Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Captain Marvel is fighting 2 aliens and a robot we've never seen before, and neither has he. He defeats them but the robot sends a report to his Masterlord and teleports them both away. Mar-Vell chats with Rick Jones in the Negative Zone and says that his power level seems halved. Masterlord is still watching and says that's what his robot detected. He wants some info from the Captain and sends Squadron S to begin Operation Kree Crusher.
Operative S-1 disguised as a policeman calls on Prof Savannah and shoots him dead. Captain Marvel flies there because he thinks his power loss may be linked to the photon-ray treatment Savannah used to save Rick's life in #22. The Kree Captain uses the Nega-Bands to trade places with Rick so it is the youth who finds the dead body.
Then the 'cop' accuses him of murder. And Rick's girlfriend Lou-Ann Savannah claims that she saw him do it. The cop slugs and handcuffs him before he can change to Mar-Vell, and Masterlord warns S-2 to get ready. The cop takes Jones to a precinct house and leaves him in a dingy office without a lawyer. Now Rick has the chance to clash his Nega-Bands despite the handcuffs. Mar-Vell arrives and now *he*'s in the cuffs. And they seem strangely strong, but he does break free.
Suddenly the Kree hero is attacked by the Kree Ronan the Accuser (who is supposed to be in stasis in the Kree Empire since the end of the Kree-Skrull War in Avengers #97). But Ronan teleports away before Mar-Vell can hit him. Then Megaton (supposedly killed in #23) smashes through the door and into our hero. And pops away. Next it's the turn of CM's also-dead (#18) nemesis Yon-Rogg. And the Hulk (they fought in #22). Then Kree Minister Zarek (the man behind Zo in #11-16), the Metazoid (#5), an Aakon warrior (#8-9) and Sub-Mariner (#4).
The confused Kree warrior is then confronted apparently by himself and Rick Jones. His mind snaps and he is exchanged for the real Rick. False Rick puts a Psycho-Probe helmet on real Rick. The fakes reveal themselves to be shape-changing Skrulls, the Super-Skrull and 1 named Skragg. They quibble as to whether it was Skragg's plan or SS's strength that won the day.
Skragg reports the success of his plan to Masterlord. He (unnecessarily but for our benefit) explains how it was done. The boss had observed Marvel's periodic weakness and Skragg had deduced that the photon-ray bombardment of Rick Jones had changed the body he shared with the Captain so that it was now solar-powered. Thus at night he had less power. Skragg was the 'cop' and Lou-Ann was under Masterlord's control, Skragg and Super-Skrull tag-teamed as Mar-Vell's foes. And now the Psycho-Probe is extracting the desired information on the Neg Zone.
But Rick Jones has removed said helmet. He had been suspicious (because of the cop's dress uniform and the too-shabby office), and he and Mar-Vell had played along to learn what was going on. Now he brings CM in for revenge for the death of the Prof.
Captain Marvel and Super-Skrull (using his inbuilt powers of the Human Torch and the Thing) have knock-down drag-out fight which ends by bringing the building down on them. The Skrull escapes from the wreckage to meet Skragg. When he says that Mar-Vell is dead Skragg says that Masterlord will be angry at the loss of his source of information. But they teleport back to base anyway.
After they've gone we learn that Captain Marvel escaped too. But now with his energy depleted he's swapped with Rick again. And they swear to get answers about who Masterlord is and why Lou-Ann betrayed Rick.