Annihilation had just ended and the universe is saved. Mostly. What’s important is that Nova beat up Annihilus and for now, the Annihilation Wave is in repair. One of the more interesting subplots – as seen in one of the above site header images – is the teaming up between Super-Skrull and Ronan the Accuser. These two are more or less the #1 heroes of their respective planets. Two races that have hated each other for years have their top dogs fight side-by-side against a threat so great, they have no choice but to co-operate. Obviously, this won’t do all that much to stop the constant hatred between the Kree and the Skrulls. Super-Skrull and Ronan still pretty much hate each other’s guts. They just have a bit more respect for each other.

But it got me thinking. Marvel is doing a lot to change the status quo these days, in ways that make sense and can be used to tell new and interesting stories. What I’m wondering is, could humanity get along with the Skrulls? Could we form some kind of loose alliance?

The Skrulls were created for no reason other than to be the generic galactic invaders. The “little green men”. At first, they were just a race made entirely of insidious world conquerors who wanted nothing more than to take over Earth. A couple years later, the character of Princess Anelle was introduced, showing that despite what we’ve been fed, there are compassionate members of the Skrull people.

Time has changed the Skrulls. The 2000’s have changed the Skrulls more than anything else. While Earth continues to evolve, the Skrull Empire is being broken apart. Their worlds have been destroyed by wars, Galactus, botched weddings, crappy government and lots of cosmic bugs. They could use a helping hand.

As races, man and Skrull seems like easy opposition. With individuals, though, there’s more to be told. Let’s look at some of the more notable Skrulls of recent history.

The Super-Skrull

Kl’rt isn’t the best guy to start off with. He doesn’t exactly like Earthlings. He has little respect for Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four. Still, he does owe some of Earth’s heroes a bit. He’s teamed up with the Young Avengers and Reed was a big help in getting him the forces needed to take on the Annihilation Wave. He’s probably too proud to note that he would never have met his associate/lover Praxagora if it wasn’t for Mr. Fantastic.

There is the fact that Nova was the one to stop Annihilus and Super-Skrull realizes this. That has to have some kind of leverage on the situation.

Lyja the Laserfist

Lyja, for those of you who don’t remember, is the fake Alicia Masters. Shortly after the Secret Wars, Alicia became an item with Johnny Storm and pissed off many fans. When Tom DeFalco took over Fantastic Four, he just retconned it so that Alicia was a Skrull sent to kill the Fantastic Four, but really did love Human Torch.

If you think that retcon is goofy, you should read about the time Super-Skrull was hypnotized into being a little boy and accidentally killed Iron Fist.

Lyja’s whole deal was that she became a member of the Fantastic Four for a while, but had to deal with her supposed loyalty to her superiors. Over time, love won out. In the Spider-Girl alternate future, she and Johnny are members of the Fantastic Five and have a kid. In regular 616, she wasn’t so fortunate. When Onslaught was beaten, the Fantastic Four were taken out of this reality for a while. With her beloved Johnny seemingly gone, Lyja reverted into her human alter-ego Laura Green and left to try and live a normal life on Earth.

She may be all but forgotten, but she is still out there.

Virtue

Ah, God. This guy.

In his first scene, Ethan Edwards was introduced as an overgrown farm boy in glasses with superpowers who moved to a big city (New York) to make it as a bumbling reporter. At first fans thought he was meant to be the Sentry, who at the time was dealing with his demons in New Avengers. Instead, Ethan turned out to be something much different.

After Ethan’s homeworld exploded, he was sent to Earth as a baby and was raised by a kindly farmer couple. Later, he grew up to become a cape-wearing superhero. Does this sound familiar? Reginald Hudlin laid it on way too thick.

Over the course of the story, Ethan and Spider-Man discovered the truth about who he is. His planet was eaten by Galactus and his father is the same Skrull that gave Super-Skrull his powers. Ethan, a Skrull himself obviously, was meant to grow up and take over the planet. Going through a major identity crisis upon hearing the news, Ethan went crazy. He took apart the New Avengers, but Aunt May’s sage advice calmed him down.

Spider-Man added his own advice for Ethan. One of Ethan’s powers was healing. He didn’t need to wear a costume and snatch bad guys to use his powers responsibly. There are already a million of those guys in New York City as is. Following the suggestion, Ethan is currently wandering the Earth, healing those who need it.

Cool bit of closure until Hudlin suggests that Ethan is Space Jesus.

Already we have two Skrulls who would rather hang out on Earth instead of help their masters take it over. Who’s next on the list?

