Synopsis
New Avengers (2005 series) #39 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
The New Avengers discovered a Skrull had replaced Elektra and were seriously wondering who else was a Skrull. Meanwhile they rescued Maya Lopez from the Hand and she joined them.
Now she redons the outfit and white 'handprint' facepaint she had in her earliest appearances as Kingpin's assassin Echo in the 1998 Daredevil series. She sees Wolverine raiding the fridge and he assures her he isn't a Skrull. In case she's wondering why he never mentions their joint past it's because he's too much of a gentleman. (But I'm pretty certain *we* don't know anything about that past.) She says she thinks they're all concentrating on the Skrull possibility to avoid discussing the mess they're in - Captain America's dead and they are outlaws. Logan says experience tells him the Skrulls *are* coming.
He also tells her that 1 of the reasons he stayed with Luke Cage's team after Cap died was to make sure she didn't get forgotten about in Japan. Maya thinks she's hitting on him which he denies - he jokingly says his charisma means *she* fancies *him*.
Grabbing a samurai sword (left over from her Japanese Ronin identity) she heads out to a rooftop opposite the law offices of Nelson, Murdock & Blake. Daredevil finds her there. She asks when he got back to the US but he parries her question by asking about the Avengers. What she really wants to know is why he told Cap to send her to Japan, which seems to confuse him momentarily. And then she draws her sword and asks who she's really talking to ...
... and 'Daredevil' morphs into a copy of *her*. Maya attacks but her opponent blasts her off the roof with eyebeams like those of Cyclops. She lands on a fire escape and throws rubble up at her foe to distract her while she regains the roof. She manages to cut the other with her sword but 'Maya' responds with flaming hands which melt it. There's no hiding now that this is a Skrull intent on replacing her ...
... but then Wolverine leaps down from a higher roof to slash the shapeshifting alien with his adamantium claws and then rip her chest open. But it takes more than that to kill a Skrull and a Cyke-blast shreds the skin of his chest and face. Maya tries to intervene but the Skrull shows that Nightcrawler's bamfing teleportation is also in her skill set. Healing Logan tries to warn Maya but she's facing away from him so his words fall on literally deaf ears. Fake-Maya bamfs in behind her and starts to strangle her but our Maya breaks free and resorts to martial arts. Still-burned Wolvie attacks and the Skrull bamfs out of reach. Our 2 heroes join forces but the alien turns full Human Torch and flies away.
Logan collapses again because he's still healing. Her asks her *now* if she's convinced the Skrulls are here. He'd followed her because he thought that her only loose ties to the group meant she was the best target for replacement. Which Echo realises means they were going to kill her. (Except we'll all find out at the end of Secret Invasion that the replaced weren't killed.)
Later patched up Maya is meditating when Clint Barton joins her with some cups of coffee. As usual he jokes, saying that thanks to the Skrull she got the chance to physically beat herself up. She tells him that she doesn't know what she's doing in the Avengers. He tells her that he had the same problem when *he* joined the original team. What use were his bow and (even exploding) arrows when they had people like Thor and Iron Man. But he soon found that there were times when his skill was *exactly* what was required, and you take your shot. She points out that these Avengers aren't *those* Avengers, but he replies that people said that about his team (Cap's Kooky Quartet). The old days always seem like the glory days ...
... and Clint turns it into flirting by saying that he'll look back fondly on this conversation. She looks down and he apologises but then asks if she remembers the 'other day'. She asks if he means when she walked in on him having a shower (#34), but he says he meant when he was patching up her injured arm (in Annual #2) after their fight with the Hood. He tells her he wanted to kiss her then and she says she knew that but she didn't kiss him because he chickened out. So now they *do* kiss. And later sleep together.