What Wonders Doth the Imagination Hold?
September 14, 2004
Avengers: The Kree-Skrull War TPB
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artists: Sal and John Buscema, Neal
Adams
By Avi Green
In the early 1970’s, it was decided that two of Marvel’s most
notable alien adversary races, the Kree and the Skrulls, had come to
the time when they should go war against each other. Stan Lee, who’d
created both of these alien forces, was becoming busier and busier
with being an editor at Marvel Comics at the time, and so, the
daunting task of plotting a story revolving around their plans to
declare war on each other, with earth’s fate in the balance, was
taken up by then writer/editor Roy Thomas, who’d been working with
them since the mid-60’s. And the result? A very fine and memorable
suspense tale, detailing the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ fight to
prevent a high-scale disaster from taking place, both on earth and
between even the Kree and the Skrulls themselves. And who should be
the main ones to triumph over evil here but honorary member Rick
Jones, and former Kree army captain Mar-Vell, for whom Rick had
served as an earth based “host” for a few years then, in a nod by
writer Thomas to DC’s own Captain Marvel, Billy Batson.
The story starts out with how Mar-Vell, who’d hoped to see his home
planet again after being exiled, and having been stuck in the
Negative Zone for a time, which is why, until then, he’d arranged
for Rick to “host” him in the regular universe, he’d now gotten him
to help bring him back to the regular universe via some
transportation equipment in the Fantastic Four’s headquarters. The
FF themselves are out of town, and the Avengers, which include
Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, Vision and Hawkeye, then working as
Goliath courtesy of a growth serum devised by Hank Pym, alias
Ant-Man and Giant-Man, arrive to investigate, which is actually a
good thing, since Annihulus, a villain from the Negative Zone, tries
to hitch a free ride into the regular universe on Rick’s tail.
Vision manages to push him back in, but the group are then forced to
pursue Captain Marvel to Florida, since he’s infected with
radiation, and requires surgery. But a Sentry robot of the Kree,
sent by the wicked warlord Ronan the Accuser, arrives later on the
kidnap Mar-Vell, since he wants to let the defected captain see the
sinister plot he’s got in store for earth’s population in effect at
the base he’s erected in the North Pole, which is to cause man to
digress to beast, and the polar ice has changed to tropical heat.
Three government workers who were running a science research station
up in the North Pole are turned into cavemen as a result of this,
and so too is Hank Pym, at the time having taken up the guise of
Yellowjacket, whose come to investigate along with his then wife,
Janet Van Dyne, alias the Wasp. And when Clint Barton comes to
investigate, the Kree Sentry drone knocks him unconscious and then
Ronan has him brainwashed into helping them battle the other
arriving Avengers.
It’s a very exciting battle and suspense story to start off the
book, and serve as a prelude to the coming events surrounding the
war planned between the Kree and the Skrulls. Ronan is one very
enjoyably flamboyant villain here, as he watches and comments in
amusement all the going-ons taking place within the perimeter of the
artificial tropical resort he’s erected in the North Pole, including
the Avengers’ clash with the Sentry, Hank Pym’s brief clash with the
three technicians while in “primitive” form, and also the Vision’s
growing affection and love for Scarlet Witch, after they’ve been
captured and tied up in his headquarters. Indeed, this was one of
the first places where the Vision’s ability to emote like a human,
and to express feelings of love, could be seen. And it was such a
facinating and touching development, for which Thomas and Sal
Buscema deserve a lot of kudos for starting it off. Ronan also makes
an interesting comment that could reflect what the “establishment
thinkers” think of FOX News: “A
planet which can produce such a race – which can go from steam
power to atomic power in less than a century – is a potential
threat to Kree supremacy in space – a threat which cannot be
allowed to grow and fester.” Or, in terms of this analogy,
any network that can go from small and with not much of an audience
to begin with to one of the biggest-rated networks in the country –
cannot be allowed to grow and develop. That must be what they think,
or could.
And who should save the day, other than Rick Jones himself, after he
manages to use a beam transmitting device carried by Mar-Vell to
destroy Ronan’s power supply generators, and in the ensuing
destruction of his laboratory, Ronan retreats in defeat, and Hank
Pym and the scientists return to their normal shapes and sizes as
the polar ice begins to return to effect again (don’t worry, that’s
exactly why the heroes provide the four of them with capes to keep
warm!).
But all is not well for long, as the three scientists, despite
having been requested not to speak about this incident to the
public, turn to the press and the Daily Bugle to talk about what
they know of the planned war between the Kree and the Skrulls, with
earth’s fate being in the balance, and in turn, this sparks the ire
of one Senator H. Warren Craddock, a McCarthy-like politician who
calls for a hearing on alien affairs. But when Mar-Vell offers to
turn himself in, as [bad] luck would have it, a Skrull, as it turns
out to be, disguised as Carol Danvers, who we know today as Ms.
