I'd like that...

OR maybe Norman did die and made a deal with Mephisto to come back....

... Okay, given Captain Marvel is attacking them, and he's basicly decided to be 'the Skrull who protects Earth', we can assume someone in the Thunderbolts is a Skrull.

It could be Norman, explaining a lot of things, but I like this Nornam better than any other we've gotten... plus, that's one insane Skrull.

Moonstone? Would anyone suspect the woman powered by Kree gemstone-thingies to be a Skrull? And it would let her make power plays and remain in character.

I think we can rule out Swordsman, Venom, and Bullseye...

Here's a thought: Doc Samson is a Skrull, and is trying to revert Penance back to Speedball because, as Pennance, he's too powerful and grim and willing to slaughter, say, a horde of Skrull invaders... whereas Speedball woudl just knock them around some and then get dealt with.

Norman's been crazy ever since the Gathering of Five. The psychic attack from the prisoners are just putting it over the edge. I think you may have nailed it with Doc Samson though. Notice how he's got short hair for some reason? I think he's going to beat down Moonstone and reveal his Skrulliness.

As Orin mentioned, the psychics are definitely fiddling around with personalities. What also came to mind while reading it was that Norman uses psycho-active drugs in some of his pumpkin bombs/mists, and the corridor was already starting to fill up with colored smoke as he approached.

Warren, as a matter of course, won't do more than 12 issues of someone else's book.

I can't blame him. Given the option, who wouldn't rather spend his time working on something he owns and has a personal stake in.

I believe he is either talking about his mask or his gloves, both of which are probably the same ones he used while killing Gwen.

As for the costume, its pretty much the same costume he wore in the pages of The Pulse (#1-#5, in which he also killed a female reporter). The chest piece and the pads are colored differently, but otherwise indentical, so I think it's that same costume.

This is relatively easy to explain. Spider-Man was constantly rescuing Gwen so he knew that there was some kind of attachment (though perhaps he assumed it was some kind of stalker thing). Since there was, he got her pregnant, but then realized, hey, this baby is a Skrull/Human hybrid and it is born it will reveal the Skrulls among humans so now it must die.

I also just read this issue and it was another home run for Ellis on this series. I never read Thunderbolts before Ellis and only picked it up after reading an article about the characters that were going to be in this team and said I have to check it out. Norman running a bunch of super heroes is way to funny. This issue w/most of the thunderbolts being mind controlled was amazing and Norman sniffing his old uniform was classis. When he says "I'm glad I didn't wash this suit as it stills smells like blood and blonds" was a classic line. The spread of him hovering down the hall at swordsmen was pretty menacing too. All in all this series is a definite surprise hit for marvel and I'm glad I have read it very entertaining every issue you just don't know what is going to happen to this bunch of misfits.

Direct quote from Spider-Man: The New Status Quo two-page spread printed in Amazing Spider-Man #546 (part one of Brand New Day) -

So, if Marvel's not contradicting themselves completely (which they probably are, since one hand never cares what the other is doing), then Norman shouldn't know or remember that Peter is Spider-Man, and although he has still done everything he did in the past, he shouldn't remember a lot of it (according to Marvel's silly OMD logic).

I wouldn't mind the changes to Spider-Man if they were done well, but they really haven't been. Nothing makes sense anymore. If they say "it never happened" then it would, but they're saying "it happened, but nobody remembers" and that leads to "do they remember this or that then? And why do they remember this, but not that, especially when that was their reason for doing this?"