This cover is a bit unusual, as it’s the cover to the trade paperback Bring On The Bad Guys from the 70s, a collection of comics spotlighting the major Marvel villains. The only cover in this event not referencing a single issue of a comic. Tan/Banning/Ponsor back this issue. Matt Banning used to sign his work “BATT,” which is pretty fun. More fun than this guy is having…
We rewind from there to “one month and one day ago” to find Madame Masque unsuccessfully trying to escape SHIELD custody on her way to be interrogated. The agents questioning her are real jerks, and, as it turns out, Skrulls, which she and the Hood learn when he shows up and shoots them all to free her. So then we jump forward a day to just “one month ago,” and that’s where we started.
Masque started shooting the agent in various non-lethal places and threatened to finish him until he revealed he was a Skrull. Hood demands to know how many Skrulls are on Earth, and isn’t getting anywhere, and then the Skrull finally says Earth “is ours.”
(Bendis and his 2-page spreads) Everyone starts thinking about what’s going on. They agree Tony Stark is a Skrull. They suspect Madame Masque is, which is kind of funny, since Veranke bringing a Skrull corpse to Tony is how she got so deep into the heroes’ council. Then one of the jobbers reminds the Hood he could see through illusions at Dr. Strange’s house, and says he should try that again.
Bendis really got so much mileage out of “Everyone knows about Skrulls and is paranoid now.” It just kept working. It’s a great setup.
So, this revelation falls totally flat. A real dud. The Hood’s power was demonic in nature, like, fire’n’brimstone, Mephisto-type demonic. Further, it seemed that the demon lived in the cape, and was threatening to take over. Now it’s Dormammu, which is left-field and disappointing, and also there’s no way Dr. Strange’s #1 guy has been living in a cape all this time. As with the Sentry, Bendis’ eagerness to keep this character alive has somehow resulted in him kinda ruining the character. Pretty confusing.