The Skrull Incident

 

Hey, looks like the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ show Secret Invasion is bringing the Skrulls back in a big way. What better way to celebrate than to take a look at a part of the MC2’s unexplored history by trying to uncover as much as possible about the mysterious event known as ‘The Skrull Incident’.

 

 

The first (and unless I am mistaken only) mention of ‘The Skrull Incident’ was in A-Next #2, when The Orbital Defense Grid detects the approach of a Kree spacecraft and fires upon it, resulting in the craft splitting into two before crashing into the Washington National Park. With the newly formed new Avengers team called in to investigate by Bill Foster, we learn a little history behind the Orbital Defense Grid when Mainframe off-handedly mentions to Thunderstrike that the Grid was erected years prior when the government was convinced by the events of the last known alien invasion, which he identifies only as 'The Skrull Incident'.

 

A collection of satellites positioned in orbit around the planet Earth, the Orbital Defense Grid comes equipped with long-range sensory instrumentation and offensive weaponry capabilities allowing it to detect and destroy incoming space debris, extraterrestrial spacecraft, and various other threats to the planet from outer space (A-Next #2, Spider-Girl #34, #46, #86). We also learn in Last Planet Standing #2 that Reed Richards helped design the Orbital Defense Grid.

 

Circling back to the Skrulls, we learn in Spider-Girl #3 that Lyja is married to Johnny Storm and in Fantastic Five (vol. 1) #2 we are first introduced to the couple's son, Torus Storm, a Human/Skrull hybrid. Torus possesses both his mother's Skrullian ability to shape-shift and his father's pyrogenic powers. Despite his (very) young age, Torus often attempts to aid his family in battle by altering his form into that of a muscular adult male while utilizing his flame-blasts.

 

Here's where we connect some dots from prior exploratory posts and add some speculation. As I mentioned in the History of the MC2: The Fantastic Four post approximately five or so years prior to the events of Fantastic Five Vol. 1 #1, the Fantastic Four prepared to battle Hyperstorm, a cosmically powered warlord from an alternate future who had built a doomsday weapon in the Negative Zone (Fantastic Five Vol. 1 #4, Spider-Girl #87). Lyja was pregnant at this time and did not join the team on their mission (Fantastic Five Vol. 1 #4). 

 

Presumably, Lyja Storm is heavily pregnant with none other than Torus in the scenes depicting the Fantastic Four preparing to leave for the mission. Now this is significant because as I mention above, we know this mission was only ‘five or so years’ prior to the MC2’s present day. So, as I calculated in the How old is Torus Storm post, Lyja and Johnny’s son Torus is only around 5 or 6 years old.

 

From the book Comic Creators on Fantastic Four by Tom Defalco, we got this comment from Fantastic Four and Fantastic Five artist Paul Ryan:

Tom Defalco: You felt Johnny and Lyja should have actually had a baby, right? Do you want to explain why?

Paul Ryan: I thought it would have been a new dynamic for Johnny, in that he would have to start facing some grown-up responsibilities. I thought that it could make for an interesting character, too, because the child of a Skrull and a human would be totally unique – and it could lead to some interesting story arcs in which the Skrull Empire wanted to get hold of the child for some reason. We could have done things with the child itself, like accelerated growth rate; maybe the Skrulls mature faster. Also, things could have been very interesting where the child had the ability to face-shift, as well as he cosmic ray-based powers of heat and flame, which is something you experimented with in Fantastic Five. Finally, I thought it might bring Johnny and Lyja closer together, and there could have been some exciting story possibilities there.

 

 

I think the late, great Mr Ryan provides us with a very good explanation for why young Torus Storm looks and behaves more like a 10-year-old than a 5-year-old. Skrull hybrids are a rarity, and one that we know little about. But further to this point is Mr Ryan’s comment about the Skrull Empire wanting to get hold of the child.

