The Skrull and the Kree in animation: a retrospective

[RoyalRubble]

With Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes going on a hiatus right when things are getting more interesting regarding the Skrulls' Secret Invasion and the Kree ready to attack Earth at any time, and me not having anything better to do, I figured it would be a great time to look back on these aliens' previous appearances in animation, and their previous tries at conquering our planet. Hope you all enjoy reading it!

The Skrulls were created by the legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and first appeared in the second issue of Fantastic Four, back in 1962. They are introduced as an alien race that wishes to conquer the Earth. The main characteristic of the Skrulls (besides their green skin, pointy ears, etc.) is their ability to shape-shift. Some time after their defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four, they would return with a new special weapon: a Super-Skrull. As in a Skrull genetically altered, with DNA samples from the members of the Fantastic Four to give him the same powers they have, all at once if necessary. The Skrulls would return many times throughout the years, and would eventually become enemies of the entire Marvel Universe.

The Kree were also created by the same team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, also for the Fantastic Four comics, first appearing in issue #65 from 1967. Unlike the Skrulls who are green-skinned, the Kree are blue, and resemble humans in appearance. They are lead by their Supreme Intelligence, a computer merged with the brains of the greatest Kree minds. The Fantastic Four first encounter the Kree known as Ronan the Accuser after destroying a giant robot, a Kree sentry that was left on Earth millions of years ago in a state of hibernation. By destroying the sentry, they alert the Kree Empire and Ronan arrives on Earth to pass judgement on those who dared oppose the robot. Over the course of the years, the Kree would also become recurring enemies of the entire Marvel Universe, especially when engaged in the Kree-Skrull War.

Throughout the years, the Skrulls have appeared a lot more in animation than the Kree. With this retrospective I will try to track down all the shows and episodes these characters have appeared in, from the 60s to this day. Except for the first picture, all other images included in this post are courtesy of Marvel Animation Age.

Interestingly enough, the first Skrull to appear in animation was the Super-Skrull himself. He appears very briefly in the 1966 The Marvel Super Heroes show, a show with very limited animation, composed almost entirely of actual comic book panels with a voice-over. The show had five different half-hour segments, each one showcasing a different Marvel character. The Super-Skrull appears in the Namor, the Sub-Mariner segment, in the episode titled "Doctor Doom's Day". Although he only appears in the episode for 10 seconds or so, most of the time his face isn't even seen (only his head and ears can be seen from behind); he identifies himself as the Super-Skrull and he is one of the many villains sent by Doctor Doom to attack the city. He is seen trying to shoot a laser beam of some sort at the mighty Thor but is soon defeated when the Thunder God throws his war hammer at him. In the resulting explosion, there is a brief scene where his face can be seen. Here he was voiced by Tom Harvey, who also voiced other characters on this show, most notably Giant-Man and Iceman. While I always found these Namor segments the most boring parts of the Marvel Super Heroes show (and The Mighty Thor the best ones), this particular episode is among the better ones, if only for marking the first ever animated appearance of the X-Men (the original five X-Men and Professor X), although oddly calling themselves the "Allies for Peace".

Throughout the 60s, the Skrulls would make two more appearances, this time in the 1967 Fantastic Four animated series. This show was done by Hanna-Barbera and aired on ABC paired with the Spider-man animated series, every Saturday morning. The first episode to feature the Skrulls is titled "Invasion of the Super Skrulls" and first aired on September 30th, 1967. This episode sees the Skrull Emperor (voiced by Don Messick) send his newest weapon, the Super-Skrull (voiced by Marvin Miller) to Earth to defeat the Fantastic Four and claim the planet in the name of the Skrull Empire. The story works pretty good, and each member of the Fantastic Four gets a chance to use his or her powers during the fight. The Super-Skrull is introduced as actually having greater powers than all of them, plus the power to shoot immobilizing rays out of his eyes. He is defeated however when Reed Richards discovers the ray that is being transmitted from the Skrull home world to Earth, which gives the Skrull these powers. Sue Storm manages to plant a device on him which stops him from receiving the ray and he looses his powers. The ending is a little silly, as the former Super-Skrull pleads for his life, and Reed Richards tells him to transform into a cow and then hypnotizes him into forgetting he ever was a Skrull. Overall though, it was a decent enough introduction to the Skrulls.

