Okay, here's an update on some things that I've been really excited about the last couple of weeks.
1) Rage of the Red Lanterns
For anyone currently reading Green Lantern, 'Rage' is just the latest chapter in the GL epic that writer Geoff Johns has been crafting for over three years. It's amazing how much thought he must have put into this story. The idea of each color in the rainbow (green = willpower, yellow = fear) having a different ability associated with it may seem hokey, but each different 'corps' introduced so far is distinct enough that we can't really confuse one for the other (except for the inevitable problem when the blue and indigo lanterns start appearing side by side).
Green Lantern is the kind of big space saga that's only been mildly used in past Green lantern stories. Geoff Johns takes advantage of the diverse population of the universe and (with the help of others) crafts different and unique aliens to populate the different corps that are coming out the woodwork. I really like the different alien designs that appeared in the previous 'Sinestro Corps War', and if the little cat Red Lantern is any indication, there should be plenty of new and interesting aliens showing up in future issues.
If anyone wants to give Green lantern a try, I am more than willing to loan one of my collections out, so long as I can trust you to return it.
2) Fallout 3
For the last week and a half, I have spent FAR too much time playing Fallout 3. It is a very exhaustive game with a huge world to explore and hundreds (if not thousands) of things to do. Like in the first falout game (for the PC), you play a survivor of a 200-year old nuclear holocaust who has spent all of his (or her) life living in a 'vault', underground fallout shelters the size of a small town. You venture forth to find your father who mysteriously disappeared for some unknown reason.
Fortunately, this is just one possible story you can follow. Don't want to find the dad that left you back at the Vault without so much as a good-bye? Then take out your aggression on over-sized mole rats that populate the immediate area as soon as emerge from the Vault. After that, maybe you could pop into the nearest trader haven called Megaton and chat up some of the locals. Several offer you odd jobs that you can do for them, including defusing an undetonated nuclear warhead lying in the center of town. What's better, is that you could choose to detonate the warhead (from a safe distance) providing you find the recent visitor that would like to see Megaton wiped off the map.
After you've run a few errands for the Megaton citizenry (or celebrated the destruction of the small town with the wicked folk of Tenpenny Tower), feel free to explore the abandoned metro tunnels that run through most of the Capitol Wasteland (the ruins of Washington D.C. are the setting for the game). Of course, the tunnels aren't necessarilly abandoned. Many are populated by Ghouls (fast zombies), Raiders, Mole Rats, and Radroaches to name a few, and they all have gear that you can pick off their corpses and keep for yourself (or sell to a merchant for other goods).
After the subways get a little boring (or you run out of ammo or things to kill), pop on over to Rivet City, an abandoned aircraft carrier that's been converted into a bustling township for a clue to your father's whereabouts.
Almost everyone you encounter has some kind of background that makes the world a little bit more interesting. The entire wasteland is filled with interesting folk to talk, trade with, or help. Several people have a job or two you could do for them to make your way in the world, whether their intentions are good or bad. Don't like running errands for people you just met? Whip out a shotgun and put a load of buckshot between their eyes, but be prepared for any 'witnesses' in the immediate area.
Suffice it to say, there is a ton to do in this game. I can get enough of it and I'm worried I might have a bit of a problem. This game is too good. Don't buy it unless you are prepared to be entranced by this masterpiece of post-apocalyptic storytelling. You control everything you do, so have fun
3) Bender's Game
Bender's Game is the latest direct-to-dvd movie for the hilarious sci-fi animated comedy Futurama. Futurama was much better than the Simpsons because it went with a different setting and actually allowed it's characters to grow with each year. Bender's Game brings the classic game Dungeons and Dragons into the Futurama world by having the drunk robot Bender Bending Rodrigeuz learn the game. I don't want to say any more than that because it might ruin some of the surprises in store for you.
I'll try to update this again soon.
I'm going to write a blog about some of the books (real books, not comics) that I've been reading recently.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
In Space, No One Can Hear You Die
In the last two days, I have become both fascinated and terrified by a new video game called 'Dead Space'.
This story actually begins several months ago when I read about Dead Space in an issue of game Informer. I've been a fan of survival horror games for a long time, and I like it even more when game developers mess with the genre.
Rather than find yourself in the remains of a top secret lab, island infested with dinosaurs, or even a city swarming with the living dead, you are transported to a derelict space ship which has sent off a distress call for aid. The hero isn't your typical paramilitary action hero, but an engineer simply sent to repair a disabled ship.
The story caught my interest, so I was enthusiastic when I read that there were be a comic book released as a prequel to the game. The 6-issue mini-series with the same name as the game was published by Image Comics with art by unique artist Ben Templesmith, a man that's captured a loyal audience with books like the original 30 Days of Night, Wormwood Gentlemen Corpse, and Fell.
The mini-series and Templesmith's art captured the dark look expected for a story of survival horror, but the story felt a little flat. The comic tells the tale of a colony that discovers an unknown obelisk, which results in numerous violent acts occurring at the hands of either the excavation team or religious fanatics. The main protagonists do little more than react to the problems caused by the obelisk before meeting the same fate that befalls many secondary characters in horror stories. The main information we gain from the comic is that the captain of the Ishimura (the ship the player goes to in Dead Space) brought aboard the corpses of some of the colonists and followed the same faith as a Church that worships 'Markers' similar to the obelisk which was discovered. This is reason why the Ishimura was left derelit and required emergency assistance by a team of engineers led by the player character in the main game.
The comic honestly didn't do much for me, but when I finally got the game this past Thursday, I was enthralled. It plays with light and shadows to heighten your gaming experience, along with the terror you feel from being left in the dark surrounded by undead humalien life-forms. Sound is another big factor in capturing the atomosphere. Creatures skuttle about everywhere, so you need to be on your guard whenever you hear something unusual.
Similar to another game I love, Bioshock, you have a few limited 'special powers' that are effects created by the suit you wear. You don't have a lot of variability, but you do have the power to slow down enemies (where you still get to move normally, so it's not like Max Payne's bullet-time) and move objects out of the way with telekinesis.
The weapons are unique, because most are actual tools rather than the assortment of pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles that you find in other genre games. Fortunately, there is one, a Plasma Rifle which I make good use of when confronted by a swarm of 'necromorphs'. There's nothing like being able to unload a clip of plasma rounds into an undead baddie to make you feel safe and sound. Unfortunately, you can run out of ammo due to the rifle's autofire, which is not a problem with the other weapons.
I know this sounds like a review, but I am just really enjoying the game and wanted to let anyone who reads this to know. Check out Dead Space. It's on PS3 and Xbox 360, so if you're a fan of survival horror or just sci-fi action games, you need to give it a try.
I recommend it for fans of Bioshock and Resident Evil.
This story actually begins several months ago when I read about Dead Space in an issue of game Informer. I've been a fan of survival horror games for a long time, and I like it even more when game developers mess with the genre.
Rather than find yourself in the remains of a top secret lab, island infested with dinosaurs, or even a city swarming with the living dead, you are transported to a derelict space ship which has sent off a distress call for aid. The hero isn't your typical paramilitary action hero, but an engineer simply sent to repair a disabled ship.
The story caught my interest, so I was enthusiastic when I read that there were be a comic book released as a prequel to the game. The 6-issue mini-series with the same name as the game was published by Image Comics with art by unique artist Ben Templesmith, a man that's captured a loyal audience with books like the original 30 Days of Night, Wormwood Gentlemen Corpse, and Fell.
