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The Zn'rx, or Snarks, are an alien race obsessed with stealing super-powers.[4] They look most like bipedal reptilians with a digitigrade leg structure. They are intelligent and have interstellar travel technology.[citation needed] However, they are also a warlike race[4] by tradition (including their wars of succession, or Snarkwar), though some Zn'rx try to break this habit, most notably one of their last emperors, Bhadsha.[citation needed]

The Zn'rx are divided into many clans. Each individual clan is led by a queen, who are all married to The Emperor, who rules over all clans. Upon the death of the Emperor, the clans fight wars against each other; the son of the Queen of the winning clan becomes the next Emperor.[8]

History

Origins[]

The Zn'rx hailed from a distant section of the Milky Way, on the planet known as "Snarkworld", which they shared with the primitive but sentient Burrowers,[1] who lived in Caverns and knew the Zn'rx as the "(mean) Dragons".[7]

Early years[]

The Kymellians knew the Zn'rx as "the oldest enemy".[9]

The Zn'rx violently encountered the Skrulls during a war of succession, centuries ago.[1]

Modern Age[]

Emperor Bhadsha's reign[]

Emperor Bhadhsa, at least partially encouraged by the Kymellian ambassador, his childhood friend Lord Yrik, initiated reform to the successions rules, intended to eventually move from Snark War to single combat between the High Snarks to determine the Snarks' ruler. This was deeply unpopular to some of his people.[1]

Zn'rx commander Kl'rath was one of the most ruthless captains in the Snark Army and attained a high position using that reputation (though attracting powerful enemies). After the Skrull homeworld was destroyed, Kl'rath attacked and wiped out a whole transport full of Deviant Skrulls (mostly children). His enemies had him branded as a war criminal, and sent to the inescapable prison of L'ar Gath Five. Years later, he was killed by Skrull warrior Lyja the Lazerfist.[10]

Queen Maraud discovered a matter/antimatter device in development on Earth. As part of Maraud's schemes to secure her son Jakal's place on the throne, Maraud attempted to steal the matter/antimatter device. She kidnapped inventor James Power, and his wife Margaret. However, the children of James and Margaret received powers from a dying Aelfyre Whitemane and used them to rescue their parents and keep the matter/antimatter device out of Maraud's hands. The kids accidentally destroyed the device in the process but Maraud had continued to harass the kids of Power Pack since, attempting at multiple times to use them during the most recent Snark war of succession, each time without success however.[citation needed] Such attacks included an attempt thwarted with the help of Obnoxio the Clown and Deadpool in his black costume (the Symbiote/symbiote Venom), despite the deployment of the Super-Snark. Defeated into retreat, pursued, they were slaughtered by Deadpool before they could report back to their ruler.[11] With the help of the Burrowers, Jakal and Maraud were eventually defeated;[7] and thanks to Yrik and the Power Pack, Bhadsha's consciousness took over Jakal's body, using it to serve as Emperor. Yrik remained on Snark World, as well as his son Kori,[12] residing among the Ankar Clan,[13] the sole clan Bhadsha fully trusted in his attempts to reform Snark World, and whose High Snark, Prince Sobak, was Bhadsha's choice for his successor (as Bhadsha had no heir of his own) and Kofi's closest friend.[14]

During that period, the Snark Empire seemingly stabilized, and the Snarks seemed to lay low, apart from a group that attacked Rick Jones during an extraterrestrial bidding war to acquire the rights to his memoirs, but were driven off by Jones and his allies.[6]

Emperor Jakal's reign[]

Two years later, as Bhadsha was about to name Sobak his successor,[14] and thanks to Maraud's plots and scientists, Jakal's consciousness gradually resurfaced in his body and eventually repelled Bhadsha's. At that point, he decided to attack his enemies to put back lesser clans in place, and revealed his identity to Ambassador Yrik before imprisoning him. The Kymellian ambassador silenced, Jakal and Maraud moved to subdue the last clans not united to theirs, the Ankar Clan and the Destrak Clan, as well as taking care of Power Pack. Clan Destrak was swiftly destroyed, the High Snark Rungar was killed, but Mother Destrak manage to escape with some guardsmen. At this point Kofi and Sobak escaped Snark World aboard the smartship Data, and set course to Earth to enlist the help of Power Pack, soon realizing that Jakal were already on their way.[12]

