
@@mikegates8993 Given that Hank Pym (the real one) made a crack about Osborn murdering Gwen Stacy when the two of them met shortly after Secret Invasion, I'd say that the majority of Marvel's superhero community knew how bad he was. And IIRC, "psycho when he's on his meds" was the way Ronin/Hawkeye described him.
@@Macrochenia Fair enough on the heroes then. I wasn't aware of that dialog.
He already had a team with frickin Bullseye and cannibalistic Scorpion-Venom on the team that was being used to hunt the unregistered heroes. Pro-Reg side wasn't overly smart
@@Ihavethetouch To be fair, Bullseye was actually a secret on that team, but that also doesn't change that the Thunderbolts as a whole were a group of villains and some of them utterly unrepentant. So yeah that Venom point stands. Oh boy does it stand.
Thank you Linkara for making these amazing videos about comics. The niche ones, the silly ones, the bad ones, the retrospectives, and these big event discussions. It's been helping me to get back into comics. When I was younger my dad was very big comic guy and I would read his back log. Around my teens I had a, sort of, falling out with him and my feelings towards things we both enjoyed soured. But watching your videos, and listening to the Cerebro podcast, this past year has gotten me to get back into comics. I've been back log buying events I've wanted to read. Stories I enjoyed before my falling out with my dad, new stories I've missed in the near decade gap in comics, and stuff my wife has bought and enjoys. So again thank you for helping this once comic lover get back into the medium.
I'm pretty sure that when the Skrulls are telling humanity that they already won, that they are using Doofenshmirtz's strategy of just hoping that people would be too lazy or busy to check if they were telling the truth.
As someone who collected the comics at the time... I agree with the fact that the BUILD-UP should've been call "Secret Invasion" with this event called INVASION because yeah, there's ZERO % secrect
Tbf, DC beat Marvel to that title by a whole decade.
I love how in the title card the human half of Linkara's face seems confused about the skrull half.
And the theme of the title card mixing the AT4W theme with the theme of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
@@myriadmediamusings
So in the title card, Linkara has become
*ONE FACE!!!*
@@thatonea-hole He doesn't like rock n roll too, does he?
Does he now enjoy Grape Jelly & Mustard?
I think if the premise was two groups of skrulls, one wanting to coexist on earth with humanity and another wanting to dominate it, it could've resulted in everything promised. Hell there was a single character like that.
Bendis: They're evil reptile aliens they can't be morally grey!
More than one actually. Crusader and then She-Hulk's friend Jazinda.
And Jazinda apparently last appeared in a Marvel book in 2009... so I don't think we'll be seeing her again. Which is sad because I really liked her and Jen's interactions.
@@LupineShadowOmega There were even more good Skrulls that appeared in the tie ins, like the ones that worked for MI6 while looking like the Beatles.
I think the MCU is most likely do that with their version, hope they sorta do that.
Skrulls: "We're going to invade."
Cartman!Skrull: "Screw you guys, I'm going home!"
Skrulls: "We...don't have a home anymore."
Cartman!Skrull: "Shit."
Ah, yes. Time for the second Event Comic of this Month, Secret Invasion.
Or, as Linkara once more accurately called it: Damn Obvious Assault.
Next time, it's Civil War II!
The sequel no-one wanted
@@thatonea-hole To a comic that NO ONE wanted to begin with.
Heh He’s still got it!
@@thatonea-hole Civil War II: The Comic that wasn't even accurately marketed in the beginning
(The original announcement image was of Iron Man Vs Captain America (Sam Wilson)... not only id that of course not the main rivalry of the event, but Sam and Tony never fight once in the event... Sam is on Tony's side...).
@@thatonea-hole Further one:
Civil War II: Hey, remember how we'd just did a massive company-wide relaunch only a few **months ago** with Iron Man as the flagship title? Well all that's going out the window!
I really like the tittle card music for this episode, with a bit of homage to the Avengers EMH cartoon theme “Fight as One”
Easily, the best Avengers cartoon!
@@thatonea-hole Not a high bar from what I've seen, but it was a darn good show. I also liked that it was distinct from the MCU. Then it got canceled for the not half as engaging MCU look alike one.
