Secret Invasion: Tony Stark's Biggest Failure

[@lizardguyNA]

Sadly, that bit about Norman Osbourne getting a huge fandom despite the known supervillainy and getting the keys to US National Security is probably the most realistic thing in this series.

[@PosthumanHeresy]

Honestly the biggest problem with this era of Marvel was that it got _too_ real. Like, most of Gen Z is unaware how much pain the 21st century has had for everyone. Trump was Bush But Worse, and we had EIGHT YEARS of Bush. It was like the Marvel Universe was falling into the same damned, hopeless hell as us. There's a reason Obama won in 2008 on the slogan of "Hope". It was a period of pure, unadulterated despair. The PATRIOT Act was his first term. Katrina was his first term. The early meme that was the idiotic "Mission Accomplished" was his first damn term. And he got a second. Bush gaffs were the original Trump tweets. At one point, the majority of America cheered when a foreign civilian threw a shoe at him. His approval rating was _one fourth_ of Trump's. Marvel got as bleak as life was, and that's a far cry from even the concept of "grimdark". Like, the original "grimdark" if we're being entirely honest is Edgar Allen Poe. There's an elevated, unreal bleakness there. It's darker than life. This is abyss-gazing dark, like the Batman Landmine comic. It's as bleak as real life, but it's doing it by forcing us to think about how bleak real life actually is.

[@mattwo7]

@@PosthumanHeresy Yea no, Trump was W but worse. The fact he didn't start any wars feels like a miracle. The PATRIOT Act was W's work, Obama just signed the renewal (it didn't even make it to Trump's desk, the Trump-era renewal was defeated in the legislative branch so let's not pretend Trump wouldn't have renewed it if it did make it to his desk)... Also Obama successfully prevented a pandemic from getting out of hand and even made a prevention plan that Trump just tossed out the window. If anyone is "Bush but worse" it's Obama and if anyone is "Obama but worse" it's Biden.

[@diegodunn-humphrey512]

​@@PosthumanHeresyow the edge

[@TitularHeroine]

​@@diegodunn-humphrey512They're right though.

[@diegodunn-humphrey512]

@@TitularHeroine still edgy

[@juliusbossman7280]

The idea of Tony or Norman being a Skrull would've been shocking. That a Skrull became so unstable pretending to be Green Goblin that he killed his queen not knowing or caring about it

[@dragonbretheren]

Or if it was an intended planned move to publicly sacrifice the "queen", making Earth drop its defenses and put the "hero" Norman into a position of immense power so that he could conduct the _true_ Secret Invasion.

[@pious83]

I know a few fans who didn't care for the "Cat" Beast look at the time. Wanted the traditional Beast design to be the real McCoy (pun intended).

[@justinarzola4584]

​​@@pious83 used to think the cat beast thing was just a artist choice, didn't know it had an explanation related to the house of m secondary mutations.

[@pious83]

@@justinarzola4584 It even predated House of M. It started in X-Treme X-Men #2 (2001). Beast gets nearly beaten to death. Sage activates his "secondary mutation" to kick start his natural healing ability. It is alluded to that Beast would have reached this form naturally were it not for his constant tinkering with his own DNA. It debuted properly in Morrison's All New X-Men. Personally, Beast was my favourite X-Man for many years. But I didn't like the Cat form. However it was visually refined by John Cassaday in Whedon's Astonishing X-Men to look *a lot* better.

[@blackops7809]

​@@pious83didn't they go with that look for the X-Men anime mini series

[@ValueNetwork]

I love how Norman Osborn sees a alien invasion of earth and he immediately saw dollar signs and went full patriot. In my eye: The best supervillain move is convincing people your a superhero

[@MediaGhost_]

He's also cucked Spiderman by sleeping with Mysterio who was dressed up as Gwen Stacey....

[@K1rz__]

WHAT ​@@MediaGhost_

[@MediaGhost_]

@@K1rz__ he asked mysterio to dress up like gwen stacey so he could ntr Spiderman

[@Jason_Bryant]

I actually think it's a good thing that they didn't do a bunch of big Skrull reveals for significant characters. I remember that going into this event, people were expecting Marvel to use this to retcon away everything they didn't like. Hank Pym never slapped his wife, Tony was never pro-registration, etc, etc. People were hating on the retcons before they even happened. Then they didn't happen. I think Marvel learned the right lesson from the Clone Saga. Readers don't want to be told that decades of continuity was actually some other guy they don't care about and will never see again. Using some restraint on the Skrull replacements was a good call.