On Earth, Jakal's agents were defeated into retreat by Power Pack. Meanwhile, Jakal gathered the Queen Mothers, presenting them as his true self and proclaiming his plans to reaffirm snark dominance across the galaxy, with Ankar as sole protester. The Snarks returned to the Power's house as Kofi and Sobak arrived, followed by the Snarks.[13] After a skirmish, the Snarks were defeated. Power Pack, Sobak, and Kofi returned to Snark World,[14] just at the time the Zn'rx destroyers annihilated the Ankar Bio-Domes. As they fled into the Burrowers' Caverns, they encountered the Burrowers, who helped them enter the palace.[7]

Meanwhile, Queen Destrak freed Yrik,[14] assembled her army, and solicited his support (and consequently Kymellia's) to back her up and enable her to evade the tradition and become the first Empress of Snark World, and the Queen Mothers sent Repra, the Rites Master, to protest the assaults on the Ankar and Destrak. Jakal dismissed but Maraud's intervention caused him to snap out and kill her, witnessed by Repra, but also by Sobak, Destrak, and Power Pack,[7] and immediately losing the support of the Queen Mothers.[1]

As both Mother Destrak and Prince Sobak claimed the throne, Yrik pointed out that neither could bring peace and stability: Sobak could bring peace but lacked a clan to bring stability, while Destrak had the warriors that could ensure it. Julie suggested that instead of a single emperor, the Zn'rx could use a Triumvirate formed of Sobak and Destrak.

Jakal was defeated and taken in custody by Yrik, who supported the Triumvirate idea as a provisional ruling body that would dictate Snark affairs until the matter of ascension could be worked out, proposing Repra as the third member, and going with Repra to present to the Queen Mothers that option, that he believed would be acceptable to them, though Jack was skeptical if it would last, stating Power Pack would fought another Snark War in a year.[7]

The reign of Jakal (described as "hotheaded") was considered in overhaul as disastrous.[2]

Ruling Triumvirate[]

At the time of the Dark Reign of Norman Osborn as head of the United States of America's national security, peace was achieved under the rule of the ruling triumvirate, thought the Snarks' reputation had been tainted by their wasteful bickering. In his report on individuals and organizations of interest to Osborn, the robot Quasimodo considered the Snarks' attempts to obtain weapons and powers from humans was the sign of a deep inferiority, that they should be ignored, and relations with them should be handled by S.W.O.R.D., as the Snarks lacked the resources to invade Earth anyway.[2]

Zn'rx from Thunderbolts Vol 3 9 001

The Zn'rx near Rockland, Maine, wearing pieces of human outfits

After the death of Uatu, the Watcher, a Zn'rx scout confirmed the rumors of Earth's forces being in turmoil and its Watcher dead, and considered the planet ready for conquest, but he was snipped by the Winter Soldier (James Barnes), now officiating as The Man on the Wall, protecting Earth from extraterrestrial and extradimensional threats.[15]

Another group resided a few miles north of Rockland, Maine, cut off from their Queen Mother, seemingly attacking humans (those Zn'rx wore human clothes in a grotesque manner) and attempting to reconnect with her to ask the deployment of a strike force to wipe out the planet. Their were detected by the Thunderbolts led by Barnes to help on his duty. The Thunderbolts were ambushed by the Snarks, but easily defeated them, and tipped S.H.I.E.L.D. to recover the restrained aliens.[16]

Snarkwar: the Hyinar Usurpation[]

Hyinar, Third Prince of the Zn'rx's royal blood,[17] initiated what became known as the Hyinar Usurpation.[18]

Hyinar, along with his agents Dyngo and his brother Koyoti, followed the counsel of his mother's scientists in scouting for worlds populated by metahumans whose powers they could harvest. Their quest led them to infiltrate Centauri-IV (then the new home of the Universal Inhumans), disintegrating Blackbane and kidnapping Gorgon. With these acts Hyinar initiated Snarkwar, intending to become the emperor of Snarkworld.

