New Avengers #41 *Spoilers*

[Porcelain]

Opens with the "Savage Land: Right Now", with the T-Rex baring down on the Heros & Skrulls as a 1 pg spread, followed by 2 pages of large paneled action (running, stabbing, falling - very meh) and then another 1 pager with Spidey landing upon Kazaa, Shanna, Zabu & co and the issue starts. See how many words I just typed? Doubt there's even half that in the first 4pgs.

Spidey automatically assumes Kazaa is Skrullish, follows some nice patter where Spidey tells Shanna off for not getting her name right because it's so obviously Sheena not Shanna - nope, definitely not Shanna bad Skrull that one.

We then slip into the past, Shanna returns to Kazaa after she's been missing for 3 days (hunting apparently), only to be disturbed by what appear to be SHIELD agents stealing vibranium. Shanna really gets to shine with lots of dialogue play off Kazaa, e.g.:

Kazaa: They're poaching the vibranium mines! (How one poaches an entire mine is beyond me, not like they come flat-pack)
Shanna: SHIELD agents? Those @#%#@.
Kazaa: Fury would never betray us like this.
Shanna: Well he is.
Kazaa: He owes me.
Shanna: Honey, he betrayed you.

They then take out one of the guards and Shanna 'accidentally' (apparently she has anger issues) kills her and she reverts to Skrull form. Kazaa then spends the next 5mins trying to convince his Misses that Skrulls are real, there was a whole Kree-Skrull war and mentions they really should get the internet for her.

Shanna then decides (I really like Shanna by this point) she's going to sort this all out by putting on the uniform and pretending to be the guard. Un-suprisingly, she gets spotted (by non other than Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine - such a snappy name) and shot at. In the midst of which, the Contessa kindly reveals to us that:

a) There are now New Avengers (so this is set prior to the press release - later to be revealed as during the Breakout, just prior to their going to the SL)
b) They have agents (plural) inside the New Avengers (line up as of #1)
c) The only people who ever come to this part of the earth are the Avengers & the X-men and they'll only come when they (the skrulls) want them to
d) Referring to the mine stealing op she tells a subordinate that they have all the weapons they need, all the numbers they need and for the labour they have the savage land (er how do you say less evolved people in a non degorartory fashion?)

The subordinate is worried and bring up that there are other humans in the area but the Contessa (loving referred to as a Skunk Haired Skank later by Shanna) dismisses his worries.

For some reason when Shanna lands on the Jeep, they're reluctant to shoot and are actually able to track it when both her and Kazaa (who rushes to her aid in a manly fashion with Zabu) use it to escape. Luckily for them they ditched it when Shanna used her womanly senses to divine that they were being followed and they watch the SHIELD Skrulls from hiding.

Shanna: We need a plan.
Kazaa: We contact the mainland, we tell Nick Fu-

Somewhere off panel I GUARENTEE Shanna rolls her eyes, before she kindly tells hubby, that if they're already in SHIELD and they're in the NA there's no one they can trust and suggests they gather the people of the Savage Land to protect their own.

Army gathered they return to take out SHIELD but the NA beat them to it as they watch from the background.

Cut to present. Shanna gets a personality transplant from Luke Cage on the paranoia scale, upset with Hubby for telling all to Spidey. Spidey appears to be coming round, but admits he doesn't know if they're Skrulls or not but that there are holes in their story. Kazaa begins to swear on his honour, enter:

Cap America: Honour? What do you know of Honour?!

(He's not a happy chappy).

_________________________________

Overall I loved the interaction between Shanna & Kazaa, best part of the whole issue, but as a whole there wasn't much to it at all. The sole purpose of it appeared to be to shoe horn in the Contessa's "reveals", with action padding at the front end.

Art wise, I like, except the couple of pages of action at the front, there was nothing to them. The action in Shanna & Kazaa's adventure played far better.

[CyberHubbs]

HUUAAARRRGGAARR!

We learn on this issue's first page that this is the sound a rampant T-Rex makes as it charges onto the scene, spooking both Skrull and non-Skrull alike. Everyone scatters, but, alas, poor, doomed Skrull-Spidey disappear beneath the T-Rex's foot! His fashionable armpit-webbing will be sorely missed.

The real Spider-Man leaps onto the T-Rex, only to be unceremoniously ejected into the air when Whiskered-Wolverine punches his claws into the irate dinosaur. Spidey flies back into the jungle, hits a tree, and tumbles through the branches until landing with a FARUMP! on the ground.

Ow. Ow. Ow. And...Ow.

