Avengers: The Initiative #14

I think it's about time to catch up on this series. Once upon a time, I used to really enjoy reading this comic, then I started to devote most of my time reading DC comics, so I'm 5 months behind in reading this series. Let's see if Dan Slott and Christos Gage can entertain me here... Since I see that damned Secret Invasion banner on top of the cover, I'm not really optimistic.

Overall- OK, this comic mainly deals with a guy by the name of 3D Man, who used to go by the moniker of Triathlon. 3D Man was a name originally used by 2 heroes back in the 1950's, so this new 3D Man seems to be patterning himself after his older heroes. The new 3D Man has graduated from Camp Hammond, and was sent to Hawaii to lead the team stationed out there. Before leaving for Hawaii, the original 3D Men give the new 3D Man a gift to open up later. While on the plane to Hawaii, 3D Man opens the present, which is the original costume of the 1st 3D Man.

3D Man decides he can't wear the costume itself, but decides to wear the glasses that went with the costume. Upon arriving in Hawaii, 3D Man meets all of his teammates except for one. When the missing teammate arrives, 3D Man can see immediately that this guy was a Skrull thanks to the glasses, which can see through a Skrull's disguise. Discovered, the Skrull attacks and defeats most of the Hawaiian team, but is finally stopped by 3D Man and Devil-Slayer, a member of the Hawaiian team. 3D Man decides he has to return to Camp Hammond to warn his superiors that Skrulls were hiding amongst them. Upon arriving back at the Camp thanks to Devil-Slayer's teleportational powers, 3D Man begins to try to warn everyone that Skrulls are infiltrating the Initiative, but when he looks around, everybody he sees looks like a Skrull.

The other main part of this story focused on Crusader, who is secretly a Skrull, but not involved in the Secret Invasion, realizing that Hank Pym is also Skrull(I know, it's confusing). Crusader panics when he figures this out, and doesn't know what to do, or if he should say anything to anybody. When 3D Man arrives, shouting that Skrulls are infiltrating, Crusader uses his abilities to change matter/reality to cause 3D Man to see everyone as a Skrull so 3D Man doesn't realize Crusader is secretly a Skrull.

What a tangled web Slott and Gage are weaving here. With this whole stupid Secret Invasion angle going on, I thought the writers did the best they could with a lousy situation. I've enjoyed The Initiative since its inception, and really loved the way Slott fleshed out the characters in the early issues. Of course, everything is all screwed up now, thanks to this horrid Secret Invasion storyline, but like I said, Slott and Gage are really doing the best job they can with this story. For a score, I'd go with a 7 out of 10. I still hate Secret Invasion, but as usual, I did like Avengers: The Initiative.