Major MON-TOGMajor MON-TOG
Real Name: Mon-Tog
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Kree) humanoid
Occupation: Commander of Kree outpost
Affiliations: Kree Empire (especially the Kree council); City-Keepers of the Stenth (notably Skornn)
Enemies: Demon-Rebels of the Stenth (notably Warkon), Falzon, Inhuman Royal Family (Black Bolt, Gorgon, Karnak, Medusa, Triton) and Lockjaw
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Mor-Tog (on the cover of Inhumans I#9)
Base of Operations: Space Station Web, not too far from the planet Stent, in the Duggil star system, Milky Way galaxy
First Appearance: (Pictured) Inhumans I#9, (encountered) Inhumans I#10 (April, 1977)
Powers/Abilities: As with any Kree, Mon-Tog possessed
enhanced human physical abilities, including strength, durability, etc. He most
likely would have been unable to breathe normally in Earth's atmosphere or any
other air with lower nitrogen content than Hala.
Mon-Tog was trained in Kree military combat and claimed to have never been defeated--before he met Black Bolt, that is. He also used a Neuro-Lance, which could shock a victim's nervous system to the point of death.
He commanded a small army of Kree warriors, similarly combat trained and armed with hand-blasters.
History:
(Inhumans I#10 (fb) - BTS) - As the "War
of the Three Galaxies" drew near, Mon-Tog was stationed as commander of the
Kree outpost that supervised the planet Stent, offering limited support to the
City-Keepers against their enemies, the Demon-Rebels.
He may also have directed the conversion of a number of humans on Earth into Kree slaves, who were to build bombs to weaken the nations of Earth, preparing it for conquest by the Kree.
(Inhumans I#10) - A short time later, a group of Demon-Rebels, led by Warkon, and accompanied by the Inhuman Royal Family (and Falzon), were tricked into entering a ship which transported them to the Kree Space Station Web. They encountered Mon-Tog and attempted to pose as City-Keepers, but Skornn, of the real City Keepers, sent a message revealing the truth.
The Inhumans and Demon-Rebels battled the Kree who tried to capture them. Mon-Tog attacked Black Bolt, battering him repeatedly with his Neuro-Lance in an effort to weaken him. However, Black Bolt's electron powers neutralized the Lance, and he succeeded in punching out Mon-Tog.
With almost all of his Demon-Rebels dead at the hands of the Kree soldiers, Warkon set the Space Station's energy supply to overload, then sent the Inhumans back to Earth.
Warkon and his last three Demon-Rebels died holding off the Kree long enough for the spacecraft carrying the Inhumans to escape before the Space Station exploded, seriously delaying the Kree's plans for conquest.
Comments: Created by Doug Moench and Keith Pollard.
On the cover of Inhumans#9, Mon-Tog (incorrectly named as
Mor-Tog) is depicted as a Blue Kree, but when actually encountered in
Inhumans I#10, he had the complexion of a human of African origins. Please,
let's not detract from a rational discussion with obsession with Political Correctness -- which is irrelevant to an alien race,
anyway -- for the remainder of this discussion.
Our own Loki was kind enough to provide a digital image from the
Inhumans Masterworks to replace the low resolution scan from 2002.
Additionally, he provided this gem:
Interestingly, the UK reprint of that story in Blockbuster correctly
recoloured the character. Since the interiors were in black and white,
leaving me no in-story image to compare it with, I remember as a kid
being confused; I knew Kree were usually blue, so I wondered if they'd
made a mistake.
--Loki
The Blue Kree are those of pure Kree origin and rule the planet despite being significantly in the minority of the total numbers.
Pink Kree are closer in appearance to Caucasian/"white" people of Earth. They were previously believed to be a race descended from the hybrid offspring of
intermarriage between Blue Kree and genetically-compatible humanoids from
alien worlds. Instead, the pale-skinned Pink Kree were the result of
experiments performed on the original "purebred" Blue Kree by the
aliens known as the Progenitors, and Hala was inhabited by both Blue Kree and
Pink Kree when the Skrulls first visited the planet.
