In part one of this series Marvel crossovers from "Avengers Disassembled to "Marvel Civil War" was broken down to decide whether or not the crossover events were any good or if they were pointless. Let us continue and see if the next batch were as great and led to changes.
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World War Hulk:
One of the major reasons for the Superhero Registration Act (SRA) was put into affect was because of the Hulk. The Hulk went further off the deep end than he had gone in a long time. This time he destroyed a big part of Las Vegas. So Tony Stark called Namor, Dr. Strange, Black Bolt, and Reed Richards (The Illuminati minus Professor Xavier who was M.I.A.) to decide what to do with The Hulk. All but Namor voted for sending him into space until they could come up with a cure for him. After a fight with Ironman, Namor left the group disgusted that they would do such a thing to someone they call a friend. So the group used a life model decoy (Think a very convincing android) of Nick Fury to trick Hulk into a space ship. Once the Hulk was on the ship, The Illuminati minus Namor revealed that it was a trick and that they were sending him away for a while. The idea was to send Hulk to an uninhabited peaceful planet where he could relax and be calm until they could cure him. Unfortunately he was sent to a violent planet and was used as a slave in gladiator type games.
After a while, The Hulk would eventually escape and overturn the corrupt government and even fall in love and take a wife and a child. The Hulk was a peace and a king. Unfortunately, the ship that brought Hulk to the planet exploded and destroyed the city and killed his wife. The Hulk blames The Illuminati for the destruction of the city and the death of his wife and unborn child. The Hulk took his group of brothers in arms and set out for Earth to get revenge. First stop was the moon to get Black Bolt. Black Bolt's voice is so powerful that even a whisper could destroy mountains. The Hulk took that power and came back and beat Black Bolt to a pulp. After that, Hulk broadcasted a message to the world explaining what The Illuminati did to him and his family. And that he demanded that Ironman, Reed Richards, and Dr. Strange confront him or he'd destroy the world just like he destroyed Black Bolt.
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Every hero available tried to take the Hulk and his group down, but they were no match for them. Especially the Hulk. "The madder the Hulk gets, the stronger he gets and he has never been angrier". After all the heroes were taken out, the Hulk ordered The Illuminati to fight each other and used the same obedience discs and torture devices that were used on him on them and forced them to fight. Tony Stark kept trying to explain that it was not them who made the ship explode, but the Hulk wouldn't listen or believe him. Thankfully, there was some mercy in Hulk and before they could kill each other, the Hulk stopped discs from making Reed deliver a killing stroke on Stark. Hulk had won. He proved his point and showed the world what monsters he believed The Illuminati to be. Hulk defeated everyone accept one person. The Golden God of Good, the Sentry.
The Sentry swooped in and attacked the Hulk. The Hulk tried to plead with Sentry but the Sentry said that he had to because the Hulk is the only person he could actually hit as hard as he needed to. The Hulk started to pummel the Sentry until he let loose the power of a million exploding suns (Which the artist drew it to look like a giant flaming tornado). The two would continue to fight until both parties were out of power and turned back into their human forms. Hulk, now Bruce Banner, Delivered a shot to Robert Reynolds (Sentry) and knocked him down. Before he passed out, he thanked Banner for allowing him to let out all of that power. It seemed to be all over until one of Hulk's team stabbed Hulk's human friends and he then explains that it was him who caused the ship to explode so Hulk would destroy their world. Banner would Hulk up and start to stomp and literally break the world. Tony Stark had no choice but to take out the Hulk using a laser from one of his satellites in space (It's the Marvel Universe. Just go with it). The Hulk was taken down and things went back to the way they were before the Hulk came down.
Changes:
Wait, what? That's it? Everything went back to the way they were? Pretty much. The biggest thing that happened was Dr. Strange gave up as Sorcerer Supreme because after the Hulk broke his hands he didn't take the major steps to heal. he felt he had become arrogant and thus had to retrain himself and give up his title. Also, because General Ross thought that he needed to be more to take down the Hulk, he became the Red Hulk. Again, it's the Marvel Universe, just go with it. While this was a good series, there weren’t any major changes that transpired after. Because it wasn't a bad crossover, it can't be categorized as a pointless story. It just didn't need to be a crossover.
