So against my better judgment, I am getting back into reading the Marvel Universe comics (keep in mind, I haven’t actively kept up with the MU since the mid-late 90’s when my brother was buying them and I was reading them when he was done.)
I know enough from just going to comic book stores about the major events recently. I even picked up a couple trade paperbacks from “The House of M” about a year back, and the first two “Astonishing X-Men” TPBs, as well as one of the “Decimation” TPBs. I then borrowed a TON of my brother’s TPBs on “Civil War.” I picked up a few World War Hulk comics, too, so I know what’s happened there.
So Secret Invasion is going on now…and I figure I’ll get some of those and see what the fuss is all about.
If you want a good primer for SI-related stuff that’s been going on in the Marvel U, you can pick up this, which includes a bunch of snippets of stories that will get you caught up for the event itself.
Issues 1 and 2 of the mini-series itself are already out, with the third to follow in a couple weeks I think.
Here’s the Secret Invasion checklist, which tells you ever title that’s going to tie into SI. Of course, you don’t actually need to read all of those titles, or pick up any books aside from the mini-series itself.
Bendis has said that you only need to read the main title, that it’s a self-contained story and that tie-in’s are ancillary.
That said, since he originally pitched this as an “Avengers Event,” I’d strongly recommend picking both “New Avengers” and “Mighty Avengers,” both of which are written by Bendis.
The excellent Young Avengers also contains events and characters that are pertinent (although undoubtedly will be explained in the main title proper - but it being such a good series I advocate picking it up anyway).