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in: Comics, Fantastic Four Annual Vol 1, Kerry Gammill/Cover Artist,
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Fantastic Four Annual Vol 1 19

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What is it? Another autograph? Ahh well ... the price of fame...

—Johnny Storm

Appearing in "Summons from the Stars"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Skrull Empire
    • "Infant Terrible" imposter (Unnamed) (First appearance; dies)
    • obese female governor (Unnamed) (First appearance)
    • ⏴ Zabyk
    • ⏴ Myrn (Death)

Other Characters:

Races and Species:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

  • Elan starship (disguised Skrull starship)
  • Fantastic Four Sky-Cycle
  • Skrull Star Cruiser

Synopsis for "Summons from the Stars"

An alien ship crash-lands into the waters outside of New York City, its sole occupant emerges on the New York City docks and approaches a homeless man. The man is frightened by the alien's space-suit and he flees. When a car almost runs over the alien, a force field protects it, damaging the car and sending the occupant fleeing for help. Suddenly, the police arrive and when they order the alien to stand down, it uses its powers to uproot the ground and then create a massive green robot. When one of the officers shoots at the robot, it multiplies every time a bullet hits it. One of the officers on the scene recognizes the way the robot looks and tells the other officers to stand down while he places a call to the only people who can help...

The phone call reaches Avengers Mansion where the Fantastic Four have been staying since the destruction of their headquarters. When the call is answered by Jarvis, the Fantasti-Flare is shot into the night sky. Not far away, Johnny Storm is on his date with Alicia Masters and he is trying to muster up the courage to ask her to marry him when suddenly he is informed of the flare by one of the staff. With no other choice, Johnny flames on and flies toward Avengers Mansion. On the way, he runs into the rest of the team and he is filled in on what's going on along the way to the docks. When the Fantastic Four arrives, Reed approaches the alien alone, gently talking to it. When the alien being calls up an image of Reed in his old costume, it confirms Reed's suspicions. The alien unmasks, revealing itself as the creature the FF once called the Infant Terrible.

When they ask the alien what it is doing back on Earth, it calls up images that show the Skrulls coming to his world to try and exploit the reality-altering powers of his race. Unfamiliar with war, the Elan use their powers to amuse themselves, angering the Skrulls. The Skrulls then began to lay waste to the planet. The Infant Terrible's family then spirited him away in a ship to Earth to get the help of the Fantastic Four. Reed tells the group that the government of the Skrull Empire in the Andromeda Galaxy had shattered after their Throneworld was destroyed by Galactus, triggering a galaxy-wide civil war. The planet of the Elan in the Beta Scorpi sector of the Milky Way Galaxy had become caught up in the war since there were at least three Skrull outposts in relatively close proximity. Agreeing to help, the Fantastic Four recover the alien's ship to go into space.

Light-years away, an obese Skrull woman with aspirations to rule the empire asks her minions what is taking so long to finish the plan to destroy the Fantastic Four. When they detect the alien ship approaching, she orders her men to get into place. They rush outside using their shapeshifting powers to disguise themselves as members of the Infant Terrible's Elan race. When the ship lands, the "parents" of the Infant Terrible inform the Fantastic Four that they are to meet with the council elders. When Reed suddenly disagrees and tries to rush the aliens, they blow their cover and blast "Reed" who, in death, reverts to his true form as a Skrull. As the Fantastic Four battle the Skrulls outside, the real Reed Richards -- inside the phony Infant Terrible's space-suit -- gets the drop on the Skrulls corpulent leader. Reed explains that he easily deduced the ruse and then hypnotized the Skrull leading them into the trap to assume his form so they could spring a trap of their own. Defeated, the female Skrull tells Reed that their race is doomed as well.

Investigating this, the Fantastic Four take their Skrull attackers prisoner and commander a ship. They take it to a long-abandoned Skrull satellite in the Andromeda Galaxy that was once used to power the Super-Skrull. Forcing their way inside the satellite, they find a dying Skrull named Myrn who tells them his colleague Zabyk intends to detonate a Hyper-Wave Bomb to decimate the Skrull empire. Needing to stop this weapon, the Fantastic Four rip their way into the next room where they cross paths with the Avengers. Almost coming to blows out of suspicion of a Skrull trick, the two groups confirm their identities and a fight is avoided. Suddenly, Zabyk contacts them, telling them that they are too late to stop him from activating the Hyper-Wave Bomb that will make him master of the universe. When Captain America orders Captain Marvel to burn out the machine, Mister Fantastic tries to tell her to stop. Although his warning came too late, she exits it a split-second later. As she later explains, what she saw inside the hyperwave generator made her realize that stopping it would have ripped the dimensional interface apart, so she did nothing.

