In the Eye of the Beholder Part 2
By: John Hebert |
Saturday June 21, 2008 |
 |
Trust No One |
| The Skrulls admit to not taking a direct roll with the events in Civil War and World War Hulk. In both cases, the Skrulls felt that the heroes would be able to cause enough damage to each other without interference, and therefore help progress the invasion. However, it is clear that the Skrulls were aware of both events with a greater than passing knowledge. Black Bolt, as we now know was a Skrull, was one of the members of the Illuminati present during the decision to send the hulk into outer space. While everyone was made to believe an error in the ship caused the Hulk to drift of course, it is far more likely that Black Bolt reconfigured the systems to ensure that the Hulk was taken out of the picture, at least temporarily. Additionally, shortly after the *unofficial* forming of the New Avengers, we witness Jarvis returning from his vacation, ready to reclaim his role as trusted butler and confidant of the Avengers. Jarvis is depicted in his grand return with not only a green handkerchief in his pocket, but a brand new pair of green eyes. For those of you who were wondering, Jarvis was born with a health set of blue eyes. Then there is the spark that started the war of heroes. The New Warriors raided a safe-house of a group of super-villains, including Cobalt Man, who was later confirmed to be a Skrull. First off, and I can't stress this enough, there were two invasion plans. The first plan was conceived by the Skrull Emperor and was a direct result of the Illuminati attempted power play against the throne home world. Angered by their audacity, and eventual escape, the emperor ordered his scientist to study the humans for future assaults. Using data taken from the Illuminati during their incarceration, the Skrull’s were able to learn everything about humanity, the mutant gene, Stark's tech, Richard's tech, and magic. At some point after the Illuminati’s escape, the princess Veranke attempts to council the emperor that a “wave of destruction” and a “devourer of worlds” is coming. And that a “world of blue will..” and before she can finish she is attacked, bagged, and left alone on an unidentified world. Gotta love swift action. During the time period of the Annihilation Wave, we are provided a scene of Skrulls returning to the unidentified planet and speaking to who we assume is Veranke. Veranke is made the Skrull queen and brought up to date on their current Earth invasion plans. Impressed with what she sees, and the knowledge that a Skrull has been impersonating Elektra successfully for over a year, Veranke decides to take the place of Spider Woman and lead the Invasion directly. Since this occurs during the same time period as Civil War, we can conclude that Jessica Drew was replaced at some point after her confession to the Avengers of being a triple-spy. Most likely during her escape from both SHIELD and HYDRA and her eventual arrival to the Secret Avengers. Speaking of the Avengers, there are several key moments throughout the series that need to be examined. First is the release of the 44 from prison back in issue #1. We observe in this issue a shadowy form hiring Electro to perform a job for an unknown group. Bendis has made it clear that this is in important scene, but don’t be fooled, it has nothing to do with the cloaked figure. Look closely at Electro, notice those amazingly green eyes? You guessed it, Electro is supposed to have blue eyes, which we observe later as he is arrested for the crime. Honestly, when you think about it, only someone who wanted to be seen would have made a “Remember my name” speech during a prison breakout. Such as a Skrull trying to hide their true activities. Soon the Avengers find themselves in the Savage Land, witnessing a rogue SHIELD group using the inhabitants to mine Vibranium. Before the Avengers can confront the group Maria Hill fires upon the group, destroying all traces of their existence. It is later discovered that the SHIELD agents in the Savage Land were in fact Skrulls. But what were they mining Vibranium for. And who really ordered their destruction. With the events of Civil War, the Avengers have split into the Mighty Avengers, and the Secret Avengers. Clearly Tony Stark is not as smart as I thought he was because, despite his own systems telling him that the Black Widow is supposed to have blue eyes, he doesn't notice that the Black Widow on his team has green eyes. Really, at this point I'm wondering if the Skrulls really needed to go to all this trouble. Eventually the Secret Avengers are sent to Japan, where they come into conflict with Elektra and the Hand. It is discovered during the confrontation that Elektra is in fact a Skrull. After the Secret Avengers discover the truth about Elektra, Spider Woman leaves the