SKRULL KILL KREW

Membership: Catwalk, Dice, Moonstomp, Riot, Ryder, 3-D Man (Delroy Garrett);
temporary members: Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady), Cloud-9, Devil-Slayer, Gravity, Hardball, Jocasta, Komodo, Nonstop, Spinner, Whiz Kid

Purpose: Death to all Skrulls, and anyone near a Skrull, or who might befriend a Skrull at some point in the future, or someone who might have been a Skrull but turned out not to be

Affiliations: Action Pack (Prima Donna, Vox), the Battalion (Tigra), the Called, Cavalry (Crimebuster, Stuntmaster, Ultra-Girl), Captain America (Steve Rogers), Bob Chandler, Hal Chandler, Peggy Chandler, Command (Aquarian, Jennifer Kale), Crusader (Z'reg), Desert Stars (Johnny Cool, Komodo, Supermax, Two-Gun Kid), Earth-Force, Freedom Force (Challenger, Cloud-9, Spinner, Think Tank), Great Lakes Initiative (Big Bertha, Doorman, Flatman, Mr. Immortal, Squirrel Girl, Tippy Toe), Heavy Hitters (Gravity, Hardball, Nonstop, Telemetry), Liberteens (Blue Eagle, Hope, Iceberg, Ms. America, 2-D, Whiz Kid), Rangers (Firebird, Living Lightning, Phantom Rider (Hamilton Slade), Red Wolf (William Talltrees), Shooting Star, Texas Twister)

Enemies: Skrulls, baby! (including Skrull imposters of Blacksmith, Conquistador, Equinox, Frog-Man, Grasshopper, Lobo (Red Wolf's wolf), Razorback, Revolutionary, She-Thing (Sharon Ventura), Skyhawk, Thor Girl (imposter) )

Base of Operations: Mobile across the USA, anywhere you can find Skrulls

First Appearance: Skrull Kill Krew#1 (September, 1996)

History: (Fantastic Four I#2-BTS) - After the Fantastic Four's first encounter with and defeat of the Skrulls, Reed Richards hypnotized the four invaders to turn themselves into cows, and to believe that they really were cows. He left them in a field in King's Crossing, Vermont.

(Avengers I#89-97-BTS) - During the Kree/Skrull War, the Skrulls regained their memories and impersonated some of original Avengers, in an effort to force them to disband. Another of the Skrulls took the form of H. Warren Craddock, who was running for office. The Craddock-skrull was slain after being exposed.

(Skrull Kill Krew#2(fb)-BTS) - The remaining three former cow-Skrulls were handed over to the Alien Activities Commission, who forced them to become cows again. This time, however, they sent the Skrulls to the slaughterhouse, along with the rest of the beef. The Skrulls were slaughtered and mixed with other, real beef, meat and distributed across the country. In the form of hamburgers, the Skrull meat was consumed by an unknown number of Americans. Some of the people who ate the beef proved immune to the Skrull DNA. Some died horrible deaths. A small number, were "infected" and developed metamorphic powers, along with progressive and terminal neurologic disease.

BTS-Ryder began recruiting others with the same affliction, to join together and wipe the Skrull menace from the Earth, so that they could never again turn into cows and let others slaughter and eat them again.

(Skrull Kill Krew#1) - Ryder and Moonstomp burst into a history classroom and blew away Mrs. O'Shea, who was really a Skrull in disguise. They then located and recruited Dice and Riot to join them.

(Skrull Kill Krew#2) - The SKK headed to the Dulles Airport in Washington, D. C. to recruit Kimberly Dee. Her plane was hijacked by agents of Hydra.

(Skrull Kill Krew#3) - The SKK took out the Hydra group, although innocent civilians suffered as well. By the time they reached Kimberly Dee, she had already morphed into her Catwalk form and slain the hijackers. They recruited her to the Krew.

(Skrull Kill Krew#4) - After taking out a group of Skrulls posing as the Fantastic Four (complete with artificially generated powers), they encountered a town where every single person had been replaced by a Skrull.

(Skrull Kill Krew#5) - In Pleasant Valley, aka Skrullsville, the Krew had a ball blowing away the Skrulls, who had been mentally programmed by their superiors to pose as innocent people. Eventually the command center learned what was going on and activated the "sleeper Skrulls", sending them into battleforms against the Krew. As a result, it took a few minutes longer to wipe out all 3, 678 Skrulls in the town, effectively ending their takeover plans.