The Skrulls next appear in the episode titled "Behold A Distant Star", from November 4th 1967. This time the Skrulls look different than in their last episode, and we are introduced to new characters: Warlord Morrat (voiced by Tol Avery) and Princess Anelle (voiced by Ginny Tyler, and who for some reason isn't green as the others). In this adventure, Morrat manages to capture the Fantastic Four on the Skrull planet. I think it's obvious even for someone who hasn't read the comics to realize that Morrat is trying to overthrow the Skrull Emperor and is merely using Anelle to further his goals. Also pretty obvious that Reed Richard's "weapon" was actually a way for the Fantastic Four to regain their powers, while trapped on the Skrull planet. The episode is pretty boring, overall. There are a couple of neat fight scenes with the Skrull army but other than that, the episode doesn't really offer anything else. I did like that in the end the Skrull Emperor was willing to accept the humans as friends. I wonder if that would have really happened if the Skrulls would have appeared again during the show's run.

The year 1978 marks the Skrulls' next animated appearance, this time in an episode of The Fantastic Four show which aired on NBC. The show is probably most well known for changing the team roster: the Human Torch was replaced with a small floating robot called H.E.R.B.I.E., (Humanoid Electronic Robot, B-type - though I think they gave more than one explanation for his name in various episodes), a character created specifically for this series but who was later integrated into the comics. The episode titled "The Phantom of Film City" from September 16th 1978 is the Skrulls' only appearance on the show. The story is about the Fantastic Four starring in their own movie, while Skrulls infiltrate the set as actors and try to destroy them. Nothing really original or too interesting here, though I did kind of like Ben's fight with the giant robot. I also liked how the Skrulls looked on this show. Other than that, the episode as the entire series is nothing special. The Skrulls aren't even revealed as the villains of the episode until towards the end, and once they appear they don't really do anything. A pretty disappointing episode, and it would be the last time the Skrulls appear in a cartoon for the next 14 years.

Neither the Skrulls or the Kree would be seen in animation again until the 90s. The next post will chronicle their appearances in the various Marvel animated series that aired throughout the 90s.

 

[Medinnus]

Nicely done! I look forward to your other posts!

 

[Stu]

Very nice! It's nice to see a little insight into more of the old, old school Marvel animation. Being a little unfamiliar with it myself and having never really seen much of either of the old Fantastic Four shows, this has been a cool read.

I wonder if you loathe the first season of the 1990s Fantastic Four as much as I do!

 

[RoyalRubble]

Part Two: The 90s

The Marvel cartoons from the 80s didn't feature any Skrull or Kree stories, but the 90s would mean the return of the Skrulls and mark the debut of the Kree in animation. Between 1994 and 1998, the Skrulls would appear at least seven times, and the Kree at least five times. Except for the 3rd and 4th pictures, all other images included in this post are once again courtesy of Marvel Animation Age.

While not a 100% Kree, but a human/Kree hybrid, Ms. Marvel appears in an episode of the X-Men animated series that aired on Fox Kids between 1992 and 1997, voiced by Roscoe Handford. The second season episode titled "A Rogue's Tale", which originally aired on January 8th 1994, explains via a flashback how Rogue was tricked by Mystique into absorbing all of Ms. Marvel's powers, resulting in Rogue permanently gaining super-strength and the ability to fly, and Ms. Marvel going into a coma. Later, outside the flashback, Rogue is now haunted by these memories, and realizes Ms. Marvel is trying to take over her body. A final showdown between them takes place in Rogue's mind, where Jean Grey using Cerebro helps Rogue win. This was a nice episode, one of the best Rogue-centric episodes the series had, and I liked how the ending hinted at Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel's real identity) waking up from her coma. Unfortunately she never appeared again on the show, and her origin was never revealed, which I thought was a shame.

