This doesn’t seem like something that would happen during this series, but ya never know, right?
I’ve been meaning to talk about the difference between Yu’s art here vs. the recent New Avengers run. There, they were shooting direct from his pencils for a raw, gritty look that was really nice. Here, Mark Morales is doing a good job polishing his lines, but the more crisp version is a little less appealing to me. Morales isn’t doing anything wrong, I just think that raw edge looked cool. Well, meanwhile, on the page flip, Venom has been punched clean out of Thunderbolts Mountain by the invading Captain Marvel, who seems ready to kill Swordsman, but can’t. Norman Osborn notes this, and also says he’s guessed that’s not really CM, and asks if he wants to have a drink and talk about it. While that’s going on, we hop over to Camp Hammond, where the Initiative trains superheroes, which is completely immobilized due to the Stark Tech virus. Faculty Gauntlet and Diamondback are explaining this to various cadets when Hank Pym shows up. He tells them aliens (“I couldn’t see who!”) are attacking New York, and it’s time to get these new recruits into action. But we know he’s a Skrull, so that can’t bode well. And, speaking of New York, the Young Avengers are still fighting Skrulls there. This whole book is 2-page spreads and I’m very annoyed.
A Giant-Man-type Skrull takes down Wiccan, but Kate Bishop sees the Initiative arriving and says it’s going to be ok. They launch into battle against the Skrulls. Meanwhile…
Is Echo dead? Surely not.
And there it is, just as the cover promised. Jessiskrull keeps on telling him he’s a Skrull, pointing out that his role in Civil War and his leadership of SHIELD made their invasion easier, and he is clearly freaking out about the prospect. Back in New York, things aren’t going well for the good guys, as we see the Skrulls incapacitating a bunch of them. Vision says they will not win, that others will arrive to oppose them.
Bendis just loves killing the Vision for some reason.
That is one 90s-style gun. Hey, look, it’s the payoff for a couple issues of tie-ins. Meanwhile, in the FF tie-in, Lyja’s part of the invasion is derailed by returning feelings between her & Johnny, as Franklin & Val suggest they and the Thing all go to the Negative Zone prison to see if someone there can help them get back to Earth (The top of the Baxter Building was sent to the Negative Zone. In Young Avengers/Runaways, Runaway Karolina’s Skrull paramore tries to save their team from the invasion, not being a part of the religious sect behind it, while we learn Hulkling’s fate as the prophesied ruler of the empire made him a target to the sect, who don’t want their soldiers losing faith. Inevitably Xavin, the good guy Skrull, finds himself protecting Teddy against overwhelming odds. A lot of murk allegiances in the tie-ins. Which is cool. It adds more complexity to an already complex story. It was mostly luck that so many tie-ins had their own Skrull business to work with (BOTH popular young heroes teams having a Skrull connection, even), but good luck, for sure.