Seemed really good
I would have loved to see the space battle with the heavy hitters, and the ending seemed much better than having killed The Wasp. Although I would have hated to see Herc die, his very godly nature would have allowed him to come back later.

The Sentry ending being catched by Thor would have been an awesome scene.

Posted by Bladai on 2009-07-07 18:44:00
thats cool to see a little behind the scene look at what goes into the making of a storyline!!!

http://c-trainsentertainmentreviews.blogspot.com/

Posted by cjt0805 on 2009-07-07 20:34:10
some cool scenes happened in this version that we didn't get, the space battle would have been cool. but i'm glad we got the version that we did.

Posted by ryguyhp on 2009-07-07 21:52:19
I think Secret Invasion could have been a really tight six issue series instead of the long eight issues it was

Posted by Maestro on 2009-07-07 22:06:40
wow
The Cage's baby was supposed to die? Now that would have been real ballsy!!!! It would have made a great emotionnal ending but i guess that after having allready killed Spiderman's baby daughter it would have definetely marked Marvel as "baby kilers" . Not good.

Posted by baxtos on 2009-07-08 04:00:26
The finished product was a whole lot better than this (especially the ending, which feels a whole lot more organic than what goes on here). Wish they'd kept Dr Strange around for it, though.

Interesting that before Hercules got his own ongoing series, there was a plan to kill him off.

Really intriguing that Bendis planned to kill the baby. Was that his plan for the baby all along since he started that storyline in Alias #28? Why did he change his mind?

Posted by Fetsur on 2009-07-08 07:45:23
'For those who're interested, my copy is dated 5/24/07'

I'm sorry Tom, I'll have to ask for an expertise.
( flag this response as offensive )


Posted by notapotatoe on 2009-07-08 09:32:49
The Changes
Some things that stand out in the original description:

1) No reference to the original alien (computer) virus
2) The death of Hercules, not the Wasp
3) The important role the Sentry had
4) The original ending had Osborn intent on rooting out Skrulls
5) The focus on the baby in both versions
6) The repeated references to Skrull detection

The description has the appearance of Bendis trying to do a miniseries with a fairly conventional buildup and explosive ending, while the revised miniseries had a slower pace throughout and a low-key ending with most of the drama concerning the fate of the baby. The revised ending set up the “Dark Reign” event.

From an editorial standpoint, the changes left intact the worst weaknesses in the storyline: the single battle in Manhattan determining the fate of the world, the treatment of the Skrull queen and her followers as medieval humans, and the ignorance of real world technology (tests and computers).

The Manhattan battle could have worked if SI had been limited to NEW AVENGERS and MIGHTY AVENGERS, instead of being the focal point of an line-wide/Earth-wide event, but the Skrull society and technology gaffes would have been problems regardless. Real-world technology (blood samples, DNA tests) could have easily identified Skrulls, while the world’s computer technology wasn’t nearly as vulnerable to a single virus as Bendis supposed it to be.

The similarities of Bendis’s Skrull society to medieval humans should have been warning signs. If you’re not going to write Skrulls as aliens, why use them?

Overall the description is consistent with what “Secret Invasion” reportedly started out as: an AVENGERS event that morphed into a line-wide event. Unfortunately, the event didn’t improve from the enlarged scale.

SRS


Posted by Steven R. Stahl on 2009-07-08 12:49:26
That's really cool.
I was surprised that Hercules was going to die at one point.
The de-powering of the Sentry might have been interesting.

Posted by SPEEDSTREAK on 2009-07-08 13:04:57
I'm glad Herc didnt die.

Posted by monstersandgods on 2009-07-08 13:52:18
Some good scenes but...
The original draft was kinda good, that scene with the Sentry and the Skrull queen sounds great, but it's a shame Bendis was going to kill off Hercules, Incredible Hercules is a great comic, I'm glad he's still alive.

Peace.

Posted by Ironhorse on 2009-07-08 14:57:50
Totally agree with Steven R. Stahl
The notion of an Invasion that by all intents and purposes already succeeded by seeding agents throughout our world in all levels of power and influence should not have been settled by a scuffle in Central Park. The "Powerhouse Space Fight" would have been an improvement but overall the mini failed to maintain any momentum and failed to capitalize on its tremendous promise and set-up. Although I followed the story on the racks, I felt cheated and stopped purchasing them with issue 2.

What's most disconcerting about this outline is that even in its inception it prefers generic status quo changes (Marvel Boy becomes Captain Marvel, Herc dies, Thunderbolts become the Avengers) over actual story or character. Although there were a lot of good ideas, none of them worked on paper because they read as disconnected foregone conclusions.

