You didn’t think they’d let a little thing like Spider-Man being trapped in the Savage Land alongside basically all the characters you want to see in this event for a pretty shocking amount of the event stop a Spider-Man tie-in from happening, did you? I mean, you sure could have. Stranger, from what I understand, they solve that problem by simply not using Spider-Man in this Spider-Man-branded tie-in comic. Stranger still, it’s not written by anyone in the brain trust. It’s written by Brian Reed for penciler Marco Santucci, inker Mark Pennington and colorist Jeromy Cox. So it’s gonna be 3 issues of Spider-Man supporting players reacting to the events of Secret Invasion, with some guy not involved with ASM’s relatively new status quo at the helm. None of that makes much sense to me. This first issue was published alongside ASM 567-569, 8 months into Brand New Day.
After this retro splash page, wherein Robbie looks pretty insane, we flashback to last night, and Jackpot beating up some goons in a warehouse on the hunt for a Walter Declun. Then…
I mean, what does Brian Reed know about these people? No offense at all, mind. It just seems like you’d get one of the regulars here. Meanwhile, Jackpot learns the place she busted up the night before was legit, at least on the surface, and is worried people will believe the DB! that she can’t be trusted.
Maybe Spider-Man would register if he knew he got someone to go after newspapers for liable out of the deal.
This is some character. Well, so, this is happening, Harry and Lily are walking down the street, and Vin Gonzalez and his partner are on the beat when everyone sees the Skrull invasion ships in the sky. Harry and Lily are almost crushed by a Skrull, the cops have to deal with people starting to panic in the streets, and someone comes crashing through the window of the DB!.
This guy makes no sense. The whole invasion force is hybrid Super-Skrulls and he’s just Spider-Man? Why? He demands to be taken to the real Spider-Man (why?) as Jackpot fights him and the other flee, and then he reveals his Skrully nature. We cut to Harry & Lily cornered in an alley by 2 Skrulls for a page. It’s worth noting that the team on this book don’t seem to have gotten the memo on the Skrulls. None of the Super-Skrulls in this book (3 so far) are visible mashups of superheroes. Especially with Reed and Bendis being pals, it seems odd. Much like the art in this book, which seems to evoke a variety of different guys at any given moment. It’s not bad or anything, but it feels like a jam book drawn by Phil Jiminez, Phil Winslade, Mike Perkins and Mike McKone, and I swear I wasn’t just picking guys with the same first name, wow. Well, back at the DB!, the Skrull reveals himself to be a Venom-Lizard-Electro-Rhino hybrid…
…which is at least following the premise, finally, but they’re villains. I don’t know if any of the other ones are villains. Well, I guess we’ll find out why this dude’s so serious about Spider-Man next time. Seems like the Skrulls should know they lured him to the Savage Land with the other Avengers since that seemed to be their plan, but what do I know?