History ComicBook / SecretInvasion2008

* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: PlayedWith. Many people see the conclusion ([[spoiler:one battle in Central Park and Thor taking down the entire damn fleet by himself]]) as this. The fact that the [[ConservationOfNinjutsu Super-Skrulls were so easily killed to a point where every tie-in has a kill count in the hundreds didn't help]]. One big problem was that one tie-in featured Deadpool discovering the means to kill the Skrull Queen and passing the information on to Norman Osborn (he was supposed to pass that information on to ''Nick Fury'', but Osborn intercepted it). If you read that tie-in, you realized that Osborn had a gun made to those specifications and used it during the final fight to kill the otherwise-invulnerable queen, making himself the hero of the day. If you didn't read the tie-in, it looked like Osborn beat the queen by... shooting her with a gun. And was lauded as the savior of Earth for happening to be the person who fired the lucky shot. It was ''never even mentioned'' during the battle that if anyone other than Osborn had shot her, it wouldn't have killed her. But the invasion still caused immense damage on Earth, including eroding the population's trust in S.H.I.E.L.D. and many heroes, which lead to a power vacuum that Norman Osborn was very eager to fill, leading to the event of ''ComicBook/DarkReign''.

* ColdBloodedTorture: Medusa puts the Skrull that attempted to kill her through this, not for revenge, but so she can [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend learn what they did to her husband]]. We [[GoryDiscretionShot don't see it]], but the torture is so apparently so harsh, Crytal actually got freaked out by it.

* DanBrowned:
** An example that also falls under AssPull, Mockingbird's being among the rescued heroes. The writers attempted a rather half-assed excuse for how Bobbi could have been seen in ''Hell'' in prior arcs that supposedly happened after she'd already been replaced (if a Skrull dies believing they're a person, they're still that person in the afterlife). Though, Bobbi's body WAS destroyed when she died, so it is, maybe possible, but still reeks of RetCon.
** While its portrayal over the years has been inconsistent, for the vast majority of its existence, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been a ''United Nations'' organization, and yet at the end of the event, the U.S. president just goes "Pfft, whatever" and dissolves it without any apparent international involvement.

* KingOfTheDinosaurs: Since the Avengers wind up in the Savage Land, yes, there's dinosaurs. A T-Rex interrupts the brawling to scatter everyone, accidentally killing some of the Skrulls in their midst in the process. Good rex.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Since the Avengers wind up in the Savage Land, yes, there's dinosaurs. A T-Rex interrupts the brawling to scatter everyone, accidentally killing some of the Skrulls in their midst in the process. Good rex.

* BathtubScene: The end of the ''Amazing Spider-Man'' tie-in features Jackpot taking a bubble bath after her fight with the Skrulls, complete with a gratuitous BathKick.

* KillEmAll: The ComicBook/WorldWarHulk What-If version had this. After the destruction of New York wipes out a huge swath of heroes and civilians, except for Hulk, and the Skrull invasion kills scads more, the Bishop's spy (who turns out to be ''Wasp'') slaughters the last ones left, save Hulk, by hitting a very human Pym with the same bio-bomb serum that had been used on Wasp herself in the original storyline, after having gathered them all together in the guise of a resistance group. Then Hulk, having completely lost all hope, catches a passing Silver Surfer and demands that he bring his master down on the Earth and the Skrulls. Hulk ''again'' ends up being the only one to survive the resulting cataclysm, and Galactus names him as a herald as a result.
** In the ''Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' tie-in, this is Drax the Destroyer's method for figuring out who's a Skrull on Knowhere (granted he made sure the mass death was temporary and only long enough to force the Skrulls to revert to their true forms).

In the wake of the ComicBook/CivilWar, the ComicBook/NewAvengers confront the assassin ComicBook/{{Elektra}}. But when Elektra is killed in battle, [[ThisWasHisTrueForm her body turns green revealing her as a shapeshifting alien Skrull]]. Turns out the Skrulls had perfected a technique that lets them impersonate ''anyone'', undetectable even to telepathy, super senses, and anything else the superheroes can come up with. The Avengers' (and fans') reaction? ''OhCrap.''

A Creator/MarvelComics CrisisCrossover for the year 2008, about an invasion of the Skrulls on Earth. It's the conclusion of plot elements introduced by Creator/BrianMichaelBendis in [[ComicBook/TheAvengers multiple Avengers titles]] since the end of the ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' crossover. It was followed by the ''ComicBook/DarkReign'' and ''ComicBook/WarOfKings'' events.

