WHO KNEW SKRULLS LIKE TWIZZLERS?

Avengers: The Initiative #15 is following a strong trend among the issues of this series in that it is REALLY GOOD. Details, you ask? Gladly! Last ish, we had the new 3-D Man acquiring the goggles of the original 3-D Man, enabling him to see Skrulls in their fancy new disguises. Crusader, a cadet in The Initiative, is really a Skrull, but he uses the Freedom Ring to change the goggles’ polarity so that 3-D man sees everyone else at Camp Hammond as a Skrull instead of him. That’s where we pick up this issue! I know, so intriguing.

Well, the story is G.D. wonderful. Crusader, as it turns out, is extremely conflicted about his heritage as a Skrull and his newfound love for Earth and its heroes. The issue takes us through his Skrull mission that brought him to Earth, his experiences that made him the successor to the super hero “Freedom Ring”, and his enlistment in The Initiative. This Skrull is NOT part of the Secret Invasion, so when Crusader finds out that Yellowjacket is a Skrull, he starts to really question his loyalty. As the invasion hits New York City and the cadets are thrust into action, Crusader comes face-to-face with a decision that will affect his future with The Initiative and show where his true loyalties rest.

I loved reading about this character. In the midst of all the invading Skrulls attacking our heroes and conspiring against humanity behind-the-scenes, we have a Skrull who fights side-by-side with our heroes and gets goose-bumps (Skrully-bumps?) when he hears the call: Avengers Assemble! You can sort of compare this to a hypothetical situation where a KGB agent is sent to infiltrate a U.S. Army base, finds out all the things he was taught about Americans is wrong, grows to love the U.S. and his companions, then is forced to make some hard choices when the Soviet Union invades America.

It’s also nice to see so many black characters take prominent roles in this issue: Crusader (Skrull posing), the star of this issue, War Machine (James Rhodes), who is the head instructor for The Initiative, and Gauntlet, the team’s Drill-Sergeant. We even get a mention of Isaiah Bradley, the black Captain America.

As the battle of Manhattan closes the issue, the juxtaposition of internal conflict resolution and external conflict escalation gives me a rush that no other Secret Invasion book can do. It’s rare when a book, especially a self-contained story in a single issue, gets so many things right. This IS one of those books and the series as a whole is starting to creep up the top of my stack faster and faster every month.

“The Only Good Skrull”
Story: Dan Slott & Christos Gage – 5 (Superior)
Art: Harvey Tolibao & Jay David Ramos – 4 (Exceptional)