Could 'Captain America: Winter Soldier' Face Mask Tech Be Influenced by Skrulls?

Captain Marvel introduces the alien race known as Skrulls to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The [...]

By Jamie Lovett

Captain Marvel introduces the alien race known as Skrulls to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Skrulls are able to shapeshift, a talent that has never been seen before in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Their abilities allow them to infiltrate almost any institution on Earth, including SHIELD. The talent seemed unique in the 1990s when Captain Marvel is set. By the 21st century, it is a bit more common, at least with some technological help. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Black Widow uses a mask with SHIELD technology to disguise herself. The mask masks her facial features to appear as if she's someone else. Could SHIELD have derived this technology from the Skrulls?

It wouldn't be the first time that SHIELD has used alien technology or even biology to power its own projects. The most infamous example originates with Captain Marvel. After the events of the film, the Tesseract was in SHIELD's custody. In The Avengers, the heroes discovery that SHIELD is using the Tesseract as a power source. Nick Fury claims it's to create cheap, renewable energy, but Iron Man and Captain America know a weapons project when they see one.

As for biology, SHIELD used a recovered Kree corpse to create TAHITI. Fury intended the project to resurrect an Avenger should one fall. He used it to bring Phil Coulson back from the dead after Coulson died in The Avengers, leading ot the events of Agents of SHIELD.

So now some Reddit users are wondering if the Skrull body left in SHIELD custody during Captain Marvel led to the creation of SHIELD's mask tech. While that does seem like something SHIELD would do, in this case, it seems unlikely that one led to the other.

While the Skrull shapeshifting ability and the mask used by Black Widow have similar uses, they appear to have different methods. The SHIELD mask may hide Black Widow's real face under another one, but her face is still there. The mask seems to be projecting an image, not changing its form. It seems inspired by e-paper technology and not the Skrulls.

By contrast, the Skrulls don't hide their form. They change it. There isn't the façade of another person preventing someone from seeing who they are. They change the shape of their body to be more like someone else.

SHIELD may have gotten the idea for face-swapping technology from the Skrulls, but it seems unlikely that their abilities led to the mask.

What do you think of the idea that SHIELD got their face mask technology from Skrulls? Let us know in the comments,

Captain Marvel is now playing in theaters. Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Avengers: Endgame on April 26th, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.

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