After reading this issue, I'm certain Marvel's big 2008 event has the potential to be the coolest thing they've done in a long time. It also has MUCH more potential to be the biggest trainwreck since the Clone Saga from a decade ago. It all begins with the final issue of New Avengers: Illuminati.
-To bring the series full-circle, Iron Man calls together the Illuminati to look over the Elektra-Skrull corpse. It doesn't take Stark long to note that this all happened because they were so gung-ho about paying the Skrulls a visit way back in the first issue of this series. -Facts about the Skrull that's now a corpse: It was able to evade Spider-Man's Spidey Sense, Wolverine's heightened sense of smell, and Doctor Strange's magic. Reed Richards wants to dissect the body to see how this was possible... -But then Black Bolt reveals he's a Skrull. The Skrull attacks, notably hitting Namor with Black Bolt's sonic scream. Namor eventually recovers and impales the Skrull, much to Stark's chagrin, who points out that they could have interrogated him. Xavier points out that the Skrull was completely able to dupe his psychic abilities. -Suddenly, two other Skrulls attack and they've got the powers of Thor and Colossus, respectively! Stark has Strange teleport the other Illuminati members away and, when the coast is clear, blows the Skrulls away to high hell with a massive explosion. -Now comes the part that will make your head hurt. Everyone discusses at what point Black Bolt got taken out. Was he a Skrull from the very moment they left the Skrull world the first time? Did the Skrull just suddenly take Black Bolt out recently? Was the Black Bolt that the Hulk took out in WWH #1 even the real thing? Is Black Bolt even alive or dead? With the seemingly-new ability for Skrulls to duplicate any hero's power now in play, literally ANY answer is possible. Get your aspirins ready. -The issue ends with Namor getting pissed off and leaving everyone with the Elektra-Skrull corpse.
I'm definitely leaning towards this being Clone Saga 2000. At the very least, people who cried foul for Hulk taking out Black Bolt so easily in WWH #1 can take solace in knowing it was a Skrull all along. Or was he? ARGH!
Like or not, though, it's Skrull Invasion or bust in 2008. Next year could be a long one for Marvel.
(edited by It's False on 7.11.07 1443)
"Wocka Wocka...who wants to hear a funny-ass joke?"
Thanks for the spoilers. I thought the Illuminati mini was so piss-poor that I gave up on it half way through, and I'm glad I won't have to waste any more money on it. On the plus side, at least Xavier wasn't the Skrull, as that was both the easiest and the least satisfying possibility. Do we know if Bendis is going to be wring Secret Invasion? Because while he can be a decent writer on his own, his unwillingness to pay any attention at all to continuity makes him utter shit for company-wide events.
Originally posted by Tenken347Do we know if Bendis is going to be wring Secret Invasion? Because while he can be a decent writer on his own, his unwillingness to pay any attention at all to continuity makes him utter shit for company-wide events.
Bendis is indeed slated to write the Secret Invasion mini-series. Add that to the fact that he'll be writing the tie-ins for New Avengers and Mighty Avengers and this event looks to be All Bendis, All The Time!
I realize Millar's still burned out from Civil War and Brubaker's tied up with Messiah Complex and the new Captain America, but giving Bendis total free reign over a company-wide event of this magnitude has bad idea written all over it. This is all without even mentioning that with Lenil Yu on board as the artist, there's always a chance for delays. What does Mark Bagley (one of Marvel's best and QUICKEST artists) have to do to get a big-time gig like this?
The one redeeming part of it all could be that Dan Slott's Avengers: The Initiative could also tie into Secret Invasion and Slott's been fantastic since the very first issue.
(edited by It's False on 7.11.07 1457)
"Wocka Wocka...who wants to hear a funny-ass joke?"
I didn't know Skrulls could mimic powers too. I'm not too big on comics (I love the general mythos, but have never committed to reading anything weekly), but Skrull invasion sounds LAME.
Lloyd: When I met Mary, I got that old fashioned romantic feeling, where I'd do anything to bone her. Harry: That's a special feeling.
Originally posted by It's FalseThis is all without even mentioning that with Lenil Yu on board as the artist, there's always a chance for delays.