The mini-series and Templesmith's art captured the dark look expected for a story of survival horror, but the story felt a little flat. The comic tells the tale of a colony that discovers an unknown obelisk, which results in numerous violent acts occurring at the hands of either the excavation team or religious fanatics. The main protagonists do little more than react to the problems caused by the obelisk before meeting the same fate that befalls many secondary characters in horror stories. The main information we gain from the comic is that the captain of the Ishimura (the ship the player goes to in Dead Space) brought aboard the corpses of some of the colonists and followed the same faith as a Church that worships 'Markers' similar to the obelisk which was discovered. This is reason why the Ishimura was left derelit and required emergency assistance by a team of engineers led by the player character in the main game.
The comic honestly didn't do much for me, but when I finally got the game this past Thursday, I was enthralled. It plays with light and shadows to heighten your gaming experience, along with the terror you feel from being left in the dark surrounded by undead humalien life-forms. Sound is another big factor in capturing the atomosphere. Creatures skuttle about everywhere, so you need to be on your guard whenever you hear something unusual.
Similar to another game I love, Bioshock, you have a few limited 'special powers' that are effects created by the suit you wear. You don't have a lot of variability, but you do have the power to slow down enemies (where you still get to move normally, so it's not like Max Payne's bullet-time) and move objects out of the way with telekinesis.
The weapons are unique, because most are actual tools rather than the assortment of pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles that you find in other genre games. Fortunately, there is one, a Plasma Rifle which I make good use of when confronted by a swarm of 'necromorphs'. There's nothing like being able to unload a clip of plasma rounds into an undead baddie to make you feel safe and sound. Unfortunately, you can run out of ammo due to the rifle's autofire, which is not a problem with the other weapons.
I know this sounds like a review, but I am just really enjoying the game and wanted to let anyone who reads this to know. Check out Dead Space. It's on PS3 and Xbox 360, so if you're a fan of survival horror or just sci-fi action games, you need to give it a try.
I recommend it for fans of Bioshock and Resident Evil.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Matt Hardy - New ECW Champion
I know that I normally write about comic book stuff, but I just can't resist celebrating the win by one of my favorite wrestlers of the current decade.
Matt Hardy has been wrestling for the WWE since the late 1990s. He and his brother Jeff introduced a unique style of tag team wrestling to mainstream audiences. You might say they were just ripping off ECW's style, but in the WWF, the Hardys were on a larger stage with a much larger audience who clamored for their high risk moves and the near-suicidal lengths they would go to destroy their bodies.
Thankfully, despite a few brief periods of injury(or drug)-caused inactivity, the hardys have maintained a certain athletic ability. Jeff still goes for high-risk maneuvers and gets a bigger pop, but Matt has become a more accomplished mat-based wrestler, merging his fast-paced style with the 'WWE style' that myself and the internet wrestling community like to shit on.
Since the official break-up of the Hardys back in 2002, Matt changed himself from a hugely-popular tag team grappler to a singles wrestler with an unknown future. Matt crafted the 'Matt Hardy Version1' gimmick that made him a heel and allowed him to play off the 'I'm better than you' personality that many fans hate about the 'bad guys' of professional wrestling. Fortunately, with the way Matt played the character, fans started to get behind him. Unfortunately, the V.1 gimmick was moved to Raw (so Matt could be with his girlfriend Lita) where it was almost immediately buried, forcing him to lose to all manner of wrestlers whose glory days were long since bheind them.
After an injury at the hands of WWE wrestler Kane, Matt sat at home for a few months while his girlfriend started secretly banging one of his closest friends eventually leading to WWE firing him.
Fortunately, the Internet Wrestling COmmunity got behind Matt and he was soon back in the ring, even though is career was effectively at a stand-still for the next two years, as he entered off-and-on feuds with other mid-carders.
Recently, this changed. Last year, Matt started a feud with United States champion MVP, which saw the two competing in various contests to see who was better. The feud was so good that they eventually won the tag team titles and reluctantly defended them against the few teams Smackdown had to offer, until inevitably losing them last November. Still, Hardy had the last laugh and won the US title from MVP just a few months ago.
As US champ, Matt was later drafted to ECW, where he defended the title on two different channels and two different shows, sometimes in the same week. His lackluster reign ended when he lost the title to Shelton Benjamin just two short months ago.
Thankfully, this freed Matt from a secondary title and allowed him to focus on the ECW World title. If you couldn't tell by the title of this blog, he was successful, but not without his share of speedbumps.
One of the speed bumps was then-ECW champ Marc Henry, a former olympian whose wrestling career up until now was largely a joke, until a racial remark by a WWE writer led to a title reign as a way fo making it up to him. Nicknamed the 'Silverback', Marc Henry could probably swallow Hardy whole if he wanted to.
The other speedbump was Marc Henry's manager, Tony Atlas, a former strongman whose ability to talk is the only thing worse than his ability to foul up the matches he attempts to interfere in. During Hardy's two matches with Henry, Tony Atlas blocked attempts by Matt to make a winning pin while looking confused and completely out of place.
Thankfully, at last night's ECW Scramble match, Atlas was not a factor, as Matt Hardy beat four others (FIt Finlay, Chavo Guerrerro, the Miz, and Marc Henry) to win one of the best matches of the Pay-Per-View.
Now, Matt's the top dog in the ECW yard. The sky is the limit to how far Matt can go as ECW champion. He keeps himself in good shape and does not take advantage of the performance enhancing drugs that other wrestlers use. The last ECW champ to have those qualifications was former World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk.
Could Matt Hardy one day hold the World Heavyweight or WWE title? I think it's only a 'MATT'er of time.
Matt Hardy has been wrestling for the WWE since the late 1990s. He and his brother Jeff introduced a unique style of tag team wrestling to mainstream audiences. You might say they were just ripping off ECW's style, but in the WWF, the Hardys were on a larger stage with a much larger audience who clamored for their high risk moves and the near-suicidal lengths they would go to destroy their bodies.
Thankfully, despite a few brief periods of injury(or drug)-caused inactivity, the hardys have maintained a certain athletic ability. Jeff still goes for high-risk maneuvers and gets a bigger pop, but Matt has become a more accomplished mat-based wrestler, merging his fast-paced style with the 'WWE style' that myself and the internet wrestling community like to shit on.
Since the official break-up of the Hardys back in 2002, Matt changed himself from a hugely-popular tag team grappler to a singles wrestler with an unknown future. Matt crafted the 'Matt Hardy Version1' gimmick that made him a heel and allowed him to play off the 'I'm better than you' personality that many fans hate about the 'bad guys' of professional wrestling. Fortunately, with the way Matt played the character, fans started to get behind him. Unfortunately, the V.1 gimmick was moved to Raw (so Matt could be with his girlfriend Lita) where it was almost immediately buried, forcing him to lose to all manner of wrestlers whose glory days were long since bheind them.
After an injury at the hands of WWE wrestler Kane, Matt sat at home for a few months while his girlfriend started secretly banging one of his closest friends eventually leading to WWE firing him.
Fortunately, the Internet Wrestling COmmunity got behind Matt and he was soon back in the ring, even though is career was effectively at a stand-still for the next two years, as he entered off-and-on feuds with other mid-carders.
Recently, this changed. Last year, Matt started a feud with United States champion MVP, which saw the two competing in various contests to see who was better. The feud was so good that they eventually won the tag team titles and reluctantly defended them against the few teams Smackdown had to offer, until inevitably losing them last November. Still, Hardy had the last laugh and won the US title from MVP just a few months ago.