[@justinarzola4584]

I'm glad they didn't retcon Iron Man as a skrull cause it would have taken away from his character development in Civil War, i wish they did retcon Mr Fantastic as one since he killed Goliath with that fake Thor during Civil War and temporaily broke up the Fantastic Four.

[@AlteredNova04]

I agree that they were right not to do a bunch of big skrull reveals, but I still think they should have done at least one just to really sell how dangerous and long term the invasion plan was. And it should have been Tony Stark, because seriously everyone hated how his character was ruined in civil war.

[@MWhaleK]

Maybe they should have retconned Pym's slap because that has been use to turn him into an irredeemable A-hole and villain.

[@Jason_Bryant]

@@MWhaleK That's exactly why they can't do it. One Marvel writer has even said that they can't get rid of it because it's the most interesting thing the character ever did.

[@thomasraines1396]

Sadly Hank sending Janet flying is one of the only things he’s known for and even then it only happened because of a miscommunication between the writer and artist (I think).

[@jerfuhrer2581]

This Era is honestly when Marvel, as a whole, was on fire! Everything felt like it led into each event seamlessly! And I LOVED the Dark Reign!! I was mad that it ended so soon.

[@mitch-TO]

DC was also killing it at this time. It was a great time to be a comic fan.

[@MisterChelonian]

I love Scott Summers's ruthlessness in this era. He internalizes the idea that his people have been nearly eradicated down to a 198 individuals. This is around the same time that he becomes aware of the machinations and failures of Charles Xavier and takes on more of a Magnito role in his defense of mutants against the rest of the world. Very much a "never again" mentality but by any means.

[@mitch-TO]

I agree completely. I love watching Cyclops during this period. He’s not a boy scout; he will do whatever it takes to protect his people.

[@AnormalLifeisboring]

Yeah I think he made the right call on Skrull genocide, also I think Doctor Who had a similar "never again" phase.

[@luigiboi4244]

Yeah, I'm starting to come around to this idea. However it went a little too far when the Avengers VS X-Men event happened, where Scott got the Phoenix Force, killed Professor X, and heard his wife Jean call him a moron from beyond the grave. I know the comics like to give Scott a hard time, but that's a bit much.

[@K1ng1995]

There's a fanfic writer online who hated Krakoa I asked them why and they responded with that quote Superman tells the Elite about dreams. They also think that 2000's Marvel was garbage because every character was ruined and I mean EVERY character they also hate legacy characters. They hate X23 and Logan both being called Wolverine, Kate and Clint both being Hawkeye, Miles and Peter being called Spider-Man, Amadeus and Bruce both being the Hulk etc. They loved One More Day BTW, and they also hate Spike Lee movies saying any movie that isn't like Starwars, Die Hard, aka movies where it's easy to define whos good and bad sucks

[@Voltan]

​​@@K1ng1995 your friend is a f*cking moron and possibly racist. Sever ties _immediately_

[@alexanderstrauch5531]

Honestly the lead up to Secret Invasion and the tie-ins (like Fury recruiting the illegitimate kids of C list heroes) made the whole event worth it

[@gota7738]

I feel like that's the rule with most events in comics. The main titles often feel both too ambitious in trying to be attention grabbing and "nothing will ever be the same", while also underwhelming as the story has to weave its way from that back to status quo in time for the next event. Meanwhile the tie ins tend to be lower key, but can also get weirder as the writers are less constrained by the spotlight but also can decide from the get go what the consequences are.

[@CDKohmy]

Pantheon literally means "all gods", so in a way, 2 is a minimum. I would also like to add that the idea of rigid pantheons of gods in the ancient world is not accurate as there was tons of intermixing and syncretism.

[@franknova987]

I think Warhammer 40k has 2 Orc Gods as a pantheon?

[@bobhollywood4093]

Two wouldn't be the minimum, one would be. If that's all they have, that's all of them, which is what the word means.

