There'd been a few teases offered up by Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, and others, that this week's New Avengers # 31 was going to contain a "last page shock" that would have people reacting as strongly as they'd done when Captain America # 25 hit the stands earlier this year (that's the one where Cap was killed, in case you were on the Moon for two weeks in March). Retailers were urged to up their orders on this otherwise-innocuous comic lest they find themselves in the same shortfall situation that had surrounded the death of that American icon back in early March. Just as had been true then, though, there was no leaking of what the big event might be, so fans and store owners alike were left to ponder, and speculate, and potentially order extra copies.
So I read New Avengers # 31 as soon as I got home today. I prefer to be surprised, and experience the event in the moment, rather than via a spoiler. But I have to say: this one kind of left me cold. I'm about to reveal it, so stop reading now if you care about such things and don't want it spoiled.
The Elektra who the on-the-lam New Avengers (as opposed to the enforcing-the-Superhero-Registration-Law Mighty Avengers) were fighting in this storyline, who is subsequently killed by one of the heroes, is revealed in death to have been a shape-shifting Skrull. (The cover, shown here, kind of gives away the death - as well as being an homage to the scene of Bullseye killing Elektra from Daredevil # 181 by Frank Miller - but obviously not the Skrull revelation.) Why this turn of events is considered to be so significant is left unanswered at this point, although I imagine the Marvel P.R. floodgates are about to open in that regard. The only thing I can think of is that this is the first clue that the Skrulls have infiltrated Marvel-Earth, big-time, and possibly are behind the Civil War and who knows what else. Tony Stark? Maybe all his bastardly behaviour recently is on account of.. you guessed it, he's a Skrull! Reed Richards, acting pretty weird of late...? SKRULL! Possibly even dead Cap will turn out to be simply... dead Skrull?
Is that where this is headed? If so, it seems to me that it actually weakens, rather than enhances, the significance of what's been going on in the Marvel Universe over the past year or two. Rather than Civil War being a groundbreaking tale about different political ideologies at odds with each other, acted out in the form of super-powered heroes beating the crap out of one another, it's just another hokey alien invasion tale that can be undone by simply finding the dopplegangers and unmasking them. (And the Marvel Ultimate universe did an alien invasion story a year or two ago that will probably be remembered more fondly, anyway, so what's the point?) Or maybe it's going in some other direction entirely. At this point, there's not much to go on.
The other thing I noticed is that the big Skrull reveal happens a few pages before the end of the comic. The final page actually shows Luke Cage's wife and their young baby, waiting for the heroes' return at Doctor Strange's hide-out, and we're shown an extreme close-up on the baby's face as her eyes open. Could it be? Is it possible? Are we to believe she's... a Skrull?! (And does that mean one, or both, of her parents are, as well?) Maybe everyone's a Skrull...
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