 

As mentioned earlier, the Orbital Defense Grid was commissioned following the events of the mysterious 'Skrull Incident' (A-Next #2) which was some years prior. This alongside Apox the Omega Skrull's out of date references to heroes such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man strongly suggests the Skrull Empire has not had contact with Earth since - a fact the marvunapp entry for Apox pointed out (Spider-Girl #47). Notably, in both battles with Apox, he refers to the Fantastic Five as ‘the team once known as the Fantastic Four’ and Skrull’s aboard the Skrull Worldship also refer to the team as the Fantastic Five suggesting the Skrull Empire is aware of the change in team name (Spider-Girl #47, Spider-Girl #86-#87).

 

It is also worth pointing out that apart from Apox, no one from the Skrull Empire approached Earth directly, as evident from the Skrull Worldship's position far away from the planet at the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy (Spider-Girl #87-88). It is also suggested that Apox may have attacked the Fantastic Five against orders as a result of his delusion of godhood. While we do not know much about the state of the Skrull Empire, we do know that it is currently led by an Emperor (Spider-Girl #88) who presumably presides over the Skrull High Command (Spider-Girl #86-88) in a regime that Lyja refers to as 'virtual slavery' (Spider-Girl #88).

 

With all these points laid out, I would like to posit a hypothesis. I believe the so-called ‘Skrull Incident’ involved an invasion resulting in a large-scale attack upon Earth with a potential goal or motivation related to Torus Storm and his hybrid Skrull/Human nature. Presumably this occurred around 5 to 6 years prior to the MC2 present-day, either during Lyja’s pregnancy or shortly afterwards, potentially after the team officially rebranded as the Fantastic Five or simply while they operated with additional family members on a regular basis as the F4. Whatever the details, the invaders are defeated and the Skrull Empire seemingly do not attempt further attacks until the present day.

 

 In the aftermath of this Skrull Invasion, the government was convinced to erect The Orbital Defense Grid, possibly due to the security risk shape-shifting imposters pose to world authorities. Reed Richards (through his Big Brain robot proxies if we assume it takes place after his accident) helps to design this Defensive Grid, with long-range sensors that reach nearly to the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. This Grid proves effective in detecting and deterring potential alien invasions and is outfitted with offensive weaponry capable of destroying space debris and other threats.

 

Let me know what you think of this theory, it has been a long time brewing in the ol’ brain pan and involves a variety of different minor points of continuity being put together. Do you agree, disagree, or have a different theory?

 

Until I stop plucking at the various loose threads of the MC2’s untouched history, I remain

 

frogoat

Carlos Pacheco's Influence on the MC2

 

With the recent passing of legendary comic book artist and writer Carlos Pacheco, I wanted to make a small post as tribute. While Carlos never directly worked on an MC2 title, not only has his costume designs influenced the MC2, he has also depicted various MC2 characters as we will soon discuss.  

 

At the very end of Tom Defalco’s run on the Fantastic Four title, regular penciller Paul Ryan was replaced by Carlos Pacheco who closed out the comic’s first volume with its final two issues, #415 and #416, which formed part of the Onslaught crossover. It is in these two issues that the Fantastic Four team’s new costumes debuted. Not only do these costumes make a return later starting with Fantastic Four vol. 3 #12 but they also appear to have strongly influenced the costumes of the MC2’s Fantastic Five team.

 

While the Fantastic Five’s first cameo appearance in What If #105 seems to depict them in the classic F4 costumes, starting with their first full appearance the Fantastic Five’s costumes are Pacheco-inspired (Spider-Girl #3). This is evident from the stylized insignia and the gizmos on the gloves, with penciller Pat Olliffe and colourist Christie Scheele adding their own twists to the design; removing the appearance of boots, changing the belt, and giving the various members different costume colours. The late great Paul Ryan would again tweak this design, making small changes and restoring the classic boots for the team’s own title (Fantastic Five Vol. 1 #1). The Fantastic Five’s costumes would change over time, but their basic design owes much to Mr Pacheco.

 

To round out this post, let us look at the time Carlos pencilled some of the MC2 characters. I have briefly touched on the Avengers Forever series a few times in the past, so you may already be aware that various members of the MC2’s Avengers and one from the Fantastic Five make cameo appearances. In Avengers Forever #11-#12 Mr Pacheco gives us his rendition of American Dream, Freebooter, Coal Tiger, and Kristoff Vernard.

