THE SILENT INVASION: SECRET MESSAGES #1-2

By: Andy Hershberger
Date: Saturday, November 10, 2001

The year is 1965, and ex-FBI agent and current private investigator Phil Housley is in a bad spot. His one-man detective agency is in dire need of clients, his ex-wife is seeking reconciliation, and his finances have hit rock bottom. It's as bad as it can get...or is it? Salvation seems to come in the form of Mrs. Finster, a femme fatale with a missing husband. Seems her less than beloved Mr. Finster has disappeared, and she wants Housley to find him. The money's good heck, her advance will pay off more than a few bills - and it seems routine, but as the old cliche goes, nothing's routine about this case. As Housley becomes more and more involved he not only finds Mr. Finster, but starts to uncover what may be an alien angle, for Mr. Finster believes he was abducted. Rather than turn in Finster and collect, he decides to go turncoat and takes up an offer from the gentleman to find out who's looking for him and why. Meanwhile, a mysterious message is left at Housley's house revealing that a man he believed he killed in 1959, Matt Sinkage, may still be alive. Sinkage also had alien issues, and it's beginning to look like Housley will too.

From Michael Cherkas and Larry Hancock, SECRET MESSAGES is the fifth, and allegedly final, installment in the SILENT INVASION series; the other installments are SECRET AFFAIRS, RED SHADOWS, TARNISHED DREAMS and THE GREAT FEAR. While background wouldn't hurt, the new series should be distinct enough for new readers to not feel completely lost at least, one would hope so.


While alien story lines are particularly popular in comics, there must be something to make SECRET MESSAGES distinct, and to be truthful, I'm not quite sure what it is. While the story follows Housley's growing involvement in what is most definitely going to be an alien related conspiracy, and that alone would grab many a reader, there is something rather generic about the presentation that keeps this from a coveted "must have" position. Perhaps it's the constant use of cliches to drive the story - dead guy not dead, missing husband is alien abductee, private eye down on his luck - that make this offering a tad flat, or perhaps it's just the generic storytelling in general.

The illustrations are of the sort you would expect in a free weekly comic strip - black and white, lots of straight lines and circles, lots of shadows, and a cartoony atmosphere. They suggest an alternative tone that isn't matched by the writing. The covers on the comics, and this is apparently a joke, suggest a content that isn't there. For example, the cover for issue #1 seems to imply that we'll meet Mr. Finster and that he'll be suffering some serious alien probing, but besides a few photos and a revelation that he believed he was abducted, we don't get to know him at all. The second issue cover is even more misleading, making the unsuspecting believe that not only will Housley see aliens - he doesn't in that issue - but they will hit on him (they don't). I mention this because many comic fans will often decide to purchase a new comic based on its cover. Be warned.

As THE X-FILES has been running out of steam, a good alien conspiracy would be nice about now. While SECRET MESSAGES provides the alien conspiracy, it'll have to do a lot more to earn respect. If these two issues are any indication, this is pretty much run-of-the-mill stuff that Mulder and Scully would have passed up years ago.

THE SILENT INVASION: SECRET MESSAGES

Grade: C

Issue: No. 1-2

Author(s): Michael Cherkas, Larry Hancock

Publisher: NBM Publishing

Price: $2.95