Customer Reviews

Avengers: The Kree-Skrull War

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I became a Marvel zombie in the mid-70's. While I had heard of the Kree-Skrull War many times in the following years, I never had the opportunity to read the epic story that had been originally printed in Avengers #89-97. When Marvel announced some months ago that they were finally going to collect these issues in a trade paperback I pre-ordered the book right away.

Like many 60's and 70's comic book stories, this one's fairly dated. The concerns of the age show through and the overwhelming use of "pseudoscience" by writer Roy Thomas can sometimes be a bit much to take. But all in all, this epic lives up to its billing. It's a starspanning adventure featuring dozens of characters and events that affected the Marvel Universe to this day.

Captain Marvel, the Super Skrull, the Supreme Intelligence, Ronan the Accuser, Rick Jones and many other supporting characters bring this tale to life along with the regular cast members, Captain America, Iron Man, the Vision, Scarlet Witch, Goliath, Quicksilver and Thor. Praise be to editor Tom Brevoort for keeping the original coloring. While it ain't beautiful like the computer-aided coloring that appears in today's comics, it IS part of the original comics and I'm glad they kept it pure.

The Neal Adams-drawn issues of the series are by far the best (#93-96), but the Buscema brothers (Sal and John) fill out the series admirably.

Avengers: Kree Skrull War makes a fine addition to any comic fan's bookshelf.

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.

With the exception of the much more recent "Avengers Forever" by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco, this yarn is the pinnacle of Avengers "big" storylines. Marvel's most popular -- and infamous -- interstellar races, the Kree and the Skrulls, are going at it yet again, and this time Earth is caught square in the middle (literally -- it's at the midway point between both empires, although astronomy buffs know this is actually silly!)

The Kree Supreme Intelligence, even though a captive of the malevolent Kree Ronan the Accuser, has used his mental might to maneuver one Rick Jones into his possession. He unlocks Jones' "Destiny Force" (whose effects are played to much greater detail in "Avengers Forever") to ultimately quell the cosmic war and become the rightful Kree ruler again.

Featuring guest stars out the wazoo (Captain Marvel, The Inhumans, Super Skrull), this compilation also showcases one of the greatest artists of all time, Neal Adams, as well as one of the premier scripters, Roy Thomas. This is easily in the top three Avengers stories of all time, if not THE best.

If the great cover of this book doesn't grab you, then the story will!

Roy Thomas, one of Marvel's best writers ever & arguably most famed for his superlative Conan series, produces the best story in the Avengers' long run, as they battle far from Earth in the Kree-Skrull war.

The Kree, first seen as would be invaders of Earth in Marvel's Captain Marvel (not Shazam's good Captain - lately - from DC)book are facing off against their bitter enemies the Skrull, from all the way back in # 2 of the Fantastic Four. I bought the latter when it first came out (yeah, OK, I'm really old!) and also bought the original run of Captain Marvel. Even at that age I recall being interested in the FF book, being intrigued to buy a book featuring such odd looking heros after getting into comics through DC's clean cut stars. Even at that age I recall wondering what had happened to the 4th Skrull after seeing the other 3 of their expeditionary force in the last panel of the FF's book. (I don't want to go on as I might give away some of the Avenger's story here).

Well, Roy uses this small slip on Stan Lee's/Jack Kirby's part as a way to springboard this story into sending the Avenger's across the galaxy to intervene in a war that threaten's our planet too, as well as clear their name as it is besmirched by a politician bent on office through dragging their reputation through the mud.

I can't recommend this book enough. Others may feel the more recent Avengers Forever mini series is the best Avengers story arc ever. My money's on this one!!! Buy it, you won't be disapointed!

I've been waiting for Marvel to get around putting this into book form for longer than I dare admit to! Unfortunately memory didn't serve me quite as well in remembering the epic itself. What I had remembered as a 5 star feast turns out not to be quite as good as that. However it is still well worth the buying if only for the Neal Adams artwork (esp. Ant Man's Fantastic Voyage through the Vision's body), but be warned not all the art is by Neal and the epic does suffer from having Sal Buscema artwork for a good half of the story.

Marvel is starting to release bound volumes of their classic issues. Neal Adam's artwork is stellar, however his interpretation of the Thing is somewhat lacking. This is a great story, marred only by the issues that Adams did not pencil. This is a perfect companion to the Avengers: The Celestial Madonna volume just released. If you like the Avengers now, you would have liked them then. No angst, no beserkers, minimal teen presence; just great storytelling and a sense of adventure.

Although one might classify Roy Thomas' work on Conan as his highpoint, this effort is certainly up there. Roy was a master at pulling in loose ends from the past and making a story out of them. In this, he goes back to Fantastic Four #2 which introduced the Skrulls, a shapeshifter race. At the end of that story, the Skrulls are hypnotized into changing into and spending life as cows. Roy notices that although there were four skrulls, the final panel only showed 3 cows. From a small mistake, Thomas crafted an epic. The Avengers are drawn into a war between the Kree and the Skrull in which the missing 4th Skrull plays a major part. Along the way, there are battles with all manner of alien villains, another "breakup" of the Avengers, a hero vs hero battle against the FF, and the search for BlackBolt, king of the Inhumans. The climax is perennial superhero sidekick Rick Jones serving as a conduit for a group of Marvel's original WWII heroes. With art by John Buscema and Neil Adams, this epic is a can't miss for vintage marvel fans.

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.

The art of Neal Adams takes what would otherwise be a mediocre story and gave it some life. The best part of this one is Ant Man's journey through the Vision to repair him. The rest of the saga has the art of John and Sal Buscema. Both are no Neal Adams. However their contribution to the story is very well done; even by today's standards. New Marvel fans should pick this up. It stands the test of time. A true classic in the ranks of Marveldom! It makes me wish that Roy Thomas were still writing for Marvel.

The Avengers Kree/Skrull War at times seemed difficult to follow. A lot went on in these books and ultimately turned out as an optimistic vision of the future. I guess things looked better for the future in 1971 or so. I loved the art even Sal Buscema's issues were good and Neal Adams Is always the right book to read. Rick Jones went on and on. Did people like him that much? The thing I like a lot is that the original Avengers joined in and with Neal Adams art!
Large scale Galactic stories are where the important stuff happens!