WHO'S GOT A SECRET IN SECRET INVASION? Episode #0 - Prologue
By Bruce! MacIntosh
Marvel's next highly-anticipated event, Secret Invasion finally kicked off this week, with the release of the first issue of that title. In this first Episode of Who's Got a Secret in Secret Invasion? We will look at which heroes have already been revealed to actually be Skrulls. Anyone could be a Skrull, so if you want to be prepared you'd better keep reading!
***Spoiler Warning*** This article will discuss Marvel characters who have recently been revealed to be Skrulls, and Skrulls who have been shown to be "friendly". So if you've been saving the last year's worth of, say, New Avengers or are "waiting for the trade", then consider this your warning: This is all about "reveals" from the last six months or so of buildup to the Main Event. The goal here is to recap for you dear reader what has gone before, so you can catch up and jump right in. (This article does not, however, reveal any of the characters and events from first issue of Secret Invasion.)
The alien shapeshifters known as the Skrulls have been around almost as long as there have been Marvel comics, making their first appearance at the same time as I made mine in late 1961. Coincidence? I'll leave that up to you dear reader to decide.
Despite the fact that Skrulls first graced the pages of Fantastic Four #2, we will not be rehashing every appearance in the last six decades. If you want the entire story, you can find that in the Secret Invasion Saga one-shot that was distributed to comic stores a few weeks ago at the perfectly reasonable price-point of free. Today, we're just going to be looking at some of the recent events and revelations that have come to a boil before the first issue of the coming 8-issue series, which just hit the stands this past Wednesday (April 2).
Who Are The Skrulls?
The Skrulls are a race of shapeshifters from the Andromeda Galaxy. They are highly organized and militaristic, and as such have conquered numerous planets over thousands of years. In fact, the Skrull Empire has spread so thoroughly across their own Galaxy and ours the Milky Way that their influence has been challenged only rival galactic Empires, the Kree and the Shi'Ar.
They came to Earth with conquest in mind many years ago and challenged the Fantastic Four in just their second adventure. The team (which at that time did not yet sport their distinctive blue uniforms) made quick work of the green shapeshifters in that first battle. Things got tougher in Fantastic Four #18 (1964), when the FF met the Super-Skrull who could mimic and use the powers of all four of the heroes at once.
The Skrulls have mounted large attacks several times since then (i.e., Kree-Skrull War, below), but because of their abilities to metamorphose into exact duplicates of their foes with their same powers they usually choose to operate under deep cover. That is what makes the coming invasion so frightening: Anyone could be a Skrull. Clearly one of the goals of the green-skinned aliens is to create mistrust that eats away at the heroes who are already still smarting from the conflicts with their former compatriots during the Civil War.
Elektra
So who are the green skinned and pointy-eared invaders who have been infiltrating the ranks of the heroes? Other than Joe Q. and Company's dropping not-so-subtle hints about 2008's big Marvel event all the way back in 2007 Con panels, the first "shot" was fired back in New Avengers #31. The comic written by Brian Michael Bendis involves a collection of heroes who still wanted to continue the Avengers' mission even though they refused to participate in the Superhero Registration Act. So they formed their own "outlaw" version of the team to do good behind the scenes. They had traveled to Japan to recover Echo, the deaf former Avenger who had been captured by The Hand.
During the battle between the New Avengers and the Hand, Echo was briefly released from the Hand's control and stabbed his chief assassin Elektra. As she lay dying, Elektra reverted to her true form a Skrull. This event is significant, because it plants the seed of mistrust among the New Avengers: If Elektra could be a dissembled alien shapeshifter, so could any of their teammates. In fact, so could any hero in the Marvel Universe! Even more significant, the fact that the Skrull posing as Elektra had probably been operating under deep cover for quite some time, indicated that it was only part of much larger plan
a Skrull invasion.
Spider-Woman of the New Avengers suggested they deliver the Elektra-Skrull to Iron Man, who was not only the former leader of the (official and registered) Avengers but is now the head of the S.H.I.E.L.D. an organization with the resources to figure out what to do about the brewing problem. Luke Cage balked at the idea of tipping their hand to Tony Stark, not only because he had ignited the flames of the superhero witch hunt, but because he could also be a Skrull in disguise.
