'SECRET INVASION' #6 DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY WITH BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
The Skrull scribe leads a tour through each issue of Marvel's mega-event as he takes a panel-to-panel look at the wrinkly-chinned invasion!
By Kevin Mahadeo
Posted 9/11/2008
Part six in a regular series, Wizard Universe catches up with Secret Invasion scribe Brian Michael Bendis for an SI Director's Commentary every day after an issue of the event comes out. Check in each time for insight from the writer on the inner workings of numerous scenes from Marvel's mega-event.
[BE WARNED, KIDDIES! THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD! Go read Secret Invasion #5 and come back and see us!]
All images can be clicked on and enlarged.
WIZARD: You mentioned this beat previously, with Marvel Boy and Captain Marvel. What's going on here?
BENDIS: Marvel Boy, when he was introduced in the first issue and even in Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy series, was brought here almost as a petulant brat of a teenager warrior. He declared war on the world and has been locked up in the Cube, almost in a frozen state waiting for something to happen with him. He's appeared here and there, but he always goes back to the Cube. And I gave him an Illuminati issue and tried to set up a place for him to be on the precipice, as it were, in which he could go either way. The Illuminati says, "You can be Captain Marvel or we'll have to take you down." When this invasion happens, it really does make him choose.
These different scenes touch upon the rest of the Marvel U. We see the X-Men, Medusa, etc.
BENDIS: This serves two purposes. You have Hank Pym as the visual face of the invasion, and that's not good if Hank were to be coming back. Poor Hank. And it also connects the dots without disrupting the main storyline for all those obsessively buying the tie-ins, but if you're just reading this, it lets you know there's sh-- going on all over the rest of the world.
It's what we call a montage.
But what's happening during the montage is that the Skrulls are telling you something very, very important. "We're not taking anything away from you. Nothing is being removed. We're adding." That's much different from what people might think was going to be sold here. They're selling a better life.
Hopefully we're surprising the reader with their expectations from other movies and TV shows where when aliens invade they're always coming to take everything away. They want our precious resources. Right here, it's saying that it's good news for you. I'm always fascinated by the theory that people would fight to keep their lifestyles more than they will to save their own life. As long as they get to watch TV, they don't care if they're killed in ten years. As long as people have their cable and porn and Taco Bell, you can pretty much do whatever you want.
You had to put the porn in there, didn't you?
BENDIS: Of course.
Camp Hammond has now become the Skrull HQ. I think that's the biggest slap in the face to Earth. They took our 50 State Initiative, which we were so proud of, and turned it into their headquarters.
BENDIS: This is why people who have been asking, after seeing all the trouble the Hank Pym Skrull has been in, if it's been worth it to have a Hank Skrull and continuously replace him. Now you see absolutely it is. Camp Hammond is Skrull-a-Palooza. The Baxter Building is gone. Avengers Tower is locked down. Now here is Tony's military base as their military base.
Despite the recent drawbacks the Skrull Queen still seems rather confident of their campaign.
BENDIS: They're still on the winning side of the fight. Obviously, she's not being stupid about it, but don't start whining that it's over because it's not over. It's hard. As they said, "We've done this before. This is what it feels like." And I think we can all relate to invading a country taking a long time and having ups and down and debating of whether or not we should have been there in the first place.
That does sound familiar.
BENDIS: Huh? What?
There's an interesting line here about Janet. What's up with that?
BENDIS: Wait a second. If Hank is a Skrull and he gave her that new growth formula, maybe he did something to that formula! Oh my god! I think I know what happens at the end of issue #7. [Laughs]
