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Boss Barker was one of the Skrulls who lived on Kral IV, a colony whose population had chosen to pattern their culture after that of Earth in the 1930s. Barker led one of the prominent gangs and regularly bought slaves to fight as gladiators for him in the Great Games, battles to the death that would decide who controlled the various territories. Foremost among his rival gangs was that led by Lippy Louie.[1]

Eventually, Barker and Louie began a gang war over who would control both of their territories. Since the gang war would be decided by the Great Games and Louie's fighter was Torgo from Maarin, who had never been defeated, Barker was willing to pay the Slave-Master the exceptionally high price of ten perfect Power Stones in order to acquire Ben Grimm (a.k.a. The Thing) from Earth to be his fighting slave. Once Grimm had been captured and brought to Kral, Barker came to the spaceport to confirm his arrival but only paid the dealer one Power Stone at that time, stating that the dealer would get the rest once his slave had been trained and was in the arena.[1]

Once it had been announced that the Great Games were starting, Barker and two associates left his headquarters just seconds before it was destroyed by an explosion. Barker took the fact that Lourie had booby-trapped the room as proof that he was scared and feared that Torgo might not be able to defeat the Thing. Barker was then driven to the movie palace where he encountered Louie. The two of them then joined the other top territorial leaders of the area to watch the slaves fight to the death in the Games.[2]

Barker and Louie were in the stands watching as Torgo and the Thing began their battle. Torgo hurled a spherical weapon at the Thing who, unaware that it was a bomb, crushed it in his hand, setting it off. As Torgo moved in for the kill, Barker protested that it wasn't fair because the Thing wasn't being beaten by Torgo since he had exploded the bomb himself. While the audience discussed the matter, the Thing managed to deliver powerful punch that knocked Torgo away from him, and Louie called that a foul because the Thing had struck while they had been debating the rules. A rule decision declared that that battle was voided and that the combatants would stand by to continue with new weapons. During this second battle, there was a moment when the Thing could have killed Torgo but chose not to do so. As a result, Torgo soon managed to turn the tables on his foe, causing Barker to again protest that it was not fair and that it didn't count because the Earthling had had no knowledge of the Skrull weapon. However, Torgo then refused to murder someone who had shown him mercy. Angered by this defiance, the Skrulls prepared to destroy both of their home planets but were prevented from doing so by the arrival of Crystal, one of three of the Thing's Fantastic Four teammates who had come to Kral IV to rescue their kidnapped friend, who hurled shock waves that destroyed the Sonic Disruptor, the weapon that the Skrulls had threatened to use to destroy the home planets of any slaves who refused to obey them. With their home planets now safe, Torgo freed the other enslaved gladiators and led a rebellion against their Skrull masters.[3]

Boss Barker was believed to have been killed by Torgo during the revolt but he actually survived by using his shape-changing powers to imitate a corpse. Barker swore to pay both Torgo and the Thing back for wrecking his set-up.[4]

A few years later, Barker put his revenge plot in motion, first by capturing Torgo and cutting off his head. Barker then traveled to New York City where he began attacking the Thing, first by making a threatening phone call to the Thing while he was out having dinner with Alicia Masters, and then with a drive-by shooting outside the restaurant. The Thing wasn't actually hurt by the gunfire but his pursuit of the sedan led to him getting dumped in the river and nearly drowning. However, Grimm's friend, the Kree Captain Marvel, pulled him to safety and offered his aid. After the Thing and Mar-Vell relocated to an abandoned tenement, Barker waited until Mar-Vell was alone and then, disguised as the Thing, confronted the Kree. Although Mar-Vell's cosmic awareness let him know that this Thing was an imposter, Barker was able to subdue him. Then, as Barker, he confronted the Thing in the street. After revealing how he had survived and tossing Torgo's head to the Thing, Barker had his sedan's headlights fire brain-blast rays that knocked the Thing out. When Grimm regained consciousness, he was elsewhere, chained to a wall and about to be executed by five "Bowery Boys" androids armed with Skrull weapons. Captain Marvel arrived before the execution could be carried out and he dealt with some of the androids until the Thing freed himself and finished the last of them. Facing his two foes, Barker used a remote control to cause his starship to phase out of sub-space between them. With all of the starship's weaponry locked in on the two heroes, they were helpless before Barker who gloated about how it had a dozen systems that could kill them instantly. However, before Barker could activate any of them, a parcel that Mar-vell had brought with him burned away its wrappings, revealing that it was Torgo's still-living head. Unwilling to let Barker kill anyone, Torgo's head fired an energy beam at and through Barker. Fatally wounded, Barker lost control of his shape-shifting powers and reverted to his Skrull form before dying. Although the Thing discovered that Torgo's last act had drained his head of all its power, Captain Marvel said that he could program the Skrull starship to return Torgo to his home planet of Mekka to be repaired.[4]

Attributes

Powers

  • Skrull Shape-Shifting: Like other Skrulls, Barker was a shape-shifter. He could mentally cause the unstable molecules that comprised his body to become pliant, enabling him to assume other forms through muscular expansion and contraction. Once a new shape had been assumed, it took a conscious act of will to assume another form or revert to natural. Hence, Skrulls do not spontaneously lose their assumed form when asleep or unconscious. Skrulls in altered form will, however, revert to their original forms at the moment of death.

Abilities

  • Skrull Military Training: is a trained Skrull soldier.
    • Aviation: is trained in the use of the advanced warp-drive starships of the Skrull-military.
    • Unarmed Combat: is trained in the unarmed combat of the Skrull-military.
    • Marksmanship: is trained in the use of the ranged energy-weaponry of the Skrull-military.

Weaknesses

  • Skrull Shape-Shifting: Skrulls only take on the appearance of an object or person and none of that object or person’s characteristics. There is a limit to the size of the object or person a Skrull can imitate. The average Skrull cannot distend his or her mass any more than 1.5 times as large a volume as his or her original volume, nor can he or she contract his or her mass any more than 0.75 a volume as his or her original.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

  • Skrull-Military Uniform: wears a Skrull-military uniform, which alters as he changes shape and size.

Weapons

  • Skrull-Military Weaponry: will frequently use the ranged energy-weaponry of the Skrull-military.

Transportation

  • Skrull-Military Transport: will frequently use the advanced warp-drive starships of the Skrull-military.

Notes

  • When it was stated that "Boss Barker's boys" were among the ten thousand Skrulls who had survived when the sun of the Kral system was made to go nova, that term was actually referencing his henchmen instead of male children that he may or may not have sired.

See Also

Links and References

References

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