I really liked the MCU's take on the Skrulls, where they weren't trying to take over Earth, but were actually on the run because the Kree were trying to genocide them. It was a nice twist, especially since, ever since it was announced they were coming to the MCU, everyone had been putting out theories of which heroes were actually Skrulls.
secret invasion IS coming, so not all skrulls are peaceful creatures, but it is nice that we got to witness a majority of their true nature.
@@Mariokemon I do genunely hope tough than this doesnt end ruining the character of Talos who i tlook a liking
@@lsebastian9086 Considering the plot of even this Secret Invasion is a faction of Skrulls who are invading Earth based upon a religious prophecy the rest of the Skrulls didn't believe, they don't really have to change much to have this storyline without hurting the Skrull characters we do have.
43:00 Man that was a weird time for Marvel Norman Osborn being elevated from Spiderman nemesis to quite possibly the greatest threat to the Marvel Universe at the time honestly what was more surprising was that its particularly forgotten about at this point there was the occasional reference in adaptation in particular The Iron Patriot stuff but otherwise he just went back to Spideys Rouges honestly I'm underwhelmed by that since I'd like for him to share both roles or just graduate to big leagues
I feel like you had a missed opportunity with "wolverskrull"
"Skrullverine" was right there
...how much you willing to bet Linkara puts this on a future missed opputunities list?
@@Bladezer3000 I'd love that
Looked like he channeling Colossus and maybe Cyclops powers as well, which would be traditional for a Super-Skrull. But yeah, Skrullverine is a still a better name for him.
Love Viga's work on the title card!
Also, personally, while I'm not fond of how politically charged Civil War was, they *could* have made it so a lot of Skrulls remain on Earth as refugees in the wake of this event and seeing what kind of stories you could tell with that. Maybe some of them work together with the heroes to try and repair the damage, maybe people aren't happy with their presence, or maybe their status is brought up and discussions are made in regards to the superhuman registration act. Like, since it specifies "superhuman", would superskrulls be exempt from that?
Just saying, if they wanted to be relevant and discuss some interesting ideas, the pieces were definitely all there. But no, all the interesting stuff happens in the tie-ins and all of this is just fight scenes.
I would think that the SRA probably defines 'superhuman' pretty broadly (since there are plenty of regular heroes who are aliens, robots or the like). But otherwise an interesting idea - most Skrulls are civilians with nowhere to go. Maybe at a minimum arrangements can be made to settle them on a new planet, but that would have its own set of issues (how does the economy work, for example). All of that would probably work better if Secret Invasion ended with either one of the Skrulls or a major hero calling for peace rather than just taking out their queen/prophet. (Maybe Tony Stark, having learned something from Civil War?)
I kinda recall that in Marvel vs Capcom 3, Super-Skrull (The one with Fantastic 4 powers) used to have the 'He loves you' line before it got removed in a later patch, apparently because the original Super-Skull didn't agree with the Secret Invasion.
TONY STARK WAS ABLE TO BUILD THIS IN A CAVE
WITH A BOX OF DUNG BEETLES
One of the things I hated the most about Secret Invasion was one of the tie-ins. It took Crusader, a Skrull who had infiltrated humanity the normal way before the super-stealth Skrulls started doing things and was having a surprisingly well-written story arc about how he was going native and no longer feeling loyal to the Skrull Empire. And then after he'd decided that no, the invasion was wrong and he couldn't support it so he turned on the Skrulls, he was suddenly killed off by 3D Man, an absolutely boring D-Lister who was able to see through Skrull disguises for absolutely no justified reason. Seriously, the explanation was "my powers are 'old school', which is better than magic or science."
Wow that sounds stupid.
The lack of ANY explanation for how to see through skrull disguises in this and the main comic was what killed the story for me.
That was the main thing the story asked for. A clever solution as they can't see a color, they are allergic to some chemical, the War of the Worlds flu virus reaction, SOMETHING that showed a minimum effort in the part of the writers of the event and a pseudo scientific reinterpretation of how the shapeshifting worked and its weak spots.
The way it was fully ditched because Quesada, Bendis and Alonso couldn't think of anything, or bother with, is something I took plain offense as a reader. I felt conned out of the story solution they promised.
The moment Reed shows up with his magic ray that turns skruls back it was when the thing was definitively over for me.
This was editors and writers not doing their job.
@@adrianomoraes5992 Yeah, they completely wrote themselves into a corner when it came to the Skrulls' impenetrable disguises and their "solution" to how to deal with it had all the grace of the Blob falling down a staircase.
