If Civil War was a critique on government overreach in the wake of 9/11, Secret Invasion was about the paranoia of the time. Because in the early 2000s there was a lot of fearmongering regarding Muslim extremists blowing shit up. Those concerns were valid, but the fear was overblown. This disproportionately made those who practiced the Muslim faith subject to much suspicion and good old fashioned American xenophobia. Only this time, it was ramped up even more as the Joe-American feared that the brown guy down the street might strap some explosives on his chest and blow up the local Wal-Mart. These fears made the Patriot Act — and it’s sweeping impact on personal freedoms in the so-called Land of the Free — less of a bitter pill to swallow. Just show the people an image of the Twin Towers going down and a picture of Osama Bin Laden, and people were bending over and grabbing their ankles all in the service of KEEPING AMERICA SAFE! In hindsight, many of these fears were greatly overblown and rather than an uptick of Muslim violence, we saw a rise of White Nationalist-Christo-Fascist Lone Wolf terrorists that is still very much a problem today and not likely to get better any time soon.

At any rate, Secret Invasion was the culmination and confluence of all the many plot threads that writer Brian Michael Bendis had been threading since Secret War back in 2004. Did it pay off? Well, in my opinion, yes and no. Secret Invasion, the main event didn’t really hit the mark for me that Civil War did, because where as the former had nuance and raised ethical questions, Secret Invasion was always going to boil down to the invasion being real and Earth’s heroes coming together to fight the aliens who had divided them so badly. It was also a bridge into Dark Regin which I found much more compelling. I guess it also doesn’t really resonate with me as much because I’m not a fan of Francis Yu’s artwork.

The real draw for Secret Invasion was mostly the big reveal, who were replaced with Skrulls, how did their invasion get to this point. Like I said, Bendis had been planting the seeds in all of the books he wrote over the past four years at this point. He then devoted a stack of issues of New Avengers and Mighty Avengers laying down what was going on behind the scenes and I found that more entertaining than the big fight itself.

I also enjoyed some of the limited series during the run, particularly Front Line, because they pulled away from the main fight to focus on smaller conflicts. They focused on how individuals who weren’t a central part of the conflict coped during the invasion. Secret Invasion: Spider-Man was another good one. Not all of them were hits. The web exclusive series Home Invasion (which was published in weekly installments at the time, if I remember correctly) was pretty mid. I liked the idea of a story focusing on an ordinary person completely removed from the superhero community, but the series quickly devolved into flash cameos as the main characters were forced into the fight.

The other thing I disliked about Secret Invasion was how, following the completion of the event, things went back to normal very quickly. The Skrulls, who had invaded Earth en mass, suddenly vanished with very few appearances for a number of years thereafter. All the damage was undone rather quickly. Most of the fallout from Secret Invasion was the stuff of Marvel’s then cosmic titles as it pivoted into War of Kings. Even then, the Skrulls became minor characters in that, and they wouldn’t get much play until Infinity a few years later.

I get that lingering on the Skrulls for so long would have probably bogged down Dark Reign and Siege, but I also feel like the Secret Invasion was a high water mark and everything else feels a little more rushed as Bendis just flew through the next two chapters of this near decade spanning story arc.

I also think that the film rights surrounding the Skrulls was also another issue that led to the quick departure of them from the Marvel books. You have to remember that this event was published at a time when Marvel’s film rights were a lot more divided than they were now. Namely, the rights to the Fantastic Four (and all related characters, including the Skrulls) were locked into the film rights that 20th Century Fox had purchased during darker times. Then under the stewardship of Ike Pearlmutter, Marvel’s editorial mandate went to shifting away from characters that Marvel didn’t have the exclusive film rights to. They were actively trying to replace the Skrull with the Chitauri, who were the “Skrulls” of Marvel’s Ultimates line. Making them legally distinct enough that they could be the invaders in the first Avengers film. They didn’t really stick, as I probably didn’t need to tell you.

