S'BYLL S'BYLL
Real Name: S'Byll
Identity/Class: Extraterrrestrial (Skrull) mutate
Occupation: Empress of the Skrulls
Group Membership: Leader of Skrull Empire (or at least a large faction of it)
Affiliations: Reptyl, Shalla-Bal, Silver Surfer, Super-Skrull (Kl'rt)
Enemies: Nenora and the Kree Empire,
the Stranger;
Karza, Kylor, Yorak and the other skrull would-be emperors
(see comments),
possible rival of
Intelligencia
Known Relatives: Talos (uncle), Dorrek VII, R'Klll, Anelle, Dezan, Dorrek VIII (distant relatives)
Aliases: Super-Skrull
Base of Operations: Andromeda Galaxy; Satriani (birthplace)
First Appearance: Silver Surfer III#13 (July, 1988)
Powers/Abilities: S'Byll originally had the normal metamorphic abilities of the Skrull race. These were temporarily removed by the Hyper-Wave bomb. After her empowerment, she gained metamorphic abilities and powers many times greater than any normal Skrull. She could fly, survive in a vacuum, alter her own mass, and generate sufficient force to crush an entire starship. The limits of her abilities are undefined. In addition, S'Byll gained the ability to return lost metamorphic abilities to other Skrulls.
History: (Silver Surfer III#13 (fb) - BTS) - S'Byll was raised on the Skrull planet Satriani. Most of the details of her past life are unknown.
(Incredible Hulk II#419 (fb) - BTS) - S'Byll's uncle Talos, unable to shapeshift due to a genetic defect, became the most feared and respected soldier in the Skrull Empire, earning the name Talos the Untamed. After countless fights during the Kree-Skrull war, he was captured by the Kree. Because he refused to commit suicide in captivity, he had disgraced himself in the eyes of both Kree and Skrull, who dubbed him "Talos the Tamed". S'Byll offered Talos the chance to regain his honor by committing suicide but he refused again.
(Silver Surfer III#13 (fb) - BTS) - After significant struggle, five Skrulls emerged as the top competitors for the new title of Empress/Emperor. S'Byll was one of these five.
(Silver Surfer III#13,
Silver Surfer Annual#1) - Following the death of Kylor, from betrayal at the
hands of Nenora, S'Byll sent a servant, Krat to Earth. The
Super-Skrull had been trapped in the Van Allen Belts, and Krat
succeeded in curing him of his disease and returning him to
physical form. The Silver Surfer assisted the Super-Skrull in
escaping Earth, and he traveled to Satriani and enlisted on
behalf of S'Byll.
(Silver Surfer III#25-31) - The Super-Skrull and S'Byll next duped the Silver Surfer into entering into an alliance with them, by forcing him into a position where he felt obligated to save the Skrull army from slaughter at the hands of the Badoon race. Unbeknownst to the Surfer, the Badoon had been allied with the Kree, and his battle with them forced him to be seen as an enemy of the Kree, and therefore an ally of the Skrulls. They then convinced the Surfer to help use the Super-Skrull's power to help S'Byll regain her metamorphic power. This resulted in not only the return of her abilities, but also in her gaining vast power far surpassing the Skrull normal, as well as the ability to return the metamorphic abilities of other Skrulls with a touch. These abilities, combined with several successful battles against the Kree allowed her to successfully assume the role of Empress to the Skrulls.
S'Byll was targeted for abduction and experimentation by the enigmatic Stranger, due to her mutation, but this effort was deflected by a trade by the space pirate Reptyl, who gave him his entire crew in her place. This resulted in an alliance with Reptyl, and even a mutual romantic interest between S'Byll and Reptyl. This attraction angered the Super-Skrull, who was nearly killed by Reptyl when he confronted him. (This was later revealed to be a hoax, with the Super-Skrull feigning death at S'Byll's command to gain the full alliance of Reptyl).
Reptyl became Warlord of S'Byll troops. However, he was incapacitated and nearly killed by an ambush by his first mate, Clumsy foulup, who was a pawn of the Contemplator II, who was in reality another Skrull. This, in concert with the ambush Foulup had directed Clumsy into, decimated a portion of the Skrull army and gave the Kree the upper hand in the war. However, when things seemed their most bleak, the Surfer's on-and-off girlfriend, Shalla-Bal, informed him that Nenora, then leader of the Kree Empire, was actually a Skrull. S'Byll and the Surfer infiltrated Nenora's stronghold, and S'Byll exposed Nenora's true nature by returning her metamorphic abilities. Temporarily without a leader, the Kree conceded defeat, and made a temporary truce with the Skrulls.
