Fantastic Four Annual #18
Something Old, Something New
About a year ago....
Wolverine has just been kicked out of the Watcher's citadel during the battle of the Phoenix on the Blue Area of the Moon. As he recovers he is approached by who he thinks is his teammate Storm, but his enhanced senses warn him it's actually a shape changer. Tossing his disguised enemy aside, the alien morphs back into the shape of Raksor, a Skrull delegate who had come to observe the battle for his empire. Wolverine unleashes his claws and leaps for the attack but is blasted away by Bel-Dann, Raksor's Kree opposite. Insulted by being saved by a Kree soldier, Raksor morphs into another alien creature and the two come to blows. The fight takes them hurtling down a crater. As the two continue to scrap they are taken deeper and deeper below the ruined city of the Moon's Blue Area. They fight on, completely oblivious to the fact that the Trial of the Phoenix has finished and all others involved have moved on. Over the coming months the two warriors begin playing a game of cat and mouse with each other, both determined to see the end of their foe, but the pair are too evenly matched and the chase goes on for over a year.
A few months ago...
As Raksor and Bel-Dann continue their current days fighting, they are suddenly interrupted by Earth's Watcher, who stops the pair from fighting. Uatu informs them that he has a message from their perspective rulers. He then conjures up communications from the Supreme Intelligence and Empress R'Klll. Both tell their subordinates that the ongoing war between the Kree and the Skrull has grown too costly for both sides. So the two rulers have mutually agreed that the course of the war will be decided by only two of their finest warriors and they have chosen Raksor and Bel-Dann to be those warriors. After being told that whoever the victor in their months-long war between each other will also claim the victory for their respective empire. Both men agree and go their separate ways to prepare for the final battle.
Today...
On the surface of the Blue Area now stands Attilan the home of the Inhumans, and today is a day of a great celebration: the wedding of Inhuman ruler Black Bolt and his long-time love Medusa. As the Inhumans celebrate the coming nuptials, Lockjaw teleports the Fantastic Four to the Moon so that they can attend the ceremony. Upon their arrival, they are soon greeted by Crystal and the rest of the Inhuman royal family who is introduced to the Fantastic Four's newest member, She-Hulk. They are also joined by Black Bolt who is congratulated for his upcoming wedding. Reed is disturbed when he sees Johnny brush off an Inhuman woman who is clearly interested in him, leaving Richards to wonder if Johnny is thinking about his old romance with Crystal again. As the wedding begins, Quicksilver watches from afar, feeling as though he will always be an outsider among his adopted people, but soon joins his wife Crystal carrying their baby Luna in hand.
The priest begins the ceremony and after having Black Bolt and Medusa join hands, officiates the wedding and pronounces them husband and wife. With the ceremony, just moments over the ground suddenly shakes violently and splits open. The Fantastic Four spring into action to see what the source of the quake is. She-Hulk races ahead outside of the city, and almost flings herself into a massive wall of blue flame when she realizes that gravity outside the city matches the rest of the surface of the moon. She is saved from being roasted alive by the Human Torch who manages to catch her in the nick of time. After Johnny absorbs the flame, the Fantastic Four and the Inhuman royal family go down into the crater to investigate the source of the attack. Down below the city, they are suddenly attacked by Raksor who is armed with a gauntlet that can fire beams of force. He easily catches the gathered heroes off guard and manages to slip away before they can regroup and capture him. When She-Hulk tries to follow after him, she triggers a booby-trap on the door he passed through, the resulting blast knocks her through a few rooms. When the Fantastic Four and the Inhumans follow after her they cross paths with Bel-Dann who is wearing a suit of armor. While the others fight off this new foe, Johnny goes after She-Hulk again. Reviving his teammate, Johnny suddenly spots another spout of blue flame erupting from the floor. This time he uses his powers to absorb the flames, but it is almost too much for him to contain. Instead, Johnny uses the excess flame to attack Bel-Dann, destroying his armor, but the Kree warrior also manages to escape them.
