Re: Marvel Strike Force Kree Team
Violetta Wagganer
The Kree, briefly known as the Ruul, are an alien race appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are native to the planet Hala in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and have a scientifically and technologically advanced militaristic society.
The first on-panel appearance of the Kree was in Fantastic Four #65 (August 1967), and they were created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. In their first appearance, the Supreme Intelligence sent Ronan to Earth to investigate what happened to a Kree Sentry, who was destroyed by the Fantastic Four in the previous issue.[1]
The Kree made their first major appearances in the first volume of Captain Marvel, who was introduced as a Kree warrior who is sent to Earth to spy on its inhabitants in Marvel Super-Heroes #12. The following issue would also see the debut of the Yon-Rogg and Carol Danvers a Human/Kree hybrid, who is the seventh and current Captain Marvel. Including Supreme Intelligence, Ronan the Accuser and Doctor Minerva, all of them would feature in the original run of Captain Marvel.[2][3][4]
True Kree resemble humans almost exactly, with the exception of blue skin, different visual system[12] and "duplicate" of several internal organs.[13] Kree have a higher strength level than that of a human, and require more nitrogen to breathe comfortably.[volume & issue needed] Kree bodies are adapted to environmental characteristics on Hala that are unlike Earth. Hala has higher gravity and a higher concentration of nitrogen in the atmosphere than Earth. Under Earth's lesser gravity, their strength and speed increase. However, they cannot breathe in Earth's atmosphere without using a chemical "breathing formula" or artificial life-support devices.
The original Kree had blue-colored skin, but a second racial group with pink skin resembling that of human Caucasians emerged over the millennia. The blue-skinned "purebred" Kree have become a small, but powerful, minority. Pink Kree are much more durable than their blue racial brethren.[1]
Adult Kree range (typically) between 5 and 8 feet (1.5 and 2.4 m) tall. Some female Kree can physically influence men[clarification needed], and a few can even drain the life force of others. Most are born with this ability, but are required to have it surgically 'corrected' upon adulthood.[14] They must undergo this procedure when they are adults in order to avoid 'frying' their brains.[15] It seems that this procedure is analogous to female genital mutilation and it is also called "psychological mutilation" as witnessed with Una-Rogg.[16]
The Kree were an evolutionarily stagnant race. This was due to a single member of the Kree race attempting to gain control of The Crystal of Ultimate Vision.[19] This unnamed Kree found the crystal, but attempted to use it to become akin to a god, with powers as of those of the Phoenix Force. As punishment, the crystal "genetically froze their evolution in place" allowing the rest of creation to pass them by. In an attempt to further their development, some Kree bred with other species, producing the 'pink-skinned' Kree, who are similar in appearance to Caucasian humans. These pinks (also called 'whites') eventually outnumbered the blue-skin Kree, but were far from accepted amongst their brethren; many pink kree were exiled from the homeworld and put into forced labor camps on barren moons by their blue skinned cousins due to prejudice and racism.[20] The Kree value what they consider to be their genetic purity, to such an extent that reproduction outside of the species is a strict taboo. In the Kree empire, it is a crime for a male non-Kree to impregnate any Kree.
The Kree race has produced individual super-humanoid beings, either through natural mutation, genetic engineering, or cyborg technology, including Captain Mar-Vell, Ronan the Accuser, Ultimus, Shatterax, Korath, and others.
The Supreme Intelligence attempted to jumpstart the evolutionary process of the Kree. Through a series of events discussed below during Operation: Galactic Storm and the Destiny War, it arranged for a large number of its people to be irradiated with a Nega-Bomb (killing 90% of the Kree), and then artificially sped up their evolution by means of an artifact called the Forever Crystal.[21]
This new brand of evolved Kree, called Ruul, have a grayish skin tone and many shoulder-length tentacles atop their heads. Individuals possess the ability to consciously 'will' adaptation of physical form to different environments, affording them controlled metamorphosis, spontaneously developing the ability to breathe underwater, fly, change form or whatever their circumstances require. The females had also lost their ability, since the males now had that ability.
