By Jim Beard
How do you like your Skrulls—medium or well-done?
You can be sure of sizzling shapeshifters on the grill when the Mighty Thor hammers his own path into the Secret Invasion and the lightning starts frying…err, flying! The action starts in SECRET INVASION: THOR #1, by writer Matt Fraction and newly-Marvel exclusive artist Doug Braithwaite, hitting shelves on August 8!
Although as Fraction tells it, it might be a cake walk for the green-skinned bad guys to erase a certain pantheon of deities.
"The Skrulls send elite troops to wipe out Asgard and keep Thor and the Asgardians off the board during their invasion of Earth," he explains. "They go after Broxton, [Oklahoma]—the town Asgard is near—as a way of making the gods fight their war on two fronts.
"And Thor isn't on the battlefield to lead the fight."
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of SECRET INVASION: THOR involves the momentous return of a beloved fan-favorite character: Beta Ray Bill. A noble alien who proved worth of wielding Thor's very own power and his own hammer, Stormbreaker, Bill debuted in 1983's THOR #337 and soon took a place in the hearts of Thor fans everywhere.
Still as powerful as an Asgardian, the infamous alien warrior who Fraction describes as "looking like Thor, if Thor was a horse," figures squarely into the limited series' drama— for better or worse.
"The Skrulls fire Bill at Asgard like a missile, and his impact is enormously destructive," Fraction says. "It's a warning. They could do this to Bill. The Asgardians are next.
"Oh, and Bill falls without Stormbreaker. So the Skrulls have Stormbreaker. Bad news."
Next to Thor's own Uru hammer Mjolnir, Stormbreaker exists as one of the Marvel Universe's most powerful pounding devices, having been gifted to Bill by Odin himself.
Did we also mention that since the last time we saw Beta Ray Bill he's spent his days being tortured by the Skrulls?
Yep, definitely hammer time for Thor, who also made his presence felt in SECRET INVASION #4 earlier this month.
"[The story] fills in the blanks of Thor's motivations for turning his attention from Asgard and Broxton to the world at large—which means standing shoulder to shoulder with some folks he's got...issues...with," notes Fraction. "Thor wanted to resurrect Asgard close to mortal man, so man and the gods could intermingle and rediscover one another—and now by doing this he's made a target of innocents. He's scrambling to keep his people together, to fight an insurmountable attack army, and to not be inadvertently responsible for any human collateral damage."
The scale of the Invasion's threat-level to Thor clocks in as "huge", according to the writer, and no one should doubt that events of SECRET INVASION: THOR stand as a distinct challenge to everyone's favorite Thunder God.
"The Skrulls are coming to kill our gods and replace them with their own," warns Fraction of the danger. "Humans can believe, humans can be saved—even human heroes, if they choose. But gods? Actual gods? No room for them post-Invasion. The Skrulls are coming to obliterate Asgard from human memory.
"So, y'know. It's pretty big."
Catch all the Asgardian angst and Skrullian sabotage in SECRET INVASION: THOR #1, on sale August 6! And for more on Beta Ray Bill, pay a visit to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.
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