Six Against The Skrulls!

Since the Kree-Skrull War has recently been a focus of the PPC, we'd be remiss if we failed to note a group of individuals who formed a coterie as a result of that event:

Yes, the Illuminati, who met at the request of Iron Man following the Avengers' confrontation of the Skrulls in space during that race's hostilities with the Kree (and vice versa). War was averted during that encounter, thanks in part to the machinations of the Kree Supreme Intelligence which unleashed the power of none other than Rick Jones--but soon after his return to Earth, Stark initiated a meeting in Wakanda and proposed to Reed Richards, Stephen Strange and the others that the six of them meet on a regular basis to keep each other apprised of anything and/or anyone that might pose a threat at some point to Earth--"warning signs," if you will, that would allow them to pool their resources and avert disaster.

And yet, the group resolved to keep their meetings and even their existence secret, perhaps so as not to alert those who aroused their suspicions--even failing to notify the National Security Council of their activities, the very agency which shares vital and classified information with the Avengers as part of a special arrangement with the team and which would likely take issue with the covert nature of this group in acting outside of its auspices.

And act they do--nor does it comes as much of a surprise, then, when we discover what threat (if dormant for the time being) they've decided to proactively deal with first.

Given the audacity of the group's threat here, it's easy to understand why the practice of "shooting the messenger" caught on in ancient times. As it is, you can almost hear the collective palms of the N.S.C. hitting their foreheads in exasperation, had its members been made aware of the Illuminati's plan to take this approach with an advanced, warlike alien race. No doubt Reed Richards and the others must have known how the Skrulls would react to such an affront; but did it occur to at least Iron Man that their actions here would likely reignite hostilities with the Skrulls and place the Earth, rather than the Kree, directly in their sights?

Imagine, then, how the Skrulls, who are already outraged by this intrusion and being dictated to by a handful of Earthlings, would react to a show of strength (courtesy of Black Bolt) which is obviously meant to deter such action, but which you and I and practically any other sane observer would regard as an act of war.

We can probably think of any number of ways the group could have left things with the Skrulls. Resolve can be conveyed with little more than a bold statement where a further response is implied--for instance, calmly reminding the Skrulls of what just one human was able to accomplish in regard to incapacitating the military might of both the Skrulls and the Kree would have arguably made more of an impact than what amounts to a slap in the face.

But unfortunately, what's done is done, and the Illuminati will have to own their actions this day. But what's truly disturbing here is that it doesn't appear to occur to any of them that they might have ended up committing a blunder that will escalate the situation they wished to curtail--and part of that blunder entails underestimating those they sought to intimidate.

The shoe is now on the other foot. With the Illuminati at their mercy, the Skrulls proceed to experiment on this valuable cross-sampling of super-beings from the planet they've vowed to conquer, which will doubtless yield a wealth of physical and technological data (as well as aiding them in the infiltration approach we know in hindsight they'll take when they're ready to proceed). Things don't look too good for our oh-so-cocky heroes who had this in-and-out operation all planned out.

Stark, of course, represents to the Skrulls a great deal of intel as both an Avenger and an engineer whose work has provided weaponry for both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the military in general. And so the shape-changing Skrulls have something different in mind for gaining his secrets--an approach that backfires when dealing with one they'd considered helpless.

The scene is jumping the gun a bit, since this would be well before Stark would request and receive hand-to-hand combat training from Captain America--and how he's managed to fight off eight Skrulls without doubling over in cardiac arrest is anyone's guess.

From that point, Stark moves to free the others one by one, starting with Charles Xavier. It's not clear what type of suffering the Skrulls inflicted on Xavier to keep him helpless*--but while he stops short of killing his captors**, from the look of his reprisal they would likely welcome the release of death.

*Apparently neither Xavier nor Strange were able to release their astral forms to facilitate their escape.

**A curious choice on Xavier's part, considering Black Bolt's strike must have killed countless Skrulls on a vessel that size, in addition to the casualties in the buildings below.


From there, it's a touch-and-go escape for the group--and an improbable one, considering the odds as well as the fact that they're carrying wounded and all of them have been weakened by their ordeal, nor is Stark's armor available to him. We also have to believe that the Skrulls are either overconfident in their detention methods or completely incompetent, given the progress this group makes in making it out of the complex alive and being able to commandeer and launch a ship. The natural assumption to make would be that the Skrulls have allowed their escape, while putting on a good show to make it look otherwise--but while that's not at all clear, the end result will render the question moot.

Stark's complacency is nothing short of astonishing, given the fact that the Illuminati have made Earth's situation with the Skrulls far worse than it was before they issued their demand to back off or else. Even more curious is that thereafter, they appear to put the Skrulls on the back burner and take no discernible preventive measures in anticipation of a Skrull response to their incursion, even though they formed their cabal with the intent of being forewarned of and getting a handle on potential threats.

It's fairly clear the Skrulls have their priorities in order.

The New Avengers: Illuminati #1 Script: Brian Bendis & Brian Reed Pencils: Jim Cheung Inks: Mark Morales Letterer: Cory Petit