The Mighty Avengers #16: Holy crap, Elektra’s a Skrull! Oh wait
. . . Anyway, this issue skips way back down the line to fill in some
gaps. Elektra hired Electro to crack open The Raft? Check. One, no two,
no three Skrulls went after Elektra before she was taken down?
Check. And Skrullektra drawing the wrath of the New Avengers down upon
her was intentional? Okay, that’s a little surprising. I’m guessing
that the plan wasn’t actually for Skrullektra (Skrull name, Pagon) to
die, or was it? Was the plan to replace Elektra and then sacrifice that
piece to alert the heroes in order to sow dissention? It certainly made
the New Avengers think that Stark was a Skrull. Then again, maybe that
particular piece of paranoia would have played with their heads more if
the Mighty Avengers had quit letting them go whenever they had them
cornered.
The Incredible Hercules #119: Of all the Skrull betrayals, the
revelation of Kirby the pup hurts the most. Because coyote puppies are
cute. Especially those with cyborg enhancements. Skrullby creates
confusion among the God Squad as they attempt to take the fight to
Kly’bn, God of Skrulls. Snowbird is seemingly lost defending her allies
in time for Kly’bn to appear. And that’s okay, because he loves you, man.
The New Avengers #43: Unlike many recent issues of the core Avengers titles, this one’s sort of happening in “real-time”, concurrent with the Secret Invasion
mini. Captain America from the crashed ship confronts Spider-Man and
the Marvel Legends SDCC-exclusive set of Ka-Zar, Shanna, and Zabu. The
group clashes, and Cap punks Zabu twice. For a second, you wonder if it
IS Cap, because if there’s a lower-powered guy in the 616 who could
whip the ass of a sabretooth tiger, it’s Cap Classic. But no, a couple
of well-placed native darts and Captain Skrullerica goes down frothing.
Ooops. Spoke too soon. We are now officially in the Flashback Zone (one
zone over from the Negative Zone, the former home of Annihilus and
current home of a few regular posters). The clock turns back to Skrull
World Satriani . . . wait a second, Satriani? Does it have moons named
Vai, Malmsteen and Eric Johnson? Anyway, we see the now familiar ritual
as Skrull Pitto Nili becomes “Cap”. We also get a motivational
breakdown for the invasion by the Queen that answers a lot of questions
as to the “why” of the plan. Unfortunately, the Skrull Cap doesn’t
answer enough questions for Shanna, as she spears him in the throat.
(Interesting note: The sound that a spear makes is Chuck. Oh boy.)
Shanna gets her anger at Spider-Man, but they’re interrupted by a Six
Budda salute, no doubt courtesy of a nearby Black Widow.
So to wrap-up: Savage Land landing Classic Cap=now dead Skrull.
Avengers: The Initiative #15: The 3-D Man plot picks up as he
confides to Confirmed Skrull Crusader that they may be the only two
humans left on the base. Why? Because in a panic to remain
undiscovered, Crusader had messed with 3-D’s goggles, a move that in
turn makes 3-D see everyone but Crusader as a Skrull. In a hurry to get out and warn others, 3-D’s craft goes down in New Mexico.
For the rest of the issue, Crusader comes to the fore as we get a
flashback about his origins and how he became a human sympathizer (via
the usual channels: candy, movies, and women). He finds himself in the
midst of the New York battle from SI
#3 and winds up confronting an old comrade. After Crusader kills him in
battle, he renounces his shape-changing and declares (albeit in
narration) that he’s now and forever remaining in Crusader form.
Thunderbolts #122: This issue finally catches up to the scene of Mar-Vell bursting into the mountain HQ we saw in Secret Invasion
#1. The first part of the book does something that seems pretty Skrully
to me: they bring in a supposedly cloned Andrea Strucker, but man, is
my Skrulldar singing. Soon after, Mar-Vell creates a new door and beats
down the T-Bolts. As you’ve seen elsewhere, Norman forestalls him with
an offer of a drink and a chance to “talk about it.” And that’s pretty
much that.
New Warriors isn’t selling very well! Quick, add a red sky! Er…
a single Super Skrull for a 2 page battle and a panel of the Skrull
fleet, and we’ll call it a Secret Invasion tie-in! It’s the new hotness!
Yup, that’s all that happened in New Warriors #14 that’s
Skrull related. Oh, and the old New Warriors are taking on the New New
Warriors, cause they think Night Thrasher is a Skrull (he’s not).
Mooooving right along…
X-Factor #33 kicked off a crossover, and a crossover. The team just moved to Detroit, and now they have to deal with Skrulls and
She-Hulk. Darwin and Longshot have teamed up and are palling around
together. Darwin is trying to get to Professor Xavier, and thought
Longshot’s luck powers could get him there. X-F Investigations is hired
to find the instantly-evolving lad by his father. Their paths cross,
but not before She-Hulk’s partner (and Skrully daughter of Kl’rt the
O.G. Super Skrull) Jazinda finds the duo. Why is she looking for them
you ask? Well, hold your horses, I’m getting there! Turns out, Longshot
is… drumroll please… A Skrull!
As Jaz clashes with Skrull-shot (Long-skrull was too porn-y/pirate-y
sounding) and She-Hulk clashes with our favorite Detroit-resident
Mutants, we move directly into She-Hulk #31.
Despite Monet’s pleas (and later Madrox’s) to forego the super-hero
team-up cliché of fighting before realizing they have a common goal,
She-Hulk decides to just duke it out a bit. As she does, readers find
out the backstory behind the events of this issue. Skrull-shot is
actually Nogor, a “talisman” of the gods. Essentially, in order for the
Skrulls to go to war and have the blessings of the gods behind them,
Nogor must be present first. Every Skrull can feel this presence, hence
Jazinda’s sudden awakening in #30. Jaz also reveals to Jennifer that
she’s known about the invasion for years, but didn’t think it would
actually happen. She says if they can take out (or kill) the Talisman,
the invasion can’t go further, as the troops will be so demoralized.
Back in the present moment, She-Hulk continues to fight when she should
be (and knows she should be) talking it out. She recognizes this, and
likes feeling a bit more, shall we say, Savage? Anyway, as Jazinda
tries to convince Darwin that Longshot’s a Skrull, he mentions casually
that if Longshot WAS a Skrull, Darwin would just evolve an ability to
drop the Skrull’s disguise and reveal his true nature. Which, of
course, then actually happens the moment Darwin touches Nogor. With
that, we pause until X-Factor #34, where the story concludes.
SKRULLS! is the most obvious name for a tie-in one-shot award
winner this year (congratulations, Marvel!), and is essentially a
Skrull-y Handbook. As such, it doesn’t contain any information that
helps the story along at all. It’s a nice introduction (and an
extremely thorough one at that) to the Skrulls for new readers, or for
people that just want to know more about their previous appearances.
Whew! That’s a lot of Skrulls. Remember, Kly’Bn loves you, baby.
Related:
Damn Dirty Skrulls: What We Know Now 8Damn Dirty Skrulls: What We Know Now 7
