shuttlecraft MORAG
Classification: Extraterrestrial (Kree) short-range space vehicle
Creator: Unrevealed Kree engineers/technicians
User/Possessors: Captain Mar-Vell (deceased)
Aliases: None
First Appearance: The Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1 (April, 1997)
Powers/Abilities/Functions: The shuttlecraft Morag was a small space vehicle that seemed to be capable of transporting only one or two human-sized individuals at a time. It seemed to have no offensive or defensive capabilities and thus would not have been suitable for use in a combat zone (i.e., as an assault landing craft, a boarding craft or a dropship).
No information about the limits on its range has been made available. While it could apparently transport personnel between the surfaces of planets and starships (or spacedocks) in orbit of said planets, it's not known if it was capable of interplanetary travel (between planets within a star system). Since there's no evidence that the Morag was equipped with warp engines, it was presumably completely incapable of interstellar travel (unless carried by a larger starship).
Since the shuttlecraft was apparently only intended to make trips that were of short duration, its life-support systems may not have been capable of sustaining occupants for prolonged periods of time. Its small flight deck only had room for two seats, one for the pilot and the other for a co-pilot or a passenger. The shuttle was pressurized so the occupants could travel without having to wear spacesuits with helmets, and it did not seem to have an airlock. The only point of access was a gull wing hatch on the left side that could swing up to allow people to enter or exit the vehicle.
This shuttlecraft may have been equipped with fully-retractable landing struts but, if it did, those struts was completely undetectable when retracted. On the other hand, it may not have had any landing gear at all and instead had to land in special cradles that were presumably standard features in the shuttle bays of Kree starships or on Kree bases.
Shuttlecraft of this type all had two widely-separated vertical prongs that extended 2-3 feet straight up from the top of the hull. While they might have been antennas or sensor towers, their actual function/purpose has never been revealed.
This shuttlecraft’s only apparent source of propulsion was a single rocket engine located at the stern which left a trail of yellow exhaust behind it. Since there were no apparent flight control surfaces (i.e., ailerons, elevators or rudders) or reaction control system (i.e., maneuvering thrusters), it remains unclear exactly how the pilot controlled the shuttlecraft's course in flight, whether in an atmosphere or in space.
The cockpit was presumably equipped with navigational instruments that supplemented the information the pilot could receive by looking out the large forward-facing window.
Since it lacked any wings, the shuttlecraft had an appearance that was entirely non-aerodynamic.
History: The Morag was a small auxiliary space vehicle used by the Kree Imperial Star Fleet to transport personnel to and from starships. No details about its construction and where it was stationed have ever been provided.
(Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, the Morag was attached to a Kree military base that may have been located on the planet Kree-Lar (see comments).
(Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1) - After the failure of the Tarsis operation, Captain Mar-Vell reported to the office of Colonel Hez-Tarr at Regional Command on Kree-Lar. After berating Mar-Vell for his recent lapse in judgment and stating that, if it were solely his decision, he would see Mar-Vell stripped of rank and sentenced to stockade for the rest of his life, the colonel reluctantly acknowledged that it was not his decision to make. Colonel Hez-Tarr tossed Mar-Vell a mini-player containing new orders from Central Command, then he dismissed Captain Mar-Vell and told him to remove himself from the colonel's sight. Once outside the building, Mar-Vell played the holographic orders that commanded him to report for duty to the Imperial starcruiser Pama.
(conjecture) -Captain Mar-Vell then presumably went to the Kree equivalent of a motor pool at an unspecified military installation where he presumably signed out a shuttlecraft.
(Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1) - Captain Mar-Vell then piloted the shuttlecraft Morag up to the orbiting spacedock where the Pama was being prepared for her next mission.
As he approached the starship, Captain Mar-Vell sent a radio message, saying, "This is the shuttlecraft Morag, requesting landing instructions." The flight control officer (?) replied, "Copy, Morag. You are cleared for landing in Shuttle Bay 2."
Mar-Vell then piloted the Morag into the shuttle bay and landed it on the deck (see comments).
As Mar-Vell exited the shuttlecraft, the flight controller radioed him a final message, "Welcome aboard." As Mar-Vell stood on the deck looking around, he was greeted by Colenel Yon-Rogg who introduced himself as the Pama's number two and said that he had been awaiting the captain's arrival and that his reputation had preceded him. They were soon joined by Medic Una who said that she had just come down to get a look at the new recruit.
The Morag was presumably still in that shuttle bay when the Pama departed on its covert mission to Absolom Sector.
(Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#3 - BTS) - Later, on a Brood-infested planet, when Mar-Vell's sabotage caused the Pama to explode, the Morag was presumably destroyed along with it.
Comments: Created by Tom Brevoort with Mike Kanterovich, Scott Kolins and John Lowe.
The main image is cropped from the bottom third of the full page image that was page 11 in The Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1. In that original image, three other shuttlecraft that look exactly like the Morag can be seen flying around the imperial cruiser Pama as it rested within the orbiting spacedock. In two panels on page 12, a fourth shuttlecraft can be seen in the background, already parked within shuttle bay 2 as the Morag enters the bay and lands. That full page image also included four more moons (besides the two visible in the cropped image) in orbit around the planet, plus another starship within another spacedock (only part of which can be seen in the upper right corner of this profile's main image).
