YORAK
Real Name: Yorak
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Skrull) reptilian humanoid shape-shifter
Occupation: Warlord, would-be emperor
Group Membership: Skrull warlords (five in all)
Affiliations: None
Enemies:
Kree Empire,
Zabyk;
formerly Gorth,
Karza,
Kylor (presumed deceased), and
S'Byll
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "That degenerate" and an "overweening prathik" (according to Kylor)
Base of Operations: Unspecified planet within the Andromeda Galaxy
First Appearance: Silver Surfer III#6 (December, 1987)
Powers/Abilities: As a Skrull, Yorak presumably possessed all of the standard capabilities and weaknesses of a normal member of his species. Specifically, Yorak had the ability to alter his size, shape, and color through mental concentration. Presumably the shapes which Yorak could assume were limited by his original mass and volume.
Like almost all other Skrulls, Yorak lost his ability to shape-shift after exposure to the hyperwave bombardment transmitted throughout the universe by the Hyperwave Bomb. It can only be presumed that he, like many of his race, later regained those powers thanks to Empress S'Byll. However, since the details of how that restoration occurred have never been revealed, this cannot be confirmed.
Height: 6' (total guess)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: None (see comments)
Skin: Green
History:
(The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#10: Skrulls entry) - The Skrull Empire was governed by a totalitarian monarchy, with one supreme emperor or empress, and a governor for each of the 978 member-worlds in the empire.
(Fantastic Four I#257/Fantastic Four I#262 (fb) - BTS) - Galactus consumed the Skrull Throneworld, killing all seven billion Skrulls who were there at the time, including Empress R'Klll and her daughter Princess Anelle.
(Avengers I#259 (fb)) - After Throneworld's destruction and the deaths of Empress R'Klll and Princess Anelle, chaos and rebellion spread throughout the Skrull Empire. Seeking to fill the power vacuum left by these deaths, all of the planetary governors declared themselves emperors or empresses, and civil war broke out. In only a few days, more Skrulls had been killed by other Skrulls than had perished with the Throneworld.
(Avengers I#259 (fb) - BTS/Avengers Annual I#14) - Several Earth-months later, the Skrull race suffered another blow when the hyperwave bombardment from the Hyperwave Bomb activated by the would-be emperor Zabyk stabilized the Deviant genetic code of (almost) all Skrulls, removing their shape-changing abilities and trapping them in whatever forms they were in when the bomb went off.
(Silver Surfer III#2) - Ambassador Ptakr met with Empress Shalla-Bal of Zenn-La on behalf of his emperor. When Shalla-Bal pointed out that there were a number of claimants to that position, Ptakr insisted that Emperor Kylor was the rightful ruler of the remaining Skrull Empire.
(Silver Surfer III#6 (fb) - BTS) - Eventually, there were five Skrull warlords left who
sought to rebuild the Skrull Empire as its emperor, Kylor and four others. Yorak was one
of the other four.
(Silver Surfer III#13 (fb) - BTS) - S'Byll from the planet Satriani was the third.
(Silver Surfer III#14 (fb) - BTS) - Karza was the fourth.
(All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z#9: S'Byll entry (fb) - BTS) - Gorth was the fifth.
(Silver Surfer III#6 - BTS) - Emperor Kylor's warfleet began the Second Kree-Skrull War by attacking an outpost on a planet at the edge of the Kree Empire, killing most (or all) of the Kree military personnel stationed there. After learning of the attack, Emperor Yorak opened a communications channel to Kylor's command ship. When a minion informed him that Yorak was communicating, Kylor exclaimed, "Yorak! That degenerate!"
(Silver Surfer III#6) - Once a two-way audio-visual link had been established, Kylor impatiently asked what Yorak wanted because he was in the middle of the most daring campaign ever waged against the enemy! Yorak replied by asking how did Kylor dare because he (Yorak) had given no authorization to antagonize the Kree. Kylor responded by asking who the "hlavek" Yorak was to give anyone authorization and calling him an "overweening prathnik." Yorak replied that he was Kylor's emperor but Kylor cut him off, stating that he was no one's emperor, least of all Kylor's, and claiming that he was the emperor of the reborn Skrull Empire and that this attack proved it. Yorak countered by saying that all Kylor was proving was that he could instigate the greatest slaughter ever visited on the Skrull race but Kylor defiantly replied, "We'll see!" Yorak then stated that he would appeal Kylor's actions to the other three warlords but Kylor was unimpressed, saying that Yorak could appeal all he wanted because by the time "you four flustered fools" could churn out some paper condemnation he would be home in triumph! Kylor then ended the communication.