With no opposition to stop him, Zabyk activates the Hyper-Wave Bomb which then goes off. The waves of energy it emits cause all the Skrulls on the power station to briefly glow, including, to his horror, Zabyk, who had thought that the armor he was wearing would shield him. In the aftermath, Prince Dezan states that the effect of the bombardment felt much like that of the Inhibitor Mask, and Reed confirms that, before dying, Myrn had told him that the "bomb" was meant to stabilize the Deviant genetic code of all Skrulls everywhere, trapping them forever in the forms they were in when the bomb went off. This includes Zabyk, who is now trapped inside his specially constructed suit.

With the conflict over, the Skrulls are left to wonder where their society will go next. Soon, the Fantastic Four are flying back home, with Reed expressing his hopes that, with Prince Dezan in charge, the energies of the Skrulls can be re-directed so their menace will finally be ended.

Notes

Continuity Notes[]

  • The events of this story cross over with Avengers Annual #14 where the Avengers learn about the Hyper-Wave Bomb and rush to the satellite to stop it as well.
  • One of the Skrulls poses as the Infant Terrible who the Fantastic Four first encountered in Fantastic Four #24.
  • The name of the Infant Terrible's alien race is mentioned as being the Elan. This is the first in-story use of that name since it was created for that race's entry in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #3.
  • The Fantastic Four are staying at Avengers Mansion because their Baxter Building headquarters was destroyed by Kristoff Vernard in Fantastic Four #278.
  • Jarvis appears here between Avengers #259 and Secret Wars II #3.
  • This is not really Alicia Masters, but a Skrull spy named Lyja, as revealed in Fantastic Four #358. She secretly replaced Alicia during the events of Fantastic Four #265.
  • "Alicia" mentions Johnny's recent troubles. This was written as a reference to the brief moment where he considered quitting the Fantastic Four after learning that his fan Tommy Hanson burned himself to death trying to imitate Johnny's powers in Fantastic Four #285. However, since the events of this annual must take place before that issue, it has been concluded that she must have been referring to something else.
  • Johnny tries to muster up the guts to ask "Alicia" to marry him. He doesn't get the chance until Fantastic Four #297, the couple finally get married in Fantastic Four #300.
  • The idea that the Elan homeworld had been destroyed by the Skrulls was just part of their deception. Power Pack #59 only revealed that the parents of the Infant Terrible were dead; nothing was stated about the rest of his race. Silver Surfer (Vol. 8) #1 confirmed that the planet Elanis had not been destroyed and its people were still alive.
  • The "memory projection" that the Infant Terrible imposter used to show the Fantastic Four what had supposedly happened on the Elan homeworld was actually just a hologram showing totally fictitious events. This makes those events an illusion instead of a flashback.
  • The Fantastic Four mention the destruction of the Skrull throneworld; this happened at the hands of Galactus in Fantastic Four #257.
  • Reed used hypnosis on the Skrull trying to lure them in a trap, Reed learned that the Skrulls were susceptible to hypnosis during the groups first encounter with them in Fantastic Four #2, where he convinced a trio of Skrulls to change into cows.
  • The Hyper-Wave Bomb explosion affected all Skrulls by trapping them in whatever form they were in when the bomb went off, as seen in Silver Surfer (Vol. 3) #6. Prince Dezan returned to his true-form because he willed himself to do so just as the bombardment began.
    • The Skrulls kept the loss of their shapeshifting a secret, committing suicide when captured, but the Supreme Intelligence deduced what happened to the Kree's greatest enemy in Silver Surfer (Vol. 3) #4.
    • The Skrulls begin slowly restoring their shapeshifting abilities following the events of Silver Surfer (Vol. 3) #27. It's interesting to note that the Skrulls regained their shape-shifting power in that issue by being physically touched by their then-empress S'Byll. How other Skrulls managed to regain these abilities outside of this physical contact has never been explained.

Trivia

  • The covers of this annual and Avengers Annual #14 show the same scene (the surprise meeting of the Fantastic Four with the Avengers aboard the Skrull satellite) but from the point of view of the team whose annual it is.
  • Eight pages of John Byrne's pencils or breakdowns are shared between the two annuals but with inks, lettering, and colors completed by the separate annual's own creative team.

See Also

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References

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