Operation: Galactic Storm - Publication History

Publication History

The title of the storyline is an allusion to Operation: Desert Storm, the Pentagon's operational title for the 1991 Gulf War, which had been recently resolved when the idea for "Operation: Galactic Storm" was conceived. Although the phrase is featured in the storyline (it is the name the Avengers give to their own deployment) the plot bears no real relation to the Gulf conflict and was apparently not intended to have any overt parallels with it, save the obvious fact that "Operation: Galactic Storm" also involved a major conflict.

In fact the crossover was in many ways a sequel to a previous Avengers story - the 1971/1972 "Kree-Skrull War". Like the previous story, "Operation: Galactic Storm" features the Avengers getting caught in the middle of a cosmic war waged between two alien empires - this time the Kree and the Shi'ar (rather than the Kree/Skrull conflict featured in its predecessor) - because that war endangers the safety of the planet Earth.

Mark Gruenwald has discussed the origins of the storyline as a Quasar story which was expanded when he (then Marvel's executive editor and writer of Captain America and Quasar), Bob Harras (at the time the Avengers writer and the X-Men line's editor), and Fabian Nicieza (then editor of Wonder Man and a writer of numerous non-Avengers books) were looking for an appropriate plot for a proposed Avengers crossover.

Harras's role was instrumental in approving the story. As the X-Men editor he could authorize the extensive use of the Shi'ar, a race which until then had rarely appeared outside of the X-Men titles where they had made their debut.

The three creators mapped out the proposed storyline, which was further expanded at an "Avengers summit" when all the writers and editors whose series were involved in the crossover gathered together to further refine the plot.

Creators who contributed to the storyline included writers Gruenwald, Harras, Tom DeFalco, Gerard Jones, Len Kaminski and Roy Thomas (who wrote the original Kree-Skrull War storyline); pencillers Greg Capullo, Steve Epting, Ron Frenz, Jeff Johnson, Rik Levins, Pat Olliffe, David Ross and Paul Ryan; and editors Nicieza, Ralph Macchio, Nel Yomtov and Kelly Corvese.

The storyline was tightly plotted so that each issue was supposed to carry the story forward in some way. Each characters' characterization was kept largely consistent with their portrayals from their ongoing titles and long developing themes and storylines (such as the strained relationship between Captain America and Iron Man following the "Armor Wars", the Avengers strict "no killing" rule, the Kree's genetic problems, etc.) were updated and further developed.