Avengers: The Initiative #15

Jul 13

Jul 13 Avengers: The Initiative #15

The Only Good Skrull

Secret Invasion continues from New Warriors (vol. 4) #14…

3-D Man (Delroy Garrett, Jr.) has come to the Initiative’s headquarters at Camp Hammond to warn them of Skrull infiltrators in their midst.[2] However, among the new recruits is Crusader, a Skrull named Z’Reg who is not part of this invasion and is legitimately living on Earth as hero. Fearing that he could not explain his presence if exposed, Z’Reg uses the reality altering powers of his Freedom Ring to change the polarity of 3-D Man’s goggles. This makes everyone on the base appear to be Skrulls but the Crusader.

Fearing that the entire Initiative have been compromised, Delroy quickly dismisses his earlier warning that they had been invaded as a drill to test everyone’s preparedness. He then pulls Crusader aside and warms him of the Skrull invasion and suggest that they both take a Quinjet and get help. Z’Reg tells Delroy that might raise suspicions and will stay behind to allay them while 3-D Man leaves. Delroy does just that and when Camp Hammond security radios him to ask where he is going, Delroy says that the purpose of his mission is top secret, something he has authorization to do as leader of the 50-State Initiative’s Point Men. Unsure of who to trust, Delroy realizes that he can’t just use the communicator for help, since his goggles only work in person. He decides to go to Hal and Chuck Chandler (the original 3-D Man) to get their aid and flies to New Mexico. However, when he arrives in that state, an alien virus compromises the Quinjet’s systems forcing him to make a crash landing in the middle of the desert.[2]

Back at Camp Hammond, War Machine is woken up when the Starktech machine recharging his systems is compromised by the virus.[3] He crawls out of the recharging unit surprised that his armor is still functional, but his life support systems are failing.[4] He is found by Baron Von Blitzschlag, who uses his electrical powers to fully recharge War Machine’s armor, despite his unwillingness to be saved by a former Nazi.[5]

Elsewhere, Gauntlet has gathered all of the Initiative recruits together due to the system outage all over the camp. They are joined by Yellowjacket (Hank Pym), who tells them that the world is being invaded by aliens. Crusader, who has suspicions that Pym is actually a Skrull, decides to use his Freedom Ring to alter his perceptions to work like 3-D Man’s goggles. Sure enough, this confirms that “Yellowjacket” is actually a Skrull![6] However, this puts Z’Reg into a peculiar situation as he doesn’t know how he can expose “Pym” without also exposing himself.

As Gauntlet orders everyone to prepare to go to New York, Crusader also realizes the broader implications of his masquerade on Earth as he never expected to fight against his own people. Meanwhile, Ant-Man (Eric O’Grady) decides that he doesn’t want to risk his life fighting aliens and cowardly shrinks down to ant-size so nobody sees him slipping away.

On the flight to Manhattan, Z’Reg thinks about the circumstances that led to him posing as a hero on Earth. Z’Reg recalls the training he received during his youth in the Skrull empire. One of his biggest competitors was K’Rtem who cut Z’Reg’s face leaving a permanent scar down the right side of his face. When they were all given their assignments, K’Rtem boasted how he was chosen by the Queen to be part of a secret operation, while Z’Reg was to be sent to Earth to spy on the Avengers.[8] K’Rtem finds Z’Reg’s assignment amusing and further proof that he is the more superior between them.

Z’Reg arrived on Earth only to discover that the Avengers had recently disbanded, putting his primary objective on hold.[9] Still, posing as a recent immigrant, Z’Reg continues to gather intel by renting movies about the Avengers at a local video store. He ends up shacking up with the young woman who works there and this helps him improve his English and learn more about Earth culture.[10] However, Z’Reg eventually grew to admire the heroes of this world and decided to become one himself after he discovered that one of his neighbors, Curtis Doyle, was the novice hero Freedom Ring. Creating his Crusader persona, he helped train Doyle in the use of his powers. Tragically, Curtis was killed in a battle with an insane Iron Man from another reality. Taking Doyle’s ring (his name sake and a portion of a Cosmic Cube), Crusader continued to fight for the Earth and later assisted Earth’s heroes against the Super-Skrull known as Titannus.[11] After the passage of the Super Human Registration Act, Crusader signed up to the Initiative so he could continue defending the planet he had grown to love.[12]

By the time Z’Reg has finished his recollections, the Initiative has arrived into New York. Diving into battle, the Crusader sees that the Earth is indeed under invasion by his people. Seeing that people are getting caught in the crossfire, Z’Reg comes to their aid, vowing that no innocent will die on his watch. That’s when he is attacked by his old friend K’Rtem, who is among the Super-Skrulls attacking the city and they instantly recognize one another. They both remember the day that K’Rtem scarred Z’Reg’s face, an incident that forged a bond of brotherhood between the two Skrulls. Fearing that he might be exposed, Crusader uses his shape-shifting powers to forms claws like Wolverine and — with his combat training — is able to stab K’Trem fatally through a vital organ.

