We’re finally here. There are a lot of covers during this event that are classic covers with the characters replaced with Skrulls, starting with this one, obviously New Avengers 1. As I mentioned in the Back In Black block, Leinil Yu was off New Avengers to do this. He’s inked by Mark Morales and colored by Laura Martin. And Bendis is in the big chair this time. During the debacle that was Civil War, I lamented the fact that some better writer like Bendis wasn’t in charge of it. Maybe be careful what you wish for. For all that Secret Invasion has the greatest setup in the history of event comics, the actual event is… not the best. As I recall, with this issue, Bendis got his wish. He had been championing the idea of oversized first issues of events like this, to really establish what’s going on, and this is that. I believe this becomes standard practice from here on out for events.
This cryptic first page is made a bit clearer by the next two, which are a flashback to some Skrulls going to find a mysterious other Skrull in some desolate place. This Skrull is told the Throneworld has been destroyed (By Galactus, in fact), and the Empire is in shambles. This has led the Skrulls to seek this guy out. He says, “Then here’s what shall be done…” Then we hop to the present, where Tony Stark is showing someone the Elektra Skrull corpse. Again.
Now, you might be thinking, “Reed’s already seen this.” And he has. Does that mean he’s a Skrull? Is he playing dumb for Hank? Is Tony a Skrull? Does this scene just not make total sense? In this moment, it could be any of those. Meanwhile, our old pal Dum Dum Dugan has arrived on the orbiting base of SWORD, from that X-Men comic, a space station that looks… a lot like a sword. Bendis has displayed his eagerness to play with new creations to help them stick around, so no surprise the space cop from X-Men, Agent Brand, turns up in this story. But Dugan’s barely onboard when a red alert goes off.
That seems odd. Back in New York, Tony is once again rehashing how the Skrulls are undetectable, and the big brains need to figure this out, and Reed continues to act like this is all new to him, which just doesn’t make sense unless he’s a Skrull, and I’ll go ahead and say, spoilers, he’s not. Then Tony gets word of the Skrull ship and leaves the other 2 to work on the body.
Jessica really playing every angle these days. So, in short order, Black Widow is waiting by a Quinjet for more Mighty Avengers to arrive when the New Avengers appear (Courtesy of Cloak), clobber her and steal it. Hawkeye disables its motherboard so Tony can’t take remote control of it (Then how does it still work???), but everyone’s aware the Mighty team can simply follow them.
How does Leinil Yu look at his Spider-Man and think he looks anything other than about to cry? What’s the eyes, man? Well, anyway, it’s the Savage Land, and Bendis has already joking/not joking decreed what happens here, so the plane is immediately chopped by a dinosaur and crashes. Everyone makes it, of course, so they proceed on foot, led by Wolverine’s super sense of smell.
The web on the back of Spider-Man’s head coming to a point is just bizarre.
Why did the Skrull ship crash near the site of the New Avengers fight in issue 6? Important? Red herring?
The Sword base explodes. We see various agents in some kind of protective bubbles. Dum Dum, no! Then Jarvis infects Tony’s network with a virus, revealing HE’S a Skrull. Thus, like seemingly every Bendis story, Iron Man is taken out of action. Why is this his go-to thing? Carol tries to call to the helicarrier for help as Tony convulses, but the helicarrier is falling out of the sky, afflicted by the same virus. They spend a page showing you various other Stark facilities being compromised, which seems unnecessary, before showing the systems all going off line at the Raft. Man, the Raft can’t catch a break!
Noh-Varr! I forgot he was in this. Man, he’s a mess. In 2000, in the wild days of the “try anything” post-bankruptcy Marvel, Grant Morrison and JG Jones did a miniseries called Marvel Boy, about a brash young Kree soldier coming to Earth and getting up to hijinks. He met a villain named Midas who was inexplicably wearing Iron Man’s 2nd suit of armor, among other things. It was a Marvel Knights title, and it came out before Ultimate Spider-Man #1, but then Quesada started teasing that Marvel Boy was secretly also an Ultimate title. And then they put him in the main universe, instead, where his story made no sense. Not great. He was revealed to be in the main continuity during Civil War, and then he also featured in an issue of that Illuminati miniseries. Now he’s here.
And here’s these jokers. Post-Civil War, the new Thunderbolts were living in this mountain, led by Norman Osborn, written as a totally new character by Warren Ellis and drawn by Mike Deodato, Jr. I was a big Ellis fan, but the concept and Deodato kept me away. Bad enough making mass murderers like Bullseye an enslaved superhero, but the whole thing required Norman Osborn, already basically a brand-new character since coming back from the dead, yet another new character. I hated Norman being alive so much, and the last thing I wanted to see was him leading a super team.
Captain Marvel is back! He came back in a one-shot during Civil War. And, from what I understand, at the time, they really thought they were doing it, but, well… Anyway. Back in Manhattan, a tour is going through the Baxter Building when one of the tourists morphs into Sue Richards and gets access to the private quarters of the FF. Ignoring Johnny and the kids, “she” makes her way to Reed’s lab and opens the Negative Zone portal.
Heck of an opening salvo for a story, eh? Completely disabling so much of the world’s defenses in a matter of minutes. But it’s not over yet.
Oh boy! It just happens to be a collection of characters who’ve gone through radical changes and/or died in the last 20 years (And Jessica Jones in her old Jewel identity. It’s a Bendis comic, after all). Could this be the explanation for a lot of things? For Emma Frost becoming a good guy? For Scarlet witch becoming a bad guy? For Luke Cage not dressing like a joke anymore? Could this be how they get rid of Beast’s current look, where he looks like a blue lion man and everyone kinda hates it, but it stuck during Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s X-Men run and they don’t know how to fix it? I mean, I guess. But that would also kinda feel like a slap in the face, wouldn’t it? Jean Grey heroically sacrifices herself (again) in Morrison’s X-Men, and it turns out that wasn’t really her (again)? Feels like a cheat. In space, Agent Brand is calling for help and getting no answer as the Skrull armada shows up, ready to conquer Earth. And back in New York…
I mean, what a first issue, right? Bendis really bringing the kind of energy he brought to Ultimate Clone Saga, breathless, hit-after-hit excitement. I have often said there’s basically nobody in the biz better at beginnings than Bendis. Endings, tho… But that’s for later. We’re off to the races. There’s a million tie-ins to this. Some are quite fun. The FF one, for example, brings back Lyja, the Skrull who married Johnny Storm disguised as Alicia Masters, which retroactively feels like part of this, all of a sudden, instead of just a dopey way to get rid of that marriage, what luck! For the Avengers tie-ins, Bendis did something unusual. They don’t follow the event at all, but rather turn back the clock and show you how some of these Skrulls managed to replace their high profile targets, or give backstory on why they’re invading, and things like that. Which is pretty cool, showing your receipts. It’s one thing to say “Hank Pym was a Skrull,” it’s another to say, “And here’s when it happened and here’s why.” And even tho they’re pushing this blog even further out of its mandate than usual, I’m gonna cover those… just because! I’ve committed to following the Avengers titles, I feel like I gotta. We will also be looking at the special 3-issue Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man series, which I’ve never read. So, you know, strap in, it’s Skrull time.