Marvel has announced that a sequel to its now-classic “Secret Invasion” crossover event of 2008. Writer Ryan North (Squirrel Girl) is reportedly in charge of the limited series event, along with artist Francesco Mobili (Daredevil). The first Secret Invasion storyline revealed that a faction of shape-shifting Skrulls had infiltrated the Marvel Universe years back, replacing key figures (heroes, villains, officials) with deep-cover operatives. Earth’s heroes had to figure out who was who in time to stop an all-out Skrull invasion from both within their ranks, and outer space.
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In IGN‘s exclusive preview of the Secret Invasion sequel story (Secret Invasion II?), we get the tease that this will be a “continuation” of the events that the first Secret Invasion set in motion:
“It’s a sequel in that it takes place in the same Marvel Universe as the first one and everyone in the story remembers the first one happening, but it’s more of a standalone story because they’ve all learned from that adventure and aren’t interested in seeing it go the same way twice, where they almost lose the Earth to alien invaders,” Ryan North told IGN. “You don’t have to have any of the 2008 series to enjoy this, of course – the book tells you all you need to know – but if you have there’s a few little callbacks you’ll catch.”
That’s about all we’re getting for now, as North refuses to drop even the most basic details about the story premise of Skrulls replacing Marvel Universe figures: “Is saying ‘yes’ spoiling the surprise? Is saying ‘no’ spoiling it?? How about this: there will be surprises, but not in the way you expect. So really, all I’m saying is expect surprising surprises.”
One thing that North is willing to share: Maria Hill will be a central character in the story:
“This is really Maria’s story,” North explains. “I see her as this really competent, really clever woman who’s great at her job, which just happens to sometimes be protecting Earth from shape-shifting alien invaders. What interested me is seeing how an alien invasion story would play out if A) Earth knew what the Skrulls had done before, and B) used the time since then to prepare.”
In that sense, North teases a new sort of angle than the first Secret Invasion provided:
“So it’s less of an ‘Avenger VS Avenger’ story and more of exploration of how even the best, most-funded systems can still fail under unexpected load, and because of basic human nature. That said, there are definitely Avengers punching Avengers in this, so let’s say it’s the best of both worlds: an exciting story of intrigue and collapse, and cool fights with cool heroes.”
Other details include the fact that Iron Man will be teaming up with Maria Hill and Nick Fury for some spy games; “The way it ends changes the status quo in some pretty interesting ways,” according to North, and while the fan-favorite Secret Warriors team won’t be apart of the sequel, “there is a bit of a revival of a different team – this one from the 90s – that we haven’t seen in a while…”
Clearly, Marvel is synching the comics to help hype the Secret Invasion TV series coming to Disney+, which could be why details of both comic and TV versions are being kept secret.
Secret Invasion’s sequel comic series will be five issues and will launch sometime in 2022.
