Skrull's Best Friend?!?

Of important note to xenoanthropologists:

No, no, you're not looking at the right place!


I mean, I get why you're distracted. That's gorgeous Gene Colan art there!

And it's fun to see Roy Thomas planting the seeds for the Kree/Skrull War, years before he even knew that's what he was dong.

No, look more closely:

Still don't see it? OK, zoom in one more time, Cambot!

The emperor of the Skrull Empire has a robot dog!!

Now, if you think about it, that makes a lot of sense. In a society where any organic being could be another Skrull in disguise, real live pets could be very dangerous. That harmless dog could actually be a spy or a thief or an assassin!! So, if you have to have a pet, mechanical is the way to go!!

[A fair question, of course, is if a Skrull can "see" or somehow detect a "disguised" Skrull in their presence. Can they be fooled by their fellow shape-shifters? Has this been answered anywhere???]

Regardless, even Skrull princesses love their mechanical dogs!

From Marvel's Space-Born Superhero! Captain Marvel #2 (1968)

Manic Monday Bonus--The Best Argument In Favor Of Comic Books EVER!!

The Skrulls are wanting to invade Earth.

But first they have to eliminate the possible threat from the Fantastic Four. So they pose as the FF, cause a bunch of havoc, and get our heroes hunted by the authorities.

Fortunately, Reed and company beat the imposter Skrulls, and decide to pose as the Skrulls who were posing as them, to get their masters to call of their invasion. How?!?

And here's John Byrne's version of that same encounter...

See, they're not dumb--Skrulls just have bad eyes that don't let them differentiate between comic book art and photographs!!

Of course, with the sliding timescale, now Reed wouldn't have any monster anthology magazines to show the Skrulls. Maybe he could have just shown them 90s Image books--that would have scared off anyone!!

From Fantastic Four #2 (1962) and Fantastic Four Annual #17 (1983)

And Then There Was That Time Galactus Ate Krypton...!

A mild-mannered reporter with amazing powers has shown up at the Daily Bugle, and asked Spider-Man to tutor him in the ways of being a super-hero.

But Pete's a bit suspicious, and has Reed investigate "Virtue's" origin...

Well, no wonder nobody trusts Kal-El these days...I guss we'd better take all the extra-terrestrial infants sent to Earth and drown 'em or something...

From Marvel Knights Spider-Man #16 (2005)

Friday Night Fights--Keep Your Eye On The Foot Style!!

It's the Big Money Prize Fight for this version of Friday Night Fights, and we're going to see a bad guy who never saw it coming!

A squirrely Skrull has captured Ben, Johnny and Sue, so he can force Reed to give him a new invention that has the ability to make the Skrulls the supreme force in the galaxy!!

The dude has Mister Fantastic completely helpless!

Or does he...?

SPOOM!!!!

Spacebooger wonders why Skrulls are always so dumb...

The Skrull gets taken out by the long foot of the law in Fantastic Four Annual #15 (1980), by Doug Moench, George Perez (breakdowns), and Chic Stone & John D'Agostino & Mike Esposito (finishes...just don't ask which one did these pages, because I don't know!!)

Now is the time for you to vote for my fight. Why? Ah, no reason. Just go and vote!!

11 Reasons Fantastic Four #250 Rocks Pretty Hard

Yesterday we took our Friday Night Fight from Fantastic Four #250 (1983), and I was reminded why this was one of my favorite comic books ever. To wit:

#1--Spidey finding mysterious "blue tubing" strewn across NY rooftops:

#2--John Byrne taking time for homages:

#3--Something for the ladies:

#4--Skrull-Storm kicking Gladiator's butt--painfully:


#5--Skrull-Nightcrawler kicking Spider-Man's butt...

#6--...until:



#7--Skrull-Storm and Skrull-Angel kicking Gladiator's butt some more:

#8--Skrull Angel kicking Johnny Storm's butt:

#9--Benjamin J. Grimm putting a stop to Skrull-Colossus:


#10--The Human Torch putting a stop to Skrull-Storm and Skrull-Angel:



#11--The punchline:
They don't make anniversary issues like this anymore...

Friday Night Fights--Mind Over Matter Style!!

Last week, we saw the Hulk kicking Gladiator's tushie all over the landscape. Well, the rules of this bout of Friday Night Fights--REPEAT--REHASH--REVENGE require me to re-use one of those two this week.

So, let's travel back in time, to an earlier Gladiator appearance. He's been chasing a band of Skrulls to Earth, and thanks to their skullduggery (Skrullduggery??), he's a might bit confused, and believes that the Fantastic Four are all Skrulls.

Gladiator whoops their butts pretty good, and goes on to get into a tussle with the X-Men, Spider-Man and Captain America (SPOILER ALERT: The X-Men are really the Skrulls!).

While that's going on, Reed has begun to piece together some clues about Gladiator's seemingly unstoppable powers:





So, when things are at their most dire, Reed decides to go strechy-mano-a-mano with Gladiator:




What...??




BAM!!!

And now, of course, it's time for the explanation of how Reed could take on Gladiator. Answer?


D'oh!! It was really Captain America!!


See, you thought it was Reed vs. Gladiator, didn't you? Didn't you?? Pwned!! Spacebooger probably saw through my charade, though...

This was back in Fantastic Four #250 (1983), by John Byrne, John Byrne and John Byrne. And I'm like to note this: remember how everyone thought it was so cool when Mark Waid posited a psionic rationale for all of Plutonian's powers in Irredeemable? Byrne was there first, 28 years earlier, using Marvel's Superman analogue Gladiator to explain how pre-Crisis Kal-El's powers must have "really" worked. I'm just sayin.'

You certainly don't have to vote for my fight this week. But think about this: I just showed you how Reed Richards could beat Superman using only his mind (with a little help from Cap & Sue). Who else gives you that? S0 go vote!