Secret Invasion #6 - Lots of Filler Until the Big Fight

Secret Invasion has been plugging along really well since the first issue. There have been a lot of cool moments of Skrull revelations and action. We were promised heroes would die as well, but no one of any consequence has gone down yet (until this issue).

Here we are at issue 6 and we can see the home stretch. The really cool final pages of issue 4 give way to a great meeting between Thor and the new Captain America here. We even get to see the death of a hero who has been around a lot since the Civil War within the first 3 pages of the book.

Even with so much going for it, this seems to be the first time the miniseries falters. After last month's huge ending with Reed Richards coming back and finding a way to expose the Skrulls, this issue seems tame.

The Skrulls do indeed make their presence known on Earth and demand the unconditional surrender of humanity, and we see Nick Fury back in the game still fighting, but there's an incredible amount of wasted space throughout. The heroes return from the Savage Land (at last) and get involved in the war back in New York. Still, there are very few moments of real action here as it seems only to set the stage for the final two issues. Don't get me wrong, I know there are moments that are for plot advancement and have to come, but everything here could have been accomplished in five pages or less. The final two-page spread is supposed to be jaw-dropping (Marvel said so on their website), but after the amount of two-page spreads we've had in this series, it doesn't really stand out.

The only major thing we get this issue is the fact that the Skrulls have a secret weapon in Janet Van Dyne (the Wasp) somehow. I'm guessing the next issue will pop a surprise or two on us regarding that. She's not a Skrull, but remember Hank Pym Skrull gave her a formula to grow in an early issue of Mighty Avengers, and I imagine it has sinister implications as well.

I'm going to cut this issue some slack because even though it's the worst issue so far of the miniseries, it's still miles above Final Crisis. The next issues will be the big ones as we race to the completion of this otherwise great story!