But first they have to eliminate the possible threat from the Fantastic Four. So they pose as the FF, cause a bunch of havoc, and get our heroes hunted by the authorities.
Fortunately, Reed and company beat the imposter Skrulls, and decide to pose as the Skrulls who were posing as them, to get their masters to call of their invasion. How?!?
Of course, with the sliding timescale, now Reed wouldn't have any monster anthology magazines to show the Skrulls. Maybe he could have just shown them 90s Image books--that would have scared off anyone!!
From Fantastic Four #2 (1962) and Fantastic Four Annual #17 (1983)
Yeah, I never bought Reed's (and Byrne's) explanation. Surely the Skrulls would be able to shapeshift themselves into 20/20 vision? No? Then even more surely, a spacefaring race like theirs would have invented spectacles?
ReplyDeleteAll Reed had to say was that the pics were "artist's impressions" of Earth's defenders. If pressed on the subject, he could have made up some story about earthlings having a taboo against photographing such monsters.
It's too bad that Reed and the FF hadn't encountered some giant monsters that they maybe could have taken pictures of just one issue earlier. Coulda just used the excuse that they gave the Skrulls actual photos of those guys instead of cutting up their old comics (they're not mint anymore, Reed!).
ReplyDelete(Yeah, yeah, it was all still new and a lot of things were still being figured out. Still, there was a much better way for Reed to have gotten pictures of monsters than the one they actually used...)
I was amused at how US AVENGERS #12, in its extended Archie Comics riff, commented obliquely on that very moment, pointing out that shapeshifting Skrulls apparently have a hard time grasping representational art and differentiating it from realistic imagery (because they don’t ‘do’ art and theater where they could instead do art, plus their shapeshifting can form the sort of images other races would have to represent in non-photographic imagery). In a side-comment about how some Skrull insurgents-in-training used Earth television broadcasts as a tool for training exercises, the issue offered some neat commentary on how FANTASTIC FOUR #2 actually makes sense.
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