Nanjing, 1368

Two Mongolian warriors enter the town and begin hassling the locals. However, they are stopped by a man who has been charged with eliminating Kubla Khan’s forces on behalf of Zhu Yuanzhang. This warrior is the man that Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) knows in the present as SHIELD Agent Dave Sum.

New York, Now

Ms. Marvel had raced to the home of her would-be boyfriend, William Wagner to discover that someone has murdered him. That’s when Agent Sum enters the room and orders her to surrender. Not only does he think she killed William, but is convinced that she is a Skrull. She doesn’t have time for this as the real killer is getting away and so she fights her way past Dave. In the apartment hallway she is attacked by both Machine Man (Aaron Stack) and Sleepwalker, other members of Operation: Lightning Storm that have been sent to take her in.[1]

Carol manages to get away and tries to call Tony Stark to try and explain the situation. Unfortunately, she is ambushed by Machine Man once again who then attempts to cut her up with a bunch of buzzsaw weapons.[2] Ms. Marvel tears Stack limb from limb explaining how she was attacked by a Skrull with all the powers of the X-Men just before William was murdered and that she is not the impostor. That’s when another Ms. Marvel ambushes her and accuses Carol of being the Skrull impostor.

Before an all out brawl can start between the two women, the SHIELD mini-carrier appears in the sky. From it, Agent Sum and an army of SHIELD Cape-Killers emerge and ask both women to surrender. Both do so without further incident as a show that they are the real Carol Danvers. Sum has Machine Man point out which one he was fighting and removes the sash from her costume so he can tell the two identical women apart. While Sum’s team takes both Ms. Marvel’s into custody, none of them notice a Skrull come up the side of the building and take on the form of a Cape-Killer so it can infiltrate the helicarrier.

After an hour of captivity, Agent Sum has the real Carol brought back to her ruined apartment so he can interrogate her in private in order to determine if she is the real deal. Carol tries to prove that she is the real deal by revealing that she knows the truth about Dave Sum. That his birth name was Hui Lin and that he was born in the year 1320 and helped Zhu Yuanzhang liberate China from Kublai Khan. Sum is surprise to hear this an accuses Carol of hacking SHIELD’s databases to learn about him. He then demands to know what her command codes are, and Carol accuses Dave of being a Skrull and attacks him. The Cape-Killers pull her off and Dave orders her placed back in the brig. Ms. Marvel is almost convinced that she made a mistake of accusing Agent Sum of being a Skrull when another Sum shows up and demands to know what’s going on. That’s when the other Dave Sum drops his disguise revealing himself to be Rl’nnd, the X-Men based Super Skrull that Carol fought previously.

The two get into a brawl and end up smashing into the quarters of Machine Man, who is busy amusing himself with his Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) Life Model Decoy.[3] At the same time, Rick Sheridan — human host of the Sleepwalker — wakes up confused and disorientated. He has been losing track of his days ever since he was given a sleep inducing disc so they can summon Sleepwalker whenever he is needed. However, it has been used more and more frequently which has troubled Rick since he and his partner haven’t been talking like they used to.[4] That’s when Carol and Rl’nnd come crashing into his quarters.

The battle soon tears its way to the holding cell where Carol orders the Cape-Killers stationed there to use lethal force. Their firepower and her weapons are able to kill Rl’nnd, causing his lover — who had been posing as Carol — to reveal that she was the real Skrull after all. Ms. Marvel is unsympathetic about killing Rl’nnd since the Skrull impersonating her killed William Wagner. That’s when the phony reveals that Willian — who they believe is a member of the Kree — wasn’t killed but taken prisoner!

Recurring Characters

Ms. Marvel, Operation: Lightning Storm (Agent David Sum, Machine Man, Sleepwalker/Rick Sheridan), Skrulls (Rl’nnd), SHIELD,

Continuity Notes

1. The robot who appears to be Machine Man in this story is not the real Aaron Stack, but an alleged impostor according to Marvel Comics #1001. Apparently, he had taken the place of the real Stack when he went into space in X-51 #12, first appearing in Nextwave #1. As of this writing (June, 2024), his motivations for doing so are unknown.