As US champ, Matt was later drafted to ECW, where he defended the title on two different channels and two different shows, sometimes in the same week. His lackluster reign ended when he lost the title to Shelton Benjamin just two short months ago.
Thankfully, this freed Matt from a secondary title and allowed him to focus on the ECW World title. If you couldn't tell by the title of this blog, he was successful, but not without his share of speedbumps.
One of the speed bumps was then-ECW champ Marc Henry, a former olympian whose wrestling career up until now was largely a joke, until a racial remark by a WWE writer led to a title reign as a way fo making it up to him. Nicknamed the 'Silverback', Marc Henry could probably swallow Hardy whole if he wanted to.
The other speedbump was Marc Henry's manager, Tony Atlas, a former strongman whose ability to talk is the only thing worse than his ability to foul up the matches he attempts to interfere in. During Hardy's two matches with Henry, Tony Atlas blocked attempts by Matt to make a winning pin while looking confused and completely out of place.
Thankfully, at last night's ECW Scramble match, Atlas was not a factor, as Matt Hardy beat four others (FIt Finlay, Chavo Guerrerro, the Miz, and Marc Henry) to win one of the best matches of the Pay-Per-View.
Now, Matt's the top dog in the ECW yard. The sky is the limit to how far Matt can go as ECW champion. He keeps himself in good shape and does not take advantage of the performance enhancing drugs that other wrestlers use. The last ECW champ to have those qualifications was former World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk.
Could Matt Hardy one day hold the World Heavyweight or WWE title? I think it's only a 'MATT'er of time.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Stories of Comics Past: Peter David’s Visit to the X-Men’s Future
Days of Future Past holds the title of the most well known dystopic X-men future. Sentinels hunt the last free mutants while the remaining mutants hatch a plot to halt their present from occurring. The epic story has set the basis for much of the alternate future X-Men stories and parallels other post-apocalyptic futures.
A second less-popular future that awaits the X-Men is somewhat brighter, a world where humanity and mutants living in relative peace, despite the shadow of hatred and violence lurking everywhere. This is the future of Bishop, an X-man who first appeared thanks to Whilce Portacio in 1991.
Bishop arrived while hunting temporal fugitives from his own time and for one reason or another never returned to his own time and joined the X-men’s Gold Team. Bishop remained a mysterious mutant whose back-story was fleshed out in a series of excellent comics by John Ostrander.
Bishop’s future represented a return to Charles Xavier’s dream of peaceful coexistence. Humans and mutants worked together to rebuild society after a dark age of Hounds (indoctrinated mutants hunting their own) ferreting out their fellows and imprisoning them in camps. After the end of the internment camps, humans and mutants held a fragile peace that could be destroyed at any second. Violent fringe groups, such as the Exhumes (a future Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) and the Emplates (mutant vampires based on the Generation X villain Emplate), preyed on the populace, and there was even an incarnation of the Hellfire Club led by a man named Shaw. The truce seemed destined to end with so many forces working against it.
Fortunately, even in this dangerous time, there were those who upheld justice and worked hard to maintain the peace between the two races of man. There were the XSE, Xavier’s Security Forces. Bishop was just one of these future law enforcers and did what he could to hunt down those that would reignite the war between sapien and superior.
Of course, this future wouldn’t have been possible if not for a key event, which up until this week had yet to be told. Back during the time of the prison camps, when Hounds (indoctrinated mutants hunting their own) ferreted out their fellows in service to a brutal human/Sentinel government and all mutants were branded with an M so that there heritage could not be hidden, a single voice cried out for it to end and bring freedom to the imprisoned mutant populace. This jarring act would become known as the Summers Rebellion and unite the humans and mutants against the Sentinel threat. The Rebellion would later be the basis for the fragile truce maintained by the mutant-human leadership of Bishop’s time.
This future has been mostly ignored for the last decade until Jamie Madrox and Layla Miller took a trip there during the recent line-wide Messiah Complex storyline. Jamie’s duplicate was killed, but Layla Miller remained, a branded prisoner of a mutant internment camp. Her story continued in the new X-Factor Layla Miller one-shot, which came out this week. I had the pleasure of reading it last week, but waited until it released to comment on the book.
Peter David has a good grasp of X-Men history as well as the various mutant characters he is responsible for. He took a reviled one-note character from the House of M mini-series and turned her into a vital member of X-Factor Investigations, despite her only power of ‘knowing stuff’. His X-factor run is a diamond in the rough of the inconsistent X-titles that come out each month. Even though he has characters that most of the other x-writers don’t want to use (likely due to the lack of ‘prestige’ of characters like Wolfsbane, Strong Guy, M, and Rictor), he has created a well-defined cast and doesn’t avoid the long history each of them brings to the table.
David’s dedication to history (whether in marvel comics or the novels he writes) makes him an ideal writer for the telling the history of the Summers Rebellion. He takes elements first introduced in Morrison’s run and adapts them to the future of the Summers clan. An interesting new character is introduced and the first shot in mutant liberation is fired. I really hope that Peter David or another qualified writer returns to this future to continue the story. The rest of the tale of the Summers Rebellion needs to be told after an exciting first chapter.
A second less-popular future that awaits the X-Men is somewhat brighter, a world where humanity and mutants living in relative peace, despite the shadow of hatred and violence lurking everywhere. This is the future of Bishop, an X-man who first appeared thanks to Whilce Portacio in 1991.
Bishop arrived while hunting temporal fugitives from his own time and for one reason or another never returned to his own time and joined the X-men’s Gold Team. Bishop remained a mysterious mutant whose back-story was fleshed out in a series of excellent comics by John Ostrander.
Bishop’s future represented a return to Charles Xavier’s dream of peaceful coexistence. Humans and mutants worked together to rebuild society after a dark age of Hounds (indoctrinated mutants hunting their own) ferreting out their fellows and imprisoning them in camps. After the end of the internment camps, humans and mutants held a fragile peace that could be destroyed at any second. Violent fringe groups, such as the Exhumes (a future Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) and the Emplates (mutant vampires based on the Generation X villain Emplate), preyed on the populace, and there was even an incarnation of the Hellfire Club led by a man named Shaw. The truce seemed destined to end with so many forces working against it.
Fortunately, even in this dangerous time, there were those who upheld justice and worked hard to maintain the peace between the two races of man. There were the XSE, Xavier’s Security Forces. Bishop was just one of these future law enforcers and did what he could to hunt down those that would reignite the war between sapien and superior.
Of course, this future wouldn’t have been possible if not for a key event, which up until this week had yet to be told. Back during the time of the prison camps, when Hounds (indoctrinated mutants hunting their own) ferreted out their fellows in service to a brutal human/Sentinel government and all mutants were branded with an M so that there heritage could not be hidden, a single voice cried out for it to end and bring freedom to the imprisoned mutant populace. This jarring act would become known as the Summers Rebellion and unite the humans and mutants against the Sentinel threat. The Rebellion would later be the basis for the fragile truce maintained by the mutant-human leadership of Bishop’s time.
This future has been mostly ignored for the last decade until Jamie Madrox and Layla Miller took a trip there during the recent line-wide Messiah Complex storyline. Jamie’s duplicate was killed, but Layla Miller remained, a branded prisoner of a mutant internment camp. Her story continued in the new X-Factor Layla Miller one-shot, which came out this week. I had the pleasure of reading it last week, but waited until it released to comment on the book.