This profile contains the only three images that show the Morag from the outside, plus the one image that shows some of its interior while Mar-Vell was piloting it.
Based on the image that shows a shadowy figure (presumably Mar-Vell) stepping out of the shuttlecraft, I would estimate that the Morag was no more than three feet taller than Mar-Vell's 6-foot height. It also seemed to be slightly wider than it was tall and was perhaps 30% longer than it was tall. All in all, I would estimate that the Morag was (very roughly) 8-9 feet tall, 10 feet wide, and maybe 12 feet long. Whatever its actual dimensions, this type of shuttlecraft was definitely much smaller than a Kree evac transport.
Although I've presumed that the Morag remained in the shuttle bay on the Pama after Mar-Vell landed it there, there is actually nothing in-story to establish/confirm this idea. It's equally possible that, sometime after Mar-Vell arrived on the Pama, someone else used the Morag to travel down to the planet or to another starship. It all depends on whether these shuttlecraft have permanent home ports to which they are attached and to which they must be returned after being used. The alternative is that these shuttlecraft are regarded as mobile assets that can just be moved around as needed. However, such a flexibility seems rather unlike the very regimented nature of the Kree race.
Around what planet was the spacedock orbiting?
During the scene in which Captain Mar-Vell meets with Colonel Hez-Tarr, the
location caption reads "Regional Command, Kree-Lar." This presumably is meant to indicate that this Regional
Command was located on the planet Kree-Lar and it would be logical to presume that the Pama was in
orbit above that planet. However, Commander
Zen-Pram later recorded in his log that, after having broken spacedock and set course for Absolom Sector,
the imperial starcruiser Pama had erected an Aura of Negativism "once beyond Halaspace." If Halaspace
is meant to be the Kree equivalent of Earthspace, then it refers to the volume of space dominated by Hala's gravity,
which would seem to suggest that the spacedock was orbiting the planet Hala. Complicating this situation is the
fact that, thanks to Chris Claremont, "Kree-Lar" is not just the name of the capitol planet of the Kree Empire, it is
also the name of the planet-girdling throne-city on Hala where the Supreme Intelligence was based.
Accordingly, there are two ways in which these events can be interpreted. The first is that Regional Command was on the planet Kree-Lar and the spacedock was in orbit around Hala. This would mean that Mar-Vell had to travel from Kree-Lar to Hala and then up to the spacedock. However, there is no mention of such a journey in the story.
The other possibility is that Regional Command was located in the city of Kree-Lar on the planet Hala and that the spacedock was orbiting somewhere above it. This would mean that, after leaving Hez-Tarr's office, Mar-Vell just had to find a local motor pool in order to obtain the shuttlecraft he needed to transport him up to the Pama in spacedock. I prefer this explanation because it acknowledges the inconsistency in the story and explains it away without having to introduce any new story element (like a BTS voyage between planets).
The frustrating thing about this situation is that, although there is a significant difference between the two options, both of them are equally plausible. As such, there's no way for any reader to say with any certainty where the spacedock was located.
Just to make things more confusing: In The Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#3, Mar-Vell tells Lady Deathbird to escort himslef, Colonel Yon-Rogg and Medic Una to the Kree homeworld, and the Shi'ar regent responds by ordering her ship's helmsman to adjust course for Kree-Lar. Mar-Vell and Una are next seen in Central Medical on Kree-Lar before they take a shuttlecraft up to their new assignment on Yon-Rogg's new ship which he (mistakenly) calls the Hala (instead of the Helion). So, either Lady Deathbird deliberately took the three Kree survivors to a different Kree planet or the writer was not aware of the fact that the Kree homeworld has actually always been Hala and not Kree-Lar.
There's also the fact that, while the Pama was still in spacedock in The Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1, a communications link with "the homeworld" was established so that Prime Minister Zarek and the Supremor could brief Commander Zen-Pram and his officers on their new mission. In this situation, was the communications link between two different star systems? Or was it just from the surface of a single planet to a starship in orbit around it? Once again, either interpretation is possible, depending on whether or not the writer knew (or thought) that Kree-Lar and Hala were (or weren't) different planets.
By the way, does anyone know exactly what the Kree military calls itself? Is it separated into different branches, like armies and navies and air forces and space forces? Or, given that the Kree Empire is an interstellar political entity which carries out military operations on many different planets, is everything considered to be part of a single all-encompassing Imperial Star Fleet? Offhand, I can't think of any story in which a specific name for their military was established. Oddly, this also applies to the Skrulls.
Profile by Donald Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Kree shuttlecraft Morag is presumably named after:
images: (without ads)
The Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1, page 11, panel 1 (main image)
page 12, panels 1-2 (landing)
page 12, panel 3 (aboard)
Only Appearance:
The Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1 (April, 1997) - Tom Brevoort with Mike Kanterovich
(story), Scott Kolins (pencils), John Lowe (inks), Mark Bernardo (editor)
First Posted: 03/20/2023
Last updated: 03/20/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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