Bass said:
Aaaand - the Skrulls ways of conquering planets is clever indeed. I like it. I also like the Skrull/Chitauri distinction.
The problem is that the Skrull/Chitauri distinction is obviously not true, given the Skrulls true intent. If it is true... why didn't the Chitauri use the super-pills to take over Earth in the first place? It seems much more effective than their original plan. Also, the Chitauri were being attacked from one end of the universe to the other - but they're now a small gang of criminals.
It clears it up only if the Skrulls were nice. But since they're evil too - I fail to see the distinction, nor why the Chitauri act the way that they did. It still doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Inconsistent.
Well, to relate it to a classic, think of "Gulliver's Travels", Bass. In it, the little people of Lilliput (excuse the spelling errors, if any) are at war with some other little people.
Gulliver feels that he owes a lot to the people of Lilliput and so he lays a smack down on their adversaries without question.
But then, when he enquires why they went to war in the first place, its because the people of the opposing country/city eat their eggs differently to the people of Lilliput!!!
Yes, I realize that that story was mostly used to show the madness and triviality in human nature, often taking it to an extreme, but my point is that the Skrulls could be just as trivial in their distinction between themselves and the Chitauri.
Also, and about the discussion above about their physical characteristics, it is possible that the Chitauri looked something like the Skrulls. My reasoning? The only time we ever see a real Chitauri in alien appearance is when its face is all twisted under the human face it had.
This was in the autopsy scene in The Ultimates (1) #8 or 9 (i think). In that issue it is also mentioned that the Chitauri lost is "chameleonic hold" on its appearance. At that time I assumed it was referring to the hold it had over its "human" appearance...but now we could take that to mean that it just lost control over its own appearance as a whole.
Of course, the above example/theory is highly unlikely, and therefore forces us to examine the other obvious option: race.