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New / Mighty Avengers

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Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

03:30 / 12.08.07

The Dethlok in New Avengers is explicitly named as the the (original) Luthor Manning one -- a refugee from an alternate future. The Dethlok in BEYOND! and Fantastic Four is Michael Collins, a pacifist scientist whose brain was installed into a new Deathlok body that was made by scavenging parts from the original. (Collins has since been able to transform his cyborg body into a duplicate of his former human one.)

There's also the Jack Truman/Larry Young one who had his own short-lived, Joe Casey penned series in the late 90's.

22:22 / 17.08.07

The SPOILERMAN cometh!

Advance solicitations for the final Illuminati appear to suggest one of the... team? No, secret overlords is a SKRULL.

Solicit reads:

The Illuminatis have been acting a bit sexist recently, haven't they? Perhaps, then, this is explicable by one of them being a SKRULL. I'm staking Strange, actually, both for being unpleasant (and incorrect, apparently) about Clea in the previous ish, general uselessness under Bendis and for his rubbish spell of good intent, which singularly failed to reveal the seekrit killer alien baby. But possibly Reed, they did have him in that thing an awful long while that time.

32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

Well, it should.

01:26 / 18.08.07

If Dr Strange is a skrull (and it'd be a convenient option, seeing he doesn't have his own series) then that'd certainly explain why ...

(Sorry, there seems to be someone at the door ...

'No, wait, you can't come in!'

'Yes, I can.'

'But I'm the Saucer S'preme ... I am. Damnit ... Look, here's a tenner ... will that be all right?'

'No.')

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

02:39 / 18.08.07

So you can detect Skrulls by their misogynistic impulses?

16:37 / 18.08.07

Maybe?

He doesn't have his own series, and it would be less of a cop-out than Black Bolt, which is the boring option, or Iron Man and Reed which are the obvious, not live with the ramifications of Civil War (which... for all it was an execrable comic, is not a bad engine at all, I think, for the new nu-Marvel,) aggravating options.

Mind you, I was dead wrong about Daredevil, eh? I like being wrong, guessing plots, but Bendis is a little easier to second-guess, I think.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

17:42 / 18.08.07

I suppose they could have it date back to that first issue, when they were locked up on the Skrull homeworld and seperated from each other.

Have the Skrulls ever made it explicit what their social gender codes are, anyway? Xavin makes it all sound so very relaxed...

18:18 / 18.08.07

At least, from memory of old DeFalco-writ comics, male skrulls do show a tendency to refer to their women as 'females' and their males as 'men,' which isn't entirely indicative of too much. On top of that, however, I can think of several instances where male-Skrulls were belittling and bossy to female-Skrulls, but outside of the Empress, not a whole lot of the reverse.

And female-Skrulls seem pretty quick to trade over to Earthmen as soon as they learn of Earthy empathy and humanness and all that individual-rights and equality jazz (at least three times, now, two of them involving the Fantastic Four). You don't really see that in reverse. Maybe that's just Earthist propaganda.

And still not sold on the gender-fluidity as mentioned by Xavin. Or 'learning to be human' by being male a lot. It's an idea, sure, and an interesting one, but not one we've seen Skrulls demonstrate ever, and besides, I think Xavin lies. You never saw Lyja shift over to an identifiably male form, for instance.

Now, back with the Avengers, um... I didn't like Luke Cage's sudden belligerent paranoia, actually. Something's not right there if you ask me.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:27 / 18.08.07

I think Xavin lies. You never saw Lyja shift over to an identifiably male form, for instance.

Yeah, I think he maintains the "gender fluidity" thing for the sake of wedding Karolina (and then falling in love with her and wanting to stay with her).

Of course, Lyja was primarily shown in the Nineties, not a bastion of Marvel forward-thinking, and they might simply not have thought to make her go masc for a day or two.

Actually, the Johnny/Lyja thing utterly rips off Colossal Boy and Yera's marriage from back in the preboot Legion days, so it's not like we could have expected them to do anything too interesting with it...

18:27 / 18.08.07

Spidey's LookfineokehI'lljustleave though? That's amazingly Spider-Man.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

18:35 / 18.08.07

Have the Skrulls ever made it explicit what their social gender codes are, anyway? Xavin makes it all sound so very relaxed...

I also figure Xavin is at the very least stretching the truth on this issue, and quite possibly out and out lying. I mean clearly ze can make hir form physically female, but I really don't buy any of the reasons ze gives for remaining in male form the majority of the time. It seems implicit to me that Xavin quite likely considers hirself to actually be male, and is only adopting a female form because it's the one hir partner prefers. I'm kind of reading that as being the big ticking time bomb in the Xavin-Karolina relationship - and it's one with the potential to go some really fascinating places. Or some dissapointing and kinda offensive ones if it's badly handled I guess.

