PREVIOUSLY IN THE NEW AVENGERS TITLES:

• The Skrull Queen has taken the form of Jessica Drew, the former New Avenger and current Mighty Avenger known as Spider Woman. Using Jessica's ties to both Avenger teams and to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the terrorist group called Hydra, the Queen has taken a direct role in the Invasion of Earth. She has manipulated the heroes and S.H.I.E.L.D. into the perfect position for the attack.

• When did the Queen replace Spider Woman? For how long has she been manipulating Earth's heroes? And what exactly has she done? No one knows...until now...

NEW AVENGERS #42
Brian Michael Bendis (W)/ Jim Cheung (P)/ John Dell (I)

SYNOPSIS ASSEMBLE!
• It all started when Colonel Nick Fury, acting director of S.H.I.E.L.D., advised Jessica Drew to agree to work with the terrorist group called Hydra. They had offered to return the powers that she once wielded as Spider Woman, but that were now lost. Fury wanted her to seemingly work for Hydra, all the while still remaining loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D.

THAT'S AN ORDER

• What neither of them knew, was that the Skrulls had already infiltrated Hydra, and once they had put Jessica under, they replaced her with their own Queen. Undergoing a strange ritual, the Queen took on the persona of Jessica Drew...

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SPIDER WOMAN

• The Queen then resumes Jessica's role as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. She meets with other Skrull infiltrators to discuss their plans. They have three goals that they want to accomplish. They hope to use subterfuge and misdirection to destroy the Vibranium mines of Wakanda and the Savage Land, whittle down the growing mutant population by inducing a race war between mutants and humans, and to destabilize the super powered population.

• The Queen, acting as Jessica, is present on the Raft the day of the breakout that brought the New Avengers together. It turns out that it was the Skrulls that hired Electro to cause the breakout, hoping simply to unleash a number of super powered criminals back into the world. Once several heroes arrived to deal with the crisis, and "Jessica" joined them in battle, a much more grand opportunity came about...

THE NEW AVENGERS

• Captain America asks her to join a new group of Avengers, along with the other heroes who were present at the Raft breakout. She consults one of the other Skrull imposters, this one disguised as Hank Pym, and they conclude that she should join the team, that it is a great opportunity for their cause.

• She also consults Madame Hydra about joining the team. Of course, Hydra leaps at the opportunity to have a person inside the Avengers.

MADAME HYDRA

• She also confronts the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Maria Hill. Hill knows that Spider Woman has recently met with Madame Hydra, and she lets Drew know that she doesn't trust her. The Queen uses her disguise to further Hill's mistrust of the Avengers, setting her up as the patsy to take the fall once all is said and done.

DIRECTOR HILL

• It's then that "Pym" informs her of the fact that the Avengers and X-Men have grouped together to head to Genosha to deal with the problem of Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. As Jessica, the Queen accompanies the heroes only to be present when the world goes white...and the House of M begins...

HOUSE OF M