Saturday Splash Page #157

"Super-Power-Skrull," in Skrulls vs. Power Pack #2, by Fred van Lente (writer), Cory Hamscher (artist), Gurihiru and Wil Quintana (colorists), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

This wasn't an official Secret Invasion tie-in, what with all the 2000s-Power Pack mini-series existing in their own little continuity. But van Lente sticks with part of the basic premise, as the Power kids are captured by alien bounty hunters and hauled before an interstellar tribunal to face accusations they committed some serious crimes. Meanwhile, 4 Skrulls impersonate them in a bid to get access to a super-weapon via the kids' father's job with SWORD.

The real Pack bust out of jail. . .and promptly begin committing crimes in hopes of drawing out the imposters. Instead, they end up in a search for the identity of legendary figures called "The Annihilator" and "The Protector", who are of much interest to the Skrulls and the Kymellians (the horsefolk who gave the kids their powers.) That part felt like it was more van Lente setting up something for a future story that never took place, as well as a way to keep Power Pack from just rushing home and stomping the imposters.

Franklin Richards is present when the kids are initially captured, so he contacts their ship Friday. HERBIE actually agree to help Franklin, because he's immediately smitten with Friday. This is a recurring bit through the mini-series, HERBIE swooning or trying to act impressive and heroic, while Friday doesn't even remember his name.

(There's also a one-off gag during an interstellar bar fight where a Kree named Noh-Var warns the kids they aren't prepared for his blah blah blah and Katie just blasts him while complaining he lost her six high concepts ago. Even though he's dressed like a standard Kree soldier, it feels like a poke at Morrison's Marvel Boy.)

Cory Hamscher draws the first two issues, then he and Jacopo Camagni draw the next two issues collectively, though I can't find any rhyme or reason for who draws which pages. Hamscher's style is much rougher, much heavier lines. He gives Katie some really aggressive bangs, which are great when the imposter is grinning maliciously (or when Katie herself is trying to act bad), but less so at other times. I assume Hamscher came up with the looks for the Power kids when they try to act like crooks, which are suitably goofy, especially considering they're mostly dealing with aliens who shouldn't have any idea what those clothes would signify on Earth. Camagni has a lighter line. His figures and faces are rounded off versus Hamscher's more squared off look. It's a bit closer to the Gurihiru team's look, but less prone to exaggerate for comedic effect.

Atlas Came In Peace, And Actually Meant It

I mentioned it in passing yesterday, but I was pleased to see Jimmy Woo and the Atlas crew solve the problem with the Echo World without resorting to potentially lethal violence. Not that I'm necessarily opposed to the heroes killing their foes, depending on the circumstances and the hero. But Marvel (and maybe DC, I'm not sure) seems to have this attitude where killing by heroes is generally frowned upon - as long as the foe looks reasonably human (X-Force would be the obvious exception, but we're aren't supposed to see them as heroes are we?). Ms. Marvel will kill Super-Skrulls like she's in a video game. but not Norman Osborn*.

Jimmy's not immune from that himself. During Secret Invasion, he had Venus singing to Skrull soldiers to lure them into the ocean where they would drown amidst a lovestruck stupor. Venus couldn't bring herself to do it**, and while Jimmy said her understood, he then told M-11 to death ray the Skrulls instead, which M-11 did. Granted, Jimmy's looking at things from a 1950s perspective, and from the monster comics I've seen from back then, invading creatures were shown no mercy.

Then there's the inhabitants of Echo World. On the one hand, you could consider them worse than the invading Skrulls. The Skrulls were supposedly offering to share the world with Earthlings, it was just the Skrulls would be in charge. But it's not as though they were Annihilus, out to exterminate all indigenous life. The Echo Worlders don't actually want to live on Atlas' Earth, but they do try and manipulate people so that they'd kill large quantities of themselves and render portions of Earth uninhabitable, which is a bit more malicious.

At the same time, the people of Echo World have their lives constantly disrupted by these impressions or echoes of the people on the other Earths. It's not a situation they caused or asked for, and it makes their lives more difficult and terrifying, since they don't know when some ghostly looking tank is going to suddenly appear in the middle of their homes during dinner. They don't wish to conquer Earth, only to have it stop wrecking their lives on their world. You could argue the Skrulls still had it worse since they had no homeworld, but I'd think there have to be planets out there somewhere the Skrulls could settle and thrive on that aren't already inhabited. It's a big universe***, though knowing the Skrulls' luck, they'd just get settled and Galactus would show up.

