Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #1

May 1, 2024 Nick Peron

Secret Invasion continues from Incredible Hercules #118…

Many Months Ago

On the Skrull world of Tarnax VII, Commander Chrell and his colleague Fremin are heading to an important meeting. Fremin is cannot believe that Chrell brought them to meet with Veranke, a religious extremist who he thinks is out of her mind. Chrell then fatally shoots his friend for being a non-believer. Veranke is pleased by his loyalty and says that her soldiers in the coming war will need good training in their Super Skrull capabilities.[1] She has another task for Chrell to accomplish later, during the invasion of Earth. She wants him to kill Dorrek VIII (aka Teddy Altman, aka Hulkling) as he could interfere with her absolute rule over the Skrull Empire.[2]

Now

On Earth, the Runaways (Karolina Dean, Molly Hayes, Victor Mancha, Nico Minoru, Chase Stein, and Xavin) are in New York City showing their new friend, Klara Prast, present day New York City so she could say goodbye to her home before they head back to Los Angeles.[3] Xavin thinks it is crazy that they are in New York, given that Tony Stark’s Avengers live here and they are all unregistered superhumans.[4] As they sight see, Klara admits that the modern world is a lot to take in, but her newfound friend Molly Hayes assures her that she’ll get used it eventually.

However, that’s when a massive Skrull invasion fleet appears in the skies over New York and Skrull warriors begin dropping down from them into the streets. This is such a shocking display to the Runaways that they are stunned into awe and silence just as much as Prast is. Karoline then asks Xavin what their people are doing on Earth. Suddenly, Xavin turns around and uses their Super-Skrull powers to strike the Runaways with an invisible force wall.

Several blocks away, the Young Avengers — Patriot (Eli Bradly), Hulkling, Wiccan (Billy Kaplan), Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), Vision (Jonas), and Speed (Tommy Shepherd) — swing into action when these Super Skrulls begin attacking people in the street.[5] One of the Skrulls identifies Teddy in the crowd and prepares to assassinate him.

Meanwhile, Nico and Victor are the first of the Runaways to wake up from unconsciousness. They decide to lay low until Xavin finishes talking to his fellow Skrulls. Eventually, the others leave prompting Xavin to encase their fellow Runaways in invisible bubbles and flies off in the other direction. That’s when Nico casts a spell to free everyone and Victor uses his technomancy to restrain Xavin with the parts from nearby cars. They think that their ally has betrayed them to their people, but Xavin explains that he was trying to take them back to the Leapfrog so they can get out of New York. They explain that these invaders are part of a group of religious extremists who believe that Earth is there by divine right. While Xavin has often told the Runaways to stand up and fight, they now believe that the only proper course now is to run far away or else they will all be killed by these fanatics. After hearing all of this, Nico agrees that they need to get everyone out of this warzone.

Not far away, Teddy Altman finally tries to use his position as the next in line of the Skrull throne to try and talk the invaders into stopping their attack on the city. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know that they have orders to kill him and is blasted on all sides by four different elemental Super Skrulls.[6] When Wiccan sees his boyfriend in trouble he calls out Teddy’s name.

Watching this from their ship are Commander Chrell and his second-in-command, a zealot named X’iv. They confirm that this is indeed Dorrek VIII. That’s when X’iv reports that there are more heroes arriving for the battle. Chrell is not concerned as prophecy has said they will win this war.

These newcomers turn out to be the trainees in the Initiative — Annex, Batwing, Crusader, Geiger, Gorilla Girl, Prodigy, Red 9, Stature (Cassie Lang), and Sunstreak — with their drill instructor Gauntlet leading the charge. At the same time, the Runaways are fleeing the scene in the Leapfrog. Nico hopes that Karolina won’t be mad when she wakes up when she finds out that Xavin stayed behind to help in the fight. However, before they can get too far away, the Leapfrog is attacked by two Super Skrulls.

Back on the ground, Xavin arrives at the scene of the nearby battle and sees the Initiative and Young Avengers struggling against the invaders. They want to help, but notices Commander Chrell’s ship land on the ground near Hulkling. Xavin then causes an explosion in front of Chrell in order to rescue Teddy. They flee into the sewers where Teddy wants to go back for Billy. Xavin promises they will as soon as they fall back and recover from the attack. However, before they can get away, they are blasted by three more Super Skrulls who have followed them down into the sewers!

… Secret Invasion continues in Avengers: The Initiative #14.

Recurring Characters

Runaways (Karolina Dean, Molly Hayes, Victor Mancha, Nico Minoru, Klara Prast, Chase Stein, Xavin, Leapfrog), Young Avengers (Patriot, Hulkling, Wiccan, Hawkeye, Vision, Speed), Commander Chrell, X’iv, the Initiative (Annex, Batwing, Crusader, Gauntlet, Geiger, Gorilla Girl, Prodigy, Red 9, Stature, Sunstreak), (in flashback) Veranke

Continuity Notes

This is leading up to a planned invasion of Earth, which takes place primarily in the pages of Secret Invasion #1-7 as well as many limited series, one-shots, and crossover issues. See below for the read order.
Hulkling is the son of Skrull Princess Anelle and the Kree Captain Marvel. Due to his family lineage, he’s technically the next in line for the Skrull throne as explained in Young Avengers #9-12
Prast was a severely abused child-bride and sweatshop worker from 1907. The Runaways rescued her from her depressingly traumatic life and brought her to the present day. See Runaways (vol. 2) #27-30.
This story comes after the events of Civil War #1-7, wherein the government enacts a new law that requires superhumans to register with them. Per Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #1-4, the Runaways did not register with the government and refused to get involved in the conflict.
Here, Speed remarks that he though only the Super-Skrull (Kl’rt) had the ability to mimic the powers. This was true back in Fantastic Four #18 when Kl’rt made his first appearance. However, the Skrulls eventually managed to crack the ability to mimic any superpower thanks to collecting samples from the Illuminati in New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #1.
Eli wonders where the Avengers are. Both the New and Mighty Avengers are currently stuck in the Savage Land fighting an army of Skrulls. See Secret Invasion #1-5.

Translations

A lot of dialogue in this story is presented in the Skrull dialect. Deciphering the fonts using the guide in Secret Invasion #5 reveals that the Skrulls are not really saying anything important to one another just using a bunch of 2000’s slang that is incredibly dated. Lots of use of the term “mofo”. It is incredibly stupid.

Topical References

Nico quips that Xavin’s “family” is playing Space Invaders on the city. This was an arcade machine that was first released in 1978. Space Invaders was later ported on home consoles when they first became a thing. The came has been released, had sequels, upgrades, and imitators for nearly 50 years. It is considered a classic, and therefor may not necessarily be considered a topical reference. However, if you choose to treat it as one there are no shortage of contemporary video games about alien invasions out there, if you’re a gamer you’re probably playing one right now.

Secret Invasion Reading Order