Ka-Zar, Shanna The She-Devil, and loyal Zabu show up to "greet" Spider-Man, with a lurking army of Mutates and Savage Land residents at their backs. Spider-Man immediately starts pointing the Skrull-finger at them, and there's some back and forth until Spidey decides that, hey, they might just be telling the truth. In either case, he's surrounded. Doesn't hurt to listen, right?

Cut to a flashback from "Months ago." Shanna shows up at Ka-Zar's cave in the middle of the night, and he wakes up to ask her where she's been for the last three days. Her answer is a shady "Hunting." Further questions are interrupted by gunfire, and Ka-Zar, Shanna and Zabu race to investigate. What they find is the same Vibranium mining facility last seen in Secret Invasion #1, but more importantly seen before that during the New Avengers' earlier excursion into the Savage Land in Breakout.

It seems that Skrulls disguised as SHIELD agents were behind the Mutate murders all along!

Ka-Zar and Shanna ambush a female perimeter guard, but Shanna kills it with a blow to the throat. The female instantly reverts back to her Skrull form, surprising both. Ka-Zar figures out it is a Skrull, but Shanna doesn't know what that is. To which he then replies, "We should get internet up here."

Shanna dons the guard's uniform and sneaks in to get a closer look at the going-ons inside the mining facility. Mutates are being forced to dig up the Vibranium at gunpoint. We find out that Skrull-Contessa is behind things, informing a subordinate that they needn't worry about the New Avengers; that they have inside agents. It seems that the Queen might not know about what's going on in the Savage Land, either! Factions within factions within factions.

Skrull-Contessa spots Shanna and doesn't recognize her. Shanna opens fire with her stolen machine-gun, hitting the Skrull-Contessa and several other Skrull agents before fleeing. Ka-Zar looks on from the brush in annoyance. "She never listens."

But Shanna doesn't seem to be doing too bad. That is, until she lands on the hood of a jeep and realizes she's out of ammo! The Skrull agents surround her, and Skrull-Contessa decides to forgo any kind of interrogation. "Put her down! Now!"

RRAAUUAARR!

Zabu leaps out of nowhere and to the rescue, tearing into surprised Skrull agents! Shanna resorts to hand-to-hand. A sniper then takes a bead on her, but he topples forward with a spear in his back and a knife-wielding Ka-Zar standing over his green corpse. He then hops into a jeep, and they hightail it out of Dodge with Skrull agents firing after them.

Hours Later.

Skrull-Contessa and her Skrull agents find the abandoned jeep hanging in some vines just off the jungle floor. From their hiding spot above, Shanna and Ka-Zar look on and try to figure out what to do next. Ka-Zar suggests contacting the mainland and Nick Fury, but Shanna immediately shoots that idea down. She argues that the Skrulls had already infiltrated SHIELD and the Avengers. They were on their own, and to that end they would gather an army of of Savage Landers to liberate the mining facility.

Just as Ka-Zar and Shanna are about to lead their army, though, the New Avengers show up to bust some heads as they did during Breakout. Ka-Zar and Shanna grab front row seats to an aerial barrage from a hovering helicarrier that destroys the mining facility, and would have done the same to the New Avengers if not for Stark's force field.

We then return to present day. Spider-Man seems a little more at-ease after their explanation. At least, for the moment. He points out that before Captain America died, Steve thought that it was some rebellious faction in SHIELD that was trying to kill them at the time. That "there was something rotten going on with SHIELD." Spider-Man tries to put it all together, but then he gets that "feeling" and calls Ka-Zar out. "You're fibbing."

"I swear on the honor of my father that what I am saying is -- " He begins, only to be interrupted by an angry RRRRRRRRRR! from Zabu.

The last page is Captain America leaping out of the jungle, one arm reared back and ready to toss his shield. "Honor? What do you know of honor?"

-------------------

I think the final page would be far more interesting if the odds were in favor of this being the real Cap, and not a Skrull. But that would make Brubaker's current run suspect, and Sharon Carter's unborn child a dirty, shape-changing alien! So I don't see that happening.

Still, good exchanges between Ka-Zar and Shanna. I'd like to see more of them. Shanna's hardcore.

[mikekerr3]

Originally Posted by Porcelain

Opens with the "Savage Land: Right Now", with the T-Rex baring down on the Heros & Skrulls as a 1 pg spread, followed by 2 pages of large paneled action (running, stabbing, falling - very meh) and then another 1 pager with Spidey landing upon Kazaa, Shanna, Zabu & co and the issue starts. See how many words I just typed? Doubt there's even half that in the first 4pgs.

