Summons from the Stars

An alien ship crash lands into the waters outside of New York City, its sole occupant emerges on the New York City docks and approaches a homeless man. The man is frightened by the alien's space-suit and he flees. When a car almost runs over the alien, a force field protects it, damaging the car and sending the occupant fleeing for help. Suddenly the police arrive and when they order the alien to stand down, it uses its powers to uproot the ground and then create a massive green robot. When one of the officers shoots at the robot, it multiplies every time a bullet hits it. One of the officers on the scene recognizes the way the robot looks and orders the other officers to stand down while he places a call to the only people who cal help...

The phone call reaches Avengers Mansion where the Fantastic Four have been staying since the destruction of their headquarters. When the call is answered by Jarvis, the Fantasti-Flare is shot into the night sky. Not far away, Johnny Storm is on his date with Alicia Masters and he is trying to muster up the courage to ask her to marry him when suddenly he is informed of the flare by one of the staff. With no other choice, Johnny flames on and flies toward Avengers Mansion. On the way he runs into the rest of the team and he is filled in on what's going on along the way to the docks. When the Fantastic Four arrives, Reed approaches the alien along, gently talking to it. When the alien being calls up an image of Reed in his old costume, it confirms Reed's suspicions. The alien unmasks revealing itself as the creature the FF once called the Infant Terrible.

When they ask the alien what it is doing back on Earth, it calls up images that show the Skrulls coming to their world to try and exploit the reality-altering powers of his race. Unfamiliar with war, the aliens use their powers to amuse themselves, angering the Skrulls. The Skrulls then began to lay waste to the planet. The Infant Terrible's family then spirited him away in a ship to Earth to get the help of the Fantastic Four. Reed tells the group that the Infant Terrible's homeworld is located in the Andromeda galaxy home of the once great Skrull empire. Reed explains that the Skrulls have been in a state of civil war ever since Galactus consumed the Skrull throne world. Agreeing to help, the Fantastic Four recover the alien's ship to go into space.

Light years away, an obese Skrull woman with aspirations to rule the empire asks her minions what is taking so long to finish the plan to destroy the Fantastic Four. When they detect the alien ship approaching she orders her men to get into place. They rush outside using their shapeshifting powers to disguise themselves as members of the Infant Terrible's race. When the ship lands, the "parents" of the Infant Terrible inform the Fantastic Four that they are to meet with the council elders. When Reed suddenly disagrees and tries to rush the aliens, they blow their cover and blast "Reed", who turns out to be a Skrull as well. As the Fantastic Four battle the Skrulls outside, the real Reed Richards -- inside the phony Infant Terrible's armor -- gets the drop on the Skrulls corpulent leader. Reed explains that he easily deduced the ruse and then hypnotized the Skrull leading them into the trap to assume his form so they could spring a trap of their own. Defeated, the female Skrull tells Reed that their race is doomed as well.

Investigating this, the Fantastic Four take their Skrull attackers prisoner and commander a ship. They take it out to a long-abandoned Skrull satellite that was once used to power the Super-Skrull. Forcing their way inside the satellite the find a dying Skrull named Myrn who tells them his colleague Zabyk intends to detonate a Hyper-Wave Bomb to decimate the Skrull empire. Needing to stop this weapon, the Fantastic Four rip their way into the next room where they cross paths with the Avengers. Almost coming to blows out of suspicion of a Skrull trick, the two groups confirm their identities and a fight is avoided. Suddenly, Zabyk contacts them, telling them that they are too late to stop him from activating the Hyper-Wave Bomb. Zabyk explains that the bomb will strip the Skrulls of their ability to shape-shift, only he will retain that ability thanks to the protective suit of armor he is wearing. When Captain Marvel tries to intervene by passing through the computers electronically, she is called back by Captain America.

With no opposition to stop him Zabyk activates the Hyper-Wave Bomb goes off, it causes all the Skrulls gathered to begin to glow and revert to human form. To his horror Zabyk realizes his armor was not enough to keep out the energies of the bomb, trapping him inside his specially constructed suit. With the conflict over, the Skrulls gathered are left to wonder where their society will go next. Soon the Fantastic Four are flying back home, where Reed expresses his hopes can finally become a race of peace.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, She-Hulk), “Alicia Masters”, Edwin Jarvis, Avengers (Wasp, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Hercules, Starfox), Zabyk, Myrn

Continuity Notes

• The events of this story cross over with Avengers Annual #14 where the Avengers learn about the Hyper-Wave Bomb and rush to the satellite to stop it as well.

• One of the Skrulls poses as the Infant Terrible who the Fantastic Four first encountered in Fantastic Four #24.

• The alien race that the Infant Terrible is not identified here. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition #15 names them the Elan.

• The Fantastic Four are staying at Avengers Mansion because their Baxter Building headquarters was destroyed by Kristoff Vernard in Fantastic Four #278.

• This is not really Alicia Masters, but a Skrull spy named Lyja, as revealed in Fantastic Four #358. She secretly replaced Alicia during the events of Fantastic Four #265.

• "Alicia" mentions Johnny's recent troubles. She is mentioning the brief moment where he considered quitting the Fantastic Four after learning that his fan Tommy Hanson burned himself to death trying to imitate Johnny's powers in Fantastic Four #285.

• Johnny tries to muster up the guts to ask "Alicia" to marry him. He doesn't get the chance until Fantastic Four #297, the couple finally gets married in Fantastic Four #300. This is not the real Alicia Masters, but a Skrull impostor — ironically enough — see Fantastic Four #358.

• Although the destruction of the Elan homeworld is part of the Skrulls trick, Power Pack #59 reveals that the Skrulls or some other race wiped out the majority of the Elan. The Infant Terrible apparently being the only survivor.

• The Fantastic Four mention the destruction of the Skrull throne world, this happened at the hands of Galactus in Fantastic Four #257.

• Reed used hypnosis on the Skrull trying to lure them in a trap, Reed learned that the Skrulls were susceptible to hypnosis during the groups first encounter with them in Fantastic Four #2, where he convinced a trio of Skrulls to change into cows.

• Although most of the Skrulls close to the Hyper-Wave Bomb explosion were forced to revert back to their natural forms, it appears that not all of them were forced back to their normal form, others further away were trapped in the forms they were in at the time the bomb went off, as seen in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #6. The Skrulls begin slowly restoring their shapeshifting abilities following the events of Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #27. This also goes to explain how Lyja wasn't exposed as a Skrull either. It's interesting to note that the Skrulls regained their shape-shifting power in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #27 by being physically touched by their then empress S'Byll. How other Skrulls managed to regain these abilities outside of this physical contact is never really explained.