It is nice to see Jimmy take that approach, and it fits, since he isn't like the past rulers of Atlas. He wasn't raised as a ruler, or a conqueror, he was raised as a regular kid who made himself into a law enforcement agent, then a secret agent. Someone whose purpose is to protect others from those who would do do them harm, rather than the person inflicting the harm (until the people agree to follow him). With the Skrulls, he handled things the way most of the previous leaders of Atlas would have. He fought the Skrulls, and killed them. So this is perhaps the point where Woo really comes into his own as leader, starts keeping his promise to Master Plan to do things his own way, rather than mimic how his predecessors handled things. And Jimmy's way is to try and help, so there's no need for conflict, rather than destroy the potential threat.

* Though I think it was her reason for not killing him that bothered me most. Namely, that she 'was better than he was'. Not that I disagree with her self-assessment, but it didn't seem like a line of reasoning she'd follow. If she had abstained from killing Osborn because she needed to get back and help her teammates, and couldn't spare the time to kill him, I'd have bought that. Or if she worried that killing Norman - a duly appointed official of the government - would make things worse for a superhero community already mistrusted by the public and the government, sure. Carol Danvers strikes me as a pragmatic sort.

** And thumbs down to Jimmy for trying to get her to do that. It's the exact sort of thing she used to do back when she was just a siren. Sure she's come to grips with her past, but that doesn't mean he should encourage her to reenact it.

*** And it would suit the Skrulls sometimes preference for sneaky. It's a sometimes preference because they prefer big splashy battles when the story dictates they stop being sneaky so the heroes can punch them a lot. Anyway, quiet, out of the way world they could rebuild on, where no one would be looking for them. As opposed to Earth, which I think every sentient species in the universe keeps one eye on, since you can never tell what those crazy Earthlings are gonna get up to.

Call Tech Support! Or An Exorcist!

My comic store won't be open until Friday, so I've got to muddle through for another two days. What? Take a break? Horsefeathers! It's a perfectly fine day for blogging! So, in that spirit, I'll chat about Nova and the Worldmind a bit.

So the Xandarian Worldmind is on a bit of a recruitment kick, signing people up from Project Pegasus for the Nova Corps left and right. This is a tad curious, since the first new recruits were from various species scattered across the universe, so it would seem clear Worldmind could cast the net a little wider. It's even more curious given what Abnett and Lanning posited as the recruiting standard for the Nova Corps in the Nova Annual #1*. At that point, we learned that the Nova Corps selects average representatives of a species, for various reasons, related to lack of ego, trustworthiness, and several other positive character traits. Well, I'm sure the folks at the Project are just swell, but I can't imagine they're all average, you know?

So what to conclude from this? Worldmind was nearly lost, and is attacking with self-preservation first in mind, rather than assembling an effective interstellar police force. Second idea: these Novas on a trial basis, and if they don't pan out, Worldmind takes the power back, no harm, no foul. Three: Something is actually wrong with the Worldmind. I don't mean Worldmind is actually an evil world-conqueror, more than its programming was damaged when it was nearly destroyed in Richard's unorthodox escape from Obrucen. Or that it's been infected by something.

And that's where I think that flask of Quantum energy comes in. It had Wendell Vaughn's mind (or soul?) in it, and Worldmind was somehow able to awaken it, to the point Wendell could bring himself together. But the last time we saw Wendell prior to that he was helping Phyla fight Annihilus, whose essence had corrupted the Quantum bands. At the end, Wendell drags Annihilus off with him. . . somewhere. Now Wendell shows up as Quantum energy that was collected in the Negative Zone. Can we be sure he managed to dump the Evil Bug King before then? Could Annihilus have infiltrated Worldmind when it rebooted it's systems, and was interacting with the Quantum energy?

* Looking back through the Annual, I see that in the hallucination that took place well in the future, Wendell is present, in the same form he appeared in during the Secret Invasion arc. Interesting.

This Is That Moment Before Dawn, Right?

Looking at the Marvel Universe, things have been in a downward spiral for the heroes for awhile now, haven't they? And most of that has been them squabbling amongst themselves, or being under attack from their friends and allies. So is Dark Reign the point all that turns around?

From Disassembled, to House of M, to Civil War, to World War Hulk, to Secret Invasion, the people that wind up causing trouble for the heroes are people who were either their friends, or were pretending to be their friends. It's Wanda going out of her gourd, or Iron Man vs. Cap, or the Hulk looking for some payback, or oops! Jarvis was a Skrull, oh no! The heroes can never get on the same page. They're divided on what to do with Wanda, or they disagree about the Registration Act, or they aren't sure about helping the Illuminati with the Hulk 'cause maybe they deserve it*. When the Skrulls stupidly dropped an army in New York and started blowing crap up, the heroes got their act together for awhile, but once the fight ended, it fell apart again.

