Secret Invasion: Front Line #1

Nov 9

Nov 9 Secret Invasion: Front Line #1

The End of the World

Secret Invasion continues from New Avengers #42….

The Skrull invasion of Manhattan has entered its thirteenth hour and reporter Ben Urich is getting stories from the people on the street who have been caught up in the conflict.[1] He interviews Jonathan Bryant, who tells Ben how he was having a bad day. He had just caught his girlfriend cheating on him. After the discovery he went to work driving his taxi cab looking for fares. This was the night before the invasion, and it got a lot worse. While waiting in traffic, Spider-Man and his foe the Menace, were in the middle of a brawl and they crash landed on the hood of their car.[2] Menace eventually escaped and the wall-crawler took off shortly thereafter.

That’s when this recording is cut off by another recording by Ben, 20 hours into the invasion. He needed to make space on his recorder to tell the story of where he was just before the invasion.[3] Less than 3 hours before the invasion, Urich was at the emergency room at Empire State University, investigating an uptick of gang members who have been admitted to ER following Wilson Fisk’s departure from the city.[4] Just as he is getting the details from Doctor Molly Young, a gunshot wound patient is rolled in for emergency surgery. Urich follows after them to the operating room getting all the details until the doctor politely asks him to leave so they can operate.

About a half hour before the invasion, Melanie Crane has arrived at Avengers Tower, just as tourists are gawking at a Quinjet taking off from the roof.[5] As she makes her way through the crowd, she bumps into Officer Bill Dawson. She apologizes and heads inside the building where she takes the elevator to the offices of Crane, Colin & Hastner. There, she is informed by the secretary, Tina, that her father Vincent Crane is in the office. However, her father is in a meeting. When Tina asks why Melanie isn’t in school, she says that school isn’t really important right now. She walks in on the meeting, where her father is expressing his disagreement about partnering with the Fantastic Four’s marketing department to make toys based on the FF’s villains. Seeing his daughter is not at school, Vincent goes outside to set her straight. Melanie, however, is really upset that her parents are getting a divorce without hearing what she has to say about it. Vincent dismisses her concerns and ironically says that the world isn’t ending. Melanie disagrees, so Vincent tells her to wait in his office so they can talk after he finishes his meeting.

While at the Empire State Taxi Company, Jonathan Bryant is getting more bad news: His boss is taking the damaged caused to his cab by Spider-Man out of his paycheque until the damage is paid for. As it turns out, the government won’t reimburse businesses for damages caused by registered superheroes.[6] Annoyed by this, Bryant kicks his wrecked cab. It is now a little over 2 minutes before the invasion begins.

Back at the ESU Emergency Room, the surgery fails to save the life of the gunshot victim. Continuing his interview with the doctor, he asks Molly if such loses ever get easier. They don’t, and even though it was clear the guy wasn’t going to survive his injuries, she sometimes wishes she was a mutant who could heal people with a touch. It’s then that a large shadow begins to blot out the sun. Ben Urich and the surgeon aren’t the only one who notice it. The Cranes, who are about to have their family discussion also see it from the window of Vincent’s office, and Jonathan Bryant witnesses the event from the windshield of his taxi. As does Office Bill Dawson on his beat.

Everyone in New York sees it. Massive Skrull warships has appeared in the sky over Manhattan. Within moments of their arrival, the ships begin sending down explosive waves of Super-Skrulls — Skrulls with the abilities of up to four different superhumans — appear in the street. Vincent Crane tries to get his daughter to move away from the window, but she is too scared. People on the street flee inside Avengers Towers where they believe they will be safe. Within moments, the tower’s security system kicks in, closing metal shutters over all the doors and windows. A robotic facsimile of Iron Man assures everyone will be safe and secure until the emergency is over. People realize pretty quickly, thanks to further explanation from Vincent, that they cannot get out. That’s when the lights in the building go off, yet the computers are still working. Vincent takes a look and sees a notification that it has been infected with an alien virus, which makes their situation even worse.

Outside, Jonathan Bryant is confronted by three Super-Skrulls. Scared out of his mind, he jumps back into his taxie and tries to reverse out of there, but ends up rear-ending the car behind him. Putting it in drive, he decides to drive through his attackers. While he plows through them, they are unharmed and begin shooting at his hack.

At the hospital, the staff are trying to get their most vulnerable patients to safety. Some of them realize that the open doors and windows will not keep the invaders outside and some try baracading the doors. However, Ben points out that there are more people running to the Emergency Room for help and cover. Dr. Young orders her staff to remove their meager blockaide and let people in. That’s when power in the hospital goes down.

As the doctors start tending to the newcomers who have been wounded, Ben Urich reflects on his personal situation. How he didn’t tell his wife, Doris, that he loved her before he left home that day. That’s because he was sure he was going to be home for dinner. At the time, it was a simple matter of the fact that Doris was in the shower when he left in the morning. Now, with all the chaos around him, he wishes he could see his wife right now just to know that she was still safe and alive.[7] Because he doesn’t know if he is going to make it out of this alive. Little does Ben know how much trouble he is in right now as one of the wounded patients being treated is actually a Skrull in disguise.

… Secret Invasion continues in Secret Invasion #4.

Recurring Characters

Ben Urich, Jonathan Bryant, Molly Young, Melanie Crane, Vincent Crane, Bill Dawson, Chris Colin, Skrulls, Spider-Man, Menace

Continuity Notes

The main story of the Skrull invasion is told in Secret Invasion #1-8.
At the time of this story, Spider-Man was in regular clashes with Menace starting in Amazing Spider-Man #549.
Here, Ben says he isn’t sure if Jonathan Bryant is still alive. Bryant is indeed dead at the point in which Urich is recording his narrative, as we’ll see in Secret Invasion: Front Line #5.
Fisk is also known as the Kingpin. He was forced to leave the United States in order to have all crimes charged against him dropped, as seen in Daredevil (vol. 2) #94. He will eventually be reinstalled as New York’s top crime boss in Daredevil (vol. 2) #116-119/Daredevil #500.
This would be the Avengers heading off to the Savage Land to investigate a Skrull ship that landed there. See Secret Invasion #1.
At the time of this story, the government had passed the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA) in Civil War #3. It requires superhumans to register with the government. Spider-Man initially supported the SHRA, but after seeing the civil rights it trampled defected to the anti-registration side starting in Civil War #5 and as such is considered an outlaw. This law will remain on the books until Siege #4.
The bad news is, Ben will learn that Doris died in Secret Invasion: Front Line #5.

Topical References

Ben Urich is depicted documenting everything with a pocket tape recorder. This was still commonly used by reporters in 2008 when this series was published. However, they have fallen out of common use thanks to digital recording devices and smart phones becoming the norm. As such, references to these documents being taken on tape should be considered topical.