Issue(s): Silver Surfer #27
Cover Date: Sep 89
Title: "The R complex"
Credits:
Steve Englehart - Writer
Ron Lim - Penciler
Tom Christopher - Inker
Renee Witterstaetter - Assistant Editor
Craig Anderson - Editor

Review/plot:
Satriani is the last name of the guitarist who once used Silver Surfer art on his album cover. It's also the name of Skrull Empress S'Byll's home planet, and it's where the Silver Surfer arrives with her faction of Skrulls at the beginning of this issue. S'Byll immediately begins using her newly gained ability to restore the shape-shifting ability to the Skrulls, which she apparently needs to do on an individual by individual basis in a scene deliberately set up to look like a faith healing.

There is an explanation for why this crippled Skrull also gets healed when his shape-shifting ability is restored, but it hinges on the idea that Skrulls are reptiles.

This is an idea that is pounded into our heads every third panel, perhaps to make up for the fact that in the previous 25 years of Marvel history it had never been mentioned.

While S'Byll is distributing the shape-shifting power, the Stranger shows up.

He's interested in S'Byll's new abilities, so he has come to collect her.

Interesting that he talks about "my people". I thought we knew that all his people were dead per the origin in Fantastic Four #116. As Walter notes in the Comments, that line is actually from the Stranger's first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #11 and this is leading to a revision to the Stranger's origin.

While the Silver Surfer and the Super-Skrull battle the Stranger for S'Byl (that's a lot of alliteration!)...

...an invisible battalion of Badoon also reveal themselves. They are not working with the Stranger.

The space pirate Reptyl shows up, and he's as confused about this whole "reptile" thing as i am.

But he manages to negotiate with the Stranger, trading all of his mammalian crew, including a guy with the power to chart the stars in his head, for S'Byll.

And he then negotiates a position in S'Byll's army.

Meanwhile, we see Clumsy Foulup agreeing to betray his boss, Reptyl, to the Kree.

And we learn that the being that had been convincing Clumsy to contact that Kree is really the ghost of the Contemplator (or he thinks he is).

And at the end, the plants finally get the message to Shalla-Bal that Nenora, the current ruler of the Kree Empire, is really a Skrull.

My favorite scene in this issue is when the Stranger does the old duplicate illusion trick and the Surfer is like, "Yeah, yeah. We've all seen that one before.".

I'm not interested in reptiles or Reptyls, or Clumsy DeFoulups, but this continues to be a nice build up of Englehart's epic.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Skrulls start to regain their shape-shifting ability

Chronological Placement Considerations: We don't see a conclusion to the battle with the Badoon this issue, but next issue jumps ahead in time a bit after it's mostly wrapped up.

References:

• The Contemplator was seemingly killed by Reptyl in Silver Surfer #12 and the Surfer and Nova saw his head floating around in Silver Surfer #13.
  
• Empress S'Byll gave Super-Skrull his life back thanks to the orders she gave in Silver Surfer #14, although the Surfer helped in Silver Surfer annual #1.
  
• There's no footnote, but it's worth noting that the Badoon used invisibility in their first appearance in the original Silver Surfer #2.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

This issue implies that S'Byll needs to touch Skrulls to restore their powers to them but annoyingly, within a year and a half, all of the Skrulls are written as having their shape-changing back.

Michael, I assumed once a skrull got it back, he or she could pass it on as well.

Fnord, the Stranger's "my people are interested in mutation" line comes from his first appearance in X-Men 11.

Man, did Englehart script any of his own dialogue or just exclusively reference older comics? It's still a weird line to use since after that issue it was revealed that he was the last of / gestalt of his people. Maybe Englehart had a plan to reconcile that line if he stayed on the book.

@Clyde, i think you are half right. It's said that only females can pass on the shape-shifting cure. I'm not sure if that meant that only a female could have gained the ability to restore the shape-shifting ability, or if any female, once she had the power back, could cure others, but at a minimum your explanation would make for a good No Prize explanation.

One of the Handbooks (published after Atlantis Attacks) has an entry on the Stranger that says that the FF #116 origin was false.

It makes sense that S'Byll would take pains to spread the power ASAP even if other means in a larger scale exist or can be developed given enough time. Perhaps other Skrulls can transmit the power as well. Perhaps just the females, as implied by #25, or just those who go through some unspecified additional steps. Or perhaps it is possible to build some sort of gadget to make the transfer more quickly, but they never had such a need before and therefore don't have a working model ready.

In any case, the one thing S'Byll will not do is wait needlessly before healing at least a few other Skrulls. Not putting all of one's eggs in the same basket and all that.

The Stranger's reference to his people is a deliberate tease by Engelhart and presumably misdirection on the Dtranger's part. In a couple of issues Engelhart gives us a revised origin for the Stranger.

In regards to the Skrulls' previous history, I don't recall if there was anything said to disprove the "reptile" background.