2. Here, Machine Man mentions how he was paid with a Life Model Decoy of Monica Rambeau in order to join up with Operation: Lightning Storm. He joined the team in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #18, although his payment wasn’t revealed until issue #21. He grew obsessed with her during his time they worked together from Nextwave #1-12.

3. The Monica LMD cries about once being a leader of the Avengers and is now stuck with him forever. Monica was briefly Avengers chairwoman from Avengers #279 until an injury took her off the team in issue #294.

4. Rick Sheridan became the host to Sleepwalker back in Sleepwalker #1. A being from a dimension of dreams, he can only appear in the waking world when Rick is asleep. Due to the unpredictability of this situation (such as Rick waking up in the middle of a mission), he was given the sleep inducer in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #22. What Rick wasn’t told was that frequent use of the device could cause him permanent brain damage. Sleepwalker chose to keep this a secret from Rick.

Topical References

• Ms. Marvel is depicted as having an cell phone with analogue buttons and a tiny screen. This style of phone was common when this comic was published in 2008. However, they have fallen out of popular use following the advent of smart phones. As such, its depiction here should be considered topical.

Secret Invasion Reading Order

New Avengers #31, Mighty Avengers #7, New Avengers #34, New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #5, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #25, 26, 27, Secret Invasion: Prologue #1, Secret Invasion #1, Mighty Avengers #12, New Avengers #40, Secret Invasion #2, Mighty Avengers #13, Captain Britain and MI-13 #1, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1, Mighty Avengers #14, Incredible Hercules #117, New Avengers #41, Secret Invasion #3, Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? #1, Captain Britain and MI-13 #2, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #2, Incredible Hercules #118, Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #1, Avengers: The Initiative #14, Mighty Avengers #15, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #28, New Avengers #42, Secret Invasion: Front Line #1, Captain Britain and MI-13 #3, Secret Invasion #4, Mighty Avengers #16, X-Factor (vol. 3) #33, Incredible Hercules #119, New Warriors (vol. 4) #14, Avengers: The Initiative #15, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #31, New Avengers #43, Thunderbolts #122, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #3, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #29, Black Panther (vol. 4) #39, Secret Invasion: Front Line #2, Secret Invasion: X-Men #1, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #1, Secret Invasion: Thor #1, Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #2, Captain Britain and MI-13 #4, Secret Invasion #5, Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #4, X-Factor (vol. 3) #34, Incredible Hercules #120, Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #1, New Warriors (vol. 4) #15, Nova (vol. 4) #16, Avengers: The Initiative #16, Mighty Avengers #17, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #32, Black Panther (vol. 4) #40, New Avengers #44, Thunderbolts #123, Secret Invasion: Front Line #3, Deadpool (vol. 4) #1, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #2, Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #3, Secret Invasion #6, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #30, Secret Invasion: Thor #2, Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #5, Mighty Avengers #18, War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #33, Deadpool (vol. 4) #2, Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #2, Nova (vol. 4) #17, Avengers: The Initiative #17, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #33, Black Panther (vol. 4) #41, New Avengers #45, Thunderbolts #124, Deadpool (vol. 4) #3, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #3, Secret Invasion: Front Line #4, Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #6, Mighty Avengers #19, War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #34, Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #3, Secret Invasion #7, New Avengers #46, Thunderbolts #125, Secret Invasion: X-Men #3, Secret Invasion: Thor #3, Nova (vol. 4) #18, Avengers: The Initiative #18, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #25, War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD #35, Secret Invasion: X-Men #4, Secret Invasion: Inhumans #4, Secret Invasion: Front Line #5, Secret Invasion #8, New Avengers #47, Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1, Avengers: The Initiative #19