@@Macrochenia I don't even like to remember because it really pissed me off since I could myself had figured out half a dozen solutions as in "the magic they used for the disguise could had been countered by Dr Strange since Vishanti, Agamotto and others didn't like an incursion of skrull gods into their realm", "the connection with the original humans aledged by the final issue could have been traced and cut making some skrulls suddenly realize they were not the humans they thought they were", "you could mess the way skrulls recognize each other so they wouldn't know who is an ally or not either and be forced to reveal themselves, there were ways around it. It is the writer's job to be creative and figure out. A poor attempt would still be better than no attempt at all.
If you lack imagination why are you even a writer to begin with?
@@Macrochenia I would have gone with the connection to the original humans could be traced. They figure out one of the skruls they captured had that connection, some follow it in a recognizance mission and find out it is connected to the original humans. You create a whole side mission that reveals to be the main mission of scrambling this signal from them to Earth.
It would have made way more sense than "Thor call all skruls to Central Park for big fight" because why should they care about big fight in Central Park?
The disguise stuff was working fine and Reed magic ray was local. There was nothing indicate he could cover the whole world with it and unmask everybody.
It is just annoying when you have to think about how much better poor writing should be solved because that is not our job as readers.
That is a sign of a failure on the writer's side,
I am not getting paid to write this. I call someone to fix my sink I don't want to come next day and see it still doesn't work. That is your job so do it right as you are expected to.
Writing these events is one of THE MOST WELL PAID WRITING JOB IN COMICS, they don't have the right of doing such a half ass job and leave with what, 100 thousand or so for 8 issues of this?
Here's a question. How is it legal for the helicarrier to EVER be allowed over a city, at all? Or any population center? She's right, it falls ALL the time. It just shouldn't be allowed to fly over populated areas, by default.
For those not familiar with Annihilation which he mentioned briefly in the intro, check it out. It’s probably marvels best event comic. Ever. It’s how you do these right.
I grew up with cosmic Marvel and Annihilation briefly got me back into superhero comics.
Heck yeah! Annihilation is for me the gold standard for an event comic.
I’ve only read conquest. The trade I bought had a a breakdown of annihilation and it looks way too complicated for me to get into, and includes mostly characters I don’t care for
@@daltonwilliams1723 it was actually a pretty straight forward story. The brilliance of the book is takes characters nobody cares about and turns them into badasses.
@@daltonwilliams1723 I had never read a single Cosmic Marvel story before getting into Annihilation. I was not only able to follow it but fell in love with it and its characters.
Annihilation is complicated if merely read as a synopsis because it uses a lot of Marvel canon to set itself up and the interactions between characters are based on that history. A synopsis cannot do it justice since it wouldn't be able to go through backstories and prologues. The story is exceptionally well-written though and designed to keep you in the loop since the characters were very obscure to begin with. It serves as the re-invention of the cosmic side of Marvel's universe and reintroduces and modernizes a lot of the characters that appear in it (with the possible exceptions of Thanos and Annihilus who mostly get additional development). Without it we wouldn't have the modern versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy for example.
It's one of Marvel's best events and stories all-around. And since it's also an introductory story for new readers, the writers knew that said readers weren't going to know who these people were or their motivations (since Cosmic Marvel was pretty much dead at that point) and it goes through the trouble of keeping things accessible.
I'd really recommend reading it as well if you can, it's definitely worth it. Just keep in mind that its tie-ins and prologue are part of the story and shouldn't be divorced from the main plot. I still have memories of being hooked on Annihilation: Nova from the first issue despite not even knowing who Nova was beforehand.
30:41 don't forget maria hill is kinda responsible for the whole secret empire event. her stupid idea of creating the prison pleasant hill, where she would have turned villains (AND HEROES, eventually if she had her way) into "pleasant civillians" by using the sentient cosmic cube Kobik to warp their reality, was what kickstarted everything, especially she capturing red skull, and he taking the chance to influence Kobik, so she would turn Captain America into a HYDRA loyalist (Stevil Rogers)
Also, RIGHT when other heroes got their moment to make for their mistakes, she stole Deadpool's so she could get away scott free from causing EVERYTHING, saying "this is for coulson" (who deadpool killed, after being manipulated by Stevil), even though tehorically, coulson's death is her fault
that did occur later on though, so the dislike for her was not infuluneced tby that.
