New Avengers #39

March 22, 2024 Nick Peron

Echo

Echo is at the New Avengers hideout pondering the possibility that some of her teammates might be Skrulls.[1] She goes into the kitchen and finds Wolverine (Logan) raiding the fridge. He knows what she is thinking and tells her he isn’t a Skrull. The only reason why he has not mentioned their past together, was due to the fact he was being a gentleman.[2] With everything that’s been going on, Logan figures he can trust that the Skrulls are going to invade soon.[3] When Echo decides to go out Logan stops her. He says that the reason he stuck with the New Avengers was because he didn’t want to leave her in Japan to fend for herself.[4] She tells Logan to stop hitting on her, and he says he is just being nice. He then quips that if she hits on him he can’t stop her because it is his curse. This makes Maya smile.

She then heads to the law offices of Nelson & Murdock. There she is greeted by Daredevil (Matt Murdock) who asks her why she has come. She wants to know why he convinced Captain America to recruit her onto the New Avengers. Daredevil then reminds her that Captain America is dead until he realizes that she meant before he was killed. This is enough to convince Echo that this isn’t the real Matt Murdock, but a Skrull. Confirming this, “Daredevil” shapeshifts into a form identical to Echo. The Skrull then tells Maya to surrender since she has no superhuman powers. When the real Echo attempts to attack, the Skrull fires an optic blast, knocking her off the roof of the building.

Maya lands in a fire escape and quickly recovers. When she tries attacking again, the Skrull shoots flames from her hands, melting Maya’s sword. That’s when Wolverine arrives and attacks the Skrull from behind. The Skrull quickly blasts Logan and then teleports away. Logan tries to warn Echo of this, but she can’t hear him as she is deaf and not looking in his direction. Luckily, Maya is able to fight off the Skrull when it teleports back and tries to ambush her from behind.

By this time, Logan’s healing factor has gotten him back on his feet and the two attack the impostor in tandem. Realizing that it is going to lost this fight, the Skrull flames on like the Human Torch and flies away. Its only then that Maya and Logan realize that the Skrull had come to replace her on the team. That’s exactly why Logan came followed after her before he collapses from his injuries.

Later, Maya is back at the New Avengers hideout meditating when she is visited by Clint Barton. She tells him how she doesn’t feel like she belongs to the Avengers, and that this team isn’t like the one he first joined. Clint tells her that while his joining the group is seen as “the glory days”, wouldn’t have known it at the time since the Avengers took a drubbing in the press.[5] Barton figures that in a few years Echo will be able to look back at this time fondly as he does of his early days on the Avengers.

Its then that the two admit that they are attracted to one another.[6] The two then kiss and spend the evening together. Later, as Clint sleeps, Maya watches over him wondering if he might be a Skrull.

Recurring Characters

New Avengers (Echo, Wolverine, Ronin), Skrulls

Continuity Notes

The New Avengers discovered that Elektra, the leader of the Hand ninja cult, had been replaced with a Skrull in New Avengers #31. This is but a precursor to an invasion which will primarily take place in Secret Invasion #1-8 as well as various other crossover issues listed below.
What past Wolverine and Echo may have had is not elaborated on here. As of this writing (April, 2024) it has yet to be fully explained.
Echo references the fact that Captain America is dead and that the team are outlaws.
- Captain America is believed to have been killed by an assassins bullet in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. In reality, Steve was struck with a chronal bullet and has been reliving in his life in a constant loop. He will be freed from this purgatory in Captain America: Reborn #1-6.
- The New Avengers have been outlaws since the passage of the Super Human Registration Act in Civil War #3. They will remain outlaws until the SHRA is repealed following the events of Siege #1-4.
Maya was recruited by the New Avengers to keep tabs on the Japanese underworld in New Avengers #11-13. When her mission went tits up, they came to her rescue as seen in New Avengers #27-31.
Clint is referring to when he joined the original Avengers back in Avengers #16. Indeed, the team did face a lot of negative press at the time as was revealed in Thunderbolts #9.
Clint mentions how she walked in on him in the shower. That was in New Avengers #34. He also mentions how he wanted to kiss her when fixing up her arm in New Avengers Annual #2.

Secret Invasion Reading Order