** Played with. When they found out that there were Skrulls around, many superheroes thought that they were the puppet masters of the Civil War: the New Avengers thought that Iron Man was a Skrull, and Iron Man that Captain America was a Skrull. So then it would be just to defeat the self-evident bad guys, free the "real" Iron Man/Captain America, and everything would be right again. No! Neither Captain America, Iron Man nor the New Warriors, Maria Hill or the politicians that wrote and vote the Registration Act were Skrulls. When you saw Captain America and Iron Man fighting to the death for the liberty vs. security dichotomy, or Iron Man creating a Thor clone that killed Goliath, or Captain America leading a guerrilla group, it was [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what you saw]].

** BigBad Queen Beranke for all the ''ComicBook/NewAvengers'' and ''ComicBook/MightyAvengers''

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Played straight with the ending, which revealed ''dozens'' (and probably more) of characters who'd been kept alive by the Skrulls after being replaced by infiltration agents.]]
* BadassInDistress: Many, but especially ''ComicBook/BlackBolt'', who was considered one of the most powerful people in the Marvel Universe, then was easily caught. When he comes back, he instigated the ComicBook/WarOfKings in revenge...

* BedTrick: The Skrull imposter ended up replacing a few people that had lovers, who slept with the Skrull imposters without knowing.

** [[spoiler: Since Hank Pym had an unstable personality, the Skrulls who replaced didn't last long, which means that Tigra slept with ''several'' different Skrulls during her "relationship" with the Hank Pym imposters. She even became pregnant with one of the Skrull imposter's child, thus making her a target of Norman Osborn's in future storylines, since he wanted to obtain her half-Skrull baby.]]
** [[spoiler: With the Mockingbird that joined the ''ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers'' in Issue #91 being retroactively made into a Skrull impostor, that would mean that Hawkeye's relationship with her would fall into this during that period. She was also the Mockingbird who was killed, while the real one was under Skrull capitivity]].

** The Skrull impersonating [[spoiler:Hank Pym]] gets a little bit of this in one of the ''ComicBook/MightyAvengers'' tie-ins: he meets with the Skrull impersonating [[spoiler:Dum Dum Dugan]] and tells him the invasion won't work because HumansAreSpecial. For standing out in a crowd, he's reprogrammed and made to fall into line. As it turned out, Skrull [[spoiler:Pym]] was right.

** When the Mighty and New Avengers arrive in the Savage Lands to investigate the crashed Skrull ship, they end up having to fight Skrulls posing as '90s version of Marvel heroes, which includes a few {{Mirror Match}}es, such as Luke Cage, Wolverine and Hawkeye having to fight the old version of themselves.
* CListFodder: Gorilla Girl worriedly lampshades this, worried she might not survive the event due to being an unimportant character. Although ironically [[spoiler:this gets subverted as she survives and is noted in the epilogue as having retired from heroing to became a judge on a successful reality show. Geldoff is not so lucky]].

* DeathFakedForYou: The Skrulls faked the death of Ms. Marvel's Kree boyfriend William Wagner, to manipulate her and later, use the fact he's imprisoned to try to blackmail her.

** When the Thunderbolts arrive for the final battle, Venom asks Norman Osborn for permission to go after Spider-Man, only to be refused. ''Twice''.

* FormulaBreakingEpisode: The ''Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' tie-in. Since the team had virtually no activity around Earth, their story focused on panic on Knowhere when a dead Skrull was discovered hiding in the station. [[spoiler: It turned out the Skrulls on Knowhere were simply refugees keeping themselves hidden to stay out of the war]].
* FramedForHeroism: Norman Osborn killing the [[BigBad Skrull Queen Veranke]] at the very end. While the others have been battling for days, doing most of the dirty work, his team of [[ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}} maniacs, criminals, and lunatics]] comes in and [[VillainWithGoodPublicity steals the show]]. What really makes it a DownerEnding is that he kills the Skrull queen ''[[KillSteal seconds]]'' before Wolverine was able to. Naturally, he was placed in charge of every registered superhero, the Avengers Initiative was renamed the Thunderbolts Initiative, and S.H.I.E.L.D. was disbanded and replaced with H.A.M.M.E.R., which is also run by Osborn.

* TheFutureIsShocking: Klara was brought from 1907 into the present, and had the misfortune of arriving in the middle of a brutal Skrull AlienInvasion. She was still adjusting to the concepts of sleeveless tops and same-sex relationships, so naturally, she didn't react well to seeing an army of aliens nearly kill her friends.

