File:Marvel Team-Up Vol 1 62 001.jpg

Description
As the Super-Skrull shoves aside a diesel locomotive, Spider-Man stands his ground, intending to hold the Skrull at bay until the Fantastic Four or the Avengers arrive. Unfortunately, Jean DeWolff and Rafael Scarfe, who are watching the battle, learn on the radio that the police are unable to contact either group. Thus Spider-Man does not even know that he is in mortal danger. Meanwhile, he further infuriates the Skrull by drenching him in oil from a metal drum. Burning the oil away with his flame, the Skrull aims a blast at Spider-Man, but surprisingly it falls short. Spider-Man realizes that something must be interfering with the Skrull's powers, and he quickly slams the Skrull with a rail. The Skrull derives his powers from an energy beam transmitted from an asteroid circling the Skrull Throneworld. Neither he nor Spider-Man has yet realized that the grid of electric wires that Spider-Man set up to energize his Skrull-trap is blocking this beam. When the sensors in the beam transmitter detect the diminished input to the Skrull, the energy is automatically increased. This soon overloads the power grid, and melting wires fall onto the two combatants. When they look up, they can clearly see the twenty-foot-wide beam stabbing down from space and the grid cables glowing in response. Finally comprehending what happened, the Super-Skrull directs a flame-bolt at a generator and causes a tremendous explosion. News reporters and television cameramen soon arrive to investigate the blast, which collapsed a section of 11th Avenue into the Penn Central trainyard, and Spider•Man revives and digs himself out of the rubble. Jean DeWolff is thankful that he is alive, and she says that the Skrull burned his way out only a few minutes before. So Spider-Man snags a police helicopter passing overhead, and Jean radios the pilot to take Spider-Man toward the ocean liner in the Upper Bay, where the Skrull is headed. This is one she owes him, she says as she and Scarfe watch him depart. Using his flame power, the Super-Skrull streaks toward the Queen Elizabeth II, which is headed for a ten-day Caribbean cruise with Carol Danvers, editor of Woman magazine, aboard. He punches into the ship's hull and enters the cabin of Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Rubin. Rubin, a Madison Avenue antique dealer, is carrying a certain clay figurine that the Super-Skrull needs. The Skrull is delighted that his "tri-scanner" led him to it so quickly, and after knocking out the Rubins he breaks the figurine open and removes the crystal hidden inside. The gem is the basic power catalyst of a matter/anti-matter star drive, and now that he possesses it, he can construct a starship that will destroy the Earth and return him to the Skrull galaxy in triumph. But as the Skrull leaves the cabin, he is spotted by Carol Danvers, who luckily was able to give her companion, Daniel, the slip. As he passes by, she changes into Ms. Marvel and punches the Skrull in the jaw. At first, the Skrull does not know what to make of her, for she is evidently a human, although she wears a Kree uniform. Their battle takes them through the ship's corridors and staterooms, and it is all Ms. Marvel can do to keep out of the powerful Skrull's reach. Part of what impels her to battle is the intense hereditary animosity the Kree feel toward the Skrulls, which she feels as part of her Kree nature. Seeing that the Super-Skrull is most vulnerable when he mimics the powers of Mr. Fantastic, she manages to land a solid punch that stuns him long enough for her to find the cavourite crystal, which fell out of the Skrull's hand. NASA has been experimenting with a similar crystal, she muses, but theirs is crude, whereas this one is refined and virtually perfect. Just as she begins to imagine what the Skrull could do with the awesome power in the crystal, he stalks up behind her and knocks her off the ship with a tremendous punch. As Ms. Marvel hurtles toward the Statue of Liberty, Spider-Man snags her in mid-air and she splashes into the water, saved from a potentially deadly impact with the monument. Spider-Man hauls her back aboard the ship, where they exchange information about the Super-Skrull. When Ms. Marvel learns how the electric power grid weakened the Skrull, she formulates a plan. Soon the Super-Skrull, whose tri-scanner indicates that the cavourite crystal is still aboard the ship, stretches across the deck. But suddenly Spider-Man hits him in the face with webbing, and when he clears it away he sees Spider-Man dangling before him, the crystal in his hands. Spider-Man then taunts the Skrull into pursuing him into the ship, to avoid harming innocent passengers. Ms. Marvel hopes the Super-Skrull will not risk losing the crystal in the Atlantic by simply destroying the ship. Working fast, she weaves a grid of electric cables between the liner's two smokestacks. It should, she hopes, duplicate what happened in the railroad yard on a larger but more concentrated scale. But she knows that even with all the power of the ship's generators running through it, it will not long stand up to a beam with the power to span intergalactic space. She only hopes to weaken the Super-Skrull long enough for her and Spider-Man to defeat him. She explains what she is doing to the ship's captain, adding that if she has to sacrifice her life, Spider-Man's life, the captain's life, and the lives of his passengers to stop the Skrull, she will. Meanwhile, Spider-Man wades through the ocean liner's bilges, leading the Skrull on a chase. Suddenly his spider-sense tingles, and he sees the Skrull's outstretched hands reaching for him. Apparently, he chuckles, the Skrull does not want to get his feet dirty. Spider-Man then tears loose a beam and slams it down on the hands, and as the Skrull retracts them in pain, Spider•Man enters the ship's carport, where he and Ms. Marvel planned to meet. But the Skrull burns through the bulkhead behind him. Then Ms. Marvel arrives to battle the Skrull, and she tells Spider-Man to get out of there, seal the hatch behind him, and throw the switch. He does, and suddenly the entire output of the ship's generators is channeled through the grid to jam the Super-Skrull's energy beam. But, although weakened, he still continues to battle. Ms. Marvel uses a car as a bludgeon, hoping to keep the Skrull in the hold until the crystal attains criticality. But the Skrull slams the car into Ms. Marvel. Apparently, years of exposure to the broadcast beam have at least partially transformed the Skrull's artificial powers into real ones. Thus, even with all her Kree abilities, she is unable to match him. But as Ms. Marvel watches, the cavourite crystal begins to glow where Spider-Man hid it. She realizes that some of the energy in the beam is getting through the grid and energizing the crystal, triggering its warp matrix. All the crystal needs now is a sudden, massive influx of energy to throw everything around it into warp space. So she throws the crystal at the Skrull, and when he catches it, she suddenly turns off the jamming field. This floods the Skrull with energy, and a celestial gateway opens for an instant—long enough to envelop the screaming Super-Skrull. When Spider-Man hears the scream, he tears the hatch open, but he finds only Ms. Marvel. The chamber's floor, walls, and ceiling have been polished to a mirror finish. Holding the crystal in her hand, Ms. Marvel explains what happened, adding that she went through something like this not long ago. She is still not sure how she survived. And as she stares at the crystal, she sees herself reflected in its many facets, and she senses that the crystal is somehow alive—and hungry.