The Satriani question

Discuss chronologies for characters in the main "Marvel Universe"

Moderators: Col_Fury, michel, Arthur, Somebody, StrayLamb

Post Reply
robfj
Chronology Guru
Chronology Guru
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:50 am
Location: England

The Satriani question

Post by robfj »

I don't think this will change any actual character sequences, but it has an impact on dating which would affect the Calendar if it were ever extended backwards. And it might be considered Quite Interesting.

The Skrull world Satriani was invented in the 1987 Silver Surfer series as where Empress S'byll was born and declared her throneworld. She was head of 1 of the Skrull factions after Galactus ate the original throneworld Tarnax IV (along with its current Empress R'klll). It was also used in some other issues published around then.

Bendis mentions Satriani 3 times in his Secret Invasion flashbacks.

In New Avengers #40 p1 Emperor Dorrek VII's throne is on Satriani (before his wife R'klll kills him). The Marvel Wiki says this is an obvious mistake as the throne was on Tarnax IV at the time. But the other 2 uses of Satriani aren't questioned.

In NAv 40 p14 Veranke returns from exile to Satriani. And in NAv 43 p9 she is on Satriani overseeing the creation of a Skrull Captain America (not intended as a replacement but as 1 of the group of duplicates sent to sow confusion).

It has also been argued convincingly that V's return wasn't as early as Tom Brevoort made out in his blog (reproduced in the SECRET INVASION! thread). But it has never been necessary to narrow down when it did happen.

It has also been pointed out that V was more of a religious leader than a secular 1. But Skrull-Jarvis refers to her as empress in Mighty Avengers 14 p10.

I suggest an event similar to the transformation of the secular Shah-led Persia into the theocratic Iran. There was a religious uprising against S'byll, and Veranke's followers brought her to that empire's centre Satriani.

This has an interesting side-effect. S'byll's last app was Silver Surfer #105. This would be after Mockingbird was replaced in Avengers West Coast #91 (as described in NA: Reunion #2). NA:R 3 adds that they chose her because she had no superpowers to copy.

NA 40 p15 reveals that the Skrull experiments in duplicating superheroes is based on Tarnax X. Galactus only ate Tarnax IV, and maybe the experimentation was on this other planet even then so it survived. The scientists led by Dro'ge (who also survived the Galactus attack) have been continuing their investigations all the while.

The Skrulls who replaced Elektra, Black Bolt and others went through a complex process to make them completely indetectable, even safe from mental probing, as declared by Dro'ge in NA 40. And Veranke's own transformation to Spider-Woman in NA 42 indicates that they needed the target present to get a complete and up-to-date duplication. But the NAv 43 Cap episode shows that they can also make do for lesser purposes without the target - using mental means to impose a constructed version of the target's personality and partial memories.

Mockingbird *was* abducted like Elektra, etc, but only *after* her replacement had been prepared. So maybe the Skrull-Mockingbird was 1 of the lesser type. Maybe at that time they hadn't invented the more complete method.

But MB's replacement was superior in at least 1 way. She retained her human form even when killed. (And even into the afterlife!) This is obviously desirable in such infiltrators. However the later Skrulls in SI reverted to Skrull on death. (That was a deliberate part of the plan with Elektra, but not with anyone else.)

I suggest that Veranke had that aspect of the process removed when she took over. I guess she thought it disrespectful to their Skrulliness to remain human when they died. And definitely sacrilegious to stay human in the afterlife and go to a human hell or heaven, if she knew about that.
Post Reply