* GrievousHarmWithABody: Canadian goddess Snowbird killed the Skrull god [[PunctuationShaker Kly'bn]] with the spine of the slain [[EldritchAbomination Demogorge]].
* HandCannon: When ComicBook/NickFury makes his return to the mainstream MarvelUniverse during the Skrull invasion of New York in the middle of the AlienInvasion, he does so wielding a gun that's about as big as he is.

* KillAndReplace: {{Subverted|Trope}}. The heroes fear the Skrulls are murdered most of the people they replaced, but it turns out many of the named characters (such as [[spoiler:Black Bolt, Dum Dum Dugan and Spider-Woman]] have actually just been kept imprisoned and end up rescued by the end of the event. They ''do'' attempt to do this to Echo, but fail thanks to Wolverine and her managing to beat the Skrull who tried.

** The Skrulls themselves suffer from this. Ms. Marvel points out how the super-skrulls were almost eager to die in battle. Their religious devotion made them overconfident in victory and liable to ignore basic military tactics as pointed out by the Skrull commander who invaded Wakanda and Kl'rt, the original Super-Skrull.

* ManipulativeBitch: Queen Veranke has been successfully been manipulating S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA and the Avengers against each other for months as [[spoiler:Spider-Woman]].

* NakedOnArrival: The Skrull Infiltration Ritual, which had the Skrull impostors completely imbued with the powers, memories and appearance of the selected subject, ended with them being "reborn" naked, with the appearance of the person they're meant to impersonate. Tropes like CensorShadow, SceneryCensor and ShouldersUpNudity cover any actual nudity.
* NakedPeopleTrappedOutside: A [[NakedPeopleAreFunny humorous version]] ended up happening to ''ComicBook/SheHulk'' during her tie-in to the event, with Jazinda accidentally having a TeleporterAccident when trying to bring Jen to the ship and ends only [[TheNudifier teleporting Jen's clothes]], thus leaving Jen [[NakedPeopleTrappedOutside naked in front of a cheering crowd]], much to [[NakedFreakOut her distress]] as she has to resort to HandOrObjectUnderwear until Jazinda figures it out.

* RasputinianDeath: Veranke endured several attacks (including a hand-to-hand with Wolverine and an ''arrow shot to the head'') before being ultimately killed by Norman Osborn.
* RedHerring: During the initial lead-up to the event, an issue of ''ComicBook/NewAvengers'' ended with a dramatic close-up of Dani Cage, the daughter of ComicBook/LukeCage and ComicBook/JessicaJones, whose eyes were shown glowing. This was obviously meant to imply that she (and by extension, one of her parents) might be a Skrull, but was really just an indication that she'd inherited superpowers from her parents.

** Clint Barton/Hawkeye/Ronin had an epic exclamation of this after the revelation of Skrull Mockingbird...

** After being abducted and held captive by the Skrulls for an unknown length of time, the first thing [[spoiler:Black Bolt did was kill the MadScientist Skrull that was keeping him captive by [[MakesMeWantToShout whispering on his ear]], which reduced him to LudicrousGibs. Later he would go on to hunt the Skrulls down and try to have them all wiped out]].

** The Skrull Infiltration Ritual that we see also made use of this, since the Skrulls were always NakedOnArrival after first taking the appearance of their imposters.

** The Skrull Khn'nr was mode-locked into the form of Captain Marvel, a long-dead hero, and [[ManchurianAgent brainwashed into thinking he was him]] from the past. When he found out, he rejected his part in the invasion, and actively worked against it.
** Quite a few Skrulls who took the form of [[spoiler:Dr. Hank Pym]] wound up losing themselves in the role/being overwhelmed by the personality of the original, and had to be put down.
* ShapeshiftingSquick: The VoluntaryShapeshifting Skrulls kidnapped and replaced dozens of denizens of Earth - including several superheroes - in preparation for a full-scale invasion. The Skrulls lived as the people they'd replaced for, in some cases, years, meaning that, among others, [[spoiler:Tigra, Hawkeye, and Medusa [[BedTrick slept with Skrulls they thought were their respective lovers many times]]. If you piece together the events of three different books, you realize that (1) Hank Pym was seduced by a college girl who slept with him, revealed herself to be a Skrull, captured him, and took his identity, (2) that Skrull, as Hank Pym, then started sleeping with the heroine Tigra, ''but'' (3) the process that allowed the Skrulls to pass undetected also caused them to take on the personality of the person they replaced, meaning that the Skrull(s) replacing the brilliant but unstable Hank Pym was actually a ''series'' of Skrulls who kept becoming too unstable and needing to be replaced by other Skrulls - ''all of whom had to maintain the sexual relationship with Tigra'' AND (4) one of whom got her pregnant.]]