Hyinar and his agents soon struck again, abducting the members of the Light Brigade and of the Astarion's crew (including many members of the Inhuman Royal Family). The trio then captured the Inhuman queens, but were destroyed by Flint. It was hoped that this would be understood by other Snark royalty as a warning that Inhumans of every species were off-limits to Snarkwar.[19]

The Hyinar Usurpation derailed any efforts to modernize the Zn'rx succession process and signaled a return to the Snarkwar's barbaric traditions. Ultimately, this would lead to Stote[18] ascending to the Zn'rx throne in the following months.

Emperor Stote's reign[]

During his brief rule, Stote's traditionalist policies reversed many of the reforms instituted in Bhadsha's era[18]. Stote himself came to be greatly distrusted by Nymbis Sternhoof, a Kymellian ambassador, who saw him as a plotter.

Following the merger of the Kree Imperium and of the Skrull Empire, a diplomatic summit was convened at the Proscenium to explore how intergalactic relations would be impacted by the new alliance, to discuss the status of the Pan-Worlds Treaties, and to seek a path towards stability and peace among the assembled factions. In attendance were representatives of the Kree/Skrull Alliance, the Utopian Kree faction, the Kymellians, the Rigellians, the Shi'ar, Earth, the Galactic Rim Collective, the Badoon (in fact the weapons dealer and Elder of the Universe known as the Profiteer), Spartax, the Chitauri, and the Zn'rx, represented by Emperor Stote himself.

Chaos ensued when the Profiteer, hoping to precipitate another Snarkwar (and the resulting lucrative weapons market), assassinated the Emperor. Further efforts to destabilize the conference were exposed when the attending Chitauri representative, the diplomat-drone Peacebringer, was revealed to have been created as a walking bio-explosive bomb.[20]

Snarkwar and the King in Black[]

In the midst of the Proscenium summit chaos, those in attendance received word that planets among the Zn'rx Colonies (along with many other worlds) were being stripped of life by the advance of the elder god Knull.[21]

Five heirs originating from three different clans battled for the dominant position:

  • Kuga of Bhoa Clan was the eldest of the heirs, a radical modernist, and initially the most powerful among the rival heirs. Her brother Djagyar was a radical traditionalist.
  • Wezel of Chita Clan was a traditionalist.
  • The youngest heirs of Stote and moderate reformists Khondor and Lyga of Gylar Clan brokered an alliance to remove the other heirs, then would shift the war to a process of single combat.

Snarkwar was monitored by S.W.O.R.D., who believed the war could destabilize the galactic peace (they also monitored the enigmatic deaths of whole planets).[22]

Rather than a fixed power base, Djagyar used a guerrilla fleet always on the move, thus making it hard to locate. Kuga attempted to conquer Ortuaa, a peaceful world with vast mineral resources and close to a strategic binary wormhole, not knowing that Knull had already destroyed that world. Her brother Djagyar seized the opportunity to outflank her, causing severe losses to her forces, forcing her into retreat and hiding whilst becoming the most likely successor to Stote. Kuga attempted to rebuild her forces, though presumably it was a vain effort as her warriors were deserting for stronger armies such as Djagyar's.

Meanwhile, Wezel was besieged at the edge of Utopian Kree space, and attempted negotiation with the Supremor for safe passage.

As Earth fell to Knull, S.W.O.R.D. and Krakoan agent Manifold met with Djagyar in his flagship in deep space, to offer him mutant powers in exchange for the help of his fleet (which wasn't required to protect worlds) against Knull, a proposal which was refused by Djagyar, who considered Knull his benefactor, as he destroyed his rivals' worlds and did not impact him whatsoever due to his nomadic strategy. Djagyar was assassinated seconds after Manifold's departure.[18]

Biology[]

Mutants[]

Scanner was a mutant of his race,[23] with the power of being able to track any thing with unerring accuracy.[1]

Alternate realities[]

Earth-691[]