Titannus

This is a bit different. Titannus is not just a villain, but a bane to the Skrull race. Much like Doomsday, he’s a killing machine made too powerful and too uncontrollable. After leaving his home world in ruins (man, those Skrull planets are like the red-shirted ensigns of the universe), he ended up getting involved with the vile aliens from the planet Trellion.

Titannus came to Earth and showed how damn powerful he is. None of the heroes – not even the Hulk – could slow him down and an alternate universe Iron Man suggested that nothing really can. Titannus was beaten twice; once by exploding his own head in a fit of grief and the other by mental trickery. Right now, he’s in Earth’s custody, but who knows how long that can last.

We have one of the Skrull Empire’s greatest criminals captive. That has to be worth some points.

Crusader

Crusader is much like Lyja. He was sent to Earth to keep tabs on the Avengers. Since they disassembled, he decided to kick back and enjoy himself. Truth is, he really likes life on Earth and didn’t seem to bat an eye at the news that the Avengers are back together. Having questionable morals, he used his alien technology to spy on the people in his apartment until discovering the interesting developments going on in neighbor Curtis Doyle’s life.

When Curtis’ attempt at becoming a superhero (known as Freedom Ring) failed, Crusader took him under his wing. Crusader is extremely interested in the superhero concept, which doesn’t exist on his home planet. He too plans on using his powers for the good of mankind and uses a form that disguises his true heritage. The two become partners for several weeks and train together. Sadly, Power Ring was killed by Iron Maniac, the above-mentioned Tony Stark from an alternate reality.

Crusader now has Curtis’ Freedom Ring and uses it for entertainment purposes. He doesn’t seem all that bad, though, since the final issue of Marvel Team-Up featured Crusader taking down Titannus himself. If he’s really playing us for fools, it will probably be a while before we know. But I for one dig him.

Am I the only one to notice that Kirkman just about copied his own design when he made Shapesmith from Invincible?

Hulkling

Hey, finally somebody you’ve heard about!

Teddy Altman was introduced to us as being a second generation version of the Hulk. Soon it was apparent that it was only a cover. In actuality, Hulkling was a shape-shifter who chose his big green form for intimidation reasons. It wasn’t until the end of the first Young Avengers volume that we got a chance to see the truth behind his origin: Teddy is the son of Captain Mar-Vell and Princess Anelle. Not only is he the first known offspring of a Kree and a Skrull, but his parents are two of the more morally balanced of their respective races.

Hulkling was eventually caught up in a tug-of-war between both sides, each wanting him to be their next head honcho. It was decided that he would spend a year with each race with occasional trips to Earth to see his friends. Instead, Hulkling skipped out of it and had a disguised Super-Skrull take his spot.

If there was anyone who could conceivably bring peace to the Kree and the Skrulls, it would be Teddy. No doubt, he could do the same for the Skrulls and the big, blue planet he was raised on.

Xavin

Xavin is the latest member to join the Runaways. He’s a Super-Skrull in training and has the same powers as his idol, except he can only use them one at a time. Originally, he showed up to meet his arranged fiancée Karolina Dean (aka Lucy in the Sky) to explain the arrangement, as her dead parents never got around to telling her that part. Long story, their marriage was meant to help smooth things over for their respective alien races.

That didn’t work. Though we didn’t see it, a fight broke out between the two races at the wedding, which led to Karolina’s home world being destroyed. Xavin’s home probably went up along with it. Now Xavin is a member of the Runaways and lives on Earth with Karolina. There’s a lot of weirdness that comes from Xavin being male and Karolina being a lesbian. Since Xavin is a shape-shifter, he normally makes himself look like a girl when around Karolina. On the other hand, he still makes himself out to be a male just as often. Right now he or she is just as confused about it as we are.

Xavin is different from the other Earth-based Skrulls. He reminds me a bit more of Slobo from Young Justice. He doesn’t fight for the team because he cares about Earth or even justice. He just does it out of friendship for Karolina and, to a far lesser extent, the other Runaways. His story is still early and there are many ways it can play out.

There we go. The grounds are laid. Not only do we have a bunch of Skrull soldiers who wouldn’t mind watching Cosby reruns and eating Chef Boyardee instead of putting sugar into Ben Grimm’s gas tank, but we just helped a crumbling empire survive while succeeding in capturing their biggest home-made threat. I bet those Skrulls would be pro-registration too. Considering the problems both Earth and the Skrull Empire have going on and will have going on (Ravenous and the Hulk for starters), Marvel could definitely pull off some kind of uneasy attempt at an alliance.

But I guess I’m just an optimist. Besides, what have those Kree assholes done for us lately?

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Posted in comic books by Gavok |