* SuicideMission: Several of the Skrull impostors know their job is akin to suicide, but they're all fervently devoted to the cause. The most notable example being [[spoiler:Dum Dum Dugan's Skrull imposter blowing up S.W.O.R.D. defensive satellite with himself on it]].

** The Skrull imposter return to their Skrull form upon death. The New Avengers killing Elektra only to watch her body turn into a Skrull is what triggers the whole event.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: '''Every''' hero killed Skrulls by the truckloads without blinking even when there were beaten and on the run, even if those heroes had ThouShallNotKill rules before. A particular example of Hawkeye and [[spoiler: Mockingbird's Skrull stands out among the killed Skrulls. This Skrull is a TomatoInTheMirror who is a perfect copy of Mockingbird (Hawkeye's late wife) in every way, including memories and personality, and [[ManchurianAgent very honestly believes it when she professes to be her]]. At first, Hawkeye believes her, too, since she thinks and acts [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay exactly like her]]. But when he finds out that she is NotEvenHuman, he kills her in a fit of rage -- Even though she had done nothing villainous whatever until then, and did not appear about to. In fact, she died confused and pleading with him, [[KillTheCutie never understanding why her Clint would want to murder her]].]]

* YankTheDogsChain: Poor Hawkeye has a lot of this in the event: [[spoiler:When a Skrull ship crashed and revealed a group of heroes. Most were discovered to be Skrulls, but Clint tested the Mockingbird they found with [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay a question and decided she was the real Bobbi]]. Then it turned out she was actually a Skrull who [[ManchurianAgent honestly believed that she was the real Bobbi]] and had her FakeMemories, which led to Clint shooting and killing her. The real Bobbi finally returned at the end of the event. Only ''that'' turned out to be bad when, in the course of a team-up, Clint realizes the Bobbi who he reunited with in ''ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers'' [[BedTrick was also a Skrull]] and the real Bobbi still considers them divorced.]]
* YouShallNotPass: A very brave case. The female Super Skrull wanted to attack Broxton, she had just defeated Beta Ray Bill, and someone stood in defiance. Not Thor, but Donald Blake, with the hammer laying between them. He has to take the hammer to turn into Thor, but can he do it before the alien simply kills him with some quicker attack? [[spoiler:Volstagg did not want to take any chances, attacked the alien, and gives Donald Blake the second he needs to take the hammer.]]

A live-action Creator/DisneyPlus series based on this storyline was announced for the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in December 2020, with Creator/SamuelLJackson and Creator/BenMendelsohn set to reprise their roles as ComicBook/NickFury and Talos. The series will also have Creator/KingsleyBenAdir, Creator/OliviaColman, Creator/EmiliaClarke, Killian Scott, [[Creator/ChristopherMcDonald Christopher [=McDonald=]]], and Carmen Ejogo in undisclosed roles.

A live-action Creator/DisneyPlus series based on this storyline was announced for the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in December 2020, with Creator/SamuelLJackson and Creator/BenMendelsohn set to reprise their roles as ComicBook/NickFury and Talos. The series will also have Kingsley Ben-Adir, Creator/OliviaColman, Creator/EmiliaClarke, Killian Scott, [[Creator/ChristopherMcDonald Christopher [=McDonald=]]], and Carmen Ejogo in undisclosed roles.

* AdultFear: At the end, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage learn a Skrull has made off with their baby daughter. Worse, the Skrulls only got that opportunity because Jessica didn't think she could protect Danielle living on the run.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: The ''Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' tie-in. Since the team had virtually no activity around Earth, their story focused on panic on Knowhere when a dead Skrull was discovered hiding in the station. [[spoiler: It turned out the Skrulls on Knowhere were simply refugees keeping themselves hidden to stay out of the war]].

* DebateAndSwitch: Invoked. After the end of the ''Comicbook/CivilWar'', Luke Cage thought that they should find the BigBad behind it and the other recent disasters (ComicBook/{{SecretWar|2004}}, ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled, ComicBook/HouseOfM), and make things right again. And he was happy to discover the Skrull conspiracy, but the Skrulls aren't behind any of those things. As pointed out by Iron Fist, there was no big bad, things were screwed simply because they were screwed.

