Meet the Skrulls #5 // Review
Meet the Skrulls #5 begins and ends with butterflies. It’s a nice bookend to issue #1, which also began with butterflies, but more importantly, it’s an appropriate (if a little on-the-nose) metaphor for what has become of the Warner family as their miniseries comes to an end.
After a brief flashback, this issue follows the remaining members of this family of Skrull spies as they find a safe house after the destruction of their home and Carl’s disappearance, while Alice completes her mission and infiltrates Stark Enterprises. Continuing this series dabbling in spy fiction tropes, this issue features an infiltrator taking down the team one-by-one as Moloth imitates Carl, who he has murdered. As he fights with Gloria, Moloth delivers some hard truths about identity and how you can lose it engaging in spycraft, truths that the Warner family take to heart.
Writer Robbie Thompson really sticks the landing on this issue, weaving in themes and motifs from earlier in the series as he wraps up the series. Thompson’s butterfly motif may be unsubtle, but it’s effective. As Alice comes into her own as a spy, Madison confronts her own failures and insecurities, and Ivy begins her recuperation after years as a captive within Stark Enterprises (it’s a little disturbing to discover that Tony Stark sanctioned her imprisonment, but the humans are sort of the villains in this story, so it’s not entirely inappropriate, either).
The art by Niko Henrichon is, as always, gorgeous without being flashy. Henrichon, with the help of color assistant Laurent Grossat and lettering by VC’s Travis Lanham, tells the story efficiently with cartoony minimalism that serves this down-to-earth tale, allowing him to surprise the reader with flashes of action, or with dramatic flourishes like the final page of the issue.
Meet the Skrulls has been a truly terrific ride, from start to finish. This final issue is a satisfying conclusion to the Warners’ story, as the four remaining members of the family reclaim their own identities.
