Secret Invasion Front Line #1 of 5

Marvel Comics
Secret Invasion Front Line #1 of 5
By Hervé St-Louis
July 6, 2008 - 09:27

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Brian Reed
Penciller(s): Marco Castiello
Colourist(s): Barbara Ciardo, Amerigo, Pinelli
Letterer(s): Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Artist(s): Juan Doe
$2.99 US, $3.05 Canada

Secret Invasion Front Line tells the story of the Skrulls’ invasion of New York City and the world, from the perspective of regular humans, like reporter Ben Ulrich. This type of series has become a tradition at Marvel Comics since Marvels came out in 1994 by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. Here we see the effects of the invasion on a taxi driver, an emergency physician, a marketing executive and his daughter, and reporter Ben Ulrich, a friend of Daredevil.

This story is interesting and the technique that makes it work is introducing character with their own conflicts and then just throws the bigger story at them. This is how it was done for Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. This type of comic book seems to be more popular since the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Series like that also serve to add a little background information on the current storyline and try to elevate a company-wide event into something special.

Although a similar series was tried for the Civil War crossover of 2006, I believe this one doesn’t quite work properly and is not strong enough to be a draw for readers. It’s an interesting concept, but I don’t feel that there is enough magnitude in a Skrull invasion for this series to exist. How many times again have aliens tried to invade New York City at Marvel Comics? How is this different from other invasions? The writers don’t tell us and that’s why this series, while entertaining, is ultimately, useless.

Castiello is a good artist and he captures people’s emotions well enough. However, there are problems with his work. For example, the daughter, which has breasts and is implied to be a teenager is so short next to her father, that one would think she’s seven-year-old. The watercolour painting is interesting and helps create a strong gloomy mood.
Rating: 7/10