ZEY-ROGG
Real Name: Zey-Rogg
Identity/Class: Extra-terrestrial (Kree) technology user
Occupation: (Former) Presumably an officer in the Kree Military, rank unknown; terrorist (current)
Group Membership: Kree empire
Affiliations: Crystal Claws, Kree Consolidated Peace Battalion (Gen. Bel-Dann, Hav-Ak,
Pvt. Jella, Klaer);
ally of: Eric the Red (Davan Shakari), Una-Rogg
Enemies: Captain Marvel (Genis-Vell), Kree Resistance Front, Rick & Marlo Jones, Shiıar Empire, Skrull Empire
Known Relatives: Hav-Rogg (son), Una-Rogg (sister), Yon-Rogg (father, deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: current - (presumably)
the Microverse; or mobile in this one.
(Former ) Unnamed Kree battle cruiser,
First Appearance: Captain Marvel IV#2 (January 1996)(in shadow), Captain Marvel IV#4 (March 1996)(fully seen)
Powers/Abilities: Zey is a
cybernetically enhanced Kree. Presumably he is much
stronger than a normal Kree of his size and age (a normal Kree is
twice as strong as a normal human of similar size and age) and
presumably has enhanced human to Class 10 strength, as well as
enhanced reflexes, speed, endurance, durability, and healing
factor in his unarmored form to an unknown degree. While he
has a cybernetic system built into his body that is separate from
his armor, it is unknown if that system gives him any additional
powers. He has been shown using two suits of powered armor,
a Bareenhoo (gravimetric) suit and a brown armor of unknown
origin. His gravimetric suit harnesses gravity, enabling
him to fly and deflect a barrage of photonic energy fired
at close range.
Zey also carried several knives and throwing
stars (presumably in a subspace storage pocketı device, since he
doesn't wear any sort of a belt on this suit that could hold
those knives while he's not levitating/throwing them) that he
could use to throw at others using the suit's anti-gravity powers.
These knives and stars are either made out of an explosive
polymer or he can use the gravimetric suitıs powers to throw
these objects very hard and fast, or a combination of both (said
knives and stars were strong and sharp enough to cut the skin of
a half-Eternal; had Zey really wanted to he could have
impaled Genis on some of those knives without any trouble at all).
It is unknown how accurately Zey can throw his knives and
stars without using the gravimetric suit. The suit also has
a built-in sub-space storage unit, since the headset part of it
can disappear when the suit is rendered inoperable. The
main limitation to a Bareenhoo suit (according to the glossary
in back of CM IV#4) is that an object has to be keyed into
the suitıs computer system in order for the suitıs gravity
powers to work on that object. How a user programs an object into
the suitıs system has not yet been revealed; possibly the
eyepiece part of the headset scans the object to be entered in
and the suitıs computers does the rest. And possibly Zey
has had his suit customized to scan things faster, and to do
things that Bareenhoo suits canıt/donıt do normally. It
is unknown if the Bareenhoo suit can protect its wearer from the
rigors of outer space, nor for how long if it can indeed do so.
His brown armor is accessed by activating a crystal worn on Zey's left hand. The armor adds roughly 1-3 feet to Zeyıs height, making him about 7-9 feet tall when he's wearing it. The armor enables Zey to fly at very high speeds, and to jump roughly two stories high and several hundred yards long in a single leap. He can also run at speeds to rival Quicksilver. The armor gives Zey super-strength equal to Genisıs top strength level, which would put him in the class 10-15 range. The armor can also fire powerful blasts of biotec energy at a target. The biotec energy can also be concentrated in a fist to help light up a dark room and can also lend a punch a nasty little charge along with the kinetic energy already contained in said punch. And while the armor can withstand blasts from conventional guns and bullets and highly concentrated photonic blasts (and presumably from normal energy/laser weapons as well), it apparently can't withstand several close-up blasts from alien guns and alien copkiller bullets. It is also unknown if the armor can protect Zey in outer space, nor for how long if it can indeed do so.
History: Very little is know of Zey-Roggıs history before the fall of the old Kree Empire. He is the only known son of Yon-Rogg, and has a younger sister named Una, though he may have other siblings that have yet to be seen. He was (presumably) sent to a Kree military academy when very young and raised to adulthood by them. After graduating, Zey joined the army. At some point during this time he sired a son, Hav, off of an alien woman (see comments below for more on this). Also, at some point, he became a cyborg, though under what circumstances remain unknown; he does appear to have been one for quite some time before the old Empire fell. After the Nega-Bomb exploded at the end of the Kree-Shiıar war and wiped out 90% of the Kree Zey-Rogg went insane and became obsessed with killing Genis-Vell, the son of his father's killer, Captain Mar-Vell.