A new Fantastic Four animated series started airing in 1994, paired with an Iron Man animated series airing in a block named The Marvel Action Hour. But, both these series were pretty bad. The stories were more or less faithful to the comics but the character designs and animations were bad, making the first seasons of both these shows hard to sit through. The Skrulls appear in two episodes of the Fantastic Four's first season. They first appear in "Incursion of the Skrull", which aired October 15th 1994. Here the story is basically the same as the Skrulls' first appearance from the comics, with a group of Skrulls arriving on Earth to impersonate the Fantastic Four and trying to discredit them. Once the real Fantastic Four are captured, the aliens can start their invasion. But the real Fantastic Four manage to escape and infiltrate the Skrulls posing as them in order to trick them into abandoning their plans of conquering our planet. The story might have worked in the comics from the 60s, but in this cartoon it just seems forced, especially the ending where Reed Richards tricks the Skrulls into believing Earth is populated with monsters, by showing him scenes from old movies. I know in the comic Reed actually tricked them by showing pictures from the comic Tales to Astonish, and they most likely tried "updating" it for this animated version, since about 30 years have passed. It just seems silly that the Skrulls who are supposed to be a race superior to humans, would actually be tricked this easily. And not only that, but having the Skrull Emperor (voiced by Bob Ridgley) being so touched by the bravery of Reed Richards (though to be fair he thinks it's just one of his Skrulls posing as Mr. Fantastic), he showers him with awards and medals with tears in his eyes was just too much. And the ending, the way the remaining Skrulls are dealt with, doesn't really help this episode either. Overall, I find this episode much inferior to the "Invasion of the Super-Skrulls" episode from 1967. Four Skrulls turned into goats are worse than one Super-Skrull turned into a cow. Apart from all the unnamed Skrulls seen in this episode and their Emperor, there are three more Skrulls who appear, but I am not sure if they are also from the comics or were just made up for the show: Admiral Kah (voiced by Beau Weaver, Mr. Fantastic's voice actor), Commander Lyja (voiced by Kitty Moffat) and Votan (voiced by Jim Cummings).

The Skrulls return once again during this underwhelming season in the episode "Super Skrull", which aired on November 5th 1994. One thing I liked about this episode was that the Skrulls finally figured out they were tricked in their last appearance. It doesn't really add anything to the episode, but I liked that they at least mentioned the result of their previous encounter. It almost makes them seem less stupid. As the title of the episode suggests, the Super Skrull is introduced, voiced by Neil Ross. Once again he is presented as being more powerful than the Fantastic Four, and is sent to Earth to destroy them. I also find this episode inferior to the 60s animated version of the story. As silly as it was, at least that episode didn't have a sub-plot about their landlady wanting them to pay for all the damage the building suffered because of them, or any scenes with the Thing trying to make a music video to try and raise the money. The Super Skrull himself is nothing special, even though he is supposed to be such a huge threat. This time the Super-Skrull is defeated by being thrown into a volcano, and the Human Torch seals him inside. The fight scenes weren't really that impressive, and overall the episode is about on the same level as the Skrulls' first appearance, if not worse.

All of the first season episodes from this Fantastic Four show were pretty much as bad as these two Skrull episodes. But the second season was a lot better; the character designs were changed, the animation was better and the stories actually made some sense. But before I get to this second season, since this retrospective is supposed list the aliens' appearances in animation in a chronological order, the next stop is once again the animated X-Men series. The fourth and final part of the Dark Phoenix Saga, entitled "The Fate of the Phoenix" (original air-date November 26th 1994) features a short scene where the Shi'ar Empress Lilandra is seen consulting with both the Skrull Empress and the Kree Supreme Intelligence about how to deal with the Phoenix. They all agree to let the Shi'ar Imperial Guard and the X-Men duel, and the winners will decide the fate of the Phoenix-possessed Jean Grey.

The second season of the aforementioned Fantastic Four animated series premiered in the fall of 1995. Just about everything about it was better than the first season. It was especially nice seeing characters that have been presented rather poorly in the first 13 episodes get some well deserved character development and actually become more interesting. Unfortunately, the Skrulls didn't get to do that much this season, but what we got was better than nothing. Plus, the Kree are also introduced on the show though there weren't really any direct confrontations between them and the Fantastic Four. "Beware the Hidden Land", part three of the Inhumans Saga, aired on October 14th 1995. This three-part story was about the Fantastic Four meeting a group of mutates called the Inhumans. Only in the third part do we learn their origins. And the ones responsible for their creation were the Kree, an ancient alien race which arrived on Earth eons ago and performed genetic experiments on primitive humans. These humans would eventually evolve into the Inhumans, and decide to live separated from the other humans, in a place called the Great Refuge. The Kree are only seen in a flashback but they are mentioned by name by the Seeker, the one who reveals the Inhuman's story to the Fantastic Four.

