Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Secret Invasion - Nick Fury's Wall of Paranoia

Before we begin, here's the wall I'm talking about (image borrowed with thanks from the Wizarduniverse.com website since I'm presently too lazy to get my own scan):

It shows Nick Fury, when he was still in hiding, some time prior to the invasion, mulling over a wall of heroes. Obviously he's busied himself trying to determine who might be a Skrull, and who isn't. Thing is, he's got these circles around some pictures. Some are blue and some are red.

Now I know it's a tease from the author. But I can't help myself.

Let's take this wall from what we know so far up to Secret Invasion #3.

The ones encircled in red are: Wolverine, the Sentry, Hulkling and Doctor Strange.

The ones encircled in blue are: Daredevil, Spider-Man, Lockjaw, Namor and Stature.

First, let us try assuming the extreme, that one color represents identified Skrulls, and the other represents confirmed non-Skrulls. A Skrull version of Daredevil was recently seen in an issue of New Avengers just prior to the invasion, trying to get rid of and possibly replace Echo. Also, it was confirmed in Mighty Avengers 14 that the Skrulls were unable to copy Sentry's power set, and thus were unable to replace him. This would imply that Wolverine, Hulkling and Dr Strange are normal, and that Spidey, Lockjaw, Namor and Stature are Skrulls. Given the events of One More Day, this means that reality was altered and Spidey's marriage removed because Mephisto got tricked by a Skrull shapeshifter.

Seriously, highly unlikely.

If Spidey was a Skrull, then this would make OMD a hundred times more absurd, if that were possible. Besides, it's very possible that the real DD was very active at the time the fake one attacked Echo (as with the Invisible Woman as correlated between SI#1 and SI: Fantastic Four #1). Meaning the DD-Skrull was only temporarily taking DD's form to trick Echo that one time.

That brings us to our second interpretation of the circles, that red means confirmed normals, and blue means SUSPECTED Skrulls. This seems a more feasible and open interpretation of Fury's paranoia wall. Note that Fury could easily make errors. At this time, confirmed Skrull replacement Black Bolt is not even circled. Also, Fury himself confided in Spider Woman, even after observing her for days, because he believed at least in part that she was the original article. And we know by this time that she was actually the Skrull Queen, Veranke herself.

Thus, I wouldn't be too serious about the wall. If Fury can make an error, anyone can.

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