* DebateAndSwitch: Invoked. After the end of the ''Comicbook/CivilWar'', Luke Cage thought that they should find the BigBad behind it and the other recent disasters (ComicBook/SecretWar, ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled, ComicBook/HouseOfM), and make things right again. And he was happy to discover the Skrull conspiracy, but the Skrulls aren't behind any of those things. As pointed out by Iron Fist, there was no big bad, things were screwed simply because they were screwed.

** Kly'bn for ''ComicBook/IncredibleHercules''

--> '''Norman Osborn:''' The Skrulls are the targets. Hit anything but and you won't live to see tomorrow.\\
'''Venom (Mac Gargan, a.k.a. the then-former Scorpion):''' But Osborn, Spider-Man's right in front of--\\
'''Norman Osborn:''' The ''Skrulls'' are the targets.

* AlienInvasion: A splinter faction of the Skrull empire infiltrated the superhero community.

* BecomingTheMask: Some assumed identities are so strong that the Skrull spy loses themself in them. Captain Marvel and Hank Pym are both persistent examples of this. In the "What if" story where they succeeded Norman Osborn is also as problematic.

* BigBadWannabe: Quite possibly Veranke. She planned big, manages to capture and impersonate a bunch of powerful heroes... only to have it culminate in an EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion. Then she gets stomped/popped/killed by Norman Osborn, who uses the power he's handed as a result to cause much ''bigger'' problems.

* TheBusCameBack: The Fantastic Four tie-in features the return of Lyja, Johnny's ex-wife who just happens to be a Skrull.

** The Skrull impersonating [[spoiler:Hank Pym]] gets a little bit of this in one of the Mighty Avengers tie-ins: he meets with the Skrull impersonating [[spoiler:Dum Dum Dugan]] and tells him the invasion won't work because HumansAreSpecial. For standing out in a crowd, he's reprogrammed and made to fall into line. As it turned out, Skrull [[spoiler:Pym]] was right.
* CavalryBetrayal: Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors teleport into the middle of New York to save the Initiative and Young Avengers from being executed (a little too late to save Geldoff of the Initative). Then, once Yo-Yo's grabbed all the kids, Nick shoots Ms. Marvel, figuring she's a Skrull, and leaves her to be mobbed by the super-skrulls. Note that thanks to her origin, Carol is part-Kree, the ''last'' person anyone'd suspect of being a Skrull. But, that's Nick Fury for you.

* ComputerVirus: After Ultron's actions give the Skrulls crucial information they need, namely that Iron Man's armor is techno-organic via the Extremis nanite system, they use it to infect ''every piece of digital hardware Stark's company ever made'', effectively shutting down a ton of hero-used computer systems, nearly all of S.H.I.E.L.D., and nearly putting Stark himself in a coma.
* ConflictBall: Happens, thanks to Skrull shapeshifting and good ol' paranoia from the results.

** Nova's tie-in has him get into a fight with Darkhawk, who is understandably twitchy after several attacks from Skrulls already, his own anger-management issues notwithstanding. Nova's brother Robb hangs a lampshade on it, much to both the irritation of both heroes.

* DanBrowned: An example that also falls under AssPull, Mockingbird's being among the rescued heroes. The writers attempted a rather half-assed excuse for how Bobbi could have been seen in ''Hell'' in prior arcs that supposedly happened after she'd already been replaced (if a Skrull dies believing they're a person, they're still that person in the afterlife). Though, Bobbi's body WAS destroyed when she died, so it is, maybe possible, but still reeks of retcon.

* DeadpanSnarker: Possibly overused (this ''is'' a Bendis comic after all), but among a cast full of snark, John the Skrull managed to stand out.
-->'''Attacking Skrulls:''' He loves you.
-->'''John:''' [[Music/TheBeatles Yeah, yeah, yeah.]] Look at you, the fundamentalists. Who do you lot have the powers of, then? Anyone I could take on? Music/{{ABBA}}? Music/FrankieGoesToHollywood? No? Well, that's what makes me laugh, lads. Everything about us Skrulls says we're meant to ''fit in''.

