Marvel’s Secret Invasion: Super Skrull, Explained

[This story contains Secret Invasion spoilers for season 1 episode 3, “Betrayed”.] “We no longer just change faces. We change powers. We’re gonna be uniquely programmed weapons of mass destruction. All of us. Super Skrulls.” That’s what shape-shifting Skrull resistance leader Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) says on Wednesday’s Secret Invasion, revealing plans to eradicate the human race and claim Earth for refugees of the Kree-Skrull war that destroyed their home world, Skrullos. Aided by Dr. Rosa Dalton (Katie Finneran), the rebel Skrulls have been harvesting DNA from across the galaxy — a limb from the Flora colossus called Groot, the alien Cull Obsidian of Thanos’ Black Order, an Extremis soldier, and a Jotunheim Frost Beast — to engineer Gravik’s army of super-powered Skrulls. 

In the comics, the Super-Skrull dates back to 1963’s Fantastic Four #18 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. After the foursome thwarted a Skrull invasion of Earth (in Fantastic Four #2), Skrull Emperor Dorrek devoted every resource of the Skrull empire to genetically modifying the warrior Kl’rt into the Super-Skrull, a shape-shifter with all the powers of the Fantastic Four: the stretching power of Mr. Fantastic; the fire manipulation of the Human Torch; the super-strength of the Thing; and the Invisible Girl’s power of invisibility.

After the first Super-Skrull failed to stake Earth as the site of a new Skrull government, the Super-Skrull would clash with such superheroes as Thor, Captain Mar-Vell, and the Avengers. Soon, the Skrulls’ army of super-soldiers included Paibok the Power Skrull,
Rl’nnd — who adopted the powers of X-Men Wolverine, Cyclops, Colossus, and Nightcrawler — the Asgardian amalgamation S’Kaan, and Criti Noll and Veranke, who assumed the identities and abilities of the Avengers Hank Pym, a.k.a. Yellowjacket, and Jessica Drew, a.k.a. Spider-Woman.

In the Secret Invasion comic book, the shape-shifting aliens invaded Earth by embedding Skrull agents in the most powerful organizations across the globe — including the Avengers. With the powers of genetic shape-shifting, Skrull Queen Veranke’s army of Super-Skrulls made their last stand in New York, where Earth’s mightiest heroes — and villains — assembled to defeat the Skrulls and end their secret invasion.

New episodes of Marvel’s Secret Invasion premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.