Spidey automatically assumes Kazaa is Skrullish, follows some nice patter where Spidey tells Shanna off for not getting her name right because it's so obviously Sheena not Shanna - nope, definitely not Shanna bad Skrull that one.

We then slip into the past, Shanna returns to Kazaa after she's been missing for 3 days (hunting apparently), only to be disturbed by what appear to be SHIELD agents stealing vibranium. Shanna really gets to shine with lots of dialogue play off Kazaa, e.g.:

Kazaa: They're poaching the vibranium mines! (How one poaches an entire mine is beyond me, not like they come flat-pack)
Shanna: SHIELD agents? Those @#%#@.
Kazaa: Fury would never betray us like this.
Shanna: Well he is.
Kazaa: He owes me.
Shanna: Honey, he betrayed you.

They then take out one of the guards and Shanna 'accidentally' (apparently she has anger issues) kills her and she reverts to Skrull form. Kazaa then spends the next 5mins trying to convince his Misses that Skrulls are real, there was a whole Kree-Skrull war and mentions they really should get the internet for her.

Shanna then decides (I really like Shanna by this point) she's going to sort this all out by putting on the uniform and pretending to be the guard. Un-suprisingly, she gets spotted (by non other than Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine - such a snappy name) and shot at. In the midst of which, the Contessa kindly reveals to us that:

a) There are now New Avengers (so this is set prior to the press release - later to be revealed as during the Breakout, just prior to their going to the SL)
b) They have agents (plural) inside the New Avengers (line up as of #1)
c) The only people who ever come to this part of the earth are the Avengers & the X-men and they'll only come when they (the skrulls) want them to
d) Referring to the mine stealing op she tells a subordinate that they have all the weapons they need, all the numbers they need and for the labour they have the savage land (er how do you say less evolved people in a non degorartory fashion?)

The subordinate is worried and bring up that there are other humans in the area but the Contessa (loving referred to as a Skunk Haired Skank later by Shanna) dismisses his worries.

For some reason when Shanna lands on the Jeep, they're reluctant to shoot and are actually able to track it when both her and Kazaa (who rushes to her aid in a manly fashion with Zabu) use it to escape. Luckily for them they ditched it when Shanna used her womanly senses to divine that they were being followed and they watch the SHIELD Skrulls from hiding.

Shanna: We need a plan.
Kazaa: We contact the mainland, we tell Nick Fu-

Somewhere off panel I GUARENTEE Shanna rolls her eyes, before she kindly tells hubby, that if they're already in SHIELD and they're in the NA there's no one they can trust and suggests they gather the people of the Savage Land to protect their own.

Army gathered they return to take out SHIELD but the NA beat them to it as they watch from the background.

Cut to present. Shanna gets a personality transplant from Luke Cage on the paranoia scale, upset with Hubby for telling all to Spidey. Spidey appears to be coming round, but admits he doesn't know if they're Skrulls or not but that there are holes in their story. Kazaa begins to swear on his honour, enter:

Cap America: Honour? What do you know of Honour?!

(He's not a happy chappy).

_________________________________

Overall I loved the interaction between Shanna & Kazaa, best part of the whole issue, but as a whole there wasn't much to it at all. The sole purpose of it appeared to be to shoe horn in the Contessa's "reveals", with action padding at the front end.

Art wise, I like, except the couple of pages of action at the front, there was nothing to them. The action in Shanna & Kazaa's adventure played far better.

ANybody going to pay for Kazars people being murdered by Shiels, There were othe people besides Skrulls there when hill blew the place up. How foricing is Kazar going to be?

Like the fact that Kazar fights by the rules of the Jungle not civilized rules

[TheCrow13]

Shanna was missing for 3 days, then the skrulls dont want to kill her. That is very odd. What do you think, maybe a "renagade" skrull we've been hearing about?

[drwho]

I really liked Shanna a lot more in this issue than kazar. Although it seems odd having a drawn out conversation like this when you know there is a battle going on a few hundred feet away.

[CyberHubbs]

Originally Posted by TheCrow13

Shanna was missing for 3 days, then the skrulls dont want to kill her. That is very odd. What do you think, maybe a "renagade" skrull we've been hearing about?

Well, the Skrulls DID try to kill her. She just squeezed the trigger faster. But I would not be surprised if she turned out to be a Renegade Skrull.

[Porcelain]

With the her missing for 3 days and her ultra paranoia, plus her essentially telling Kazaa what to do at every stage & Contessa not being bothered about humans in the area...wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if she were a mole.

Course you could say that Kazaa is, because he just stood there and took it and she didn't see him for 3 days either

[Magneto Rocks]

Originally Posted by mikekerr3

ANybody going to pay for Kazars people being murdered by Shiels, There were othe people besides Skrulls there when hill blew the place up. How foricing is Kazar going to be?

