Secret Invasion #4: Review

Some of the stuff at the end of my comments last issue technically happened after the end of #3. There is some more stuff here that the Marvel Chronology Project Forum puts before the beginning of this issue.

Captain Britain And MI13 #1-2 Britain's MI13 has its own Skrull John, who used to impersonate John Lennon. As Skrulls attack London, he, Pete Wisdom, Captain Britain and Spitfire try to stop Skrulls invading Avalon through the Siege Perilous. They fail and CB is killed. Black Knight is fighting in London and sees Dr Faiza Hussein develop powers. The Skrulls gather various mystic objects from Avalon and merge them into a demonic totem of their own.
Iron Man (2005) #34(p9:4-22)-35 War Machine scans news of the Invasion (including CB fighting in London). He follows the fleeing Skrull warship (from earlier in the issue) down to a battle in Russia where Winter Guard are defending a nuclear weapons store. WM helps them (against the wishes of their political masters) defeat the Skrulls. In the middle of the battle he is captured by Skrulls and we learn the extent of his cyborgisation. Needless to say he escapes and returns to the fight.

Now we get to tie-ins to #4 itself:-

SI: Front Line #3 (p1-3) Ben Urich see Ms Marvel landing in the battle of Times Square.

Ms. Marvel (2006) #28-30(p1-21) MsM fights back against the Skrulls (with Yellowjacket no longer among them). But then she faces and defeats a giant-size Super-Skrull. Agent Sum from her Lightning Storm team helps save civilians. (They can't shelter in Avengers Tower because it's in lockdown.) After fighting more Skrulls MsM takes Sum and his bus-load of civilians to the Raft prison. There they find a savage ultra-Skrull slaughtering guards and inmates alike. MsM fights it, and sees that it also kills other Skrulls - it's totally out of control. When she kills it she discovers that it has a tattoo 'Hydra Prime 001'. (I don't think this is ever explained or followed up. But the Skrulls infiltrated Hydra, eg the ones who allow Veranke to replace Spider-Woman in New Avengers #42.)

There's stuff that the MCP Forum puts in the middle of #4:-

SI: Runaways/Young Avengers #3 Skrull Xavin of the Runaways recalls being trained by Commander Chrell and not being good at using multiple powers simultaneously. Now he and Speed and Wiccan of the YAv are trying to save Hulkling from Chrell. Xavin thinks Hulkling should find a way to broadcast a message to the Skrull invaders. As prophesied saviour of both Skrulls and Kree he might convince them that the invasion of Earth is wrong. But before they can get to a TV transmitter they are captured by Skrull assassin X'iv and delivered to Chrell, who has captured the other Runaways including Xavin's lover Karolina. But a fight breaks out. While X'iv takes on the rest, Karolina and Xavin attack Chrell. Hulkling defeats X'iv. Chrell is losing too a tries to go nova, but Xavin kills him by concentrating on just 1 power. The YA send the Runaways to safety before returning to the general fight against the Invasion.

SI: Home Invasion #4(p11-13) The evacuation subway train Kinsey and Ethan are on is attacked by a Super-Skrull. They escape with a woman named Monica who turns out to be Monica Rambeau/Pulsar and leaves them to join the fight.
SI:FL#3(p5-22)-#4(p2-14) Vincent Crane and his daughter Melanie are making their way with others down the emergency stairs of the locked-down Avengers Tower when they are attacked by a cannibal Skrull, until Melanie is the only 1 left. The insane Skrull then attacks her but she dodges and he falls through a window.
Officer Bill Dawson is trapped in a bus with a load of civilians. He goes out to attract the attention of the nearby Super-Skrulls, telling the others to escape while they're distracted. The Skrulls leave him after beating him up. But Lisa Carter comes back to help Bill to Avengers Tower just as the cannibal Skrull comes hurtling down. They find a cellphone in the alien's burst-open stomach, and an icon on it opens the locked doors and lots of people rush out.
Ben Urich meets Jonathan Bryant and others in a subway. Urich and Bryant lead them through a tunnel to Grand Central Station, but they are stopped beneath Avengers Tower by a street gang 'guarding' their turf. Bryant gets shot and everybody is robbed. But when the gang has gone that cellphone opens the door from the subway into the Tower.
Bill and Lisa enter the Tower and meet Phil and the others carrying Jonathan up from below. Then the doors all close again, and Melanie comes running down the stairs shouting about the monster. But Phil persuades them, even Melanie, that going up to the top to the Avengers' HQ would be the best course of action, especially for wounded Jonathan.

Now we're back with stuff that ties in to #4 directly:-

New Av #41(p4-22) Spider-Man who got separated by dinosaur from the other Avengers in the Savage Land is found by Ka-Zar and Shanna. They reveal how SHIELD Agents in the SL in NAv#5-6 were Skrulls led by (1 of the several) Skrull-Val de Fontaine. (Which is strange because the ones the NAv met were led by Yelena Belova who seemed to be working for Hydra. But then Skrulls have infiltrated Hydra as mentioned above.) Then the past-Captain America pops in.
NAv#43(p1-8) Cap fights off KZ, Shanna and Zabu the sabertooth, but a Savage Land native gets him with a blow dart. He reverts to Skrull form but still believes he's Cap. Suspicious of Spidey too they scratch him to check he bleeds red.
NAv#43(p23) As Skrull-Cap dies Spidey & co hear Black Widow shooting at Phoenix, Beast and Wolverine, and head that way.
SI:WDYT#1/2 Floating in space in an emergency lifegel (after the Peak satellite was destroyed in #1) Abigail Brand reviews her previous interactions with Skrulls in SWORD, and realises they have been cryptically hinting at their infiltration all along. She makes her way to a Skrull warship, as seen in this issue.