Brandon, Ivan

AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:

3 out of 5

(1 book)

Secret Invasion: Home Invasion

(Art by Nick Postic)

Kinsey Walden, an ordinary high school girl, begins to notice her brother is behaving strangely and then sees his face turn green and become something unearthly.  Fleeing for her life, she and her friends are soon caught in the devastating Skrull invasion of Earth but Kinsey is determined to find out what has become of her brother.

I really enjoyed the first two thirds of this book.  The first act has a very Invasion of the Bodysnatchers vibe as Kinsey tries to understand and spread the word about her brother being a green-skinned extra-terrestrial shapeshifter.  The second act has the whole world suddenly in on the knowledge of the alien invaders as the Skrulls drop into Manhattan and begin causing chaos.  

I very much liked the idea of showing one of these big crossover events, in which heroes and villains (aliens) have a titanic clash, from the point of view of a normal person embroiled in the chaos and simply trying to survive it.  The narrative highpoint of this book was seeing Kinsey and her friends desperately dodging explosions and rubble, just trying to stay alive as, around them, they witness many of Earth's superheroes being defeated and killed.  I found the scene where they can only watch as a giant Skrull beats the teenage hero Stature unconscious and drags her off by her hair to be particularly harrowing.  Brandon does a great job of making us feel like none of the protagonists here are safe and, unlike say Spider-Man, there's a real chance they could die.

Unfortunately it all goes a little screwy in the third act.  Here Kinsey suddenly finds herself in possession of superpowers as she makes her final effort to save her brother from the Skrulls.  I totally get why Brandon decided to do this, since what chance could Kinsey possibly have without some type of super-enhancement, but for me it ruined the great vibe of Kinsey just being an ordinary girl caught up in extraordinary horrors.  All that said, the revelation about her brother at the end was a clever and interesting one which repairs some of the damage done by the change in tone.

3 out of 5

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Marvel Comics (here)