the vynsane asylum

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So - Elektra was revealed to be a Skrull. Already, sides are forming among fans - "so what?" and "Holy crap!" respectively, with the ever-present "Bendis sucks!" contingent weighing in as well. 

What does it mean? What are the big picture implications of the reveal? Is this Marvel's version of DC's Superboy wall-punches? Fans want to know. 

So we asked writer Brian Bendis.

Newsarama: Obviously – New Avengers #31’s last four or five pages are the big reveal, not only for the series, but also for the entire Marvel Universe it’s been said…

Brian Bendis: Right.

NRAMA: So how does Elektra being revealed as a Skrull affect the Marvel Universe? 

BB: I’m sure some people saw that, and thought, “What? That’s it? What the fuck have you guys been talking about?” But I want everybody to be calm, to breathe for a moment, compose yourselves, and think about what is being put forth. All of these questions will be answered both in the next issue, and upcoming issues of New Avengers and Mighty Avengers, and even the Illuminati miniseries. 

It’s no just as simple as someone posing as Elektra – if that’s going on, there might be a bigger…an invasion might have already have happened, and earth may have already lost. If you start putting together the pieces of things that haven’t made sense, or people acting in a way that was contrary to what you’ve seen in the past, or if there have been holes in stories that people have told to their friends – on both sides of the coin, not just within S.H.I.E.L.D., but also in Hydra; not just the heroes, but also the villains. If you do that, you may be able to put together a tapestry of events that has been put forth since New Avengers began, starting with the earliest pages. 

Now, who those players are, and what they’ve done, and what damage has been done, will be revealed in upcoming issues. 

NRAMA: So – is this a way of going back and saying that House of M and Civil War were set-ups by Skrulls?

BB: No - House of M happened, Civil War happened. There wasn’t another thing behind them that cheapens them as they were authored. You may find that there were people who were put in places to move things along in a way that let us be our own worst enemy. The question last summer was “Whose Side Are You On?” and the question now is, “Who Can You Trust?”

NRAMA: That said then, the first question that will be asked or theory raised is that two key heroes have been Skrulls for months…Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. It’s an easy way out, and showing them to be Skrull agents gets things back to where they were prior to Civil War. 

BB: No – there are no easy ways out. What fun would that be? This story isn’t a matter of putting things back – it’s a matter of “people” who’ve been putting things into a form they want versus the form that we, as humans may want. 

And if you think that this is beginning of your typical Skrull story, I promise you it is not. It is an extremely well thought out storyline that uses the Skrull mythology and stories that have come before in a way that is true to what they are, but in a way that you haven’t seen before. 

The closest I can come to explaining it is like where someone takes an idea that was fun but maybe cheesy and find a way to tell it in a way that is genuinely chilling, not unlike the new Cylons in Battlestar Galactica or when they reinvented the Klingons in Star Trek - you take the central idea, and take it seriously, drop the cheese and silliness. In this case – it’s shapeshifting aliens who literally, religiously believe that this – earth – is their planet. It’s written in their scriptures – this is their planet. They don’t have one, so not only do they want it, they need it. And they’ve been told that it is theirs. 

So – with that out there, would they come at us with space ships and rayguns and a “Bwahaha, here we come!” as they’ve done in the past, and had not work out, or would they, stealing a page from Buckaroo Banzai and The Hidden and the other stories like that…use guile and stealth to come in and take the planet over without us knowing it? Think about the shapeshifting mentality, and the ideology and philosophy behind it all – they would use that as a weapon primarily, and infiltrate. Then – once they’re here, they’d use our own flaws against us. That is the story that’s going to be told. 

NRAMA: So Luke’s line in issue #30 – that was pure foreshadowing, with him mulling over the idea that there might be something behind everything that’s been happening…

BB: Right – and that feeling was there prior to Civil War - they’ve been feeling poked at. They were nuked in the Savage Land, and before they could even deal with it, some other crap happens. It’s almost like a game of distraction – they weren’t given a moment to even consider anything that was going on around them before House of M and all the rest started happening. 

NRAMA: Saying this at this point in time – after all of the events and storylines, it makes sense, but how long has this storyline been planned? That is, was this the overarching storyline that was in place before even Avengers Disassembled, or did this come more midstream, and has been fit in to storylines that happened before, and would be coming after?

