Avengers #97
Godhood’s End!
A prisoner of the Kree, Rick Jones suddenly finds himself transported to the Negative Zone by the Supreme Intelligence. There he finds himself face-to-face with Annihilus who tries to attack him. Rick is surprised when he suddenly fires a bolt of mental energy that drives Annihilus away.
Meanwhile, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch battle Skrulls on their homeworld. While they are fighting, Captain Marvel builds an Omni-Wave Projector in an attempt to save Rick Jones from the Negative Zone. However, he decides to destroy the device since Emperor Dorrek is waiting for him to complete the device so he can take it for himself. His daughter, Anelle tries to convince Dorrek to cease hostilities, but her concerns fall on deaf ears.
Back in the Negative Zone, Rick prevents himself from going into a panic and figures that since he was able to defeat Annihilus with the power of his mind he can probably get free the same way as well. Sure enough, when Jones puts his mind to it, he is able to open a portal that takes him back to the room where he and the Supreme Intelligence were being held prisoner. The energies involved tip Ronan the Accuser that something is going on and he and an army of his warriors go into the room to destroy both Rick and the Supreme Intelligence.
The Supreme Intelligence tells Rick to use his mental powers to save them. Thinking of all the comic book heroes he read about in the orphanage, Rick is able to create replicas of Earth heroes from World War II. These include copies of Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, the original android Human Torch, the Patriot, the Angel, the original Vision, the Blazing Skull, and the Fin. The fabricated heroes keep the Kree warriors at bay but their existence proves short-lived and they fade away as quickly as they appear. The Supreme Intelligence continues pressing Rick to keep using his powers. Pushing his powers to the limit, Rick manages to use his new abilities to make the Kree warriors before them and the Skrull armada on Earth to suddenly be frozen in suspended animation, putting an abrupt end with the Kree/Skrull War. Channeling the energies through Captain Marvel, these energies also stops the Skrulls that Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch have been fighting.
The various Avengers across the galaxy are shocked by the sudden end of the battle. Rick himself can hardly believe the power he wields, but the Supreme Intelligence has him carry out one last task with his newfound power. Focusing on H. Warren Craddock on Earth, Rick uses his powers to force the politician to revert to his true form, that of a Skrull impostor. This happened during a speech where “Craddock” had whipped up the crowd into a frenzy with his anti-alien rhetoric. Ironically, the Skrull is beaten to death by the very mob he helped create.[1] With this done, Rick asks how he has some power and why the Supreme Intelligence why he did all of this. The artificial being explains that through the centuries of warfare, both the Kree and the Skrull have reached an evolutionary dead end. However, humanity proves to have a higher calling and that the power awoken in Rick will be shared by all humans in the centuries to come.
When Rick suddenly collapses to the ground, the Supreme Intelligence teleports the Avengers and Captain Marvel to the Kree homeworld. The Intelligence tells them all that Rick is dying and the only way he can live is if Captain Marvel agrees to bond his atoms with Rick’s again.[2] At first, Mar-Vell refuses to do so but realizes he has no choice and allows himself to get bonded to Rick, reviving the youth. With everything in their proper order, the Supreme Intelligence teleports everyone back to Earth. There, they are greeted by Nick Fury and the real H. Warren Craddock. Fury explains how Craddock was replaced with a Skrull impostor and now that the Skrull is dead and the truth is out, all charges against the Avengers are dropped. With the battle over, the Avengers then realize that Goliath is still unaccounted for and they wonder where he might be.[3][4]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Goliath, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, the Vision), Captain Marvel, Rick Jones, Supreme Intelligence, Ronan the Accuser, Dorrek VII, Anelle, H. Warren Craddock (Skrull impostor), Nick Fury
Continuity Notes
The H. Warren Craddock Skrull was the fourth and outstanding Skrull that was originally turned into a cow by Mister Fantastic back in Fantastic Four #2.
Rick and Mar-Vell were previously bonded in Captain Marvel #17. They were recently separated in Avengers #89.
Goliath turns up alive again next issue, but how he stopped the Skrulls from destroying the Earth isn’t revealed until Avengers #99.
As a direct result of the Kree/Skrull War, Iron Man will go on to form the Illuminati a secret group that consists of Mister Fantastic, the Sub-Mariner, Professor X, Black Bolt, and Doctor Strange. Their purpose was to deal with planetary threats such as the Kree/Skrull war. However, due to their hubris, they end up kicking off the catalyst that triggers the Secret Invasion years later. See New Avengers: Illuminati #1 and New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #1.
