Episode #38 Secret Invasion
Review:
Ever since the Super-Skrull's first appearance on the show I hoped we'd get to see an army of these kind of warriors, and this episode delivered more than I expected. It was a nice surprise to see other hybrids, rather than all of them having the powers of the Fantastic Four. This time we get to see Skrulls with the powers of Wolverine, Cyclops, Giant-Man and the Crimson Dynamo - just to name a few. It would have been nice to see some of these characters as prisoners on the Skrull ship back in "Prisoner of War" just to explain how exactly the aliens got their hands on these powers, but I think that would have made their appearance here less surprising. The fight scenes between the Avengers and the Skrull army were pretty awesome. Thor returns this episode, and is pretty much the Avengers' secret weapon against the aliens. I was kind of expecting them to bring back the Hulk for the climax but Thor worked great here. He's the one who stops the Skrulls' ultimate plan of destroying every last human on Earth by attacking the satellites in space - something I doubt the Hulk could have managed to do. Besides, I expect the Hulk's comeback episode to deal with the red Hulk story-line.
I really liked the beginning of this episode, showing how the Skrull agents try to take down most of Earth's defenses (the Baxter Building, the SHIELD hellicarrier, the SWORD base), but also the AIM headquarters where the Skrull posing as the Scientist Supreme finishes their ultimate weapon before taking out his fellow AIM drones - in hindsight, I guess the episode "Alone Against AIM" is now even less of a filler episode; apart from the introduction of War Machine, it could have been then that the Skrulls learned about or started infiltrating AIM, leading to the events in this episode. The continuity on this series has been pretty awesome so far so I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. Other than that, the Avengers finally learn Captain America was the Skrull spy. And Hawkeye also learns that Bobbi Morse AKA Mockingbird has been replaced by the Skrull Queen for some time. I thought the Skrulls' plan was actually pretty clever. After seeing how much of a leader Captain America can be, the Skrulls broadcast to the entire world a message from the fake Cap about how the aliens are here to help humans, and should be trusted. This is obviously a trick, as aliens that usually say they can be trusted turn out to be a menace.
Of course it all comes to an end when the real Cap arrives on Earth, alongside the people he rescued back during his breakout in "Prisoner of War". The fight between Cap and his Skrull counterpart was also awesome, and I loved cap's little speech about how there's more to humanity than what the aliens managed to copy - their spirit, and that he will never give up or surrender. That was a great moment. Other neat little moments from this episode that I really liked include Thor's final lines (more on that below), and the fact that Queen Veranke mentions that Iron Man was the one that held the Avengers together. Also really liked how Ms. Marvel tried getting even with Hawkeye by beating a Skrull that was ready to attack him. And lots of other great little moments; I could stay here all day and mention every single scene in the episode because I liked them all, but these moments are probably the first ones that come to mind in terms of favorite scenes.
Ultimately, the world is saved. But not without paying a price. Thor explains how broken friendships and broken trust are wounds that take long to heal. I expect the effects of the Skrull invasion to take place over the next couple of episodes, especially concerning Cap trying to re-gain the trust of the world. I liked the aftermath scenes, explaining what happened to the rest of the heroes not seen during most of the episode. Plus, Iron Man mentions that SWORD is trying to mass produce the Skrull detector Doctor Doom gave him the previous episode, so the Skrull hunt isn't over yet. Overall, I loved this episode. It works great to the long-running Skrull story-arc, which gave us some awesome moments. I'm hoping the Kree story will be just as much fun as this one, and I am looking forward to the next episodes.
Original Airdate - July 15th, 2012
The Avengers reunite to face the full power of the Skrulls as the alien invasion hits Earth. Captain America, Thor and Iron Man lead the charge against an army of Super-Skrulls, whose shape-shifting ability allows them to imitate the powers of any hero on Earth.
Written by Joshua Fine & Christopher Yost
Directed by Roy Burdine
Review by RoyalRubble
Media by Marvel Animation Age
An amazing conclusion to the Skrulls' secret invasion of Earth story-arc.
