AVELL
Real Name: Avell
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Pink Kree) alien technology user (Distant Past)
Occupation: Hunter, warrior
Group Membership: Kree tribe (unidentified)
Affiliations: Morag
Enemies: Cotati; Skrulls (including Emperor Dorrek)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: The planet Hala in the Pama system of the Large Magellanic Cloud;
May (or may not) have spent a year on the large moon orbiting the planet Earth in the Sol system
of the Milky Way Galaxy;
May (or may not) have later been mobile in space using early Skrull starship technology
First Appearance: (Presumably behind-the-scenes) Avengers I#133 (March, 1975);
(confirmed, seen and identified) Empyre: Avengers#0 (June, 2020)
Powers/Abilities: Avell was a Pink Kree who presumably possessed all of the usual capabilities of a normal member of his species. Specifically, Avell had enhanced strength, durability, endurance and speed (compared to a male human of his size and age).
Limitations: Like the other Kree barbarians, Avell was a meat-eater and, as such, may not have been able gain any nourishment by eating other foods.
Avell may only have been able to breathe comfortably in Hala's nitrogen-rich atmosphere.
Height: 6' (by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 200 lbs.)
Eye color: Unrevealed
Hair color: Unrevealed (Avell was either completely bald or he shaved his head)
History:
(Captain Marvel I#16 (fb) - BTS) - The Kree race evolved on the planet Hala that orbited the giant star Pama. The
original Kree were all blue-skinned.
(Avengers I#133 (fb)/Captain Marvel I#38 (fb)/Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 (fb)/Empyre: Avengers#0 (fb)) - Before their recorded history began, the Kree shared their homeworld with another intelligent native species, the Cotati plant-people. Being meat-eaters, the Kree considered all plants to be beneath their notice while the Cotati considered the Kree barbarians to be frenetic and unstable. As a result, the two races ignored each other and there was peace between them.
(Royals#5 (fb) - BTS/History of the Marvel Universe II#1 (fb) - BTS) - While the Kree were still primitive, Hala was visited by aliens known as the Progenitors who experimented upon them using the mutagenic Primagen. Those experiments created pale Kree whose skin was pinkish-white instead of blue.
(Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 (fb)/Empyre: Avengers#0 (fb)) - In those ancient times, Blue Kree and Pink Kree lived together in blended tribes without any racial tension between them.
(Empyre: Avengers#0 (fb) - BTS) - Avell was a male pale-skinned Kree who lived on the planet Hala during that period and had been born before the Kree began recording their history.
(Avengers I#133 (fb)/Captain Marvel I#38 (fb)/Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 (fb)) <Kree Year Zero> - Members of both the Kree and the Cotati simultaneously witnessed the approach and landing of a starship, and both races correctly believed that the end of their world had arrived. After groups from both races had gathered around the starship, a green-skinned humanoid wearing a crown exited the starship and introduced himself as Emperor Dorrek of the Skrulls. After explaining that his people were not warriors, the emperor revealed that his party had come to Hala to offer Skrull knowledge and technology to its inhabitants in exchange for their loyalty and the resources of Hala. Dorrek then explained that, in order to avoid any dissention regarding which of the two races would represent Hala to the Skrulls, he wished for them to participate in a small test in which select groups from each race would be transported to separate uninhabited planetoids and would be left there alone for one year with complete supplies. At the end of that period, the Skrulls would judge which group had done the most with themselves and so determine which race was the most worthy. The Cotati telepathically sensed that the Skrulls were arrogant but not deceptive and quickly accepted the offer. However, the barbaric Kree were untrusting and spent the rest of the day debating what they should do until Morag finally decided to accept the offer because he hadn't heard any way to gracefully decline.
(Avengers I#133 (fb)/Captain Marvel I#38 (fb)/Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 (fb)) - The following day, seventeen Kree (led by Morag) and seventeen Cotati were aboard the Skrull starship when it left Hala. After transporting the Cotati to a barren moon and leaving them there, the Skrull saucer took the Kree to Earth's Moon where they had created an artificial atmosphere in which the Kree could survive. After providing the Kree with tools and other supplies, Dorrek and the other Skrulls left.