Instantly regretting this, Z’Reg offers to use his Freedom Ring to heal his old friend. However, K’Rtem refuses wanting to die for the Skrull’s religious cause on Earth. Before he dies, his final words to his old friend is that he no longer loves their god. After mourning his friend for a moment, Crusader rejoins the fight alongside the humans. As a symbolic show of his allegence to Earth he uses his shapeshifting powers to remove the scar on his face.

… Secret Invasion continues in She-Hulk (vol. 2) #31.

Recurring Characters

Initiative staff: “Yellowjacket”, War Machine, Gauntlet, Baron Von Blitzschlag, Taskmaster, Constrictor, Gargoyle, Hellcat, Stingray

Trainees: Annex, Ant-Man, Batwing, Crusader, Diamondback, Geiger, Gorilla Girl, Melee, Prodigy, Proton, Red-9, Stature, Sunstreak

3-D Man, Young Avengers (Patriot, Hulkling, Wiccan, Hawkeye, Speed), Skrulls

Continuity Notes

This issue’s cover pays homage to Avengers: The Initiative #1.
Delroy made this discovery last issue thanks to the special goggles gifted to him by Hal and Charlie Chandler, the original 3-D Man. This story takes place during the events of Secret Invasion #1-8 and various crossover issues. See below.
This virus is (you guessed it) caused by the Skrulls, who have compromised all SHIELD, Avengers, and Starktech as seen in Secret Invasion #1.
At the time of this story, Jim Rhodes is a cyborg after being seriously injured in combat, as will be revealed in War Machine (vol. 2) #1. He will remain as such until he is restored to a normal person in issue #12 of that series.
The reason why War Machine’s armor is not compromised is because Tony Stark had built it without any Starktech components as a failsafe in the event that his technology was ever compromised. See War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #33.
Some things about Blitzschlag and his ties to World War II:
- Baron Von Blitzschlag has been identified as a Nazi since his first appearance in Avengers: The Initiative #2. Due to the Sliding Timescale, it has become increasingly impossible to explain how a character who lived during World War II could be alive in the Modern Age without some kind of means of extending their natural lifespan. As of this writing (July, 2024), Marvel has yet to provide a specific explanation as to how Blitzschlag is still alive. I have posited a likely theory in my index of issue #2.
- He states here that, during the war, he was nearly killed by Isiah Bradley the so-called “Black Captain America”. Bradley was part of an attempt to recreate the Super Soldier Serum that created Captain America (Steve Rogers) and only served one mission in uniform as seen in Truth: Red, White and Black #1-7. The full details of Bradley’s clash with Blitzschlag (as of this writing) have yet to be revealed.
The fact that Hank Pym had been replaced by a Skrull was revealed to us last issue. For more on how and when Pym was replaced see Mighty Avengers #15.
This secret mission would be the new Super-Skrull program that led to this current invasion. It was kicked off by the late Emperor Dorrek VII after capturing a number of Earth’s heroes for examination in New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #1. For more on this process see New Avengers #40-44.
This happened after the team was decimated by the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) as seen in Avengers #500-503/Finale #1. The team would later be reformed in New Avengers #1-5.
Among the video footage we see a reproduction of the cover to Captain America Comics #1. We also see a video of the Avengers (including Captain America, She-Hulk, Hawkeye, Vision, and the Scarlet Witch). As of this writing (July, 2024), this is the only recorded instance where this specific roster fought the Grim Reaper. The details of that conflict are as yet unknown.
For more on the exploits of Crusader and Freedom Ring see Marvel Team-Up (vol. 3) #20-25.
The Super Human Registration Act was passed in Civil War #3. It requires all superhumans to register with the American government. Crusader joined the ranks of the Initiative in Avengers: The Initiative #8. The SHRA will remain on the books until Siege #4.

Topical References

The place where Z’Reg gathers intel on the Avengers is a video store. The woman who works there states that all of their movies on the Avengers are on DVD, which was the dominant form of physical media at the time this comic was published in 2008. While DVDs are still sold, they are slowly falling out of popular use thanks to the advent of newer formats. As such, their reference here should be considered topical.
On one of the walls of the video store is a poster for the 2008 Iron Man film starring Robert Downy, Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man. This was to promote the film as it was being released in the same year this comic was published. That said, its appearance here would not be considered topical. This is because all Marvel related media exists in the Marvel Universe. The only difference being that rather than being works of fiction they are licensed authorizations based on true events. This has been the case since Fantastic Four #10.