EMPRESS R'KLLL

Real Name: R'Klll

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Skrull)

Occupation: Empress of the Skrulls

Group Membership: Leader of the Skrull Empire (or at least a large section of it)

Affiliations: Aptak, Bartak, Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), Lilandra Neramani, Raksor, Supreme Intelligence, Zedrao

Enemies: Adora, Avengers (Captain America/Steve Rogers, Goliath/Clint Barton, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, Thor, Vision/"Victor Shade"), Black Bolt (Blackagar Boltagon), Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), Doctor Stephen Strange, Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Girl/Susan Richards-Storm, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm), Galactus, Kree, Krimonn, Nova (Frankie Raye), Professor X (Charles Xavier), Franklin Storm, Sub-Mariner, Prime Thoran, Veranke, Waziliah

Known Relatives: Anelle (daughter, deceased), Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell, unofficial son-in-law, deceased), Dezan (brother-in-law), Dorrek VII (husband, deceased), Dorrek VIII (aka Hulkling/Theodore 'Teddy' Altman, illegitmate grandson) ,Talos the Tamed, S'Byll (distant relatives)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Skrullworld (formerly known as Tarnax IV), Skrull Empire

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#206 (May 1979)

Powers/Abilities: R'Klll possessed the shapeshifting abilities common to most Skrulls. She was a ruthless, devious strategist who had little patience with or tolerance for for the mistakes of others. That included her late husband Dorrek VII, who she killed herself.

(Fantastic Four I#206 (fb) ) - R'Klll was the oldest daughter of the Skrull Emperor who was murdered by a power hungry Dorrek VII. He married the reluctant R'Klll who eventually bore him a daughter they named Anelle.

(Fantastic Four I#48 - BTS) - Dorrek VII ordered the entire solar system blacked out and silenced when they sensed the approach of the world devourer Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer.

(Young Avengers I#10 (fb) - BTS) - Anelle gave birth to R'Klll's illegitimate grandson, naming him Dorrek VIII, but her father ordered the infant put to death when he learned the father's identity. The child's nurse snuck him off-world.

(Fantastic Four I#205 - BTS) - Commanding a Skrull attack force headed to destroy the planet Xandar, R'Klll's husband Dorrek VII grew frustrated when he learned the Fantastic Four had helped save the planet. Dorrek ordered the destruction of his hated Earth foes.

(Fantastic Four I#206) - Dorrek was thrilled when the Fantastic Four (minus the Human Torch) were captured and exposed to a metabolic booster that rapidly aged them. The FF managed to escape captivity, but Dorrek let them go. He figured the team would die of old age within days anyway. R'Klll questioned Dorrek's judgment, though, and he privately vowed to soon see her dead....unaware she was planning the same fate for him.

(Fantastic Four I#209) - Dorrek was furious to learn that the Xandarian Prime Thoran was holding off the Skrull fleet near Xandar. Figuring he might be in danger so relatively close to a one man army, Dorrek ordered to have him taken back to homeworld and out of harm's way. Disgusted at her husband's cowardice, R'Klll turned her lower arm into a laser gun and shot Dorrek in the back. In the wake of his death, she took over the Skrull Empire and discreetly retreated from the Xandarian conflict.

(X-Men I#137 - BTS) - Prior to capturing Dark Phoenix, Shi'ar Majestrix Lilandra Neramani contacted both the Kree Supreme Intelligence and Empress R'Klll to determine what the other galactic empires felt was the proper course of action regarding Dark Phoenix. The general agreement was that the Phoenix-entity ought to be expunged.

(X-Men I#137) - Charles Xavier tried to save Phoenix's life by decreeing the ancient Shi'ar honor duel, the Arinn'nn Haelar. Bel-Dann, a representative of the Kree, protested that this Shi'ar rule was in violation of the intergalactic agreement subscribed to by the Skrull, Kree and Shi'ar empires. Upon consulting R'Klll and the Supreme Intelligence, it was agreed that Xavier's request for the Arinn'nn Haelar could be honored, even with the lack of intergalactic jurisprudence.

(Fantastic Four Annual#18 (fb) ) - Feeling that the encounter between the X-Men and the Shi'ar Imperial Guard would be a fine opportunity to once and for all determine who had really won the long, overly drawn out conflict between the Kree and the Skrulls, R'Klll and the Supreme Intelligence decided to have loyal Kree and Skrull officers Bel-Dann and Raksor remain on the Blue Area of the Moon for an extended duel. The winner would also represent which galactic power had proven victorious. Assigning the Moon's resident Watcher Uatu as an impartial judge, the conflict began.

(Marvel Graphic Novel#1 - BTS) - Learning that Captain Mar-Vell was suffering from incurable cancer, the Skrull imperial council decided to honor their implacable foe with the royal Skrull medal of valor, one of their highest commendations (see comments).