Marvel/Binary/Warbird, comes along and talks him into staying at a
farmhouse she owns on the outskirts of NYC. And speaking of Skrulls,
well, this certainly doesn’t spell out anything good for our mighty
Avengers, as soon, not only does the team face a frightening trial
of testimony, and some others Skrulls take the time meanwhile to
incite the crowds protesting outside the Avengers Mansion to storm
and vandalize the place. Then, when the team members get back, sans
Rick, who burst out of the trial because he’d gotten a warning in
mind that Captain Marvel was in danger at the farm, so three Skrulls
disguised as Captain America, Thor and Iron Man, arrive and tell
them that the team is disbanded for all time. This is really a trick
to lure Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver over to the farm as well,
since the Skrulls want to use the two mutant siblings to aid their
experiments. And when there, three of the Skrulls are waiting, first
in the form of cows grazing in the grass, and then turning into
three out of four of the Fantastic Four! Meanwhile, inside the
farmhouse, which is actually a spacecraft containing the Skrulls’
lab, as Capt. Marvel later finds out, Carol Danvers is none other
than…the Super Skrull!
This story impressively builds upon the bunch of Skrulls who were
first seen in the Fantastic Four’s 2nd issue back in 1962, 
when they first tried to attack the FF while
disguised as the stars themselves. Reed Richards decided to retire
them from business by hypnotizing them into believing themselves to
be but mere cattle. But they were rescued and brought out of their
trance by other forces, and the renegade Super Skrull, who was a
fugitive on his own planet just like Mar-Vell was on his, planned to
not only try and use the two kids of X-Men villain Magneto as ways
of gaining power supplies, but to also try and wrest power from the
monarch of his planet as well. And while the real Capt. America,
Thor and Iron Man learn of the deception and come to the rescue
along with the Vision, who’d managed to elude the enemy, they are
unable to stop the Super Skrull from escaping in his spacecraft with
Wanda and Pietro in tow.
And things aren’t looking much better when it turns out that H.
Warren Craddock is going nuts with testing even the three scientists
themselves to see if they’re aliens of the Kree themselves, and
declares war on the Avengers for not attending his next hearings by
sending the Mandroids, whose design was supervised by Tony Stark
himself, against them, and it’s lucky that Shell-head knows how to
find their weak points. Plus, the Inhumans are in trouble, and so,
you could pretty well say that the EMH have their hands tied in all
directions with problems to solve.
But in the end, who should be the one to save humanity and even the
two battling alien sides from themselves than Rick Jones, who,
having been captured by the Kree and brought before Ronan, gets some
tips on how to use his imagination as a weapon by the Supreme
Intelligence, a being seen on a computer screen in the room where
Rick is locked up. That’s right, what happens is that he unleashes
his latent ideas, what he read about in the orphanage where he’d
grown up in his younger days, the superheroes who fought in WW2,
including Capt. America and Sub-Mariner too, and in the end…he
brings all the Kree and Skrull alike to a standstill, motionless,
like statues.
Wow. The best thing about this
story is surely how it emphasizes how our imagination is surely the
most powerful and wonderful thing we’ve got. And it’s but one of the
many great elements about this book that makes it the grand
adventure and escapist fare it definitely is.
The artwork here, by the Buscemas and Neal Adams, is simply
wonderful, the latter’s detailing the insides of the Vision, to
where Hank Pym, in his Ant-Man guise, goes to fix his malfunctioning
systems after the Skrulls attack on him in their cattle disguise,
and how he hopscotches around to avoid some of the built-in defense
measures is quite enjoyable too. A most amazing precursor to some of
the “quasi-realistic” artwork that Greg Land, artist for Birds of Prey and Sojourn excelled in, for
example.
The characterization for all the characters by Thomas, even for Rick
Jones, is just marvelous. I just wish that Scarlet Witch wasn’t the
only prominent female here, but what’s amazing is how this was where
the Vision first began to show his developing human emotions, and
fell in love with Earth’s Mightiest (and Sexiest) Seductress. The
villains are all wonderfully written, with clever dialogue to match
their counterparts from the good side, and the Skrull monarch having
a daughter who does not approve of his wicked ways is one of the
best of classic elements to be see here. She is happily able to take
up the throne of rulership on the Skrull homeworld after her father
is stopped by Rick’s remarkable intervention.
In a way, this is almost like Rick's very own story, certainly
during the showdown, since it shows also the viewpoint of a young
teenager in a world of amazing adventure and fantastic characters,
where anything can happen, and it works very well as such. And, as
per his slang, "faaaan-tastic!"
Overall, the Kree-Skrull War is a most classic adventure and
suspense story, something that even makes the reader think, and it’s
warmly recommended for everyone and anyone of all ages.
Copyright 2004 Avi Green. All rights reserved.
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