Saturday, September 13, 2008

The coming of Skrullactus

So, you know this Secret Invasion story going on in Marvel Comics at the moment? It's a story about a group of shape-shifting aliens called Skrulls who are trying to take over the world by secretly replacing various heroes, villains, babies and butlers over a period of years until they're practically running the world before anyone even knows they're here.

Two issues ago, Reed Richards invented some kind of deus ex maguffinica that shoots a beam at the ground and reveals all disguised Skrulls as Skrulls. In the latest issue, Reed turns it on the bulk of the Skrull army (who, fighting a 21st century interplanetary war, have decided to emulate the 18th century style of formal warfare, and amass all of their soldiers in one place to fight all of their enemy's soldier).

Once Reed's Skrull Revealer is activated, the Skrulls all go green, and their wrinkly chins and pointy ears appear, although most are still wearing superhero or supervillain costumes, so either they're wearing real costumes (instead of just shapeshifting them on) or the Skrull-shower only affects the area between the chin and ears.

The sixth issue ends with a double-page spread of all the real superheroes and supervillains fighting all the Skrulls (which might have been an exciting last panel, if it weren't immediately preceded by another double-page spread). In the background, we see this Skrull: Apparently, there was a Skrull disguised as Galactus, I guess. That has got to be the absolute worst Skrull disguise. Galactus is, of course, a god-like being who travels the universe looking for planets to eat and, when he usually visits Earth, it's to destroy it. So, not a very good person to dress up as when trying to secretly infiltrate Earth; chances are, all the heroes are going to confront you as soon as they see you anyway. It would be a little like if someone were trying to infiltrate Britain in the mid-1940s and decided to disguise themselve as Hitler. A giant Hitler.

Anyway, that Skrull got screwed when they were doling out disguise assignments.

14 comments:

MrCynical said...

What's more, given that Galactus ATE THEIR FREAKING THRONEWORLD, it's more like infiltrating ISRAEL dressed as giant Hitler.

And of course, if you can copy Galactus power...well, why are you doing that? Isn't he just as likely to eat the planet you want to conquer? Or any other planet?

WTH?

Anonymous said...

If you can copy Galactus' power, why would you even bother sneaking in? Just send ten Galacti-Skrulls.

Trade-waiting, so I have to ask: have they explained why they're keeping a one-Skrull-per character strategy? Because Namor killed the hell out of Skrull-Black Bolt, but a gang of Skrull-Black Bolts might be more effective.

Phillip said...

Ass, that's a big obvious Skrull.

SallyP said...

You know...for all of their advantages, I get the impression that Skrulls just aren't very bright.

Hdefined said...

Sally, there are no dumb characters - just dumb writers who don't know how to craft a story.

Unknown said...

Forget Skrull-Galactus, is that Skrull-Forbush Man on the left side of that panel?

Dean said...

Based on my (sketchy) reading of Secret Invasion, my impression was that the costumed Skrulls aren't necessarily infiltrators, but members of the Skrull invasion force who have been given artificial versions of the corresponding character's powers using Skrull super-science.

LurkerWithout said...

Yep, nothing like the slow moving, badly thought out, poorly defined Secret Invasion to make me long for the class and wit of an Avengers/Transformers crossover...

Caleb said...

If you can copy Galactus' power, why would you even bother sneaking in? Just send ten Galacti-Skrulls.

I think it's kind of fun to see some of the combinations artists come up with in general, but yeah, to be picky, there's little point in, like, a double-Deathlok Skrull when you can have a bunch of Defenders super-skrulls or a quadruple-Galactus or whatever.

Based on my (sketchy) reading of Secret Invasion, my impression was that the costumed Skrulls aren't necessarily infiltrators, but members of the Skrull invasion force who have been given artificial versions of the corresponding character's powers using Skrull super-science.

Yeah, that was my understanding too. I assume Yu just draws whatever he wants in those big splash pages and group shots (which explains why Howard the Duck often shows up in such scenes) which is fine; this one example just struck me as super-weird.

Sea-of-Green said...

It's almost like the artist isn't familiar with the functions of all the Marvel characters and just threw in Galactus because he "looked cool," or something. Unfortunately, I see artists make that type of mistake all the time. :-(

Sea-of-Green said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Monique R. said...

that's too bad about Galactus.

Anonymous said...

It occurs to me that this is the sort of thing that would really piss Galactus off. You know how he gets when someone tries to compare themselves to him, and then freaks out because he's got the worst deal in the universe? Dressing up like Galactus to scare people will probably get your planet messed up pretty badly.

samuel rules said...

If i was drawing a comic and had the option to draw any character I wanted to, I'd probably throw in a Galactus and a Howard the Duck, and probably even like an Omega The Unknown Skrull. Isn't that what's great about this? The insanity? Who got their reality all mixed up in my fantasy?