New Avengers (Vol. 1) #42

Background

The Invasion has begun and with the Avengers in the Savage land and most of the planet under attack, one question remains... How did the Skrulls plan this?

Story Details

Months ago, (back in New Avengers 14) Jessica Drew met with Nick Fury, she agreed to be a double agent for both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the terrorist group Hydra. When Jessica was undergoing the procedure to restore her powers she was replaced by the Skrull queen Veranke.

Later we see several Skrulls in their human forms discussing the best way to proceed with the invasion. They agree their main problems are the Vibranium weapons for which they have no defence, the mutant population growth and the various super beings that live on Earth. They agree to infiltrate the S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Savage land for the vibranium. They decide to use the anti-mutant hysteria to their advantage for the mutants, and they make a list of the most dangerous super powered beings on the planet. One of them asks where Jessica Drew should be stationed. Veranke tells them "Where the most madness can be unleashed with the least amount of suspicion"

On The Raft, the prison for super villians, Jessica welcomes Matt Murdock and Luke Cage... Later we see Electro freeing the inmates, Jessica/Veranke realises they have put The Avengers back together and have added another big gun, The Sentry, to the mix. Hank Pym asks her if she's going to join the team, she tells him she's going to think about it while she meets with Madame Hydra.

Later in the Avengers Tower Jessica is back in for old costume meeting with the New Avengers. She asks about the whereabouts of Wanda Maximoff A.K.A. the Scarlet Witch. Stark tells her she had a breakdown and caused the whole Avengers disassembled event. Later Jessica is meeting with the new S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander Hill. Hill doesn't trust her, Jessica is leaving when her phone rings, its Hank Pym A.K.A Yellowjacket. He tells her the Avengers and X-men are off to Genosha to deal with the Scarlet Witch and asks what to do. Veranke tells him to flip out and kill her. Later in Genosha the whole world flashes white...

General Comments

This issue goes a long way in to explaining where the original Spider-Woman is, and hopefully when Maleev and Bendis start the long promised Spider-Woman series we will get more answers.

The art by Cheung is great, I really liked the implant gag on page 3. I'm very interested in seeing what happened to the Skrulls during the House of M incident.

Overall Rating

Great art and some questions answered. No pick up on the cliffhanger of last issue though which is quite frustraiting.