Secret Invasion By Brian Michael Bendis Omnibus... -

As Queen Veranke stood poised for victory, a single bullet from Norman Osborn—the former Green Goblin—tore through her skull on live television.

It ends the "Initiative" era and launches the "Dark Reign" saga. If you'd like, I can: List the essential tie-in issues included in the Omnibus. Explain which characters were Skrulls the longest. Summarize the aftermath for Norman Osborn . Secret Invasion by Brian Michael Bendis Omnibus...

Iron Man looked at Captain America. Spider-Woman looked at Wolverine. The questions became a heartbeat. Are you you? Have I been sleeping next to the enemy? The Skrulls had spent years kidnapping heroes and replacing them with sleeper agents so perfect they didn't even know they were spies until a psychic "trigger" word was spoken. Then, the sky cracked open. As Queen Veranke stood poised for victory, a

It started with Elektra. When the leader of The Hand fell in battle, her body shimmered and shifted, revealing the green, chin-furrowed corpse of a Skrull. The Avengers stood over her body in a silence that felt like a death knell. The realization was a poison: Anyone could be a fake. Explain which characters were Skrulls the longest

A Skrull ship touched down in the Savage Land, and out stepped a roster of heroes from the past—classic suits, old faces, people who had been dead for years. They claimed to be the real ones. They claimed the heroes on Earth were the imposters. Chaos erupted across the globe: was sucked into the Negative Zone. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier was crippled by a virus. Thunderbolts Mountain was breached from within.

As New York turned into a war zone, the disparate factions of the Marvel Universe—the New Avengers, the Mighty Avengers, the Hood’s villain army, and Nick Fury’s Secret Warriors—had to make a choice. They couldn't trust each other, but they had to fight together, or there would be no world left to argue over.

The invasion was over, but the world had changed. The heroes were seen as failures who let the enemy into their homes. Norman Osborn was the new national hero. The age of heroes was dead; the Dark Reign had begun. 💡