Episode 51 - Secret Invasion - Epic Action or Spy Thriller?
This week we are catching up on some of the comics that share a name (or at least some story beats) with the new Secret Invasion Disney+ show starring Samuel L. Jackson.
This Week In Comics
Marvel Announces Tony Stark and Emma Frost's Wedding
https://comicbook.com/comics/news/iron-man-tony-stark-emma-frost-wedding-marvel-x-men/
Official Release: https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/tony-stark-emma-history-relationship
X-Men #10 goes on sale on September 6th. The Invincible Iron Man #10 goes on sale on September 27th.

New on Marvel Unlimited this Week
https://www.marvel.com/comics/calendar/week/2023-06-25
Women of Marvel #1 and Avengers: Rage of Ultron #1
15 books in total – Photon, She-Hulk, Carnage, Punisher, Wasp among those characters with newly released books this week.

Recommendation: Secret Invasion #1-5 (2022/2023)
Available in Marvel Unlimited

This Week's Stack
Fantastic Four #2 (1961) 
Secret Invasion #1-8 (2008) 
Secret Invasion #1-5 (2022) 

Creator Profile: Leinil Francis Yu
2 Minute Recap and Discussion Topics
THE CLASSICS - Fantastic Four #2, Avengers #89-97 
Skrulls seem bumbling early, but not later
Kree are also awful.  Thomas saw the war as an allegory of what happened to small islands fought over by Japan and the US in WWII. 
Not nearly as one-sided as it is shown in the movies, where the Kree are extremely powerful and the Skrulls are a defeated refugee population
Story kicked off the Vision/Scarlet Witch romance, opened up a lot of the Marvel “cosmic” universe, and has been a key building block for Marvel.
Art is fantastic, with the Neal Adams (#93-96) being among some of my favorite comics ever.

Secret Invasion #1-8 (2008)
** You can use code SECRETMU at Marvel.com/redeem to get the first 2 books of this series within Marvel Unlimited. Offer expires 9/1/2023 before 11:59 pm ET. 
There are so many characters, and so many storylines that are picked up and dropped 
First 7 books told a logical story without noticeable interruptions. Book 8 was “after the fact” with narration. What happened between books 7 and 8 and where did it happen? Did we missing anything important?
 I didn’t know who some of the characters used were/are? 
Unanswered Questions

Modern Appearances - Meet the Skrulls #1-5 (2019), Secret Invasion #1-5 (2022) 
Meet the Skrulls is very much like “The Americans” TV show.  Or Invincible maybe.  A classic cold-war spy story just moved to interplanetary scale. 
Main protagonist is Alice Walker, the middle child.   
Rumors are that Emilia Clark’s “G’iah” is based on the mom Gloria / G’iah  
2nd Secret Invasion is really a Maria Hill story.  Fury spends a lot of it kidnapped, and Stark is nearly as much trouble as he is help. 
Skrulls are more sympathetic, in that there are two sides.  Some are working with Stark, and not trying to invade. 

Key Concepts for the TV Show
At there core, Skrull stories are nightmare fuel straight out of McCarthy.  They are about who can be trusted and who is “real” and they are based in a fear of outsiders.  Skrull stories are always in danger of being apologies for Great Replacement racial and ethnic conspiracy theories.
The two Secret Invasions take very different strategies for telling a similar story.  Which did you like, the sprawling action epic or the more personal spy thriller? 

Final Thoughts
What's Next - Miles Morales & The Spider-Verse
Ultimate Fallout Vol 1 #4
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Vol 1 5 #1-12

Signoff 
Questions or comments
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Music Intro and Outro created by Lesfm.