Avengers Annual, The (1967 series) #14

Story continues from AVENGERS #260.

A band of Skrull warriors led by Raksor attacks Klarr, the Skrull prison planet, and frees the notorious criminal Prince Dezan, who wears a metal mask to inhibit his shapeshifting powers. Many of the assault team are killed but Dezan is rescued….

The Avengers (Captain America, Starfox, Wasp, Hercules, Black Knight, Captain Marvel) are surveying the captured Sanctuary II now that the space battle has ended. The mercenaries are defeated though their leader Nebula has escaped. General Zedrao shows them Firelord, in stasis in the sick bay after his injuries (AVENGERS #260). The Avengers are concerned about Nebula. Zedrao suggests that the sensor grid on the old Imperial Power Asteroid can perhaps be modified to track the villainess. Team leader Wasp agrees to this so they head out in Starfox’s Titanian starship with Skrull escort. They jump though subspace and the modern Earthers are surprised to see World War I biplanes sailing toward them. The Skrull escort, Syrro, informs them that the Skrull colony on Kral patterns their society after Earth culture in the 1930s, even maintaining human form. The biplanes take the Avengers to a massive zeppelin; once inside, Skrulls looking like Earth gangsters try to kill them but Captain Marvel and Wasp easily subdue them. The place is called Big Casino and they meet the boss, Floyd Donahue, who resembles Humphrey Bogart in CASABLANCA. The Avengers admire the place while Starfox grows impatient. Donahue introduces the group to Prince Dezan, his special guest. Syrro explains he is a traitor to the Skrulls; Dezan warns them of a bigger threat: he describes how his former comrade Zabyk has seized control of the Power Asteroid where scientist Myrn has created the ultimate weapon, to change everything overnight. Warrior Raksor learned of the scheme and freed Dezan, the only Skrull who could stop Zabyk. Syrro and Raksor quarrel over the matter and Starfox offers the Avengers to solve the problem. This earns him a rebuke from Cap and Wasp for forgetting the chain of command. Wasp proposes a plan of attack….

A plane from Big Casino lands on the Power Asteroid claiming to have power stones that need recharging. The Skrull gangsters are Cap, Starfox, Hercules, and Dezan in disguise with the crate of “stones” containing Wasp and Black Knight; the trap is sprung and the guards are overpowered. Captain Marvel searches the base for the weapon, disrupting monitors and defensive systems as she goes….

Zabyk discovers the Avengers are aboard and panics; Myrn tells him the Hyperwave Bomb is primed, all that needs be done is to trigger the bombardment switch. Myrn has Zabyk enter the insulated armor, which only a Skrull with shapeshifting abilities can manage. Once inside the suit, Zabyk kills Myrn and prepares to rule the universe….

Making their way through the power station, the Avengers encounter Thor, leading a team of Rigellians with the same goal in mind. But an innocuous question exposes Thor and his allies as Skrulls and they are easily overpowered. Then She-Hulk rips her way through a bulkhead, followed by the rest of the Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch) to face the Avengers. It takes a few awkward moments for each team to recognize that the others are the authentic Earth heroes and they decide to join forces. Zabyk broadcasts a message to the heroes boasting of his big plans. As Dezan argues with him, Captain Marvel enters the machine to burn it out, discovers that she is in a huge dimensional interface and that interference will endanger the universe and exits the machine in less time than it takes Reed Richards to warn her not to. Zabyk hits the switch and all over the galaxy, Skrulls have their genetic codes stabilized, eliminating their ability to change shape. Zabyk is now trapped in the insulated armor, though it did not protect him. Dezan and Captain America explain that, without the ability to change their bodies, all Skrulls are equal, which would be the basis for a stable and peaceable society….

Epilogue: On their way home, the Avengers learn that General Zedrao is taking the pragmatic view of the new situation, any attempts to track Nebula have been rendered useless by the energy wave, and why was Price Dezan considered such a dangerous traitor to the Skrulls? He wanted peace….

This story is paralleled in FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #19.

The Avengers continue in AVENGERS #261.