kurov-wassily-imposter-skk2-served WASSILY KUROV impostor

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Skrull);
    posed as a Slovenian citizen (and president)

Occupation: At least formerly acted as president of Slovenia

Group Membership: Skrull Empire

Affiliations: Captain America (Steve Rogers), Slovenian government and his bodyguards

Enemies: Hydra (notably Baron (Wolfgang von) Strucker, Amy), Skrull Kill Krew (Catwalk/Kimberly Dee, Dice/Rob Fortune, Moonstomp, Riot/Heidi Slatkin, Ryder);
    although not an enemy, Kal'Du was not a fan

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    at least formerly Slovenia;
    formerly an unrevealed world in the Skrull Empire

First Appearance: Skrull Kill Krew I#2 (October, 1995)kurov-wassily-imposter-skk3-true

   

Powers/Abilities: The Skrull who impersonated Wassily Kurov can transform between his natural form and that of Kurov; he can very likely adopt the forms of other humanoids, at least, as well.

    He may or may not have  any other metamorphic abilities, such as stretching, deforming and/or reshaping his limbs into various offensive or defensive forms; however, he did not demonstrate any such abilities in his limited appearances.

    He is fluent in English, Slovenian and Skrullian, at least.

    He apparently enjoyed drinking vodka straight up (or maybe he just did that to fit the role of someone from the Baltic nations).

   

Height: Unrevealed, variable; (as Wassily Kurov) approximately 5'8"
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 150 lbs.); possibly variable to some degree
Eyes: Green (variable); (as Wassily Kurov)
Hair: Unrevealed (likely none), variable; (as Wassily Kurov) Brown (including mustache)

History:
(Skrull Kill Krew I#2 (fb) - BTS / SKRULLS!: Wassily Kurov (imposter) entry) - At some point, an unidentified Skrull secretly impersonated and took over the identity of the Baltic nation Slovenian's president Wassily Kurov. The fate of the real Wassily Kurov is unrevealed.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#2 (fb) - BTS) - "Kurov" took a commercial flight from London, England to Dulles Airport in Virginia (near Washington, DC), USA

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3 (fb) - BTS) - Hydra agents led by Baron Strucker plotted to capture Kurov, fly back with him to Slovenia and take it over. Strucker apparently felt that if Victor von Doom could rule a country, that he should have one as well.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#2 - BTS) - Captain America (Steve Rogers) waited at Dulles Airport with Texas Senator Barton to meet with Kurov (both men were unaware that he had been replaced by a Skrull). Barton told Captain America that he just had to smile and shake Kurov's hand and let him know that big brother America was looking out for his "little Baltic homeland."

    Meanwhile, Ryder led the rest of the Skrull Kill Krew (Dice, Moonstomp, Riot) to an assignment in Washington.kurov-wassily-imposter-skk3-bound

(Skrull Kill Krew I#2) - Aboard a plane, the Wassily Kurov impostor thanked a flight attendant as she served him a glass of vodka straight up. Supermodel Kimberly Dee was frustrated that some guy got better service than she did. Her manager, Andrew, advised her that that was Wassily Kurov, the president of "...someplace with snow."

    When un-uniformed Hydra agents hijacked the plane, "Kurov" asked what was going on, and his bodyguards (or whatever) pulled their guns, but the hijacker Alexei shot and apparently killed them both.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#2 - BTS) - Receiving a report from someone on-board the plane, Barton told Captain America that there were terrorists on the aircraft, at which point he heard gunfire. As Captain America prepared to rush to the plane's arrival site, a pair of Hydra agents (Alexi and another) pulled their guns and told them to put their hands in the air. The Hydra agents shot Barton's security, but Captain America took them down and headed off to deal with the other terrorists in the airport.

    As the Skrull Kill Krew arrived outside of Dulles, Baron Strucker arrived, and the terrorists were revealed as Hydra agents.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3 (fb) - BTS) - Kurov was placed in the captain's seat with his arms taped and a bomb placed on the controls. Kurov asked how they had gotten the explosives and the guns through security, but the male Hydra agent told him that that was their little secret.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3 - BTS) - As the Skrull Kill Krew slaughtered the Hydra agents they encountered, agents on the other side of the terminal announced that Kurov's jet had just landed, right on schedule. Captain America subsequently took down Hydra's ground base Delta.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3) - Kurov asked how they had gotten the explosives and the guns through security, but the male Hydra agent told him that that was their little secret.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3 - BTS) - After Ryder assaulted Strucker, Strucker had his agent Muller fetch the detonator.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3 (fb) - BTS) - Strucker had the detonator armed.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3) - As a light on the bomb began flashing, Amy told Kurov that she thought that she had told him not to touch anything, but he told her that it wasn't him and that someone must have detonated it.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3 - BTS) - After Amy rushed into the passenger section of the plane and noted that it was going to blow up in five minutes, Kimberly Dee tore open the locked emergency door, allowing departure.