Cage's apprehension made sense, considering Stark had acted so uncharacteristically dick-ish during the events of Civil War. However, since he technically died during the encounter with the hot, shiny Ultron in Mighty Avengers and did not revert to Skrullishness this particular Tony Stark could not really have been a disguised Skrull.
Spider-Woman nevertheless took the dead Skrull to Stark in the hospital while he was recovering from his Ultron-induced wounds. Stark was understandably concerned, as he then knew that other heroes could be Skrulls. Although she still refuses to sign the Registration Act, Spider-Woman agrees that it would be best for her to rejoin the "regular" Avengers so that she could monitor the other team members without revealing what they knew.
Black Bolt
Stark had other reasons to be concerned, because he had recently witnessed the Skrullification of another fellow hero.
Apparently, this particular Skrull invasion had actually been brewing since way back in 1971. It can be argued that comics' first big multi-issue Event-with-a-capital-"E" was the epic "Kree-Skrull War" which spanned from Avengers (v. 1) #89 through #97. Thirty-four years later, in New Avengers #7, writer Bendis revealed that following that galaxy-spanning crisis, a bunch of Marvel heroes decided they'd better form a super-secret society of super-heroes who would get together (in secret) and respond whenever there were Galactus-level threats. Only Reed Richards, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Professor X, Namor and Black Bolt, could know about their double-secret group called the "Illuminati", because, y'know, anyone could be disguised as a Skrull.
They were right
but it turns out they picked the wrong kid to be on their side of their game of galactic Red Rover.
At the climax of Bendis' The New Avengers: Illuminati series last year, Namor the Sub-Mariner killed fellow teammate Black Bolt. Wouldn't ya know it, but the mute inhuman with the giant tuning-fork on his head was really a Skrull. Oops: Turns out that a Skrull has been on their not-so-secret team all along, supposedly spying on them and reporting back to the Skrull Empire when would be the best time to mount an all-out invasion. It is no surprise that the aliens with the rolling hills for chins took this opportunity to attack, considering the disarray and in-fighting caused by Marvel's Civil War.
The Revolutionary, Cobalt Man, the Church of Hala
and more
Based on revelations in several other titles, the Skrulls have been infiltrating all points along the Marvel Universe for quite some time. In the five-issue limited series of Captain Marvel, grassroots worship services have sprung up in countries all over the world revering the the form Kree warrior as a resurrected god. The Church of Hala appears to be an invention of the Skrulls themselves, despite their historical enmity with the Kree.
While questioning the recently captured Cobalt Man, the expatriate Captain Mar-Vell learns that the villain had also been a disguised Skrull. The Cobalt Man/Skrull planted the seeds of doubt in the already unstable mind of the good Captain by declaring that he was not Captain Marvel. Now Marvel is flying around in space freaking out, unsure it he, too, is a Skrull.
In Avengers: The Initiative, Annual #1, we learned that Pennsylvania's entry into the 50-State Initiative is cleverly called The Liberteens. While the other members of the group celebrate saving the Liberty Bell from getting another crack, one of the group's members, The Revolutionary, secretly checks in by video with a hidden superior. In that one, final page, we learn that his hidden superior is a Skrull and we get to watch The Revolutionary himself change into one of the green invaders.
One scary part was their declaration of their mission to put a Skrull on ever team of the 50-State Initiative. Another concern is who was the official with whom the Revolutionary was communicating, and what is the extent of Skrull infiltration in the governments of the world?
So much for the plan of Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, et al, to make sure that each state has a properly-trained group of heroes to protect the citizenry. How's that working out for you, now, gentlemen?
Finally, Tony Start just outed Ms. Marvel as being a Skrull. Is he right? Or is this just one of the aliens who is going around posing as someone without killing the original to gain the confidence of another hero.
Dum-Dum Dugan
My regrets to fans of Dum-Dum Dugan, but the mustachioed S.H.I.E.L.D. second-in-command, is gone. To see what happened, you'll have to go online to Marvel's Digital Comics and search for "Secret Invasion Prologue". Although Marvel's new online comics site is pay-by-subscription, this is one of their free entries.
Or
I could just tell you what happened: (The real) Dum-Dum Dugan met with Contessa Valentina Allegra di Fontaine, who has been missing for a while. She repeatedly asked where Nick Fury was, and Dum-Dum stresses that he figured Nick who went undercover two years ago during the events of Civil War - was with her. Seeing that she's not going to get from Dum-Dum the information she wants, the "Contessa" runs her former teammate through with claws that resemble those of Wolverine.
