Kyle Roberts and Matt Price discuss Amazing Spiderman #580, Detective Comics #851, and Secret Invasion Dark Reign.

Kyle Roberts and Matt Price discuss Superman #680, Nova #17, Deadpool #2, Solomon Kane #1 and Captain America #42.

Interesting, but not essential. I don’t know how else to describe the Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? one-shot.

Pieces are moved, however slightly, but I doubt those of you reading just the Secret Invasion mini will be missing anything, except a couple of decent stories.

There are a few nice moments, though a few more questions are raised in some of them. The Captain Marvel story fills in a blank spot in already established continuity — how C.M. went from realizing his true identity to attacking Thunderbolt Mountain. And the Beast and Wonder Man tale was a nice flashback to Marvel’s version of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold.

The Agents of Atlas piece seemed superfluous, though we’ll see what impact they have as the main story goes forward. And while I’m not sure it was vital to the overall Skrull invasion storyline, I did enjoy the writing and the characterization.

If anything is likely to really translate into “you-must-know-this” territory, it’s the vignettes with Agent Brand (last seen on the S.W.O.R.D. ship being blown up by Dum-Dum Dugan’s imposter) and Marvel Boy (who seems to be skirting the line between outright good and bad — like a Kree version of Adam Warlock).

Marvel Boy is more about moving pieces on the board, but Agent Brand’s story gives some great background on one of my favorite new characters and showcases Earth’s relationship with the Skrull ambassador, “the guy they wheel out to smile at us between atrocities.”

If your budget is limited, this isn’t something you must own. But if you’d like a little deeper understanding of the Skrull motivation and some decent characterization, it’s not a bad book to pick up.

– Greg Elwell