80 pages is a lot to get through in one sitting. But when the 80 pages are a Keith Giffen/Bill Mantlo/Todd McFarlane production, it's not such a bad thing.
I originally picked up Invasion because it crossed over with Animal Man. The eventual outcome of the alien plan really messes with Animal Man's powers, and spurs a very cool story line in which everything we thought we knew about Animal Man turns out to be wrong. That sort of thing happens to him frequently.
In a lot of ways, and much more so than when I first read the series, I can see the aliens' point of view. Here's Earth, this insignificant little world that keeps churning out individuals of incalculable power, sometimes presenting a cosmos-wide danger. And, by and large, they're a pretty violent bunch. Imagine a creature like that became capable of intergalactic travel. They're right to be scared.
But there's also something deeply disturbing about the fact that all of the aliens (an important word) look exactly the same, and have no genetic variance. Further, they are identified by a single trait that characterized their race. And it's only humanity (and, let's be honest, North American humanity) that presents this strange diversity of genetics and potential.
Which is all to say that, as a part of my Doom Patrol read-through, the Doom Patrol don't appear in this issue. Only Adam Strange makes an appearance, and an ill-fated one at that. Instead, as the title of this volume attests, we witness the formation of the Alien Alliance. It's actually a remarkable bit of storytelling, in that it's basically a prologue to the crossover. It seems to me that this is a crossover that might have used its tie-in issues very well, in that the actual first strike on American soil takes place in the pages of the individual titles, as discrete events. When we come back next issue, those events have happened, and we're on to the next phase. I'm not explaining this right. The crossover series is designed to provide context to the events of the individual tie-ins. As such it is useful regardless of which series you are following it through, nor do you need to read all of the tie-ins.
At least, that's what it looks like at the moment.
In terms of comparison to the Arrowverse crossover, this similarly functions nicely as a prologue, but, honestly, the only similarity is the Dominator head design. I understand, of course, that it would have been too expensive to have all of the alien races present, but we've seen enough humanoid ones that there could have been at least a small alliance. What the comic crossover does that the television one doesn't is give us the reason for the Dominators' invasion. In the Arrowverse, they're just aliens there to experiment on human beings - it's more of a secret invasion than an invasion. Watching the television crossover from the perspective of the Dominators fear of metahumans is going to be interesting, though if I'm to be completely honest, I don't remember how the TV one all turns out, so things might change by next issue.
I am feeling a bit spacey today. Can you tell?
More to follow.
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