At the Diamond Retailer Summit in Baltimore, Marvel's next big event was revealed:
Secret Invasion.
The eight issue mini-series is set to begin around April 2008. It will focus on the recent activities of the Skrulls, who have begun to integrate themselves into everyday Earth life, including taking the place of superheroes. The most notable instance of this, and the primer for the event, was the second death of Elektra in which the Skrull posing as her reverted to Skrull form after being killed by Echo. According to series writer Brian Michael Bendis, "in the first issue or two you'll find out who were the Skrulls that infiltrated the Marvel Universe and what they've done."
Bendis also revealed through IGN.com that there will be one-shots focusing on those who were taken over and what exactly happened to them. The series directly affect by the event will be New Avengers and Mighty Avengers, but ultimately all of the Marvel-verse will be affected. Says Bendis, "It really is the largest scale production and drama I have ever crafted. It stars all the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Thunderbolts, the Initiative, the X-Men, the Young Avengers return here. And this isn't just a hero story, the bad guys have their moment too. The Hood and his gang, Doctor Doom, Magneto, Norman Osborn. There's a lot of players. But there are certain characters like Tony Stark, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, the FF, that really get effected by this story long-term...oh and the big big, big return of NICK FURY!!"
As far as links leading into the series, Bendis recommends reading the limited series New Avengers: Illuminati. "It opens with Skrulls, and the first issue will be seen to be very important to the story. And the fifth issue, which is the last of the series, and a stunning piece of art by Jim Cheung, no joke, an amazingly drawn comic book, is a very big chapter in the conspiracy ... It starts seeping into The Initiative series that Dan Slott is working on. I know he has some major bits and pieces that he wants to do in his thing. So that's there. A lot of the solo books are going to have bits and pieces because a lot of people are having fun with it. I know Ms. Marvel ... and other places."
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