The following story contains some light spoilers for Secret Invasion through Episode 3, “Betrayed.”
PART OF What makes a good superhero story—or, for that matter, any kind of narrative thrill—is a good villain. And one thing that makes a good villain is gradually revealing their motivations, increasing their insecurities while decreasing their attachment to any sort of personal code and, if that can be done organically, their powers and Raising skills to create a truly daunting challenge for our heroes. This gives some seriously tense onsets to the developing conflict that we invest our time in watching (or reading).
In Marvel’s latest Disney+ limited series, Secret Invasion, Kingsley Ben-Adir has already done a great job playing Gravik, the despicable and powerful shape-shifting Skrull leader of the series. At the end of the series’ first episode, Gravik kills more than 2,000 innocent people after launching a terrorist attack in Moscow. With such a violent and horrific opening act, how could there be anything left at stake?
The show has since proven that this was just the beginning; Gravik’s plan is to turn America and Russia against each other while increasing the power of the Skrulls. Nick Fury failed to live up to his promise to give the Skrulls – refugees from their own world – a planet to call home, so his plan is to take Earth as a consolation prize, whatever the cost.
And while we’ve already seen that no character is off-limits to Gravik’s violence – RIP Maria Hill, after 11 years in MCU service – it’s also clear that he’s starting to increase his own powers using supervillain science, and schemes has to help more of his followers do exactly the same. Episode 3, “Betrayed,” introduces the Super Skrull program by name for the first time, and it’s clear that it will play an important role in the rest of Secret Invasion.
Is the Super-Skrull from the Marvel Comics?
Marvel Comics
Yes! Super-Skrull is a long-running Marvel Comics character (co-created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) who first appeared in September 1963’s Fantastic Four #18. Super-Skrull is also known by his Skrull name, which appears in The Source Material is Kl’rt. There’s a lot of lore surrounding Super-Skrull/Kl’rt, but what you essentially need to know about the character’s comical origins is that he was a Skrull warrior who was cast out of his people’s galactic empire just to being imbued with the power of the Fantastic Four: he can stretch like Mr. Fantastic, fly and control fire like The Human Torch, has superpowers like The Thing, and can turn invisible and control force fields like The Invisible Woman.
Secret Invasion by Marvel Comics
Secret Invasion by Marvel Comics
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In its nearly 60 years of existence, the Super-Skrull has acted as both a fearsome villain and a violent anti-hero, aiding and siding with the stories’ protagonists.
For example, he fights with the Fantastic Four almost constantly, and as you can see in the Ms. Marvel comic above, he’s also feuded with heroes like Kamala Khan and Spider-Man (in this particular issue, he goes up against a Ms. Marvel/Spider-Man/Human Torch Trio). But he was also an ally of the heroes, siding with Nova to fight the Skrulls during the 2008 Secret Invasion comic and, due to his own Skrull parentage, a messy and complicated relationship with Hulkling of the Young Avengers had.
While Kl’rt is the character known as the Super-Skrull, there are other Skrulls who have had similar hybridizations of others’ powers. For example, in Secret Invasion, a Skrull named Criti Noll possessed Black Panther’s quick reflexes and agility, Quicksilver’s superspeed, and Vision’s ability to penetrate walls and surfaces. The main villain of the original Secret Invasion comic, Anchor was a clone of Spider-Woman and possessed all of her powers.
How are Marvel’s Secret Invasion Super-Skrulls different from the Marvel Comics source material?
Marvel Studios
Played by Kingsley Ben-Adir, Gravik is essentially an MCU hybrid of Kl’rt, the warrior-turned-Super-Skrull himself, and Dorrek VII, the Skrull leader and strategist who sends Kl’rt on his way be the first to charge place.
The biggest difference here, however, is that the MCU has yet to properly introduce the Fantastic Four (apart from the brief and unobtrusive appearance of John Krasinski in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), they play the Super Skrull powers need something different.
In Episode 2, we see on an old computer screen that the Skrulls have been conducting experiments on four of the MCU’s special characters/chemicals: Groot, Cull Obsidian, Frost Beast, and Extremis. However, those in the know will recognize that these different powers essentially mimic those of the Fantastic Four: Groot (from the Guardians of the Galaxy series) can stretch like Mr. Fantastic, Cull Obsidian (one of Thanos’ henchmen) has the power like The Thing, the Frost Beast (from Thor) isn’t quite like The Invisible Woman, but it’s close enough, and Extremis (from Iron Man 3) essentially resembles The Human Torch’s firepower mixed with a Wolverine/Deadpool-style healing ability.
But without the connection and reference of the Fantastic Four, it seems like a pretty random combination of four forces, doesn’t it? But Secret Invasion has a few clever lines that basically introduce the idea that the MCU’s Super-Skrulls, whoever they will be and however many end up creating, will all be created individually and on purpose. “We’re not just changing faces anymore,” Gravik says to his senior Skrulls peers. “We switch powers. We will be uniquely programmed weapons of mass destruction. We all. Super Skulls.”
We’ve already received hints that Gravik has increased his own powers; In the first episode, he transforms himself into post-SABER broadcaster Nick Fury just by looking at him. And later in Episode 3, after Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) sticks a knife in Gravik’s hand, he instantly heals himself using Iron Man 3’s well-known Extremis ability.
Gravik is already the first MCU Super-Skrull – and he’s dangerous.
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Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health and writes for The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.