The episode titled "Behold, A Distant Star" (original air-date February 3rd 1996) features the return of the Super-Skrull, once again voiced by Neil Ross. I always thought this was one of the best episodes this season had to offer, and not only because of the Skrulls. The episode starts with the Fantastic Four fighting off a robot ship controlled by Warlord Morrat (voiced by Dan Gilvezan). They manage to destroy the robot but in the fight Sue Storm is badly injured and the only person who could perform the operation that can save her life is Dr. Franklin Storm, Sue and Johnny's dad, long thought dead, but actually in hiding, wanted by the police for murder. This episode was pretty shocking, from start to finish. Once Sue's life has been saved, the Super-Skrull is freed from the volcano where he was imprisoned in the previous season, and poses as Dr. Storm and later fights the Fantastic Four as the "Invincible Man", as part of Morrat's plan. Once the Super-Skrull is defeated, he is teleported away back on the Skrull home planet and Dr. Storm is returned to Earth, but booby-trapped. This leads to the most shocking part of this episode, and possibly one of the darkest moments in Marvel animation. He has a bomb on him, which explodes and he dies right in front of the Fantastic Four's eyes. It was just so unexpected and truly shocking. Afterwards, the Fantastic Four themselves are transported to the Skrull planet by Morrat, but from here on the episode kind of looses its charm. It's still good, but just not as exciting as what we just went through. The story continues with an adaptation of the same story the show from 1967 did in their "Behold A Distant Star" episode which was in turn based on the actual comic book story from fantastic Four #37 (published in 1965), only this time ending with Morat actually dying in the fight, just like in the comic. Princess Anelle also appears (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman), and this time she has the green skin she lacked in the 1967 animated series. Overall, this was probably my favorite Skrull-related episode so far.

The Super-Skrull would return for a couple of scenes in the next episode, "Hopelessly Impossible" (first aired on February 10th 1996). This is basically a clip-show episode featuring the Impossible Man showing us scenes from the previous episodes showcasing each member of the Fantastic Four. There are a couple of new scenes with the Super-Skrull arriving to Earth looking for Impossible Man, but that's about it. Not a great episode, or a great Super-Skrull appearance but even his short scenes were enjoyable. This would be the last time any Skrulls appear on this series.

The Kree are once again mentioned on the show in the episode "The Sentry Sinister", which aired on February 17th 1996. Though once again, the Fantastic Four don't make any direct contact with them, only fighting the Kree Sentry 459 while on vacation on Tee Vu Island. The giant robot Sentry (voiced by Mark Hamill) was left there by the Kree millions of years ago, in a state of hibernation and was only re-activated recently, by a couple of explorers who accidentally found ruins of the Kree technology on the island. Once awake, the Sentry sets up a force field surrounding the island, apparently as part of his programming. The Fantastic Four arrive and fight the robot, ultimately destroying it when the volcano erupts, sinking the island and the Sentry with it. I liked that Reed Richards realizes this Sentry is connected to the Kree they learned about earlier during the series; I am sure the events from this episode would have lead to the first contact between the Fantastic Four and the Kree, had the show continued. While not the most interesting villain they faced on the show, the Sentry 459 still was a pretty neat adventure.

Both the Kree and the Skrulls would have more appearances on the Silver Surfer animated series which aired in 1998 on Fox Kids. The show featured a lot of cosmic entities from the Marvel Universe, as well as the two alien races this retrospective is all about. While I am pretty sure they had cameos or something in a lot of the episodes, since I haven't watched the show as faithfully as others, I will only comment on their most notable appearances. "The Planet of Dr. Moreau" (original air-date February 28th 1998) sees the Silver Surfer captured by a Kree colony and forced to work like all their other slaves, the Trolls. The Surfer would befriend Pip the Troll and finds a way to free the other slaves. He soon finds himself leading a rebellion against the Kree. The episode also features a short scene towards the beginning with a Skrull attacking the Surfer in a bar, where the Surfer was trying to find information about his home planet of Zenn-La.