The Skrulls have since returned to somewhat of a more prominent role in Marvel’s media output in the years since. The sale of 20th Century Fox to Disney finally brought home the Fantastic Four movie rights allowing for the Skrulls to appear in the Captain Marvel movie. This led to the Skrull’s being the central focus in the Disney+ series Secret Invasion, which is based on the storyline in name only as most Marvel film projects tend to be. Fans were expecting some Avengers level spectacle and instead got a spy thriller featuring Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury. Which I personally believe made for a better story. This of course also led to a cross promotion where Marvel did a second Secret Invasion series that was more inspired by that series than an actual sequel to the comic book event.

The Skrulls are an ever present threat in the Marvel Universe an the possibility that a beloved character may be replaced by an impostor is still very much a real threat. However, I think Marvel kind of blew their wad with Secret Invasion so I don’t think we’re going to see anything quite so massive for a time yet.

Secret Invasion Reading Order

Note: The events of Secret Invasion play out in a non-linear fashion, with many stories outside of the main event are used for exposition to explain events leading up to the actual invasion, as well as crossover issues that happen at various connecting points. The reading order isn’t necessarily a chronological accounting of the events, just the suggested reading order.

Prelude:

New Avengers #31, Mighty Avengers #7, New Avengers #34, New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #5, Secret Invasion: Prologue #1

The Invasion

Secret Invasion #1, Mighty Avengers #12, New Avengers #40, Secret Invasion: Home Invasion #1, Secret Invasion #2, Mighty Avengers #13, Captain Britain and MI13 #1, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1, Mighty Avengers #14, Incredible Hercules #117, New Avengers #41, Secret Invasion #3, Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? #1, Captain Britain and MI13 #2, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #2, Incredible Hercules #118, Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #1, Secret Invasion: Home Invasion #2, Avengers: The Initiative #14, Mighty Avengers #15, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #28, New Avengers #42, Secret Invasion: Front Line #1, Secret Invasion #4, Mighty Avengers #16, X-Factor (vol. 3) #33, Incredible Hercules #119, New Warriors (vol. 4) #14, Avengers: The Initiative #15, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #31, New Avengers #43, Thunderbolts #122, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #3, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #29, Black Panther (vol. 4) #39, Secret Invasion: Front Line #2, Secret Invasion: Home Invasion #3, Secret Invasion: X-Men #1, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #1, Secret Invasion: Thor #1, Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #2, Captain Britain and MI13 #3, Secret Invasion: Home Invasion #4

Fighting Back

Secret Invasion #5, Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #4, X-Factor (vol. 3) #34, Incredible Hercules #120, Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #1, New Warriors (vol. 4) #15, Nova (vol. 4) #16, Avengers: The Initiative #16, Mighty Avengers #17, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #32, Black Panther (vol. 4) #40, New Avengers #44, Thunderbolts #123, Secret Invasion: Front Line #3, Deadpool (vol. 4) #1, Secret Invasion: X-Men #2, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #2, Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #3, Secret Invasion #6, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #30, Secret Invasion: Thor #2, Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #5, Mighty Avengers #18, War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #33, Deadpool (vol. 4) #2, Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #2, Nova (vol. 4) #17, Secret Invasion: Home Invasion #5, Avengers: The Initiative #17, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #33, Black Panther (vol. 4) #41, New Avengers #45, Thunderbolts #124, Deadpool (vol. 4) #3, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #3, Secret Invasion: Front Line #4, Secret Invasion: Home Invasion #6, Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #6, Mighty Avengers #19, War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #34, Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #3, Secret Invasion: Home Invasion #7

The Final Battle

Secret Invasion #7, New Avengers #46, Thunderbolts #125, Secret Invasion: X-Men #3, Secret Invasion: Home Invasion #6, Nova (vol. 4) #18, Avengers: The Initiative #18, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #25, War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #35, Secret Invasion: X-Men #4, Secret Invasion: Thor #3, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #3, Secret Invasion: Front Line #5, Secret Invasion: Home Invasion #8, Secret Invasion #8

Epilogue

New Avengers #47, Secret Invasion: War of Kings #1, Secret Invasion: Requiem #1, Secret Invasion Aftermath: Beta Ray Bill #1, Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1, Avengers: The Initiative #19