(Silver Surfer III#14 (fb) - BTS) - R'Klll ordered that the experienced espionage officer Bartak accompanied Zedrao as he went to Titan to honor the dying Captain Mar-Vell. Reasoning there might be other Earth super-heroes present, Bartak was to infiltrate and learn as much as possible about them. He chose the form of Devil-Slayer (Eric Simon Payne), figuring there was little chance the original would be there. When Devil-Slayer actually was present, Bartak shifted into the Silver Surfer's form.

(Fantastic Four Annual#18 - BTS) - Months after the conclusion of the Phoenix conflict, both Bel-Dann and Raksor continued to fight on behalf of the Supreme Intelligence and Empress R'Klll. Their violent struggle eventually drew in the Inhuman Royal Family who had since relocated to the Blue Area of the Moon and the visiting Fantastic Four, who were present to attend the wedding of Black Bolt and Medusa. After unsuccesfully trying to intervene and resolve this brutal tug of war between the evenly matched Kree and Skrull warriors, Mr. Fantastic enlisted the Watcher's help. With Uatu's assistance, Reed Richards helped to sell the idea that both parties had managed to attain victory, because they cooperated against the FF and the Inhumans. Uatu then returned both combatants to their native people.

(Fantastic Four I#249 (fb) - BTS) - R'Klll authorized the mission against the FF by agents who had trained themselves to duplicate members of the X-Men.

(Silver Surfer III#6 (fb) - BTS) - Empress R'Klll borrowed male intelligence agent Aptak from Warlord Kylor and sent him (in female form) to spy on the Waziliah (from the planet Waziliah).

(Fantastic Four I#257) - Galactus' new herald Nova (formerly Frankie Raye of Earth) led the world eater to Tarnax IV, better known as the Skrull Homeworld. Because Nova remembered the location of the Skrull planet from her time with the Fantastic Four, she wasn't fooled by the Skrulls' attempts to hide from her. Nova easily destroyed the Skrull space fleet that had scrambled to protect Homeworld. Meanwhile, an enraged R'Klll demanded to know why Galactus had found the Skrull galaxy after uncounted millenia of safety. Before she could beat an answer out of her underlings, she was joined by her daughter Anelle who was confused about what was going on. Resigning herself to the fate that was about to befall them, R'Klll told Anelle she had hoped her daughter would have slept through the end of the world. She comforted Anelle, assuring her there was no way to escape, just as the royal palace collapsed around them and Galactus showed up to consume the planet.

(Secret Invasion: Skrulls!) - Several years after her death, R'Klll's Skrull Warbook file was written by Skrull Chancellor Kal'Du by order of queen Veranke. He praised R'Klll's hardline stance towards Earth and the Shi'ar, claiming it might have been crucial in the destruction of the Dark Phoenix entity. However, as Kal'Du pointed out, there are others who claim the loss of the Skrull Skrullworld might have been prevented if she had spent more money on border security.

Comments: Created by Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard, Joe Sinnott.

If you look closely at the first panel on page 6 of Fantastic Four I#209, then you'll see that R'Klll is shown holding a laser gun in her right hand. The only reason why it looks like she shot him with her own hand in the previous panel is because the weapon is equipped with a sheath which fits over the wielder's own hand and forearm.
--Don Campbell

There seems to be some uncertainty about exactly which Skrull Empress was the niece of Talos. Some online sources claim that Talos was Empress S'Byll's uncle while others claim that he was R'Klll's uncle. In any event, if he was R'Klll's uncle, then the Incredible Hulk II#419 (fb) in which he is returned to the Skrulls after the end of the Kree/Skrull War and his niece offers him the chance to regain his honor by committing suicide but he refuses again would take place soon after the Kree/Skrull War storyline (in Avengers I#89-97) but, probably, before Anelle gave birth in Young Avengers I#10 (fb).
--Don Campbell

Talos was confirmed as S'Byll's uncle in Talos' handbook profile. This fact was approved by Hulk writer Peter David, which means S'Byll was the one offering him the chance to commit suicide after his imprisonment.
--Markus Raymond

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Empress R'Klll has no known connections to

• any other "Empress" or "R'Klll" characters
  

images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four I#209, p6, pan6 (main image)
X-Men I#137, p6, pan3 (on screen)
Fantastic Four I#257, p9, pan1-2 (with Anelle)

Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#206 (May, 1979) - Marv Wolfman (writer), Keith Pollard (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks), Marv Wolfman, Jim Shooter (editors)
Fantastic Four I#209 (August, 1979) - Marv Wolfman (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks), Marv Wolfman, Jim Shooters (editors)
X-Men I#137 (September, 1980) - Chris Claremont, John Byrne (writers), John Byrne (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), Jim Salicrup, Louise Jones (editors)
Fantastic Four I#257 (August, 1983) - John Byrne (writer, pencils, inks), Al Milgrom, Ann Nocenti (editors)
Fantastic Four Annual#18 (August, 1984) - John Byrne (writer), Mark Bright (pencils), Mike Gustovich (inks), Michael Carlin (editors)

Last updated: 09/30/13

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