The Skrulls' most notable appearance on this show was in the episode titled "Second Foundation", which aired on April 25th 1998. This time the Surfer and his companion Nova, while searching for Zenn-La accidentally end up on an ancient Skrull planet where a Skrull named Nietre (voiced by Bernard Behrens) asks the Surfer to protect the Royal Egg, which is to become the next hive mother of the Skrull from the forces of Prime-Minister Kiar (voiced by David Calderisi) and Admiral Zedaro (voiced by Lawrence Bayne), two Skrull renegades who eliminated the previous Skrull Queen in a coup d'etat. Overall the episode was pretty good, and it revealed more about the Skrull culture.

The Kree alongside their Supreme Intelligence are also featured in the episode "The Forever War", which first aired on May 29th, 1998. Here the Supreme Intelligence was voiced by David Hemblen, and it was colored red instead of green, as usual. In this adventure, the Surfer travels to the planet of Kree-Lar, the capital of the Kree Empire, wishing to ask the Supremor where his planet Zenn-La is located. Prime-Minister Zarek agrees but only if the Surfer investigates a space anomaly that has swallowed entire Kree army fleets. There the Surfer encounters Adam Warlock, who is in a never-ending battle with the Kree, and lives the same battle over and over again. The Surfer frees Warlock from this space-time anomaly and brings him in front of the Supreme Intelligence, only to discover that it is planning to use Warlock's DNA to advance the Kree's evolution. The idea for this episode was pretty interesting, but I found this episode a little too boring at times. Actually I can say the same for the entire series.

And that wraps up most if not all the Kree and Skrull appearances throughout the 90s Marvel animated series. Next part: 2000 and beyond!

 

[RoyalRubble]

Part Three: 2000 and beyond!

The Marvel cartoons of the new millennium would once again feature both the Kree and the Skrulls, this time also forming cool story arcs, with some pretty tight continuity. I always loved long-running plots in action cartoons so this was especially nice to see. I know I mentioned in the last part that this retrospective is supposed list the aliens' appearances in animation in a chronological order, but considering the continuity between these episodes and because the shows took long breaks before airing new episodes, this time I will talk about each show individually, regardless of its original air-date in the US. All images seen in the Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes section appear once again courtesy of Marvel Animation Age.

The Fantastic Four received yet another new animated series, called Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, which premiered in 2006, airing originally airing on Cartoon Network. The series first introduces the Kree, in the episode "Trial by Fire" (original air-date September 2nd 2006) This episode was the first one to air, but it was actually the third one going by production order. Here we have Johnny Storm put on trial for destroying one too many of the Kree sentries sent to Earth without any good reason. The sentries in this show have been re-designed; no longer the giant robots from the comics or the 90s animated series, here the sentries are small flying spider-like probes, which I don't find as cool looking as the original robots, even though I usually like seeing mechanical spiders in animation. Ronan (voiced by Michael Dobson) is introduced as the Supreme Public Accuser of the Kree Empire, and he is the one who will pass judgement on Johnny Storm. It is apparently a public trial, judging by the dozens of unnamed Kree people seen in the Colosseum-like courtroom. We are shown footage of how the Human Torch has destroyed some of the Kree sentries; the sentries 459, 521 and 714 are mentioned. Even with the other members of the team trying to act as Johnny's lawyers and witnesses, Ronan's final verdict is termination. He releases a bunch of borg hounds that attack the Fantastic Four. During the battle even the Kree people in the stands end up being in danger, and Johnny saves one of the Kree kids from being destroyed. This prompts the Supreme Intelligence (voiced by John Novak) to appear and change the final verdict of the trial, despite Ronan's protests. The Supremor also mentions that the humans might be useful against the Skrulls, thus foreshadowing future events. Not a superb episode, but the first decent appearance of the Kree in animation. Yes, they appeared before on the Silver Surfer animated series 8 years earlier, but that show didn't really offer an introduction to them or anything; we were supposed to know who they are from the start.

"The Kree do not make contact... The Kree conquer!"

