Skrull
would-be empress

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Skrull deviant)

Occupation: Governor of an unidentified Skrull colony world;
    would-be emperor

Affiliations: Members of a Skrull faction (including her advisor and the "Infant Terrible" Elan imposter)

Enemies: Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Woman/Sue Storm, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, She-Hulk/Jen Walters); she never met the Thing/Ben Grimm or any other temporary members, but I'm sure she hated them, too)
    presumably Nebula, Zabyk, Zedrao and the Imperial armada;
    presumably Gorth, Karza, Kylor, S'Byll, and Yorak (see comments) 

Known Relatives: None confirmed (she may or may not have had any direct familial connection to R'Klll or other members of the previous ruling family)

Aliases: Highness, Majesty;
    Madam (by Reed Richards), Queenie (by Johnny Storm)

Base of Operations: Unidentified Skrull ship and/or planet in the Andromeda galaxy

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I Annual#19 (1985)

Powers/Abilities: As a Skrull, the would-be empress presumably possessed all of the standard capabilities and weaknesses of a normal member of the Skrull Deviant species. Specifically, she can alter her size, shape, and color through mental concentration. While some Skrulls can change their volume significantly, it is unrevealed whether the would-be empress could do so.

    She was only seen adopting one different form, that of a similarly sized/proportioned creature with sharp spikes on its head, fanged teeth in its mouth, and multiple sharp claws on its hands.

    Larger and more massive than most Skrulls, she was also significantly stronger than average and could easily lift an adult male Skrull into the air with a single arm. She carried a sword and presumably had some experience in wielding it.

    She presumably had some experience in ruling/governing.

    At her throne, she kept a pair of large and muscular (or perhaps they altered their forms to appear thusly) Skrulls who likely served as guards and/or defenders. She kept them shirtless, which she presumably preferred for perhaps one or more reasons (power/humiliation, attraction, etc.)

Height: Unrevealed (apparently 6'4"); variable
Weight: Unrevealed (apparently 350 lbs.); possibly variable
Eyes: Purple within pink (concentric circles surrounding a pupil and surrounded by white sclera (apparently))
Hair: Black

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, Tarnax IV, killing all seven billion Skrulls who were there at the time, including Empress R'Klll and her daughter Princess Anelle.

(Avengers I#259 (fb) - BTS) - After Throneworld's destruction and the death of Princess Anelle and the apparent death of Empress R'Klll , 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 rallied their forces to bring the Empire under their personal control, and civil war broke out. In only a few days, more Skrulls had been killed by other Skrulls than had perished with the Throneworld.

(Fantastic Four I Annual#19 (fb) - BTS) - Seeking to achieve the roll of empress by proving her born superiority via slaying the hated Fantastic Four, an unidentified Skrull woman accepted a scheme presented by one of her advisors (which he assured her was flawless): One of her agents would pose as the Elan (aka the "Infant Terrible") who had previously encountered the Fantastic Four, seek their aid against Skrulls assaulting their world, and lead them into a trap.

(Fantastic Four I Annual#19) - The Elan imposter Skrull indeed encountered the Fantastic Four, related the tale, and convinced the Fantastic Four to accompany him.

(Fantastic Four I Annual#19 (fb) - BTS) - Already suspicious of the tale, Reed Richards checked the report of the alien's ship's arrival and found that the pilot had failed to make the necessary adjustments to appeare to be arriving from a Beta Scorpi trajectory. Deducing the Skrulls to be behind this deception, Reed hypnotized the imposter to instead mimic Reed's form and believe himself to be Mr. Fantastic while the real Reed used his own malleability to enter the "Elan" space suit.

(Fantastic Four I Annual#19) - With the ship having reached Sol-III (Earth) "17 turnings ago," the would-be empress became impatient and questioned her advisor. When he told her he had no explanation, she picked up the "stupid, cringing churl" with one hand and brandishing a sword in the other hand, telling her the only explanation she sought now was if he wished to explain how his body would continue to function after she had separated him from his head.

    While the advisor begged her mercy, she silenced him and vented her frustration at his plans' not having proved her divine right to rule, but she was then interrupted by a space-alert beacon noting that the "Elan" ship was returning to the system.

    At the would-be empresses orders, her agents assumed Elan form and traveled to the nearby planet's surface to spring the trap.

(Fantastic Four I Annual#19 - BTS) - After the Fantastic Four landed and met with the "Elan," something about seeing his fellow Skrulls even in their Elan disguise released the hypnotized Skrull (still in the form of Reed Richareds) from his post-hypnotic trance, and he shouted, "No! I cannot allow it! Attack them now! Destroy them!" Apparently confused, the Skrulls cut down "Reed," who reverted to his Skrull form upon his apparent death.

(Fantastic Four I Annual#19) - As the rest of the Fantastic Four fought the Skrull warriors, Richards, still within the "Elan space suit," traveled to the would-be empress. She was surprised to see her apparent agent and demanded a report on what was happening out there. Mockingly asking if he should respond verbally or via the suit's image projectors, Richards subsequently emerged from the suit, surprising her. At the Skrull's request, Richards explained how they had deduced the treachery, and she cursed her agent as a beknighted fool for having upset her plan with so trivial a detail (see comments).

    Denouncing her associates as incompetents, she noted that she was not without her own resouces, and she transformed into a monstrous form in hopes of killing him nonetheless. Dodging a swipe of her claws, Reed wrapped her up and forced her surrender, after which she noted that the death-knell now sounded for the universe itself.

