More Than Inhuman!

The Super-Skrull has just escaped with Captain Marvel, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. However, the other Avengers are delayed in going after them because they have three other Skrulls to contain. Once the aliens are sedated they contact the Fantastic Four to pick them up. Reed Richards recognizes the Skrulls as the ones that attempted to frame the Fantastic Four early in their career and were hypnotized into thinking they were cows.[1]

That’s when they notice that the Vision disappeared in the middle of their battle. This is because the synthezoid has followed the Super-Skrull’s escape ship and phased his way inside. By this time, the Skrull has arrived outside the Inhuman’s Great Refuge.[2] Since the Inhumans were genetically altered by the Kree he sees them as enemies of the Skrull empire and intends to destroy them.[3] When the Super-Skrull tries to activate the ship’s weapons he is attacked by the Vision.[4] However, the alien manages to get past the android with his invisibility powers. Unfortunately for the Skrull, the energy blast is deflected by a massive force field that is erected around the Inhuman city. Although the Super-Skrull is prevented from harming the Inhumans, the Vision realizes that he cannot continue the fight without harm coming to the Scarlet Witch and flees.

With the Vision gone, the Super-Skrull decides to take his prisoners back with him to the Skrull homeworld in order to curry favor with Emperor Dorrek. Left alone with his thoughts, Captain Marvel thinks about how the Skrulls will want his strategic knowledge to help in their war with his people, the Kree. However, this may spare unnecessary death and destruction to Earth, leaving him wondering what he should do. When Super-Skrull arrives on the Skrull homeworld he is attacked at first on orders from Emperor Dorrek. His daughter Annelle pleads for his father to show mercy, but he refuses to do so and traps the Super-Skrull in an airtight force field until his flame powers burn out all the breathable oxygen.

With the Super-Skrull defeated, he then recovers Captain Marvel, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch from his ship. Like the Super-Skrull before him, Emperor Dorrek intends to force Mar-Vell into creating an Omni-Wave Projector so it can be used to destroy their enemies. In order to force Mar-Vell to comply he tosses Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch into an enclosure with a massive reptilian creature. Using her hex power to trap the monster under rock. That’s when they notice a number of tiny fuzzy pink creatures in the encloser as well that appear to be harmless.[5] When the lizard creature breaks free, Quicksilver runs around so fast he creates hurricane-force winds. This whips the pink creatures about the enclosure and with each impact, they replicate. Soon, the twins find themselves at risk of being smothered by the fuzzy creatures. Not wanting to see his friends dead, Captain Marvel agrees to create the Omni-Wave for Dorrek.

Back on Earth, H. Warren Craddock tests out a new alien detecting device on the three technicians that helped lead to the creation of his commission. Satisfied that the device works, Craddock orders the Avengers to be brought in. By this point, the team has returned to Avengers Mansion where they receive a call from Nick Fury who tips them off that something is about to happen. Going outside, they are surprised to see Craddock has already had a team outside ready to take them into custody. Expecting resistance, Craddock deploys SHIELD’s agents are wearing the agency’s new Mandroid armor created by Tony Stark. As Iron Man is secretly Tony Stark, he leads the Avengers into battle with the Mandroids as he knows their weaknesses. As the Avengers battle the Mandroids, nobody notices as Triton of the Inhumans has just emerged wounded from the sewers…

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Goliath, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, the Vision), Captain Marvel, Rick Jones, Super-Skrull, Skrull Cows, Dorrek VII, Anelle, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Mandroids), H. Warren Craddock (Skrull impostor), Triton, Mister Fantastic, Thing

Continuity Notes

1. The whole Skrull cow thing infamously happened in Fantastic Four #2.

2. The Super-Skrull’s uses the Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s “mutant physiology” to track the Inhumans saying that it is similar. However, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are referred to as mutants in this story. However, they are not. As revealed in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5, they were actually experimented upon by the High Evolutionary as infants. To cover up his work he made it so future genetic tests had the Maximoff twins register as mutants.

3. The Kree’s connection with the Inhumans was first detailed in Thor #147.

4. The Vision states that he heard about the Inhumans from Thor who recently encountered them in California. This happened in Amazing Adventures (vol. 2) #8

5. A footnote reminds readers that these creatures were last seen in Fantastic Four #37. The alien creatures are not identified by name here. While the lizard creature has not been identified the pink fuzzy creatures are identified as the Druffs in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #3.

Topical References

• The narration states that this story takes place in the year 1971. This should be considered a topical reference. This story takes place during “year three” of the Modern Age, per the Sliding Timescale.