Just to make mention, Dread, but they did touch on the Xavier/Jean thing back during the Onslaught saga.
I know, that is why I said, "it took 30 years" for them to touch it after Stan Lee brought it up in one line in the 60's. 30 years as in the 90's. Onslaught. Yeah, I was vague. But I did recall that.
To comment on points I missed replying to about 4 pages ago:
- I really, really, REALLY would like to see SECRET INVASION not mess with what Fraction/Kitson & Co. are doing on THE ORDER. They seemt to have their own thing going and I enjoy that thing. Shameless crossover tie-in's really do very little to help books that are already slipping into sales oblivion besides delay the inevitable. If THE ORDER is destined to die with #12, I'd rather Fraction get in all that he wants on his terms, rather than wasting an issue or two on Skrulls just to add a sloppy 10k to his sales. Of course, I'd like to believe THE ORDER can hang on, survive past issue #12 and go on for years and years, but the cynic in me feels it has no chance. It has new characters, good talent that isn't hyped, rootable characters who manage to be human and NOT jackasses (some writers, like Bendis and Millar, feel the only way to make a character "feel human" is to make them inept, a *****ebag, or both), great art, great stories, and great action. Yeah, it has no chance.
- THE ORDER should eventually run out of characters to "intro", but it won't be for a few issues. They still have Muholland, Milo, and Heavy on the Order squad to do. I imagine Pepper Potts may be worth a go, considering she is a longtime character and is likely worth a Fraction-esque recap, in his own flair. He may even add some bits. That takes us into at least issue #9.
- I wouldn't say I liked the "guest" pencils and colors better than the regular team on THE ORDER, but I did enjoy them and they matched up with Kitson very well, so well that I forgot it was a fill-in. Which means they did their job. Like I said in my review, if THE ORDER #5 is what a fill-in issue of The Order looks like, art wise, bring 'em on.
- As for Skrulls, they do seem capable of duplicating any superpower in their "super soldier" squads now. The Super Skrull, version 1.0 if you will, had the combined FF's powers, plus hypnosis, which is a low level telepathy. Paibok was a more advanced version who could generate ice, electricity, and steel skin. Titannus was able to duplicate strength & durability that argueably was on par with The Hulk (or at least Grey Hulk), which is beyond The Thing's strength class. Lyja the Laserfist also had bio-electric powers, too. There even were apparently Skrull mutants, least around MAXIMUM SECURITY a few years back. This was all before, of course, ILLUMINATI pulled the retcon card and claimed that the Skrulls captured the team during the 70's and experimented on 'em. The fact that the Skrulls can copy powers, avoid detection (they successfully replaced Wolverine on the X-Men for weeks until his identity was discovered via autopsy in the late 90's, despite all the psychics on the various teams) and infiltrate teams isn't the issue with SECRET INVASION; my biggest fear is that Bendis will simply use it as ore for mindless, stupid retcons and then create another event where superheroes are inept jackasses and need some maguffin to solve their problems for them, because they're too busy sucking or fighting to actually stop evil. And that other writers will then have to clean things up. Just imagine if it truly does turn out that Black Bolt and Elektra have been impersonated since the 70's-80's. Imagine all the crap that has to be swept in a Handbook Bio, among other things. Naturally, this hasn't been proven that that has occured. But even the POTENTIAL is disturbing to me.
At the very least, the A:TI ANNUAL at least tries to set a time-table, loosely claiming that the Skrulls have only stepped up their efforts to capitilize on The Initiative, which occured after CW. In "Marvel time", that may have been about a few months back. But whether any of that matters to Bendis is another matter.
- Yeah, The Initiative is ripe with corruption, isn't it? Infiltrated by Skrulls and HYDRA. But to be fair, as others have mentioned, it is being run by the CSA, which is the U.S., and not SHIELD. And the Marvel U.S. has been RIFE with corruption and nasty characters since long before Joe Q's tenure. The CSA, after all, got the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to do raids to clean up their criminal records, which for some included murder (like Mystique). The government have created no end of nasty monsters, villains, and threats trying to mass-produce either super soldiers or other superheroes (to list them would take a while). Countless villains have been able to "work for Uncle Sam" to clean their slates, and they always go back to crime, and the feds always fall for it. And HYDRA & the Skrulls have infiltrated the government before. As the forces of good increase their ability to detect these moles, the moles would increase their ability to remain hidden.
Now, that doesn't mean I disagree with the idea that post-SHRA, the superhero world has almost as many problems as the SHRA was supposed to fix.
