Drunken Comics Rage

I was really hoping to have a lot more read by today, and give you an update on Daredevil, Moon Knight, and Trinity, but a cold has put me out of commission more or less. I've pretty much just been sitting around trying not to move a whole lot, and watching anything and everything on TV. I thought I would at least drag myself to the computer and get up something for today though.

The New Avengers #44

I've been impressed with Marvel lately on how they've handled the Secret Invasion stuff. I think it would have been a lot easier to make this title a direct tie in somehow, were you needed to read it, and SI, to get the full story. They went the opposite direction though, and did it very well. The last couple of issues of New Avengers have been one shot side stories, where reading them adds to the overall SI story, but if you completely skip them, your not going to miss anything that you really needed to read. Plus, I've also been impressed that they haven't just been throw away stories either, they've actually been interesting.

There's spoilers from here on out about this issue. 

In this issue, you learn how the Skrulls figured out how to hide themselves so throughly when they infiltrated Earth. It stats out with the Illuminati hanging out together, talking about the Skrulls. The Illuminati, if you haven't caught any of that, is made up of Doctor Strange, Mister Fantastic, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, Black Bolt and Professor X. The idea behind them is that they get together, and do things to shape the world around them. It was a neat idea.

The Illuminati are discussing how the Skrulls could have infiltrated the Earth, and not been detected. Professor X keeps pushing the conversation as to the exact way it could be done. At one point, they start discussing how they got off the Skrull ship, and no one can really remember. They then try to use their powers, and can't. Suddenly Professor X says that the experiment is terminated, turns into a super skrull looking…well..Skrull (but not THE Super Skrull) and wails on them all.

You find out that the Illuminati are all clones, on a Skrull ship, and this has all been a experiment. They are trying to get the Illuminati clones to come up with a way that the Skrulls can go undetected. It's an interesting plan. For the Skrulls, they have the greatest human minds in the areas of magic, technology and mutant powers all figuring out how they could be fooled. Once the clones figure it out, then the Skrulls can just take the data, and use it for the Invasion.

The experiments aren't going well though, and they try another approach. They basically torture a Mister Fantastic clone, even going so far as to kill his wife and kids, all hoping that he'll cough up how the Skrulls can go undetected. He doesn't, and that experiment is also a failure.

They try one final tactic, and it was a good one. The put a Mister Fantastic clone in his home in the Baxter Building, put his family around him, and make everything seem alright. It's the middle of the night, and his son Franklin comes in saying that he can't sleep. Franklin says that he heard Uncle Johnny and Uncle Ben talking about the Skrulls, how they hate the Fantastic Four, and if they can change shape, why couldn't they just sneak in and get everyone.

This is an interesting ploy, because it's using Mister Fantastic's own curiosity against him. He starts wondering if the Skrulls could really do that, and if they could, how it might be done. In his mind, he's trying to figure out something that might happen in the future, and then devising a way to neutralize the threat. Much like making a dangerous virus for the sake of figuring out a way to kill it. The Mister Fantastic clone of course comes up with how they might do it, the Skrulls kill him, and then use his own work to start the infiltration of Earth.

It's a pretty good story, and I really like the way it fits into the overall story of Secret Invasion.

Rating; 4 Stars

I'd actually give it 5 stars if your into the whole Secret Invasion event, even if it is just background stuff when it boils right down to it. If your not reading SI though, it's probably a total waste of an issue for you then. 

Filed under: General Comics Rage