 

I hope it is clear I greatly respect the artistic skills and imagination of Carlos Pacheco. I am deeply saddened by another passing of an extremely talented member of the comics pantheon, we have lost too many already especially lately. Thanks for all the wonder you have added to the world of comics, Mr Pacheco.

 

Until I can better express my condolences, I remain

 

frogoat

MC2: The Lost Issues Part 2

Just a quick entry today, this time continuing to sift through various sources for further information on MC2 comics that never saw the light of day. Previous posts about this topic include Wild Thing #6: The Untold Story and MC2: The Lost Issues.

While reading through Comic Creators on Fantastic Four by Tom Defalco, a book published in 2005 featuring interviews with various writers, artists and other creatives who've contributed to the Fantastic Four through the decades. During an interview with artist Paul Ryan, the Fantastic Five came up:

A few years after you left FF, you were reactivated to do Fantastic Five. How did it feel to be called back into service?

I remember Fantastic Five fondly. I was having problems over at DC at the time, so for somebody to call up and say they actually wanted to use me on something felt good. It made me feel wanted and the idea of doing the next generation of the Fantastic Four appealed to me. It was just kind of exciting to screw up again, so to speak: to see if my FF uniform still fit, When Fantastic Five was cancelled, I had just finished pencilling #6, which was never inked, and I was waiting for a plot for #7. The second issue had just come out.

What do you remember about Fantastic Five? Just that we were finishing up old continuity?

Yeah, there was that. We - I should say the esteemed writer - tied up the loose ends as far as Hyperstorm; what happened to him and so forth. There was a final showdown between Hyperstorm and Franklin. Didn't Reed and Sue suffer some debilitating effect from that battle? I think we found them on a space station somewhere. I still have a great spread which shows the Fantastic Five riding their space scooters to the location. There was a very emotional, very poignant ending to that story, too. Sue was still in suspended animation because nobody could figure a way to bring her out without killing her, and Reed was a mess. I remember that they were gonna turn the ship over to the kids.

It would have ended up being Kristoff, Ben's twins, Franklin and Johnny and Lyja's kid.

Right. We were gonna see that transition over the twelve issues, so that by #12 they would be the new Fantastic Five. I remember that in issue #6 we had the kids facing their baptism of fire. We had costumes for them too. And you brought Alicia back as a new herald for Galactus; I recall that the continuity of the time had Alicia dating the Silver Surfer.

It's honestly fascinating to learn that we would have seen a whole new line-up for the Fantastic Five comprised of the next generation by the end of the series twelfth issue had it not been cancelled prematurely. Despite this idea never seeing print as originally intended, it's worth noting that we do see the concept retooled in both Spider-Girl #86-88 and in the Fantastic Five mini-series years later.

Additionally, while we do eventually see Galactus in the MC2 in the Last Planet Standing mini-series, sadly we never got to see Alicia Masters as his cosmically-powered Herald. Presumably she would have debuted in the aforementioned unpublished Fantastic Five #6 as Paul mentions a 'baptism of fire' for the young heroes. It's so unfortunate that Paul's last completed issue for the series never saw print.

I'll keep my ear to the ground and both eyes open for any more information that might be found about these lost issues.

Until I become a Herald of Galactus, I remain

frogoat

Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection Vol. 1

A few days ago I received my copy of Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 and I'd like to talk about it! I won't be going into too much detail about the stories reprinted in this collection, but it comprises What If #105 (not Spider-Girl #0) and Spider-Girl #1-15 as well as Spider-Girl Annual '99 and Spider-Girl #½.

Read as a whole, the individual issues really flow well together and form an overarching narrative, without feeling like they need to be read one after the other like the standard made-for-trade six issue arcs made commonplace in modern comics. This is most evident in the supporting characters and subplots, which weave through several issues and resolve at their own pace instead of being shoved into a set number of issues. In sharp contrast, it has sadly become standard practice nowadays to simply remove supporting characters and their storylines in favour of superheroes talking to other superheroes.

While I am a big fan of the series and I am admittedly bias about the series quality, I was more than happy to purchase this collection. Why? Because even though I own the individual issues and tracked down all the digests that were released, this will be the first time any issues of the Spider-Girl series have been collected in trade paperback form beyond the initial 8 issues. I consider it a major misstep that Marvel didn't release the series in this format until now; 20 years after the series began publication.