[@МаксБурый-р2ю]

​@@bobhollywood4093is pantheon even used in relation to monotheism

[@bobhollywood4093]

@@МаксБурый-р2ю not in colloquial speech, but it literally just means "all the gods of a people or religion collectively". If there's only one, that's still all.

[@tylerdurden788]

The trinity kind of is but not really That's a really good question because even back then had issues with trinity ​@user-fn2mx6dd5k

[@robertangus616]

The most interesting thing about the Dark Reign is that Norman Osborn essentially became Iron Man's arch-nemesis while Spider-Man does not interact with him nearly as much as he should. I think the real reason Osborn was turned into Tony's villain rather than Peter's is because Tony's arch-nemesis the Mandarin is a walking talking racist stereotype at this point which is why they originally turned him into Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3 before eventually modernising him in Shang-Chi

[@lindarozalinda7177]

Yeah, I expected more Spidey vs Osborn. So wasted potential

[@joshjones9749]

They brought mandarin back a couple times after. They don't have to make him a fu Manchu. There's alot of ways they can and have adapted him in the comics. He's a great villain. Especially for Tony.

[@DrDirtyLeggz]

On their own, Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign and Seige were all mixed but as a whole, i think was a good series of events leading into the heroic age.

[@justinarzola4584]

This whole era of Marvel was my favorite, never cared for anything else after Siege.

[@ironmaster6496]

@@justinarzola4584 same, though i loved Uncanny X-men vol2 the fact that everything leads up to AVX......yeah not a good ending to say the least

[@Spooder_Man1421]

I'm surprised spider-man didn't barge into office and sucker punch norman

[@TevyaSmolka]

indeed i wished that happened

[@lindarozalinda7177]

I was surprised that Spider-man played so little role in Dark Reign considering his history with Norman. It was very disappointing

[@TevyaSmolka]

@@lindarozalinda7177 indeed I was surprised about that as well because honestly out of all the characters who should have a major impact in Dark Reign it should've been Peter Parker Spider-man considering Norman osborn aka green goblin is his arch nemesis.

[@gota7738]

I like Dark Reign but that is one of my big disappointments with it. Apparently there was a mandate to separate Norman Osborn from Peter, limiting how involved they could get. On top of that because of OMD, Norman didn't know Peter's identity so that source of tension couldn't go explored. My far off dream is that one day Marvel will do its own Animated Universe, leading to an adaptation Of Dark Reign that would make full use of Peter and Norman's nemesis-ship.

[@TevyaSmolka]

@@gota7738 I wished Marvel comics did there own animated universe similar to Bruce Timm DCAU universe because that would be really awesome and badass.

[@Future_Vantas]

Obligatory shout-out to the Avengers EMH adaptation of Secret Invasion. It is a really good take on the storyline that streamlined the plot beats while adding some excellent character moments. The episode with the ship full of imposters descending on Wakanda is a highlight, Ms. marvel's confusion over the situation was infectious.

[@MagnusTonitrum117]

y u h I watched that recently, it’s really cool (EMH in general is just based tbh)

[@halfmettlealchemist8076]

Common EMH W

[@K1ng1995]

I also loved the fallout wasn’t just done in one episode it took a while for things to be fixed.

[@dr.robotnick1888]

Marvel: Secret Invasion is Stark's greatest failure Disney: Secret Invasion is the MCU's greatest failure

[@MrGoofymcgoo]

They are like, yeah lets not put any superheros in it so it boring

[@kylebooface6359]

@@MrGoofymcgooand ruin Nick Fury’s character by saying that every badass moment he ever had in The MCU was a Skrull pretending to be him all along

[@SecretMagician]

​​@@MrGoofymcgooI have no idea why Secret Invasion wasnt the fifth Avengers movie. This would be a good way to show which characters are actually part of the team by now and be a good indication as to who the big players will be in Doomsday (formerly Kang Dynasty) and Secret Wars.

[@victorhernandez5013]

FR

[@amberhernandez]

They did Maria Hill so dirty. I dislike something with every aspect of that show, but Hill should NOT have gone out like a random extra ifstg

[@clarkexcore]

The best part about Secret Invasion was the build up to it. I will never forget the Elektra reveal. The marketing of "Who do you Trust" and the little ads where it would be skrulls and earthlings together were also very memorable. I bought every tie-in and limited series trying to figure it out myself, and it was a great time. I don't think I ever had an event had me fully engaged everything like I was with Secret Invasion and for that it will always have a place in my heart.