BB: This was planned for a long, long time. It’s been brought up at numerous, numerous retreats over the last few years. When the ideas of Civil War and World War Hulk came about on their own, we’d look to see if this could fit in, and in each one, there was a way to work it in without cheapening anything. That was the icing. It fits the plan. 

And what the plan is will be revealed in the coming months. But safe to say, it’s us damaging ourselves. It’s us weakening ourselves. We’re hurting ourselves so they don’t have to. Look – there heroes want to beat each other up? Let’s sit back and let them. 

NRAMA: Big picture-wise, it’s a matter of looking at the entire Marvel Universe and figuring out what serves an invading army the best…whereas destroying the heroes outright would’ve been a waste of resources…

BB: Yeah. And I promise – I know people are already anxious for answers, and issue #32 will lay the gauntlet down, dramatically. You will see how this thread connects both Mighty Avengers and New Avengers. You will see teammates switching teams, abandoning teams, the trust issue bringing characters to the very edge of what they can handle. 

NRAMA: They can’t handle shapeshifting aliens? 

BB: What did you get a hint of in #31? Wolverine couldn’t smell it until it was dead. To Wolverine, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange – it was undetectable to all of them, unless they killed it. So that’s Wolverine’s only way, really – “I’ll only know if you were lying if I kill you.”

NRAMA: It seems that this could build a weird kind of synergy between the characters and the audience…

BB: How so? 

NRAMA: You’ve had fans for a while thinking there was someone or something pulling the strings in all of this, and now, it sounds like you can have characters who will look at their lives, and think, “All of this crap that’s happened to me…there’s a Skrull in here somewhere…someone…” It’s just a matter of both readers and characters figuring out who. 

BB: Exactly. And therein lays the fun. Now, if you as a reader, whether you have no knowledge of Skrulls, or have been reading these books for the last forty years, and are totally up to date on the Skrulls…whatever you know, you can use that information and start being a detective. 

For the benefit of those who are on board for the fun: it’s locked. Who is who and what is what was determined quite a while ago. We’re not going to be pulling any shenanigans. 

NRAMA: The characters who are in fact Skrulls – taking Elektra as a case study…just ballparking…how long has she been a Skrull? 

BB: See, there’s the question – think it out. In Mark [Millar’s] run on Wolverine, there’s an agenda that was set forth. She died twice in that story. Was it perhaps when she was dead and in the ground that she was replaced? The other time? 

All of these times in heroes lives – you can start deducing when these things happened, and when, perhaps, they stopped being the heroes you know. We will reveal them – that will be revealed. That will be the fun of it – hopefully. 

NRAMA: So what are some general clues? 

BB: Just look at what’s been going on around the characters – anyone that’s had suspicious deaths and resurrections; anyone who had a change of philosophy…any of those kinds of things are suspect. I’m not saying or guaranteeing that everyone who went through something like that is definitely a Skrull, though…

NRAMA: Yeah, but people are going to keep coming back to Tony Stark…

BB: Exactly – and you’ll see that early on, everyone points to him Everyone who knows about this points to Tony. “Tony’s the Skrulliest one of all!” “Skrully” is the defining term of the next two issues. “You’re acting a little Skrully.” “Is it Skrully of me to even ask if you might be a Skrull?”

NRAMA: But at the same time, while Tony may act Skrully but isn’t, Tony had a few Iagos in his life during Civil War, one of whom was actually pretty effective in pushing him along his road…

BB: Or hey – didn’t Tony just get turned into a robot girl? Is the robot girl a Skrull? Many options… can you trust the people who put the Extremis technology into Tony? 

Layers and layers…

NRAMA: This storyline was designed with messageboards in mind, wasn’t it? 

BB: The story was designed to tell the story, but what happens, and this happened with Civil War first, the conversation shifted from “who’s stronger, the Thing or the Hulk?” or “Who sucks more, Bendis or Millar?” to “Which side is right?” It was an idea that people could argue about it all summer, and even longer. I just saw the other day, a new thread start up on the Newsarama boards about Civil War, and it’s going strong, even. 

So yeah, when a question is posed – “Who can you trust?” It does turn it into slightly interactive fun. Some maybe at my expense, but I’m wiling to take my lumps for a little while on this, because I feel so strongly about the story and the people telling the story. I feel that as it goes on, people will enjoy themselves. 

