Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Marvel Teases Us with the Digital Love

Have you guys all read the Secret Invasion prologue? It's a pretty sneaky way to try to trick us into subscribing to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, which, by the way, is totally limited, so I don't know how they get off using Unlimited anywhere in the title. I'm pretty sure that, within the next five or six years, all the major companies will have substantial online archives that we can access for a monthly fee (it might take longer than that, since these major companies move very, very, very slowly). Marvel DCU is a step in that direction, but the lack of complete runs and the crappy interface make it less than appealing right now.

HOWEVER, subscribers get a free 7-page preview of Secret Invasion this week, although I don't know how that works, since I'm not a subscriber and I just read it. Anyway, the prologue is pretty cool, and when I started reading it, I was excited because it's all about S.H.I.E.L.D. and I thought, "wait, is Bendis ballsy enough to tell Secret Invasion from the POV of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Is it a full-on S.H.I.E.L.D. comic?" The prologue is, but when you get to the end, you'll find out that the series probably won't be.

And, thus, I'm going to throw out a major SPOILER right now, although I don't even know if it qualifies as a spoiler since it's in a free preview AND marvel_b0y already leaked it a week ago.

Dum Dum Dugan is a Skrull, and he has been since the day Captain America died. That's right true believers, check your Marvel comics from the past year, and look for all the Dum Dum appearances. That dude has been a Skrull the whole time.

Man, I can't wait until they reveal that Aunt May is one of those sneaky Manhunters.

9 comments:

Chad Nevett said...

...has Dum Dum appeared in any comics since then? Probably stuff I didn't read.

Marc Caputo said...

I saw the preview from EW.com through Newsarama, and I have to say that Yu is forgiven for his rushed work through the last arc and half on New Avengers. This stuff looks great.

It's not as revelatory as Djurdjevic on Thor or Raney on Annihilation:Conquest, but's it close to a career high.

Scott Cederlund said...

Entertainment Weekly has a preview online and it looks to be all about The Avengers with only a couple of pages of SHIELD and SWORD action.

Timothy Callahan said...

I'm pretty sure Dum Dum Dugan was involved in the World War Hulk stuff, if I remember correctly, and he's in Incredible Hercules I believe.

Marc Caputo said...

Swear to God, when I saw that 2nd to last page, I thought it said, "Edwin Jarvis: Butler of Avengers" which does that parallel with "Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Which would have been pretty damn funny.

Mike Phillips said...

I've not read comics consistently for a few years, so forgive me for not being up on the current storylines: is the dead Elektra in this preview supposed to be a ret-conned explanation for how "Elektra came back from the dead"...basically meaning that Elektra's always been dead, and this Elektra-Skrull simply stepped in and posed as the resurrected Elektra?

Marc Caputo said...

I'm kind of hoping not and that the switch was made after she had a high-profile in Bendis' own DD run. It would kind of cheapen her being there.

Timothy Callahan said...

We don't know, but I suspect she's been a Skrull ever since her resurrection. In Ms. Marvel #25, a flashback sequence indicates that the Skrull invasion has been slowly unfolding since the late Silver Age. So, yeah, the non-Miller Elektra has probably been a Skrull. Or not.

Anonymous said...

Personally, I'm hoping Jean Grey/Phoenix has been a Skrull - or a succession of Skrulls - since Uncanny X-Men 137.

Hoping Norman Osborn is a Skrull too. His resurrection was bone-headed. His legacy was looming large just fine without him.