Annihilation: Super-Skrull (2006 series) #2

It's Annihilation Day + 52 and Super-Skrull and R'kin are in the Negative Zone where the Annihilation Wave came from. This issue's voiceover is by R'kin. He reminds us that 7 days ago he was a lowly mechanic in the Skrull Imperial Starfleet. 6 days ago he was 'drafted' into the war against the A-Wave by his childhood idol Super-Skrull (actually *he* rescued the outlaw SS from other Skrulls). 5 days ago he and Kl'rt walked through a dimensional doorway to the Neg-Zone (courtesy of Reed Richards in the Baxter Building). The intention was to recruit an army of rebel NZers to destroy the Wave's super-weapon the Harvester Of Sorrow which threatens all Skrull worlds including the 1 that Kl'rt's son lives on.

That all happened last issue, but now R'kin tells us some of what's happened in between. 4 days ago SS took over an NZ spaceship and ejected its 6 occupants into space. Since then he's been infiltrating military bases to learn about the weapon. As well as being a shape-shifting Skrull SS has the powers of the Fantastic Four including invisibility. But his actions have involved interrogating and then killing high-ranking officers so military security is now high, so he's going to need R'kin's help with his next target.

R'kin thinks his time to be a hero has come, but his job is merely to keep watch outside. However when he hears sounds of 'battle' he dashes in with gun raised he finds that Kl'rt has already defeated the alien bugs and is now persuading 1 to talk. The NZer tells him that the Harvester is an indestructible living organism created by the scientist Hawal who is now in charge of the prison planetoid in the Nexus Of Igoa where he experiments on the inmates. SS lets the bug go but then incinerates him with the flame of Human Torch (and presumably any others that were still alive).

R'kin is beginning to realise Super-Skrull isn't the pure hero he'd admired. He protests at the latest murder(s) but Kl'rt points out that he couldn't let them tell anyone who they were and what they wanted. R'kin mentions the stories his father told him about Kl'rt's valour and honour. But SS says the father did what he had to do as a warrior when he died in the Battle Of Harkoon. However R'kin still now thinks his 'hero' is evil.

It's A-Day + 55 and they've reached Prison Planetoid UX-73 and R'kin detects a field around it that will destroy any organic matter that tries to pass though in either direction. He offers to construct a protective capsule but Super-Skrull trusts his force-field and Thing-like invulnerability to get him through and just dives in powered by HT-flame (for his son's sake). R'kin starts to re-evaluate heroism because he sees Kl'rt fighting for a people who have rejected him. And maybe you can only defeat evil with evil.

The prison's defence control detect Super-Skrull's approach but don't have time to react before he's smashed the control tower. Then he fights his way through armed guards. But the destroyed control tower has also let all the prisoners escape. Lord Hawal tries to escape in his personal spacecraft but SS stops it taking off with an Invisible Woman forcefield. Kl'rt extracts Hawal from the crashing vessel and beats him up to get him to reveal how to stop the Harvester. The bug admits he could make a virus to kill it.

At this point a bunch of escapees interrupt to wreak revenge on their torturing jailer. 2 are named, a female Praxagora and a huge male Preak, and they're not inclined to let SS have their prey. He drops a large chunk of masonry on to Hawal's legs to stop him escaping and then turns to face his new opponents. Preak leaps on him and SS hits him with a Thing-fist, but that just causes the foe to duplicate. After 10 minutes of fighting there are a horde of (smaller?) Preaks piling on our 'hero'. SS stretch's out a Mr Fantastic arm tipped with a huge hand and shovels all the Preaks into a nearby cave which he then seals shut with flame. But a single Preak escapes and surrenders. Praxagora blasts SS with superheated plasma but his HT component allows Kl'rt to absorb all the heat and blast it back at her.

He then makes the prisoners (the few that are in this group) an offer. They can join him and take their revenge on the society that put them in this prison. They accept and he deactivates the defence shield to let R'kin bring their spaceship down to pick his new army up.