World Famous Comics: Avengers: The Kree/Skrull War
Avengers: The Kree/Skrull War
By: Roy Thomas Publisher: Marvel Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Marvel Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 208 Publication Date: May 21, 2008 Reading Level: Young Adult
Product Description: Back-to-press and fully restored by popular demand! Caught in the crossfire, Earth has become the staging ground for a conflict of star-spanning proportions! For those eternal intergalactic enemies, the merciless Kree and the shape-changing Skrulls, have gone to war, and our planet is situated on the front lines! Can Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers, bring about an end to the fighting before humanity becomes a casualty of war? And what good are even a dozen super-powered champions against the vast military machines of two of the great empires of the cosmos? The key to victory lies with the expatriate Kree Captain Mar-Vell and his human host, honorary Avenger Rick Jones! Featuring the trend-setting artwork of Neal Adams, the Kree/Skrull War is universally acknowledged as one of the finest and most important sagas in the Marvel canon.
A Milestone in Marvel History Worth Revisiting In the aftermath of the Skrulls' "Secret Invasion", the "Kree-Skrull War" bears a second look. Compared to the "Secret Invasion," this book's story is a little compressed--how could a "war" be told in just nine issues? Where are the crossovers and limited series to accompany the event? (Just kidding.) The Fantastic Four, the Inhumans, and Captain Marvel all guest-star here. The dialogue, by Roy Thomas, is dated, but the sense of fun and adventure never gets old. If alien shape-shifters in the form of cattle are shooting lasers at the Avengers and a robot with a crush on a witch sound like cool prospects, then pick up this Marvel milestone.
Graphic SF Reader The Avengers are caught in the middle of two warlike alien races that have been going at it a long time, the Kree, and the shapeshifting Skrulls. Captain Marvel is from the Kree race, so it was almost inevitable that he would become involved. This drags the Avengers in with him, as they realise the conflict could endanger their own planet, as well as others.
Great art, weak story As a kid, I always recognized Neal Adams as "that good drawer." I was immediately drawn to the realism and dramatic flair of his artwork. He really shines in the story in which Ant-Man explores the Vision's inner workings, a la Fantastic Voyage. As good as he is, though, he's only slightly better than John Buscema. JB's work remains very underrated.
Roy Thomas' storytelling...well, it's hard to be kind. It's not just that it sounds dated (the dialog is atrocious), but it doesn't seem that he had a coherent story in mind. It just meanders along.
Get it if you're a fan of the Avengers and Adams and Buscema. Don't expect much from the story, though.
The definition of a superhero epic Before every superhero was at each other's throat, and before the Avengers were disassembled, reassembled, and misassembled; legendary creators Roy Thomas and Neal Adams crafted one of the undoubtedly best stories in the Avengers mythos, and it is the very definition of a superhero epic. The Kree-Skrull War, which the fallout of still echos in Marvel comics to this very day, finds Earth in the crossfire of the interstellar war between the alien races of the Kree and the shape changing Skrulls. Defending the planet, and slowly finding public opinion going against them, are Earth's mightiest heroes, the Avengers. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Vision, the Scarlet Witch, and more alongside Captain Mahr-Vel and Rick Jones among others are all here, and they all leave their mark. Though the dialogue may be dated by today's standards, the Kree-Skrull War is still fun to read today and is one of the best superhero stories ever written. Neal Adams' iconic artwork remains some of the best to ever grace these characters, and it's easy to see why he is still refered to today as being the best artist in the long running history of the Avengers comics. All in all, the Kree-Skrull War is possibly the most essential Avengers story, well, ever; and it deserves to be discovered by generation after generation.
A MILESTONE IN AVENGERS HISTORY In the early 1970's there was perhaps no finer comicbook writer than Roy Thomas and no finer artist than Neal Adams. When the pair teamed up on a run of Avengers from #89 to #97, they created one of the most legendary stories in Avenger's history that continues to be powerful more than 30 years later.
At the start of the story we learn about the alien races of the Kree and Skrulls. The Kree are a paternalistic, arrogant race of highly advanced beings who jump-started the early men who would become the Inhumans and now consider Earth to be a threat to their dominance. The Skrulls are a race of shape-shifters who receive far less respect than the Kree, although they`re really no more evil. The two races hate one another, and each is now under the leadership of an usurper who urges war.
Earth finds itself in the wrong place caught in the middle between the two warring races. And the Avengers are taken to the Andromeda galaxy where they aid their ally, the Kree-born Captain Marvel. This ends up being a story well ahead of it's time. By the time the late 1980's and 90's came around these kind of multi-issue, cosmic reaching storylines were all the norm with thigs like Secret Wars, Infinty Gauntlet, and countless others, but this story took place back in 1971 and 1972. The run would display some classic Neal Adams Covers including #96 with the Vision pummelling an alien nearly to death.
While a bit dated today, particularly in regard to the overly dramatic speech of the characters, it nevertheless was a complex storyline that foreshadowed many storylines 20 years down the road and remains a classic.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
