Avengers: The Initiative #18

Overall- After reading this issue, I can officially say that I am totally up to date with reading Avengers: The Initiative. This was another pretty good issue of this series, as usual. Once again, since this is a part of Secret Invasion, the main characters are spread out, and the story is also spread out, so if my review seems all over the place, just blame it on Secret Invasion. You know what? From now on, I'm just going to blame everything on the HATED Secret Invasion. It's going to rain tomorrow? Blame Secret Invasion. Not feeling well? Blame Secret Invasion. Hey, that idea really works for me!

Let me get back to this comic book though. The Skrull Kill Krew has grown to include some characters regular readers of this comic book should recognize, Komodo, Hardball and Cloud 9. The Krew is still moving across the country, locating the Initiative team in every state, and killing the Skrull infiltrator on each team. Unfortunately, Devil-Slayer, who is the Krew's teleporter, is beginning to feel the strain of the constant teleporting, and is becoming weaker with each move.

The Skrulls finally figure out a way to track down the Krew by homing in on Devil-Slayer's teleporting abilities. Even though the Skrulls are able to jump the Krew, the Krew still manages to defeat the Skrulls. Ant-Man, who hitched a ride from the Skrulls, joins up with the Krew, and gives the Krew the secret Skrull plans to destroy the Earth if the Skrull invasion was to fail. The Krew decides that the most important thing is to prevent the Skrulls from activating their doomsday weapons, so they split into groups to destroy the Skrull weapons, which are located at Initiative bases across the country. That sets up the final showdown next issue between the Skrulls and the Krew.

Besides the stuff involving the Krew, we also have Crusader who is still traveling with Nick Fury and his anti-Skrull group. Fury's group begins to feel like they have no chance against the Skrulls, but Crusader peps the team up with a rousing speech. Fury is appreciative of Crusader's efforts, however, Fury also seems like he may be a little suspicious of Crusader as well. The growth of Crusader's character has been a very pleasant surprise over the course of the last few issues.

Well, the next issue of this series wraps up all the stuff with Secret Invasion. As much as I HATE Secret Invasion, I am kind of worried about what the end of Secret Invasion means for this comic book. Let's face it, the Skrulls aren't going to win. Sorry if I ruined the end of Secret Invasion for everybody out there, but that's just the way it is. The Skrulls will lose, because that's what Skrulls do best. My concern isn't necessarily for the next issue, it's for the issue that follows afterwards. Once the Marvel heroes win, what does this mean for the Initiative?

Since it was Skrull Pym who was the mastermind of the whole Initiative, what becomes of the Initiative program and this comic book? I hope it doesn't mean cancellation, but whatever it means, come Avengers: The Initiative #20, this comic book will be dramatically changed. As long as either Dan Slott and/or Christos Gage are involved in the writing duties of this comic, no matter what Marvel decides to do with this comic book, I will definitely be along for the ride. For a score, I'll go with a 8 out of 10.