(Impossible Man Summer Vacation Special#1/7) - S'Byll's empire was briefly plagued by the Impossible Man and his family when they traveled to the planet Satriani to teach the Skrulls how to have fun. S'Byll wondered if she she shouldn't have just surrendered to the Kree when she was forced to watch the Impossible Man's slides of his vacation to Earth.
(Fantastic Four Anual I#24/3) - The Super-Skrull eventually was unable to tolerate the disgrace of his seeming defeat at the hands of Reptyl, and attacked him, seemingly killing him. For this S'Byll punished him by stripping Kl'rt of his rank and forcing him to serve commander K'Targh of the Imperial Starfleet.
(Infinity Gauntlet#1) - S'Byll presided over the Skrull Empire during the events of the Infinity Gauntlet, when Thanos temporarily wiped out half of the population of the universe. She mistakenly believed the Kree to be responsible and prepared to renew the war against them. This was presumably resolved when everyone returned at the conclusion of that struggle.
(Silver Surfer III#105) - S'Byll was last seen in a state of anger when the Super-Skrull attacked the Silver Surfer without her authorization.
Comments: Created by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton.
She was first seen after the renegade Skrull Zabyk used the Hyper-Wave bomb to remove the metamorphic abilities of the Skrull race across the universe. This, combined with the destruction of the Skrull world Tarnax IV, which slew the former empress, R'Klll, threw the Skrull Empire.
I'm not sure if she stills rules the empire. A separate faction of Skrulls served Intelligencia, the Skrull answer to the Supreme Intelligence. It's not clear how large this faction is, and if there are others.
The second Kree-Skrull war is pretty good reading. Check out Surf#25-31 if you get the chance.
Who can name all 5 would-be skrull emperors?
Kylor and S'Byll were the only ones shown with any significance.
Yorak, I believe was seen, and Karza was mentioned, but I don't
know who the fifth was. Nenora was just a subordinate of Kylor until opportunity
dropped the Kree rule in her hands. I don't think she would have been considered
a would-be emperor early on.
However, as pointed out by our own Kyle Smith, in
Fantastic Four Annual#19, an overweight, Skrullian queen is moving to take over
the recently fractured Skrull empire, establishing her authority by slaying some
of the Skrull's greatest enemies, the Fantastic Four. This Skrull may have
been, or probably was, the fifth, unidentified Skrullian claimant to the throne
in the early issues of the last Silver Surfer series (v. 3).
F4 An19 came out in 1985, and the Silver Surfer III series started in 1987.
In Marvel time, that might only mean 2-4 months passed between those issues, so
it is possible.
HOWEVER...Silver Surfer III Annual#1 describes Kylor as "the first <of the
emperors> to fail." So...there may have been an as yet unseen fifth...Maybe it
was Skrulls backing
Intelligencia?
Alternatively, it could be Gorth, the Skrull who was allied
with Nebula around the time she decimated Xandar.
--Ye olde Snoode.
S'Byll also has a nice entry in the UOHOTMU (be sure to check it out), which came out between the time I made my entry and the time I published this site.
I think it's referenced in the Silver Surfer III's letter pages somewhere, but the name for the planet Satriani came from guitar player Joe Satriani.
Clarifications:
No known connection to:
Appearances:
Silver Surfer III#13 (July, 1988) - Steve Englehart (writer), Joe Staton (pencils), Dave Cockrum (inks), Michael Higgins (editor)
Silver Surfer Annual#1 (1988) - Steve Englehart (writer), Joe Staton (pencils), Joe Rubinstein (inks), Craig Anderson (editor)
Silver Surfer III#25-30 (July-November, 1989) - Steve Englehart (writer), Ron Lim (pencils), Tom Christopher (inks), Craig Anderson (editor)
Silver Surfer III#31 (December, 1989) - Steve Englehart (writer), Ron Lim (pencils), Tom Christopher & Keith Williams (inks), Craig Anderson (editor)
Impossible Man Summer Vacation Special#1 (August, 1990) - Michael Gallagher (writer), Tom Morgan (artist), Craig Anderson & Renee Witterstaetter (editor)
Fantastic Four Annual#24 (1991) - Len Kaminski (writer), Chris Ivy (pencils), Tim Dzon (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Infinity Gauntlet#1 (July, 1991) - Jim Starlin (writer), George Perez (pencils), Joe Rubinstein (inks), Craig Anderson (editor)
Incredible Hulk II#419 (July, 1994) - Peter David (writer), Roger Cruz (pencils), Cam Smith (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Silver Surfer III#105 (June, 1995) - Mike Lackey (writer), Tom Grindberg (pencils), Bill Anderson (inks), Craig Anderson (editor)
First Posted: 09/14/2001 (?)
Last updated: 09/30/2013
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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