Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. The Secret Invasion crossover just keeps Skrull-ing along with issues 5-8, promising yet another big status quo change for the Marvel Universe.

Recap: The Skrulls having been living in secret among the Marvel heroes for a while, led by the Skrull Empress in place of Spider-Woman. As they’ve revealed themselves, the New Avengers are separated while fighting Skrulls in the jungles of the Savage Land, and a Skrull battleship unleashes hell over New York City. A Skrull posing as Sue infiltrated the new Baxter Building, seemingly destroying the top half of the building by opening the Negative Zone portal. Reed was captured by a Skrull impersonating Hank Pym and locked up inside one of their ships. When Agent Brand of S.W.O.R.D. (the outer space version of S.H.I.E.L.D.) got blasted into space, she ended up on board that same ship.

Issue #5 begins with Norman Osbourne, current leader of the Thunderbolts, appealing to the Skrull who had been impersonating Mar-Vell as a sleeper agent to regain the heroism he had in that role. Then Nick Fury and the heroes of the New York battle have retreated into hiding, watching as the Skrulls broadcast a message to Earth, promising to end poverty, hardship, and disease once Earth becomes a member of the Skrull empire.

In space, Agent Brand fights her way through the Skrulls and finds Reed. He regains consciousness and accuses her of being a Skrull. He then uses the ship’s computers to assess the situation on Earth. He says, “I know what we need.” The ship is under attack, and the Mar-Vell Skrull shows up. At the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, the Skrulls have taken Maria Hill as a captive, but she out-Skrulls them with a life model decoy. While they fight her double, she sneaks off and wrecks the Helicarrier.

In the Savage Land, Tony Stark recovers from his confrontation with the Skrull Empress while the other heroes reunite and wonder who is or isn’t a Skrull. This includes a bunch of Marvel heroes as they appeared years earlier, who came out a Skrull ship claiming to be the original versions of themselves.

Then Reed comes crashing down in the middle of the Savage Land on board his wrecked Skrull ship. He’s developed a weapon, and with one shot, he reveals everyone who is a Skrull. It’s mostly the old-timey heroes. Now that everyone knows who is who, the heroes easily defeat the Skrulls. After seeing Mockingbird was a Skrull, Hawkeye, currently wearing the Ronin costume, swears to kill every last one of the Skrulls.

Issue #6 has the Mar-Vell Skrull tracking down Noh-Varr, a.k.a. Marvel Boy, who is a Kree. The Mar-Vell Skrull says the Skrulls have no honor, willing to lie or kill their fellow Skrulls to get to Earth. He says his time as a sleeper has shown him how good the Earth is, and he urges Noh-Varr to fight on Earth’s behalf.

A Skrull contacts the White House, explaining that humanity will be vastly improved by being a part of the Empire. He says the Skrulls have only attacked the superheroes who were aggressive to them, and that all hostilities will cease if the superheroes stand down. At Camp Hammond, home of the Fifty States Initiative, the Hank Pym Skrull and the Empress compare notes about Noh-Varr, the New Avengers in the Savage Land, and Reed’s escape. The Empress says the Wasp will be the Skrull’s backup plan. The New Avengers fly to New York, with Tony Stark swearing revenge against the Empress, only to find NYC trashed from the battle.

The Skrulls threaten civilians in New York, so Nick Fury’s new Howling Commandoes and the Young Avengers fight back. The Hood, who had recently taken over the Kingpin’s criminal empire, watches this from a distance along with a bunch of other villains. The Hood urges them to hold back, and not join the fight yet. There’s a weird bit where Thor and Captain America arrive (didn’t they do this at the end of issue #4?). This is the first time they’d been reunited since Thor’s death at the end of his series, with him having missed all of Civil War. He and Cap don’t trust each other.

There’s a big standoff at Central Park with the Skrulls on one side, and the New Avengers, Thunderbolts, Young Avengers, and Howling Commandoes on the other side. Reed does most of the talking, saying the Skrulls aren’t there to save the Earth, but to destroy it out of petty revenge. The Empress says, “He loves you,” which is something the Skrulls have been saying throughout all this. She adds that “he” refers to “God.” Stark has had enough. He does the ol’ “Avengers Assemble!” and the big fight breaks out.

Issue #7 offers several pages of the fight, with dozens of superheroes and Skrulls battling it out. There’s a lot of drama as the Hank Pym Skrull chases after the Wasp. Bullseye, hiding out on the sidelines, takes out the Pym Skrull with a sniper shot. So now the Hood and all the villains join the fight. Reed is confronted by the Sue Skrull, and then attacked by a whole bunch of Skrulls all taking Sue’s form. The new Howling Commandoes fight off all the Sues. Iron Man has to leave the battle to go repair his armor. Spider-Man jokes about how this crisis isn’t so bad because the Watcher hasn’t shown up yet, only for the Watcher to show up.

Jessica Jones watches from a distance. She leaves her baby Danielle with Jarvis (not knowing this Jarvis is a Skrull) to join the fight. Then Noh-Varr flies into the city, landing with a huge boom. He proclaims, “This fight is over!” Jessica reunites with Luke Cage, Kate Bishop is injured, the Empress electrocutes Wolverine. Hawkeye takes a big shot, successfully arrowing the Empress. Then the Hank Pym Skrull, despite his sniper injury, enacts the backup plan. Wasp has a flashback of Hank (the Skrull) giving her a new growth formula to give her giant powers as well as shrinking ones. Wasp grows to giant size, unleashing some sort of dark energy onto all the heroes.

Issue #8 has narrative captions further explaining that the Skrulls implanted a bioweapon inside the Wasp in case all else fails. Thor summons a hurricane to contain the dark energy, after which the Wasp’s body fades away. Thor swears, “I will avenge thee, Janet.”

