the New Avengers #44 - Marvel

I thought this was another interesting issue, but . . of course it's all Secret Invasion. This one shows how the Skrulls came up with the plan . . or I should say idea, for a new way to infiltrate the human race. After the whole humiliation for them with the Illuminati, they put some of their soldiers in their place to see if they could provide some insight for themselves . . I guess. However, as is the case with the 'real' Reed Richards . . his brain is always working. During one of the sessions the group starts to talk about how they would detect the Skrulls if they decided to launch an invasion. To which Reed respond that he would have to look into all of the various ways that they could impersonate us so that he would have a way to detect them in any possible scenario. This process of thinking eventually came around to the point where he came up with the idea of how they could adapt themselves to become undetectable. Unfortunately, before he could finish that thought, as with many of the other sessions, the dupes realize that they don't actually have the Illuminati's powers and start to question what's really going on. That's when one of the Super-Skrulls have to come in and take out the participants once they've gone past the threshold. But then . . all they have to do is make another one. The try to torture the concept out of him, but 'Reed' isn't budging. So they decide to take a more 'natural' course . . they put Reed, Sue and Franklin into a 'home' situation. It's supposed to simulate a lazy early morning where Franklin comes in to talk to his dad. Eventually the conversation leads to them talking about hypothetical things . . to which Franklin steers the conversation towards Reeds idea. They just listen while Reed spills everything to Franklin. It's really quite ingenious. This is another issue that I could take or leave. I thought it was interesting that the Skulls 'master plan' actually came from a 'human' mind. So I guess you could say that the Illuminati were the masters of their own destruction. But, again, since I'm not following this storyline . . I could take it or leave it. I did however like Billy Tan's pencils. I thought they were pretty good.