(Silver Surfer III#6 - BTS) - Kylor then voiced his opinion that Yorak was an idiot who had no understanding that there were moments when one who would win must make his move!
(Skrulls! (fb) - BTS) - Several years later, in preparation for the then-upcoming Secret Invasion of Earth, Queen Veranke's faithful Chancellor Kal'Du included a dossier on Yorak as part of the "Warbook Files" he compiled for her. According to this dossier, Yorak was "one of the lesser pretenders to the throne during the post-Galactus struggle for dominance" who had "revealed his unfitness when he opposed renewed hostilities against the Kree." Kal'Du reported that Yorak seemed to have faded into "deserved obscurity" in the intervening years and concluded that it was "Good riddance."
Comments: Created by Steve Engelhart, Marshall Rogers and Josef Rubinstein.
The "Warbook Files" in the Skrulls! one-shot confirm that Karza, Kylor and S'Byll were among the "hundreds of planetary governors who declared themselves the new emperor or empress." However, Yorak's entry does not specify that he was also a planetary governor. So, either Yorak held some other position of power before the Skrull civil war or Kal'Du thought so little of Yorak that he omitted that fact from his dossier.
Since this is Donald's profile, I'll note that he strongly disagrees with Gorth being named as the fifth contender for Emperor. See the comments of the Gorth profile for my discussion of that subject.
Although it is believed that all Skrulls eventually regained their shape-shifting abilities thanks to S'Byll, exactly how this happened has never been revealed. The only way in which S'Byll was ever depicted restoring those powers was by physically touching another Skrull. Given that there are billions of Skrulls spread out across the tri-galaxy area, it seems extremely unlikely that S'Byll could have been able to restore their powers to all of them on a one-by-one basis. Therefore, it follows that some more widespread method of restoring their powers must have been developed and implemented but whatever that method was has never been documented. So, technically, it's possible that any Skrull who has not been SEEN using his/her metamorphic abilities since the Hyper-Wave Bomb was activated has not actually had his/her powers restored. Until whatever method of widespread restoration was used is revealed, the idea that all Skrulls have their powers back is more of an assumption than a fact.
I don't know where the idea that most male Skrulls were bald originated. The Skrull entries in the early volumes of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe stated that "Skrulls are basically reptilian but have certain mammalian characteristics such as hair and (in females) mammary glands." While this description clearly does not limit having hair to Skrull females, it's true that every male Skrull (except Prince Dezan and Myrn) has been depicted as not having hair. Then again, almost all Skrulls who have appeared in Marvel stories have been warriors whose uniforms include close-fitting headgear. Since it would presumably be easier to wear that head covering if there were no hair to get in the way, it would make sense for Skrull warriors to either shave their heads or use their shape-shifting abilities to make themselves bald. So, is the apparent baldness of most Skrull males an example of sexual dimorphism? Or could it instead be a choice made because Skrull society considers hairlessness in males to be fashionable?
Also, I find it somewhat amusing that the Skrulls have been described as "masters of one of the universe's oldest interstellar empires." Sure, it's true that the Skrull Empire is the oldest empire within the Local Group of galaxies, but that's not really saying that much. After all, since it has been estimated that there are more than TWO TRILLION galaxies within the observable universe, the very idea that anything that's significant within the mere 54+ galaxies of the Local Group must somehow also be significant to the entire universe is incredibly arrogant. So, while the Skrulls, the Kree and the Shi'ar may be the dominant races in local space, the chances that there are older and more powerful races "out there" in the wider universe seems pretty much a certainty.
Profile by Donald Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Yorak has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Silver Surfer III#6, page 14, panel 7 (main image)
Appearances:
Silver Surfer III#6 (December, 1987) - Englehart (story), Rogers (pencils & colors),
Rubinstein (inks), Higgins (editor)
Skrulls! (2008) - Ronald Byrd, Michael Hoskin, Gabriel Shechter, John Rhett Thomas, Stuart
Vandal & Jeph York (writers), John Rhett Thomas (editor)
First Posted: 10/31/2019
Last updated: 10/31/2019
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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