Much of the appeal of this release lies in potentially having the entire series sitting on my bookshelf in all it's glossy-paged glory someday soon. In addition, the last 16 pages are dedicated to various 'extras' such as variant covers, concept art and contemporary promotional materials. The most interesting of these for me was an article from the Marvel Catalog: August 1998. I'd never seen this piece before and found it fascinating to read through the article, which includes an interview with Tom Defalco and mentions the creative teams early plans for the nascent trio of titles that birthed the MC2 imprint.

If I had to make a negative comment, it's that the cover's card stock is rather flimsy when compared to other similar recent Marvel collections. While this doesn't really bother me much, it did mean my copy arrived in the post a little worse for wear, complete with a few marks and bends on the front cover. However, the blame for that surely lies with Amazon's frankly abysmal packaging, which consisted of nothing more than a brown envelop without bubble-wrap. Cheers Amazon!


Until I can gleefully announce the next volume of Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection, I remain

frogoat

MC2: The Lost Issues

While I've briefly touched on the topic before, I think I need to give a bit more attention to those complete (and incomplete) issues of various MC2 titles that never saw the light of day. For today, I'd like to cover the earliest known unpublished issues of titles in the MC2 imprint. Here's what we know:

• Both the Fantastic Five and Wild Thing titles were cancelled prematurely with their fifth issue. 
• Two issues of each title were in various stages of completion at the time of their cancellation.
• There are two pencilled issues of Wild Thing, one of which is already scripted.
• One issue of the Fantastic Five is pencilled, and the other exists as a plot.
• All four issues already had covers produced.
• Editor Mike Marts wished to collect these unpublished issues into a 'monster-size' comic in 2000 but this did not come to fruition due to the sales department vetoing the idea.
• When it was announced that these MC2 titles would be collected in digest form in 2005, there was some hope that the unpublished stories would be included.
• In the event, only one of the aforementioned covers saw print, that of Wild Thing #6 which was presented in the Spider-Girl Presents Wild Thing: Crash Course digest in 2007:

While I was unable to find the original fan interview where most of this was originally confirmed by Tom Defalco, this information was gleaned from a Comic Book Resources article which itself referenced these facts. It can be found here and further information was sourced from here.

 I'm frankly curious why the Fantastic Five digest didn't also feature the cover for it's sixth issue. Perhaps one day these lost stories will see the light of day.


Until I stumble upon these missing stories in the Marvel Vaults, I remain


frogoat

Got Milk?

Recently I've been thinking about well-established artists in the comics industry who's take on the MC2 characters we've yet to see. Then I remembered there are a bunch of artists outside of MC2 mainstays such as the wonderfully talented Ron Frenz, Pat Olliffe, Paul Ryan, Ron Lim or Todd Nauck who've in some way worked on my favourite fictional universe. Every so often I'll try and dedicate a short post to each artist's brief foray into the MC2 Universe.

Adam Kubert

This first example comes from a somewhat odd place. A series of nine trading cards were released as part of the 'Got Milk?' marketing campaign by America's National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board in 1999. They feature milk-moustachioed depictions of Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Venom and Daredevil in addition to the set we are covering here. (Sources are linked here.)

Yes, that's right! We get the obvious set of three MC2 cards featuring next generation characters such as the cast of A-Next, Spider-Girl and....er....Doctor Doom?! What the heck is he doing in there? I can't post this without pointing out the obvious error of Thunderstrike aka Kevin Masterson wielding a hammer. Considering the MC2 imprint was new at the time this was released, I can forgive Adam Kubert's slip-up, especially since it's honestly such a nice piece and I really like his take on the characters, particularly Spider-Girl. Unless I'm mistaken, the colours are by Paul Mounts, who does a great job making those colours pop out at you. I wonder if there exists a version of this artwork without the slogan and milk-moustaches? 

For completeness' sake let's look at the back of the cards, shall we?

I guess that's it for now. Remember to drink your milk, kids, so you grow up big and strong! 

Until I stop trying to find these on eBay, I remain

frogoat