COMMANDER
KAR'NNCOMMANDER
KAR'NN
Real Name: Kar'nn
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial
(unidentified race)
Occupation: Commander in the Alliance
Group Membership: Alliance (General Galthan; including, at least, an unidentified Blue Kree, Shi'ar, Skrull and other unidentified races)
Affiliations: Other members of the Alliance
Enemies: Dre'kk,
Guardians (Vince Armstrong, Charlotte "Charlie" Preston, Martin
Roosevelt, Jimmy Yon)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Alliance Space Station,
unidentified location in space
First Appearance: Guardians#2 (September, 2004)
Powers/Abilities: Commander Kar'nn did not
demonstrate any superhuman abilities.
He was an experienced starship
commander
History:
(Guardians#2 (fb) - BTS) - Kar'nn was commander of a starship that was part of the Alliance, a union of an unidentified number of Kree, Shi'ar, Skrull and other unidentified races.
(Guardians#3 (fb) - BTS)
<According to Dre'kk> - "A lifetime ago," Dre'kk was a renowned
scientist on his home world. Along with his people, he had developed a
great source that could have changed the universe, but the
"intergalactic menace known as the Alliance" took the power source and
massacred Dre'kk's people. Escaping with his life and spending the
following years as a fugitive, Dre'kk gathered data on the device's
location so that he could some day retrieve it from the Alliance's
grasp. He saved the information on a heavily-shielded storage unit,
completely untraceable by Alliance technology; knowing that he could
not evade the Alliance forever, he decided to hide the data unit
somewhere they they would never look.
(Guardians#1 (fb) - BTS) <Years before the main
story> - Dre'kk briefly landed on Earth and encountered a group of
perhaps teenage kids Vince & Nick Armstrong,
Charlie Preston, Martin Roosevelt, Jimmy Yon. When Nick told Dre'kk
that he and his friends were the "Guardians," appointed protectors of
Earth and its people, Dre'kk gave them the data unit (telling them it
was a medal of honor) to hold for him while he departed before the
Alliance could track his whereabouts.
(Guardians#2 (fb) - BTS) - Shortly thereafter, Dre'kk was
captured and imprisoned by the Alliance.
(Guardians#1 - BTS) - Years later, with the now young adult "Alliance" members largely having given up on believing in their alien encounter, Vince (the last one of them to have been truly believing that what they had experienced was real) tossed Dre'kk's artifact into the fire.
As the Alliance was on the verge
of breaking through his power source's fail-safes, Dre'kk subsequently
escaped from an Alliance prison and headed back to Earth.
(Guardians#2 (fb) - BTS) - Kar'nn was annoyed by a number
of false alarms in locating the escaped prisoner.
(Guardians#2) - After an unidentified member of the Alliance discovered the location of the escaped prisoner, and he summoned Commander Kar'nn, informing him that Dre'kk was on course for a primitive planet in the Delta Sector. Kar'nn presumed that this world was not registered with the Alliance, which the alien who had discovered it confirmed, but he also noted the Dre'kk had been to that world years before, just prior to his capture.
Intrigued, Kar'nn congratulated
the team on the bridge on a job well done, and he used his wrist
communicator to contact General Galthan, informing him that the
prisoner had been located. As Kar'nn advised him that they were
uploading data on the stolen vehicle, its trajectory, the planet and
the prisoner himself to his ship, Galthan told him not to waste time
with information on Dre'kk as he knew him quite well. Kar'nn reminded
him that they needed the prisoner alive and that he was too important
for them to lose to his lust for vengeance. Galthan assured Kar'nn that
Dre'kk would be breathing but could promise no more than that, and as
he activated the stealth function on his own spacecraft, he told Kar'nn
that Dre'kk would never see him coming.
(Guardians#2 - BTS) - Working with Professor Dietrich in viewing the Perseids meteor shower, Vince glimpsed a starship approaching, and he regathered his friends. Vince reached the site first and was assaulted by Galthan, after which the others arrived.
