Wednesday, February 10, 2010

New Avengers – Illuminati | Comics

Though members of Illuminati were united to take on greatest threats, they are torn apart by idea of a "Secret Invasion".

In the aftermath of Kree-Skrull War, King T'Challa AKA Black Panther has invited Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, Namor and Professor X to Wakanda. Tony Stark believes they are partially responsible for what happened a week earlier as they all had some knowledge of their enemy but had no formation to stop them.

To his proposal for all groups of heroes to unite for a cause, Namor points out that there will be issue regarding leadership and not everyone will want to join them. Except for Reed Richards, both Strange and Xavier completely disagrees to this idea. However, none could debunk the idea of an oncoming invasion from enemy in future.

When time came to vote for keeping it all between them and continue working in secret but only T'Challa backs out, thus Illuminati is formed. Right after forming, these five travels to Skrull Throneworld and warn Emperor Dorrek VII to stay away from Earth or face consequences but he simply chooses to ignore and threatens their life.

In a show of force, Black Bolt destroyed their ship using his quasi-sonic scream and attempted to return home but got captured instead. After being examined and tortured for a while, Tony finally managed to lead them all to escape back home knowing there will be more attack but not before Skrulls collected important data on them.

new avengers illuminati marvel comics brian michael bendis brian reed jim cheung
New Avengers – Illuminati | Comics

They eventually took care of Infinity Gems by becoming their protectors, convinced Beyonder to self exile and groomed a Kree warrior to be Marvel Boy. Years later, when Hulk decimated Las Vegas in a rampage, Tony proposes his group that they throw him in space since there was no cure known to them for him but Namor rebelled angrily.

Without Xavier, Illuminati came together once again after House of M was over and Tony revealed to them about how U.S. government is planning for a Superhuman Registration Act. Hearing how things can lead to a superhero "Civil War", only Reed came to his support with Black Bolt, Strange and Namor walked out disagreeing.

New Avengers was split and Tony formed a government sponsored Mighty Avengers after asserting position as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. His former teammate Spider-Woman showed up with a corpse of a Skrull that was posing as Elektra, implying that ranks of superhero groups have been infiltrated with sleeper agents for invasion.

He then took the dead body to show to his fellow Illuminati members, believing it has something to do with their visit to Skrull home-world from many years ago. What is even more baffling to them is that it was able to remain undetected from Wolverine's mutant abilities, Spider-Man's senses and Doctor Strange's magic for too long.

Reed proposes to run an autopsy and dissect the corpse into molecular level to determine how to detect them. Both Charles Xavier and Prince Namor suggest that it could all be a solo operation even that they just found. Tony points out how everything has been upside down for past few years as they were being manipulated from within.

As they were arguing about what to do now, Blackagar Boltagon is revealed itself to be a Super-Skrull hiding among them all along. Immediately after revealing, it attacks them all and claims that Earth has already been taken over. Iron Man and his allies realize that this shape-shifting alien imposter is too-powerful for them to take down.

Here is your links to buy "New Avengers – Illuminati" from Marvel Comics in issues on Amazon.

New Avengers - Illuminati 01

New Avengers - Illuminati V2 01

New Avengers - Illuminati V2 02

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Here is your links to buy "New Avengers – Illuminati" from Marvel Comics on Amazon.

New Avengers – Illuminati (Softcover)

New Avengers – Illuminati (Hardcover)

Debuting back in "Sentry" story arc from New Avengers monthly ongoing comic-book series, a history of a secret group of superheroes is plotted out by writers Brian Michael Bendis (Mighty Avengers – The Ultron Initiative, New Avengers – Breakout) and Brian Reed (Dark Reign – Sinister Spider-Man, Spider-Woman – Origin) in 2006.

Bendis and Reed come up with a five-part limited series for Marvel Comics that will connect to New Avengers: Illuminati one-shot issue from earlier that year. Aside from bearing legacy of this secret group, major parts of the storyline directly contributed to early chapters of "Secret Invasion" crossover event titled "The Infiltration".

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Invasion of Skrulls

Marvel assigned artist Alex Maleev (Infamous Iron Man – Infamous, Infamous Iron Man – The Absolution of Doom) to work on Illuminati one-shot and Jim Cheung (Avengers – The Children's Crusade, New Avengers – Civil War) did an entire run of five issues for the limited series, diving deep into many untold adventures these heroes had.

Going back as far as time of Kree-Skrull War, Illuminati explored throughout many conflicts of Marvel Universe like Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War and Planet Hulk. Additionally characters such as Beyonder, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Noh-Varr AKA Marvel Boy, Super-Skrull, The Thing and Uatu the Watcher made guest appearances.
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