Avengers: The Initiative #18

Jul 13

Jul 13 Avengers: The Initiative #18

Don’t Shoot Until You See the Green of Their Eyes!

Secret Invasion continues from Nova (vol. 4) #18….

The Earth is being invaded by Skrulls, and 3-D Man (Delroy Garrett, Jr.) has uncovered the fact that every team on the 50-State Initiative has a Skrull spy in their midst.[1] Aiding him on his quest are the Skrull Kill Krew — Ryder and Riot (Heidi Sladkin) — as well as fellow Initiative members Devil-Slayer (Eric Payne), Jocasta, Komodo (Melati Kusama), and the Heavy Hitters — Gravity (Greg Willis), Hardball (Roger Brockridge), and Nonstop.[2]

Their next stop is Billings, Montana, home of the Initiative team known as the Freedom Force — consisting of the Challenger (Bill Waring), Cloud 9 (Abby Boylen), Equinox, Spinner, and Think Tank. There, they expose Equinox as being a Skrull spy. The Skrull mocks their inability to stop him now that he has added Spider-Man’s powers to his thermodynamic Equinox abilities. When it looks like everyone is defeated, Cloud 9 of the Freedom Force shoots the Skrull in the head with her sniper rifle from her vantage point hidden in her cloud. With the battle over, Abby is reunited with her friends Hardball and Komodo. Before they press on to their next location, Devil-Slayer advises 3-D Man that his Shadow Cloak wasn’t meant for troop transport and the strain of teleporting so many people is causing him great strain. However, as a soldier he will continue pressing on. With the increased pressure on their team, Riot asks Ryder if they should use extra help. However, Ryder doesn’t want to call that marker in until its absolutely necessary.

Meanwhile, Camp Hammond has become the operating headquarters of the Skrull invaders. The Skrull posing as Dum Dum Dugan is furious that the Initiative rebels are interfering with their plans and demands something be done about it.[3] One of his subordinates explains that it is hard to stop Devil-Slayer’s teleportation abilities because their mystics are pre-occupied trying to take over England.[4] However, it is only a matter of time before they can track his movements using technological means. Still, “Dugan” orders his men to get the job done right away, unaware that the cowardly Ant-Man (Eric O’Grady) is fighting against his baser instincts and is tagging along to try and foil their plans.[5] Deciding that all bets are off “Dum Dum” contacts all of the remaining Initiative bases and tells the Skrull spies in their midst that the time to seize victory is at hand. This is message is received by the Calvary in Georgia, Kentucky’s Action Pack, and the Order in California. Unaware who is actually a Skrull spy, this sows more distrust among these teams. The only team that doesn’t have a spy among them, is the Order, as that team was formed by Tony Stark, not “Hank Pym”, another Skrull spy.[6]

That’s when the Skrulls detect the Skrull Kill Krew’s new location. They have appeared in Philadelphia where they expose that the Liberteens’ leader, Revolutionary, is a Skrull spy.[7]

At that same time, at Nick Fury’s safehouse, the gathered heroes there intercept “Dugan’s” message and this sows distrust among them. Prodigy (Richie Gimore) accuses Hulkling (Teddy Altman) of the Young Avengers of being a spy. Teddy denies this, saying he never hid his Skrull heritage.[8] Crusader (who is secretly a Skrull defector named Z’Reg) tells everyone to calm down, saying that the reason why the Skrulls have conquered hundreds of worlds is by sowing paranoia among the people they enslaved.[9] He gives an impassioned speech that they need to have a united front for the battle ahead. This is overheard by Nick Fury who has come to tell them to saddle up for the final battle!

3-D Man’s team ultimately kill “Revolutionary” and recruit Whiz Kid to their team and head to their next location, Georgia. When the Skrulls pinpoint their location, they deploy a shock troop to attack them, unaware that Ant-Man is still tagging along. When the Skrull Kill Krew arrive at the headquarters of the Calvary, they discover that Ultragirl and Thor Girl are brawling because they have accused one another of being the Skrull spy in their midst. As they are fighting in the air among storm clouds, they are too high up and obscured for Delroy to figure out which one is the Skrull. Cloud 9 decides to fly up and shoot them both with a gun, as she is unsure which is the spy either.[10] When both women are knocked to the ground, Garrett confirms that Thor Girl is the real threat. As the other heroes pile onto the Skrull, 3-D Man picks up her enchanted hammer and pulps her head with it.

