Full disclosure - I only started reading this at #25, when I learned that Ms. Marvel was part of the Secret Invasion continuity. Perhaps this has been my loss. From what I gather, the storyline has been good, and I must admit that Ms. Marvel is more interesting a character than I have given her credit for.

What you need to know to get into Ms. Marvel is minimal. It might help to know that Ms. Marvel is a pretty high-power superhero, that she is a leader in the post-Civil War hero community, and that she is pretty close to (though often in conflict with) Tony Stark. What you don't need to know in any way is the incredibly long history of Carol Danvers in the Marvel Universe since the late '60's, so jumping on (which you will see I recommend) is worthwhile.

It is obvious that Brian Reed is well-integrated into the planning of the Secret Invasion series. He just completed the Captain Marvel limited series; however, Ms. Marvel 26 does not reference this. Instead, this is the first example of what will likely happen a lot in the series: a hero fights his/her Doppelganger, and nobody knows who's the fake. Although this is an old plot point, Reed handles it well. The things that make the story work well are: 1) Ms. Marvel fights her government-sanctioned underlings, which is fun, and 2) Ms. Marvel's inquisitioner is himself a Skrull. It's a fun, action-filled, tale, albeit not an instant classic. Adriana Melo's art supports the work, but the art is neither good enough to elevate it to the next plane nor poor enough to distract.

I'm really starting to like Brian Reed's work. The Captain Marvel/Skrull character from the limited series is great, and I hope to see him make an appearance in Ms. Marvel, which I now plan to read regularly. In any case, this manifestation of Carol Danvers is strong, and it adds quite a bit of nuance to the characterizations in the Avengers books.