[@carrastealth]

13:10 I gotta admit, I felt bad for the Skrull Mockingbird here. She was essentially brainwashed to believe she was the real Mockingbird and had all her memories and was legit trying to help them. But Clint killed her before she had any idea what was going on and was very confused after Reed had revealed her. Clint ain't always the best when it comes to judgement, that's probably why him and the real Mockingbird remain separated even when she returns.

[@leobruch3697]

Dark Reign and Siege are absolutely amazing and it’s worth reading through secret invasion for the build up to that alone in my opinion

[@marcofioretti6908]

One of my favourite things about this channel is seeing the small changes in the background. Seeing what new logos you add.

[@MacDarf]

You left out that Deadpool was actually the one to kill the Skrull leadership, Norman just lied about it being him.

[@robertrowley4929]

That makes Deadpool even more awesome!

[@TheFirstCurse1]

​@@robertrowley4929Cringey. He's not awesome.

[@luigiboyinblu]

I only read the main event after years because one of my cousins told me how threatening the Skrulls were and I was completely on board with a story about multiple identity thefts all at once in order to take over the planet. Thing is, there wasn’t much mystery or shocking reveals in the end. Most of them were revealed right off the bat, which was a huge letdown for me. I think I’ll always prefer the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes adaptation of Secret Invasion.

[@nightshadoew436]

I wish you talked abou Earth’s Mightiest Heroes adaptation of Secret Invasion since it fixed the biggest flaw of the comic version in my opinion, it had interesting character reveals. Well not really but a major character is a skrull for half of season 2 and it is amazing, seeing all the little things they do to ready the Earth for invasion

[@justinarzola4584]

That show was pretty good from what i remember.

[@nightshadoew436]

@@justinarzola4584 It is. I just recently finished rewatching it. Still holds up

[@hikaruchan16]

As much as I really like Secret Invasion as an event, especially the Black Panther stuff (all y’all NEED to read the Black Panther Secret Invasion story because HOT DANG it’s awesome ✨) …every thing involving Iron Man is just more doubling down on the character assassination committed against him during Civil War instead of trying to repair the damage. And watching him get all the flack and blame while folks like Reed Richards get away scot free is just painful. 😭 Like it actually hurts seeing my boy get beat down over and over with no chance for recovery or redemption. And he’s still paying for it even now, all these years later and it’s just not fair 💔 Even directly following this event, as renowned as Fraction’s Invincible Iron Man run is, the entire first half of the run is essentially damage control from Civil War/Secret Invasion…the fact that it was necessary means there were probably stories we didn’t get because he had to deal with this mess 😫 Sigh. Being an Iron Man fan is so hard y’all…but I just can’t quit it. Even if the world is against him, Shell-Head is still my boy! 😭

[@markandrew287]

Well, he got his time in the movies if that's any consolation

[@noampresnete8677]

i wouldn't say i agree. while civil war went too far it revealed flaws that alowd future writers like fraction and cantwell to tell intresting stories with. secret invastion was there to teach tony a lesson about how wrong he was by showing everything he tried to build was inefective because in only trusting himself he had no one to rely on when he fell.

[@costelinha1867]

A rich guy making a contingency plan behind people's back that bites him and his team in the ass? Hmmm.... where have I seen that before? BRUCE? Bruce Wayne is that you?

[@jacobwilliams1223]

For what it is worth, I was always glad they didn't do the reveal that Tony was a Skrull. Tony in this era was behind some of the most unpopular and worse decisions in-universe such as Civil War, pressuring Peter Parker to unmask, sending Hulk to space leading to World War Hulk etc. A lot of divisive and scummy stuff that the writers so easily could've back peddled on but they didn't.

[@TheJediMazter]

I love how they did the is he/isn't he worry really well and still yeah like you said didn't retcon all his bad choices

[@lmads8023]

That's good writing

[@veggiewillymass]

2:51 props for not blinking a single time in all ur cosplays except Namor and Tony 😂

[@FloatingCityComics]

Great video! Thanks for letting me voice Bendis, it was fun!

