In Dan Slott and Paco Medina’s Fantastic Four #23, the team’s new recruits, Jo-Venn and N’Kalla, show they have the ultimate love-hate relationship.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Fantastic Four #23 by Dan Slott, Paco Medina, Jesus Aburtov and VC’s Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
Prior to the start of the Empyre event, the Fantastic Four added two new members to the ranks of their super-family. On a faraway planet, they came across two young children, a Kree boy named Jo-Venn and a Skrull girl named N’Kalla, who were forced to battle each other every day in a giant space casino where patrons waged bets on the outcome of their battles.
Within their genetic material, each child contained the entire history of their races. The Kree and the Skrulls have been at war with one another for eons, and these two children have been programmed to hate one another since birth. The Casino Cosmico used them and the history contained within them to recreate important battles from the Kree/Skrull War, until Jo-Venn and N’Kalla were rescued by the Fantastic Four, who took them home just as the Cotati began an all-out invasion of planet Earth.
But now, as Empyre comes to an end, the Fantastic Four’s two new members show they don’t just have hate for each other — there’s also love.
While Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben rushed to take part in the global fight against the Cotati, Valeria and Franklin stayed home with their two new recruits. However, they were eventually attacked by the Dark Harvest, a legion of Cotati followers who kidnapped Jo-Venn as part of their dastardly plan to disrupt the uneasy alliance recently forged between the Kree and the Skrulls.
Although the Kree and the Skrulls have been at war for generations, their new Emperor, Hulkling, managed to unite to two alien races against their common enemy, the Cotati. Since there are thousands of years of hate between the two, the peace between the Kree and the Skrulls has been rocky at best. But still, united, they represent a great threat to the Cotati.
Now, in Fantastic Four #23, we learn that the Dark Harvest plans on using the Omni-Wave Projector with Jo-Venn as a focal point to project the history held within him to all the other Kree. This will once again push them to see the Skrulls as their enemies, and it will rekindle the war between the two races.
However, while Jo-Venn and N’Kalla have been programmed to hate each other, they prove to have a special connection in the issue. In fact, while Jo-Venn was the only one of the two taken, N’Kalla sneaks out of the Fantastic Four’s home to go help her frenemy. She finds him held by the Dark Harvest, and she risks everything to save him. Unfortunately, she is also caught, and the Dark Harvest try to use her to turn the Skrulls against the Kree as well.
When the Dark Harvest activates the Omni-Wave Projector, the programmed hate inside both Jo-Venn and N’Kalla is projected to all of the Kree and Skrulls on the planet and its vicinity. As a result, warriors from the two alien races turn on each other once again.
For a moment, it truly seems like all is lost — but thankfully, Franklin and Valeria show up, and they make Jo-Venn and N’Kalla remember all the times they had to fight one another at the casino, and how they were able to break free only by working together. Convinced to fight for one another out of love instead of divide and hate, the young Kree and Skrull are able to transform the projector’s ray from conflict to peace.
As a result, all of the Kree and Skrulls stop fighting one another, choosing instead to stand side-by-side against their common enemy. Therefore, Jo-Venn and N’Kalla, with some help from Franklin and Valeria, were finally able to put an end to a conflict that had been raging for thousands of years.
They brought back the peace and showed the Kree and the Skrull there was no need for animosity and distrust in their new alliance. With the crossover’s conclusions, the two alien races have finally buried the hatchet, and they’re well on their way to becoming part of the Fantastic Four family.
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