NRAMA: How long does this story go? 

BB: This goes on for the rest of the year, and then in early ’08 we get the start of the beginning of the big ba-boom.

NRAMA: Will it mostly play out in the Avengers titles? 

BB: New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, and a big whopper in the ending of the Illuminati mini. In fact, the Illuminati miniseries opened with a big hint that this was coming…

NRAMA: Right – after the Kree-Skrull War, and the Illuminati were captured…

BB: And may have inadvertently given them the genetic keys to do what they are doing, which is different from what they did in the past. 

NRAMA: And they were captured…

BB: Right – we don’t know how long they had them, and we don’t know if they got them out. 

NRAMA: Wait – they all got out. 

BB: Did they?

NRAMA: End of the issue, yeah – all the members of the Illuminati were there. 

BB: Were they?

NRAMA: Wait – so since shortly after the ending of the Kree-Skrull War…you’re saying…

BB: Yup – that’s what I’m saying. 

NRAMA: Bastard. So possibly, for what, thirty+ years, one or some of those characters could have been Skrulls?

BB: [laughs] I’m not saying yes or no to anyone, but the important thing is that it’s crazy, but it’s planned crazy. It’s all been planned out. 

NRAMA: Let’s get some baby talk in. The spell that Dr. Strange performed in issue #30 pretty much cleared everyone of malicious intent. 

BB: Unless Dr. Strange is a Skrull. 

NRAMA: Oh, screw you. 

BB: [laughs]

NRAMA: And Strange’s spell was just a Zepplin Laserium show…

But the baby laughed – and that was the first time it really “spoke…” and then…we saw the…

BB: Oh yeah – I definitely put the last page of #31 in there for a reason, when the baby does the Damien/Omen turn and stares at the audience. I laughed when I wrote it, and I laughed when I saw it. 

There’s no one you can trust. No one. 

Is it Jessica? Is it Luke? 

In #32, everyone is put to the test. There will be a lot said, and a lot of finger-pointing. A lot of arguments will be made that could go either way. 

NRAMA: So the baby – full Skrull? Half Skrull? Taken and replaced by a Skrull baby?

BB: Or is the fact that Luke Cage went from a tiara on head, silk shirt wearing hero for hire to the leader of the Avengers important in all of this? Or Jessica going from hard-drinking private eye to stay at home mommy? 

All of these things are representative of the mistrust that’s going to be percolating throughout the Marvel Universe as a result of this. 

NRAMA: And even, someone could’ve gone through legitimate life changes, but now, there aren’t any legitimate life changes anymore, are there?

BB: Right – Jessica could say, “I’ve changed – I’m a mother now.” Uh-huh. Just sounds just like something a Skrull would say.

NRAMA: So – all told, this is going to have people digging through their back issues to check things out…

BB: Right. That’s what I’m all about here. You bought the comic, and we told a story that now, if you chose to, you could go back and enjoy your comics on another level. 

Again, I’ll take my beatings for this for a little while…but I think it’s a great story, and if fans want to, can be something that adds value to the comics they’ve already read. 

NRAMA: So at this point, anybody who pushed – even slightly – towards a less-stable Marvel Universe…they’re under the magnifying glass?

BB: But what’s a less stable Marvel Universe? 

NRAMA: One that would make for an easier conquest of earth by Skrulls…

BB: Right, but what is that, one with government sponsored heroes, or one without? One with a strong Avengers, or one without? 

And what about – there’s this guy who used to write crime books, and now he’s writing Avengers…I wouldn’t trust him at all…

NRAMA: That’s a very Skrully thing for you to say. 

BB: Yes, very Skrully.

NRAMA: But back to the larger picture for a moment – the sound bite that the major media caught on to with Civil War was how that story was reflective of the times – a division of the country over an issue. With this…it’s not quite as direct, but it seems to still be hanging on that same division between groups…

BB: Or on the genuine mistrust for that which we don’t understand – that which isn’t us. That is the society we’re living in. That’s just the beginnings of this kind of story, and how it’s dealt with…and the bigger story and what it’s about that’s what’s going to be a whole new fun. People want a big Avengers story? This is a big Avengers story that hearkens back to the classics, yet it’s completely new. 

I’m optimistic, and I think people are going to dig it, exept maybe those nutsacks over at vynsane.com.