Well, looks like it was just the mutate salves... this pretty much wipes away the idea of Hill being evil for blowing the place up, since it turns out that as everybody guessed, they were Skrulls. I know a few (Like you, Mike) will claim it wasn't due to the slaves, but personally I think that's very easily justified as being, unfortunate as the phrase is, collateral damage- such as bombing a military installation and killing civilians. it's tragic, but it's necessary- because otherwise, things would never get done. In this case, a large scale op like a bombing was the *ONLY* way to take out the Skrulls, because if they had tried any way which didn't involve blasting the place apart, it would have meant going in- which would easily have allowed the Skrulls to disguise themselves as slaves, SHIELD forces, whatever, and slip away. The only way to remove them entirely was to take out the entire installation, which meant sacrificing the slaves.

I really don't see how this can be spun as "evil" anymore.

[Monty_Cristo]

Originally Posted by mikekerr3

ANybody going to pay for Kazars people being murdered by Shiels, There were othe people besides Skrulls there when hill blew the place up. How foricing is Kazar going to be?

Like the fact that Kazar fights by the rules of the Jungle not civilized rules

if you're going by jungle rules, the slaying was justified.

[CMBMOOL]

I must say that I did short of guessed that the Skrulls were behind the Savage land, and that the queen could be in on it.


All making this invasion more fierce than ever.

[SeritoNiN]

boring issue.

[HeckBoy]

Originally Posted by SeritoNiN

boring issue.

Yeah, I thumbed thru it while browsing and decided not to get it. These event side issues really don't lend much to the overall story, at least I don't think they do. Plus, I still haven't actually read the first arc of New Avengers yet (I've read summaries), so this issue would've probably been over my head anyway.

[Mark_S]

Originally Posted by Magneto Rocks

Well, looks like it was just the mutate salves... this pretty much wipes away the idea of Hill being evil for blowing the place up, since it turns out that as everybody guessed, they were Skrulls. I know a few (Like you, Mike) will claim it wasn't due to the slaves, but personally I think that's very easily justified as being, unfortunate as the phrase is, collateral damage- such as bombing a military installation and killing civilians. it's tragic, but it's necessary- because otherwise, things would never get done. In this case, a large scale op like a bombing was the *ONLY* way to take out the Skrulls, because if they had tried any way which didn't involve blasting the place apart, it would have meant going in- which would easily have allowed the Skrulls to disguise themselves as slaves, SHIELD forces, whatever, and slip away. The only way to remove them entirely was to take out the entire installation, which meant sacrificing the slaves.

I really don't see how this can be spun as "evil" anymore.

If Hill knew that the SL camp was full of skrulls then maybe the others were collateral damage. The equivalent say of killing all of the guards at Buchenwald with a massive air assault and not really minding that the prisoners were taken out too. This sort of innocent life be damned attitude is pretty much SOP with SHIELD; it's not an organization dedicated toward protecting life in general. I don't agree with it but I think from a military standpoint she might slip away with that. But we don't know if she knew.

Mark_S

[Magneto Rocks]

Originally Posted by Mark_S

If Hill knew that the SL camp was full of skrulls then maybe the others were collateral damage. The equivalent say of killing all of the guards at Buchenwald with a massive air assault and not really minding that the prisoners were taken out too. This sort of innocent life be damned attitude is pretty much SOP with SHIELD; it's not an organization dedicated toward protecting life in general. I don't agree with it but I think from a military standpoint she might slip away with that. But we don't know if she knew.

Mark_S

It's actually not as bad as the aforementioned Buchenwald strike, because in this case there are literally no alternatives. With some things, if you go in by force, you're going to lose a lot of men- with this, on the other hand, you go in by force, almost all of your targets can easily escape by shapeshifting and you're left with nothing. It was literally all or nothing, they either blew the whole place up or all the Skrulls got away, whereas other times, such as in real world instances, you have many, many more options. It's not a matter of innocent life be damned, it's simple prioritisation- saving the lives of genetic mutates simply does not rank as high as taking out a cadre of deadly shapeshifting invaders, any one of whom can cause colossal damage if left unchecked.

[Mark_S]

But these aliens were in the middle of the Savage Land, a place very small surrounded by ice and sub zero weather conditions and separated from the other continents by oceans. Are you telling me that SHIELD could not have figured out a way to contain them? With all the other weapons they have doesn't SHIELD have a stun beam or two? And to tell the truth if I were one of the mutates I'd sort'a reguard my life as just as important as anyone elses.

Mark_S