The MCU’s most recent blockbuster, Captain Marvel, put the Kree in the spotlight. They were first introduced to moviegoers in 2014, in the form of Lee Pace’s menacing Kree tyrant Ronan the Accuser in Guardians of the Galaxy. But in the comics, they were introduced way back in 1967.
As a result, there are decades’ worth of storylines involving the Kree for their fans. There’s a rich fictional mythology of the Kree that goes back hundreds of thousands of years involving war, loss, and death, and Captain Marvel just scraped the surface. So, here are 10 Questions About The Kree, Answered.
Who are the Accusers?
Ronan, the Kree villain from both Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel, is known by his title “the Accuser.” But what is an Accuser? Who are the Accusers? Well, the Accuser Corps are the Kree’s equivalent of our military governors and lawmakers.
He rose the ranks of the Accuser Corps pretty quickly, and when he was discovered to be the third most powerful Kree in existence, the Supreme Intelligence appointed him the “Supreme Accuser of the Kree Empire.” Soon afterwards, he became known simply as Ronan the Accuser, and that’s how we know him today – and how he’s been known for a long time.
Where do the Kree come from?
While we see the Kree mid-domination in the Captain Marvel movie, going from planet to planet and building up the Kree Empire, they actually come from a planet named Hala. Hala orbits the star Pama and can be found in the Large Magellanic Cloud – or, at least, it could be found there before it was destroyed.
When the Black Vortex, a powerful cosmic object, was unleashed, Ronan was sent to grab a hold of it. The people he took it from, cosmically enhanced from wielding the Black Vortex, attacked Hala and the Accusers fended them off with the Black Vortex. But then Mister Knife and the Slaughter Lords came looking for the Black Vortex and decimated Hala in the process.
What is the Supreme Intelligence?
We saw a lot of the all-knowing Supreme Intelligence in Captain Marvel, but only in the form of Annette Bening’s Dr. Wendy Lawson and only from Carol Danvers’ perspective. The Supreme Intelligence is a highly capable artificial intelligence – so capable that, even though it is a manmade A.I., it is the unquestioned ruler of the entire Kree species.
In Captain Marvel, we see the Supreme Intelligence alive and well. However, in the comics, it was destroyed along with the Kree homeworld of Hala after instructing the Accusers to flee. They did their best to ward off the attackers, but unfortunately, it was futile and the Supreme Intelligence was lost forever.
Where did the Supreme Intelligence come from?
The Kree invented the Supreme Intelligence more than a million years ago on the planet Kree-Lar. Their enemies, the Skrulls, had an all-powerful Cosmic Cube and the Kree wanted one of their own, just be safe. Out of their experimentation came this incredible artificial intelligence and it’s been in charge of their species ever since.
The Kree live by the teachings of the Supreme Intelligence and do not dare to question its wisdom. The Supreme Intelligence was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and made its first appearance in a Fantastic Four comic before later joining Captain Marvel canon.
What can the Supreme Intelligence do?
The Supreme Intelligence has a number of special powers that make it, technically, a superhero (or a supervillain, depending on your outlook). It is telepathic, so it can read people’s minds, and it also has telekinesis, so it can move objects with its own mind without touching them.
It is able to single-handedly change the fabric of reality and has the same cosmic awareness that Captain Marvel has. It is able to see into the future and manipulate matter (it can actually do a lot of things that the Infinity Stones can do). The Supreme Intelligence is also able to create up to three androids.
Why do the Kree hate the Xandarians?
The Kree engaged in a thousand-year-long war with Xandar, which led to tensions between the two races. However, the war reached a conclusion when the two signed a peace treaty. But then Ronan the Accuser came along and attacked Xandar. What was his beef with their planet? Well, he simply didn’t agree with the peace treaty.
As he told a Xandarian, Ronan hates Xandar “because I do not forgive your people for taking the life of my father, and his father and his father before him.” It’s not necessarily the Kree who have a problem with the Xandarians – on paper, at least – it’s just that Ronan is an extremist who isn’t so quick to forgive and forget.
Why do some Kree have blue skin and others look human?
The true Kree are blue-skinned. These are what is known as “purebred” Kree. But over several thousands of years, another racial group developed, who resemble Caucasian humans. These are referred to as pink-skinned Kree. In the movie, this was handy, because it meant the makeup team didn’t have to hide big stars like Brie Larson and Jude Law under blue paint.
The pink-skinned Kree actually became more populous as time went by than blue-skinned Kree, and the blue-skinned Kree are now in the minority. The blue-skinned ones still have more political power than the pink-skinned ones, but genetically, the pink-skinned ones have more durability.
How can Kree breathe on Earth?
In the Marvel Comics storylines, there’s always an explanation for why all the aliens can breathe on each other’s planets, and the Kree are no different. When the Skrulls and the Kree bring their war to Earth in Captain Marvel, we see that neither race has any difficulty breathing in Earth’s atmosphere.
This is because Hala, the planet whose conditions the Kree have adapted to (although it was subsequently destroyed), is very similar to Earth. The only differences are higher gravity levels and higher concentration of nitrogen in the air. The Kree use a “breathing formula” when they’re on Earth to avoid any discomfort.
How many Kree are there?
At one point in the comics, the Supreme Intelligence got frustrated with the Kree’s slow rate of evolution and tried to kickstart their next evolutionary stage by setting off something called a nega-bomb, wiping out almost all of their population.
We thought Thanos snapping his fingers and decimating half of all life in the universe was bad, but the Supreme Intelligence reportedly wiped out somewhere between 90% and 98% of the Kree’s total population, which was said to be around 30 billion prior to the blast. That’s around four or five times the size of the human race, so it’s pretty impressive.
What is the Kree’s lifespan?
The Kree have been shown to have a tremendous lifespan in the comics, and in the movies. Just look at how Captain Marvel hasn’t visibly aged a day between her ‘90s-set solo movie and the today-set Avengers: Endgame. We can guess that it’s roughly a couple of hundred years, given that the thousand-year war between the Kree and Xandar is described as being roughly four or five Kree generations.
Biologically, the Kree are very similar to humans and evolved in mostly the same way, but the Kree are a militaristic society and they’re constantly trying to scientifically enhance themselves to make them better fighters, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they extended their own lifespan.
