Captain Marvel (Khn'nr)

Captain Marvel
Cover to Captain Marvel (vol. 6) #4 Art by Ed McGuiness.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Civil War: The Return (March 2007)
Created by	Paul Jenkins (writer) Tom Raney (artist)
In-story information
Full name	Khn'nr
Species	Skrull
Place of origin	Skrull Empire
Team affiliations	Church of Hala Skrull Empire
Notable aliases	Mar-Vell
Abilities	Superhuman strength Shapeshifting Flight Master unarmed combatant Wields Skrull-made Nega-Bands Extensive knowledge of technologically advanced Kree vehicles and devices

Khn'nr is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Paul Jenkins and Tom Raney, the character first appeared in Civil War: The Return (March 2007). Khn'nr is a Skrull sleeper agent posing as the Kree Captain Mar-Vell (also known as Captain Marvel).

The shapeshifting Skrull Khn'nr is bonded with the DNA of Mar-Vell to lock his body into Mar-Vell's form and given technological replicas of the Kree Nega-Bands. However, his mental conditioning is botched, causing Khn'nr's personality to be erased and leaving the Mar-Vell persona dominant. Though part of the Skrull invasion of Earth, this Captain Marvel decides to fight against the invading Skrulls.

Publication history

In 2007, Mar-Vell supposedly returned to the Marvel Universe during Marvel's Civil War crossover storyline. He made his appearance in the "Civil War: The Return" one-shot, written by Paul Jenkins.^[1][2] It was later revealed that this was in fact a Skrull named Khn'nr during the 2008 Captain Marvel mini-series, which spun out of the events of his Civil War appearance.^[3][4][1][5]

Fictional character biography

As part of the Skrull Secret Invasion, a shapeshifting Skrull called Khn'nr is locked into the shape of Mar-Vell, the first Captain Marvel and given technological replicas of the Kree Nega-Bands to replicate Captain Marvel's powers. Khn'nr receives memory implants to turn him into a sleeper agent making him believe he is Captain Marvel supposedly up until the time of the invasion when a psychological trigger would be activated to return him to his Skrull persona.^{[citation needed]}

The real Mar-Vell dies of cancer so to explain his comeback from death, a false memory is implanted in the Skrull Mar-Vell to make him believe he has encountered a wrinkle in space-time in the past, supposedly caused by Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Reed Richards' construction of a prison within the Negative Zone, which Captain Marvel touches and is transported through time to the Negative Zone in the present day. Initially unsure of how to approach the situation, the Earth's heroes reveal Mar-Vell's history to him but also offer him a place in this new future as a warden for their prison, at least until, as the Sentry implicated, Mar-Vell would return to his past.^[6]

He is later called in to help the pro-registration heroes who revived him, at the end of the 2007 "Civil War" storyline;^[7] however upon seeing the chaos they are causing, he departs, to France, where he spends all of his time observing a painting of Alexander the Great in the Louvre and contemplates Alexander's similarities to himself.^[8] This painting is meant to be his psychological trigger, but due to an error in the methods of Skrull scientists, Mar-Vell retains his personality and memories prior to his Skrull captivity in their entirety. Most of Khn'nr's personality have accidentally been erased as a byproduct of the botched mental conditioning. Consequently, the Mar-Vell persona remains defiantly dominant.^{[citation needed]}

When the Skrulls realize what happens, other Skrull agents posing as supervillains Cyclone, Cobalt Man, and a team of Kree soldiers^[9] unsuccessfully attempt to capture Captain Marvel.^{[citation needed]}

When he learns the truth and becomes fully aware of his true identity he decides to embrace Mar-Vell's memories and rebel against the Skrulls and protect Earth from their invasion.^[10] However, at the same time that Skrull infiltrators strike S.H.I.E.L.D., S.W.O.R.D., the Baxter Building and a number of Stark Enterprises facilities, Captain Marvel launches an attack on Thunderbolt Mountain,^[11] deciding that he can destroy some of the things he sees as problems in the world, like the Government sanctioned supervillains Thunderbolts, during the initial strike of the Skrulls' invasion.^[12] He defeats the Thunderbolts,^[13][14] leaving Norman Osborn to convince Khn'nr that only he can decide who he really is,^[15][16] which leads Khn'nr to attack the Skrull armada. He destroys many of the fleet but is attacked by a Super-Skrull and it nearly kills him.^[15]

Barely alive after his effort, he manages to crash back on Earth, crossing Noh-Varr's path, who briefly mistakes him for the original Mar-Vell. Before dying from his wounds, Khn'nr spurs Noh-Varr into continuing Mar-Vell's legacy as the protector of Earth, branding with his dying words the Skrulls as liars and traitors and asking that Noh-Varr defeat the Skrulls and take on the mantle of Captain Marvel, which Noh-Varr does, joining the Dark Avengers under that name.^[5][17]

Powers and abilities

Though a Skrull, Khn'nr has the memories, knowledge, and skills of the Kree, Mar-Vell;^[5] presumably including Mar-Vell's Kree military training giving him mastery of all forms of Kree unarmed combat, as well as extensive knowledge of the technologically advanced vehicles and devices of the Kree Empire.^[4] It is unknown if the botched mental conditioning has left Khn'nr any of his previous Skrull knowledge.^{[citation needed]}

