The true casualty...

First off...

R.I.P.
JANET VAN DYNE
1963-2008

But to be honest, the most devastating casualty of Secret Invasion isn't Wasp...

It's Nick Fury.

Nick Fury, the man who supposedly saw the 'big picture', the man who saw that Skrulls have infiltrated our world before anybody else, the man who was so paranoid he holed himself up to uncover the truth. He even had that wall with photos and shit like he had some big plan cooking. And for what?

To scrounge up 5 young amateurs as 'cavalry'.

I wouldn't have had any problem with it if Marvel Chief Architect Brian Bendis didn't build Fury up as someone with a part to play in the final days of Secret Invasion. Mighty Avengers # 12 had that splash page with the photo wall, with the wheels in Fury's head already turning and thinking of a way to stop this invasion. Granted that I may be reading too much into things, but then again if it wasn't important it wouldn't have been discussed, even at length. As it is, Fury's contribution to Secret Invasion amounted to 6 extra supers and a big-ass gun for himself, providing little more than covering fire for everybody else.

I actually hoped Fury was the big savior in all of this, where he didn't show up in Secret Invasion #3 just to rescue the Young Avengers. In a perfect world (and a more coherent story), Nick would have come out in Secret Invasion #7. I know I'd get goosebumps seeing Fury come out of hiding as his plan comes to fruition, saving the day with a hell of a lot more than a team that includes a guy who can make chains catch fire or a fat guy with a magic book. Maybe have him get the Skrull-detector device instead of Reed? Anything to justify having him go through all that trouble researching who is or isn't a Skrull only to go trigger-happy and blast anything that moves anyway (see Ms. Marvel).

But then again, maybe that was the plan after all...to have Nick recruit these kids so he can have a cast in his new title after Secret Invasion, Dark Reign: New Nation. Fuck meaningful character development, right? Too bad it wasn't Nick that got turned into a germ bomb, if only to save him from the humiliating way he's been handled lately.

Oh, Nick. Whatever you had in mind would have been a mighty badass entrance. Now they just took out the 'bad'.