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Metabunker picked up on the wholesale slaughter of Skrulls by the Avengers in the latest issue of Secret Invasion (thanks Blog@) noting that there used to be a time when most heroes didn’t kill, no matter who they were fighting.Clint Barton no longer goes by that code, obviously. Geez, you bring back a guy’s dead wife for five minutes and he gets all uppity…
I suppose that this is going to be justified by some ‘this is a time of war’ rhetoric and will be quickly forgotten by most involved.
I’m relatively sure that the Avengers’ execution of the Supreme Intelligence in Operation Galactic Storm was swept under the rug. Interesting that Clint Barton – then Goliath was against that killing…
At least the Black Knight’s consistent. He delivered the killing stroke in Galactic Storm and he’s quite happy to lop Skrull’s heads off in the excellent Captain Britain and MI:13. That’s what fighting in the Crusades will do for you, I guess.
In fact, aside from one follow up issue of Captain America where Cap tried to tell everyone how disappointed he was in them, and his subsequent quitting of the Avengers in a huff for a time, I don’t even remember the execution being much of an issue ever again.
What irks me more about the situation is that Marvel has gone out of its way to show that if a Skrull truly believes themselves to be the person they’re impersonating, as some of the Savage Land Skrulls did, then they’re actually capable of being that person.
That’s the whole principle behind the returned Captain Marvel.
In that case, the wholesale slaughter of these Skrulls is tantamount to killing the heroes themselves. If you are what you make of yourself and believe yourself to be, can’t you aspire to be that thing?
Apparently not if you’re a Skrull.
I can understand some characters gleefully offing everyone in sight – Black Widow, for example – but when it comes to Clint, Spidey, Luke Cage…it just feels wrong.
I guess at least Luke Cage didn’t kill Jewel…although from future solicits I suspect that that Jessica Jones may not be the only Skrull.
Also annoying is that all the heroes from the ship that crashed in the Savage Land turned out to be Skrulls. Having at least a couple – obviously not ones with starring roles in current comics – turn out to be the real deal would have been a great idea. Instead, they seem to have been a convenient plot device to keep the Avengers from New York. I can’t help but think a platoon full of Super Skrulls could have done the same thing in a far more permanent fashion.
It was just one giant plot device – and that’s not great writing.
I had such high hopes for this crossover as well…
Who avenges the Avengers?!?
I actually don’t have a problem with the killing of the Skrulls, as the Skrulls have made it clear that they will do anything this time to take control. The heroes couldn’t have know that the Skrull versions in the Savage Land thought themselves real. They also have no idea about Captain Marvel.
I am, however, VERY disappointed that none of the 70s version heroes were real. In fact, except for Spider-Woman, Hank Pym, and Jarvis, there have been no real decent Skrull reveals in this series. Really, that’s it? Everybody else is the genuine article? Wasn’t the whole point of this event is that many heroes have been Skrulls for awhile? Apparently not. Talk about false advertising! Shame on me I guess.
Why are you surprised?
And to have Clint Barton be bloodthirsty is just another example that Marvel is being written by people who have no sense of characters and how to write them. Can there be a story where he becomes bloodthirsty? Yes. But it should be in context of the character. Instead we get the stuff, well, you get the stuff that amounts to stories with th enames of Marvels characters inserted.
A Former Monk
Honestly, I think we’re supposed to be sort of shocked and disappointed and borderline disgusted with our ‘heroes’ as these conditions push them further and further through morally gray territory into outright genocide and murder. I really don’t think Clint’s last-page splash is supposed to be a “Fuck yeah! Get those green bastards!” moment as much as a “Holy shit, Hawkeye’s about to go completely off the reservation.” The last issue of Ms. Marvel took the same tack, too, with Carol just absolutely loving blowing Skrulls up and wanting to kill stuff.
I think that, when this is all over, a bunch of characters are going to be pretty ashamed and disgusted with themselves for their behavior. Either that or far gone into villainous territory.