(Captain Marvel IV#1 - BTS) - Zey arranged (with help from the Crystal Claws) for a small Nega-Bomb to be planted and detonated on the Shiıar shipping station Link 313. Also made sure Genis-Vell (at this time called Legacy) got blamed for it.
(Captain Marvel IV#2) - (seen in
shadow only) Received a report from General Bel-Dann on the
results of the attack on Link 313 and an update on Legacy's
movements, the later of which he then shared with Erik the Red.
(Captain Marvel IV#4) - (fb) (seen in full) - After getting Zey-Roggıs location from General Bel-Dann, Genis first went and rescued his best friend Steckee from being tortured by a synthetic sentient in the form of Zey-Rogg. After destroying the synthetic he then confronted the real Zey and started fighting him. Zey stated that in revenge for Marv's killing of his father he was going to kill Genis really slowly, the way he thought Yon-Rogg died at Marr-Vell's hands. Genis ended the fight by putting the nega-bands on Zey and banging them together, sending him to the Negative Zone. Zey promptly panicked and returned himself post haste to the regular universe, shorting out his grav-suit in the process. Defeated, he was then left for the Hala-center Police to pick up and be taken to jail.
(BTS) - Zey-Rogg and Una-Rogg came to Earth in search of Marvel.
(Captain Marvel V#12) - While Zey-Rogg and Una-Rogg were destroying a store, Una-Rogg found a flier that said Marvel would be appearing at Marlo's comic store. So Zey-Rogg went to the comic store and confronted Marvel out front. They fought back and forth until Zey insulted Captain Marvel's father, and Marvel knocked him through a movie theatre. Marv started to fly to Zey again, but he saw Una-Rogg, and became dumbfounded. (She has that ability on all Kree men.)
(Captain Marvel V#13) - Marlo got Una-Rogg off of Marvel, and then Zey-Rogg attacked her. This led the fight between Marvel and Zey-Rogg to resume. The fight appeared even until Marvel got distracted by Marlo and Una-Rogg. Marvel got knocked into a wax museum, and Zey followed. When Zey entered the museum, he was in a room of wax statues of super-heroes, and he could not find Marvel. Genis then blasted Zey-Rogg from behind, in the guise of Captain America. The fight raged on, and when the Bloodhounds arrived to take away Una (since all female Kree had to have their powers drained), Zey-Rogg simply said he never like her and continued fighting. The fight was ended when Marvel transported both himself and Zey-Rogg into the Microverse, which resulted in Zey-Rogg receiving the wrath of the firing squad meant for Rick Jones.
Comments: Created by Fabian Nicieza and Ed Benes. Brown armor version by Chris Cross.
Did Zey survive? While it hasn't been said yet, there have been three clues implying that he has done so: one is that a medic was summoned when the switch with Jones was discovered, implying that he had a decent chance of recovering from his wounds. A second is a comment Jones made in Thunderbolts#48, referring to Zey as still a threat to Genis. A third is a comment Genis made to Una-Rogg in CM V# 23 saying that she still had her brother as a companion. However, until it is stated for sure one way or the other, the question remains unanswered.
As for the ChrisCross
redesign. . . . . was that a redesign or did Cross happen to have
a character design handy that he really liked and decided that
the only way to work it into the book was to put Zeyıs name on
it!? That Zey doesn't look a thing like the one Benes drew,
nor does it look like a natural evolution from what the character
looked like before. Not even if you invoke 'artistic
license' as an excuse here. The best way to explain that
change in-story is to say that at some point Zey escaped from
jail and adopted that look as a disguise to hide himself from his
pursuers. (The other explanation I came up with involves
the Shiıar doing some things to him that would get them in big
trouble with Amnesty International. Which, come to think of it,
the Shi'ar probably did torture him badly when they got the
chance. The scene in CM V#13 where he grabbed the TV out
of the store window and then seems genuinely puzzled by why it
stopped working indicates he's not functioning with a full deck
after being released from prison.)