The Inhumans later brought to light a long-held secret about the creation of the Kree. As it turns out, the Kree are in fact of Universal Inhuman stock, the very first of the first of their kind. Unlike a great many races throughout the universe, the Kree were alternated by two races of cosmological abstracts in the likes of the Celestials and the Progenitors, which evolved them from primitives to empire builders.[22] While the Celestials went on to spawn the Kree born Eternals, it was the Progenitors, a race of universal gardeners and cosmic scientists that made their home at the far end of the cosmos within the heart of a lone star, who through the introduction of the Prima Materia which the Progenitors mine and process on their World Farm called The Primagen, were able to force evolve the cro-magnon Kree race into the cosmic conquerors that they are today.[23]
The Kree are an imperialistic and militaristic society with the only widespread religion being worship of the Supreme Intelligence. A small minority, like the Priests of Pama, practice a pacifist Cotati religion, but this is forbidden (early Captain Marvel stories mentioned an 'idol' called Tam-Borr and a 'fabricated' god named Zo, whom Mar-Vell served between issues 11 and 15). Some are members of the Universal Church of Truth.
The Kree population was in excess of 30 billion prior to the nega-bomb detonation. The Kree lost an alleged 98% of their population after the nega-bomb detonated. Although the pink-skinned Kree are in the majority, it is the blue-skinned Kree, such as Ronan, who dominate their society.
High population and technological development allow for highly urbanized planets. Most of the surface of Hala, the origin planet of the civilization, is covered by futuristic city-states,[24] and the second capital planet, Kree-lar, is described as "the most heavily populated world of all".[25]
Under the Supreme Intelligence, the Kree Empire was a military dictatorship. Under Clumsy Foulup, the Kree were temporarily a monarchy, and while under Ael-Dan and Dar-Benn they were a military dictatorship.
The Kree began their empire over a million years ago, within a hundred years of the acquisition of interstellar technology from the Skrulls (at that time, a benevolent people). The Skrulls at the time were attempting to start a galactic empire of their own, this one based on free trade, and they landed on Hala to help the barbaric natives advance to the point where they could join.
Although Hala is the official planet of the Kree's origin, for a time, the planet Kree-Lar in the Turunal system served as the capital of the Kree Empire as well as the seat of the government. The Kree Empire is ruled as a militaristic dictatorship. The permanent ruler was the organic computer-construct called the Supremor (or Supreme Intelligence), an immense computer system to which the preserved brains of the greatest intellects of the Kree race have been linked. Aiding the Supreme Intelligence were a number of imperial administrators on Kree-Lar, who are also governors of each of the member worlds, and a vast standing space militia. They also employ powerful automatons called Sentries whose job it is to keep member worlds under the empire's watchful eye.
The Kree Empire extends across a thousand worlds in the northwestern lobe (Earth reference) of the Greater Magellanic Cloud. They are the only race in the galaxy to possess the Omni-Wave Projector technology, a device which can enable communication across hyperspace as well as be used in an offensive capacity as a weapon. They also possess cloaking technology, which they call the 'aura of negativity'.
Kree technology includes advanced warp-drive starships, robotics (such as the Sentries and the Destructoids),[31] bionic and cybernetic (Cy-Mek) technology, advanced genetic engineering, psionic technology (Psyche-Magnitron), advanced energy weaponry (Uni-Beam), cosmic power generation, nuclear/antimatter weapons and even dimensional linking and siphoning devices. Across the myriad of realities further advancements of Prime Marvel Universe Kree Tech. has been made in strides.
In ultimate comics, they make use of nanomolecular shapeshifting battle armor with advanced genetic tailoring capabilities which can harness thermonuclear to cosmological force as both weaponry and power source.[32] The multiversal traveler Marvel Boy makes use of similar metamorphic technology powered by whats called Kirby Engineering, mechanical works powered through belief and mental interfacing along with shifting liquid metal or self-replicating nanotech.[33]
Eons ago, beings of massive power known as Progenitors arrived on Hala, and employed on its population a substance known as Prima Materia, which served to evolve this population from their primitive form.[22] The planet would eventually be visited by another race of beings who would also experiment on its population.[34]
A million years ago, a race called the Skrulls came upon Hala.[34] At that time, the Skrulls were a largely peaceful space-faring race, and they set about educating the natives to the point where they could join their trading empire. However, Hala was home to two equally intelligent races, the Kree and the Cotati.[35]
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