(Avengers: The Initiative#18 (fb) - BTS) - Moonstomp, Catwalk, and Dice all had their bodies wasted away from their Skrull diseases. Riot and Ryder preserved their heads in cryo-stasis, knowing they could only bring them out for one last mission.

(Avengers: The Initiative#16 (fb) - BTS) - Riot and Ryder realized there was a new breed of Super-Skrulls on Earth that were undetectable by normal means. They learned they had to eat the Skrulls to recognize the new breed. They packed up their battle van and began searching.

(Avengers: The Initiative#16) - Ryder and Riot investigated a crashed Quinjet in New Mexico and discovered 3-D Man (Delroy Garrett) inside. 3-D Man's goggles, they learned, could detect Skrulls by sight, so Ryder killed the investigating She-Thing, a Skrull posing as a member of the Initiative's team, the Mavericks. As Riot devoured the Skrull, Ryder welcomed 3-D Man to the Kill Krew. Though 3-D Man was repulsed by Riot eating the Skrull, he said he knew a place they could go for help. They soon got to the home of Bob, Chuck, and Peggy Chandler and learned that Bob and Chuck were the original 3-D Man. Riot then explained their origins and grilled up some Skrull for them to eat. They soon arrived in Phoenix and helped the Desert Stars kill their rogue member, Blacksmith, another Skrull imposter, using armored motorcycles; Blacksmith put up a deadly fight until 3-D Man fired a laser through Komodo (who heals easily) and skewered him, then Riot tore him apart. They realized every Initiative team had a Super-Skrull on it and decided to head to Vegas next.

(Avengers: The Initiative#17) - The Kill Krew killed another Skrull among the Heavy Hitters of Las Vegas and Gravity, Hardball, and Nonstop joined their ranks. After killed the Skrull among Utah's Called team, the Krew was joined by Devil-Slayer and Jocasta, who agreed to use Devil-Slayer's Shadow-Cloak to aid in faster transport across the country.

(Avengers: The Initiative#18) - While fighting the Equinox Skrull in Montana alongside Freedom Force (Challenger, Cloud-9, Spinner, Think-Tank), Ryder, Riot, and Hardball were frozen in a block of ice while the others engaged the Skrull. The ice block was soon shattered and the battle continued until Cloud-9 shot the Skrull through the head. Ryder flirted with Cloud-9, but she shook him off immediately. Devil-Slayer, weak from over-extending himself with the transports, took the group, now including Cloud-9 and Spinner, on to Philadelphia, where they helped the Liberteens (Blue Eagle, Hope, Iceberg, Ms. America, 2-D, Whiz Kid) defeat the Revolutionary Skrull. They defeated him by pinning him, then Hope, her weight increased by Gravity, eviscerated him by being dropped from the skies. They next moved on to Georgia, where the Cavalry was already battling, with Crimebuster and Stuntmaster already defeated. Cloud 9 shot down both Ultragirl and Thor Girl to determine Thor Girl was the Skrull, then 3-D Man used her own hammer to kill her. The others fought off an attacking army of Skrulls and found a new ally, Ant-Man, who informed them the Initiative bases were rigged to blow and could destroy the entire United States. Ryder took the heads of Moonstomp, Catwalk, and Dice out of stasis, injected them with a smoothie of Super-Skrulls so they could help on this last mission, and the group divided into several teams to handle the last bases at once. Devil-Slayer, very frayed, transported the six groups to their destinations while Nonstop, Spinner, and Whiz Kid rushed off to blow up the other Initiative bases. Devil-Slayer the collapsed, seemingly dead.

(Avengers: The Initiative#19) - Cloud-9 and Ryder helped Tigra of the Battalion defeat the Razorback Skrull in Arkansas. Hardball and Moonstomp aided Vox and Prima Donna of the Action Pack against the Frog-Man Skrull in Kentucky. Gravity and Catwalk aided the Great Lakes Initiative (Big Bertha, Doorman, Flatman, Mr. Immortal, Squirrel Girl, Tippy Toe) against the Grasshopper Skrull in Wisconsin. Komodo and Riot helped Aquarian and Jennifer Kale of the Command against the Conquistador Skrull in Florida. Jocasta and Dice fought a crowd of Skrulls and humans incited by the Skyhawk Skrull in Washington. 3-D Man and Ant-Man helped the Rangers (Firebird, Living Lightning, Phantom Rider (Hamilton Slade), Red Wolf (William Talltrees), Shooting Star, Texas Twister) against the Lobo Skrull in Texas. While fighting a crowd after that, 3-D Man's goggles were shattered, to his horror, but Chandler, from New Mexico, helped him focus his powers without the goggles. Meanwhile, the speedsters were blowing up the Initiative bases to stop the Skrulls' plans. Jocasta reported that the Washington pylon had been activated, helping the others realize the Negative Zone transport gates were working again. Spinner had to sacrifice herself to destroy the Hawaii gate. The entire Krew group then traveled to Camp Hammond through the gates, where they found Crusader (Z'reg) fighting the Skrulls, who were preparing to set off the third pylon to activate the doomsday weapon. The Skrulls threw out a poison that seemingly killed Whiz Kid, but the Krew quickly defeated the Skrulls, even killing those who tried to surrender. 3-D Man then killed Crusader, who was secretly a Skrull as well.

