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One of the "Big Three" alien powers, and possibly the oldest, if they pre-date the Shi'ar, the Skrulls are a technologically
advanced humanoid race most famous for their shape-shifting abilities. They have green skin, pointed ears, and are most recognizeable
by their ridged chins. There are male and female Skrulls, with dimorphism similar to that of human genders. Female Skrulls
tend to have hair, but male Skrulls appear to have only a widow's peak-shaped cowl, which may simply be clothing, or may be
a standardized growth of very fine and short hair.
The Skrull shapeshifters are the result of Celestial manipulation and are comparable to Earth's Deviant race. However, these
Deviant came to supplant their ancestors as the dominant race of Skrulls. The Skrulls shapeshifting is cosmetic only; they
cannot duplicate powers without technological assistance. Two warrior Skrulls have been modified to possess powers: The Super
Skrull, with the powers of the Fanstastic Four, and Paibok, the Power Skrull, who has the powers of some of the X-Men. Lyja
Lazer Fist was also modified to possess bio-blasts, but her shifting abilities are standard. Other Skrulls, most notably the
ones who teamed with Apocalypse to capture the X-Men, and who were members of a force designed to infiltrate the ranks of
Earth's heroes, used special technology in their costumes to mimic the powers of the heroes they copied. In addition, the
Skrulls recently began breeding more of their own mutants, whereas before they would euthanize them at birth.
The Skrull Judgment
Millions of years ago, the Skrulls were an advanced race that explored the galaxies in serach of peace and knowledge, until
they came to Hala, a world with two sentient races: the humanoid Kree and the plant-based Cotati. To determine which race
was worthy of an alliance, the Skrulls had the races engage in a competition of creation. Whoever created the best construct
on Earth's Moon would win. The Kree created a great city and enclosed it in an atmosphere. Today it is known as the Blue Area
of the Moon. However, the Cotati actually terraformed their area of the Moon and made life grow there again, and were awarded
the alliance. The Kree, still in a semi-barabaric culture, were enraged and slaughtered the Cotati and the Skrull delegates.
The Skrulls them became embroiled in a war that spanned galaxies and lasted until a few years ago, when Rick Jones used his
latent Destiny Force power to stop the fighting. Over the years, the Skrulls became more and more warlike, and became feared
as great conquerors, feared both for their power and for their stealth and trickery, as they used their shape-shifting abilities
ruthlessly. It is now known that the Skrulls, originally a peace-loving people, became cruel and ruthless warriors because
the Kree believed them to be such. At the time when they met the Kree, the Skrulls had already entered the third stage of
their Celestial mutation, which was to become that which others believed them to be. The Kree expected, even desired a fearsome
foe, and the Skrulls had no choice but to become that. However, eight years ago, Galactus came to the Skrull home system and
destroyed it, leaving the Skrulls who were off-world without an Empire.
Warskrulls
The X-Men have come into contact with the Skrulls twice. Once was when Deathbird had Lila Cheney transport them to the Shi'ar
Galaxy, where they eventually found that Professor Xavier, the Starjammers, and the Imperial Guard had been replaced by Warskrulls,
a strain of Skrulls that could duplicate the powers of mutants and other super-powered being using a template-encoding technology.
The Warskrulls had hoped to use their Xavier to control Lilandra and take over the entire Empire. The X-Men stopped them,
however, and the Warskrulls were rooted out and captured.
Galactus Eats Planet Skrull
The second time the X-Men met Skrulls actually started in the aforementioned destruction of the Skrull homeworld. The X-Men
had accidentally been transported there from the Oktid dimension, and found that the Skrulls of that time were working with
technological apparatuses to simulate the powers of Earth's super-beings, hoping to one day replace them and mount an invasion.
The X-Men tried to stop Galactus from his feeding, but were unable to alter to course of history. Luckily, some Skrulls whose
Terran templates had died (rendering them useless) led the X-Men to a spaceship that they used to get to Earth in eight years
(programming in the right time of stasis so they wouldn't feel it). However, the Skrulls who had survived knew of the X-Men's
presence and escape, and tracked their craft and intercepted it. They abducted Wolverine and turned him over to their ally
Apocalypse, while replacing him with a special Skrull who had been conditioned to believe that he WAS Wolverine. Apparently,
the Skrulls were hoping that Apocalypse could help them find a new homeworld. The X-Men discovered the deception when "Wolverine"
was killed by Death III, and when Fiz, a mutant Skrull, defected to their side. After Apocalypse was defeated, however, the
Skrulls vanished, leaving the X-Men in custody of all their technology and the mutant Skrulls who defected. Professor Xavier
then took the mutant Skrulls into space to find them a new homeworld.
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