I did appreciate the line about the hammer.

And, if he could stop using stupid double page spreads, this would be a decent-enough series.

That could be Yu. Not really sure. I know Bendis writes full script, but he also tells the artists to feel free to do their own thing.

It should have been cool. Oh well.

What's supposed to be awesome about it?

First time since Bendis blew up the Avengers that the big three is back together. (albeit with Bucky Cap)/.

Looks like Iron Man has a nose in that picture behind his hand.

I was wondering the same thing.

My. God. Has. A. Hammer. The awesomeness of that is undeniable. Unless you're lame.

It's mainly because the image is out of context, but that panel looks for all the world as if Iron Man is removing his mask to reveal that he is, in fact, Thor. I generally like Yu's art, but the inking is very flat in SECRET INVASION, leaving a lot of panels, like this one, with no real sense of depth.


As for the "cool" moment - yes, the "My God has a hammer." "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!" moment is fun, but it doesn't work nearly as well as it should because of the way it's staged. The rest of the issue is probably the weakest installment of SI to date, too - six issues in, they're finally out of the Savage Land, and still....Nothing. Fucking. Happens. I'm not one of the "Bendis is a hack!" crowd - I love ALIAS, ULTIMATE SPIDEY has been consistently the best Spider-Man title on the market for as long as it's been around, his DAREDEVIL run was spectacular right up until the end of 'Golden Age', and POWERS used to be one of my favourite comics - but his work over the last few years has been one long chain of disappointments to me. His talky, decompressed writing style works brilliantly for character-driven narratives, but he sucks hard when it comes to big superhero action epics - and since he's spent the last few years writing nothing but big superhero epics, that strikes me as something of a problem.

(Mark Millar, on the other hand, excels at big dumb explodo-action stories, but tends to fall down when he has to focus on subtle, lower-key character work*. Perhaps they should collaborate? I'd be interested to see Bendis scripting a Millar plot...)




*He does these days, anyway - I have no idea what happened to the guy who wrote all those amazing issues of SUPERMAN ADVENTURES back in the '90s, which remains one of my favourite-ever superhero runs.

Sorry, but using Awesomeness™ to describe something about a Bendis comic is a misnomer.

It should be, yes. But it's delivered really lamely - a line like that deserves to be given a bit of emphasis (think "ULTRON! We would have WORDS with thee!"), not slipped into the back of a tiny, poorly-composed panel. Outside of the context of the book itself, I can easily see why people aren't impressed.

The exclamation point is definitely a mistake, too.

See, now *that* was a Crowning Moment of Awesome.

This sound more like Bendis dumbassery to me.

If Bendis had written "Ultron! We would have words with thee!", you'd have hated that, too, you Bendis-hater, you. And if Morrison had written "My god has a hammer" you'd love it, you Morrison-lover, you.

Fair point about the staging. Yu has had some decent moments in the series, but just as many moments where things are unclear or undersold.

Secret Invasion does feel like a Millar plot written by Bendis from where I'm sitting.

The "hammer" line was strong, but everything else about the issue was weak. Yu's art is not well suited to this mini IMO. I'm never impressed by his big group shots.

I know what Bendis was striving for in this issue, but it feel flat in the execution. Yawn.

Every time a big company crossover mini blockbuster comes out I swear its the last one for me... and I keep coming back. Shame on me.

Yes, because Morrison would have find a way to make "My God has a hammer" into something not lame.

Also, if Bendis had written "We would have words with thee!" he would've find a way to turn it into something really dumb. He's got a talent for that.

Yeah. Because Thor isn't lame at all.

He would have written "Representeth, yo."

Lame?

I know what you mean, but the glacial pacing is pure Bendis. Millar's not guilt-free when it comes to poorly-used decompression (as opposed to WELL-used decompression, which can be a great thing - see Dave Sim, Frank Miller, and many others), but at least shit tends to happen in his books. How many issues did the heroes spend just hanging around the Savage Land, twiddling their thumbs? For good or for ill, that'd never have happened in a Millar comic.