    Strucker fled with Muller.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3) - After the Skrull Kill Krew arrived to assist in the plane's evacuation and take out other Hydra agents, Kurov fled, and Kimberly looked at him and recognized him as a Skrull.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3 - BTS) - Riot tired to deactivate the bomb, and when it exploded anyway, she survived by transforming into her insectoid hardbody form. kurov-wassily-imposter-skrulls!

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3) - As Kurov fled through the airport, Ryder, recognizing him as a Skrull, told him that he assumed that he was in town to meet with other Skrull world leaders and make Skrull plans.

    Although Kurov appeared as a Skrull in Ryder's vision, he was still human-appearing to everyone else, and he continued to feign innocence and ignorance of what Ryder was talking about. Ryder fired on Kurov, but Captain America blocked the shots with his shield. Kurov verbally thanked God for Captain America's protection, and Cap told him to take cover until the security forces arrived.

(Skrull Kill Krew I#3 - BTS) - After advising Captain America that he had poorly judged Kurov, Ryder told Captain America that if he knew what Ryder knew, he would be ashamed to wear the USA's colors; Ryder subsequently vanished.

(SKRULLS!) - Compiling for Veranke his Warbook Files of Skrulls who had interactions with Earth, Chancellor Kal'Du analyzed the Wassily Kurov impostor, noting that their intelligence agents had been unable to detect his current location. However, Ka'Du considered that his poor performance under the fire of the Skrull Kill Krew indicated that he would not be worth employing for their final secret invasion.

Comments: Created by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Steve Yowell.

    I don't think it was clear in the Skrull Kill Krew's stories whether the Wassily Kurov skrull had replaced the president or whether he had been just adopted the identity of Kurov and then ascended to the role of president. The Skrulls! files book confirmed that the Skrull had replaced the Slovenian leader.

    So, why wouldn't Kurov have just extended a digit and slain Amy when she was guarding him, slithered out of his bonds, and then ambushed and slain the male Hydra agent on the plane? Presumably metamorphic abilities and combat abilities vary significantly amongst Skrulls, and Kurov may only have been able to shift between his Skrull and Kurov forms.

    Ryder led the Skrull Kill Krew to Dulles to recruit Kimberly Dee. I don't think he went there knowing that "Wassily Kurov" was a Skrull impostor nor that he was not expecting the involvement of Hydra. However, at some point he realized that "Kurov" was a Skrull...presumably having sensed it himself, as we didn't see any dialog between Ryder and Kimberly Dee before Ryder assaulted "Kurov."

    Wassily Korov's hair was white in the final page of his appearances when he encountered Ryder and Captain America when it was clearly brown in every previous appearance. Perhaps he was in the middle of taking on another appearance when Ryder confronted him, and Captain America had never met him before.
    Or maybe it was an "art error."

    Such a squandered opportunity with the Skrulls! book. It was in-universe, where the Skrull Empire would have had knowledge of everyone's identity, etc., and so there was no reason for anything to be left unrevealed...but no new information was provided. It is a valuable collection of Skrulls, the analyses were well and interestingly-written, and it was a fun read, but...at least inadvertently, it did confirm that the skrull impostor had replaced the true leader of Slovenia.

    This profile was completed 05/31/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event.
    Thanks to Loki for suggesting Wassily to represent the Skrull Kill Krew characters and stories for the event.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Wassily Kurov impostor should be distinguished from:


images: (without ads)
Skrull Kill Krew I#2, pg. 6, panel 2 (served a drink);
       pg. 7, panel 2 (bound, with explosives);
    #3, pg. 18, panel 1 (fleeing, full-body);
          panel 3 (Skrull form) - used in the image from Skrulls!
Appearances:
Skrull Kill Krew I#2-3 (October-November, 1995) - Grant Morrison & Mark Millar (writers), Steve Yowell (penciler), Chris Ivy (inker), Tom Brevoort (editor)

SKRULLS! (September, 2008) - Ronald Byrd, Michael Hoskin, Gabriel Shechter, John Rhett Thomas, Stuart Vandal & Jeph York (writers); John Rhett Thomas (editor), Cory Levine & John Denning (assistant editors), Jennifer Grunwald & Mark D. Beazley (editors, special projects), Jeff Youngquist (senior editor, special projects)

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#10 (November, 2009) <Skrulls entry> - Jeff Christiansen, Stuart Vandal, & Sean McQuaid (head writers/coordinators), Mike Fichera, Madison Carter, Markus Raymond, & Mike O'Sullivan (coordination assistants), Mike Fichera, Ronald Byrd, Michael Hoskin, Madison Carter, Mike O'Sullivan, Rob London, Eric J. Moreels, Markus Raymond, David Wiltfong, Gabriel Shechter, Richard Green, Jacob Rougemont, Chris Biggs, Mark O'English, & Anthony Flamini (writers), Brian Overton (copy editor), John Denning & Alex Starbuck (assistant editors), Mark D. Beazley (editor, special projects), Jeff Youngquist & Jennifer Grunwald (editors)

First posted: 09/30/2026
Last updated: 05/31/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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