Now it appears they'll be up against a cabal of evil** that is, in theory, going to be more subtle. A brief team up to punch people won't fix things (again, in theory). The good guys might actually have to play well together for some time to turn the tide and get things straightened out. Who knows, they might actually talk over the differences they have with each other, mend some friendships.

It seems that with the people who'll be driving Dark Reign generally being outright villains, the heroes should all be on the same side in this one. Actually, this would be a good test of Cyclops' new style. Hey Scotty, Emma's gone evil again, will you send X-Force after her like you did Cable and Bishop? Or will you be soft on her?

As for why everyone is listening to Norman, I've only been able to come up with one (in-story) explanation. Post-Secret Invasion, Norman's in charge of all the governmental super-stuff. SHIELD's gone, the Initiative's gone, everything has been, as far as I can tell lumped into one big group that Norman runs. So theoretically, he could threaten to just send wave after wave of this army he now has at anyone who won't play ball until they're destroyed. He's already demonstrated he can play the media, and the imbeciles that make up the public in the Marvel Universe, like a harp from hell, if I may steal from Batman Returns. He can make up some line of b.s about why he has his people burning the X-Men's shiny San Francisco headquarters to the ground, or why they're invading Latveria or Asgard, and people will buy it. And sure, lots of his resources will get killed, but it's not like Norman would care. He's crazy enough to do that, and the others might simply figure it's better to go along with him than waste time on big stupid fights that will drain their available resources.

I'd be fairly disappointed if most of the others aren't at least planning how to stab Norman in the back. Loki certainly is, while Doom is probably settling on a scheme where he tricks Norman into doing what Doom wants, without that being readily apparent to anyone else.

* Hey, that would be what I'd be thinking if the Hulk says he wants to smash them for tricking him shooting him into space, and then blowing up his planet. Granted they did not actually do that last one, but I'd have serious doubts about getting between them and the Hulk. Which is why I'm not a superhero.

** That's perhaps unfair to Emma and Namor, who may well be there just to gather information for their allies, but given the way things have gone the last few years, until they actually demonstrate that's what they're up to, I'll assume they showed up because they're on board with Norman.

Hey Whoa, I Don't Embrace Nothin', Mister

If you've read any Marvel comics this month, you might have seen their two-page ads for Secret Invasion. The one with the three small kids laughing, but one of them is green and has a Skrull chin, and we're advised to "Embrace Change"? I've certainly seen them*.

In addition to being mildly annoying**, it's also creepy. Maybe that's just me. I'm not a big fan of small children, like Dr. Grant at the start of Jurassic Park. The Skrull kid is only weird because it seems odd seeing a child that particular shade of green, but she doesn't really bother more than the other two.

I considered making this post into a joke about how silly it was for Marvel to make "Embrace Change" their tagline for the event, since they're talking to comic fans, and we all know how much we hate change, right? Ha ha ha, am I right? I can't seem to muster the energy to sell that joke, though.

So I'll take a different angle. Judging by the webpage they provide a link to, these are meant to assure the public that the Skrulls are bringing peace and love, and certainly not conquering. Which is all well and good, except for the part where they dropped a bunch of Super-Skrulls in Times Square and started getting kind of bossy. Doesn't really seem to agree with their electronic doctrine. So what's that leave us with? I guess it can serve as spin for after the fact. If the Skrulls actually succeeded in taking over, well, they can assign whatever motives they want, or provide no motive at all, what with them being in charge. if they lose however, they could always point to it and say they really did just want to help, and all the fighting and destruction was the "heroes'" fault.

I suppose it depends on what lasts as a result of Secret Invasion. I think an attempt to deny any malevolence would be a good idea if some of the Skrulls surrender, or beg asylum, and then get outfitted with some gizmo that neutralizes their shape-changing abilities. Which might seem a rude way to treat those begging asylum, but this is the Earth where people who put on costumes to try and protect the public were suddenly getting thrown in jail because they preferred to operate independently, and where mutants have been getting slaughtered by giant robots for being born different for decades. Why should Skrulls get special treatment? At that point the Skrulls couldn't really disguise themselves to fit into society, so their best bet would be a p.r. campaign to convince people that they aren't so bad.