[@ComicDrake]

And thank you for coming on the last minute! You definitely saved the upload schedule. 💖

[@juliiju0484]

The Black Panther and Storm Tie-In is one of the best Event Tie-Ins I've read. T'Challa and Ororo are a power couple that I wish could come back, but with the events of Krakoa, I find it difficult.

[@bloodycoffee9293]

I hated what the writers did to Tony during Civil War, so Secret Invasion basically cementing Tony's "development" was pretty disappointing.

[@catspaw3092]

I did too Hank should've been the one to create Ultron not Tony someone on that writing team hated Tony Stark just like Tom Rothman hated Deadpool which is why he had Deadpool's mouth sewn shut in the Wolverine movie. But the moment he left Deadpool got made & brought in about 7 hundred million dollars.

[@Slender_Man_186]

@@catspaw3092 honestly, Deadpool after the video game and ESPECIALLY the movie sucks, and I don’t care how much money it made.

[@TheFLAMEXD]

​@@Slender_Man_186No he doesn't.

[@Slender_Man_186]

@TheFLAMEXD yeah he does, he's become a flanderized version of himself, he's just the funny haha meta super hero now, when before he was a proper anti-villain who did a lot of fucked up shit. For example, remember that old lady he lives with in the movies? She's his unwilling prisoner in the comics.

[@KeeperOfSecrets-42069]

@@Slender_Man_186lmao nah. He was like that since at least ‘04. With his second series.

[@CaptainCat101]

Matpat finally got a Marvel theory right

[@ShockwaveFPSStudios]

To be fair, he had no idea that this already happened in the comics, so…

[@ggt47]

​@@ShockwaveFPSStudiosYou think he would look it up.

[@comixproviderftw_02]

The event that made Skrulls popular in the modern era

[@oddboss6712]

dang it

[@oddboss6712]

i thought i was first

[@spectorthecritic1723]

Ah, The era in Marvel where every writer shat on Tony in every event possible and usually even in his own books! Oh... Wait? thats still basically going on? Damn.

[@justinarzola4584]

It is pretty sad considering Iron Man was one of my favorite characters for a while.

[@carso1500]

@@justinarzola4584 its kind of curious, he is probably right now one of the most popular super heroes in the planet thanks to the movies but that hasnt stopped the writers from shitting on him constantly

[@TronNerd82]

Always a good day when there's a new Comic Drake vid. At the rate he's going, he'll be at 500k subs in no time at all.

[@chriscueva1866]

Drake single-handedly cosplaying as the entire Illuminati is the silliest most ridiculous thing I’ve seen this week. Thanks Comic Drake.

[@IntroDuktionZ]

Great work again, Drake! Thanks for mentioning some of the interrelated stories that aren’t part of a typical plot summary.

[@rubiconprime1429]

Now that Dark Reign’s officially in the cards, can we get a vid on Victoria Hand. She was pretty great IMO. Also, I find it kind of hard to take that Hawkeye+Mokingbird moment seriously considering the moment I got into comics was the moment he dropped her like a hot sack of rocks to be with Spider-woman (which went no where)

[@TevyaSmolka]

Secret invasion as a event I always found to be a complete mess and a complete miss opportunity mostly because this event had so much potential to retcon so many bad stories like one more day which would be really awesome and finally bring back peter Parker and Mary Jane to have there marriage alive and kicking yes but also have there daughter mayday Parker Spider-girl alive and kicking and boom problem solved everybody wins but that’s just my opinion.

[@themadtitan7603]

Great idea. Plus, as a story on its own, it could've been a great paranoid thriller with superheroes in a political intrigue story. Especially after the Civil War event. Instead, it made some pointless retcons that didn't add much depth or fix previous storytelling failures like you said.

[@TevyaSmolka]

@@themadtitan7603 thank you man and honestly I would've been all for that idea with a superhero political thriller with the skrulls invading earth because that at least sounds way more interesting then the actual story that we got which effected nothing in the grand scheme of things in my opinion.

[@themadtitan7603]

@TevyaSmolka I haven't watched Secret Invasion yet, but that seems like the direction the show is going for. A more focused, smaller-scale political thriller and not a messy superhero extravaganza. Idk if the show succeeds in that or not though.

[@TevyaSmolka]

@@themadtitan7603 I can understand that and honestly from what I can tell it seems to be doing that type story so far and while it isn't my favorite show in the world so far the show has been doing that direction as best as it could.

