New Avengers #44

March 22, 2024 Nick Peron

Professor X (Charles Xavier) has called a meeting of the Illuminati — Iron Man (Tony Stark, Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), Doctor (Stephen) Strange, the Sub-Mariner (Namor), and Black Bolt — to discuss the Skrull situation.[2] The last one who shows up is Iron Man, who uses the scanners in his armor to confirm the identities of everyone in the room.

With everyone present, Xavier expresses his concerns that the Skrulls may retaliate against their previous actions against them. He posits the idea that the Skrulls may have infiltrated Earth and the possibility that they might be posing as someone they are not. The group figures this would be hard to do between Xavier’s telepathic powers, Doctor Strange’s magic, as well as technology developed by Reed and Tony. Everyone confirms that they scanned everyone in the room to make sure they were who they claim to be and none of them found anything out of the ordinary. Xavier then suggests that perhaps the Skrulls may have found a way to circumvent these checks and balances.

After a moment of pondering, Doctor Strange dismisses Charles’ concerns as paranoid. Namor doesn’t agree, being a king himself, he figures that the Skrull rulers will bow down to public demand for revenge. Charles then asks them to consider the possibility that the Skrulls have found a way to avoid detection and asks them to think of how that could theoretically be possible. Reed hypothesizes that the first step in avoiding detection, a shape-shifter would have to alter their form down to a molecular level and then hold it permanently.[3]

As they discuss this idea further, Doctor Strange decides to summoning the all-seeing Eye of Agamotto in order to confirm everyone’s identity. However, he is surprised when nothing happens. He then has trouble remembering the last time he cast this spell and begins to panic. He is starting to wonder if they actually managed to escape the Skrulls. Everyone refuses to believe this until Reed tries to use his powers and can’t. Tony then gives his armor a command, but it doesn’t comply. Everyone starts panicking and trying to get out of the room, all except for Charles Xavier, who tells them all to calm down.

When the Sub-Mariner accuses Xavier of doing this, “Charles” suddenly reverts to his true form: That of a Super Skrull with the powers of the Fantastic Four and strikes Namor with a blow strong enough to snap his neck. He then begins slaughtering the members of the Illuminati. Black Bolt tries to flee the room and when he opens the door he is mowed down by armed Skrulls waiting on the other side.

As it turns out this was a set created by the Skrulls and the Illuminati members clones of the real humans. This whole charade was overseen by Priest Galan who demands to know why the mental illusions used to convince the clones that everything was real failed. As it turns out, the clones refused to accept the illusion.

This is when Emperor Dorrek enters the room and asks for a progress report. Priest Galan is about ready to chalk this up as a failure. However, a scientist named Dro’ge disagrees. He tells Dorrek about how the clone of Reed Richards was about to come up with a way that Skrulls could pass as humans on Earth without detection before the experiment failed. The team telepath says that pulling the information from a clone’s mind is too technical given her lack of scientific knowledge. Dro’ge suggests that they continue cloning Richards in the hopes that one of them will produce what they need to accomplish their goals. He points out that it would be ironic that Richards — the greatest enemy of the empire — would be responsible for bringing about Earth’s downfall. Dorrek likes this idea and decides to make Dro’ge the head scientist on this task. After the Emperor leaves, Dro’ge offers his apologies for replacing Priest Galan, but Galan scoffs at this as now he doesn’t have to worry about being exiled for failing their leader.

Their first test is to make a clone of Richards appear to be a hostage being beaten for information. To get what they want, they seemingly execute a Skrull posing as his wife, the Invisible Girl. When this doesn’t make the Richards clone talk, they then threaten to kill his “son” Franklin. While the clone promises to tell them what they know, the team telepath warns that he is about to unleash a chemical weapon that will kill everyone in the room. A Super-Skrull then kills the clone before he can succeed. While this method is a failure, it gives Dro’ge inspiration for another approach.

This time, they set a clone in bed with his “wife” in the middle of the night. As the Richards clone lays awake he is visited by a Skrull posing as Franklin once more. The “boy” says that he has been having nightmares about Skrulls. The clone assures his “son” that the Skrulls cannot evade detection thanks to his inventions that can sniff them out. Before going to sleep, “Franklin” suggests that his father could probably figure out a way for the Skrulls to avoid detection if he put his mind to it. Sure enough, the challenge is too much for the Reed Richards clone to resist and he soon begins trying to figure it out on paper. In the “morning” when “Sue” wakes up, she asks “Reed” what he is working on. When he tells her he figured out a way to make Skrulls undetectable, the teleapth confirms that “Richards” believes his formula is correct. They then execute the clone so they can steal his idea.

Looking over the notes, Dro’ge confirms that it will work and tells the others that God truly loves them and the Empire will endure!

Recurring Characters

Dorrek VII, Dro’ge

Continuity Notes

This issue’s cover pays homage to the cover from New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #1.
The Illuminati’s whole deal was forming following the Kree/Skrull War (circa Avengers #89-97) and confront the Skrulls. See New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #1.
The Super Skrull is mentioned here, but Reed states that his powers are artificially created. This is indeed correct. As seen in Fantastic Four #18, the Super-Skrull required energies to be beamed to his body via satellite.

Continuity Errors

This story depicts the Illuminati wearing the costumes that they were currently at this point in the modern age. For example, Tony Stark is depicted wearing his Extremis armor. However, this story is set sometime before the death of Dorrek VII in Fantastic Four #209, while the Extremis armor doesn’t appear until Iron Man (vol. 4) #4. Per Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Avengers, Dorrek appears here prior to his appearances in Fantastic Four #205. With that in mind, while you can probably excuse Mister Fantastic and the Sub-Mariner’s chosen attires, you can’t just handwave Iron Man’s armor. As such, its depiction as the Extremis armor should be considered an error. Drink this in, its very rare that you come across such a glaring error as this.

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