Which sounds reminiscent of the mutant culture thing Morrison, Casey and some others were doing pre-House of M, and we saw what happened there, so that's probably not going to happen. Which is too bad. As a sort of background storyline running through the books, it might be kind of interesting. Or at least not obtrusive enough to detract from the titles' regular stories.

* Even in books that have not a whit to do with Secret Invasion. Can I not even be safe from Secret Invasion in The Punisher, Marvel?!

** I think it was mostly because I read several comics in a limited span of time, and I kept seeing it, and that starts to wear on me. Like how every time I sit down to watch football, I keep being subjected to that damn Little Thickburger commercial. I haven't watched much TV the last few months, but every time I do, there it is.

*** I would say the Skrulls did a fair job of infiltrating Earth secretly, but the invasion really is taking the standard, massive numbers of highly visible soldiers, isn't it?

Pandas Carving Things With Chainsaws!

{Um. . . O-K. Say, ABP, you look bigger than you did the last time I saw you.} Growth spurt. I'm Acne-Laden, Obnoxious Teenage Panda now! {Pandas get acne?} Sure, you just can't see it under all our huggably soft fur. Just like Snuggles! {Snuggles, the fabric softener bear? You know about him?} Of course! All bears keep up with our successful brethren, so we can mooch off them! {Mooching doesn't sound very panda-like.} *mocking tone* 'Mooching doesn't sound very panda like.' Which one of us is the panda here? *pause* Seriously, which one of us is the panda? {Uh, you?} Right, right. And don't you forget it! Now let's get to this thing!

Well, I'm going to Applaud that Booster Gold for dressing up as Elvis, and showing off his chest. Bold statement there. And Barbara Gordon gets some Applause for that kick in the face. Enjoy those legs while you got them, honey. {A, um, A-LOTP, that's awful. We're going to get assaulted by hordes of offended fans now.} Only if they can haul their cans off the sofa in their mother's basements. {Wow, that's an overused reference. Hmm, overused reference. . .} Moving along, I'll give those Outsiders some Hugs, because without Batman around, their book is doomed. Seriously, it never goes well when a character whose name is in the title leaves the book. {How would you know?} I know stuff, like that guy that won all those times on Jeopardy. {So that's how that Layla Miller one-shot ended: She died and was resurrected as a panda.} Righto.

Well, that awesome Deadpool has an outstanding new series, so I think he deserves all the other Applause. {Why? He's consorting with Skrulls. he's a filthy traitor!} Shut your lying cow mouth or I'll trap you in a world written solely by Brian Michael Bendis! Dynamic Deadpool is obviously tricking the Skrulls! {So, does Cosmo gets some applause, since that means he's also obviously tricking the Skrulls?} Oh no. He's a true-blue Skrull lover, which is why he gets a Stabbing. {Stabbing?} I'm a teen now. Bonking is uncool. Stabbing is where it's at. Haven't you seen X-Force? {Unfortunately, yes. Let's move on before any of what I've seen makes it past the mental blocks I placed.}

{Say, how about a hug for Mayday Parker, what with nearly getting blown up, and replaced by this crazed other version of herself.} Nah. I will however, give that Other May an Uncomfortably Long Hug. {What?} She was the one trapped in a tube all that time. Besides, it's not so bad being replaced. Sometimes the new version is better than the old version. {Give me one example.}

Voice From the Window: What is going on here?

Acne-Laden, Obnoxious Teenage Panda: Uh-oh.

Calvin: Adorable Baby Panda?! But if you're there, then who - ?

A-LOTP: Oh no you don't. You're not going to pull a Marvel Editorial, with me playing Ben Reilly! I'm the real panda who talks about comics!

Calvin: *shaking head repeatedly* Oh no. No, no, no, no, no.

ABP: The heck you are! "Stabbings"?! That isn't the panda way!

A-LOTP: What would you know? You're just a stupid baby! I've taken care of babies before! You're all cute and drooling one second, then you're running around telekinetically throwing stuff across the room and performing brain surgery!

ABP: That's it! *prepares to lunge*

A-LOTP: Just bring it, little furry dude! You can't stop me, I'm in like Flynn!

Calvin: Enough! We are not having some confusing battle of "Who's the Original and Who's the Clone?" here! This is a place for possibly significant battles with your complete opposite, who provides a mirror for how you view yourself at this moment! No clone stuff!

A-LOTP: Clones? No clones man, alien imposters! It's "Who's the Original and Who's the Skrull?"!

ABP and Calvin: NO SKRULLS! *DOUBLESOCKINDAJAW-ADOOM*

Calvin: Well, I guess your distaste for Skrulls confirms you're the real thing. But who is this?