* DebateAndSwitch: Invoked. After the end of the Comicbook/CivilWar, Luke Cage thought that they should find the BigBad behind it and the other recent disasters (ComicBook/SecretWar, ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled, ComicBook/HouseOfM), and make things right again. And he was happy to discover the Skrull conspiracy, but the Skrulls aren't behind any of those things. As pointed by Iron Fist, there was no big bad, things were screwed simply because they were screwed.
* DecompressedComic: Potholed in the opening paragraph, but it deserves a second mention, because ''boy howdy''. While the timelines of all the various tie-ins vary, the once-a-month issue release of crossover's central miniseries meant that it took two thirds of a ''year'' to tell what essentially amounted to between a few hours and a couple of days of story. Heavily contributed to reader disappointment.
** A joke amongst detractors of the book as it was coming out was "Are they ''still'' in the Savage Land?" in reference to how the main characters went to the Savage Land at the very beginning of the book and stayed there until the end of issue five. What happened in between? Uh...
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[ComicBook/YoungAvengers Hulkling]], Crusader, [[Comicbook/{{Runaways}} Xavin]], John the Skrull, Jaz, Kl'rt the original Super Skrull, or really any Skrull that sides with the Earth heroes. Technically, they didn't defect from ''decadence'', as the Skrull Empire was in shambles and had been taken over by religious fundamentalists, but they still, for assorted reasons, decided they liked Earth enough as it was to not want it assimilated (or in the case of Kl'rt, had other priorites). Of course, Hulkling was raised human and Xavin was never part of this particular faction...
* DealWithTheDevil: Pete Wisdom lets out some ''very'' nasty creatures in order to get to Merlin, and in return, they wipe out the Skrulls that had invaded Britain.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Wasp, and ''how''.
* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: Many people see the conclusion ([[spoiler:one battle in Central Park and Thor taking down the entire damn fleet by himself]]) as this. The fact that the Super-Skrulls were so easily killed to a point were every tie-in has a kill count in the hundreds didn't help.
** One big problem was that one tie-in featured Deadpool discovering the means to kill the Skrull Queen and passing the information on to Norman Osborn (he was supposed to pass that information on to ''Nick Fury'', but Osborn intercepted it). If you read that tie-in, you realized that Osborn had a gun made to those specifications and used it during the final fight to kill the otherwise-invulnerable queen, making himself the hero of the day. If you didn't read the tie-in, it looked like Osborn beat the queen by... shooting her with a gun. And was lauded as the savior of Earth for happening to be the person who fired the lucky shot. It was ''never even mentioned'' during the battle that if anyone other than Osborn had shot her, it wouldn't have killed her.

** The Mighty & New Avengers start off at each other's throats, but after realising that the Skrulls are invading ''right now'', start working together.

* FindingJudas: The main interest of the crossover was to guess which one in each team was a skrull.

* FlyingBrick: Captain Britain, Sentry, Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, etc..

* GlamourFailure: Exposing the Skrulls becomes a cat and mouse game, with the Earth characters continually having to come up with new methods as the Skrulls keep working around their old ones.

** Skrulls hate Reed Richards for turning few of them into cows.

** At the end of this story, Jessica Drew comes to ''really'' hate Skrulls, as seen in her individual comics which happens after this story.

** The first indication that the Skrull's claims of being semi-peaceful are BS is when they start executing the captured Initative members (also know to us humans as a war crime), who for extra dog-kicking are teenagers.

* TheMole: Several characters are actually Skrulls. [[spoiler:In fact, most of the registered superhero teams have at least one, courtesy of the three biggest Moles, the Skrulls impersonating Hank Pym, Dum Dum Dugan, and Jessica Drew.]]

* MoreDakka: Black Widow's solution to finding out who's a Skrull and who's not is to fill 'em full of lead.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The God Squad succeeds in wiping out the Skrull gods... and thus sets up the subsequent ''ComicBook/ChaosWar'' crossover event, in which one of their number attempts to destroy the entire universe.

* OhCrap: Veranke, after her last resort ([[spoiler:turning the Wasp into a Bio-Weapon & killing everyone]]) has failed, and she sees every single superhero, vigilante, and supervillain charging at her. All she can do is repeat "He loves me."

* PragmaticVillainy: Enforced just before the final battle. Most certainly Osborn already had his shining moment planned in advance (see EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion):

-->'''Hood:''' Get everybody.
-->'''Wrecker:''' You sure?
-->'''Hood:''' A Skrull takeover would bad for business. ''Get. Everybody.''
* ProhibitedHeroSavesTheDay: In the ''Secret Invasion'' crossover for ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' and ''ComicBook/YoungAvengers'', Xavin commands his fellow Runaways to flee New York when the Skrull forces appear, fearing that they'll all be killed. They choose to ignore his commands and end up saving him from his former mentor, who's now become one of the Skrull religious fanatics.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Once everything's over, Iron Man tries to talk to Thor, who quite curtly shoots him down, telling Tony he is '''not''' forgiven for all the crap he's pulled since ''Civil War'', and that everything that's taken place that day is a consequence.
* RedShirt: Geldoff, of the Initiative. Having never done anything over in ''Avengers: The Initiative'', he's captured and executed by the Skrulls to show that they're being dicks. Bonus points for actually ''wearing'' a red shirt. (Behind the scenes, Bendis even asked Dan Slott and Christos Gage if he could kill any of the Initiative kids, and they volunteered Geldoff. Ouch.)

