Origin
Hailing from the galaxy spanning Kree Empire the geneticist named Min-Erva traveled to the planet Earth many years ago by orders of the Kree military cast due to learning that Captain Mar-Vell had a genetic code which had the ability to unlock their races possible future. She was first an enemy of Captain Mar-Vell and then an ally.
Creation
The character called Dr.Minerva first appeared in the pages of the published comic titled Captain Marvel # 50, May 1977. She was created by writer Scott Edelman and artist Al Milgrom.
Major Story Arcs
Kree/Captain Mar-Vell
Stationed by her people as a spy in orbit around Earth aboard the spacecraft Ananim, she would follow the exploits of Mar-Vell and she eventually decided to get closer to him with the intent in seducing him back to the Kree Empires ranks. Knowing that Mar-Vell would recoil at her approach at race proprietorship that she would retain as mother of the new Kree she stopped the ideas of attempts to win over his favors.
After a short time, Min-Erva went out to meet and attempt to mate with Mar-Vell in hopes to sire superior offspring to advance evolutionary potential of the Kree. Doctor Min-Erva changed plans and instead would kidnap Mar-Vell’s than sidekick Rick Jones. Min-Erva had hoped to use Rick’s life hostage in order to force her copulation with Mar-Vell and thus enable the Kree race to overcome the evolutionary dead-end that it had found itself in for quite some generations. However, Min-Erva plans were foiled by Phae-Dor the head of the Kree Science Council who ordered her to stop immediately. Refusing to stop Min-Erva was than overpowered by Phae-Dor’s agents and left behind on her damaged spacecraft, however Captain Mar-Vel returned and rescued her and brought her to Earth.
It had been decided on Kree-Lar that Mar-Vell would be obtained for the War of Three Galaxies and before she could complete her plans, she was now left behind on earth with no way home, trapped like a hostage herself now. During this time on Earth, she learned that her former enemy and one-time possible mate Captain Marvel died from complications of cancer.
Operation Galactic Storm
Min-Erva would spend several years stranded on Earth, fuming over that time at the idea at being left behind like some discarded embarrassment. For a short time during her stranded situation, she would meet up with another Kree scientist named Mac-Ronn and the docile Ronan the Accuser. She would live amongst the two in a small farm in Sullivan County, Texas until Ronan retained his memories and escaped from Earth. That was until Captain Att-Lass was given orders to retrieve the left behind agent and return her to Kree-Lar. However, Minerva had secretly discovered the Psyche-Magnetron sometime before while following all the locations on Earth that Mar-Vell had been too. This was the very same machine which had given the super-human heroine Ms.Marvel her original set of Kree genetically altered powers and then used it on herself to gain the same super Kree attributes. When she first met Att-Lass she became instantly attracted to him, possibly due to being stranded on Earth for so long without a Kree male around for companionship and asked him to partake of the enhancement process by the Psyche-Magnetron as well.
While preparing to leave for Kree space, they viewed a television broadcast featuring the young super-hero, Quasar III. Having thought they recognized his quantum bands as devices that were the prototypes for the powerful Nega-Bands used by Captain Mar-Vell and set out instead to battle the hero and retrieve the bands for themselves. Captain Atlas accompanied Dr.Minerva to an AIM Weapons Expo and decided to hire AIM to help try to recreate the Nega-Bands. AIM also decided to send their agent MODAM to battle Quasar III and forcefully steal his own Quantum bands, unable to do so due to his superior powers. Minerva and Captain At-Lass than ambushed Quasar III and attempted to steal his bands themselves but where also easily bested, Quasar III let them go with the condition that they take an oath together that they would never return to Earth. After having been stranded for so long on the planet earth, she was more than pleased to never be having to return to this “mud-ball”.
Atlas and Minerva than formulated a counter plan and broke into the tomb of Captain Marvel on the moon Titan to steal his Nega-Bands right off of his corpse. During this venture they were found by Quasar III and were stopped and defeated, however they were all ambushed by the Shi’ar Imperial Guard. With the aid of Quasar III and Captain At-Lass, Dr Minerva teamed up against the Guard who were defeated afterword’s Minerva and Atlas were taken captive by Earth’s greatest heroes the Mighty Avengers. The Imperial Guardsman calling himself Hobgoblin used its ability to morph its shape and took on Minerva’s semblance and freed Att-Las from the Avengers headquarters holding cells, while the actual Minerva was still held in custody. The capable Doctor Minerva was able to liberate herself from the same cells and went on to find Att-Las.