The Skrulls also developed technological replicas of the Kree Nega-Bands, though it is unknown if these work in the same fashion as the Kree version which converted Mar-Vell's psionic energy into strength, a high degree of imperviousness to harm, the ability to project force blasts, survive in space and the power to fly at faster-than-light speeds, though the bands do give him the exact same abilities. They are also fully compatible with the originals, as seen when Ms. Marvel, armed with the original Nega-Bands, is able to banish him in the Negative Zone by clicking her wrist on his.^[10]

Reception

Accolades

• In 2017, Den of Geek ranked Khn'nr 3rd in their "Guardians of the Galaxy 3: 50 Marvel Characters We Want to See" list.^[18]
• In 2018, CBR.com ranked Khn'nr 12th in their "Every Captain Marvel Ever" list.^[19]
• In 2019, CBR.com ranked Khn'nr 9th in their "Every Version Of Captain Marvel" list^[20] and 8th in their "All The Captain Marvels, Ranked" list.^[21]

Literary reception

Volumes

Captain Marvel - 2007

According to Diamond Comic Distributors, Captain Marvel #1 was the 49th best selling comic book in November 2007.^[22][23] Captain Marvel #2 was the 68th best selling comic book in December 2007.^[24][25]

Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave Captain Marvel #1 a grade of 8.6 out of 10, writing, "Brian Reed and Lee Weeks wouldn't have topped my list for a killer Captain Marvel team (no pun intended), but they certainly make a case for themselves. Reed is increasingly proving that he can easily survive without his frequent writing partner Brian Michael Bendis. Reed's own voice shines through in this issue, particularly with some well-written narration by Mar-Vell. Weeks, despite not qualifying as a very traditional superhero artist, is a near-perfect fit for this mini-series. In many ways Weeks evokes memories of Jim Starlin's work on The Death of Captain Marvel. If this series is eliciting favorable comparisons to that classic story already, I think we're in for a marvelously good time (har har)."^[26] Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave Captain Marvel #2 a grade of 8.7 out of 10, saying, "Lee Weeks is a name that hasn't graced many Marvel covers lately, but I hope that will change after this mini-series. Weeks is one of many similarly-accomplished noir artists at Marvel. His stark, realistic pencils aren't what I would have initially expected from this book, but his style wound up being a perfect fit. I highly recommend giving this series a look if you're still on the fence. I just don't think any supposed connection to Secret Invasion should be a motivating factor."^[27]

Collected editions

Title	Material collected	Publication date	ISBN
Captain Marvel: Secret Invasion	Captain Marvel (vol. 6) #1-5, Civil War: The Return	August 13, 2008	ISBN 978-0-7851-3303-2

References

1. Shiach, Kieran (June 29, 2016). "The Replacements: Mar-Vell And The Legacy Of Captain Marvel". ComicsAlliance. Archived from the original on October 14, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
2. Webber, Tim (July 22, 2018). "Every Captain Marvel Ever, Officially Ranked - 12". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on July 23, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
3. Diaz, Eric (March 14, 2019). "The Comics History of All 9 CAPTAIN MARVELS". Nerdist. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
4. Dapul, Motzie (October 31, 2018). "Captain Marvel: 12 Major Characters From The Comics You Need To Know - 11. Khn'nr". Whatculture. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
5. Blumberg, Arnold T. (April 6, 2019). "Know Your Captain Marvel from Your Captain Mar-Vell". IGN. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
6. Civil War: The Return (March 2007). Marvel Comics.
7. Civil War #7 (January 2007). Marvel Comics.
8. Captain Marvel vol. 6 #1 (January 2008). Marvel Comics.
9. Captain Marvel vol. 7 #3 (March 2008). Marvel Comics.
10. Captain Marvel vol. 6 #5 (June 2008). Marvel Comics.
11. Secret Invasion #1 (June 2008). Marvel Comics.
12. Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? (June 2008). Marvel Comics.
13. Secret Invasion #3 (August 2008)
14. Thunderbolts #122 (September 2008). Marvel Comics.
15. Secret Invasion #5 (October 2008). Marvel Comics.
16. Thunderbolts #123 (October 2008). Marvel Comics.
17. Secret Invasion #6 (November 2008). Marvel Comics.
18. jbindeck2015 (2017-05-19). "Guardians of the Galaxy 3: 50 Marvel Characters We Want to See". Den of Geek. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
19. Webber, Tim (2018-07-22). "Every Captain Marvel Ever, Officially Ranked". CBR. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
20. Lealos, Shawn S. (2019-03-30). "Ranked: Every Version Of Captain Marvel". CBR. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
21. Gramuglia, Anthony (2019-01-14). "All The Captain Marvels, Ranked". CBR. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
22. "Comichron: November 2007 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops". www.comichron.com. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
23. "Top 300 Comics Actual--November 2007". icv2.com. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
24. "Comichron: December 2007 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops". www.comichron.com. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
25. "Top 300 Comics Actual--December 2007". icv2.com. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
26. Schedeen, Jesse (2007-11-15). "Captain Marvel #1 Review". IGN. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
27. Schedeen, Jesse (2007-12-28). "Captain Marvel #2 Review". IGN. Retrieved 2022-10-08.

External links

• Khn'nr at the Marvel Database Project
• Captain Marvel (Khn'nr) at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)