Random Happenstance

Skrullduggery Week Extra: Just one more, then just walk away.

It remains to be seen whether I get this in on time or not, according to my imaginary schedule, but here goes.

He's come up in passing a couple of times now, but I haven't devoted any time to the Super-Skrull yet. You could probably get a week out of him alone, really. For upwards of twenty years, he was a pretty standard alien invader or super-villain, although I'd compare him to Ivan Drago in Rocky IV: the Super-Skrull is the bad guy, because we built his whole culture up to be the bad guys that want to destroy our way of life, eat our children, and so forth. And like Drago, Super-Skrull is a good soldier, following orders and fighting to win; if a bit thick. The super heroes were the American good guys, Super-Skrull was the alien bad guy, and in most of his appearances that I can remember, he would die in an explosion or something. Like most Fantastic Four opponents.

Seriously, how often do the Fantastic Four take anyone into custody? For that matter, custody that they turn over to the cops? If you fight the Fantastic Four, chances are the fight will end with you:

A. (Seemingly) Perishing in a huge, possibly Negative Zone related, explosion.

B. With your master plan collapsing, you escape, shaking your fist and swearing to return. This would be under your own power, unlike...

C. "Escaping" by virtue of plummeting to near certain death, exile in the Negative Zone, buried at the center of the earth, blown into space, trapped in hell, kicked back to Atlantis, etc.

D. Detained without due process in the Negative Zone, a stasis tube, or one of Reed's "experiments."

E. Being hypnotised into thinking you're a cow. It worked on those Skrulls, why not try it on Doctor Doom?

Back to the Super-Skrull: Steve Englehart used him a lot during his run on Silver Surfer, and may have been the first to give him a name, K'lrt. He started as a jerk, but over several issues built himself up into a more noble hero, at least, a hero for the Skrulls.

When the rest of the Skrulls lost their shapechanging powers, K'lrt was trapped in the Van Allen radiation belts on earth. (Following defeats by Tigra, of all people, which set up a Spider-Man/Ms. Marvel beating.) So, he still had his powers when he was restored, and through him the Skrulls became shapeshifters again. No good deed goes unpunished, however: he was then defeated in a duel with the space pirate Cap'n Reptyl, and believed dead. Again.

So, and that's just so far this post, Super-Skrull's been killed, trapped, or incapacitated by a Native American soul-catcher stick, the Van Allen radiation belts (twice! Sasquatch of Alpha Flight put him back in after a brief escape.) and killed by a space pirate and dropped into a planet's orbit from space by the Silver Surfer, who was trying to honor K'lrt with a cool, Star Trek II style burial from space. Didn't take.

Somewhere, probably in promotional blurbs for Annihilation: Super-Skrull, I swear I saw K'lrt referred to as "the Skrull Clint Eastwood." Which then would make his opposite number on the Kree, Ronan the Accuser, Lee Van Cleef...yeah, I can see that: hardcore, kind of smug, thinks he's soooo much smarter than everyone else in the room right until that bites him in the ass. To keep the analogy going, I guess that would make the Fantastic Four, um, the Magnificent Seven. Hell, I'm not rightly sure the entire Magnificent Seven could take either Blondie or Tuco, so that kind of falls apart there.

Aside from possibly a few Heroclix, I don't have any Skrull toys, and now I'm sad. There is a pretty sweet Super-Skrull action figure that I've never even seen firsthand, but it's reviewed here. But, since there are flaming and invisible variants, or you can make the regular one look like a standard issue Skrull to build an army; and since other Fantastic Four toys were already clogging the racks and killed the distribution of his wave, poor K'lrt was a tough one to find. Maybe if I keep blogging about it and looking sad...nothing will happen.

And on that upbeat note, I'm on vacation! Probably be back next week or so. In the meantime, don't take anything.

Panels today from: Marvel Team-Up #62, reprinted in Marvel Tales #195, "Not All Thy Powers Can Save Thee!" Written by Chris Claremont, art by John Byrne, inks by Dave Hunt. This issue takes place immediately after Spider-Man's two issue team-up with the Wasp and Yellowjacket, so he's having a tough night that's been spread out over at least four issues.

Maybe you should have a doctor look at him before the Viking funeral there, chief: Silver Surfer #28, "Neanderthals!" Written by Steve Englehart, pencils by Ron Lim, inks by Tom Christopher.