(Avengers I#133 (fb)/Captain Marvel I#38 (fb)/Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 (fb)) - As soon as the Skrull starship left, the Kree began acting on the plans that they had carefully made during the journey. Using the rudimentary technology left by the Skrulls, the Kree began to mine, refine and build, with each Kree working until they dropped, then sleeping briefly before rising again to continue working.
(Avengers I#133 (fb)/Captain Marvel I#38 (fb)/Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 (fb)) - At the end of the year, the Kree had built a giant, gleaming blue city that was a monument to their muscles and the Skrull machines. The Kree were very proud of their accomplishment, and the Skrulls who returned to retrieve them were extremely impressed. As the Skrull starship transported them back to Hala, Morag and the other Kree were proud and hopeful as they envisioned a long and glorious future in the Skrull Empire. However, once they reached Hala, Morag was surprised when no Kree came to greet his party and receive them as conquering heroes. When questioned, one of the Kree who had stayed on Hala revealed that the other Skrulls had been more favorably impressed by the successes of the Cotati who had used their powers to grow a garden.
(Captain Marvel I#38 (fb)) - Those Skrulls who favored the Cotati did so because they felt that, by nurturing a park, the plant-people had shown themselves to be better able to deal with progress.
(Avengers I#133 (fb)/Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 (fb)/Empyre: Avengers#0 (fb)) - Enraged at the possibility that Cotati would be chosen the victors in their contest and that the Kree would be left behind to live under them, Morag waited until it was dark and then led his men, both Blue Kree and Pink Kree, against the Cotati, slaughtering them all in an attempted genocide.
(Marvel Saga: The Official History of the Marvel Universe#9 (fb)) - The Kree destroyed all of the Cotati they could find.
(Empyre: Avengers#0 (fb)) - Once all of the Cotati had been massacred, Morag stood on a cliff
above his gathered people and addressed them, telling them that the Kree and the Cotati had co-existed on Hala
for too long when only one could rule it! He spoke of how, by coming to Hala and forcing the Kree to compete for
their goodwill, the Skrulls had shown them the weakness of the Kree.
As Morag proclaimed that they would now let the Skrulls see their strength, Avell approached, knelt on one knee, and spoke to him, saying, "Morag...My chief..." Morag acknowledged Avell and told him to speak his piece, calling him "brother." Avell then asked, "Will the Skrulls approve of this action? This was a peaceful competition...until..." Morag disagreed, calling him "Foolish Avell," and declaring that there was no such thing as a peaceful competition. Morag then continued to address his people, implying that they would kill their "enlightened visitors" if they did not agree and would then see if their miraculous technologies would serve the Kree. Morag then spoke of their numberless enemies who must all be ended by the Kree, of the weakness that was everywhere and must be purged, and of the stars that were endless and that would all be conquered by the Kree because the Kree way was supreme!
(Avengers I#133 (fb)/Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 (fb)/Empyre: Avengers#0 (fb) - BTS) - The next morning, Morag revealed to Dorrek that the Kree had solved the problem of Hala's representation to them by destroying their opposition. When an outraged Dorrek declared that the Skrulls might deal with barbarians but did not condone barbarism and that Hala would now be shut forever from the circle of the favored worlds of the Skrulls, Morag, who had anticipated this response, ordered his assembled warriors to take the Skrulls. Being pacifists at that time, the Skrull party was no match for the Kree and they were all soon corpses.
(Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 (fb) - BTS/Empyre: Avengers#0 (fb) - BTS) - The
Kree/Skrull War was born that day.
OR
(Avengers I#133 (fb) - BTS) - Decades later, the Kree attacked a Skrull world, thus beginning the eternal Kree-Skrull
War.
Comments: Created by Al Ewing and Pepe Larraz
Although no Kree character named "Avell" was specifically named in Avengers I#133, there is a high probability that he was among those Kree warriors who were depicted as followers of Morag. So, technically, Avell was BTS in that first telling of the origin of the Kree-Skrull War.
Since Avell was not actually named/created until Empyre: Avengers#0, it's impossible to determine much about his life prior to the slaughter of the Cotati. The fact that the stone head of his spear seemed to be stained with Cotati sap indicates that he participated in the massacre. However, it has not been revealed if Avell was one of the sixteen Kree who accompanied Morag when he accepted the Skrull offer and was transported to Earth's Moon.