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: In-universe, Nova managed to overcome the extreme stigma of being a former New Warrior in the eyes of the general public due to how instrumental the Nova Corps was in aiding Earth with the recovery and peacekeeping efforts in the Invasion's aftermath.

** Black Bolt's reaction after being rescued from this event is basically this trope.

* ShinyNewAustralia: Invoked by [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Moonstone]], who offers to defect to the Skrulls in exchange for ownership of South America.

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Used very frequently in this story as a way of sussing out Skrulls. Though it's implied that the Skrulls have been on Earth for a long time so even this isn't particularly effective for the most part.

* ThisWasHisTrueForm: Super-Skrulls return to their Skrull form when they die.
* TomatoInTheMirror: This trope only raises up ParanoiaFuel - some of Skrull agents were brainwashed into believing that they were the people they'd replaced. Which means '''you''' can be a Skrull and not even realize it.

* VillainBall: That good old Skrull idiocy, several times in ''Avengers: The Initiative''. The minute 3-D Man identifies a Skull, rather than try to play dumb or waive off suspicion, the infiltrators immediately go on the attack.

** Crusader, being a Skrull, is supposed to be a villain, but a good portion of ''Avengers: The Initiative'' is actually told from his point of view as he struggles with whether to fight for his birth people or his adopted home.
** The tie-in issues to ''Mighty'' and ''New Avengers'' detail the Skrull's infiltration efforts.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Norman Osborn becomes one, thanks to this event.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Sentry freaks out and runs away from the fight, which is the last he's seen or mentioned in the main book. ''Mighty Avengers'' shows the Void bursting in to Avengers Tower to save Lindy Lee from Skrulls... and then they just vanish from the entire event. Once it's over, Bob's back and no-one asks... but Lindy becomes nigh-completely catatonic.

* YouShallNotPass: A very brave case. The female superskrull wanted to attack Broxton, she had just defeated Beta Ray Bill, and someone stood in defiance. Not Thor, but Donald Blake, with the hammer laying between them. He has to take the hammer to turn into Thor, but can he do it before the alien simply kills him with some quicker attack? [[spoiler:Volstagg did not want to take any chances, attacked the alien, and gives Donald Blake the second he needs to take the hammer.]]

* IdiotBall: The Skrull plan has enough Idiot Balls in it that they could run a Skrull Olympics and still have some left over. WordOfGod justifies this as them being religious fanatics, but even so...

A live-action Creator/DisneyPlus series based on this storyline was announced for the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in December 2020, with Creator/SamuelLJackson and Creator/BenMendelsohn set to reprise their roles as ComicBook/NickFury and Talos. The series will also have Kingsley Ben-Adir, Creator/OliviaColman, Creator/EmiliaClarke, Killian Scott, [[Creator/ChristopherMcDonald Christopher [=McDonald=]]], and Creator/CarmenEjogo in undisclosed roles.

A live-action Creator/DisneyPlus series based on this storyline was announced for the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in December 2020, with Creator/SamuelLJackson and Creator/BenMendelsohn set to reprise their roles as ComicBook/NickFury and Talos. The series will also have Kingsley Ben-Adir, Creator/OliviaColman, Creator/EmiliaClarke, Killian Scott, and [[Creator/ChristopherMcDonald Christopher [=McDonald=]]] in undisclosed roles.

* TheAllegedCar: Maria Hill's opinion of the SHIELD helicarriers, when they get knocked out of the sky, comparing them to the car she's had since she was nineteen.

* ArcWords: "''Accept change''" and "''He loves you''"

* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Played straight with the ending, which revealed ''dozens'' (and probably more) of characters who'd been kept alive by the Skrulls after being replaced by infiltration agents.]]
* BadassInDistress: Many, but especially ''ComicBook/BlackBolt'', who was considered one of the most powerful people in the Marvel Universe, then was easily caught. When he comes back, he instigated the ComicBook/WarOfKings in revenge...

