The Revolution has maintained low expectations for Secret Invasion. I am not expecting anything more than a story that is the equivalent of your typical summer blockbuster movie. And so far, this approach has served me well as I have been rather entertained by this Skrull infiltration. I am definitely looking forward to New Avengers #40 since it continues the story that we got over on New Avengers: The Illuminati #1 that came out way back in December of 2006. Talk about a long wait. This should be an entertaining read. Let’s go ahead and hit this review for New Avengers #40.
Creative Team
Writer: Brain Michael Bendis
Pencils: Jim Cheung
Inks: John Dell
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: We begin with the ending of New Avengers: The Illuminati #1 with King Dorrek of the Skrulls asking his head scientist if they got everything that they needed from the Earthlings. The scientist says yes. Suddenly, Princess Veranke appears on the scene flanked by a bunch of priests. The Princess exclaims that the King is ignoring the words of the prophets. That their world is in danger. That the devourer of worlds will come for them. The Princess says that the King is unfit to rule.
King Dorrek places the Princess under arrest and has her removed from the scene. The head priest of the sciences then informs the King that they have samples of the Earthlings biological codes and that they will begin cloning experiments, dissection and reverse biological engineering.
We cut to the Princess being dropped off on a barren planet to live in exile. The Princess drops to the ground and says over and over “He loves me…”
We shift to Reed Richards waking up in a hospital bed. By his bedside are Johnny, Susan and Ben. They tell Reed that he beat Galactus. Suddenly, a nurse walks in and says that this sickens her and she blasts Reed’s head off with a blaster. The nurse transforms into King Dorrek. The members of the Fantastic Four transform back into their Skrull forms. We pan back and see that the hospital room is just a set in a Skrull laboratory.
The King storms out and rants how Richards turned one of his family members into a cow. The King gives his apologies for his action and tells his scientists to make another clone.
We zip forward years later and see Galactus devouring the Skrull Throneworld. We zip forward a few more years later and see a group of Skrull soldiers on the planet where the Princess is in exile. The Skrull soldiers tell the Princess that the Throneworld was destroyed and that their armada is close to ruins. The Skrull soldiers say that they have come back for their Queen.
We cut to Skrull world Satriani where Queen Veranke is addressing her soldiers. The Queen says that they will follow the words of the prophets. That they know they are true. That their people will have a sacred home. That it is called Earth and that it will be theirs as it is written by the prophets.
We hop over to Skrull world Tarnax X where the Queen is being shown the secret lab where the head scientist has been working on his secret task that King Dorrek assigned to him all those years ago. The scientist reveals that they have used the genetic material from the representatives of all the different segments of the super hero population: mutants, Atlantean, Kree-spawned Inhumans, master of the mystic arts and the two greatest scientific minds on Earth.
The Skrull scientist states that they now know more about the human evolution and future evolution than even the Earthlings do. The scientist unveils his new Super-Skrull warrior. That they can strip the DNA from any super hero and can completely duplicate their abilities and mix and match any of them.
But, the most important breakthrough is that they have finally found a way for Skrulls to walk among humans completely undetected. That as long as the shape that the Skrull has chosen is maintained in its entirety that no existing power on Earth could detect it. That this requires the Skrull to become that human mentally and physically.
The Skrull advisors to the Queen question if this has been tested. The Skrull scientist orders Skrull Siri to please enter. We see Electra enter the room. She turns into her natural Skrull form. Siri tells the Queen that she has been on Earth for the last cycle and that her identity was not detected.
The Skrull scientist says that there are a handful of other humans who like Electra have expired from the mortal plane and been brought back to life. That they can replace them. That the scientists have compiled a list of other candidates.
The Queen is most pleased and announces that she will be among those on the Earth infiltration assignment. That she will take a role in this strategy. That she must be on Earth to prepare them for that which is written.
The head scientist then asks the Queen while human she would like to live as. The Queen asks the scientist which human is in the position to do the most damage. The scientist then pulls up the image of the human can do the most damage. It is Spider-Woman. End of issue.
Comments
The Good: New Avengers #40 was a good read. Bendis serves up a nicely paced issue. I appreciated the fact that Bendis did not let this story drag at any point in this issue. And Bendis is able to keep this issue a interesting read without employing any action scenes. That is the mark of quality writing.
New Avengers #40 is also a well plotted issue. Bendis moves with a purpose and obviously has a clear direction in mind with this story. It is obvious that Bendis has put in the time and effort to make sure that the back-story for the Secret Invasion is rather seamless. I enjoyed finally getting the rest of the story that we got in New Avengers: The Illuminati #1 after such a long wait. Bendis does a fine job dovetailing the events of The Illuminati with Secret Invasion.
I have definitely enjoyed Mighty Avengers #12 and New Avengers #40 as Bendis continues to fill the reader in on the back-story and proceeds to flesh out the Secret Invasion story. It is evident after reading New Avengers #40 that the Skrull religion plays a central role in Secret Invasion.