@@stevenhedge2850 that's true
although in present day i don't know who would qualify as "the amanda waller of the MCU": maria hill or abigail brandt
who you can see as more likely to set up their own "suicide squad"?
I think what makes maria hill soinfuriating is hiw, despite her many awful actions she seemingly recieves no comeuppance and in fac tis treated as a hero despite all her actions being self serving, arrogant and shortsighted.
Seriously just make her a full on villain marvel.
@@sarafontanini7051 yeah. during despicable deadpool she was even among the heroes hunting deadpool almost dellusioned into believing her own lies of "he killed coulson all on his own"
and even though deadpool got to kinda tell the hawkeyes about what she did, she just shrugs it and that's the end of the story
maria hill somehow ALWAYS gets scott free from horrible stuff. and almost nobody ever remembers. they just treat her as a "sure, she is a jerk, but she wants to do good". almost always forgetting she is just a self-serving arrogant who always makes things worse
Secret Invasion could have been Marvel's "John Carpenter's 'The Thing'", playing on the paranoia and distrust not just of this series but culminating from prior Marvel events like Civil War. If ever there was an event that Marvel should make a sequel to, it should have been this one solely to make good on the tantalizing prospect of how much the premise could change the characters and universe of the Marvel comics.
Well looks like you got your wish because marvel is going to do a sequel to secret invasion this year.
As many have mentioned EMH did it better
I’m expecting it be another poorly thought out cash grab even t like Civil War 2 and Infinity Wars
@@rodimusriderv2368 indeed emh did do it way better.
@@rodimusriderv2368 that's my best guess as well.
Hey Linkara, have you ever gone in depth about the harmful trope of comic writers insensitively using miscarriages to avoid having to write characters actually raising a baby?
He came close with a similar trope back in “Avengers #200” about women having strange miracle births that are painless
@@symbionte7987 I remember, good episode
It drives me nuts and honestly feels cheap when they do that
@@questworldiangreenknight7455 Same!
As someone who really likes Noh-Varr as a character... I forgot he was in Secret Invasion
A Quinton reference by Linkara?? I love it whenever I find out my favourite UA-camrs are aware of each other
I wish Spider-Man was a skrull because that would mean one more day never happened and he didn't make a deal with mephisto and become a complete man child and have him be a person who refuses to grow up.
Honestly I think Avengers Earths Mighiest Heroes REALLY did a great job of making something better out of this event that lives up to the name...
I would like to point out, Norman Osborne did ALL this...to fuck with Spider Man...not even kidding. H.A.M.M.E.R., The Cabal, even what happens next within Spiderman's own books, it was all done to punish Peter for...I think the then death of Harry...don't quote me on that as even Peter points out how convoluted the whole thing was, especially mentioning that all he had to do was shoot Peter during an earlier event...though in a meta moment Norman points out Dead doesn't mean Dead for heroes, so this was about destroying everyone around him.
I actually said "Oh you poor thing" out loud, all by myself in my room, when you announced Civil War 2. We're doing this to you, aren't we? Are... are we ... bad??
No no… it’s his Patrons who ask him do stuff in exchange for money that lets him live that are bad
Are we the baddies?
Now I want to see the tie in of Dr. Doom vs Skrulls, simply for putting words in his mouth about submitting to Skrull rule.
Also because they blame Reed for everything and Doom might be inclined to agree. 😂
"Most of the story is just fight scene after fight scene in various locals"
So it's basically Zack Snyder's Man of Steel
Zack synder’s secret invasion?
It might be his first superhero movie I like.
I can't believe what I'm gonna say but this comic is still better than the MCU show.
Maybe because the comics didn't made the Skrulls war refugies/immigrants who goes evil because Nick Fury was too slow to find a planet for them.
No shit, Sherlock.
The only comics connected to this that I read fully was a Deadpool series where Deadpool had been hired to find a weakness to the Skrulls. Osbourne steals the info when Deadpool tries to transmit it to SHIELD. Deadpool therefore feels Osbourne owes him the money and mayhem ensues.
Ah yes, Amogus.
"Tony is acting pretty sus"
Can we talk about how good that thumbnail art is?
Viga is proving to be a very good replacement artist for Crafty. I am curious to see what her next titlecard looks like.
I actually liked Secret Invasion.
When it got adapted in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Season 2.
Can’t wait to see how you rip Civil War II a new one.
Same here!