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Secret Invasion:
This is probably the most well thought out plan in comic history. For years the Skrulls were putting together a plan to invade the Earth and make it another planet in the Skrull empire. The Skrull queen Veranke believed in a prophesy that said the after the destruction of the Skrull home world (which came via Galactus), the coming of a "wave of devastation" through Skrull space, and the need to take "a world of blue" as their new home. Later, Ironman, Reed Richards, Namor, Black Bolt, Dr. Strange and Professor Xavier made their way to the Skrulls to try and intimidating them into never attacking Earth again. Unfortunately they were caught and experimented on. While they did eventually escape the damage had already been done. The information they received from the six heroes genetic codes gave them the means to start their invasion. The Skrulls found their way to invade Earth and replace people and remain undetected.
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The Skrulls set in motion the breakout of the raft prison that would leave every hero not knowing who they could trust. But it also reassembled a team of Avengers who just disbanded. The breakout led the New Avengers on a course that would allow them to see S.H.I.E.LD. Agents stealing vibranium (a metal that absorbs energy and usually used to build weapons) from a neutral nation and using slave labor to do it. So there was something rotten in S.H.I.E.L.D. The Avengers would end up in Japan where Echo (Now going under the name Ronin) would find out that there was something wrong with Hydra (a terrorist organization) and The Hand (a zombie like ninja cult). After the Civil War, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Ronin (Who is now Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye) Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Iron Fist, and Echo find out that Elektra, who was leading the Hand, was actually a Skrull. Cage finally had a face behind who was making everything so screwed up. Against her teams’ wishes, Drew took the dead Elektra body to Tony Stark (who was now the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.). Stark freaks out no knowing whom he can trust and let's Drew onto his team Avengers (Ironman, Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man, Sentry, Wasp, Black Widow, and Ares) to help him figure out who could be trusted.
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Later, the Skrulls would set their last plan into action. They drew Cage's Avengers and Ironman's Avengers to the Savage Land where they would send a ship of brainwashed Skrulls to further the mistrust between each other. Things like this were happening all over the world. Half of the Baxter Building (Home of the Fantastic Four) was sucked into the Negative Zone, The Skrulls invaded Wakanda (and got their butts handed to them), Asgard, England, and San Francisco (where they came across the X-Men who actually scared the Skrulls and they lost badly). The Skrulls concentrated most of their attacks in New York because it has the highest population of superheroes. With the help of Reed Richards, both Avengers teams would come together and gain their trust with each other again and head to New York and fight the final fight. Front and center leading the Skrull army was the Spider-Woman Jessica Drew who had been the Skrull queen Veranke all along. Having ties with the Avengers, Hydra, and S.H.I.E.L.D. she was the perfect person to replace and infiltrate every rank and find out everyone's strength's and weaknesses. It looked like it was going to be the Skrulls verses the Avengers, but then The Thunderbolts, Nick Fury and his secret team, and heroes and villains alike would come together to fight for their planet. She would say this was prophesized because despite it all, God loved them. Nick Fury responded with "Well my god has a hammer". Iron Man would call out the battle cry "Avengers Assemble" and the people of Earth would band together to battle those who would take them over.
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The battle would go on and despite the seemingly overwhelming numbers Earth's heroes and villains were winning. Wolverine would make B-line for the Veranke and leader and the two of them would tear each other apart. Ronin would grab a bow and arrow and shoot a shot straight into Veranke's mouth and would seemingly leave her dead. This caused the Skrull impersonating Hank Pym to set off a biological bomb he planted in the Wasp to go off. Thankfully, Thor would be there to stop her from killing everyone. The Wasp was dead and every human was pissed. Veranke would get up and was being rushed, but before Wolverine could deliver the final blow, Norman Osborn got the kill shot taking Veranke. Norman Osborn, The psychotic and murdering Green Goblin took the shot heard around the world and saved the planet from an invasion. When it was all said and done, Tony Stark was out as head of S.H.I.E.L.D and Norman Osborn was in as the top cop in the world. The Dark Reign had begun.
Changes:
Big changes here. First off, Norman Osborn was in charge of keeping everyone safe. Norman Osborn is a smart man and a leader when he's sane and focused. The problem is the Norman Osborn is usually top busy running around hearing goblin voices and obsessing over Spider-Man to stay focused. The Dark Reign had begun. Tony Stark was on the run, Cage and his team were still in hiding but were hunted harder, and probably the biggest change were the addition of Osborn's Avengers. His Dark Avengers. He dressed Thunderbolts as Avengers. Bullseye was Hawkeye, Moonstone was Ms. Marvel, and Venom was Spider-Man (of course he had to have a Spider-Man). On top of the Thunderbolts, Ares, Sentry, and Marvel Boy (Now Captain Marvel) were Avengers. He even got Wolverine's son Daken to dress as his father specifically to piss off Logan. So as far as changes go, "The Secret Invasion" shaped the Marvel Universe more than any arc accept for maybe "Civil War".
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