When the Skrull shock troop arrives, 3-D Man’s team teleports away to Mount Rushmore. There, Komodo spots Ant-Man had hitched a ride, but Delroy confirms that O’Grady isn’t a Skrull. O’Grady then reveals that the Skrulls have wired up all of the Initiative bases with a transmitter that will dump Earth into the Negative Zone as a final doomsday weapon if they begin losing the fight. With time running out, they don’t have enough time to shut down the last six Initiative bases unless they all split up, however only 3-D Man, Ryder, and Riot can detect Skrulls. That’s when Ryder opens up his truck to get out the solution to their problem. He reveals that he and Riot have been transporting the severed heads of the original Kill Krew in cryogentic stasis. The tainted Skrull meat that gave them their powers and were slowly killing them ruined the bodies of Catwalk, Dice and Moonstomp and they were preserved so they could be used again if the time ever came. However, this is a suicide run as the thawed out heads will soon die. However, Moonstomp and his disembodied comrades are willing to sacrifice themselves as long as they kill as many Skrulls as possible in the process.[11]

Quickly, the group splits up into 6 teams, each one with someone to see the Skrulls. They also send Whizkid, Non-Stop, and Spinner — all speedsters — with bombs to blow up all the Negative Zone portals scattered around the country. As Nick Fury leads his army into battle, 3-D Man sends everyone off through Devil-Slayer’s Shadow Cloak. After they’re all through the weakened Eric Payne coughs up blood and collapses to the ground.[12]

… Secret Invasion continues in Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #25.

Recurring Characters

Initiative staff: Gauntlet, Taskmaster

Trainees: Ant-Man, Batwing, Crusader, Giger, Prodigy

Skrull Kill Krew (3-D Man, Catwalk, Devil Slayer, Dice, Komodo, Jocasta, Moonstomp, Riot, Ryder), Freedom Force (Challenger, Cloud 9, “Equinox”, Spinner, Think Tank), Heavy Hitters (Gravity, Hardball, Nonstop), Calvary (Stunt-Master, Crime Buster, “Thor Girl”, Ultragirl), Liberteens (“Revolutionary”, Hope, Whiz Kid), Action Pack (Vox, “Frog-Man”, Prima Donna), the Order (Anthem, Aralune, Calamity, Supernaut), “Dum Dum Dugan”, Young Avengers (Wiccan, Hulkling, Stature), Secret Warriors (Nick Fury, Quake, Druid, Hellfire, Phobos, Stonewall)

Continuity Notes

This story takes place during the events of Secret Invasion #1-8 and its various crossover issues (see below). 3-D Man has been hunting down Skrull spies since uncovering the truth in Avengers: The Initiative #14.
Nonstop’s real name is not given in this story. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #5 reveals it to be Madeline Michaels. The only other unnamed character is Hope, whose real name — Ariana Diamante — isn’t revealed until Fantastic Four: Negative Zone #1.
For more on the war in the UK, see Captain Britain and MI-13 #1-4.
The real Dum Dum was replaced by a Skrull in Secret Invasion: Prologue #1, circa Captain America (vol. 5) #25.
Here, O’Grady mentions that the leader of the Skrulls (Veranke) had replaced Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), which he learned last issue. Veranke took Drew’s place circa Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1, as explained in New Avengers #42.
Yellowjacket was revealed to be a Skrull spy in Avengers: The Initiative #14, per Mighty Avengers #15 and New Avengers #45, he was replaced circa House of M #1.
But readers already new this if they read Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1.
Hulkling is half Kree, half Skrull, as revealed in Young Avengers #10.
Z’Reg was sent to Earth to gather intel on the Avengers only to fall in love with Earth and masquerade as a human hero. See Marvel Team-Up (vol. 3) #20-25 and Avengers: The Initiative #15.
Abby mentions that Thor Girl and Ultragirl had romantic feelings for Trauma and Justice respectively and that they both left to join the Calvary. See Avengers: The Initiative #6, 11, and 12 for all that drama.
As explained in Skrull Kill Krew #1, the SKK ate hamburgers made out of Skrull meat. These Skrulls, were hypnotized into thinking they were cows way back in Fantastic Four #2. Years later, as seen in Fantastic Four Annual #17, these Skrull cows ended up as part of the food supply. This gave the SKK their powers, however we found out in Avengers: The Initiative #16 that their bodies were slowly rotting away.
Devil-Slayer will survive this and will be seen again in New Avengers Annual (vol. 2) #1.