"My Neighbor Was A Skrull" aired on September 30th 2006, and marks the Skrulls' first appearance on the show. Returning from an adventure in another galaxy, the Fantastic Four think they have landed safely on the Baxter Building, not knowing they have actually been trapped aboard a Skrull ship, modified to look exactly like their home, and with Skrull agents posing as their neighbors. The episode is a lot of fun, seeing how the Skrulls try to interrogate the heroes by having their neighbors ask all kinds of silly questions, and especially seeing Reed trick one of them, to show the others what they're dealing with. The aliens are lead here by Commander Kl'rt (voiced by Mark Oliver), the future Super-Skrull. By the end of the episode the Fantastic Four manage to discover the truth about the aliens, and escape their traps, but the Skrulls manage to take genetic samples from them before their escape. Back on Earth, Reed Richards suspects they have not seen the last of the Skrulls, while on his ship Commander Kl'rt is seen talking to none other than Ronan the Accuser. I didn't expect Ronan to betray the Kree Empire by helping the Skrulls, so this was a rather nice surprise. Ronan mentions that with the genetic samples they now have, the Skrulls will soon have a warrior greater than any in the know Universe, once again foreshadowing the appearance of the Super-Skrull on the show. Overall, I thought this was one of the best episodes from the show; probably the perfect mix between action and comedy. Yes, the Skrulls are once again presented as being rather stupid, but at least this time they are funny.

With a title like "Revenge of the Skrulls" (aired August 11th 2007), it should be obvious what is going to happen in this episode. The episode is not without its share of surprises, though. For starters, I didn't expect the Fantastic Four having a contest, where the winner would spend the day with them as a "Fantastic Fifth". The winner is Rupert, a huge fan of the team, who keeps annoying everyone, but in the end is the one to save the day. The biggest surprise however was that Ronan has been banished from the Kree Empire, and has allied himself with Commander Kl'rt only, not even the other Skrulls know about this alliance. I liked that the Super-Skrull couldn't have been created without Kree science, which explains why there's only one Super-Skrull and not an entire army. Ronan has promised Kl'rt the genetic key to create more Super-Skrull warriors, and all he wants in return is the chance to destroy the Human Torch. All the fight scenes from this episode were great, and once again some humor is spread throughout the story as well, most notably in the scenes with Johnny Storm and Ronan: once Johnny is face to face with the former Supreme Accuser, he has no idea who Ronan really is. The Super-Skrull looked pretty cool here and this was definitely his best appearance in animation so far. Overall, the episode worked great as an ending to the Kree/Skrull storyline that started with the series' premiere. I definitely enjoyed this story-arc more than the other one about Doctor Doom trying to take control over the Negative Zone, which I found pretty boring at times.

Both Ronan the Accuser and the Super-Skrull would return once more in the episode "Contest of Champions", which aired on October 20th 2007. It isn't as great as their other appearances, but still a good story. Here Ronan convinces the Grandmaster, an Elder of the Universe, to force the Fantastic Four to compete in the Contest of Champions, some sort of space Olympics, against him, the Super-Skrull and other villains from various episodes. The winner would receive one wish granted by the Elders, anything the victor can imagine. But the losers, or those who choose to forfeit the games, would be erased from existence. The thing that bothered me the most about this episode was the apparent lack of continuity: it was revealed in the previous episodes that Ronan has been banished from the Kree Empire, yet now he still has contact with the Supreme Intelligence, which actually agrees to help Ronan win the contest, by augmenting his powers when needed. It was also a little weird seeing that Ronan was trying so hard to defeat the Thing, when the previous episodes made it seem like the Human Torch was his arch-nemesis. But other than that, the episode is mostly fun. We learn about some of the sports the Kree practice, such as the running of the borg hounds, disc jousting and water-ball. There are a lot of funny moments, seeing the characters compete in these and many other events, including a scooter race and even a spelling bee; who would have guessed the Skrulls are excellent spellers! The highlight of this episode is definitely the Thing's fight with a super-powered Ronan. This was one of the best fights on the entire show.

The next Marvel animated series to feature the Kree and the Skrulls is The Super Hero Squad Show, which premiered in 2009, also originally airing on the Cartoon Network. It was based on the Marvel Super Hero Squad action figure line from Hasbro, which portrays all the characters in the Marvel Universe in a super-deformed-style, and aimed at a younger generation. The show featured a lot of characters from the Marvel Universe, but primarily focuse on a team of heroes including members of the Avengers and the X-Men. The show was mostly a parody of super hero shows, and I doubt it ever wanted to be taken too seriously. I never really followed the show that closely, so this section of the retrospective will probably be incomplete, but I think I managed to track down these characters' most notable appearances on the show. For starters, Ms. Marvel is part of the main cast of characters. Here she was voiced by Grey DeLisle, and was presented as a SHIELD agent who reluctantly agrees to let the Super Hero Squad use the Hellicarrier as their base of operations. I don't think there were any episodes mainly focused on her, or if she ever had any defining moments throughout the series. Considering the overall tone of the show, I kind of doubt it.