Later while further working with her star-crossed lover Captain Att-Las to help reach her goal of genetically unleashing an evolutionary hike in the Kree race. Both would shortly join the newly assembled Kree Starforce, an answer by the Kree military uses a battalion of Kree superbeings to be an elite force of their own. Minerva would be directly involved in Operation Galactic Storm, in which she used her scientific expertise and long years living amongst Homo-Sapians to assist with the creation of the powerful weapon titled the Nega-Bomb in hopes to make a better stronger Kree hybrid.
Personal Data
Characteristics
- Height: 5″9′
- Weight: 136 lbs.
- Eye Color: Blue
- Hair Color: Black
Status
- Place of Birth: Edelix, Kree-Lar
- Citizenship: Kree-Lar, Kree Empire
- Identity: Known to the Authorities
- Education: Graduated in biogenetics at Kree Science Academy in Vartanos, Kree-Lar
- Occupation: Agent to the Kree Empire, Geneticist
- Known Relatives: None
Powers, Abilities, and Paraphernalia
As a member of the blue skinned alien race the Kree, Dr. Minerva possesses attributes associated with the race in deference to Homo-Sapians. This difference in her own planet Kree-Lar’s gravity allows her genes to naturally include enhanced strength, stamina, and durability way above Homo-Sapience.
She is an accomplished scientist and researcher in several Kree Sciences, especially genetic studies and for a time uncovered several Kree/Homo-Sapient genetic codes. The good doctor also had moderate melee combat training from the Kree Military, although being able to stand her own ground this was not her strong suit. She has also studied to piloting of Kree military spaceships and their systems operations.
After Dr.Minerva used the Psyche-Magnetron on herself it altered her genes even further giving her very similar powers which Ms.Marvel originally acquired. With the machines induced powers also possesses the ability of flight, super-human strength enabling her to lift and press approximately 50 tons and has heightened intuitive faculties enabling her to guess correctly significantly higher than chance.
She also occupies a specially modified battle-suit allowing her to survive the vacuum of space and Earth’s atmosphere due to its complex life-support system. The suit is made to be a duplicate of Ms.Marvel’s original costume when she first came onto the superhero community, which was adapted from Captain Mar-Vell’s costume design. Minerva also outfitted herself occasionally with a wrist mounted bracelet called the Nega-Band (although it was revealed to be the Imperial Guardsmen Hobgoblin in disguise using it), this weapon allows moderate beams of energy to be projected at short distances. After some time spent experimenting on the recent boom of Inhumans across the planet, Minn-Erva had recently undergone further biological modification conducted on herself using their Terrigenesis biomatter.
Now she has the inherent ability to morph into a massive beast with vastly augmented physical abilities on top of a slew of new powers she never displayed before. Such as enhanced size coupling in optic blasts, razor wings, a fanged maw with pronounced canines and sharp claws to accommodate her more monstrous appearance. Even while un-transformed Minerva is physically more powerful than she has ever been, able to physically battle it out with the vastly more powerful Carol Danvers as easily as she took apart alpha flight fighter jets with her bare hands. She’s also able to fly faster than ever before, Captain Marvel herself losing sight of her after Minerva fled the battle.
In Other Media
Television
- Doctor Minerva appears in the Guardians of the Galaxy episode “Gotta Get Out of This Place,” voiced by Marion Ross. This version of the character is the elderly warden and psychiatrist of a special prison meant to house offenders who have committed crimes against the Kree empire. The members of the Guardians are placed in her custody after being arrested by Phyla-Vell for stealing a Kree artifact.
Film
- Minn-Erva appears in the live-action Captain Marvel movie, portrayed by British actress Gemma Chan. This version of the character is a sniper and a member of Starforce, an elite Kree military unit.
Video Games
- Doctor Minerva appears as a playable character in the Japanese fighting game Avengers in Galactic Storm. In the game’s Story Mode, she is first encountered as an opponent in the Shi’ar Empire stage, where she attempts to assassinate Lilandra.
Merchandise
- Minn-Erva was featured in Diamond Select’s Minimates line as part of a special Captain Marvel-themed box set.
- Hasbro produced a special variant Captain Marvel figure for the Marvel Legends line that came with an alternate head and accessories that could be used to create Minn-Erva. The figure was a Target exclusive.