Lenil Yu has not, to my knowledge, been late on any of his New Avengers issues. (I think Bendis even mentioned in a recent interview that he's got a few issues of Secret Invasion already drawn.) Frank Cho, however, has totally sunk the once-promising Mighty Avengers with his tardiness. Mark Bagley jumped in to clean up the mess.
As for why Bagley isn't drawing Secret Invasion, I think he has this weird stigma about him. A lot of people love him (like me), but I think just as many hate him since his style hasn't evolved much from his early-90's Spider-Man work. In Marvel's eyes, he's not a name that sells books. Not saying it's right, just an observation.
I also think a lot of the online Bendis hate is totally unwarranted, but I don't feel like getting into that at the moment.
The ending with Namor claiming not to trust any of them and then they all seemingly decide that none of them trusts each other makes me thing there was another Skrull there.
Tony sure did want all of them out of there so he could 'take out the skrulls on his own' which he does with some new power no one knew he had. I'm thinking it was a light show and he's a skrull. Notice how the area directly around where Elektra/Skrulls body was wasn't a part of the blast area? Didn't the Skrulls, way back when, have a thing about not damaging thier peoples dead bodies? I seem to remember reading something about this. I could be wrong though.
There is supposed to be only one Super-Skrull, right? What if they stole Tony's idea of cloning heroes and hey're cloning 'Skrull-Heroes' with human/skrull mixed DNA? This series looks like it gonna be pretty stupid, and that's about the stupidest idea I could come up with.
As for the Bendis hate, I don't really 'Hate' him or his writing. He has decent enough ideas and he can really pull out a good single issue here and there, but his endings are totally for shit. Great build up the his climaxsx are like a guy trying to get off looking at Rosanne Barr. Nothing is going to happen and you hate your self for even trying. (This is NOT from personal experience, you sick freaks!)
Originally posted by It's FalseWhat does Mark Bagley (one of Marvel's best and QUICKEST artists) have to do to get a big-time gig like this?
Apparently, this question has been answered literally two days after I posted this. And that answer is sign with DC.
Newsarama has learned that long-time Marvel penciler Mark Bagley, whose current exclusive contract with the publisher reportedly expires at the end of this year, will move to DC Comics to take on an undisclosed high-profile project likely sometime in 2008.
This likely means the new Mighty Avengers arc will be Bagley's Marvel swansong. Although, there's nothing in this article that says it's an EXCLUSIVE deal, meaning Bagley might come back to Marvel soon enough.
"Wocka Wocka...who wants to hear a funny-ass joke?"
Mark Bagley is my all time favorite artist. I used to try out new books just because he did the covers, like the 3 issue "New" Fantastic Four of Spidy, Wolvie, Ghost Rider, and Hulk from back in the day.
-- 2006 Time magazine Person of the Year --
"Let me see if I can get inside his mouth." -- Michael Wilbon on PTI August 28, 2007
Originally posted by CerebusThe ending with Namor claiming not to trust any of them and then they all seemingly decide that none of them trusts each other makes me thing there was another Skrull there.
I want to know why Dr. Strange didn't just use the "reveal true-self" spell he had in New Avengers.
Originally posted by CerebusThere is supposed to be only one Super-Skrull, right?
I don't think this is true anymore since there's already the Super-Skrull on the 'Runaways' team, the Super Skrull on the 'Young Avengers' team, the (Super?) Skrulls encountered in UXM, and the (original?) Super Skrull in the 'Annihilation' storyline.
While I hated the way Black Bolt had been portrayed recently, this is *not* the way the character should be rehabilitated. Black Bolt being a skrull undermines A LOT of different plots ('Son of M', 'Silent War', the 'New Avengers' issue with the Sentry, and of course 'World War Hulk'). Anything noble or commendable that the character had done in those stories is suddenly "Oh it's not him. It's a skrull pretending to be him." In essence, while you may negate the recent bad, you also negate anything positive about the character, which in my opinion is just as bad if not worse.
(edited by Jericholic53 on 10.11.07 2145) It says so right here in the wcw handbook!
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