It occurred to me that Avell might have been the only Kree in Avengers I#133, aside from Morag, to have any dialogue. If so, then that would make him the Kree who first informed Morag that the Cotati were probably going to win their contest with the Kree. However, that particular Kree wore hide clothing that covered his torso and hips (like a sleeveless tunic) whereas Avell has only been depicted wearing what looked like a wrap-around knee-length skirt made of animal skins that I think is meant to be a loincloth.
Avell was once addressed as "Brother" by Morag but I doubt that that reference was meant to indicate that they were literally brothers. It seems more likely to me that it was a "brothers in arms" type of thing because they were both Kree warriors. However, that's an assumption on my part and thus could be wrong. Only writer Al Ewing would know for sure.
Avell has the distinction of being the first Kree from ancient times who was always meant to be a Pink Kree. This is in contrast to Morag, the first and (so far) only other named Kree from that time, who was supposed to have been a Blue Kree since it had been established (in Captain Marvel I#16) that the original Kree were all blue-skinned. However, the colorist for Avengers I#133 made a mistake and colored all the ancient Kree as being as pink-skinned as Mar-Vell. A recap of the origin of the Kree-Skrull War that appeared in Captain Marvel I#38 (in a story that had been scheduled to go on sale on the same date as that Avengers issue) did correctly show Morag and the other first Kree as being blue-skinned.
Although that original concept that the early Kree should all have had blue skin persisted for decades, things began to change a few years ago. In 2017, writer Al Ewing introduced the idea that the Kree race had been experimented upon in their pre-history by an alien race known as the Progenitors. In 2019, History of the Marvel Universe II#1 revealed that the "pale-skinned Kree" had been created by those experiments on the blue-skinned "purebred" Kree some time before the Skrulls made first contact. And finally, in 2020, Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 and Empyre: Avengers#0 both firmly (and retroactively) established that Morag had always been a pink-skinned Kree all along.
The three-page flashback to the slaughter of the Cotati by the Kree barbarians appeared on pages 2-4 of Empyre: Avengers#0 (June, 2020) as a dream experienced by Tony Stark. In Empyre#2, Quoi revealed to some captive Avengers that the Cotati had telepathically implanted that dream into Stark's mind in order to make the Avengers favorably disposed to helping them against the Kree/Skrull Alliance. It's worth noting that a couple of minor details about the clothing and the circlet that Morag was wearing during the dream massacre don't exactly match what he was shown wearing back in Avengers I#133. While I would have preferred it if these discrepancies had been avoided, I don't suppose that they matter much but, still, it would be nice if they could be explained away. The most plausible explanation that comes to mind is that the vision sent by the Cotati was probably derived from the memories of a Cotati who had actually experienced the slaughter and that, with the passage of millennia, those memories had become slightly inaccurate. The fact that almost all of the Kree in the vision are depicted with faces that are completely featureless could be taken as evidence of a failing memory.
On the other hand, if the Cotati vision was an entirely artificial narrative that had been constructed in order to influence Stark into supporting them, then none of the detailed events depicted in it, aside from the fact that a genocide against the Cotati was carried out by the Kree, may have actually happened. If this were the case, then a Pink Kree named Avell may not have ever really existed.
Assuming that the vision was mostly accurate, the events depicted in it would have taken place BTS on page 15 of Avengers I#133, between panels 4 and 6.
One thing about the flashback in which Avell appeared that I did like was the fact that Morag was shown addressing a vast crowd of perhaps hundreds of Blue Kree and Pink Kree gathered together. Aside from showing that the ancient Kree were racially integrated, this vision also shows that it was not just a small group of Kree who committed the genocide. Previous accounts had never shown more than twenty Kree barbarians (or Cotati) together at the same time, giving the impression that the planetary populations of both races were remarkably small. That idea that there were relatively tiny numbers of Kree and Cotati who both lived in the same small area of the planet Hala has always been one of the weaknesses of the Origin of the Kree-Skrull War.
