New Avengers (Vol. 1) #45

Background

Several years go The Scarlet Witch used her power s to create a world where mutants were the dominant species, this was known as the House of M. During this time the Skrulls were plotting to invade Earth, so the question remains what happened to the Skrulls during the House of M?

Story Details

This issue starts with Spider-Woman aka the Skrulls queen Veranke standing of the bridge of S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, unable to understand what is happening she excuses herself and runs to the toilet. After reverting to her natural Skrull form she begins to cry. In Chicago Hank Pym aka the Skrull agent Criti Noll is talking to The Beast when he begins to see flashes of the real past including this true Skrull past. While leaving Spider-Woman grabs him and tells him what's happened, and they can use this to their advantage. Once the world finds out that a mutant did this they will lock all the mutants up and The Scarlet Witch will be executed. As the Scarlet With was one of the reasons for the secrecy of the invasion once she is out of the way the invasion can begin properly. Spider-Woman decides to take action and kill The Scarlet Witch, Pym asks when will she do this?

Later during the battle that occurred in House of M issue 7, Spider-Woman goes to kill The Scarlet Witch when she sees Hawkeye then Dr Strange confronting her, Wanda then says "No more mutants" and the world returns to normal. Later several Skrulls including Elektra, Pym and Spider-Woman meet. Spider-Woman says they are blessed as the mutant population problem has been eliminated for them. Spider-Woman then breaks down in tears, she has news the Annilation wave has destroyed their home world just as the scriptures foretold. She says "We are right. He loves us"

General Comments

In this issue the big question of what happened to the Skrulls during the House of M event is answered. Of course this issue only shows what happened to the Skrull queen and Pym, but one can assume the Skrull queen contacted her agents to let them know what was happening and to stay disguised.

Overall Rating

I did like the way the story linked into the House of M but as they were both written by Bendis, I'm going to say this was his plan all along :). The art by Jim Cheung is crisp and suits this story well.

Solid 3 web book – it's good but not essential to the Secret Invasion story