Peter David has a good grasp of X-Men history as well as the various mutant characters he is responsible for. He took a reviled one-note character from the House of M mini-series and turned her into a vital member of X-Factor Investigations, despite her only power of ‘knowing stuff’. His X-factor run is a diamond in the rough of the inconsistent X-titles that come out each month. Even though he has characters that most of the other x-writers don’t want to use (likely due to the lack of ‘prestige’ of characters like Wolfsbane, Strong Guy, M, and Rictor), he has created a well-defined cast and doesn’t avoid the long history each of them brings to the table.
David’s dedication to history (whether in marvel comics or the novels he writes) makes him an ideal writer for the telling the history of the Summers Rebellion. He takes elements first introduced in Morrison’s run and adapts them to the future of the Summers clan. An interesting new character is introduced and the first shot in mutant liberation is fired. I really hope that Peter David or another qualified writer returns to this future to continue the story. The rest of the tale of the Summers Rebellion needs to be told after an exciting first chapter.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Revelations and Reveals: Big Happenings in the DC and Marvel Universe from this week
Marvel and DC released some interesting books this past Wednesday that tied into their latest crossovers: Secret Invasion, Final Crisis, Batman Rest in Peace, and X-Men Manifest Destiny.
**Warning – Spoilers**
Don’t read this and then complain about me ruining the story for you.
Secret Invasion:
The next chapter of the main series came out and it confirmed what my Secret Invasion theory (which you can read in last week’s blog) proposed: all the ‘heroes’ that were on the Skrull ship that crashed in the Savage Land were actually Skrulls. Emma Frost, Sue Storm, Jessica Jones, and even Mockingbird were all Skrull imposters. Unfortunately, the story didn’t bother to explain why the Skrulls would send infiltrators with various degrees of out of date information. Most of them seemed to be from periods at least 15 years old (in real time, not Marvel time). For example, Sue Storm didn’t know that Reed Richards had kids. The Skrulls would have had better luck passing off their infiltrators as being recently abducted (say around the time of Marvel’s Civil War).
Other than the big reveal, the issue was a typical ‘heroes get organized and take the fight back to the enemy’ story, but there should really be more meat in the main series since we’re already up to issue 5, with only 3 issues left.
To coincide with the release of issue 5, there were a lost of tie-ins this week. Secret Invasion Thor, Secret Invasion Inhumans, Secret Invasion X-Men, and Secret Invasion Runaways Young Avengers all shipped this week, coming very close to watering down the event. Marvel feels that for a big crossover to be successful, there have to be more tie-ins than most people could stand. Thor was notable for bringing back Beta Ray Bill after his death in the post-Civil War Omega Flight mini-series, while the X-Men shows the merry mutants defending their new home of San Francisco. Inhumans was nothing special. It had a beautiful cover, but the inside could have given more information on Black Bolt’s abduction. Instead, Medusa rallies the Inhumans and a Skrull infiltrator is revealed. Runaways/Young Avengers dealt with the teenage super-groups on the run in New York and trying to use Hulkling’s status as Skrull royalty to stop the war. I’m not sure if any of these books will make a significant contribution to the Secret Invasion story line, but I’ll wait to make a judgement until they are finished.
Also, on a side note, on the third-to-last page of Secret Invasion #5, it looks like Wonder Man (who arrived with the Avengers and not on the Skrull ship) was colored green, like one of the Skrull imposters. I’m anxious to see if Marvel comments on the mistake or reveals that a Skrull replaced Wonder Man.
Final Crisis:
Even though the main series didn’t come out this week, there was another mini-series tie-in. I’ve been very pleased with the other tie-ins so far (Requiem, Rogue Revenge), and the new mini-series Revelations kicked off an interesting story. It spotlights two conflicted heroes, Crispus Allen (a.k.a. the new Spectre who is still not comfortable with his new role) and Renee Montoya (a.k.a. the new Question who is on the run from the Church of Crime which wants her to lead them). Both characters are former partners who worked well together in Greg Rucka’s Gotham Central, and Rucka is returning to the dynamic by put the two on opposing sides. I’m not sure why the Spectre would need to exact vengeance on Montoya, but I’m sure Rucka has a good explanation.
Before going after Renee, the Spectre goes after one of the most infamous super-villains in recent years, the demented Dr. Light whose status was changed forever after Brad Meltzer’s excellent Identity Crisis mini-series. The Spectre carries out a unique punishment (you’ll have to read it to see it), but only time will tell if Dr. Light returns. Effigy, an unimportant Kyle Rayner Green Lantern villain, is the next to feel the Spectre’s wraith, as he was involved in the death of the Martian Manhunter in Final Crisis #1. Spectre tries to take down Libra, the newest leader of the Society, but something causes him to be rendered temporarily powerless. I like stories with the Spectre going after super-villains. It’s a waste to have him primarily target normal human beings, which has been done in previous Spectre stories, when the victims of the super-villain community cry out for vengeance.
Also, next week the Final Crisis Legion of Three Worlds starts and I expect that it will blow all other Final Crisis books out of the water. It’s going to be done by Geoff Johns and George Perez. I don’t see how it doesn’t surpass all expectations.
Universe of Super-Heroes No-Prize Question of the Week:
In Final Crisis Revelations, the Hangmen say they faked their deaths with the help of Doctor Psycho. Email em with the storyline where this event occurred (or at least the circumstances surrounding the story line) and you will win a genuine Universe No-Prize.
Batman Rest in Peace
In the newest Rest in Peace issue, Batman is still roaming the streets after switching to a third personality (a ‘back-up’ from the Batman and Bruce Wayne identities). I don’t know whether everything he’s experiencing is on another wavelength from the way we normally see things or if he’s finally lost his mind. For all I know, it could just be an act to give himself time to properly evaluate the threat of the Black Glove and then take measures to eliminate them. Also, Robin makes contact with some outside allies who will hopefully make a difference.
I hope that when this story line is complete we’re given a satisfactory explanation for Batman’s mental state. Grant Morrison’s writing style is not receptive to long-term comic readers, and I would hate for the entire story to be a waste of time if Morrison didn’t bother to properly think it threw before writing it.
X-Men Manifest Destiny
The new San Francisco-based X-Men are spotlighted in the new Astonishing X-Men and Secret Invasion X-Men.
Warren Ellis takes the Astonishing X-Men to Indonesia, where they visit ‘the spaceship graveyard’, a location that should have received a better background than the one given in Astonishing X-Men #25. I wonder what kind of deal the Indonesian government has for letting corporations dump the remains of alien spacecraft on one of their islands, but I doubt this will be explained. Also, Ellis ignores the artificially created mutant that was killed in the previous issue and what he was doing with the poorly named ‘Subject X’. Finally, we don’t know what the ‘ghost-box’ that Subject X was using is supposed to do. With all these unanswered questions, you have to ask yourself if it’s worth sticking around for. I’ll still be reading it, but I doubt I’ll be interested in the answers I get. Ellis can be either hit or miss, but I’d hate if his X-Men run fizzled out before it really had a chance to take off.
In Secret Invasion X-Men, Cyclops leads the mutants against a Skrull army. The X-Men break up into small teams to deal with multiple Skrull incursions. I look forward to Cyclops’s tactical mind to be showcased, but I can’t help but question whether such a large force is needed to pacify San Francisco. The skrulls didn’t seem to know the X-Men would be there, so why would a city with almost no superhuman population be targeted? If you can get past that Skrull tactical blunder, you should enjoy the story. The X-Men are defending their turf against hostile invaders, and with no reason to hold back, the Skrulls are in for one heck of a fight.