(Fantastic Four I Annual#19 (fb) - BTS) - The would-be empress apparently told Reed about the threat of Zabyk's hyperwave bomb, after which the Human Torch imprisoned her and her associates within a flame cage in the would-be empress's spaceship.

(Fantastic Four I Annual#19) - After Reed clarified the complicated plot to She-Hulk, the would-be empress denounced the Fantastic Four for worrying about a single, worthless life (the "Infant Terrible" imposter) while the fate of the universe hung in balance, and she wondered how the Skrull Empire had not conquered them years ago. The Torch and Richards both told her that their compassion and warmer emotions made the difference, but she told Richards to spare her his sickening human platitudes and instead asked of his plan. Announcing they had reached the power station, Richards and the rest of the Fantastic Four departed.

(Fantastic Four I Annual#19 - BTS) - Ultimately, despite the Avengers and Fantastic Four's combined efforts, Zabyk's hyperwave bomb went off, preventing the Skrulls from further metamorphing.

Comments: Created by John Byrne.

    While it was indeed a Skrull imposter who posed as the "Infant Terrible" Elan (later known as the Delinquent), when next seen in Power Pack I#56, the Elan's parents' graves are seen (#59), and the OHotMU entry on the Delinquent notes "The Elan’s parents later perished —
possibly under Skrull assault, as a Skrull agent later posed as the Infant Terrible and related such an assault to trap the FF — " So, it seems LIKELY that the Skrulls did assault Elanis in some fashion. The OHotMU only notes the Skrull assault as "POSSIBLY."
    There is no further information to indicate whether the Skrulls actually assaulted Elanis.

    So, if it was such a huge deal that the Skrull imposter didn't adjust his trajectory to appear to have come from the Beta Scorpi system, that presumably would mean that they were coming from another location...which is presumably the location to which the ship also flew. I think it is much likely that Reed would have noticed that they were flying to a fake "Elanis."

    The Skrulls were trapped in those forms until S'Byll began to restore the abilities circa Silver Surfer III#26

    As far as I could tell, this would-be empress was not mentioned in Chancellor Kal'Du's report to Veranke, as shown in the Skrulls! files book.

    See the comments section for Gorth regarding the "five" Skrulls competing for Emperor. Karza, Kylor, S'Byll, and Yorak were all confirmed in-story, and Gorth was confirmed as the 5th contendor in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#10: Skrulls entry.

• Other contenders for the coveted "5th would-be Emperor" and/or other Skrulls active at this time
• Prince Dezan, who didn't wish to rule and was considered a traitor to the Skrulls due to his desire for peace, could have been considered a contender, as he was allegedly the last living member of the royal family (Teddy Altman/Dorrek VIII/Hulkling was young, and hadn't been created yet).
  
• Nenora, who was trapped in the form of and posing as a Kree; she was actually a traitor to the Skrulls and sought to rule the Kree Empire
• Intelligencia, who didn't show up until 2000. We don't know when she was created, so she's a possibility
  
• General Zedrao, who was a military leader, but never really sought to rule the Empire
  
• The character in this profile: The overweight queen from Fantastic Four Annual#19; I have always considered her one of the top contenders that 5th spot.
  
• Raksor, who was also a warrior/espionage agent
  
• Super-Skrull (Kl'rt), who was and is a warrior, not a leader, was actually trapped in Earth's Van Allen belts at the time the five would-be emperors were discussed. He was restored by an agent of S'Byll and enlisted as her agent.
• Zabyk, who set off the Hyperwave bomb and was trapped within a suit of armor due to his subsequent inability to metamorph out of it; it's hard to imagine he had much of a following after taking away the Skrulls' greatest power.
  
• I'm sure there are others, but I'm going to cap off the list here: Dezan, Intelligencia, and the overweight queen seem to be the other reasonable options. Or someone new and not yet seen.

• Even at the time of the stories of the five would-be Emperors, none of them seemed to really be serious contenders, besides S'Byll.
• What did Karza, Kyla, or Yorlak ever accomplish? Did they take over multiple worlds, like Gorth's ally, Nebula did in his name? No evidence to support that?
  
• Kylor was a distant second to S'Byll, and Karza and Yorak were even less prominent.
  
• Whoever was the fifth contender was apparently even less significant, as he/she was never even named in story.
  
• Maybe someday, someone will publish the lost Skrull would-be Emperor story. It's been 32 years as of 2019, but stranger things have happened.
• If new information comes along that contradicts what has been published in the handbooks, it will ret-con the info, just like any story/information.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The unidentified Skrull would-be-empress should be distinguished from:

• R'Klll - Empress of Skrulls, wife of Dorrek VII, mother of Anelle, grandmother of Dorrek VIII, killed Dorrek and succeeded him as ruler, sent "Mrs. Altman" to watch over Dorrek VIII/Teddy Altman--Fantastic Four I#206
• S'Byll - Skrull empress, native of Satriani, was one of five Skrulls who sought leadership of Skrull empire after homeworld was destroyed by Galactus, responsible for recovering the Super-Skrull from the van Allen belts on Aarth, gained enhanced metamorphic powers and ability to return metamorphic abilities to Skrulls that had lost power from the Hyper-Wave Bomb--Silver Surfer III#13
• Veranke - Skrull queen, led "Secret Invasion" of Earth--New Avengers#1; (revealed as Veranke) New Avengers#40
• other Skrull queens and/or empresses
  

Appearances:
Fantastic Four I Annual#19 (1985) - John Byrne (writer/penciler), Joe Sinnott (inker), Michael Carlin (editor)

First posted: 09/29/2021
Last updated: 09/27/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters