Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #30

May 11

May 11 Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #30

Secret Invasion: The Battle of Manhattan, Part 3

Secret Invasion continues from Secret Invasion #6…

The Earth has been invaded by the Skrulls![1] In New York City, Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) brought innocent bystanders to the Raft Maximum Security Prison in the hopes that it would be a safe place. However, she discovers that something killed nearly all of the SHIELD agents on sight, something that even frightened the Skrulls.

Going deeper into the prison to investigate she finds a massive Skrull that is about to experiment on one of the prisoners, Tiger Shark. Carol saves the villain in the nick of time, but quickly discovers that this Skrull is different from the others. While Super-Skrulls that she fought previously all seemed to have a limited number of super-powers, this one seems to have an unlimited number of abilities to draw from. Ms. Marvel struggles to defeat this foe because it keeps on switching power sets in the middle of the battle. While mimicking the powers of the Iceman, it manages to freeze Carol in a block of ice.

Although she is able to break free, there is still ice frozen in her lungs, threatening to suffocate her. As she gasps for breath, the Skrull charges her, sending them both flying out of the prison. Ms. Marvel struggles to try and activate her newly restored Binary powers. However, she can only manage to ignite them enough to melt the ice in her lungs.[2] The two continue to brawl, in a fight that sends them crashing all over New York City.

When the two combatants are briefly separated, Carol happens upon another group of Super-Skrulls and wipes them out before looking for her opponent. She is horrified to see that the Skrull she had been fighting is so insane that it is now attacking some of its fellow invaders. By the time Carol rejoins the fight, this insane Skrull has become exhausted allowing her to easily slay the monster. When getting a close look at it, she notices that it has “Hydra Prime 001” tattooed on his neck. None of the others have any similar marks, leaving Carol to wonder what Hydra has to do with any of this…[3]

Several Months Later….

The Skrull invasion is over and a woman who resembles Carol Danvers is attending a fancy party in Hong Kong. She is approached by a man who swears she looks exactly like Ms. Marvel. The woman admits they do share a resemblance but insists that she is a financier named Catherine Donovan. When he kisses her hand, she reveals that she knows he is Ghazi Rashid, a terrorist who was believed to be dead. He denies this until Catherine begins speaking to him in Arabic. He tries to call for his bodyguards for help, but she hoists him off the ground. With her first crackling with energy, she demands he tell her everything he knows about something called Ascention.[4]

… Secret Invasion continues in Secret Invasion: Thor #2.

Recurring Characters

Ms. Marvel, Agent Dave Sum, Hydra Prime 001, Tiger Shark, Ghazi Rashid

Continuity Notes

This is part of a large planet-wide invasion that is primarily chronicled in Secret Invasion #1-8, and various crossover issues listed below.
Carol was once experimented upon by the Brood, giving her cosmic level powers in Uncanny X-Men #163. She retained these powers for a time but they had completely faded away by Avengers (vol. 3) #4. More recently, Carol had these powers restored to her by an alien known as Cru in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #23-24.
Any significance about Hydra Prime 001 is never really explored beyond this issue. Likely, this just pointing to the fact that Hydra had been compromised by the Skrulls, something that was first alluded to in New Avengers #11 and explained in issue #42 of that series.
The past history of Rashid and Carol going under cover will all be explained in Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #34-37.