Finally, the new Uncanny X-Men is coming out next week. It’s a good issue, with mutant attacks running rampant following San Francisco being declared a safe haven for mutants everywhere. Give it a try, and let me know what you think of it. Also, the non-Manifest Destiny one-shot X-Factor Layla Miller comes out next week. I really liked it because it shows the transplanted mutant girl surviving in a Bishop’s dark future. Peter David should really be given an important book to write, because X-factor doesn’t get the respect it deserves as a consistently entertaining and well-written X-book.
That’s all for now. I’ll see you next week.
**Warning – Spoilers**
Don’t read this and then complain about me ruining the story for you.
Secret Invasion:
The next chapter of the main series came out and it confirmed what my Secret Invasion theory (which you can read in last week’s blog) proposed: all the ‘heroes’ that were on the Skrull ship that crashed in the Savage Land were actually Skrulls. Emma Frost, Sue Storm, Jessica Jones, and even Mockingbird were all Skrull imposters. Unfortunately, the story didn’t bother to explain why the Skrulls would send infiltrators with various degrees of out of date information. Most of them seemed to be from periods at least 15 years old (in real time, not Marvel time). For example, Sue Storm didn’t know that Reed Richards had kids. The Skrulls would have had better luck passing off their infiltrators as being recently abducted (say around the time of Marvel’s Civil War).
Other than the big reveal, the issue was a typical ‘heroes get organized and take the fight back to the enemy’ story, but there should really be more meat in the main series since we’re already up to issue 5, with only 3 issues left.
To coincide with the release of issue 5, there were a lost of tie-ins this week. Secret Invasion Thor, Secret Invasion Inhumans, Secret Invasion X-Men, and Secret Invasion Runaways Young Avengers all shipped this week, coming very close to watering down the event. Marvel feels that for a big crossover to be successful, there have to be more tie-ins than most people could stand. Thor was notable for bringing back Beta Ray Bill after his death in the post-Civil War Omega Flight mini-series, while the X-Men shows the merry mutants defending their new home of San Francisco. Inhumans was nothing special. It had a beautiful cover, but the inside could have given more information on Black Bolt’s abduction. Instead, Medusa rallies the Inhumans and a Skrull infiltrator is revealed. Runaways/Young Avengers dealt with the teenage super-groups on the run in New York and trying to use Hulkling’s status as Skrull royalty to stop the war. I’m not sure if any of these books will make a significant contribution to the Secret Invasion story line, but I’ll wait to make a judgement until they are finished.
Also, on a side note, on the third-to-last page of Secret Invasion #5, it looks like Wonder Man (who arrived with the Avengers and not on the Skrull ship) was colored green, like one of the Skrull imposters. I’m anxious to see if Marvel comments on the mistake or reveals that a Skrull replaced Wonder Man.
Final Crisis:
Even though the main series didn’t come out this week, there was another mini-series tie-in. I’ve been very pleased with the other tie-ins so far (Requiem, Rogue Revenge), and the new mini-series Revelations kicked off an interesting story. It spotlights two conflicted heroes, Crispus Allen (a.k.a. the new Spectre who is still not comfortable with his new role) and Renee Montoya (a.k.a. the new Question who is on the run from the Church of Crime which wants her to lead them). Both characters are former partners who worked well together in Greg Rucka’s Gotham Central, and Rucka is returning to the dynamic by put the two on opposing sides. I’m not sure why the Spectre would need to exact vengeance on Montoya, but I’m sure Rucka has a good explanation.
Before going after Renee, the Spectre goes after one of the most infamous super-villains in recent years, the demented Dr. Light whose status was changed forever after Brad Meltzer’s excellent Identity Crisis mini-series. The Spectre carries out a unique punishment (you’ll have to read it to see it), but only time will tell if Dr. Light returns. Effigy, an unimportant Kyle Rayner Green Lantern villain, is the next to feel the Spectre’s wraith, as he was involved in the death of the Martian Manhunter in Final Crisis #1. Spectre tries to take down Libra, the newest leader of the Society, but something causes him to be rendered temporarily powerless. I like stories with the Spectre going after super-villains. It’s a waste to have him primarily target normal human beings, which has been done in previous Spectre stories, when the victims of the super-villain community cry out for vengeance.
Also, next week the Final Crisis Legion of Three Worlds starts and I expect that it will blow all other Final Crisis books out of the water. It’s going to be done by Geoff Johns and George Perez. I don’t see how it doesn’t surpass all expectations.
Universe of Super-Heroes No-Prize Question of the Week:
In Final Crisis Revelations, the Hangmen say they faked their deaths with the help of Doctor Psycho. Email em with the storyline where this event occurred (or at least the circumstances surrounding the story line) and you will win a genuine Universe No-Prize.
Batman Rest in Peace
In the newest Rest in Peace issue, Batman is still roaming the streets after switching to a third personality (a ‘back-up’ from the Batman and Bruce Wayne identities). I don’t know whether everything he’s experiencing is on another wavelength from the way we normally see things or if he’s finally lost his mind. For all I know, it could just be an act to give himself time to properly evaluate the threat of the Black Glove and then take measures to eliminate them. Also, Robin makes contact with some outside allies who will hopefully make a difference.
I hope that when this story line is complete we’re given a satisfactory explanation for Batman’s mental state. Grant Morrison’s writing style is not receptive to long-term comic readers, and I would hate for the entire story to be a waste of time if Morrison didn’t bother to properly think it threw before writing it.
X-Men Manifest Destiny
The new San Francisco-based X-Men are spotlighted in the new Astonishing X-Men and Secret Invasion X-Men.
Warren Ellis takes the Astonishing X-Men to Indonesia, where they visit ‘the spaceship graveyard’, a location that should have received a better background than the one given in Astonishing X-Men #25. I wonder what kind of deal the Indonesian government has for letting corporations dump the remains of alien spacecraft on one of their islands, but I doubt this will be explained. Also, Ellis ignores the artificially created mutant that was killed in the previous issue and what he was doing with the poorly named ‘Subject X’. Finally, we don’t know what the ‘ghost-box’ that Subject X was using is supposed to do. With all these unanswered questions, you have to ask yourself if it’s worth sticking around for. I’ll still be reading it, but I doubt I’ll be interested in the answers I get. Ellis can be either hit or miss, but I’d hate if his X-Men run fizzled out before it really had a chance to take off.
In Secret Invasion X-Men, Cyclops leads the mutants against a Skrull army. The X-Men break up into small teams to deal with multiple Skrull incursions. I look forward to Cyclops’s tactical mind to be showcased, but I can’t help but question whether such a large force is needed to pacify San Francisco. The skrulls didn’t seem to know the X-Men would be there, so why would a city with almost no superhuman population be targeted? If you can get past that Skrull tactical blunder, you should enjoy the story. The X-Men are defending their turf against hostile invaders, and with no reason to hold back, the Skrulls are in for one heck of a fight.
Finally, the new Uncanny X-Men is coming out next week. It’s a good issue, with mutant attacks running rampant following San Francisco being declared a safe haven for mutants everywhere. Give it a try, and let me know what you think of it. Also, the non-Manifest Destiny one-shot X-Factor Layla Miller comes out next week. I really liked it because it shows the transplanted mutant girl surviving in a Bishop’s dark future. Peter David should really be given an important book to write, because X-factor doesn’t get the respect it deserves as a consistently entertaining and well-written X-book.
That’s all for now. I’ll see you next week.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Secret Invasion: The Big Picture (a.k.a. Money Don't Buy Night Thrasher)
I wrote this theory a few months ago and showed it to some of my customers. I hope you enjoy it and feel free to send me your comments at either:
universe7@juno.com
or
snakewing2000@yahoo.com
Also, you will win a very special Universe of Super-Heroes No-Prize if you can figure out where the title of this blog came from.