(Guardians#3 - BTS) - As Galthan threatened the humans, Dre'kk blasted and slew him from behind. Dre'kk was upset to learn that the "Guardians" had just been a farce, and when Vince returned the burned artifact to him, Dre'kk was furious that they may have destroyed the universe. Vince, Charlie, Martin and Jimmy agreed to help Dre'kk retrieve what they could from his data unit and join him on his mission in space, although Nick Armstrong, having a family, declined to get involved any further.
(Guardians#4 - BTS) - An Alliance patrol craft
trapped Dre'kk's ship in a stasis field, and Dre'kk responded by
blasting the controls of his ship. When the Alliance agents, B'leem and
Corrt (a Shi'ar), boarded Dre'kk's ship, Dre'kk and his human
passengers hid out and then boarded the Alliance craft. They also had
to subdue the pilot, Qu'irll, and another, unidentified alien, whom
Dre'kk "put into containment" (secretly ejecting them into space to
die) after which they flew off to retrieve the power source.
(Guardians#5 - BTS) - Dre'kk brought the ship close enough to the Alliance base for them to teleport in but far enough away to avoid detection. Manning the controls and giving them devices to place around the power source to facilitate his teleporting it aboard his new ship, Dre'kk teleported his human allies into the Alliance space station...unwittingly sending them to a populated cafeteria. Wearing an armored body suit, Jimmy Yon held off the crew while his friends rushed to the power source.
(Guardians#5) - Discovering the
invasion, Commander Kar'nn had one of the crew block communications
from Dre'kk. Informed that the invaders were headed to the storage
levels, Kar'nn declined sending an alpha unit to intercept them,
preferring to do so himself.
Backed by two armored crewmen
(wearing the same type armor that Jimmy had donned), Kar'nn confronted
them as they reached the power source, noting that it was "just like
you humans to barge in and try to take whatever you want. But I'm
afraid you've made a grave mistake today." As one of the armored
warriors held Vince by the neck, Kar'nn advised the others that if they
-- particularly Jimmy in his armored suit -- took a step closer that
their friend here would be the first to die. Kar'nn further noted that
he was sure the families of the soldiers that had fallen at their hands
would welcome the defiance.
With his friends surrounding the power source, Vince
tossed the location device around it and called out to Dre'kk that they
were ready, leading Dre'kk to transport the device, Jimmy, Charlie and
Martin back to his ship.
(Guardians#5 (fb) - BTS) - Kar'nn had Vince locked in a
prison cell.
(Guardians#5 - BTS) - As a Skrull told Vince that
Dre'kk had conned them regarding his "noble quest" and that there was a
reason the Alliance was after him, Dre'kk used his ship to blow a hole
through the space station's cell wall. Vince and the Skrull were pulled
out into space, and Dre'kk then teleported Vince back aboard his ship.
As Dre'kk piloted his ship to
escape pursuing Alliance force, Vince and his friends -- appreciating
that the Alliance forces would be in hot pursuit and could pose a
threat to Earth if they returned there -- agreed to accompany Dre'kk
back to his homeworld.
Comments: Created by Marc Sumerak and Casey Jones.
At the time
this series came out, I read and enjoyed it, but I dismissed it from
being part of Reality-616 as the alien races all lacked knowledge of
Earth
in the modern/heroic age. Twenty-one years later, as I write this
profile, if it took place in 2004, it would fit in nicely into the
pre-modern age.
With the heroic age lasting no more than 15-years
with compressed Marvel Time, that puts the series as 6 years before the
Fantastic Four-empowering space flight, with that time distance growing
with each year. That fits a lot better with Earth not being widely
known to the alien races. So, no alternate reality designation for this
series, because it doesn't have to be an alternate reality.
Guardians#5 definitely leaves you wondering about the motivations of Dre'kk and whether he was actual the hero or the villain in the series...
This profile was
completed 12/14/2025, but
its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th
anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Commander Kar'nn should be distinguished from:
First posted: 09/30/2026
Last updated: 08/01/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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