Oh god, it’s House of M all over again. A whole lot of nothing happening.
Issue 1 of Marvels latest cash grabbing crossover had a lot of vim and vigor to it, with a fairly cohesive narrative and nippy pace. With this issue all that ground to a halt, the story mired in its dialogue and turgid action scenes.
Conversely the issue of accompanying issue of Mighty Avengers zipped nicely, with the actual Avengers story taking place in Secret Invasion we get more flashbacks to what Nick Fury’s been up to.
Marvel are yet to find a happy balance in storytelling in these crossovers. The central Civil War mini series didn’t work as single story as it was acting more as the background to events in the ongoing comics. House of M and Secret Invasion do have the main stories in the mini series, but the stories are stretched out beyond their natural length to the detriment of monthly pacing and the ongoing titles that they span out of are left treading water – Claremont’s Rachel Grey/Psylocke gubbins in Uncanny X-Men during House Of M, Mighty Avengers current transformation into a Nick Fury comic and New Avengers recent Skrull history lesson.
If Secret Invasion had kept the pacing of that first issue this would be a whole lot of fun. Instead with a pacing more suited to a weekly schedule it looks like the reader is in for another underwhelming event comic from Bendis.