Enjoy
-------------------
Night Thrasher was the key. I should have known it all along.
Case 1:
Despite his skateboard gimmick, Night Thrasher has long been a positive role-model. He is a wealthy African-American who aspires to be the best as both a businessman and a super-hero. He will not sell-out his values or degrade his image for his own profit.
Strange then that he would take part (not to mention co-create) a reality show aimed at exploiting his super-team, the New Warriors. The entire concept was created as a way of 'cashing in' on the NW's super-hero career. Why would a respected super-hero (at least among his peers) take part in such a project?
That's just it, he wouldn't. Dwayne Taylor has too much self-respect to sully his image with such an idea. He became a super-hero to do the right thing, not make money.
Nevertheless, Night Thrasher was an important part of the New Warriors reality show and stuck with it until the group's untimely demise prior to Civil War. However, Thrasher's death is unconfirmed as only Micro and Namorita's corpses were recovered. The tatters of Night Thrasher's costume was found and taken into evidence, but his corpse has yet to be recovered.
Case 2:
Less than a year ago, investigation into the Raft prison break (see New Avengers #1-6) revealed that several super-villains, many previously believed to be dead, were being incarcerated at the facility, as if someone were 'stock-piling' them. Few questioned the reappearance of so many dead villains. After all, if so many heroes come back to life, why not villains too?
Unfortunately, two notable examples of resurrected villains show just why the recently-dead should have been investigated more thouroughly. Cutthroat was a minor rogue until he began working for the Red Skull, taking the place of the departed Crossbones. When Crossbones returned, Cutthroat saw a threat and attempted to kill his rival, only to be met with the business end of a katana, dying at his would-be victim's hands. Strange that he would show up in the Raft after dying such a graphic (and confirmed) death. A second villain is the Cobalt Man. Up to a year before the break-out, Cobalt Man was confirmed to be dead, up to the point that Tony Stark used the identity to infiltrate the Thunderbolts (see Avengers/Thunderbolts #1-6). However, he was documented as one of the incarcerated villains that escaped and hooked up with three others for a few months before being located in Stanford, Connecticut. Up until recently, Cobalt Man was believed to be killed during the explosion caused by Nitro.
The Connection:
Night Thrasher was part of a group which discovered a quartet of escaped super-villains in very close proximity to an elementary school. The New Warriors rushed onto the scene and before they realized what was happening, Nitro exploded and killed hundreds of innocent people.
The truth is that Cobalt Man and Night Thrasher specifically maneuvered the two groups into a confrontation which would cause a large amount of collateral damage in a particularly affluent neighborhood. The upper class of Connecticut would have a much louder voice to protest in the event of a large-scale super-human catastophe.
Why exactly would a hero and a villain work together to cause this event? The reason is that they were working together to cause a panic against super-humans. This event would alert the public to the danger of rampant superhuman activity to the point of outlawing them. It is doubtful that they expected for such a massive registration effort to be undertaken, but splitting the superhero community into two opposing factions was a major success on their part.
What group are Night Thrasher and Cobalt Man affiliated you ask? The Skrulls, that's who.
Sometime in the last year (prior to the New Warriors mini-series and the Raft Breakout), Cobalt Man and Night Thrasher were replaced by Skrulls. Evidence of this is that Cobalt Man was revealed to be a Skrull agent in the recent Captain Marvel series. We were led to believe that he was not the same one as the one who died in Stamford, but the truth is that both Cobalt Men were one and the same, a single agent placed in the Raft prior to the breakout and used to cause a superhuman catastrophe to divert attention away from any suspicion of a Skrull threat.
What about the others you ask? What about Micro, Namorita, Coldheart, Speedball, Nitro, and Speedfreek, the other superhumans involved? Were they Skrulls too? the answer is no, pending further evidence. Micro and Namorita's bodies were recovered (see the current New Warriors series) and shown to be human. Skrull corpses revert to their Skrull form when dead. Coldheart and Speedfreek can be assumed to be incinerated as they had no superhuman vulnerability to protect them. Speedball was giving a full medical screening and shown to be human. His powers were also drastically affected by his proximity to Nitro's explosion, something not likely to happen with a Super-Skrull's physiology. Nitro is definitely human. When he was turned over to the Atlanteans to answer for Namorita's death, Wolverine cut off his hand. The severed hand was human, and Skrulls have no ability to maintain the transformation of appendages when cut off.
Regarding the New Warriors, the Skrulls saw a relatively small team that could be infiltrated without being noticed and placed an agent on the team. The reality show was created as a way to make the Warriors look like a joke and a future scapegoat for their plans to turn the United States against their superheroes. Speedball was easy to convince, and Namorita was just along for the ride. Night Thrasher brought in his new ward Micro, which would provide evidence for how inexperienced the New Warriors were. Cobalt Man hooked up with a superhuman known for his destructive tendencies and hid in a heavily populated area where the collateral damage from a superhuman battle would be the greatest.
Thus, two well placed Skrull agents were able to inadvertently cause Civil War.
But it goes deeper than that.
Case 3:
In the tradition of such prisons as the Slab, the Raft was the latest attempt at large-scale super-villain incarceration. It was heavily guarded by highly-trained SHIELD agents and believed to be impenetrable. Over the course of it's first year prior to the Breakout, at least 14 previously believed to be dead super-villains were transferred to it's cells. Where did these villains come from?
Each and every one of them was a Skrull sleeper agent meant to infiltrate the super-villain community for a future plan of attack. Cobalt Man was just the tip of the iceberg. The Skrull faction of SHIELD had agents stationed at the Raft who could oversee the transfer of Skrull sleeper agents into the facility.
The long-term plan came to fruition when the Skrulls needed a way to bolster Jessica Drew's status within SHIELD, while releasing several Skrull agents that could then infiltrate the criminal underworld. Jessica Drew would almost single-handedly fight off the entire prison population and pass herself off as one of the premier superhumans active in the superhero community. A previously ignored superheroine would be thrust into the spotlight following a very heroic act, while also taking the notice of SHIELD higher-ups. The replacement of Daredevil and Luke Cage (two street-level vigilantes) would also be possible due to their presence at the Raft on the day of the Breakout.
Unfortunately, Spider-Man, Captain America, and Iron Man showed up when it was least convenient. Rather than have a near complete breakout and one heroic SHIELD agent, the spotlight was placed on Captain America and Iron Man, with Jessica Drew blamed for the easy escape of over 40 prisoners. SHIELD chose to give credit to the more well-known superhumans and ignore any negligible contribution that the former Spider-woman made, quickly taking her off active duty.
While her SHIELD career was over, Jessica Drew did find a spot on a highly-placed superhero team, with the newly former New Avengers.
Meanwhile, only a few of the over 40 escaped prisoners were apprehended. Many of the prisoners still at large were likely Skrull agents (most notably the Cobalt Man). None of the apprehended prisoners were Skrull sleeper agents.
Case 4:
First, as part of the infiltration, "Jessica Drew" and "Hand Pym" went through a ritual to mask their presence from most known means of detection. The ritual was mystical, shielding the Skrull sleeper agents from passive scientific equipment and mutant powers. But what about mystical means of detection?
Following the beginning of the Invasion, the Skrulls made a concentrated effort to secure any and all known forms of human magic. Avalon was targetted by a larger-than-usual force of Super-Skrulls in order to secure any mystical artifacts available (see the current Captain Britain and MI-13).