*ABP rolls its eyes and taps an invisible device on Acne-Laden, Obnoxious Teenage Panda's prone form. A-LOTP's form begins to shimmer, and is replaced by. . . Deadpool.*

Calvin: Deadpool, I. . . I can't even fake being surprised that he would turn up.

ABP: I can't believe you thought he was me.

Calvin: Give me a break. I haven't seen you in over two weeks.

Deadpool: *mostly unconscious, mumbles* More green beans, Bea?

ABP: So? Pandas don't suddenly triple in size, you know.

Calvin: I thought maybe you got into some Pym Particles.

ABP: Pym Particles? That would just make me larger. Why would I be acting so different?

Calvin: Um, you were trying to act older?

ABP: . . . I think I want to leave now. Can I take the comics?

Calvin: Sure. Will you take Wade with you?

Deadpool: *still mostly unconscious, mumbles* More buttery waffles for Sandi and Outlaw. No Hayden, not until you stop using the forklift to get around.

ABP: Oh yes. I want to have a talk with him. *ABP trundles off, comics in a bag held in it's mouth, Wade's still unconscious form dragged behind like a sled. Or a sack of garbage.*

Calvin: *calls after ABP* No stabbing!

{Editor's note: Well, we had to do something to commemorate Deadpool getting another series, right? Besides, we haven't seen him since the Flying Castle fiasco back in June. I have to say, I can't do the "dated pop culture reference" shtick for him. Probably because I have no concept of what's dated. Well, that and a lack of knowledge of pop culture. Anyway, hopefully it wasn't too surprising that it wound up being Wade. I was foreshadowing as obviously as I could.}

So What WIll The Skrulls Leave Behind?

Topic of the day: What will be the lasting effects of Secret Invasion?

House of M brought Clint Barton back, set Pietro on a long and winding road of lunacy, drove a stake through the "mutant culture" concept Morrison/Casey/Milligan/whoever had been building, and depowered some mutants*.

Civil War killed Captain America, made Tony Stark ruler of the world, helped facilitate One More Day, made Speedball dark and ludicrous, and established that if one is a superhero, they answer to one of the following: Iron Man, Gyrich, a Skrull Hank Pym, or Norman Osborn (Skrull Pym being the one I'd deem most trustworthy). Or you're a wanted criminal**.

World War Hulk gave us, um, the inanity of Red Hulk? Um, Rick Jones as A-Bomb? Oh, it gave us the new Hard-Travelin' Heroes, Hercules and Amadeus Cho! And Skarr, Son of Hulk, I suppose. Oh, and the Hulk pummeling Iron Man and the Sentry. I kind of enjoyed that.

Annihilation made Richard Rider the last of the Nova Corps, the Silver Surfer back as a Herald of Galactus, Ronan ruler of the Kree Empire, dubbed a new Quasar, and destroyed the Skrull Empire, probably lending an air of desperation to their current attempts to take Earth***.

Messiah CompleX broke up Cable and Deadpool, drove Bishop round the bend, dumped Layla Miller in the future, and left Xavier partially amnesiac.

So I'm sure Secret Invasion is going to do something to alter the current state of the Marvel Universe. The question is what? Can Nick Fury use this to wrest SHIELD away from Tony Stark? Could some of the Skrulls lose their desire to conquer, and instead petition for asylum? Then they could spread their faith through the magic of televangelism. Might be more successful than the hordes of Super-Skrulls running around blowing stuff up.

Could the Illiminati finally receive their comeuppance**** for the years they've spent making all the important decisions without consulting anybody else, after it's revealed they decided, by themselves, to go deliver an ultimatum to the Skrulls, leading to their capture, leading to the Skrulls learning quite a bit about their abilities, which was probably turned around and used against Earth?

Your turn. Be as silly, or as serious, as you wish.

* Not that you'd really notice so much these days. Given that Xavier, Pietro, Magneto, Iceman, and Polaris all got their powers back, I'd say the most notable mutant that is still depowered is either Jubilee or Rictor. Maybe the Blob. So House of M removed the mutants that populate the back of those George Perez style pictures with a million characters.

** In theory. In practice, Ms. Marvel will keep letting you escape because you used to be friends.

*** In theory. I haven't been reading much Secret Invasion, so I can't verify that. Any concern might be quelled by the certainty that a deep and abiding trust in their faith provides.

**** That was supposed to be the Hulk's job, yet I don't believe any of them learned anything from it. Besides, Namor and Xavier were blameless on that count at least. This on the other hand, would be something they're all culpable for.