The Contessa, therefore, was a Skrull in disguise and is now dissembling as Dum-Dum Dugan. As such, she has complete access to all of S.H.I.E.L.D. technology and secrets. Setting a theme that will apparently run throughout all the Secret Invasion stories, the Skrull's final words as it morphed into the form of the dying Dugan was "Don't worry. He loves you."
Friendly Skrulls
There are quite a few Skrulls out there in the Marvel Universe who are "friendlies" or at least, have been around prior to the Secret Invasion, and are therefore are characters we can more likely "trust". In truth, after seeing the variety of "good" characters who have already been replaced, it doesn't look like the Skrull Empire will need the help of these characters. In fact, since many of them have been on Earth for quite some time, and already have had lives and relationships with Earthlings for quite some time, the invading Skrulls might have trouble trusting them!
In addition, since the story is called Secret Invasion, the fact that all these characters are known to be Skrulls and their identities are to some degree public, this minimizes their likelihood of being "unfriendlies".
Here is a list of most of the characters that are known Skrulls or semi-Skrulls. If I've missed any, or you have any thoughts as to whether any of these is likely to be part of the invasion, feel free to provide your insight:
Hulkling, half-Skrull and half-Kree son of Captain Marvel. He has been a Young Avenger for quite some time, and as he struggles mightily with his Skrully-ness is too angsty to be "undercover".
Kl'rt, the Super-Skrull. Has been trying to shield Hulkling from the Skrulls, and in his spare time has been helping the Young Avengers, and Nova in the Annihilation event. Although he was one of the original Skrulls leading the original invasion attempts (Fantastic Four #18, 1964), the fact that he recently went double-undercover with the Kree and the Skrulls, it is not likely he is part of the Secret Invasion.
Xavin has been a Super Skrull-in-training, and is part of the Runaways. He has been seen publicly as a Skrull, but since s/he is by definition "on the run", might be the primary candidate for the "detainment camps" that Tony Stark will inevitably set up. (Because that's just the kind of civil-rights-depriving kind of jerk Stark is!)
Jazinda, friend and cohort to She-Hulk. She was a Skrull bounty hunter who has unusual recuperative abilities. She does not get along with her father, Kl'rt, the Super-Skrull. Peter David has said that he created Jazinda independent from the entire Secret Invasion conceit. So, I'm thinking neither Bendis or the other writers will mess with her.
Crusader. Recruit for the 50-State Initiative recruit and former partner to the late Freedom Ring. Although he revealed himself to Freedom Ring, Crusader is a deep cover Skrull agent and none of his current teammates know his true heritage.
Lyja, long ago replaced Alicia Masters and married Johnnie Storm. (You think you've got problems
Imagine your wife was a shapeshifting double-agent!) She later betrayed the Skrulls, so is very unlikely to be part of the invasion.
Ethan Edwards/Virtue is a peaceful missionary who detests the warlike ways of his Skrull heritage. Not a chance.
Skrull Beatles: Copies of John, Paul, George and Ringo, who long ago became a Beatles cover band. They've been on Earth so long in their adopted identites, they've probably even forgotten they are Skrulls.
Talos and Titannus have no love for the Skrulls, and because they can't shapeshift they are unlikely to have any involvement in the Invasion.
What Comics You Should Be Reading
Although most of the characters in the Marvel Universe will be touched in some way by the impending crisis, not every title directly ties into Secret Invasion. There will, however, be a handful of one-shots, and the ubiquitous Front Line. One thing I noticed was that not every title with the Secret Invasion: Infiltration banner or "Who Do You Trust box contained much of importance to the event. As always, unless you intend to get every Marvel comic in the next six months, you should take with a grain of salt every cover that screams that it is an "Official Tie-In!"
Right now, you should just listen to me because I would never lie to you. If you want to know where all the action has been taking place prior to the official commencement of the Secret Invasion, here is a list of series you should catch up on. Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Avengers: The Initiative, and Ms. Marvel. Then you free to start reading Secret Invasion and whatever tie-ins you can afford!
Who Can you Trust?
Looks like nobody! I'll return in a few days with an analysis of Secret Invasion #1, to tell you Who's Green and Who's Clean!