Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If there is any particular story arc from the house of Marvel comics that is ripe for cinematic adaption, then arguably the one that has surely the most potential is the Secret Invasion storyline that ran across various comic book character’s titles and in its own pages.

As with the epic nature of the Infinity Gauntlet saga that surrounded itself over the first phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Secret Invasion gives the sense of security that will come from the pursuit of an overriding storyline that can bring in new characters to the fore, and take those that have already got their slots conformed in upcoming television series to another level.

Secret Invasion taps into the psyche of the reader with the presence of political/science fiction that has been a staple since long before the days of the McCarthy era determination which saw thousands of people denounced as Communists and traitors to the American way of life and which film makers and story writers have played upon with as way of recognising that underneath the appearance and the skin, could be someone that you don’t know disguised as them, having subsumed their identity, having stolen their life.

You don’t have to be a hero to recognise the inherent dangers of this philosophy, the political stirring which allows one individual the power to accuse someone of not being who they are, or to question their motives. As Arthur Miller showed expertly in The Crucible, unchecked accusations have long lasting repercussions, they snowball, they fester in the gut and lead to people losing their livelihoods and possibly their lives.

It is the simmering tension that can be felt on every page of Secret Invasion which leads the reader down this path of discovery. For the Skrulls, first seen in the pages of the Fantastic Four in 1962, the ability to shape shift brings huge possibilities to any storyline, however it also goes deeper, as with any character that can make you uncertain of what or who is real, you start to question your own life, you begin to mistrust those around you, your friends, your family, your partner and your children, anybody could be hiding a secret, and it is in that reference that the spectre of McCarthyism sniffs the air and sees that the time is ripe to re-emerge, ready to accuse, ready to assert abhorrent fascist like behaviour of control.

Of course, Marvel in their infinite wisdom and the careful planning will have seen their juggernaut of a creation and have the future mapped out in infinite detail, but as crossovers go, as one with more weight to the political message than the fight against Thanos and his kind which destroyed Box Office records, Secret Invasion is not just a great graphic novel, it is an epic of subterfuge and destruction of trust that seeps into our own concerns about identity and the question of self.

Outstanding inked and drawn, a powerful message written by Brian Michael Bendis, Secret Invasion is a classic of the genre.

Ian D. Hall