(Avengers: The Initiative#20) - After being cleared by the Initiative, 3-D Man departed with Ryder with the eyes of the angry recruits on them. Ryder and Riot buried the deceased heads of their former teammates, then Ryder convinced Riot to return to her human form, stating the war was over. Riot did so and quickly died. After burying them, Ryder and 3-D Man left to hunt more Skrulls.

COMMENTS: Believe it or not, created by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, and Steve Yeowall.

The Skrull Kill Krew's viral affliction, Skrullovoria Induced Skrullophobia (SIS), perhaps better known as Mad Skrull-Cow Disease (MSCD), differs from the natives of King's Crossing (where the Skrulls lived briefly as cows), who drank the milk from Skrulls, and suffered from Pseudo-Milk Induced Skrullophilia (PMIS). Sufferers of PMIS (not to be confused with PMS, although the two are not mutually exclusive), also gained shape-changing powers, but rather than wanting to kill the Skrulls, they took on Skrull personality traits, such as xenophobia and military-type organization. This was documented in Fantastic Four I Annual#17.

As described in F4 An17, the milk-induced changes were less of an actual virus, than the Skrull DNA attempting take over and remake the body of its host. This type of infection would be closer to a Prion, than a virus, which is actually along the same lines as BSE, or Mad Cow Disease.

Cary theorizes: "In fact, I'll bet all that Skrullified beef was made from the bovine DESCENDANTS of that trio! Just like it was their bovine descendants who produced all that Skrullified milk. As for Riot's preference for an insectoid shape, during super-fights? Well, she could be the maternal granddaughter of August Hopper (alias the Locust)! That, of course, would mean she was born Heidi Hickman. But, her punk-oriented lifestyle probably resulted in some "tough love" (=thrown out of the house), so she took to using her maternal grandmother's maiden name. *She was probably afraid of being the butt of stupid hat-jokes if she called herself "Heidi Hopper."

Also, he mentions: "Could the Hydra agents that hijacked Catwalk's flight have been working for the Skrull that was impersonating the Supreme Hydra, in CAPTAIN AMERICA, a couple years back? For that matter, weren't he and his top two adjutants those three remaining Skrulls from FFV1#2?

Before there was the Marvel Knights, there was Marvel Edge. Say no more.

Riot's insectoid form could imply that she is being mentally influenced by the Scarlet Beetle, or other members of the Cockroach Conspiracy.

Cary again: "Given the resemblance of her insectoid-self to one of the Brood, I have a feeling that she might have been captured by the Slig Examiner and subjected to a little gene-splicing! The genes, in question, being donated by some Brood queen (probably, one of the Badoon hybrids). As for the Slig II's? They are probably a renegade warrior-caste of the more honorable Sligs encountered by the Fantastic Four. Some of them, not willing to give up the dream of subjugating Earth, were telepathically contacted by the Cockroach Conspiracy via the Scarlet Beetle. The Locust, hearing of his granddaughter being on her own, "volunteered" her as a human guinea pig! But, they were--of course--unaware of her already-Skrullified DNA. Hence, the Hurler Syndrome fit at the airport! The reason Heidi doesn't remember what the Slig II's did to her is simple. The Scarlet Beetle, aided by Dragonfly I, mind-wiped that part of her memory.

The Skrull Kill Krew has an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1990s Handbook.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Not to be confused with:
Gwen Stacy. They're nothing alike. Why would you confuse them?

Catwalk has no known connections to any other model or non-model Cat-somethings that don't go around blowing a Skrulls.

Dice, aka Cowboy, has no known connection to:

• Cowboy, Luke Merriweather, of Team America/Thunderiders, @ Team America#2