Secret Invasion #1 (of 8)

Brian Michael Bendis & Leinil Yu

***Contains spoilers***

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Events in the Marvel Universe, particular in New Avengers, have been building toward this eight-issue mini-series that will infect a majority of other Marvel titles over the next few months. In New Avengers #31, Elektra was killed and was revealed to be a skrull. From there, various characters of the universe have been striving to uncover just what the skrulls are planning, and who else has been replaced. Well, the shit sure as hell hit’s the fan in the first issue of Secret Invasion. Basically, the skrulls make their move, shutting down S.W.O.R.D. and S.H.I.E.L.D., Iron Man and all things linked to him (including satellites and various Stark facilities), maximum security prisons such as The Raft, and Thunderbolts Mountain. And the Baxter Building is being sucked into The Negative Zone. So basically, the skrulls have crippled Earth’s superheroes. They are deaf, dumb and blind. And a crapload of skrull ships are on their way to take advantage of the situation. Nice set-up for things to come. So who’s a skrull? Hank Pym is a skrull, shooting Mister Fantastic point-blank in the face, through he’s all elasticy and seems like he’ll be able to recover. The other big reveal of the issue is Jarvis, which is a brilliant move. The Avengers long-time butler is witness to everything without being directly involved. Great calculated choice to replace him. The issue ends with a skrull ship opening and a ton of superheroes spilling out to face the current members of the Avengers team, both groups of which Quesada claims in a Q & A at the back of the issue contain real and false heroes. Because I am a complete nerd, I’m going to run down both of the groups, typing the names of those I believe to be skrulls in green.

The heroes we know and love in New Avengers and Mighty Avengers:
Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Sentry, Wonder Man, Black Widow, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Echo, Ronin, Wolverine, Ares, Spider-Woman and Iron Man.

From out of the skrull ship:

Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel (old costume), Emma Frost, Wonder Man, Scarlet Witch, Luke Cage (old costume), Mocking Bird, Jewel (Jessica Jones), Hawkeye, Wolverine (old costume), Thor, Invisible Woman, Iron Man, Vision, Captain America, Beast and Phoenix (Jean Grey).

I have to believe that at least a majority of the heroes coming from the skrull ship are skrulls. Though I may be biased because I’m invested in the characters from current titles. I haven’t really followed many crossovers in recent years, but I’m looking forward to how this one plays out. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that the invasion has been creeping into titles that I’ve been reading and I feel like I need to know the truth behind what’s what and who’s who. Very clever ploy by Marvel. But I’m enjoying things thus far and this was a really well-executed issue. Things are looking quite promising and I’m looking forward to a lot of fun over the next few months.