One of my favorite storylines in the show!!
I mean at least the Ms. Marvel tie-in was great. Actually come to think about it, Ms. Marvel had the best tie-ins of every recent event comic, even the controversial ones.
@@benwasserman8223 oh yeah, those are worth the read.
@@alexandredesbiens-brassard9109 Well you’ll be happy to know Kamala and Bruno made up later, as did she and Carol that made things feel natural and less mopey. Now go back and read them all before Ms. Marvel’s show drops.
Honestly the Reach storyline from Young Justice Season 2 feels like it's a lot truer to the intent of "Secret Invasion"
What if the heroes discover the Skrull are seeding people onto the Earth in secret, but they preempted the heroes by declaring themselves openly? Invading secretly in plain sight, as it were. And if the heroes try to raise a stink about it, with all the Superhuman Registration Act stuff people just think the heroes are being reactionary and paranoid.
It's a shame that Jaime Reyes hasn't really gotten a chance to shine in Young Justice after that Season.
You would think after 40 years someone at marvel would look up the word 'secret' in the dictionary!
And now an excerpt of the Superdictionary:
"Secret"
"Queen Veranke decided to hold a secret invasion. She revealed the existence of her secret soldiers and publicy annonced her secret invasion of Earth. Queen Veranke doesn't understand what is a secret."
Ugh, Bendis's Marvel events were always so boring. Only good things that came out of this drek was Fraction's Iron Man, Secret Warriors, and the X-Men setting up Utopia via embarrassing Osborn on live TV.
Skrullkara isnt real, he cant hurt y-
*Skrullkara in the thumbnail, giving us the side eye like we just said that Youngblood's disease is great design aesthetic*
Marvel are great at coming up with awesome concepts but they often suck when it comes to execution.
But just to balance this out DC has has the all-time undisputed king of "Great concept, crap execution", Heroes in Crisis, on it's books.
I was only reading the Marvel Cosmic stuff (Nova, Guardians, etc.) at the time, but was tempted to pick this up, but I'm glad I didn't!
The speech by the Skrull Queen about paranoia really feels like Marvel's version of Infinite Crisis going off about how the DCU had become so dark in that it was written by someone who had contributed to that climate through their works delivering a meta speech about the state of the company's comics through a character, but not doing anything to solve that, in fact, really just ending up exacerbating it.
Also, Mark Waid's first story arc on Captain America as a part of Heroes Reborn did a much better Skrull Invasion.
If you or someone you know acts more unusual than there normal self well you better call Spider-Woman!
Skrull logic: launched only one attack on a major city, detained a few superheroes, failed to convince the population to surrender, unable to fight back against the remaining heroes and non-super-powered individuals.
Skrull Queen: We have already won!
.... Civil War II. Oh, fuck. This is gonna be a pain..... I wish you good luck, Linkara; That one was terrible.
In the meantime, thanks for covering this event^^ that was actually fun to find out details about.
I blame bendis for the event fatigue, he is the one who pushed for crap like this to happen every single year around this time....
This was a really exciting time in Marvel comics, but they had a problem with their events: great concepts, disappointing execution
Its amazing how this is STILL way better than the Disney+ show.
21:10
"Everything interesting is in the tie-ins."
That's exactly how I felt about Dark Kinghts: Metal.
Hell that's the only place the Dark Batmen got USED! The entire event was promoted around them and they only appeared for like 3 pages in the actual story and were killed OFFSCREEN!
"He goes by 'Ronin' now..."
Of course! Who _doesn't?_
At 24:00 you can see why Sue hasn't left Reed for Namor yet.
He isn't called Mister Fantastic for nothing. Still not match for a good speedster, though. "Vibrate those molecules, Barry."
Guys I think Iron-Man acting weird wait nope that’s just a weird looking mushroom my bad.
So...not to start a flame war or anything, and ignoring what came later with some of the creative...writer...some of the people writing the characters at Marvel...yeah that's as far as I'm willing to go for some of them.
Anyway, how many people here think this was ALWAYS the plan, the Secret Invasion and the like? And how much of it was them realizing they'd kind of screwed up a few characters and taking this as a chance to undo some of that or 'reset' characters to something more interesting?
BTW, anyone looking for a better version of this event, much like how the movie version of Civil War was better than the comics, the cartoon, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, tackled this storyline in a myth arc fashion, and did so with more gravitas and skill than the comics, down to having a conclusion that actually made sense and worked within the universe. Mind Maria Hill came off as even MORE paranoid in that version, but she had reason.
