Secret Invasion # 4 -

 From the mind ....ing given to Tony Stark, to the apparent call to arms for the Earths supervillains, this was one cool issue. The art serves the story well, although it is not exactly the greatest I have seen. There are to many lines drawn on the faces. Every one looks as if they were starving. Still it is not bad either. The book seems to serve as a readers digest to what is happening around the marvel universe. At least to those of us stupid enough to buy every issue with the Secret Invasion Logo on it.  Yet, to give it the proper credit, it does pretty well on its own also.  On a side note. How are the Skrulls holding Mr. Fantastic. If I remember correctly, in one of their early adventures, he stretched so thin he fit in the air pockets in the concrete. I must have missed something.  Oh well, the book is still exciting and fun.

After a very strong start, this story is ticking over nicely, though the last couple of issues have been slightly off the boil perhaps because so darned much seems to be going on.  But, don't get me wrong, it's still good stuff.  Leinl Yu's art continues to be amazing from a Va Va Voom Ms Marvel early on to a feverishly paranoid Tony Stark to a brilliant sequence of panels outlining the Black Widow kicking some serious Skrull ass (very, very cool).  Meanwhile Jarvis is still trying to force Shield to surrender to him, whilst wearing a morning suit and scarf (so he doesn't get a coldy woldy) and the world's super villians are preparing to enter the fray.  All this plus some amazingly graphic pictures of Reed Richards at full stretch.

Now keep in mind if this review is written sloppy is because I'm suffering from a hangover.

After leaving my 10 year absence from comic books, I finally found out what a tie-in really means. keep in mind I'm old school, so back in the 90's crossover events had two ways of operating

1. A mini-series format.
2. The Saga ran across several different titles with each title being part of the core story.

What I like most about this issue is that it actually shows how Ms. Marvel finds herself pinned down by skrulls. In Ms. Marvel #28 the beginning shows her down on the ground pinned by skrulls, I was wondering how she got to that point in the story when in Secret Invasion #2 she was asked by Ironman to fly back to New York.  Secret Invasion #4 cleared that up for me, now I know why they call them Tie-ins, because they literally tie-in to the main story. Seems like these days Tie-ins serve three purposes.

1. Reveal certain answers to questions, mysterious,and riddles presented in the main story.
2. To give certain battles fought by certain Heroes more face time that they would not get in the main core series.
3. To show a characters unique perspective on the event. A good example is Civil War, all the Tie-ins reflect each characters own perspective on things.

The ending was by far the best ending I have seen thus far. So far all of the endings have had some sort of a cliffhanger effect, with the exception of Secret Invasion #3.  I'm not going to blow the ending but let's just say I'm glad to see some of the classic heroes of Marvel stepping up to the plate to take out the bad guys, it would be exciting to see the next issue. I can't wait to till Secret Invasion #5 comes out!!!

Overall I give this book a rating of a 3.5 stars for it being above average.