The Fantastic Four and the Inhumans then retreat back to Attilan to make sense of the battle. Realizing that the Skrull and Kree warriors are fighting each other, but unaware why Reed and Black Bolt pay a visit to the Watcher. Uatu is very forthcoming and explains why the two aliens are battling it out below the surface of the Moon. With this knowledge, Mister Fantastic comes up with a plan to stop the battle once and for all. Later, the Fantastic Four and Inhuman royal family resume their attack against the two alien combatants. This time, they fight strategically, forcing Raksor and Bel-Dann into the same room. Outnumbered, the two mortal enemies are forced to work together and seemingly slay their foes. In the aftermath of the battle, the Watcher appears before them and informs them that their battle is over and that they have decided the fate of their empires by working together. The Watcher then uses his powers to teleport the two warriors back to their respective empires to report back to their leaders. With the aliens gone, the Fantastic Four and Inhumans rise up from the group -- having staged their defeat with the help of Sue's invisible force fields -- in order to trick the Kree and Skrull into working together. With the danger passed, they return to the surface where they continue to celebrate the wedding of Black Bolt and Medusa.
Recurring Characters
Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, She-Hulk), The Watcher, Inhumans (Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Karnak, Triton, Crystal, Luna, Lockjaw), Quicksilver, Bel-Dann, Raksor, Empress R’Klll, Supreme Intelligence
Continuity Notes
The sequence where Raksor and Bel-Dann encounter Wolverine is taken from the pages of X-Men #137 where the X-Men were battling the Imperial Guard to determine the fate of the Phoenix. While Raksor and Bel-Dann were fighting below the Earth, the Phoenix chose her own fate, realizing that she was a threat to the universe, and committed suicide. Based on the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 about a year (in Marvel time) had passed between that story and this. X-Men #137 was published in 1980 and Fantastic Four Annual #18 was published in 1984. As Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3 specifies, the Sliding Timescale states that for every four years of publications one year of Marvel time elapses.
When the Supreme Intelligence and R'Klll appear before Raksor and Bel-Dann, it is prior to the destruction of the Skrull homeworld in Fantastic Four #257.
Between the time that Raksor and Bel-Dann first started to battle, the Inhumans were moved to the Blue Area of the Moon, as seen in Fantastic Four #24.
Johnny briefly mentions why the Thing is absent from the group. Following the events of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #12, the Thing decided to stay on Battleworld where he remains from Thing #11-22. He was replaced on the team by She-Hulk who officially joined the group in Fantastic four #265.
She-Hulk mentions her last visit to Attilan, which occurred while she was still a member of the Avengers back in Avengers Annual #12. At the time the group was sent to the moon by the United States government on a goodwill mission/threat assessment. The Avengers exposed yet another scheme by Maximus to start a war between humans and Inhumans.
Reed wonders if Johnny's lack of interest in an Inhuman woman is because he is reflecting on his past relationship with Crystal. This is yet another reference to the fact that Johnny dated Crystal from Fantastic Four #65-105. It ended when the pollution of the outside world forced Crystal to return to Attilan -- which was located in the Himalayan Mountains at the time. During her time back home she met and fell in love with Quicksilver as seen in Fantastic Four #131-132. Crystal and Pietro later got married in Fantastic Four #150. However, this is not why Johnny is uninterested, in reality, he is falling in love with the woman he thinks is Alicia Masters as becomes evident in Fantastic Four #269. But, this is not Alicia but Lyja a Skrull spy sent to infiltrate the Fantastic Four as revealed in Fantastic Four #358.
The narrative refers to Quicksilver as a mutant in this story. However, at this time everyone -- including Quicksilver himself -- believed him to be a mutant. This is later revealed to not be true and part of a massive deception on the part of te High Evolutionary. As revealed in Uncanny Avengers (vol 2) #4-5, Pietro was experimented upon by the High Evolutionary as a young child. In order to cover up his experiments, he made it so that whenever Quicksilver's DNA was examined it would appear as though he was a mutant.
Quicksilver mentions how he does not feel as though he belongs among the Inhumans. These feelings are a hint at the fact that Maximus is slowly trying to drive Quicksilver insane as revealed in X-Factor Annual #2.
Reed recalls how Crystal's wedding was less elaborate and private affair compared to this one. Crystal and Quicksilver were married in Fantastic Four #150.
This story identifies the Inhumans language as Tilan.
Following the end of this story the fate of the Kree-Skrull empires as follows:
This victory does little to resolve the Kree-Skrull conflict as the Skrulls homeworld was destroyed in Fantastic Four #257. Further, the Skrulls lose their ability to shape-shift as seen in Avengers Annual #14/Fantastic Four Annual #19. when this becomes common knowledge it resumes Kree/Skrull hostilities as seen in Silver Surfer (Vol 3) #1-31.
Raksor is involved in the events of Avengers Annual #14 where the Skrulls lose their shape-shifting abilities for a time. The Skrulls begin regaining this ability again in Silver Surfer (vol 3) #27.
Bel-Dann was is next seen back among his people in Captain Marvel (vol 3) #1