The episode "If This Be My Thanos!" aired on October 24th 2009. This episode features the Super-Skrull (voiced by Charlie Adler) alongside an army of Skrulls apparently once again trying to invade Earth. Meanwhile, Thanos approaches Doctor Doom with an offer: he will give him the Infinity Gauntlet with all the Infinity Gems in exchange for an artifact from the Fantastic Four's headquarters. I was surprised however by the ending: Thanos was actually a Skrull, a fugitive from the Skrull Empire, and the reason the Super-Skrull came back to Earth was to apprehend this fugitive. That was pretty clever. But of course, the show is still a comedy, and the artifact "Thanos" was after is revealed to be nothing more than a formula for string cheese, something the Skrulls, as advanced as they are, were never able to create. Overall though it was a nice episode. It featured some pretty cool fight scenes, and occasionally some funny lines, especially when the Hulk and the Thing interacted.

In "Alienating With the Surfer!" (original airdate January 8th 2011), the Skrull throne-world is about to get eaten by Galactus. Apparently Princess Anelle (voiced by Tara Strong) has a peace agreement with the Kree, and Ronan the Accuser (voiced by Michael Dorn) is supposed to come and talk Galactus into sparing the planet. However, the Silver Surfer is apparently under the influence of the Infinity Sword and attacks Ronan, trying to stall him enough for Galactus to destroy the Skrulls. He manages to trick Thor and the Scarlet Witch into helping him defeat the Kree warrior, by trapping him inside a pocket dimension. Princess Anelle consults with Dro'ge, the best scientist in the Skrull Empire, and calls the Super Hero Squad for help against Galactus. The Skrull throne-world is saved in the end, after the Surfer manages to convince Galactus to instead eat an uninhabited planet. The fact that the Surfer is influenced by the Infinity Sword into slowly becoming a super-villain would come into effect over the course of the next episodes; he will soon become the Dark Surfer, and be the main threat across the second half of the season.

Captain Marvel appears in the episode "Soul Stone Picnic!", which first aired on October 12th 2011. Here he is voiced by Ty Burrell and is introduced as the super-powerful Kree protector of the Universe, and also Ms. Marvel's boyfriend. His design here is the classic one from the comics. After the Dark Surfer has also obtained the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos, and apparently destroyed the Kree Empire, Captain Marvel is the only Kree left to oppose him. Ms. Marvel, Iron Man and Thor come to help him in his fight. He is revealed to have a power called "cosmic awareness", which here is used mostly as a way to make some more jokes, such as allowing him the power to finish other character's sentences. I thought it was pretty funny at first, but it became a little annoying after a while; even Iron Man mentions how annoying it is. Captain Marvel sacrifices himself in the fight, but only after transferring his powers to Ms. Marvel, enabling her to take down the Dark Surfer. In the end it is revealed that Captain Marvel became one with the living cosmos, and Ms. Marvel becomes the new protector of the Universe. Overall, this was a pretty good episode, and this show would be the first Marvel cartoon to feature Captain Marvel.

I think these are the most important episodes to feature the Kree or the Skrulls. I might have missed some of their other appearances throughout this show, and for that I apologize.

