One of the Guardians of the Galaxy just revealed how she saw one of Marvel’s Young Avengers become a tyrant him her home timeline.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for The Last Annihilation: Wiccan and Hulkling #1, available now from Marvel.
The Last Annihilation has cast a dark, Dormammu-shaped shadow over the Marvel Universe, and the Guardians of the Galaxy have been almost helpless in the face of his new celestial threat. No matter how much the odds are stacked against them, these intrepid heroes haven’t given up, and neither has Emperor Hulkling, the former Young Avenger who now rules the Kree-Skrull Alliance. And on the battlefield, the son of the original Captain Mar-Vell has the chance to catch up with the sister he never knew, or at least a version of her.
But as Anthony Oliveira, Jan Bazaldua, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC’s Ariana Maher reveal in The Last Annihilation: Wiccan and Hulkling #1, this Phyla-Vell isn’t very interested in doing so, because of the monster that her world’s Hulkling became.
On Throneworld II, the seat of power for the Kree/Skrull Alliance, several Guardians joined in the fight alongside Emperor Dorrek-Vell, Hulkling, himself. After being abruptly removed from the battle at hand, the heroes find themselves deep within an ancient Kree temple. This brief respite gives Hulkling just the opportunity he has been waiting for to have a conversation with Phyla-Vell. Although this version of Phyla isn’t from the main Marvel Universe, she is still a daughter of Mar-Vell, making the two of them siblings albeit with a strange degree of separation.
When he approaches her, Hulkling is surprised by Phyla’s open admission to having avoided him. She explains that she had a brother who went mad and had to be killed, an experience that seems to have soured her to the idea of family in general. Of course, Hulkling can relate, having heard stories of Genis-Vell’s campaign of terror. As it turns out, the bloodthirsty brother she was referring to wasn’t Genis at all, but rather her world’s version of Dorrek.
While Genis-Vell’s story is one that left long-lasting scars on the Marvel Universe, the revelation that it was Dorrek who terrorized Phyla’s reality is shocking. The Dorrek of this timeline has never been a villainous figure and has been played a consistently heroic role throughout his history. Even when Marvel Boy convinces Phyla to speak to the emperor he describes Hulkling as “an annoyingly good guy.” The Last Annihilation: Wiccan and Hulkling #1 makes it clear that there is nothing about Hulkling that could be construed as evil or untoward, and that’s all because of the people he has had around him. Phyla-Vell tells him that the Dorrek of her reality never had the kind of support that the emperor has, saying that she sees people who genuinely care about him everywhere she looks. As far as she’s concerned, “Who we love changes us,” which gives this is the well-liked young hero a huge leg up on his multiversal counterpart.
Despite the chaos around them, this powerful moment acts as a catharsis of sorts for both of these cosmic heroes. She may have been put off by the idea of getting to know the emperor initially, but Phyla appears genuinely happy to have done so, and Hulkling is obviously moved by her words.
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