What exactly Zey's job was prior to the nega-bomb's exploding is
unknown. Possibly he's what has been referred to elsewhere
as a warrior-scientist, similar to Dr. Minn-Erva but with a
background in engineering/science rather than genetics/biology (in
other words, a 'combat engineer', though what he'd officially be
called or what he'd be called on to do in an actual battle I have
no clue), or he could have been a civilian working for the
military. Or he could be an officer with some engineering/science
training. Unfortunately the Nicieza Captain Marvel series
was unexpectedly cancelled in the Great Implosion of 1996 before
any of this could be established or resolved.
A comment about how Genis defeated Zey the
first time they scrapped: the experience a negaband wearer
has when first entering the Negative Zone (as described in CM IV
#4) is one of sensing that he/she now has the ability to control
a universe-full of space and energy. The vast majority of
sane people (let alone one who just suffered a massive
emotional trauma) would undoubtedly find that feeling very
overpowering initially, especially if they haven't been mentally
prepared for it beforehand. So it shouldn't be too
surprising that Zeyıs first response to being sent there is a "Get
me the hell outta here!!!" And while Genis--who
no doubt experienced it himself during his first trip to the Zone--was
using that experience to teach Zey a lesson about how
wanting power and having/wielding power are two different things,
it was a very dumb move on Genis's part. After all,
if Zey had recovered from that trip a few seconds faster than he
actually did, Genis would have been flash-fried on the spot
instead of being able to take his bands back. (Hmmm, a
"What If?" scenario if I ever heard one. . . . :D )
As to why Zey-Rogg never confronted Marr-Vell
himself about his father's death, the answer to that is provided
indirectly in the Vol. I series itself. As stated in the
storyline where Yon-Rogg ultimately dies, Ronan the Accuser and
Prime Minister Zarek, numbers two and one respectively in the
line of succession after the Supreme Intelligence, were directly
involved (along with the Supreme Intelligence) in setting up the
situation that ultimately led to Yon's death and Marvıs disgrace
and exile. Since Ronan and the Supreme Intelligence remained
in power for a long time afterwards it would have been very easy
for either of them to arrange matters so that none of Yonıs
heirs and kin got official permission to go after Marr-Vell, and
to smear both Yon-Roggıs reputation and motives for trying to
boost his power level in that final fight without significant
opposition from his kin. Odds are that the official story
of what caused the greatly revered Marr-Vell to defect to Earth
cast Yon-Rogg and his actions as the main/only reason for the
defection, sullying Yonıs reputation to the point that his heirs
and kinsmen became social pariahs for years afterwards, with no
official way to redeem themselves of that taint.
Also it would have been a relatively simple
matter for Ronan and the Supreme Intelligence to make sure that
none of the Roggs were ever stationed anywhere near where Mar-Vell
might turn up during one of his superheroing missions. After
all, if Zey or any of his kinsmen ever got the chance to talk to
Mar about what had really happened they might find out about
Ronan and Zarek's original plans and then start to go after them
publicly. Which, from the point of view of Ronan and Zarek
at least, would be too much of a blow to their aristocratic
prides and reputations, being taken down publicly by (to them,
anyway) a bunch of racially mixed inferiors. That doesn't
mean, however, that Zey and his family didn't go ahead anyway and
conduct their own discreet investigations into the matter, such
as finding the logs of the Helion and the original crewmen who
served aboard the ship during that mission and discreetly
questioning them about what had really happened to their
Commanding Officer, Captain, and Medic. Zey probably knows
more than he's let on about what really happened between his
father and Mar-Vell, more than what Genis probably knows about it
at any rate. He may have been waiting to find enough hard
evidence for his theories before trying to get someone in the
army high command to officially clear Yonıs name. Then the
NegaBomb hits, Hala falls, and Zey goes insane. . . . guy just
can't get a break. :)
As to the Rogg family itself, the few hints
dropped about them so far makes them a good source for
interesting storylines sometime in the future. Genis
mentions at one point that the surname is an old family name long
associated with betrayal, villainy, and murder. Which, from
the point of view of a culture that idolizes soldier and
scientists above all else, could mean that this is a family made
up primarily of bankers, merchant/traders, artists/media moguls,
politicians, and lawyers, professions that would be considered
shady by the dominant Kree culture. Or they could be the
Kree version of the Mafia/Yakuza, or a clan of spies/assassins,
or smugglers. Or they could be Francophile Dixie Chick fans.
