So my oldest son and I talk about comics/games fairly often (we have to not go overboard as it drives my wife nuts when we "speaka the geek" - though we have "corrupted" her well over the years)...anyway...he and I were talking about Marvel over the last few years (Avengers Disassembled - House of M - Civil War - Secret Invasion - etc.) and he looked at me and said...

Considering how powerful the Scarlet Witch really is...what if SHE was a skrull/one of the very first skrull infiltrators? I asked him to continue...he pointed out that a skrull that had become Wanda might be driven TOTALLY nuts by the kind of power she wields (in the comics it took Wanda a LONG time to begin to effectively master her powers) and start warping reality spontaneously all the time without necessarily realizing it.

From there we thought - wow...you could almost account for all the weird personality changes over the last few years just from that - there are too many of those to list, and of course it undermines/undoes most of Brian B's career at Marvel...but if you place the skrull at Kang's internment camp where she broke up with Wonder Man(that was sooo weak - Marvel/Marv Wolfman had done a great/believable resurrection - the power of love being strong than death - and then...oh we're together now and now I don't want to be with you...what was up with that?)...sorry got distracted there...anyway...since Wanda crossed a LOT of books from about that point you could really account for the weirdness at Marvel w/o destroying the continuity.

What do you all think?

Of course it WAS a Skrull.

I don't really want to see the Marvel universe 'undone'. Some questionable plot choices aside (which will happen no matter what; even back in the golden and silver age there were questionable plots), I like where things are at.

If I'm following you right, wasn't this Kurt Busiek, not Marv Wolfman? Couldn't remember the last time Wolfman wrote for Marvel.

In any case, it'd be the same writer (Busiek) resurrecting Wonder Man and causing the break-up.

Wow...rep to you bud for noticing my error...I remembered that Busiek did the break up, but I thought Wolfman did the resurrection (now that makes even less sense).

And Saturnflight...I don't want to see Marvel undone (that would be too messy, and while some concepts were poorly executed, conceptually some of them were very good)...I'd just like a reasonable explanation for why some of the characters have acted so weird/out of character for the last few years.

Thanks to Secret Invasion I think that any time that the Marvel continuity would seem to not make sense they can pretty much end the paradox by claiming that Character-X is a skrull. The comic is saved and it gives Marvel another chance to let the Skrulls back into the comics.

I know a vet who'l fix marvel for $25. For $.20 a pound they'll just put him down.

Wanda always was a bit "Deus ex Machina" and i believe the current storyline was a way of toning it all down....ironically they may have done the opposite

Speaking of Skrulls:

How about its all Pter Parker's Dream
They are all still living in "House of M"
Loki was wanda from the start / disassembled
or
Immortus planned it all this way

When it comes to the personal lives of comic characters, these things are almost invariably played out like soap operas. Every couple that is "meant to be together" is actually doomed. The drama is all about their struggle to be together, despite all of the obstacles in their way, like evil clones, comas, evil half-sisters, evil half-brothers, memory wipes, death, etc. Once a couple actually overcomes all of these obstacles in the eyes of the audience, the relationship is as good as over.

The real way to fix Marvel would be to give Joe Quesada and Jeph Loeb their walking papers.

And folks, readyeddy here has pretty much outlined Marvel's problems in 1 sentence

And about half the time you can throw in Brian Michael Bendis too...

Alas...THAT'S not gonna happen...I'm just figuring in a few years someone is gonna do for Marvel what Geoff Johns has done for DC (Retconning things to make some sense)...and I'm betting this is the path he'll take...

Though I do think Witchyfire's idea that all of the Marvel Universe is Peter Parker's dream is very clever...they could do like that season of Dallas (I'm dating myself here - and no I didn't watch Dallas, but I knew about what happened that season) and have a BIG Marvel crossover called "Dreams and Nightmares" and have everything since say...Onslaught...be Peter Parker's "dreams" as he's been captured by Nightmare...

Or it all could be a "bad program" watched by Mojo...

This is a good idea. The way Wanda's powers have been used this past decade really hasn't meshed with the way her powers actually work, so her being a Skrull would make scene to me.

The only other reasonable option would be something involving time travel. Change an event in the past and rework the present. Marvel really needs to hit the reset button.

Or...you could deal with it. You're buying the books where the characters are improperly characterized, so you're saying it's ok for them to do this. I really like Spider-Man, but as I didn't like what his status quo had returned to after One More Day, I dropped Amazing. I really couldn't stand the way Loeb wrote the Ultimates, so I stopped reading Ultimates 3 after the second or third issue. I don't like Daken, so I dropped Wolverine after the last Old Man Logan issue. You guys getting the picture?

You don't like the way Marvel's looking? Quit giving them your money. That's the ONLY way they'll get the idea. Do I have problems with the Marvel books I currently buy? Yes, but they're small gripes and not something I'd drop a book over.

Monitor I totally agree with you...

Despite how much I love the character I haven't purchased a Spider-man title/GN (except for Ultimate Spider-man) in close to 10 years (I do sometimes READ the GN's in Barnes and Noble to keep up so I'm not ignorant)...and I after the events of "Ultimatum" I'm regrettably done with the whole "Ultimate Universe"...I didn't read X-men for over 10 years (Joss Wedon's stuff brought me back - briefly)...I have purchased VERY few Avengers titles since "Disassembled"...I have purchased almost NO "Dark Reign" stuff...In fact the only Marvel title I purchase w/o fail is the FF and I've cut back on my Marvel stuff so much my local comic shop is concerned 'cause my saver has such little stuff in it now.

That doesn't mean that I don't LOVE Marvel and their characters...in fact that's part of the problem...I do love Marvel...and unfortunately that means that I do tend to read the major events that are supposed to "change the Marvel universe forever"...and because I love Marvel, I expect good stuff...is that too much to ask as a consumer?

Minor things don't bug me...Spider-man revealing his identity and then thinking it wasn't a good idea...that's fine...Spider-man bargaining with Mephisto should NEVER happen...Iron Man being a cocky jerk...sure...Iron Man turning on his long time allies/friends and hiring some of the most brutal killers in the Marvel Universe to HUNT DOWN his friends...that's a problem - I mean "hiring" Bullseye and Venom to hunt down your best friend and former allies because of what was essentially a difference in political opinions - Just a bit over the top don't you think? (and c'mon...the registration act passed awfully fast...and Cap or some of the others didn't even TRY to counter the law BEFORE it came into effect - hey, Reed even threatened the government just a few years ago to make them not even consider passing such a law...and then Reed turns around and incarcerates his friends in the Negative Zone?)

The thing is about the major events...people tend to follow through to the end...like a train wreck...you want to look away, but you stay drawn in...and if it's something that is not good - like say...Final Crisis - you still think it's got to get better if it's so important...I totally felt like I was ripped off by Final Crisis (especially since I LOVED Grant Morrison's run on JLA, so I was hoping Final Crisis would be good) and worse...it seems Final Crisis isn't even in DC continuity...I could go site similar problems with Marvel but you get the idea.

I agree that Marvel shouldn't (and doesn't) get my money...but they also have some of my favorite characters in all of comics...so I hate that I cannot bring myself to follow their adventures (Marvel has forgotten that heroes need to be heroic)...and as a fan and a consumer, I have a right to comment on things I don't like and hope that things get better.