--Donald Campbell (further discussion below)
Mon-Tog is the first and -- as far as I recall -- only significant variation from the Blue and White: a "Brown Kree." He may well have been a hybrid, from either Blue or Pink parentage, or he could come from a lesser known race of the Kree. He served as a commander of a group of otherwise Blue Kree, and was in charge of critical missions to allow the Kree to gain control over the Stenth's sector of space, and then to gain control of Earth as well. Draw your own conclusions.
Don't be fooled by the cover of Inhumans I#9. It has nothing
to do with the contents of the issue, which are only reprints of the Inhumans
stories from Amazing Adventures II#1 and 2.
According to the Marvel Database wiki, the cover
art for Inhumans I#9 was the work of Keith Pollard, Aubrey Bradford and Gaspar
Saladino. It's signed "pollard & bradford" but I have no idea what part Mr.
Saladino played in the creation of this cover.
--Donald Campbell
Mon-Tog's rank as major can be confirmed by the Kree costumes
shown in the OHotMU original and Deluxe Edition entry on the Kree.
Mon-Tog
was only addressed as "Commander" within the story.
--Donald Campbell
Mon-Tog referred to his superiors
as both "the Kree council" and "the council." Since the Supreme Council was a group,
it's odd that Mon-Tog also used the singular pronouns "his" and "he" during those
references when he should have used "their" and "them."
--Donald Campbell
According to Planet Hulk: Gladiator Guidebook#1,
a Kree Starstealth-class Assault Vessel that had departed from "a Kree Space Station Web located in the Milky
Way Galaxy's Duggil Star System" encountered the cosmic vortex known as the Great Portal which transported
it to the planet Sakaar in the Fornax Galaxy.
This starship was carrying a small arsenal of Kree Neuro-Lances which Sakaarian Imperial engineers were able
to replicate and "improve" upon in order to create the
Obedience Disks that the
Sakaarian Imperials used to control their slaves and gladiators.
--Donald Campbell
Origins of the Pink Kree supplemental information:
Royals (2017/2018), specifically Royals #5 (September, 2017) - The Progenitors engineered the
Kree
History of the Marvel Universe II#1 (September,
2019) - The Progenitors experimented on the primitive Kree, creating
blue-skinned "purebred" Kree and a larger tribe of pale-skinned
savages who were later visited by the Skrulls. The Skrulls offered the pale
Kree technology in exchange for planetary resources, testing their mettle by
having them build an outpost on Earth's Moon.
Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 (May,
2020) and Empyre: Avengers #0 (August, 2020) - There were both Blue Kree and
Pink Kree were among those chosen by the Skrulls.
Personally, I find myself wondering if this was
what writer Al Ewing really intended when he established that the reason why
the Kree were so interested in experimenting on other races was because they
had been experimented upon themselves in their prehistory. The series was
cancelled before he could definitively show that the Pink Kree were the
"more evolved" results of the Progenitors' bioengineering using the
Prima Materia. There is one scene in which Maximus imagines the
"evolved" Kree looking like humanoid versions of the Supreme
Intelligence but I don't think that was meant to be taken seriously. Or was it?
--Donald Campbell
Original profile by Snood.
Comments added by
Donald
Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Mon-Tog, mistakenly named Mor-Tog, has no known connection
to:
images: (without ads)
Inhumans I#9 cover (main image - "Mor-Tog" strangling Black Bold)
Inhumans I#10, page 7, panel 4 (Mon-Tog head shot)
Appearances:
Inhumans I#9 (February, 1977) - cover art by "pollard & bradford"
Inhumans I#10 (April, 1977) - Doug Moench (writer), Keith Pollard (artist), Archie Goodwin (editor)
First Posted: 11/30/2002
Last updated: 01/13/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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