:D At the very least this seems to be a clan of very
socially (and possibly politically) radical Kree, since the
members of this bunch that we've met so far include both pink and
blue Kree (with a sibling pair of one pink and one blue), and one
that seems to be part 'alien'. This indicates that these guys
aren't all that choosy about who they take on as mates. (Remember
that Kree society has been described as having a very rigid
social structure; these guys seem to flaunt it every chance they
get.) We definitely need to see some more of this family,
especially since much of what mainstream Kree society probably
considers as evidence of their villainy we would probably
consider evidence of their enlightenment and/or progressiveness.
Hav-Rogg has a very
unusual appearance for a Kree, having bright red-orange hair, red
eyes, and light red skin, which indicates that his mother was not
a Kree herself. He is the first Kree/alien hybrid we've
seen in the Marvel Universe where the alien half wasn't human or
from human stock (i.e. the Eternals of Titan), though there are
undoubtedly many other of the Supreme Intelligence's alien
hybrids running around. (The only other non-human Kree
hybrid I've come across is in the X-Men trilogy Mutant Empire by
Christopher Golden. In the first book there is a woman
called Candide who is a Kree/Shi'ar hybrid. She's
described as having blue skin and feathers for her hair.) At
any rate, it has yet to be revealed who and what his mother was,
whether she is still alive, or just what the relationship between
his parents were (i.e. were they in love, or was their
relationship more of a business-type one).
While Hav has been shown associating with
members of a cell of the Kree Resistance Front I did not list him
as a member simply because I am unsure whether he really
understands and/or believes in what they are promoting (due to
his age he might not), or whether he's hanging around with them
because one or more of the members are looking out for him (this
seems the most likely explanation to me). Also it seemed
unlikely to me that he would choose to stay with the KRF if Zey
ever showed up and asked him to come live with him again (at five
years old, with Dad's the only place to be!) It has yet to
be revealed whether or not Hav is currently still alive, nor
where he is currently living if alive. (It is possible, for
example, that Hav could have been part of the several groups of
Kree the Starjammers rescued from Hala and relocated to the
planet Standing Still in the beginning of the Warren Ellis
Starjammers series of the mid-90s.) At the very least Hav
and Zey should be reunited at some point, since they seemed to be
close in the times before the Kree fell to the Shi'ar Empire.
Who knows, a reunion between the two might mark the
beginning of Zeyıs return to sanity, or at least back to a more
sane state of mind
On a mostly unrelated note, I've made
several auto-formats to try to save myself time on my computer.
Every once in awhile, one bites you in the @$$. Every time I type
a member of the Rogg family, my computer corrects it to Una-, Yon-,
or Zey-Revenge of the Green Goblin. Similarly, every time I type
the name Jim, it becomes Journey into Mystery.
--Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS: Zey-Rogg has no known connection to:
Hav-Rogg has no known connections to:
PROFILE BY ELF WITH A GUN AND STUNNER
HAV-ROGG 
Hav-Rogg was the only known child of Zey-Rogg
and the only known grandchild of Yon-Rogg, though there may be
others running around (assuming that they exist and that they
survived both the NegaBomb and the subsequent Shi'ar occupation
of Hala). Very little is known of his history before the fall of
the old Kree Empire. Presumably he was attending a Kree
military academy before Hala fell. He is/was (I guesstimate)
about 5-7 years old when last seen.
Hav was rescued by Legacy from being squashed by a piece of
falling debris (which was falling because Legacy blew up a couple
of Shi'ar Skimmercrafts overhead, but that's another matter).
He later talked to Genis about what happened to him when he returned to Calculex after talking to the Kree Resistance Front (read the summary up above for what happened during that part of the issue) and learned the fate of his father after the fight.
Captain Marvel IV#4
images: (without ads)
(Zey-Rogg main image)
(Zey-Rogg first seen)
Captain Marvel V#12, Cover (Zey-Rogg VS Genis: Maximum Security)
(Hav-Rogg)
Appearances:
Captain Marvel IV#1-2 (December, 1995-January, 1996) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Ed Benes (penciler), Mike Sellers (inker), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Captain Marvel IV#4 (March, 1996) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Ed Benes (pencils), Joe Pimentel (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Captain Marvel V#12-13 (December, 2000 - January, 2001) - Peter David (writer), Chris Cross (pencils), Anibal Rodriguez (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 09/01/2003
Last updated: 09/01/2003
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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