Janean Patience

21:41 / 18.08.07

I didn't like Luke Cage's sudden belligerent paranoia, actually. Something's not right there if you ask me.

Yeah, Luke's my guess for a skrull. And Jessica, possibly, since she went up to Canada or wherever during Civil War then came back for no reason which made any narrative sense. (Safer on the run with a rogue superhero team than tucked away in Saskatoon? Don't think so.) They're arguably Bendis's two favourite characters, which makes them the unexpected choice.

Maybe all the New Avengers are Skrulls, every one, and it's them versus the Mighties in a battle that never ends. With lots of quickfire dialogue.

05:18 / 19.08.07

Either Luke or Jessica or both seem almost certain, given the skrull-baby.

Gosh, Marvel's been so *subtle* with the "believing in civil rights is for losers and terrorists" thing. Don't go along with their registration is great, Iron Man is the bestest and most ethical hero ever? Well, not only are the New Avengers useless, they are evil skrulls!

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:27 / 19.08.07

What?

15:50 / 19.08.07

Thank you for the Deathlok clarification, Mongoose, by the way.

02:15 / 20.08.07

>What?

Mysterious! What what?

Essential Dazzler

02:19 / 20.08.07

I think he means you didn't make much sense.

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

02:20 / 20.08.07

No problem.

Deathlok is one of those characters I latched onto as a kid. The old Dwayne Mcduffie Deathlok book was my first exposure to ideas about posthumanism and such. (Really, despite the poo art and the re-written ending, there's really some gems in "The Souls of Cyber Folk" arc -- yes, riffing on "The Souls of Black Folk".) I also loved that there was this book about an anti-corporate pacifist who was surrounded by all these characters from the bloodthirsty 90's. So I have a bit too much Deathlok fanboy-ness, perhaps.

And I really hope Cage isn't a Skrull. Seeing him step up into a leadership position has been fantastic.

00:40 / 13.09.07

hey, at least in the new issue of NA, Bendis clearly liked BKV's take on Dr. Strange in "The Oath" so much that he has picked up a thread from that tale (namely, that Night Nurse and Doc Strange are officially dating).

As for the new issue itself, I don't believe for a minute that not one member of the NA team ISN'T a Skrull.

Phex: Dorset Doom

13:30 / 13.09.07

There's really been a lot of BKV-love in NA of late, so hopefully we'll see The Runaways before long...

So, Night Nurse: Skrull? She's in a position where she can get info on the weaknesses of every New York based hero, she's knocking boots with the Sorcerer Supreme, seems like a good candidate right?

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:52 / 13.09.07

FW, you think they're all Skrulls? That would be a bold move.

I really hope that not too many female love interests of lead male characters turn out to be Skrully.

15:13 / 13.09.07

I think the more the merrier on that score really. At the end of Secret Invasion the guys could all head off up into the mountains for an Iron John bonding weekend. It would be great!

And a skrull influence might explain why the Illuminati all seemed to be complaining about their WAGs at the beginning of last month's issue. What better way to distract them from saving the universe than giving them a spot of Kris Marshall-type bother on the homefront?

17:53 / 13.09.07

There's really been a lot of BKV-love in NA of late, so hopefully we'll see The Runaways before long...

Wait. Maybe one of them's a Skrull!

18:07 / 13.09.07

so i'm curious about what happens to those who are replaced. do the capturing Skrulls keep them hybernating in big vats somewhere? i ask because that's extremely shortsighted. what do they do when they do take over the world, release them and brag what they did?

by rights any caputured hero should have been killed when they were replaced to stop from the possibility of discover and retaliation if/when they ever got free.

22:33 / 13.09.07

you would think they killed, oh i don't know, Elektra upon replacement. dow tit.

love the idea of luke, strange, jessica j being skrulls. that skrull baby looks crrrrazy

i also like that it seems secret invasion will clear up who is a skrull, who isn't, when and how they got captured, and what has happened to the missing in seemingly the first issue! hell, it could be done in microsoft word for all i care.

Essential Dazzler

22:52 / 13.09.07

Did you both put a single Capital letter in your posts just to taunt us?

I'm enjoying the fact that NA isn't slowing down to let MA catch up. MA still has two issues to come before it hits the Symbiote Invasion. I can't wait till NA is dealing with the fallout from Secret Invasion, when said mini is about halfway through, and MA is still wrapping up the Symbiote story.