group, bringing the Skrull body to Tony Stark. The Secret Avengers believe she has done this to discover if Tony is a Skrull Spy, not realizing that Spider Woman herself is leading the invasion. While the group tries to come to grips with the latest events, Echo is attacked by DareDevil, who also turns out to be a Skrull. This single event leads us back to New Avengers #1, where Matt Murdock arrives only moments before the prison breakout to review the case of the Sentry, a Man no-one remembers except for Nick Fury, who gave the identity of the Sentry to his lover Valentina, a confirmed Skrull back during the Secret War. With the knowledge of a Skrull Invasion, Tony asks Spider Woman to join the “legal” Avengers team to help him look for a possible traitor. This allows Veranke to be in the right position when a Skrull ship is detected crashing in the Savage Land. She notifies the Secret Avengers of the incident and both teams arrive in time to watch as several of Earth's heroes, including duplicates of themselves, step out of the Skrull ship. Clealry, a battle was not far behind. While we can automatically remove Spider Man and Hawk Eye from the replaced list, as their Skrull Duplicates were killed early on in the battle thanks to a passing T-Rex, we still have several unaccounted for Heroes. We can declare the Invisible Woman an impostor, as the real Susan Storm was attacked by the Skrull who had replaced Henry Pym (Some time after Tony Stark was turned into a female Ultron. Seriously) and was herself replaced with Johnny Storms ex-lover Lyja. Thor and Phoenix can likewise be dismissed as Skrulls as the real Thor is currently in the Thor Sleep and the real Phoenix is awaiting her rebirth in the White Hot Room. Speaking of Pantheons, Hercules and Amadeus Cho have entered the Dream Time with a motley crew of deities in an attempt to take the war to the Skrull Pantheon directly. Dubbed the Sacred War, the operations was the idea of Hercules sister Athena. A woman, as Cho pointed out, with amazingly green eyes. Yet another plot to get the gods of Earth out of the way? I don’t know, but I do know that Athena’s natural eye color is gray, so you decide. Back to the ship, we can also scratch the Vision off as a Skrull agent, as he transforms himself into the Void to scare the Sentry into retreating to Jupiter. Tony Stark and Wolverine can also be identified as fakes, as Tony Stark had recently been genetically altered by Ultron and returned to human form, and Wolverine has been to visible for to long to have ever given the Skrulls the opportunity to replace him. Emma Frost has also provided little opportunity for her replacement since her mental break in astonishing x-men. As for Ms. Marvel, oh come on already! That leaves Beast, Wonder Man, and Jessica Jones up for grabs. The real Hawk Eye believes that Mockingbird, his wife, is real and refuses anyone to say otherwise. She also stands for Captain America, who she says led them to their freedom. But the world knows Capitan America is dead, and his body did not revert to a Skrull form upon his death. Could he possibly be one of the clones that the Skrulls created to experiment on? What about the Beast? He is clearly surprised to see the Black Widow with the Avengers, and says so before being kicked violently in the face. This is only further proof that Black Widow had been replaced long ago by a Skrull.But wait true believers! Take a closer look at the scenes in Secret Invasion #1 and New Avengers #40. The dialog is the same, but pay closer attention to the people speaking. Those are not the same set of soldiers speaking to their queen. And Veranke was left on that planet alone, so why does one scene shows a single cloaked figure but another shows three, and why is the queen bald? That’s right folks, there are still two Skrull factions, and both are running operations on Earth. But could one of them be here to help us? Only Bendis knows for sure, and he’s not telling, not yet anyways. Just so were perfectly clear, everything that you’ve just read doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s really going on. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that there are two Cyclops running around, or that one of them is about to come face to face with a woman with Reality Altering powers who looks a lot like the Scarlet Witch. The Skrulls seem to fear magic, as indicated by their attack on England; perhaps because it’s an uncontrollable element they wish to destroy. It would take me months to comb through the labyrinth that has been created by Bendis, and I still would probably only come out with a score of 50/50. So with that said, I know give you my own, humble, predictions on what is going to occur.
Even if none of my predictions come true, Secret Invasion is shaping up to be one of the greatest Marvel Stories ever told. |