** The Skrull impersonating [[spoiler: Hank Pym]] gets a little bit of this in one of the Mighty Avengers tie-ins: he meets with the Skrull impersonating [[spoiler: Dum Dum Dugan]] and tells him the invasion won't work because HumansAreSpecial. For standing out in a crowd, he's reprogrammed and made to fall into line. As it turned out, Skrull [[spoiler:Pym]] was right.

** While its portrayal over the years has been inconsistent, for the vast majority of its existence, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been a ''United Nations'' organization, and yet at the end of the event, the US president just goes "Pfft, whatever" and dissolves it without any apparent international involvement.

--> '''Attacking Skrulls:''' He loves you.
--> '''John:''' [[Music/TheBeatles Yeah, yeah, yeah.]] Look at you, the fundamentalists. Who do you lot have the powers of, then? Anyone I could take on? Music/{{ABBA}}? Music/FrankieGoesToHollywood? No? Well, that's what makes me laugh, lads. Everything about us Skrulls says we're meant to ''fit in''.

* FlyingBrick: Captain Britain, Sentry, Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, etc.

* HowDidWeGetBackHome: In the planning stages of the Secret Invasion, the Illuminati [[note]](Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Black Bolt, Professor Xavier, Black Panther, and Doctor Strange)[[/note]] are sitting around a table as they discuss the events of their assault on the Skrull homeworld. Dr. Strange tries to cast a spell and they wonder how they got home... [[spoiler:Then a War Skrull bursts in and kills them all. It's all right, though, because [[ExpendableClone they're clones.]]]]

* OhCrap: Veranke, after her last resort ([[spoiler:turning the Wasp into a Bio-Weapon & killing everyone]]) has failed, and she sees every single superhero, vigilante, and supervillain charging at her. All she can do is repeat "He loves me".

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: By the Skrulls' measure, the torture they give Hulkling and Xavin. On the same count, their [[spoiler: execution of John the Skrull.]]

* WeHaveReserves: Apparently, the Skrull Empire had more fighters than the "broken and desperate shell of a former powerhouse" description of them implied, considering they went through over ''ninety'' attempts to recreate the original Captain Marvel, and whenever a Skrull Pym broke his programming and protested the invasion's effectiveness, they just killed him and brainwashed a new one. Keeping track of the series, they went through at least five warriors just on that alone, and [[spoiler: Skrull Dugan]] implies there were many more.

* XanatosSpeedChess: At the end of ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules tie-in [[spoiler: evil god Amatsu-Mikaboshi took control over the army of gods assimilated by the Skrull Pantheon and is preparing to attack on Earth. However, for Athena that's ''good news'']].

A live-action Creator/DisneyPlus series based on this storyline was announced for the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in December 2020, with Creator/SamuelLJackson and Creator/BenMendelsohn set to reprise their roles as ComicBook/NickFury and Talos. The series will also have Kingsley Ben-Adir, Creator/OliviaColman, Creator/EmiliaClarke, Killian Scott and [[Creator/ChristopherMcDonald Christopher [=McDonald=]]] in undisclosed roles.

** ComicBook/{{Luke Cage|HeroForHire}} pulls this early on in the story. As the Savage Land copycats come off the ship, Ares notes to fight them is a calculated distraction on the Skrulls' part and that they should retreat back to New York. Cage however punches out Afro!Cage and the heroes bog themselves down in a pretty pointless fight. The battle scatters the heroes and leaves them wandering around for over half the series before Abigail Brand and Reed Richards come to rescue them.

* BadassInDistress: Many, but especially ''ComicBook/BlackBolt'', who was considered one of the most powerful people in the Marvel Universe, then was easily caught. When he comes back, he instigated the ComicBook/WarOfKings in revenge...

* MegatonPunch: Kh'nrr, the Skrull who thought he was Mar-Vell, attacks Thunderbolts Mountain. He sends Venom flying with one hit.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: The Skrulls have been around for so long, they've suffered quite a bit of VillainDecay / DiminishingVillainThreat over the years. This series (And its buildup) changed all that. Not even Reed Richards was prepared for how sophisticated their new infiltration methods were. And let's not forget their contingency plan in #6...

A live-action Creator/DisneyPlus series based on this storyline was announced for the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse in December 2020, with Creator/SamuelLJackson and Creator/BenMendelsohn set to reprise their roles as ComicBook/NickFury and Talos. The series will also have Kingsley Ben-Adir, Creator/OliviaColeman, Creator/EmiliaClarke, Killian Scott and Christopher McDonald in as-of-yet undisclosed roles.