Actually, now that I think about it, Bagley is doing the Symbiote story in MA, and we've already seen pages from that. It'll probably ship weekly to catch up.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:16 / 14.09.07

Much as I like that Bendis has put Night Nurse in the book - mainly because I love the idea of Dr Strange as something of a Lester Freamon figure, as smooth as can be in his polo-neck - I could have done without her repeatedly saying how good at teh sex she is. Bendis' handling of his female characters and/or his male characters' interactions with them seems to be slipping in a bad direction of late...

Janean Patience

10:32 / 14.09.07

It's more of that fanboy wish-fulfilment thing that Bendis is into; reading the books as a wee boy with hair in the 1970s, imagining how great it would be if his favourite characters were fully fleshed out to the point of getting it on, not really considering it in any more depth than that.

This issue: same old same old, uh? Some perfect character moments, especially that great spread where the New Avengers see their ideal images of themselves, accompanied by very little plot progression. If the team trust each other now they're fools. Dr S has already done one spell that showed they were all righteous dudes, so this one proves fuck all. Bendis needs to compress more, to write sequences he loves and look at them with a critical eye. Is this advancing the plot? Is it necessary? Should it, perhaps, be cut even though the dialogue is zippy and witty?

I still enjoy it. But this has become the pattern for the series: well-written subtle set-ups which jump abruptly into MASSIVE UNIVERSE-CHANGING EVENTS! There's no real middle ground. The team are still recovering from Disassembled, House of M, and Civil War all at once, and we'll be at Secret Invasion before they're ready.

And I like Yu's art, unlike many on the internet, but just this issue realised my problem with it. Why is everyone coloured like they're dead?

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:05 / 14.09.07

I like his art too, but someone needs to tell his colourist just to not bother putting in the little pink bits of inner eyelid, either.

14:18 / 14.09.07

flybizzle: I really hope that not too many female love interests of lead male characters turn out to be Skrully.

janey p: Dr S has already done one spell that showed they were all righteous dudes, so this one proves fuck all.

I think - by guessing - that the love interest of the Night Nurse is to be the needle in the hay, so there's that.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:24 / 14.09.07

I get almost a perverse enjoyment from how the whole Secret Invasion thing seems to suck people who should know better - I arrogantly include myself in that - into having strong opinions on, say, when they would like a character to have been replaced with a Skrull, if this has happened. So, Doctor Strange: after the Dead Girl and Oath miniseries, but before he joins New Avengers, presumably? In other words he goes into seclusion and meditates during Civil War but then actually never comes back...

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

21:18 / 14.09.07

That would seem to be the best time for it, wouldn't it? Which would suck for Night Nurse but...

...okay, a quick digression. While Bendis has difficulty writing about female characters, I just realized that between him and BKV I now care about the fate of Night Nurse.

Night Nurse.

Night. Nurse.

21:25 / 14.09.07

Am I the only person who actually liked the actual Night Nurse book?

Or her appearances in Nightcrawler. Or previous, Daredevily stuff, Steve Gerbery stuff and... wow. I'm a Night Nurse fanboy.

Janean Patience

22:26 / 14.09.07

I don't wanna see no Doc[tor Strange]
I need attendance from my nurse around the clock
'Cause there's no prescription for me
She's the one, the only remedy

Night nurse
Only you alone can quench this Jah thirst
My night nurse
Oh the pain it's getting worse

And I'm sure
No doctor can cure
Night nurse
Night nurse

Proof from the Cool Ruler himself that Strange is a Skrull and Night Nurse is the real hero of this saga, I think. But I'm drunk.

23:31 / 14.09.07

So, Doctor Strange: after the Dead Girl and Oath miniseries, but before he joins New Avengers, presumably? In other words he goes into seclusion and meditates during Civil War but then actually never comes back...

I don't know any better...

Ideally, yes; I'm not so fussed about 'The Oath', it was okay, some gorge art, but certainly Dead Girl has continuity primacy in my own personal vision of the Marvel Universe. This is as it should be.

But, you know, he dumped her. Skrully, really; Tike Alicar wouldn'ta done that shit. The Elektra fix is clearly so they can beg Frank the Tank back, so she's been a skrull since... 1985(?) - overwriting some more Peter Milligan comics into the bargain, I might add, though quite far from vintage ones. There's a transsexual character who has a romance in his Elektra, though, which - in a c.'94-95 Marvel book - seemed quite transgressive to me.

I don't believe there's been many good Strange comics in the last two decades, either; Ellis wrote two or three early in his career, which'd perhaps be worth a look, but, otherwise, bar the two cited... Also we could pretend that Strange movie treatment of JMS's that irritated neilalien so was a fakey skrull origin.

23:50 / 14.09.07

The captions and ambience of early Milligan Elektra issues works absurdly gorgeously with her as a Skrull, though. It's all an act. A dance, if you will, a performance.

Clearly, this has been going on since at least the Skrull Kill Krew days.

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