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AVENGERS/
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By Kiel Phegley
The 1940's super team known as the
Invaders stepped into the modern Marvel Universe in a cloud of green smoke and a shroud of mystery earlier this year, but as the AVENGERS/INVADERS limited series kicks into its penultimate chapters with January 2's issue #7, the revelations and returns hit an all-new level. Series co-writer and cover artist Alex Ross says that the mysteries of the series all come down to the involvement of the super-powered cosmic cube and a certain villain who has had his hands on the item for a while.
"I think it can go without saying that we're going to have some
Red Skull action eventually in this thing," laughs the creator while keeping the remaining bad guys behind the time displacement under wraps. "The other secret villain is going to be revealed soon, and I think you'll be figuring it out quickly."
Originally introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in a classic Captain America story from TALES OF SUSPENSE in 1966, the Cosmic Cube has long been established as one of the major artifacts of the Marvel Universe. While many different Cubes have appeared over the years with various power levels, Ross says he and co-writer Jim Krueger wanted the Cube at the heart of the their tale to be as powerful as any fans have seen before:
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AVENGERS/
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"In this effect, I did want to overuse [the Cube] because I did have in mind the idea of being really ambitious and let it be the functional thing that moves out story forward. In its original uses back in the 60's I think it had the implication of rewriting all life, the universe and everything. Over time, we've had so many stories told about Cosmic Cubes and sentient cubes that for us to come up with anything original, it's going to be pretty difficult."
That challenge remains one that Ross and company tackle with joy, along with the Golden Age
Human Torch leading a rebellion of
S.H.I.E.L.D. LMD androids, clashes between classic and modern Namors and an impending alternate world showdown between the Invaders and the series' biggest villains. The creative team continually throws all their might into the series.
"It's a hard struggle, you've got to compete with a lot of stuff," notes Ross. "I would love to have every project that I spend time with become the stuff of legend, but it doesn't always work that way. It is a very weird thing to be working within continuity because you feel that you have a kind of lack of control. We have control of the elements that we wanted to play with.
"A lot of the stuff [that's been done in the past] sticks because it has impact. We might find out in a few years that the
Beyonder story that Brian Bendis did about him being one of the
Inhumans is going to
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AVENGERS/
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be completely debunked by someone who decides they want to rewrite that because it didn't have the right amount of play. These things are all very flexible. Marvel Comics and comics in general is like Wikipedia—if you add something to it that defies what was already stated, then what matters is that it plays well."
One point that AVENGERS/INVADERS keeps on its side in terms of leaving a permanent mark on the Marvel U comes in the form of Ross' dedication to not whitewash the series events away.
"There is every intention that this happened and that this is not retconned out of existence," he insists. "This travel through time that these gentlemen have made won't be mind-wiped or forgotten. What they understand about the present is very confusing, and won't help to inform Captain America and
Namor perfectly on how they live their lives in the decades ahead of them."
As for which versions of the characters will emerge in the modern era once everything is said and done, Ross notes that he believes classic teams like the Invaders never go out of style for long.
"Never count anybody out. That's why I've always worked on series that either go to the trouble of stepping into the far future or into their entire own idealistic continuity where all the changes to the characters always revert. You can't find one case in comics where the character doesn't eventually revert to their own original form."
Ross, Krueger and interior artists Steve Sadowski and Patrick Berkenkotter steer AVENGERS/INVADERS #7 into store on January 2. For more of Ross' work, check out Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.
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