The race survived in one way or another up through the 31st Century. A mutant of the Zn'rx,[23] Scanner was gifted with greater than normal powers of awareness. He was part of the mercenary group Force (who opposed at times the Guardians of the Galaxy).[24]

Earth-5631[]

In Earth-5631, the Zn'rx were one of several alien species who at some point in history discovered the secret of the anti-matter formula, and tried to use it to make a weapon: The Annihilator. However, their attempt to harness this power resulted in their planet being destroyed. Along with the other races that lost their planets this way, including the Kymellians, they forged the remains of their world into Patchworld.[25]

The Zn'rx seen so far are all children and subjects of Queen Maraud. It is unknown if there are any other queens or clans like in the Earth-616 continuity. All Zn'rx are indoctrinated from a young age to have an undying loyalty for their queen and to hate all other races. One of the primary weaknesses of the species is their total lack of imagination; they cannot come up with ideas of their own and thus steal or copy all their technology from other species. Even their ship looks like it was put together from different parts of various other ships.[26] This same lack of imagination also rendered them unable to learn from the mistake that cost them their planet. As such, they kept seeking ways to recreate the Annihilator.[25] For this purpose, they abducted Dr. James Power and his wife, but they were stopped when Dr. Powers' four kids received superpowers from the Kymellian Aelfyre Whitemane and intervened. In the process, Power Pack also managed to turn Maraud into a pacifist by erasing her memory and then using the same indoctrination method used to teach young Zn'rx to make her believe all Zn'rx are peaceful.[27] This apparently stopped the threat of the Zn'rx, however some time later it was revealed at least some Zn'rx were still at large.[28]

Earth-9047[]

In the Humorverse, the Snarfs (the direct counterpart of the Snarks) tried to conquer Earth - but the Bower Brats convinced Galactapus to eat the Snarfs as if they were frog's legs.[29]

The so-called Space Snarks, apparently a different species, were kept by the Watchers as companion animals. The young Watcher Lavnic found that they were quite interesting and hoped that his babysitter Uatu had one.[30]

Earth-22455[]

In Earth-22455, the Zn'rx abandoned their attempts to capture Power Pack or attack Earth at some point after their first defeat at the hands of the young heroes. That changed when years later, Julie accidentally contacted them, renewing their interest in Earth. To fight off the threat, Julie reunited her siblings, who had all gone their separate ways, to once more become Power Pack.[31]

Powers and Abilities

Average Strength Level

Snarks can lift 400 lbs on average, and High Snark can lift about 700 lbs.[1]

Miscellaneous

Type of Government

Empire. Succession determined by civil war between the many princes, descendants of the previous emperor.

Snarkwar[]

A major concept of the Zn'rx society is the Zn'rx War of Succession, colloquially named "Snarkwar".

When a Zn'rx monarch dies, his heirs instantly know of it (so far, xenobiology hasn't explained exactly how), and are immediately affected by a violent[18] urge to claim the alpha position at any cost by any means, with no regards to collateral victims,[21][18] using any weapon found, bought, or stolen,[21] to the extent of literally claiming other beings' powers (supernatural, sorcery, Inhuman) as their own. They called such as powers "inborn"[17] or "in-built"[18] "weapons" or "talents".

A faction initiating the Snarkwar was seemingly completely destroyed if not victorious.[17] Kl'rt, the Super-Skrull, considered that in comparison with the Snarks, the Kree/Skrull seemed restrained (though those were now able to weaponize suns into astro-nuclear weapons).[20]

Buszahrd from Royals Vol 1 8

Prince Hyinar reacting to the appearance of his ship uncloaked on Centauri-IV

Diplomacy[]

Despite the extreme consequences for who got in the way of the Snarkwar,[21] at least some factions remained stealthy in their powers-stealing operations to avoid intergalactic incidents.[32]

In spite of their war-like nature and ruined reputation,[2] the Snarks were involved in diplomatic relations with others cultures:

Criminality[]

The Zn'rx issued bounties.[33]

Known criminals included Kl'rath, detained at the prison of L'ar Gath Five as a war criminal for having wiped out a transport of Skrull refugees (mostly children) after their Tarnax IV had been destroyed.[10]

Level of Technology

A technology advanced race (having developed warp-drive spaceships, blasters, mind probe, anesthetic neuro-fiber guns rendering targets comatose,[1] Stabilizer Beams,[34]and others

Cultural Traits

War-like. They conquer and take what they want.

