The secret is that it doesn't completely suck

Secret War
Brian Michael Bendis - words
Gabriele Dell'Otto - art

I don’t know if it’s just that I’m tired of mind wiping stories or your heroes have managed to do questionable things in their past type stories, or what, but I didn’t love this book. I didn’t hate it, and in fact, I think that it actually works better on a lot of levels than Identity Crisis did. The internal logic about the mind-wiping and the actions of Nick Fury tie very strongly to the plot and the Marvel universe itself. It’s got a very solid structure unlike Identity Crisis that had plot lines with their own plot lines and then ended.

So while the internal shenanigans all work and make sense in relation to themselves, where this story didn’t work for me was that you pretty much need to know the Marvel universe of comics to make any sense of this story. Yes, the stealth costumes were cool and I like the idea of Latveria funding technology based villains, it totally makes sense and ties to the history of the place and its classic ruler, Dr. Doom. Where it goes off the rails is that, huh, Dr. Doom is dead? Really? And why are all these villains not the classic ones I know? Like Doc Oc is a woman now, and there’s yet another Green Goblin. Why weren’t the originals good enough?

There just seemed to be too much changes that seemed arbitrary and unnecessary. Maybe they all made sense if I was reading only Marvel comics for my entire life but I haven’t and they don’t. I did enjoy a lot of the character moments and the dialogue though. I also enjoyed the art for the most part. The only part of the art I didn’t like is the same thing I don’t like in all comics – that repeated panel of a facial close up to show that a character isn’t reacting. That earthquake woman just looked too much like an elvish Angelina Jolie. Otherwise I like the painted look to the book, and the character art.

So I guess it works but it doesn’t, how’s that for a review?