Comic Book Review: New Avengers #41: Secret Invasion

Bendis continues to do a fine job on the Secret Invasion tie-in issues. The Revolution by far and away finds the tie-in issues more captivating than the actual story itself over on Secret Invasion. I am confident that Bendis will turn in another great read with New Avengers #41. Let’s do this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Brain Michael Bendis
Artist: Billy Tan

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with scene from Secret Invasion #2 where the ridiculous plot device, I mean Tyrannosaurus Rex conveniently rampages through the fight between the 1970’s heroes and our present day heroes. We see that Spider-Man gets thrown by the T-Rex and flies through the air and lands quite some distance away from the fight scene. And conveniently enough out of all the places that Spider-Man could land, he lands directly in front of Ka-Zar and Shanna.

We proceed to get the typical if not well worn to slightly beaten to death dialogue of Spider-Man accusing Ka-Zar and Shanna of being Skrulls. Shanna has no idea what Spider-Man is babbling about. Spider-Man even screws up Shanna’s name and calls her Sheena. When Shanna corrects Spider-Man, he responds that the fact she doesn’t know her own name is proof that she is a Skrull. Ka-Zar mercifully ends this dialogue by stating that they are not Skrulls and that they are under siege and are fighting for their lives.

We shift back months ago to Ka-Zar and Shanna hearing the gunshots of SHIELD agents killing the Savage Land natives. The SHIELD agents are busy poaching the vibranium mines. Ka-Zar refuses to believe that Nick Fury would ever betray them like this. We see that the SHIELD agents have enslaved the Savage Land natives to poach the vibranium mines. That vibranium is used to make Stark tech weapons.

Ka-Zar say this doesn’t make sense so he and Shanna go to the mine to investigate. On their way, Shanna kills a female SHIELD agent. The dead agent reverts back to her Skrull form. We get some banter about how Shanna has never heard of Skrulls before. Ka-Zar, on the other hand, is well versed on the Skrull/Kree war. Shanna then slips on the Skrull’s SHIELD uniform and goes down to the mine.

Shanna arrive at the make shift SHIELD command tent at the mine. We see Nick Fury’s girl, Valentina Allegra Defontaine, acting as commanding officer. She is informed that the New Avengers were in the area. Defontaine is not concerned by the New Avengers’ presence in the area since the Skrulls have several agents inside the New Avengers.

Defontaine then spies Shanna and asks her who she is and what is she doing out here. Shanna opens fire on the SHIELD agents. Shanna then runs for it. Defontaine commands for the other SHIELD agents to keep their human forms and to not revert back to their natural Skrull forms. The SHIELD agents then corner Shanna who has now run out of bullets.

Suddenly, Ka-Zar and Sabu arrive on the scene and attack the SHIELD agents. Our heroes steal a jeep and make a quick escape from the Skrully SHIELD agents. We shift to hours later as Shanna tells Ka-Zar that the Skrulls have infiltrated both SHIELD and the Avengers. Shanna says that they have to gather the Savage Land natives and protect their own.

We then shift to Ka-Zar and Shanna, along with the assembled forces of the Savage Land natives, heading back to the vibranium mine. They see the Avengers already on the scene and engaging the SHIELD agents. Ka-Zar and Shanna then see the SHIELD helicarrier in the sky launch missiles at the mine and blow everyone up except for the Avengers who were protected by a last minute force shield courtesy of Iron Man.

We then hop back to the present day with Spider-Man stating that he was present on that mission when the SHIELD helicarrier blew up everything at the mine. Spider-Man says that he didn’t see any Skrulls that day. Spider-Man adds that the Avengers never got answers about that day. Ka-Zar says that the Skrulls succeeded in covering up the event.

Spider-Man mentions that Captain America said that he thought there was some rebellious faction in SHILED trying to kill the Avengers. Evidently, Captain America felt there was something rotten going on with SHIELD. Spider-Man then says that the Skrulls were mining vibranium here and then tried to kill the Avengers here.