Despite his current absence, Dr. Strange could be the one means that humanity could have to detect any and all of the Skrull infiltrators currently in our midst.
Secondly, the ritual allows a Skrull agent to better pass themselves off as the individual. Skrulls replacing living people are given a mystical connection to their imprisoned counterpart, making their detection highly unlikely to all but the strongest non-Skrull magics. Skrulls replacing a dead person are put through a ritual to merge their being with the appropriate Human (or in Captain Marvel's case kree) essence. this imbues the agent with most of the intimate memories of the person they are passing themselves off as.
Some Skrull agents were brainwashed to believe they actually were the person they were posing as (primarily to maintain their personality), such as the case with the Savage Land Imposters and the returned Captain Marvel. Primarily Captain Marvel needed the memory tampering as his return would be more closely scrutinized than any other. Mockingbird may cry for Clint and Bobbi Barton's lost child, but she doesn't realize she's just a pale imitation of Hawkeye's dead wife. The memories may be perfect, but inside her beats the heart of a Skrull.
Why do I believe this? Theoretically each of the returning Savage Land characters were imprisoned for over a year before returning. Why then, do none of them seem to be growing facial hair for their long-term incarcertation? Why are their uniforms simply immaculate and show no signs of wear and tear? Also, why do none of them have injuries consistent with a deadly (one assumes) escape? Why have none of them even mentioned Skrulls since arriving from space? The truth is that every one of them was programmed to believe they just escape imprisonment without any of the tell-tale signs of such an incarceration. The Skrulls are trying to further divide the superhumans when they need to unify the most, while also sticking another agent or two (i.e. Mockingbird) with the group.
Other Notes:
There are few means of detecting the Skrulls in our midst. Science and mutant senses seem to be negated, while Dr. Strange (our best method of detection) is missing in action.
Due to Dr. Strange’s powers, we can be sure that none of the New Avengers (Hawkeye, Echo, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Luke Cage) are Skrull agents. Spider-Woman had already betrayed them and was not present for the spell.
The only 100% effective way to detect a Skrull is to kill them. A Skrull will revert to its native form if killed.
I repeat, A SKRULL WILL REVERT TO IT'S NATIVE FORM IF KILLED.
That is how Elektra was revealed to be a Skrull. That's also how we know the Savage Land Spider-Man and Hawkeye imposters were Skrulls.
Captain America was not replaced with a Skrull. Don't believe the man wearing the costume in the Savage Land. He is an imposter. If Cap had been replaced, he would have reverted to his Skrull form immediately after being shot and killed by Sharon Carter.
Night Thrasher was a Skrull. Since faking his death at Stamford, Night Thrasher has presumably hooked back up with the Skrull insurgency.
None of the Thunderbolts (in the current incarnation) are Skrulls. The Skrull Captain Marvel was assigned to eliminate the group as part of the invasion.
The Skrulls were not involved in Avengers Disassembled. They were completely surprised by Wanda Maximoff's betrayal.
At the beginning of New Avengers, the blonde Black Widow was recruited as a human patsy for the Skrull SHIELD activities in the Savage Land. She never would have been recruited into SHIELD otherwise due to her mental instability. This was what made her so lucrative for the Skrull SHIELD group, because Yelena would be the just kind of loose cannon that the entire Savage Land operation could be blamed on in the event it was discovered. Later, the Skrulls (either posing as SHIELD or Hydra) offered her the opportunity to be genetically modified into a new Super-Adaptoid. She accepted. The Skrulls tested her against the Avengers, but she failed. This experiment was most likely a test to see if the Super-Skrull process could be conducted on humans.
The Skrull Queen posing as Spider-Woman is attempting to get Tony Stark to doubt himself. She wants him to get the information to the other heroes that they might not realize they’d been replaced with Skrulls. This would further divide the superhuman community during the course of the invasion.
universe7@juno.com
or
snakewing2000@yahoo.com
Also, you will win a very special Universe of Super-Heroes No-Prize if you can figure out where the title of this blog came from.
Enjoy
-------------------
Night Thrasher was the key. I should have known it all along.
Case 1:
Despite his skateboard gimmick, Night Thrasher has long been a positive role-model. He is a wealthy African-American who aspires to be the best as both a businessman and a super-hero. He will not sell-out his values or degrade his image for his own profit.
Strange then that he would take part (not to mention co-create) a reality show aimed at exploiting his super-team, the New Warriors. The entire concept was created as a way of 'cashing in' on the NW's super-hero career. Why would a respected super-hero (at least among his peers) take part in such a project?
That's just it, he wouldn't. Dwayne Taylor has too much self-respect to sully his image with such an idea. He became a super-hero to do the right thing, not make money.
Nevertheless, Night Thrasher was an important part of the New Warriors reality show and stuck with it until the group's untimely demise prior to Civil War. However, Thrasher's death is unconfirmed as only Micro and Namorita's corpses were recovered. The tatters of Night Thrasher's costume was found and taken into evidence, but his corpse has yet to be recovered.
Case 2:
Less than a year ago, investigation into the Raft prison break (see New Avengers #1-6) revealed that several super-villains, many previously believed to be dead, were being incarcerated at the facility, as if someone were 'stock-piling' them. Few questioned the reappearance of so many dead villains. After all, if so many heroes come back to life, why not villains too?
Unfortunately, two notable examples of resurrected villains show just why the recently-dead should have been investigated more thouroughly. Cutthroat was a minor rogue until he began working for the Red Skull, taking the place of the departed Crossbones. When Crossbones returned, Cutthroat saw a threat and attempted to kill his rival, only to be met with the business end of a katana, dying at his would-be victim's hands. Strange that he would show up in the Raft after dying such a graphic (and confirmed) death. A second villain is the Cobalt Man. Up to a year before the break-out, Cobalt Man was confirmed to be dead, up to the point that Tony Stark used the identity to infiltrate the Thunderbolts (see Avengers/Thunderbolts #1-6). However, he was documented as one of the incarcerated villains that escaped and hooked up with three others for a few months before being located in Stanford, Connecticut. Up until recently, Cobalt Man was believed to be killed during the explosion caused by Nitro.
The Connection:
Night Thrasher was part of a group which discovered a quartet of escaped super-villains in very close proximity to an elementary school. The New Warriors rushed onto the scene and before they realized what was happening, Nitro exploded and killed hundreds of innocent people.
The truth is that Cobalt Man and Night Thrasher specifically maneuvered the two groups into a confrontation which would cause a large amount of collateral damage in a particularly affluent neighborhood. The upper class of Connecticut would have a much louder voice to protest in the event of a large-scale super-human catastophe.
Why exactly would a hero and a villain work together to cause this event? The reason is that they were working together to cause a panic against super-humans. This event would alert the public to the danger of rampant superhuman activity to the point of outlawing them. It is doubtful that they expected for such a massive registration effort to be undertaken, but splitting the superhero community into two opposing factions was a major success on their part.
What group are Night Thrasher and Cobalt Man affiliated you ask? The Skrulls, that's who.
Sometime in the last year (prior to the New Warriors mini-series and the Raft Breakout), Cobalt Man and Night Thrasher were replaced by Skrulls. Evidence of this is that Cobalt Man was revealed to be a Skrull agent in the recent Captain Marvel series. We were led to believe that he was not the same one as the one who died in Stamford, but the truth is that both Cobalt Men were one and the same, a single agent placed in the Raft prior to the breakout and used to cause a superhuman catastrophe to divert attention away from any suspicion of a Skrull threat.