Note to self don’t be a Skrull nobody likes a Skrull not even the Kool-Aid man likes them
The sad thing is while this event is dull, it's follow up, Dark Reign, is really solid. Hell to me Dark Reign is Osborn at his best especially with his appropriation of the Ironman suit and using the name Iron Patriot.
Siege was a great event
Second only to fear itself
You know what's amazing to me? There was a moment in Avengers: EMH where Maria Hill used the exact same quote of "this thing falls out of the sky every other Thursday" after the Helicarrier crashes into the Hudson River for the umpteenth time in both the show and in comics.
You know what might have made this story brilliant? If only a few key characters were *actually* Skrulls, stoking paranoia amongst the heroes to weaken them so much that the fleet can just swoop in and easily take over, a la "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street". You know, an actual plan that relates to the tension of the story premise.
To think: The first VTuber was a Skrull. This changes everything...
First off, love the intro that has the flare of Avengers: EMH.
I'm still bummed over it's cancellation though, more than a decade later. I wonder if it's either due to Jeph Loeb being disappointed that the show didn't attract it's target demographic or was it due to the success of Marvel's Avengers and that Disney needed a show to capitalize. I say it's both.
Second, Secret Invasion... hoo boy. Hoo boy is right. When a cartoon did better than the actual comic, yeah... that tells you something's up.
Can't wait for Civil War II aka Carol Danvers can't catch a break. This is another good one alright.
You know, if Norman Osborn was revealed to be a Skrull after being given control of Hammer, it would've made the name actually make perfect sense. Could've also helped fix them bringing him back during the Clone Saga in the first place.
hloly fuck
But do you have any clue just how much of a mess they could make by having the Clone Saga interact directly with Skrulls? "Is it a clone? Is it a Skrull? Oops! Just cloned a Skrull that's replaced a character and now they are fighting clones of the original character for some reason! Is it somehow a doombot because Doom just couldn't resist trolling everyone a bit? Is anyone actually who they say or think they are?! Wait, you're telling me that all this time, Spiderman was just on vacation and it's just been Clones vs Skrulls this whole time?!"
@@KertaDrake Should be how they start a DC crossover so they can put Clayface in there.
Like a Skrull unaffiliated with Veranke's faction taking advantage of the chaos? That'd have been pretty clever.
@@Igarappappa Actually I'm thinking he's a part of the invasion, with the one Veranke is leading being a distraction to help put Osborn-Skrull and maybe the other members of the Cabal in positions of power. Though a third power taking advantage of the chaos would be interesting as well.
16:30 I... have questions... Mostly about whether Lewis actually watched a multi hour video about a Nickelodeon Sit Com.
I mean, I watched it, it was a grand time, but I wouldn't envision that being his kind of thing.
UA-cam rabbit hole energy?
Quinton is EXCELLENT in his retrospectives and breakdowns, and while I have never watched a single episode of Fred, iCarly, or Victorious he makes it so fascinating and funny.
Pretty sure the speechifying about humanity turning on one another refers to the last few years in comic book publication, with the Civil War and the drawn out aftermath, not necessarily the event comic itself. The "secret invasion" had been going on for years, and this event comic, despite its name, is about the skrull's finishing blow against a divided and paranoid humanity.
Of course, given that the skrull duplicates have only nominally been influencing events, it makes the whole thing seem kind of superfluous. Like they developed this perfect camouflage only to throw it away for a slugfest in the heart of New York. The villains discarding their main advantage to engage with the heroes on a level the latter is more comfortable with is...not great writing.
The idea behind SI, as I see it, is that this distrust and paranoia is the consequence of the heroes being at each other's throats for the past X years. When people devolve into internal struggles over ideology it renders them incapable of addressing an external threat.
But that doesn't work with the internal logic of the setting, where the skrull's new method of camouflage is perfect. No amount of unity, cooperation, of trust can overcome the threat, so paranoia becomes logical. The heroes can't outsmart or outmaneuver the villains, because the villains were given a foolproof power. So the story pretty much has to end with the villains throwing away their perfect advantage, or being overcome by Mr. Fantastic's new magic gun, because the heroes have no satisfying way to resolve the issue within the set parameters.