Another thing about the Origin of the Kree-Skrull War that is worth noting is that none of the retellings of that story have ever shown any female Kree. There aren't even any Kree women visible in the one panel in Avengers I#133 that is not focused on Morag and his hunters. In fact, the first female Kree from ancient times to ever be shown was one of the Kree pacifists from Avengers I#124, with others appearing in Avengers I#134. No explanation for this near-complete absence has ever been revealed, and I would really like it if the writer of some future story would address that oddity.
Actually, now that I think about it, a possible explanation for the absence of the Kree women may have been presented over twenty years ago. Back in Captain Marvel IV#13 (January, 2001), it was revealed that most Kree women were born with the ability to psychically manipulate the wills of men and that one in every hundred thousand women could drain the life force from males when in physical contact with them. However, the Kree men, in order to protect themselves and to feel more in control, developed a treatment that, when administered at a young age, would deprive Kree females of those abilities and also their ability to enjoy physical pleasure and to be sexually dominant. Back in prehistoric times, before Kree scientists developed that treatment, keeping the sexes separate would have been the only way to prevent the female Kree from controlling the male Kree.
As anyone reading this may have surmised, the main reason why I wrote this profile of a minor character who only appeared in three panels and spoke only sixteen words is because I wanted to present an accurate history of how the Kree-Skrull War began. Sadly, over the almost-fifty years since it was first presented in 1975, the histories of the Kree and the Skrull races have suffered as the result of writers who clearly had little concept of continuity being allowed to rewrite history. Even the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe has, over time, presented conflicting details (like whether the Kree and Cotati contestants were both taken to Earth's Moon or not) in relevant profiles.
The introduction of Avell has also served to remind me that the official history of the Kree race is largely lacking in detailed information but still manages to contain contradictions. Sadly, Marvel has always done a fairly poor job when it comes to establishing the histories of their extraterrestrial races and it often seems like writers were allowed to make up stuff without any oversight. This has resulted in a situation where, almost sixty years after the Kree were first introduced, there are a number of significant details about Kree history that would benefit from some clarification. Here's a list of unanswered questions:
Since I mentioned the possibility that the "dream" planted in Tony Stark's
mind by the Cotati to manipulate him may have contained false information, it's worth noting that other accounts
of how the Kree-Skrull War began may also suffer from Unreliable Narration. For example, the first telling of that
story (in Avengers I#133) showed how three Avengers and Mantis used a synchro-staff given to them by Immortus
to travel back in time to Kree Year Zero so that they could be invisible witnesses to the actual events as they took
place. One would normally expect that anything revealed via such first-hand observations would pretty much have
to be accurate. However, in the years since that story was published, it has been revealed that Immortus is more
than capable of using deceptions in order to accomplish his goals. With that in mind, maybe everything that those
four time travelers experienced was actually just a massive illusion, one designed to manipulate them into doing
something that Immortus wanted them to do?
Another example of an Unreliable Narrator can be found in Captain Marvel I#38 in which the
parable about the First Kree and the Plant-People that Zarek told to Captain Mar-Vell is now no longer consistent with
the fact that Morag was a Pink Kree all along. In this case, the unreliability can easily be attributed to Zarek and his
Lunatic Legion all being Blue Kree supremacists who have come to believe that non-Blue Kree are the impure results
of interbreeding between Blue Kree and genetically-compatible female alien humanoids.
Anyway, I like the story in Empyre: Avengers#0 and hope that some future comic does confirm that it is mostly canon. Of course, I also hope that that future story will establish that the idea that the Skrulls had taken both the Kree and the Cotati to Earth's Moon for the contest is completely wrong. After all, Avengers I#133, Captain Marvel I#38 and Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War#1 all explicitly state that the 17 Cotati contestants were taken to their own barren moon where they grew their garden, and I really want to see that fact finally be treated as canon.
Profile by Donald Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Avell has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Empyre: Avengers#0, page 4, panel 1 (main image - Avell kneeling before Morag)
page 4, panels 2-3 (Avell speaking with Morag)
page 4, panel 4 (Avell still kneeling)
Appearances:
Empyre: Avengers#0 (June, 2020) - Al Ewing (writer), Pepe Larraz
(artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 08/25/2023
Last updated: 08/27/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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