War of Kings

The king with no words has screamed in defiance, and his cry has split the universe in half. It's starting... The war that ends everything. Starhawk, Guardians of the Galaxy #10

War of Kings is a Marvel Comics Bat Family Crossover of the year 2009. It follows events of the Secret Invasion: Inhumans, X-Men: Rise And Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire and X-Men: Emperor Vulcan storylines, and plot elements in various other titles, like Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy or Annihilation: Conquest.

After their home on the Moon was attacked by Skrulls during the Secret Invasion event, The Inhumans chose to leave for space, where they not only had revenge on the green shapeshifters, but also attacked their own creators - the Kree Empire. With the Kree's defeat, the Kree leader, Ronan, gives up his position, announcing Black Bolt as the new king of the Empire. This doesn't escape the sight of another cosmic monarch - Vulcan, Emperor of the Shi'Ar - who quickly finds an excuse to start a war between the two space nations. So big a conflict cannot avoid involving third parties; the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Nova Corps and Blaastar's army from the Negative Zone are all brought into the conflict.

Follwing this event, Marvel put out a series of comics under the title Realm of Kings, which served as a bridge to their next event, The Thanos Imperative.

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War of Kings provides examples of:

• Anyone Can Die: Lilandra, Black Bolt, Vulcan, a whole Nova cohort and a good number of Guardians of the Galaxy regular.
• Arranged Marriage: Crystal and Ronan. Gradually (through this and the Realm of Kings follow-up event) evolves into a Perfectly Arranged Marriage.
• Assimilation Plot: Black Bolt plans to turn all living beings in the Universe into Inhumans.
  • Possibly a Shout-Out to what an Alternate Continuity version of Black Bolt did in Earth X.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Black Bolt and Vulcan, full stop.
• Badass: Drax the Destroyer.
• Badass Normal: Star-Lord, Jack Flag, Major Victory.
• Bad Future: It seems that this event caused at least one.
• Bittersweet Ending: Vulcan and Black Bolt battle with Black Bolt coming out victorious. Crystal disables the T-Bomb from its original intent and seems to convince Black Bolt the plan was flawed. But before she, Lockjaw and Black Bolt can escape Vulcan revives and Black Bolt is forced to stay to battle him. During the fight the bomb is set off by Black Bolt's voice, leaving both kings lost and a gaping hole in the fabric of the universe which is a tunnel to something... bad. Not to mention the Fraternity of Raptors still lurking in the shadows.
• The Brute: Blastaar.
• Cain and Abel: Vulcan and Havok. Sort-of inverted as the good Havok is elder.
• The Caligula: Vulcan. Man, he even resembles Caligula physically.
• Calling Your Attacks:

Smasher: Accessing hyper-strength upload from my exospecs. Drax punches Smasher in the face. Drax: Accessing fist.

• Catch Phrase: I AM GROOT!
• Clear My Name: Subverted. Darkhawk is first going to stop his new Arch Enemy, then clear his name.
• Comes Great Insanity: Worldmind went mad because he was blocking the Nova Force from driving Richard crazy too much.
• Cosmic Horror: At last, one has a short appearance.
• Deal with the Devil: Actually, with Death .
• Discard and Draw: Nova Quasar Nova. Also, Phyla-Vell.
• Distaff Counterpart: Strontian is to Gladiator what Supergirl is to Superman.
• Enemy Mine: Gorgon and Starbolt on Saakar.
• Even Evil Has Standards:

Vulcan to Black Bolt: You act so noble, but you're a genocidal monster! And I am not going to let you do this!