You made a joke out of it, but I can picture Doctor Doom sitting in Latveria, already listing down every single act of revenge he'll inflict on the Skrulls for daring to impersonate his glorious visage
I would like to see a comic where a skrull agent invades earth and ends up having a family with a human being and has a human/skrull child and the skrull comes clean and reveals that he or she was a skrull and the spouse embrace who they really are and the skrull stands against the skrull empire in order to protect their family
14:00 You know what? I wish Peter _had_ been a Skrull. Imagine, a Skrull did OMD. Have it be that the Skrull somehow forgot he was a Skrull. Idk, bad interaction with the spider DNA. OMD still happened, MJ can't remember, but Peter _can_ and is aware what happened. That would work so much better.
Same here as well
What if MJ was a Skrull?
@@BaithNa actually that’s not a bad idea and I would be all for that.
It would be interesting if someone could re-cut the entire 90+ comics in Secret Invasion into one MASSIVE chronological order.
Secret invasion was such a interesting event however the execution was so disappointing and frankly it was a bendis event so I shouldn’t be shock of it being bad.
Well to be fair, a lot of things bendis does suck.
@@keelanbarron928 i hear ultimate spiderman was good
@@larryfoulkeofficial8609 That's the only gem he got tbh. Bendis is just an idea man. Sure it looks good on paper but the execution ages terribly.
@@larryfoulkeofficial8609 true his ultimate Spider-Man run was really good.
@@dwainjones2251 indeed and honestly I am still pissed that he destroyed my favorite superman family specifically destroying the great family dynamic between Clark kent Lois Lane and my boy Jonathan Samuel Kent superboy as his little 10 year old self and ruining this great family for his terrible legion of superheroes book.
I did read the event miniseries in preparation for this video and I was pretty much letdown. Linkara is right about there not being an emotional core in the story.
Anyway, can’t wait to see Linkara tear Civil War 2 apart!
Civil War 2 is better than the first but not by much. It at the very least brings up an interesting moral dilemma but it goes right to 11 with very little in between time to explore it at all. The ending also left a sour taste in my mouth.
This just makes me appreciate ROM: Space Knight all the more as a story about secret invasions.
So very, very much better than this piece of crap, yeah. Accept no idiotic retcons about Dire Wraiths being related to skrulls, either.
That’s from ROM’s original run though 🤨
@@rodimusriderv2368 Still an out-of-nowhere revelation. Guarantee that was not the original intent for them.
@@richmcgee434 Doesn't matter what intent was, it was mentioned in passing, specifically because the Skrullls showed up. There was nothing forcing them to be there.
Ironic that Linkara used the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes theme for this review, considering that cartoon handled the Secret Invasion much better than this
I still maintain Avengers Earth mightiest heroes did secret invasion way better then this terrible event comic which was just so boring and really made no sense and was just a complete waste of time.
Avengers EMH really did this event very well, teasing it WAY before they revealed the Skrull infiltration
Having someone be a Skrull to explain problematic character directions is the same solution as having a Doom Bot be used to explain Doom doing something that goes against his character.
Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heros did the story line much better, pacing was better and the Skrulls actually take one of the biggest threats, the Hulk, off the playing field. The story also benefits from a smaller cast, limited to the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Fantastic Four. No character feels like an "Also Ran", as in many big event comics some heros and villians are reduced to little more than foot soldiers in the climax, people who where just also there.
For me this comic was a big wasted opportunity it could be the carpenter thing in the marvel universe but nothing .
What a sin .
Awww, I was really hoping for a "It's a Secret Invasion of Savings at Menard's" riff.
36:54 Might have been a good idea to have more than one Skrull impersonating individuals to add confusion.
And with this episode, im all caught up on AT4W. 10 months of listening to nothing but a nerd talkin bout bad (and sometimes good) comics for almost 15 years.
From a skinny guy who didn't want to wake his parents, to a slightly hefty guy who has good fashion sense, here's to another however many years these vids will keep showing up on YT.
I gotta grab a shirt too, ive been advertised it for several months now.
Glad you've enjoyed the journey! =)
I read Secret Invasion a few months back and got basically nothing of substance out of it.
Next event, Civil War II a.k.a. Carol's character assassination by Bendis. Captain Marvel 2016 Vol. 2 & Infinity Countdown: Captain Marvel handled her way, WAY better.
18:27 I had no idea that line from the EMH cartoon came from this comic.