That would be a good point except it was a crappy plan in the first place.

I think that speaks incredibly well of the heroes themselves. Think about it: The Skrulls spent years plotting this master plan that would take care of the heroes of earth and it only amounted to barely spinning their heads for an instant. The heroes came out on top and the plan the Skrulls thought would be the ultimate endgame ended up proving how poorly they underestimated earths heroes. Again.

It's not a bad diversion, but it doesn't take *years* of infiltration to execute. It's seemed like the Skrulls spent decades planning this and the only payoff was a moment of confusion in the Savage Land.

Maybe it's just my expectation but I was hoping for more mid-battle side jumping..

That was my favorite part about the tie-ins, using them as flashbacks rather than just another fill-in moment that added "depth" to what occurred in the event book. I don't think anyone has ever used the main titles as tie ins to an event in quite that way before. It made perfect sense to me. The Skrulls are all about subterfuge. Time and again in previous invasions it was always the heroes of earth that stopped them. Having them all up in the Savage Land fighting amongst each other and the new arrivals, trying to figure out who was a Skrull and who wasn't was an excellent diversion IMO.

If I remember correctly, wasn't Secret Invasion told though a ton of exposition flashbacks?

I really didn't like Secret Invasion. I thought it was a lot of build up to a big mess that didn't even make sense. The number of New/Mighty Avengers books Bendis used to "explain" how all of this happened add up to crap.

What was the Skrulls "master plan"? To infiltrate our world so completely and KIDNAP a significant number of heroes while keeping them alive... And then to lure all of Earth's heroes to the Savage Land so they could... Set all the captured heroes free among the real heroes with Skrulled heroes mixed in so everybody can pose for "huh? What the eff" pictures with the jungle background, hi-jinks, etc.
Why would they need to completely infiltrate Earth in order to set that up??? How did Elektra being a Skrull help them at all?? It just doesn't make sense!!!

Sorry, I was really disappointed by Secret Invasion, I can't talk about it in nice tones

See I didn't see that there was a "mess" of Spider-Man even with his identity revealed and on the run from Civil War. The JMS run was one of my favorite Spidey stories and he had Peter on a good path. It was disappointing to see them move away from that especially his career as a teacher. But Brand New Day captured the feel of the Lee/Ditko era so perfectly I just fell in love with single Peter Parker solo in contemporary NYC. It offered a respite from the dark shadows that fell over the MU between Civil War and the restoration of the Hero Age after Siege.

Man, One More Day I just hated. It was a lazy way to take care of the mess writers had mad out of Spider-Man. And the kicking to the curb for MJ is the least believable choice a comic character has ever made.

I have read a lot about this storyline and how many fans didn't like it. I have seen people say it was poorly paced but I thought it was brilliant. I am a fan of the decompression of storytelling and I loved how the first 3 issues of Secret Invasion all took place in about an hour or so. Beyond that the whole "who is a Skrull" tension that ran through books in the run-up was amazing. That being said I do feel SI has led to the Marvel-Blockbuster-Event cycle that has made casual reading impossible. As dedicated as I am to ordering the books I just don't have the money to keep up with it all. I've even given up on keeping up with FF Spidey's and Avengers. Long given up on X-Men as a meaningful metaphor for anything other than depression. Anyway I'm getting off topic here. Any other Secret Invasion fans or am I a minority? BTW I also enjoyed the One More Day/Brand New Day story in Spidey.