And the more that Bendis fleshes out this religious aspect to the Secret Invasion story, the more I like it. The words of the prophets that Earth is the chosen land for the Skrulls is a neat twist. This adds a new wrinkle to this Skrull attack that differentiates it from previous Skrull attacks. Secret Invasion is no mere act of imperialistic conquest. Secret Invasion is a holy war for the chosen planet for the Skrulls to rebuild their throneworld.
I dig how Bendis has the head scientist for the Skrulls being able to take advantage of the fact that each member of the Illuminati represents every major group of super heroes on Earth. The explanation of how the Skrulls are able to replicate any type of super hero and make them totally undetectable was interesting.
Bendis ends New Avengers #40 with a fantastic hook ending. Not only did Bendis surprise the reader that the Queen herself is on Earth posing as a super hero, but that it appears the super hero that she chose to play is none other than Spider-Woman. Nice.
I really didn’t think that Jessica was going to be a Skrull. In Mighty Avengers #12, Nick Fury was pretty confident that Spider-Woman was not a Skrull. Evidently, unless this hook ending to New Avengers #40 is a red herring, it appears that Nick Fury has misjudged Spider-Woman and that could be a fatal error.
The selection of Spider-Woman makes perfect sense. The Queen can use the role of Spider-Woman to spy on SHIELD, the Mighty Avengers, the New Avengers and Nick Fury. No other character offers that much access to that many different groups.
Jim Cheung and John Dell serve up some solid artwork. I would certainly prefer Cheung to be the regular artist on New Avengers instead of Yu.
The Bad: I have no complaints with this issue.
Overall: New Avengers #40 was an enjoyable read. And if you are a regular follower of The Revolution you know it is a rare day that I compliment this title. This might be one of the signs of the Apocalypse. If you are enjoying the Secret Invasion storyline then I recommend that you get this issue. You will certainly dig New Avengers #40. We get plenty of critical back-story in this issue. However, if you aren’t into Secret Invasion then I would recommend passing on this issue. New Avengers #40 has nothing to do with the Avengers themselves.
7 thoughts on “Secret Invasion: New Avengers #40 Review”
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I find it interesting that one of the best New Avengers issues to come in quite a while doesn’t feature the team at all. It’s kind of indicative of how weak this team really is. I’m a big Spidey and Wolverine fan, but Luke Cage and the rest of this bunch are really second tier. I mean, I like Clint and all, but he’s not even Hawkeye here. I think Marvel really needs to re-examine who’s on this team and what they want it to do.
Marvel wants the team to sell books, which they’ve done quite handsomely (for whatever reason), so they’ll not interfere with Bendis’ formula until that changes.
Siri/fake-Elektra’s discussion of her time on Earth places the final scene as taking place some time after “Wolverine: Enemy of the State”, so the actual infiltration is quite recent (I know some people were theorizing that Black Bolt was actually replaced in the initial Illuminati mission, but this issue clearly shows that not to be the case).
Pretty good issue spotlighting the villains’ motivations; Veranke draws some sympathy (although by the end she’s got her Empress/Dominatrix outfit on and is smilingly plotting our ruin).
The interesting thing about the potential Spider-Woman replacement is that Bendis and Maleev have announced on a Spider-Woman series post-SI, so when was she replaced? (if at all) If she’s been Queen-Skrull for the whole of New Avengers (although when, or even if, she was replaced, is not known yet), then the whole revival of the character has been misdirection.
Just came from seeing Ironman (fabulous!) so I will keep it short. I enjoyed the book but I find it real interesting that the cover, though gorgeous, has nothing to do with the issue. Not just that the scene never occurs but those characters never appear. Still pretty…
I’ve been pretty sickened by Bendis’ dialogue on this title for some time, so it was good to see a good story where the heroes don’t really appear much if at all and focuses on exposition which seems to be one of his strengths. I would say all of Secret Invasion thus far has been a fum romp heading into the summer season. Bendis is obssessed with Spider-Woman so it is not surpsrising she takes a central role, but it could be a red herring.
Don’t forget Hydra she spies on them too.
So the Skrulls are a people without a home, who have been told by their religion that there is a home that belongs to them; now they will remove the current inhabitants in order to claim it.
Is this going to turn out to be a less-then-kindly allegory for The Jewish people taking Israel? Surely a mainstream comic publisher wouldn’t risk that in their big summer promotion, but something about this storyline seems to keep giving me that vibe.
I’m not Jewish, so that isn’t my usual viewpoint, but I am always suspicious of the intentions of managing editors (Dan’s fault).
Heffison: As a rabbi, I probably always have my sensitivity radar up a little too high to begin with but I have to tell you I didn’t read any Jewish/Israel reference into the Skrulls invasion either. By the way, I do notice a rather sympathetic and beautiful portrayal of the whole Jewish people in the Exile and dreaming of a return to their homeland motif in Bill Willigham’s Fables. If you haven’t discovered that gem of a book, I cannot recommend a better book to try. Shalom!