Comic Book Review: New Avengers #40: Secret Invasion

The Revolution has maintained low expectations for Secret Invasion. I am not expecting anything more than a story that is the equivalent of your typical summer blockbuster movie. And so far, this approach has served me well as I have been rather entertained by this Skrull infiltration. I am definitely looking forward to New Avengers #40 since it continues the story that we got over on New Avengers: The Illuminati #1 that came out way back in December of 2006. Talk about a long wait. This should be an entertaining read. Let’s go ahead and hit this review for New Avengers #40.

Creative Team
Writer: Brain Michael Bendis
Pencils: Jim Cheung
Inks: John Dell

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with the ending of New Avengers: The Illuminati #1 with King Dorrek of the Skrulls asking his head scientist if they got everything that they needed from the Earthlings. The scientist says yes. Suddenly, Princess Veranke appears on the scene flanked by a bunch of priests. The Princess exclaims that the King is ignoring the words of the prophets. That their world is in danger. That the devourer of worlds will come for them. The Princess says that the King is unfit to rule.

King Dorrek places the Princess under arrest and has her removed from the scene. The head priest of the sciences then informs the King that they have samples of the Earthlings biological codes and that they will begin cloning experiments, dissection and reverse biological engineering.

We cut to the Princess being dropped off on a barren planet to live in exile. The Princess drops to the ground and says over and over “He loves me…”

We shift to Reed Richards waking up in a hospital bed. By his bedside are Johnny, Susan and Ben. They tell Reed that he beat Galactus. Suddenly, a nurse walks in and says that this sickens her and she blasts Reed’s head off with a blaster. The nurse transforms into King Dorrek. The members of the Fantastic Four transform back into their Skrull forms. We pan back and see that the hospital room is just a set in a Skrull laboratory.

The King storms out and rants how Richards turned one of his family members into a cow. The King gives his apologies for his action and tells his scientists to make another clone.

We zip forward years later and see Galactus devouring the Skrull Throneworld. We zip forward a few more years later and see a group of Skrull soldiers on the planet where the Princess is in exile. The Skrull soldiers tell the Princess that the Throneworld was destroyed and that their armada is close to ruins. The Skrull soldiers say that they have come back for their Queen.

We cut to Skrull world Satriani where Queen Veranke is addressing her soldiers. The Queen says that they will follow the words of the prophets. That they know they are true. That their people will have a sacred home. That it is called Earth and that it will be theirs as it is written by the prophets.

We hop over to Skrull world Tarnax X where the Queen is being shown the secret lab where the head scientist has been working on his secret task that King Dorrek assigned to him all those years ago. The scientist reveals that they have used the genetic material from the representatives of all the different segments of the super hero population: mutants, Atlantean, Kree-spawned Inhumans, master of the mystic arts and the two greatest scientific minds on Earth.

The Skrull scientist states that they now know more about the human evolution and future evolution than even the Earthlings do. The scientist unveils his new Super-Skrull warrior. That they can strip the DNA from any super hero and can completely duplicate their abilities and mix and match any of them.

But, the most important breakthrough is that they have finally found a way for Skrulls to walk among humans completely undetected. That as long as the shape that the Skrull has chosen is maintained in its entirety that no existing power on Earth could detect it. That this requires the Skrull to become that human mentally and physically.

The Skrull advisors to the Queen question if this has been tested. The Skrull scientist orders Skrull Siri to please enter. We see Electra enter the room. She turns into her natural Skrull form. Siri tells the Queen that she has been on Earth for the last cycle and that her identity was not detected.

The Skrull scientist says that there are a handful of other humans who like Electra have expired from the mortal plane and been brought back to life. That they can replace them. That the scientists have compiled a list of other candidates.

The Queen is most pleased and announces that she will be among those on the Earth infiltration assignment. That she will take a role in this strategy. That she must be on Earth to prepare them for that which is written.

The head scientist then asks the Queen while human she would like to live as. The Queen asks the scientist which human is in the position to do the most damage. The scientist then pulls up the image of the human can do the most damage. It is Spider-Woman. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: New Avengers #40 was a good read. Bendis serves up a nicely paced issue. I appreciated the fact that Bendis did not let this story drag at any point in this issue. And Bendis is able to keep this issue a interesting read without employing any action scenes. That is the mark of quality writing.

New Avengers #40 is also a well plotted issue. Bendis moves with a purpose and obviously has a clear direction in mind with this story. It is obvious that Bendis has put in the time and effort to make sure that the back-story for the Secret Invasion is rather seamless. I enjoyed finally getting the rest of the story that we got in New Avengers: The Illuminati #1 after such a long wait. Bendis does a fine job dovetailing the events of The Illuminati with Secret Invasion.

I have definitely enjoyed Mighty Avengers #12 and New Avengers #40 as Bendis continues to fill the reader in on the back-story and proceeds to flesh out the Secret Invasion story. It is evident after reading New Avengers #40 that the Skrull religion plays a central role in Secret Invasion.

And the more that Bendis fleshes out this religious aspect to the Secret Invasion story, the more I like it. The words of the prophets that Earth is the chosen land for the Skrulls is a neat twist. This adds a new wrinkle to this Skrull attack that differentiates it from previous Skrull attacks. Secret Invasion is no mere act of imperialistic conquest. Secret Invasion is a holy war for the chosen planet for the Skrulls to rebuild their throneworld.

I dig how Bendis has the head scientist for the Skrulls being able to take advantage of the fact that each member of the Illuminati represents every major group of super heroes on Earth. The explanation of how the Skrulls are able to replicate any type of super hero and make them totally undetectable was interesting.

Bendis ends New Avengers #40 with a fantastic hook ending. Not only did Bendis surprise the reader that the Queen herself is on Earth posing as a super hero, but that it appears the super hero that she chose to play is none other than Spider-Woman. Nice.

I really didn’t think that Jessica was going to be a Skrull. In Mighty Avengers #12, Nick Fury was pretty confident that Spider-Woman was not a Skrull. Evidently, unless this hook ending to New Avengers #40 is a red herring, it appears that Nick Fury has misjudged Spider-Woman and that could be a fatal error.

The selection of Spider-Woman makes perfect sense. The Queen can use the role of Spider-Woman to spy on SHIELD, the Mighty Avengers, the New Avengers and Nick Fury. No other character offers that much access to that many different groups.

Jim Cheung and John Dell serve up some solid artwork. I would certainly prefer Cheung to be the regular artist on New Avengers instead of Yu.

The Bad: I have no complaints with this issue.

Overall: New Avengers #40 was an enjoyable read. And if you are a regular follower of The Revolution you know it is a rare day that I compliment this title. This might be one of the signs of the Apocalypse. If you are enjoying the Secret Invasion storyline then I recommend that you get this issue. You will certainly dig New Avengers #40. We get plenty of critical back-story in this issue. However, if you aren’t into Secret Invasion then I would recommend passing on this issue. New Avengers #40 has nothing to do with the Avengers themselves.

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