[@themadtitan7603]

@@TevyaSmolka Interesting. I'm definitely planning on watching it after it concludes and seeing how well it does it myself.

[@pious83]

4:27 Worth noting, as you enjoy your deep dives Drake. There was technically* a prologue to Secret Invasion back in 1999. X-Men #89 - #90 and UXM #369. A three part story that saw the X-Men teleported to the Skrull Homeworld on the day Galactus arrived. The entire exchange between Professor X and Galactus was a particular highlight. *I doubt Bendis knew/was made aware this story existed.

[@oddboss6712]

Glad Secret Invasion kind of explained why Hank Pym became a abuser and just became completely different

[@noampresnete8677]

nah, he still slapped his wife (accedently or not), he was snatched later

[@tdkb3395]

I always love how wakanda is this rock of a civilization that will stand strong no matter what

[@DabiDavs]

For his neutral special, Norman Osborn wields a GUN

[@bainr6856]

Great video. Also, 7:25: The REAL MCCOY? How long you been waitin to use that one😂

[@dmitrifrancisco3912]

Bro I just want to say I love your content and you always slam it out of the park.

[@BlueBoboDoo100]

I think phase 4 of the MCU should've started a Dark Reign saga. The heroes won but are mostly gone. It would've been great to introduce Osborn and build up Spider-Man to be a bigger part of the universe. Or really set up a Dark Avengers or Thunderbolts team instead of the drip feed of half-measures they've been doing. I think it would've been a fresh, darker direction for the MCU. Instead phase 4 was about 🤷‍♂️ and they've been setting up a dozen half-baked ideas.

[@RickReasonnz]

That would work... if the MCU didn't gleefully kill off almost every villain that appeared in their movies.

[@lmads8023]

Who cares about the mcu it's terrible and always was.

[@mechmaster315]

@@lmads8023 as punishment for what you said you’re force to watch what many are considered the worst and hated movies ever (Son of the Mask, The Cat in the Hat, Cuties)

[@connorbeith3232]

I remember being enthralled by this story as a kid, though I only had the main story, so I didn't know about the Wakanda and Norman Osbourn speech stuff. One scene that still weirds me out to this day is that opening scene with Dum Dum Dogan, like I had no clue what was going on there.

[@randomgamer625]

15:59 just like real life

[@curtdog647]

God Squad is my favorite superhero team-up of all time. It's so sick in concept but ends up being incredibly goofy and it's so fun

[@MaxibonHR]

Bendis can be hit or miss, but I can't deny what he did for Spider-Man, Daredevil and The Avengers will be something I'll always cherish

[@tskmaster3837]

The Skrull empire went from being in a stalemate with the Kree empire to being reduced to a single destroyed home world in search of a new world... and to make things dumber, the Skrull's ancient adversaries had to be told "hey, your enemies are just about dead. Help us finish the job"? Bendis was giving everything for a Skrull invasion on Earth... except he couldn't supply the REASON for it to happen?! "Something something religion, the Skrull Emperor became a Skrull Queen, don't ask questions I'll have to answer."

[@Garushiafm]

I remember when Wolverine try to fight one of the horsemen of the apocalypse and got killed. When everyone was surprised, it was revealed that Wolverine was a skrull and the horsemen were the true Wolverine... It was not related to secret invasion?

[@daelen.cclark]

Part of me thinks the Marvel artists wanted to redraw stuff they were nostalgic for, and Marvel itself decided to set this all in place to do that.

[@JackzTheIcompetant]

You can’t tell me when Norman Osborn was going on a killing spree that America fuck yeah wasn’t playing in the back

[@skkms910]

I'm rewatching a bunch of your videos right now, and you're funnier than I thought.

[@andrewbeecroft6509]

I seem to remember deadpool being a part of normans takeover. He gathered intel or something that allowed normie to kill varanke. He also caused muliple skrulls to go insane when they became copies of him.

[@kingbrohamut]

Dark Reign through Siege is probably still my favorite era of Marvel to this day.

[@webtely]

They could have used this event to retcon a lot of characters which were written out of character in the past into being a skrull, the big one I am surprised they didn't do was Hank Pym.

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Thank you for making this insightful video about this saga!!