And that brings us to the show that prompted me to start writing this retrospective in the first place, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. It premiered in the fall of 2010 on Disney XD, and throughout its first season the seeds for future Kree and Skrull story lines would be planted in a very cool way. The Kree are again the first aliens to appear in this series. In the episode "459" (original air-date December 12th 2010), we meet Captain Marvel (voiced by Roger Craig Smith), and his name is pronounced as Mr-Vell, unlike his previous appearance on the Super Hero Squad Show. His design is also more similar to the one he has in the Ultimate Marvel comics, and which I find pretty cool. Here he is initially introduced under the identity of Dr. Phil Lawson, working alongside Carol Danvers (the future Ms. Marvel, voiced by Jennifer Hale) in a joint military-SHIELD observatory. His intentions were actually to protect the observatory, knowing that it would be a likely target for his fellow Kree. A Sentry is sent to Earth, on a mission to "defang" the natives of the planet, and eliminate any potential threats. I really liked how the Kree Sentry looked here; a giant robot, with a seemingly endless arsenal, which included missiles, tentacles, etc. and most importantly, a Nega-Bomb, which could destroy the entire planet. Trying to protect Carol from an explosion, Mar-Vell reverts to his true form and some of his energy is apparently transeffered to Carol, obviously foreshadowing her debut as Ms. Marvel later in the series. Once his identity is revealed, Mar-Vell explains to the Avengers how the Kree and the Skrulls are at war with each other, and that Earth and our solar system is in a good strategic location, desired by both Empires to advance their domination of the galaxy. Mar-Vell helps the Avengers defeat the Sentry and even decides to sacrifice his life getting rid of the bomb; fortunately he is saved in the last moment by Iron Man and Thor finishes disposing of the bomb. But once the battle is over, Mar-Vell mentions that this is only the start; the Kree will return, and won't underestimate humans again. He decides to leave to meet with the Supreme Intelligence and make an appeal that Earth should be sparred. During his time on Earth, he has noticed the human's potential, and believes they should be allowed to survive, especially Carol. Other than Mar-Vell, Colonel Yon-Rogg (voiced by Fred Tatasciore, the Hulk's voice actor) is also introduced. Overall, it was a pretty awesome introduction to the Kree and the start of a great storyline.

The Skrulls are introduced on this series in a much more subtle way, which I really enjoyed. Because this show has some pretty tight continuity between episodes, I find it kind of hard to talk about a certain episode without mentioning any events from previous episodes. The basic plot of "Widow's Sting", which aired on December 19th 2010 as the series' 16th episode though it was 19th in production order, is that Hawkeye, Captain America and Black Panther, alongside the newly-introduced super heroine Mockingbird infiltrate Hydra Island to take down the entire organization, but more importantly the Black Widow who apparently betrayed SHIELD by joining HYDRA. The episode is really awesome; packed with action and some great scenes. By the end of the episode the Hydra Island is destroyed and Madame Viper, second in command of the organization, has been captured. And then comes a big surprise: Viper is revealed to be a Skrull! At this point only Mockingbird and Nick Fury know this, and Fury mentions that they got a big problem on their hands now.

The Avengers first meet Kang the Conqueror in the episode "The Man Who Stole Tomorrow", which first aired on January 9th 2011. Kang has traveled back in time from the 41st century to present day in order to destroy Captain America, and then conquer the world. He reveals to the heroes that soon the Earth would be consumed in a war between the two alien races the Avengers already met, the Kree and the Skrulls, which would end with the Sun being destroyed and all life on the planet disappearing. But, according to Kang, Captain America's actions would lead to all of this happening. He believes that Cap is responsible for the start of the war, which is why he plans to eliminate him before the war starts. Of course, the Avengers would never leave Cap at the mercy of Kang, much less allow him to conquer the world. Overall it was a pretty awesome episode, and it makes both the Kree and the Skrulls seem an even bigger threat.

The season one finale, "A Day Unlike Any Other", aired on June 26th 2011. It was the conclusion of the season-long storyline of how Loki orchestrated pretty much everything that the Avengers went through, all just to keep them busy long enough so he can take over Asgard while Thor is stuck on Midgard. After the Avengers are separated and spread across the Nine Realms, they re-group and head towards the final battle with Loki. During the fight Loki shatters Captain America's shield just to prove how powerful he has become. Yes, there's a small animation mistake in this episode as Cap is later seen with his shield intact, but other than that everything was pretty amazing. Once Loki is defeated and the Avengers earn the respect of Odin and all other inhabitants of Asgard, they head back to their Mansion in New York, for some well-deserved rest. That's when another unexpected turn of events happens, as Cap is confronted in his room by another person that looks exactly like him, who shoots him with some kind of ray. It is then revealed it was a Skrull, who soon afterwards mentions that the "infiltration has begun". This was an awesome cliffhanger for the first season; the show has done a wonderful job at setting up all kinds of possible future story lines featuring these aliens.

With the second season of this show being advertised as a "cosmic season", it means that it could feature just about any cosmic entity in the Marvel Universe, as well as the return of the Kree (as Mar-Vell mentioned, they will be back) and advance the Skrulls' invasion plans. Next part: the second season of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!... as soon as it finishes airing in the US.