In Marvel’s Secret Invasion series, Skrulls infiltrate the Avengers

Ryan North will soon take the reins on Marvel’s First Family when he and artist Jesus Aburtov kick off their Fantastic Four, but in the meantime, he’s tackling the second-oldest villains in Fantastic Four history: Skrulls. North has promised a self-contained, five-issue alien spy thriller with his and artist Francesco Mobili’s Secret InvasionThe first issue is here.

But it also delights, or at least it does me specifically, by showing us the sign on the door to the Avengers’ unisex bathroom.

Were there other things happening within the pages of comics we love? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. You may not have enough context. There will still be some great comics. You can also read the previous edition if you haven’t seen it yet.


A view of the door of the unisex bathroom for “Avengers Only”, marked with a sign depicting the Hulk and She-Hulk in silhouette. Inside, a revealed Skrull talks to himself in a mirror “That’s not the news I was hoping to hear today,” in Secret Invasion #1 (20220.

Image Credit: Ryan North, Francesco Mobili/Marvel Comics

OK OK OK so I know that the reason this is so clearly marked as a unisex bathroom is that if it wasn’t, then it would be a big clue to the reader as to which of the Avengers has been secretly replaced by a shapeshifting Skrull. It’s amazing! It’s got the silhouettes of the Hulk and She-Hulk on it. It’s perfect.

Poison Ivy thinks “I tell myself it’s just food. Just muscle and sap and the fruiting bodies of fungi. And for the first time in years, I feel like I can relax,” as she uses her hands to tear Jason Woodrue’s fungal and plant body apart, and stuffs each dripping handful into her mouth to chew in Poison Ivy #6 (2022).

Image: G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara/DC Comics

I’m so, so glad Poison Ivy will continue for an extra six issues, so that I can get more of the comic in which Pamela Isley defeats her plant-based antagonist, Jason Woodrue — the scientist was the source of her trauma and superpowers — and then devours his form, handful by mycelial handful, to keep him from returning to life.

Narration boxes describe Jean Paul valley keeping the Satan angel from his regeneration until he died, as Jean kneels and weeps by the angel’s side in Sword of Azrael #4 (2022).

Image: Dan Watters, Nikola Čižmešija/DC Comics

Who’s it for? The Sword of AzraelFor, who else than me? I have no idea, I’m just thanking my lucky stars for this EvangelionJean-Paul Valley, a comic that is Catholic-inflected about Jean-Paul Valley’s sadness at the Catholic Church’s most absurd and worst version. He lives in his head so that he makes Jean-Paul Valley do violence.

[Ed. note: Content warning for suicide.]

“Let me tell you what everyone really thinks of you, sneers a creepy dude villain, as Mary stumbles wearily through a black space filled with increasingly larger text. The text is all mean internet comments, calling her ugly, a screwup, a joke, garbage, until finally she falls to her knees surrounded by all-caps block text reading “Why don’t you just go kill yourself?” in The New Champion of Shazam! #3 (2022).

Image: Josie Campbell, Evan “Doc” Shaner/DC Comics

I’m so sad Shazam’s New Champion issues 4 and 5. Josie Campbell wrote a great story and Doc Shaner… Shaner’s work is amazing, that is what I meant. In every one of his drawings, however, it is clear that he loves Mary Bromfield (nee Marvel). The sequence where she fights against a villain, who basically uses what you say online about yourself, is beautiful and effective.

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