The Road To Secret Invasion - Fantastic Four

This April, Brian Bendis and Leinil Yu debut Secret Invasion, an eight-issue mini-series that promises to shake the status quo to its core. And before you challenge that assertion, keep in mind that Bendis has been planning this storyline for years, developing the Skrulls' revenge and sliding in replacements and traitors along the way. When you consider where things could be going... the ramifications are staggering. Part one of the road to Secret Invasion features the Fantastic Four's place in the event, seeing how they have more experience with the Skrulls than anyone else on Earth...

The invasion has started, and no one in the MU is safe, not even the First Family of Comicdom! Aware that some of the Earth's most advanced technology and weaponry is housed in the Baxter Building, the Skrulls have neutralized the building--by transporting it and its inhabitants straight to the Negative Zone!

With one member of the Fantastic Four M.I.A. and another "replaced," it's up to the remaining family members--not to mention Franklin and Val—to get back to our dimension, Skrulls or no Skrulls. But are any of our heroes who they think they are?

Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, with art by Barry Kitson should be on sale in April. The first cover (edited, seen above) is by Alan Davis.

IGN Comics: The first spin-off series is revealed today in the form of Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four. What can you tell us about this series? How closely associated with the core series is it? Is this a case where the main series starts some trouble but has to move along and can't revisit the ramifications of what has just happened?

Brevoort: Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four does jump off directly from a sequence in Secret Invasion #1, but from there it charts its own path through its three issues, only dovetailing back into the main storyline again at the very end. And again, we made this a dedicated series so as not to interrupt the story-flow that Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch have going on the regular FF title. And for long-time FF fans, this series promises the return of a character that readers in certain quarters have been asking about for a long time now, one who'll make this a very personal story indeed for the FF.

In Wizard's latest "Marvel Mondays," Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, has this to say of Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four:

It definitely ties in very, very directly to Secret Invasion and the Marvel Universe at large. I even quote a couple of direct panels from Secret Invasion to line us up exactly with it. Now, that said—and people always say this, but I really mean it this time—you really can read this completely separate from Secret Invasion. Everything you need is in the issues. And vice versa. Of course you don’t need to read my mini series to enjoy Secret Invasion, but they really do dovetail nicely, I think.