By Marc Strom at Marvel

Welcome to another installment of Secret Invasion Illumination, True Believer! Over the next few months, we'll be taking a look at various key players from the mega event spinning through SECRET INVASION itself as well as MIGHTY AVENGERS, NEW AVENGERS and more of Marvel's top titles, examining what role they'll play as the story unfolds.

This week the Skrull Empire takes center stage to coincide with the upcoming release of NEW AVENGERS #40 on April 30, which tracks the aliens' plan back to its very beginnings! And to help us out, we've got Executive Editor Tom Brevoort along to hit us up with expert commentary and tantalizing teases!

The Skrulls: Uglies Without a Home

An alien race of shape-shifters, the Skrulls have regularly menaced the Earth since their first encounter with the Fantastic Four in one of that team's earliest adventures.

After tussling with the fabulous foursome on several occasions, the extraterrestrial fiends came to the attention of the larger Marvel U when their war with longtime enemies the Kree spread to Earth. Luckily the Avengers, with some help from Rick Jones and the original Captain Marvel, stopped them before they could turn our world into a no-man's land with their interstellar conflict.

The Skrulls' centuries-old empire finally began to crumble, however, when the planet-devouring Galactus decided to pay a little visit to their Throneworld. Following their home base's destruction, the Skrull power structure devolved into chaos with a vacuum where its ruler once stood.

 To read the full article click here