What about the others you ask? What about Micro, Namorita, Coldheart, Speedball, Nitro, and Speedfreek, the other superhumans involved? Were they Skrulls too? the answer is no, pending further evidence. Micro and Namorita's bodies were recovered (see the current New Warriors series) and shown to be human. Skrull corpses revert to their Skrull form when dead. Coldheart and Speedfreek can be assumed to be incinerated as they had no superhuman vulnerability to protect them. Speedball was giving a full medical screening and shown to be human. His powers were also drastically affected by his proximity to Nitro's explosion, something not likely to happen with a Super-Skrull's physiology. Nitro is definitely human. When he was turned over to the Atlanteans to answer for Namorita's death, Wolverine cut off his hand. The severed hand was human, and Skrulls have no ability to maintain the transformation of appendages when cut off.
Regarding the New Warriors, the Skrulls saw a relatively small team that could be infiltrated without being noticed and placed an agent on the team. The reality show was created as a way to make the Warriors look like a joke and a future scapegoat for their plans to turn the United States against their superheroes. Speedball was easy to convince, and Namorita was just along for the ride. Night Thrasher brought in his new ward Micro, which would provide evidence for how inexperienced the New Warriors were. Cobalt Man hooked up with a superhuman known for his destructive tendencies and hid in a heavily populated area where the collateral damage from a superhuman battle would be the greatest.
Thus, two well placed Skrull agents were able to inadvertently cause Civil War.
But it goes deeper than that.
Case 3:
In the tradition of such prisons as the Slab, the Raft was the latest attempt at large-scale super-villain incarceration. It was heavily guarded by highly-trained SHIELD agents and believed to be impenetrable. Over the course of it's first year prior to the Breakout, at least 14 previously believed to be dead super-villains were transferred to it's cells. Where did these villains come from?
Each and every one of them was a Skrull sleeper agent meant to infiltrate the super-villain community for a future plan of attack. Cobalt Man was just the tip of the iceberg. The Skrull faction of SHIELD had agents stationed at the Raft who could oversee the transfer of Skrull sleeper agents into the facility.
The long-term plan came to fruition when the Skrulls needed a way to bolster Jessica Drew's status within SHIELD, while releasing several Skrull agents that could then infiltrate the criminal underworld. Jessica Drew would almost single-handedly fight off the entire prison population and pass herself off as one of the premier superhumans active in the superhero community. A previously ignored superheroine would be thrust into the spotlight following a very heroic act, while also taking the notice of SHIELD higher-ups. The replacement of Daredevil and Luke Cage (two street-level vigilantes) would also be possible due to their presence at the Raft on the day of the Breakout.
Unfortunately, Spider-Man, Captain America, and Iron Man showed up when it was least convenient. Rather than have a near complete breakout and one heroic SHIELD agent, the spotlight was placed on Captain America and Iron Man, with Jessica Drew blamed for the easy escape of over 40 prisoners. SHIELD chose to give credit to the more well-known superhumans and ignore any negligible contribution that the former Spider-woman made, quickly taking her off active duty.
While her SHIELD career was over, Jessica Drew did find a spot on a highly-placed superhero team, with the newly former New Avengers.
Meanwhile, only a few of the over 40 escaped prisoners were apprehended. Many of the prisoners still at large were likely Skrull agents (most notably the Cobalt Man). None of the apprehended prisoners were Skrull sleeper agents.
Case 4:
First, as part of the infiltration, "Jessica Drew" and "Hand Pym" went through a ritual to mask their presence from most known means of detection. The ritual was mystical, shielding the Skrull sleeper agents from passive scientific equipment and mutant powers. But what about mystical means of detection?
Following the beginning of the Invasion, the Skrulls made a concentrated effort to secure any and all known forms of human magic. Avalon was targetted by a larger-than-usual force of Super-Skrulls in order to secure any mystical artifacts available (see the current Captain Britain and MI-13).
Despite his current absence, Dr. Strange could be the one means that humanity could have to detect any and all of the Skrull infiltrators currently in our midst.
Secondly, the ritual allows a Skrull agent to better pass themselves off as the individual. Skrulls replacing living people are given a mystical connection to their imprisoned counterpart, making their detection highly unlikely to all but the strongest non-Skrull magics. Skrulls replacing a dead person are put through a ritual to merge their being with the appropriate Human (or in Captain Marvel's case kree) essence. this imbues the agent with most of the intimate memories of the person they are passing themselves off as.
Some Skrull agents were brainwashed to believe they actually were the person they were posing as (primarily to maintain their personality), such as the case with the Savage Land Imposters and the returned Captain Marvel. Primarily Captain Marvel needed the memory tampering as his return would be more closely scrutinized than any other. Mockingbird may cry for Clint and Bobbi Barton's lost child, but she doesn't realize she's just a pale imitation of Hawkeye's dead wife. The memories may be perfect, but inside her beats the heart of a Skrull.
Why do I believe this? Theoretically each of the returning Savage Land characters were imprisoned for over a year before returning. Why then, do none of them seem to be growing facial hair for their long-term incarcertation? Why are their uniforms simply immaculate and show no signs of wear and tear? Also, why do none of them have injuries consistent with a deadly (one assumes) escape? Why have none of them even mentioned Skrulls since arriving from space? The truth is that every one of them was programmed to believe they just escape imprisonment without any of the tell-tale signs of such an incarceration. The Skrulls are trying to further divide the superhumans when they need to unify the most, while also sticking another agent or two (i.e. Mockingbird) with the group.
Other Notes:
There are few means of detecting the Skrulls in our midst. Science and mutant senses seem to be negated, while Dr. Strange (our best method of detection) is missing in action.
Due to Dr. Strange’s powers, we can be sure that none of the New Avengers (Hawkeye, Echo, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Luke Cage) are Skrull agents. Spider-Woman had already betrayed them and was not present for the spell.
The only 100% effective way to detect a Skrull is to kill them. A Skrull will revert to its native form if killed.
I repeat, A SKRULL WILL REVERT TO IT'S NATIVE FORM IF KILLED.
That is how Elektra was revealed to be a Skrull. That's also how we know the Savage Land Spider-Man and Hawkeye imposters were Skrulls.
Captain America was not replaced with a Skrull. Don't believe the man wearing the costume in the Savage Land. He is an imposter. If Cap had been replaced, he would have reverted to his Skrull form immediately after being shot and killed by Sharon Carter.
Night Thrasher was a Skrull. Since faking his death at Stamford, Night Thrasher has presumably hooked back up with the Skrull insurgency.
None of the Thunderbolts (in the current incarnation) are Skrulls. The Skrull Captain Marvel was assigned to eliminate the group as part of the invasion.
The Skrulls were not involved in Avengers Disassembled. They were completely surprised by Wanda Maximoff's betrayal.
At the beginning of New Avengers, the blonde Black Widow was recruited as a human patsy for the Skrull SHIELD activities in the Savage Land. She never would have been recruited into SHIELD otherwise due to her mental instability. This was what made her so lucrative for the Skrull SHIELD group, because Yelena would be the just kind of loose cannon that the entire Savage Land operation could be blamed on in the event it was discovered. Later, the Skrulls (either posing as SHIELD or Hydra) offered her the opportunity to be genetically modified into a new Super-Adaptoid. She accepted. The Skrulls tested her against the Avengers, but she failed. This experiment was most likely a test to see if the Super-Skrull process could be conducted on humans.
The Skrull Queen posing as Spider-Woman is attempting to get Tony Stark to doubt himself. She wants him to get the information to the other heroes that they might not realize they’d been replaced with Skrulls. This would further divide the superhuman community during the course of the invasion.
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