This week in Secret Invasion:
New Avengers #40
Wow, what a follow-up to last week.
In New Avengers #40, we learn about the Skrull invasion from the Skrull side. Although Princess Veranke loudly criticizes King Dorrek for ignoring the prophecies, he’s quite content, as the Skrull scientists have gathered the genetic information from the kidnapped Illuminati (from the mission depicted in New Avengers: Illuminati #1). Dorrek has Veranke and her followers exiled, as the scientists explain that the biological codes taken from Mr. Fantastic, Blackbolt, Dr. Strange, Namor, Tony Stark and Professor X can be reverse engineered. Veranke awakens on some distant planet and kisses the ground, saying “He loves me,” as the Skrull agents said in Secret Invasion #1.
We then see Reed Richards waking up, surrounded by the Fantastic Four in a hospital room. They tell Reed about a battle with Galactus, which he clearly doesn’t remember, in an effort to gather his recall about Galactus. A nurse gets bored and shoots him, revealing that this is just a Skrull test of their new cloning abilities.
Years later, Galactus is devouring the Skrull Throneworld. Some Skrulls travel to find the exiled princess, now Queen, as seen in the opening pages of SI #1. The Queen assumes her throne and announces the plan to take over Earth as the new Skrull Throneworld, explaining why the Skrulls wish to kill off all the humans — they need to keep Earth intact and inhabitable.
Later, a Skrull scientist explains to the Queen that the DNA samples from the captured Illuminati has allowed their researchers to learn things about humanity, mutant genes and human evolution that not even the humans know, resulting in the creation of a new Super Skrull. “Any human or mutant who we can strip a DNA sample of, we can now completely duplicate their abilities,” he says.
The Skrulls contemplate a new army of Super Skrulls with multiple Earth powers, but Delegate Ch-Gra brings up that physical attacks are where the Skrulls fail against the humans time and time again. The scientist continues, and reveals that the new Super Skrulls are undetectable by mutants, magics and technologies. “As long as the shape this Skrull has chosen is maintained in its entirety … no existing power on Earth could detect it,” he says. “But it has to remain in the shape of the human,” another continues. “One would have to become that human mentally and physically. Any change could signal detection…”
They then introduce the Skrull Elektra, who explains that she has already been on Earth undetected, having been in contact with Nick Fury, Daredevil, Wolverine and The Hand. Elektra is described as being well-suited for the assignment, as “her entire persona is wrapped in mystery. She is known to the powers of the Earth, but no one knows her intimately.” Another scientist explains that there are a handful of other humans who fit that description, making them good candidates for replacement. The image is hard to make out, but I think I can identify Elektra, Blackbolt, Wonder Man and Nightcrawler. There are others, but I can’t recognize them.
The Queen then says she will be among those on the Earth infiltration assignment. She asks the counsel which of the humans is in a position to do the most damage, and up pops the image of Spider-Woman Jessica Drew.
Past Implications:
The revelation of Spider-Woman as a Skrull is huge. All throughout New Avengers and even Mighty Avengers, Drew was clearly untrustable, but she had such good reason for it. With Nick Fury vouching for her, it was hard to get too suspicious of her without being quickly reassured that she was fighting for the good guys.
The big kick in the gut for the heroes is that just last week in Mighty Avengers #12, Nick Fury made Jessica Drew his eyes on the inside of S.H.I.E.L.D. because he trusted her. He trusted her because he trailed her for a week and she didn’t change shapes. Had he known that not changing shapes was all part of their plan of being undetectable, he might’ve been more hesitant to open up to her.
The question will be when she infiltrated the team. We know the Skrulls were operating as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents before New Avengers #6. When the new team confronts Yelena Belova, the Black Widow, Drew asks her who she is working for. Widow says she works for the same people Drew works for. On the surface level, this obviously means S.H.I.E.L.D. At that point, it could also seem to mean Hydra. But now it appears it means the Skrulls. The thing is, Drew appears to not know what she means, and her reaction afterward seems genuine. Could be that she’s just a good actor, but it also could be that she simply hadn’t been replaced yet. I’m going to go with the former though. And if that’s the case, Nick Fury probably spilled the beans to a Skrull.
The explanation of why Elektra is well-suited for the job closely matches Wolverine’s theory from New Avengers #39 of why the Skrulls would want to replace Echo. The thing is, that logic also applies to him…