by Brian Michael Bendis, Jim Cheung and more
collects New Avengers # 38-42
the premise: Luke Cage and Jessica Jones struggle with their relationship amidst Skrull paranoia. The Skrulls come for Echo. Plus: details of the early days of the Skrull invasion - and the truth about the Savage Land and SHIELD.
the lowdown: Fair warning - the blog may be a little Skrully for the next few weeks. I'm finally working my way through Secret Invasion and its various tie-ins (well, some of them, cause geez), and they present some unique challenges for a tradewaiter. The New and Mighty Avengers issues in particular were designed to run parallel to the main series, so I'm attempting to read them in that order. Which is hard since it's a bunch of different books. Props to Chad Nevett (link on the right) for doing a post with a recommended reading order.
In any event, these five issues give us some of the backstory behind the Skrull invasion. It begins with a Cage/ Jessica issue by Michael Gaydos, which is nicely done and plays into the pre-invasion paranoia quite nicely. This is followed by a decent but forgettable Echo story by David Mack, and then three issues dealing with the early days of the invasion, by Cheung and Billy Tan. The latter issues are pretty plainly continuity porn, but for whatever reason I'm enthralled by them. I suppose that speaks to the execution of the earlier parts of the story, some of which are only now paying off.
As a collection the book ends up a little disjointed, though, for the same reason the Civil War volume did - there's really not a story here, just vignettes or odds and ends. They're interesting odds and ends, but if you're looking for something meatier, you may be disappointed.
the verdict: A fun diversion, some pretty good continuity porn. Engaging enough to keep me coming back. Skippable if you're not into the whole SI meta-plot though.
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