Spider-Man then falls back to the same worn out “You’re a Skrull” dialogue as he accuses Ka-Zar of being a Skrull once again. Spider-Man says that there are pieces missing in Ka-Zar’s story. Spider-Man says that all of a sudden he feels the feeling that Ka-Zar is lying.

Ka-Zar swears on the honor of his father that he is telling the truth. Suddenly, the 1970’s Captain America busts onto the scene ready to attack our heroes. 1970’s Captain America spits out “Honor? What do you know about honor?” End of issue.

Comments
The Good: I have to admit that I was disappointed in New Avengers #41. This was by far the weakest of all the Secret Invasion tie-in issues that Bendis has given us up to this point. New Avengers #41 was a decidedly average read. Still there were various aspects about New Avengers #41 that were enjoyable. At least this issue was not a slow read. Bendis makes sure that the story is nicely paced as he balances several action scenes with the slower paced dialogue heavy scenes.

As always, Bendis writes a fantastic Spider-Man. I am a huge fan of Bendis’ work on Ultimate Spider-Man. And Ultimate Spider-Man is pretty much the only Ultimate Universe title worth reading anymore. Actually, since the Ultimate Universe is wilting away into nothing I would rather have Marvel place Bendis on Amazing Spider-Man and let him work his magic on that title. Amazing Spider-Man with its constantly spinning carousel of writers has been an inconsistent read since the Mephisto re-boot. I think Bendis would be Marvel’s best shot of returning Spider-Man back to his former glory and his rightful place as Marvel’s flagship title.

Bendis dishes out plenty of humorous dialogue for Spider-Man. Bendis gets Spidey’s character. Also, Spider-Man’s personality is a perfect match for Bendis since it allows Bendis to use his trademark Bendis speak and for it to actually be in character for the character that he is writing.

Billy Tan provides for some great artwork. I wish Tan was the regular artist on New Avengers instead of Yu.

The Bad: New Avengers #41 was a borderline boring and dull read. The plotting on this issue was average as the story meanders a bit and the reader fails to learn anything new of real importance.

Bendis re-treads already well worn ground with the mind-numbingly boring “You’re a Skrull” dialogue that we suffer through with Spider-Man and Ka-Zar. This dialogue got old and stale about six months ago. And honestly, I don’t even care if Ka-Zar is a Skrull or not since he is such a minor character.

Unlike all of the other Secret Invasion tie-in issues, Bendis fails to give the reader anything new that would be of interest in this issue. The reader already knew that SHIELD was infiltrated by the Skrulls since Defontaine and Dum Dum have already been revealed as Skrulls back in April. The reader also already knew that the Avengers had been infiltrated by Skrulls with Jarvis and Henry Pym being revealed as Skrulls back in April as well as the teaser that the Skrull Empress might have taken Spider-Woman’s place on the Avengers.

Basically, the only thing new that we learned in this issue was the fact that the Skrulls were mining vibranium to manufacture weapons to attack Earth. That just is not all that surprising or exciting of a revelation compared to all the great twists and turns and surprising reveals that we have gotten in the previous Secret Invasion tie-in issues.

New Avengers #41 felt stagnant. Unlike the other Secret Invasion tie-in issues nothing particularly interesting happens in this issue. While the other tie-in issues really impressed me, New Avengers #41 gives me the feeling that Bendis took a holiday and just phoned this issue in.

The ending to New Avengers #41 was a total miss for me. That is because I find the plotline involving the 1970’s Captain America to be completely lacking in drama or intrigue. We know that the 1970’s Captain America is a Skrull. We have seen Steve’s dead body over on Captain America after he was killed by Sharon Carter. I find this 1970’s Captain America plotline a bit of a waste of time.

Overall: New Avengers #41 wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t anything great. This was simply a resolutely average read. Unless you are craving everything related to Secret Invasion then I wouldn’t recommend spending your money on this issue. You definitely do not need to read New Avengers #41 in order to enjoy the events over on Secret Invasion.

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