For example, a character like Marvel Boy taking on the mantle of Captain Marvel needs hella more time to explore than one fateful encounter with Cap Skrullvel. I can't imagine that it meant ANYTHING to readers who didn't know who he was or ONLY read the main SI mini in lieu of the tie-ins AND it rang false to readers such as myself who read and enjoyed the Morrison mini.

Plus, it seems like Bendis never even figured out what to do with his own "undetectable Super Skrull" premise. Rather than the weak "Thor convinces a Skrull to tell him" solution of the proposal we end up with the even weaker "Reed Richards Magic Gun" of the final product.

Word to Tom, please discourage your writers (Brian and now Brubaker) from ever using the "Magic Gun" option when it comes to storytelling. Both of them set up Modern Age superhero epics only to undercut them with the worst devices of the Silver Age.

Posted by hamgravy on 2009-07-09 08:50:13
you shouldn't read Marvel Comics
'I can't imagine that it meant ANYTHING to readers who didn't know who he was or ONLY read the main SI mini in lieu of the tie-ins AND it rang false to readers such as myself who read and enjoyed the Morrison mini.'

I'm sorry dear hamgravy, but as Tom explained it in a later post, every five years it is consedered that Marvel readership had change - so that explains the off-characters behaviour of some characters. The original 'MarvelBoy' mini is ...almost ten years old now so this is your own proper mistake.


Posted by bulgarianyogurt on 2009-07-09 09:39:01
sorry to say this...
... but this issue-by-issue breakdown sounds sooo much better than the series we actually got.

there's stuff happening in 2-issue chunks and the story is unfolding in a logical and exciting way. what we got in the published form was a really stretched out version of the events of #1-4. (with the real event quietly wrapping up in proper manner in the underappreciated Avengers initiative issue)

it's really interesting how bendis was obviously writing Wonderman as a skrull all along in Mighty Avengers. what led to that change?

Posted by ManolisV on 2009-07-09 10:31:01
Say wha bulgarianyogurt?
Even if that "5-year rule" were true, that doesn't exclude the idea that a writer should make sure that he or she is presenting a full character on the page they are writing. In fact, it demands it.

There is little IN the Secret Invasion mini-series that allowed for a compelling arc for Marvel Boy. My point is that you should not have to read other books to be told a full story. As it was presented, Marvel Boy's arc was no more than moving him from point A to point B based on the pre-conceived notion of turning him into "Captain Marvel."

Posted by hamgravy on 2009-07-09 11:10:58
exactly.



Posted by bulgarianyogurt on 2009-07-10 04:33:00
Better then comedy
"Real-world technology (blood samples, DNA tests) could have easily identified Skrulls, while the world’s computer technology wasn’t nearly as vulnerable to a single virus as Bendis supposed it to be. "

That might have been the dumbest thing I've heard all day. In trying to mock a comic book writer's imagination, THAT'S the example you give! Wow... Just absolutely freaking wow...

Posted by thomas more on 2009-07-10 09:48:27
Quantum coherence, SI
It’s cheating, a bit, to consider how SECRET INVASION could have been plotted differently, since one wouldn’t have a basic framework to work with without the miniseries as published. However, it’s worth mentioning that (psionic) energy beings possessing humans could be used to achieve many of the same effects that Bendis, et al. strove for in SECRET INVASION, without the technical weaknesses. Quantum coherence -- http://www.i-sis.org.uk/brainde.php -- could be an interesting element.

SRS


Posted by Steven R. Stahl on 2009-07-10 10:03:07
As many posters, I would have really enjoyed to see the space-moment originally plotted. I'm glad Hercules and Jessica's baby didn't die either way.

What I regret the most about SI, is it hasn't be a real MU armaggedon, a more global event :

-regarding the foes they were facing, I would have expected to see more heroes killed in action. One Super-Skrull used to provide a three-parts story-arc at last; there the heroes faced many and easily blasted them. But I appreciated the distanciated humor that maked all the Super-Skrulls kinda weird..funny.

-I would have been really happy to see other heroes coming, trying to make a difference, I'm thinking about the Eternals and also someone as Michael Pointer, which is BMB creation after all.

But I enjoyed very much how BMB used NA and MA to focus on the set-up of the Invasion. I also DEFINETELY loved the Invasion in the pages of A:TI, wich makes me hope to see more of the Skrull Kill Krew, and maybe another up-coming SI later, a little darker.

Posted by wildasparagus on 2009-07-10 10:09:09
Again, can't quite figure out why Bendis is always killing off Avengers (Herc here, ended up being Jan). Why not get rid of Iron Fist or something like that?

Posted by motteditor on 2009-07-10 16:21:49
BECAUSE.

Posted by bulgarianyogurt on 2009-07-13 11:54:57
Eh? Iron Fist is an Avenger too...

Posted by Fetsur on 2009-07-14 07:25:59