Customer Reviews

Skrull Kill Krew

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

 

 

This book is a true 90s book. A color pallet that looks like Easter on steroids, horrible breakdowns that have no flow, hyper imagesque poses and flat dialog. That said, if your reading this because you're a fan of Morrison or Millar, then you're in for a treat!

I love both of them and you can see their parts of this stream of consciousness script battling for supremacy. Grant Morrison's constant use of virus and infection as metaphor for enlightenment and Millar's love of blockbuster Michael-Bay-style-action are actually a good pairing here. Since they both have that cynical opinion of America they can riff pretty well back and forth. Whether it's making fun of America's hamburger consumption or Captain America, they hit the mark pretty humorously.

I think were this book made today, it would have been quite an interesting piece of satire, but Yoewell's art is flat and the writers' seemed rather rushed.

Back in the mid-90's, Marvel released this mini-series that was actually a pretty edgy book for having the Comics Code Approval stamped on the covers. The great Grant Morrison (New X-Men, JLA, Doom Patrol, Invisibles; you know the list) teamed up with a pre-fame Mark Millar (The Ultimates, Civil War) to tell this frenzied and surprisingly violent tale. Skrull Kill Krew revolves around a gang of inadvertantly super powered youths who go on a killing spree. Their targets: undercover alien Skrull agents in human disguise. Though it is far from the best material you'll ever come across from either writer, Skrull Kill Krew features enough popping ideas to make any fan of either writer happy. The dialogue may reek of the 90's, and the characterizations (particularly of Krew leader Ryder) may be a bit on the stale side, but there's enough good here to outweigh the bad. Steve Yeowell's pencil work isn't anything spectacular, but it's suitable enough. With appearances from Captain America, Nick Fury, and a Skrull-impersonating Fantastic Four, Skrull Kill Krew is an overlooked and nice and neat little treat.

sorry, guys, but you just didn't hit it with this one. and the art ain't all that great, either. plus, the reprint itself is on cheap stock. so, in all, a poor package...

Skrull Kill Krew kicks off with a shotgun blast straight to the face of the ever-loving image Marvel has maintained since the 1960s. In a flash, the overall bright and well-framed Marvel tradition is turned on its head, with an amorality fit for the graphic mainstream comics coming out today. Unfortunately, the momentum and power of the first issue [which basically sums up the premise: a makeshift crew of soon-to-be-dead mutated humans are out for revenge killing Skrulls] doesn't last and there are three issues of your standard Marvel bologna that fold under the weight of the strong beginning. At this point the main plot goes untouched while the SKK meander with Captain America and the unFantastic Four. The final issue takes the story back to what you paid to see, Skrulls getting smashed. Then another problem comes with the ending, which has no closure and is borderline cliffhanger. This series could have easily ran for 12 issues instead of 5.

Like the uneven issues, the writing of SSK is a mixed bag. The plots, characterization, and especially the underlying ambiguous themes are all very well written and paced nicely. However, the actual text sometimes just barely scrapes the low levels of a c-list comic book writer (IMO, Mark Millar in general fluctuates between the b-list & c-list, with most time in c [Morrison: a-list always]).

One interesting thing which wasn't really exploited in the plot was the barely visible social commentary. SSK delves into two similar but opposing ideologies, communism and fascism. The Skrulls represent communism seen through the eyes of 1950s McCarthyan America, while the SSK represent fascism from the eyes of a fascist. The Skrulls are seen as an abominable race of vile, evil, infiltrative, would-be conquerors who need to be eliminated. The SSK are a uniform gestapo, reaping righteous brutality upon the face of a foreign race. Anarchy, hip-culture, and thirst for revenge are also added to the SKK's fascist framework. Its too bad this subject wasn't expressed further.

Overall, this story was pretty good, but not essential. It falls low on Morrison's best to worst list. For Millar, its far below his best (Ultimates, Superman: Red Son), and just above something like Civil War.

writing: [7/10]
art: [7.5/10]

It was a fun book, I liked it. I didn't LOVE-LOVE it, but I definently strongly liked it. Glad I read it. Neither the art nor the writer were disapointing.