Warning! Spoilers ahead for Spider-Woman #19
In the latest issue of Marvel Comics' Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew faces a whole new kind of Skrull invasion, fighting a single alien shape-shifter who knows enough about Spider-Woman herself to be a major threat. While the classic 2008 Secret Invasion event saw several Skrulls infiltrating the superhero community in a massive coordinated attack, the former Skrull Queen Veranke proves that that's not the only strategy available to the alien race who sees Earth as their world to conquer by rights. Instead, it may just take one Skrull armed with enough information to do some significant damage.
In recent Spider-Woman comics, Jessica Drew battled Mayor Wilson Fisk who's declared war on superheroes in Devil's Reign, 0utlawing them all from operating in New York City. Furthermore, the Kingpin has been utilizing all of the sensitive information and secrets he's collected on every hero, systematically breaking them down one by one. In Spider-Woman's case, Kingpin's masterplan was simple. All he had to do was release Veranke whom he'd had locked away while the world thought she had died in Secret Invasion, arming her with his extensive files on Jessica herself (the form Veranke chose to infiltrate the superhero community for years before the 2008 event).
Free once more with this valuable information on Jessica's weaknesses, friends, and loved ones, Vernake heads for Jessica's young son Gerry after attacking one of Jessica's friends, disguising herself as Jessica once more to get close to them both. However, Spider-Woman wasn't far behind after learning what Fisk had done, leading to a brutal showdown between Jessica and the Skrull queen in Spider-Woman #19 from Karla Pacheco and Pere Pérez. However, Spider-Woman isn't the only form Veranke takes, choosing forms she knows will mess with Jessica's mind and cause her to become paranoid towards the actual heroes who arrive to help her such as Spider-Man and Captain Marvel. Even though Jessica was onto Veranke such as when she pretended to be Iron Man, it still proves that just one hidden Skrull with enough planning and preparation could take on multiple convincing forms on their own, causing all sorts of mayhem and paranoia even without a secret army behind them.
While the battle between Spider-Woman and Veranke may be a personal one, it's not hard to extrapolate Veranke's strategy as a general tactic that could be used in the infiltration of Earth by a single Skrull. Using the knowledge given to her by Kingpin, Veranke takes the forms of those Spider-Woman loves and has hurt the most. While Jessica knows exactly who's she's fighting and what Veranke is capable of, the core of what Veranke was trying to accomplish is huge. One only has to imagine the kinds of damage a Skrull could do if they were anonymous (unlike Veranke in this issue), taking on multiple forms to systemically and brutally break down key figures even if it's just paranoia to get their enemies to fight one another in their distrust and suspicion.
As a prime example, there's a moment where Spider-Woman zaps Spider-Man with her powers, assuming that Veranke took the form of the Webslinger after Iron Man. While this wasn't the case, it shows what a single Skrull can do even when they're not in disguise (so long as they've planted the seeds of doubt in a target). Likewise, an impressive inverse dynamic exists in this issue: while the superhero community wasn't able to trust Spider-Woman after it was revealed she was Veranke in Secret Invasion, Spider-Woman isn't able to trust her fellow superheroes thanks to Veranke. As such, this issue of Spider-Woman in particular changes the idea of what a Skrull invasion in the Marvel Universe can be.