Comic Review: Meet the Skrulls #5

Meet the Skrulls #5

Marvel Comics

Writer: Robbie Thompson

Art: Niko Henrichon & Laurent Grossat

This month we got the final issue of Marvel‘s miniseries spy mystery/family drama involving skrulls, teenage angst and, for this issue especially, shape-shifting action.

In the conclusion, the Warner women, Gloria, Madison, Alice, and Ivy, are headed for a safe house hoping to meet Carl, the father, after they got separated at Project Blossom’s headquarters in the last issue. However, Alice sneaks off in the very first form we ever saw her change into, a butterfly, in order to complete her mission once and for all. I don’t want to say more so I don’t spoil the issue.

Thompson’s writing for this miniseries remained perfect and fresh for the crazy mix of genres he came up with. Not once relying on plain exposition dialogue or thought boxes and always keeping the flow of the story constant and interesting both on the family and on the espionage dimension of the comic. Every single one of the characters evolved in a believable manner making the Warners the most relatable skrull group in Marvel history.

What can I say about Henrichon’s work? He kept the deeply detailed design traits for every skrull character constant throughout the series and has done an incredible coloring work as well, with Grossat’s assistance. In this month’s release, the action gains more space than on the other ones mainly because it’s a fight among two skrulls. This fight escalates slowly, starting with an attempted poisoning and ending after both skrulls let their shape-shifting do the fighting. It is an incredible and creative combat sequence complemented by a precise description of the characters’ movements, using motion lines, as it goes. The lighting for this chapter is also noteworthy as most scenes take place in darkened places and the partial lighting is presented beautifully and believable.

The conclusion for Meet the Skrulls is an outstanding wrap-up of everything that was constructed over the five issues of the series and, as a gift, Thompson gave Marvel a new set of already beautifully developed characters to work on. To anyone who hasn’t picked up this series, this is the moment I tell you to do it and guarantee you won’t regret it. After having read the Secret Invasion event back in 2009, I say confidently that Meet the Skrulls, as its title suggests is, at last, a proper introduction to the culture and the struggle of this classic Marvel alien race.