Reflections #19 - Super Skrull #2

'Child? I see no child. You forget Richards, that we are a race of shape-shifters. R'Kin's true age is unknown even to me.'

My biggest disappointment with issue #2 is that it really seems like they aren't going to have much mystery as to whether the "kid" really is a kid. After Super Skrull's comments in issue #1, I figured that might be a running subplot, clues scattered here and there. But looking at it another way, I suppose the statement by Super Skrull could be construed as part of his pragmatic nature.

Sure, R'Kin acts like a starstruck kid, but he is a shape-shifter, so who knows. The Skrulls are pretty renown for their espionage, so it's unwise to take anything at face value, and much wiser to take fewer chances. That kind of attitude seems to guide most of what he does. K'lrt is a loyal soldier of the Skrull Empire, but he's no blind-eyed kamikaze or sycophant. He wasn't going to stick around and keep fighting on Aks'Lo when the Harvester of Sorrows had arrived, and there were no other Skrulls to fight with. Better to take off and fight again. He did his best to respect the orders of the Baroness S'Bak, but eventually he realized that this petty warlord was more interested in maintaining a grip on what she'd grabbed for herself, then fighting for the greater good of the Empire. So he socked her one, tore through her troops, and went to do his own thing. Of course, she also insulted him, so he may just have been mad about that. Super Skrull isn't above getting some enjoyment out of inflicting pain.

Like he said to R'Kin, the fellow that gave him information could also have alerted the Annihilation Wave that Super Skrull was tearing through the Negative Zone, which makes life more difficult for our heroes, err, protagonist. Nor did he want to fight those prisoners, but if they were going to interfere with his interrogation, then he'd would pummel him, but only until they'd calmed down enough that he could make them an offer to fight with him. I also thought it was a nice touch that before that fight started he dropped a rock on Hawal's legs so he couldn't escape. Not life-threatening, but effectively preventing escape.

Know how I said that attitude determines most of his actions? Yeah, that seems to go out the window when he thinks of his kid. Charging right into a force field that destroys organic matter, relying strictly on confidence that his force field will protect him. That could be seen as awareness of his abilities, or letting your emotions get the best of you. Sure, it's mostly a derivative plot device (had we ever heard of Super Skrull having a son before this?), but it's giving the series a bit of a Die Hard feel for me. That's a good thing if you don't know.

Back to R'Kin, his fear and thoughts of escape seem like a good indicator that he is what he appears to be. I think if they had planned to keep it up in the air as to hsi identity, not giving him an internal monologue would have been best. The moment when he opened the door and shouted "Everybody freeze!" he looks kind of frightening, not like a scared child. If we aren't seeing what he's been thinking, it's raises some doubts. Just a thought.

One final thing. When the Super Skrull was beating on Hawal, he seemed to be knocking the viscous green fluid out of him. But when you see Hawal afterwards, he doesn't look any different. Sigh, couldn't they have at least shown him missing a mandible or something? Ah well, minor beef.

I'm wondering whether the Harvester will be destroyed within this mini-series, or the Annihilation series itself?