[@trowa9960]

When secret invasion started, it was a very exciting time in comics. I was just getting deep into comics and the build up for this event was still, imo, the best built up to any marvel event. It started great but I don't think it stuck the landing well. Why wouldn't the skrulls give every skrull wolverines healing factor? Imagine a nearly unkillable army? That would've helped them. The big battle in the end just turned into a slaughter of skrulls with no real casualties on the heroes side. (Sure, wasp "died" but only due to a gimmick.) I thought it would've been a much better status quo to have the skrulls win and assimilate into the world like many of the ads for the event seemed to indicate. That would have been a better status quo for dark reign. Instead, we get Norman Osborn (who I love, Norman is great as a villian) getting praise and a huge promotion for... shooting the queen in the head. That could've been done by anyone. It would've been better if there was something unique needed to be done to kill her that only Norman could have known (there was the deadpool/thunderbolts series that gave him this info in the first place... just to shoot her in the head.) So... for me it was a disappointing ending after a fantastic set up.

[@takaielliott2391]

Hey, I'm loving the big marvel event series and have enjoyed your vids for years! Still kinda new to comics, but i read Axis and Secret Empire and would love to see videos on them explaining any backstory or tie in details i missed

[@DS_Sword]

I just want to push back against your opening statement. Kurt Buseik's Avengers sold really well and unlike Bendis' run it actually respected the history of the team.

[@randomguy970]

This era of Marvel (Civil War to Dark Reign/Siege) was my introduction to comics and whilst confusing, I absolutely ate it up. I have a fondness for Bendis and event comics in general because of it.

[@jamainegardner4193]

Man, it sure was lucky for the Skrulls that Hulk wasn't there.

[@ulyssesveracruz8343]

Giving the keys of the goverment to norman osborn is literally straight up marvel version of lex luthor being president

[@MeigsmerlinMeigsmerlin]

11:53 I love how he says "over in New York" while there's a picture of San Francisco

[@CableFF7Forever]

I'll point out that Scarlet Witchs "No More Mutant" spell was not just planetary, not just intergalactic, it was multi-dimensional. Hell it was felt in Old Man Logans universe where mutants were just seen as a genetic hiccup and none had been born in years (not knowing what had occurred in the 616 Universe and the timeline itself was further along in its future). When Logan and Hawkeye arrived in Doom's Lair in the story, Emma Frost said there was about 30 of them left on the planet in general. Not really relevant to this story but its a great insight into how goddamn powerful Scarlet Witch is, basically committing genocide on an multi-dimensional scale

[@emeraldhillzone1992]

15:11 "And also Elvis" Excuse me- Drake, buddy, mind elaborating on that? At what point did the Skrull decide to kidnap the king of rock?

[@markpula91]

😂😂😂😂That illuminate bit was hilarious! Best laugh I’ve had all week!😂😂😂😂

[@CrazyGamingYT56]

Love your content keep up the great work

[@Noms_Chompsky]

Great viddie! I usually watch a few viddies before I decide to subscribble or not, you got it in one son; in fact I'm cutting some chores short and leaving them for tomorrow 'cause I'm bingin' baybeee

[@oddboss6712]

Tony having nukes and not being kept in prison is crazy

[@sunshinensmiles2178]

Great video Drake!

[@cedricboykins9328]

Osborn in front of Lincoln memorial would've been fire album cover😂

[@mattwo7]

0:17 "Really a skrull this time" That's exactly what a skrull would say.

[@BCWasbrough]

"He must be the real McCoy..." When discussing The Beast. Nicely done. :)

[@NeroPiroman]

The adaptation of this story in earth mightiest Heroes was top tier

[@aaronharvey7360]

Excellent video Comic Drake! I'm trying to go through and read all of these major events and I went through what I thought was the majority of Secret Invasion a month or two ago. I'm currently reading through Dark Reign and I was wondering how do I go about reading through these big events and not miss important stories? I'm using Marvel's Unlimited App and I'm going by their collected lists but there are a few stories you mentioned that I didn't read. How did you go about reading through Secret Invasion for this video? Is there something you can recommend to people that have Unlimited? Thanks in advance for your work and for looking over my comment.

[@ComicDrake]

Comic Herald has some great reading lists!

[@fullbawks8590]

10:00 according to dnd 8

[@cameronweaver2013]

Dont know too much about the comics, but I love this story breakdown!