The Empress reemerges, healing from her arrow shot. The heroes surround her, about to attack, but it’s Norman Osbourne who takes her out with a gun. The caption says, “Only one person got the killshot.” Osbourne then takes charge, ordering all the heroes to defeat what’s left of the Skrulls, primarily the warships still in orbit. The heroes take out the ships while not killing Skrulls on board, for interrogation. Then Iron Man finds something interesting in one ship. This one lands in NYC. Inside are the real Spider-Woman, Hank Pym, Elektra, and everyone else the Skrulls replaced.

There’s a lot of catching up, and everyone’s still a little suspicious of Spider-Woman. The villains run off. Hawkeye and Mockingbird share a kiss, while Nick Fury silently turns his back on Maria Hill. When Jessica Jones sees Jarvis among the survivors, she realizes that she left baby Danielle with a Skrull. Jessica, Carol Danvers, and Luke Cage fly to their apartment to discover Skrull Jarvis and the baby are gone.

The we’re treated to several pages of Fantastic Four, as Reed and Sue rush to the new Baxter Building, fearing that their kids died when the Negative Zone portal opened. Then we catch up to the ending of Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four where Ben, Johnny, and the kids try to figure out the Negative Zone portal. Reed works his computer, and the Baxter Building miraculously rebuilds itself, so it’s like brand new. Whatever this backup plan is, it’s not able to recreate any of their personal belongings with it. Sue promises the kids a shopping spree.

The spirit of Civil War looms large as Thor tells Iron Man he abhors what Tony has become. Cap turns his back on Iron Man without saying a word. Hulking, who is part Skrull, negotiates with one of the Skrull captives. The captive said the Skrull Empire is dying, and Earth was their last chance.

Then the status quo change. At the White House, the US President says this invasion, combined with the heroes all fighting each other during Civil War, means that Tony Stark is out as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Not only that, but S.H.I.E.L.D. is being shut down permanently, in favor of a newer and more modern organization. The whole world watched the news cameras record the New York battle on live TV, and saw a new hero save the world. Marvel’s new number one superhero is… Norman Osbourne!!!

The President further explains that Osbourne now has complete control of whatever this new S.H.I.E.L.D. replacement will be, as well as the New Avengers, and the Thunderbolts, and the entire Fifty States Initiative! Osbourne promises a full investigation into Stark Industries to root out any criminal negligence. Later, at Avengers Tower, Norman opens a secret door. Inside, he has assembled his own version of the Illuminati, with Dr. Doom, Namor, Loki, Emma Frost, and the Hood. He says, “It’s a new day,” and “This is how it’s going to be…” And just like that, without so much as taking a breath, Dark Reign begins on the same page that Secret Invasion ends.

Unstable molecule: We’re not given any details on Reed’s Skrull-exposing weapon. It seems to work not by preventing the Skrulls from shape-changing, but by them retaining their green Skrull faces no matter what form they take.

Fade out: Reed being attacked by a gang of Skrull Sues is one of the series’ most eye-popping moments. This is the type of weirdness you can only get in a Skrull story.

Clobberin’ time: Ben’s suggestion on how to restore the Baxter Building is just him saying “Press the blue button” over and over. Reed’s actions suggest that it’s a little more complicated than that.

Flame on: Johnny starts to tell Reed and Sue about Lyja’s return in Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four, but he stops himself on the word “she.” Reed responds with, “I know all about it.” Does he?

Four and a half: After learning that all their personal possession couldn’t be restored, Sue promises Franklin a shopping spree at FAO Shwartz. (Wasn’t that in Times Square? She better hope it survived the Skrull attack.)

Our gal Val: Valeria tells Sue she knew the Skrull in issue #1 wasn’t the real Sue. Is Valeria that smart, or is this classic kid exaggeration?

Fantastic fifth wheel: As one of the main guys in the New Avengers, Luke Cage is front and center throughout the all the battles in Secret Invasion.

Trivia time: Turns out the Wasp isn’t really dead. In Avengers vol. 4 #32, we learn she was sucked into the Microverse at the end of Secret Invasion.

Jessica Jones’ search for baby Danielle continues in New Avengers #47-50. While the Avengers are dismantled to make way for Osbourne’s new team, Luke Cage and Bullseye eventually find the baby with the Jarvis Skrull. He wants to use the baby as a negotiating tactic to exchange for the Skrull prisoners from the invasion. Bullseye kills the Jarvis Skrull, and Luke, Jessica, and the baby are reunited.

The Marvel Wiki alleges that the Skrull language is a fictional “alienese” alphabet that Marvel letterers use to represent any number of alien speech. Attempts to codebreak Secret Invasion, however, reveals the Skrulls speaking mostly unimportant filler phrases or gibberish.

Howard the Duck appears briefly in issues 6 and 7, fighting the Skrulls with a handgun. I guess he was in New York at the time.

Fantastic or frightful? Whew. This crossover is all over the place. The big issue is that it’s all ensemble with no set protagonist. Iron Man disappears during the final battle so he can repair his armor. Hawkeye’s bloodlust for revenge could make him protagonist, but this doesn’t get much time spent on it. Noh-Varr has his big moment with Mar-Vell, but his big hero moment during the finale didn’t affect much. If anything, the Skrull Empress is the main character, as her plans work in the first half, and then unravel in the second half. The Wasp is barely in this series, only for her death to be the big shock moment. And yes, it’s all fighting and battles, and not enough of the who’s-a-Skrull-and-who-isn’t spycraft. In the end, Secret Invasion was only an excuse to have a bunch of Marvel heroes in one comic at the same time.

Next: Reign on me.

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