Ungoliantschilde

Secret Invasion: Captain Marvel TPB [process] (2009)

Art by: Lee Weeks [for pencils and inks] and Matt Milla [for colors]

It’s Mahr Vell. They added the H to make it less of an on-the-nose marketing tool.

And this was a variant for a Secret Invasion tie-in book, Civil War: the Return. It is also one of my least favorite Ed McGuinness covers because it was colored directly from the pencils.

Ed’s artwork is so cartoonishly bombastic that I feel like it actually needs to be Inked in order to Pop the way it should. Some guys need an Inker to clarify their work. Some guys need an Inker to enhance what’s already there. Ed has been inking more of his own work as of late, but this cover was produced while he was transitioning towards his current, better work.

Thought about this a lot. I think that, along with a lot of the villains that debuted in that era, the Skrulls were probably at least partially influenced by the political climate and experiences of the creators.

I think the Skrulls might be partial analogues for the Anti-Communist fervor of their time. They have been occasionally written as having sympathetic qualities over the years, and there are some truly amazing people in their race.

Kl’rt - the Super Skrull, is a man of honor. He fought with distinction in the Annihilation Wars, and he opposed his own leadership when it was wrong. He’s an honorable soldier that tries to do what’s right and obeys his commands only so long as they are honorable. He’s kind of a badass.

Johnny Storm dated Lyja for a while, and she was basically the Human Torch’s exotic green girlfriend. She was kinda cool.

The Skrulls hiding on the Earth that the SkrullKillKrew hunted were essentially deserters. Their empire considered them traitors for not continuously trying to overthrow the Earth by infiltrating and disrupting the leadership.

There are good Skrulls. But they are decidedly the exceptions to the rule. 99% of them think it’s honorable to sneak around and sucker punch people.

Making a nice Skrull is an interesting storytelling point, but they exist to be stock villains and they have repeatedly earned their role. Think of them as outer space Hydra or AIM.

And, like I said before, the Kree are really not much better. The Kree are a lot like the Imperial British. The Inhumans were an experiment the Kree conducted on the Human race in order to create weapons for themselves. Like the Nazis.

Captain Mahr Vel was a renegade from the Kree for refusing to conquer the Earth. Ronan the Accuser in the comics is NOT the Ronan from the Guardians. Ronan is a law officer. Think Judge Dredd for Kree.

There are honorable Kree. Ronan is THE guy you would want watching your back in a fight for your life. But, by and large, the Kree are a warlike and conquest happy race of condescending pricks.

They might be considered commentary on the US Military, with Captain Mahr Vel representing the opposition to the War in Vietnam.

Captain Mahr-Vel, by John Paul Leon.

Marvel’s Illuminati (New Avengers: Illuminati vol.2 #2, 2007)

The six infinity gems call the other gems - the more you have, the easier it becomes to get more - they also enhance the powers of the other gems exponentially. The more you have, the more powerful they become. Having all 6 gives you absolute power, but NOT absolute wisdom. It is kinda like giving the ability to control all of the internets to a 13 year old kid that just read “C++ for Dummies”. In other words, it does not work out very well. In every single infinity stone book, Thanos (usually) gets all 6 stones, and then subconsciously allows them to be taken away. On a deep level, even a being as powerful as Thanos knows that those gems should not be under the complete control of any one being. Notice how Eternity, the Celestials, the Living Tribunal and so forth have NEVER sought out the gems? They’re bad juju.

Black Bolt by Jack Kirby & Stan Lee

Avengers Disassembled (Avengers #500-503)

What an awesome balls-out story. I had no issues with it. Well, She-Hulk ripping the Vision in half was a little tough. Otherwise, nada.

Agreed. And for all those Avengers fans out there: the Avengers was created to be Marvel's Marquee book, along with Spidey, the Hulk, the F4, and the X-Men. Avengers was an original. Bendis might have pissed off old fans, but it cannot be denied that he turned a book that sold in the top 30 every month into a book that sold in the top 3 of every month. Pretty continuously for 10 years.