I’ve been reading discussions online regarding the recent Secret Invasion. Needless to say, a lot of the discussions are of the “Who is a Skrull” variety. Regardless of the big shocks in issue 1, you know there’s got to be a few other big names lurking in the wings to be revealed later on.

A lot of the speculation is centering around the ship of Marvel characters from the first issue. Most people seem to be agreeing that its unlikely that they’re all genuine or all Skrulls, and it’ll be a mix. So who’s likely to be a Skrull and who’s real?

Well, one big name being floated around that I agree with is Luke Cage. Luke Cage has been Brian Bendis’ pet project for the last few years, building him from a D-list to A-list character. Having him turn out to be a Skrull (and the one from the ship the real deal) would be high on the shock list, and I think quite likely as a result. Granted it throws a lot of Brian Bendis work on the character out of the window, but there’s some big story points as a result. Jessica Jones must suddenly deal with the fact that her husband wasn’t who she thought he was. Their child is half-Skrull (presumably), and, most importantly to the post-Civil War Marvel Universe. The leader of the biggest anti-Registration names (The New Avengers) turns out to be a Skrull. That’d be huge.

Captain America from the ship has to be a Skrull. Anything else would throw a spanner into Ed Brubaker’s story and that’s just not on. I’ve mentioned before how good his run is, and to ruin it for the sake of a big crossover would be unthinkable. Can’t see it happening.

Indeed, with a lot of characters from the ship, revealing them to be the genuine article would be a nightmare. You’d wreck havok with past stories going back 20/30 years.

So (while I think its unlikely) I’d like to see Spider-Man from the ship revealed as the original. Think about it. His continuity is already a mess thanks to One More Day. He’s (effectively) been retconned back to his 70s incarnation anyway. Plus you’d have the advantage of a 70s Spider-Man unencumbered by any dodgy, satanic deals.

The other suggestion I read which I thought was interesting was Hawkeye. Have the Clint from the ship the original, but have the current one not a Skrull. Basically the Skrull-Hawkeye was killed during Avengers Dissassembled, and when Wanda resurrected him during House of M, as she didn’t know he was a Skrull sleeper agent, that part got left out.

So you’d then have two Clint Barton’s running around. One of whom as Ronin, which would be quite appropriate given the backstory to that identity.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 11:56 and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.