Representatives

  • Bhadsha - Emperor (deceased), reformist
  • Ankar Clan
    • Ankar
    • Sobak - High Snark, Bhadsha's chosen successor/Ruling Triumvirate)
  • Hadj - Chancellor (deceased)
  • Maraud Clan
    • Maraud - Queen Mother (deposed)
    • Jakal - Emperor (deposed)
  • Repra - Rites Master/ruling Triumvirate
  • Destrak Clan
    • Destrak - Queen Mother/Ruling Triumvirate
    • High Snark Rungar (deceased)
  • Unnamed clan
    • Mother
    • Hyinar - Third Prince of the Zn'rx's royal blood (deceased)
    • Lord Dyngo (deceased)
  • Stote - Emperor (deceased), traditionalist
  • Bhoa Clan
    • Kuga - Eldest heir of Stote, modernist[18]
    • Djagyar - Heir of Stote, radical traditionalist (deceased)[18]
  • Wezel of Chita Clan - Heir of Stote, traditionalist[18]
  • Khondor and Lyga of Gylar Clan - Youngest heirs of Stote, moderate reformists[18]

Alternate realities:

Trivia

  • Despite their reptilian nature, many Zn'rx are named after mammals, Stote being named after the stoat, for example, Bhadsha after the badger, and Hyinar, Dyngo and Koyoti sounding like hyena, dingo and coyote.
  • In "Home for the Holidays" (Merry X-Men Holiday Special #1; December 5, 2018), an alien rambles about "culture war", "cultural zn'rxism", and "war on Glorpsday", as parodies of conservative theories of "Cultural Marxism" and "War on Christmas".

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 [[Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z 10; Snarks' profile|[[Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #10|Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z 10]]; Snarks' profile]]
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 [[Dark Reign Files 1; Snarks' profile|[[Dark Reign Files #1|Dark Reign Files 1]]; Snarks' profile]]
  3. [[Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 12; Snarks' profile|[[Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #12|Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) 12]]; Snarks' profile]]
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 [[Royals 6; Royal Mail|[[Royals #6|Royals 6]]; Royal Mail]]
  5. Fantastic Four Annual #20
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Avengers Spotlight #25 ; Best Seller!
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Power Pack (Vol. 2) #4
  8. Power Pack #23
  9. 9.0 9.1 Royals #6
  10. 10.0 10.1 Future Foundation #34
  11. Deadpool: Back in Black #2
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 Power Pack (Vol. 2) #1
  13. 13.0 13.1 Power Pack (Vol. 2) #2
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Power Pack (Vol. 2) #3
  15. Original Sin #8
  16. Thunderbolts (Vol. 3) #9
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 Royals #7
  18. 18.00 18.01 18.02 18.03 18.04 18.05 18.06 18.07 18.08 18.09 18.10 S.W.O.R.D. (Vol. 2) #3
  19. 20.0 20.1 20.2 Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol. 6) #78
  20. 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol. 6) #8
  21. S.W.O.R.D. (Vol. 2) #1
  22. 23.0 23.1 [[Guardians of the Galaxy 8 and Guardians of the Galaxy 13's letters' pages|[[Guardians of the Galaxy #8|Guardians of the Galaxy 8]] and Guardians of the Galaxy 13's letters' pages]]
  23. Guardians of the Galaxy #5
  24. 25.0 25.1 Power Pack: Day One #2
  25. Power Pack: Day One #3
  26. Power Pack: Day One #4
  27. Power Pack (Vol. 3) #1
  28. What The--?! #1 ; Bower Brats Meet Clunk and Dagnabbit
  29. What The--?! #16 ; The Watcher in "Someone to watch over me"
  30. Marvel Universe: Millennial Visions #1 ; Power Pack: Starting Over
  31. Royals #8
  32. Future Foundation #1
  33. Power Pack #4
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