• • Keeping in mind who says it to who is why this trope can be so confusing.
    • Mostly because Vulcan is so batshit crazy that he genuinely believes he's in the right.
• Evil Counterpart: Strontian to Gladiator
• Evil Mentor: Talon.
• Eviler Than Thou: Even Vulcan found Black Bolt's Assimilation Plot insane. Yes, Vulcan.
• Face Heel Turn: Warlock. Phyla, a little
• Five-Man Band: Several.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy:
    • The Hero: Adam Warlock, Star-Lord
    • The Lancer: Martyr, Jack Flag, Rocket Raccoon
    • Big Guy: Groot, Drax, Gamora
    • Smart Guy: Mantis, Cosmo, Adam Warlock
    • The Chick: Bug, Moondragon
    • Team Pet: Cosmo, Rocket Raccoon
  • Inhumans Elite:
    • The Hero: Black Bolt
    • The Lancer: Medusa
    • Big Guy: Gorgon
    • Smart Guy: Maximus
    • The Chick: Crystal
    • Sixth Ranger: Ronan.
    • Team Pet: Lockjaw
  • Nova Corps:
    • The Hero: Richard Rider
    • The Lancer: Robert Rider
    • Big Guy: Fraktur
    • Smart Guy: Quibit
    • The Chick: Irani Rael
    • The Mentor: Worldmind
  • Starjammers:
    • The Hero: Alex Summers
    • The Lancer: Rachel Grey
    • Big Guy: Krovus
    • Smart Guy: Cho'd (not neccesarily the smartest, but by the far the most competent with the ship's mechanics)
    • The Chick: Lorna Dane
• Flying Brick: Black Bolt, Gladiator, Strontian, Nova, Vulcan. Most of them have other powers as well, but still.
• Foil: Take a good look at Black Bolt and Vulcan. Black Bolt and Vulcan. Black Bolt and Vulcan. Black Bolt and Vulcan. Got it?
  • A subtle theme that Vulcan eventually makes explicit is that the war is making Black Blot much less of a Foil to Vulcan.
• Fusion Dance: Richard and Wendell. Also Worldmind and Ego.
• Galactic Conqueror: Vulcan. Blastaar also fits.
• Gambit Roulette: Drax and Phylla's adventure and all its results were planned by Oblivion
• Green Lantern Ring: The Quantum Bands.
• Grand Theft Me: What the Fraternity Of Raptors does with their hosts.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Gamora. Female Kree are blue skinned.
• The Gwen Stacy: Lilandra for many characters. Suki for Robbie.
• Heel Face Turn: Gladiator.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The Skrull possessed by Talon killed himself in order to get rid of him. Sadly, it doesn't appear to have stopped him.
  • Black Bolt's original intention for the T-bomb may be interpreted as one of these.
• Human Aliens: Oh God, I don't know where to start. The Shi'Ar look like humans with weird hair; the Kree, and Strontians (Gladiator's species), look like humans but with different skin color. Phyla, Smasher, a few other members of the Imperial Guard and at least one Nova Corps member look like humans, or have very small differences.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Subverted. The Guardians never had a weapon able to harm Gladiator, they only made him think they did.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Gladiator's powers are directly related to his confidence. If he believes you can beat him, you can.
• Large Ham: Vulcan, Blaastar, Groot and of course the largest of them all - Catastropus.
• Manipulative Bastard: Oblivion and Maelstrom
• Melee a Trois: Kree Empire vs Shiar Empire with the Nova Corps, Star Jammers and Guardians of the Galaxy caught in the middle trying to stop it but usually just getting into fights.
• The Messiah: Ironically Gladiator becomes one for the Shi'ar people after the war.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The Guardians' roster.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Black Bolt and Vulcan.
• Psycho for Hire: Strontian.
• Retcon: The origin of the amulet that gives Darkhawk his powers (along with parts of his history).
• Self-Made Orphan: Blaastar. Vulcan did it a long time ago.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Starhawk's mission. The Guardians who'd got transported to a Bad Future were trying to do this by sending a message into the past, but it didn't work.
• Space Police: The Nova Corps.
• Space Romans: Vulcan wears a Roman-style outfit, and it seems like he was trying to incorporate some elements of Roman culture into the Shi'Ar.
• Spear Counterpart: Strontian for Gladiator, Phyla for Thanos.
• Super-Powered Evil Side: Magus for Adam Warlock.
• Token Evil Teammate: Phyla Martyr.
• Took a Level In Badass: Darkhawk
• Treacherous Advisor: Talon
• The Voiceless: Black Bolt, of course.
  • Throughout the whole event he only utters two words: "Now" and "Goodbye"
    • He yells NO! to attack Vulcan.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Many characters did this in response to Black Bolt's plan.