One of the original “event comics”, the Kree-Skrull war penned by Roy Thomas and the rotating art team of John and Sal Buscema and the spectacular Neal Adams, is however not an easy read.
Roy Thomas‘s deeply melodramatic writing is very much of its time, very much bombastic and over the top, but to me that did not prove that much of a problem as I have read through far more melodramatic flourishes successfully – however it is not for everyone even in that regard. My difficulty however lay beyond that, personally. While the premise of having Earth as a possible beachhead between two mighty empires (very much an allegory of the Cold War) makes for a compelling story, it is extremely slow and seems very much with very little planning placed in its plotting as it has plot points coming out of nowhere and hopelessly slowly so until the last portion when it truly becomes interesting, but a little too late.
The artwork by John Buscema is the inferior of the three in my opinion, with bodies often contorting at odd angles and rather unsettling eyes. However he does have strengths in how dynamic and elegant the panels are laid out, which is quite the saving grace. The artwork in the issues by Adams and Sal Buscema are however something out of this world quite literally, and very definitely enough to make the read through quite worth it. Bottom line, slow and unsteady but beautifully put together, for the most part.