[@danielgertler5976]

I can't say I liked this book. But I can say it was infinitely better than the TV show adaptation.

[@sketcher445]

I'm so glad my boy Hercules got one of the best parts of this event

[@sighmanschurz6189]

That mr fantastic costume with the uno card got a laugh from me 😂

[@avinstarlog]

Ive been putting off this video because I've been reading the secret invasion event. Great watch!

[@cjschnyder]

I really did love that whole "The Incredible Herc" run even if parts of it have aged a bit worse than others

[@emeraldazakite]

I have most but the ben urich series. This, civil war, and dark reign were a perfect trillogy. The initiative was a great jump on for teams. The main old standard teams were compromised and the newer teams had to stand up.

[@emeraldazakite]

Not to mention, she hulk and klurts daughter, longshot, San Francisco where the x men beast gave them the legacy virus, atlas took back Seattle. The MCU version doesn't have a good enough set up to tell it , though the cast is great.

[@call911pls8]

You know... The publicly convicted supervillain becoming president of the united states seemed a lot more fictional couple years ago...

[@philmasecar8542]

One of the few things I liked about this story, they didn't retcon Tony, Marvel and Bendis let all the shitty things he did stand, and let himself work out some sort of redemption story. The rest of story? Rather indifferent, but just this one thing good job all

[@mclekfkeiwdisidido6858]

I love how in this era every story lead organically to the next event

[@shadowclaw7210]

To make pantheon. You need more than 4. One is monotheism. Two is just duo. Three is a trinity. Then 4 is an music quartet. 5 is team.

[@Hazardsubot]

Shout outs to the Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series version of secret invasion.

[@yamazukas]

I just finished watching EMH, I loved the buildup and how it was dealt with after the 'finale'. it just feels snappier and cleaner. also the scenes with Ms. Marvel meeting the skrull avengers in wakanda is just *chefs kiss*

[@lajosdobsa4712]

I started reading comics during Secret Invasion, the Inhumans tie in is one of my favourite stories ever 😁😁😁

[@jactirby]

Gotta love how the wakandans gave zero fucks about the skrulls. They just straight up slaughtered them, and then the whole capturing their imposters and using them against the skrulls is just crazy.

[@keyboardcowgirl69]

kind of annoying that optics ended up mattering but i guess that is politics, a little frustrating that tony had to fall back rather than repair on the fly, or having a backup suit waiting nearby to jet in

[@Maxz92]

I had Marvel Unlimited for a bit a few months back and I read basically the whole Bendis event storyline thing from Nick Fury's Secret War through The Heroic Age but the only event I read all the tie-ins for was Secret Invasion. There was a lot of cool stuff in the tie-ins but man was that way too many comic books. It took me weeks to get through them.

[@rosemarygrant6424]

A highlight to me when it was coming out was the plot with... 3D Man? Whose goggles allowed him to see the Skrull imposters a la 'They Live.' If I remember correctly, it was part of the 50 state initiative series (which I remember liking overall)

[@TheCreepypro]

nice to hear what this was all about

[@zaaknicolas7638]

2:53 lamo question whats the voice filter you used for iron man and i love the joke of elivs being a skull

[@ComicDrake]

I literally watch a tutorial from 12 years ago every time I do Iron Man.

[@zaaknicolas7638]

@@ComicDrake do you have the link for the tutorial or the name of it?

[@ComicDrake]

@@zaaknicolas7638 kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3rVfXiwrMqJb7c

[@simcity4111]

I think that the event was just too messy sometimes, like, it lacked focus and quality really varied… I think that the earth mightiest heroes for example ended up doing the secret invasion story line way better by exploring the essential ideas of the storyline perfectly.

[@LucasS541]

i loved the bit right at the beggining

[@sahilhossian8212]

Lore of Secret Invasion: Tony Stark's Biggest Failure momentum 100

[@Batz-xk3nt]

Osborne is such a Luthor, change my mind.

[@tylerjones7592]

He is basically a combination of Lex Luther and the Joker

[@abruoon]

love to see the new logos on the background

[@StardustSynchron]

Norman Osborn earning public approval and replacing Tony even when his history is known was so unbelievable to me when this came out. It’s more believable as years have gone by since then, I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing 😅