How Secret Invasion gives new meaning to the end of Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel changed what we know about classic Marvel villains. Now Secret Invasion might change what we know about a Marvel hero
Marvel’s Secret Invasion is here, and with it comes a number of new and interesting revelations about the current state of Earth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nick Fury is back, looking a little older and a little more rundown after taking the last few years off so he could go on an extended space vacation (as seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home). But, more importantly, there are now a number of aliens running around with the ability to perfectly disguise themselves as humans … and not all of them are nice about it.
The aliens are called Skrulls, and when they’re not in disguise they have green skin, big chins, and long ears. The last time we saw a bunch of them in the MCU was Captain Marvel, where they were first introduced as the ostensible heartless villains of a space war. That’s how they’ve been historically depicted in Marvel comics as well, as the sort of bad guys that it’s okay to fight because they’re bad guys (see also: Hydra, AIM, The Hand, etc.), but Captain Marvel ultimately reversed that canon by showing that the Skrulls are actually misunderstood refugees who have been endlessly pursued throughout the galaxy by the fascist Kree.
Not the only Skrull in town
At the end of the movie, which was set in the ’90s, before most of the other MCU movies, Nick Fury and Carol Danvers come up with a plan to ferry a group of Skrulls through space in hopes of finding them a new homeworld after their original planet was obliterated by the Kree—explaining why Carol wasn’t around for the attack on New York in The Avengers or any of the other big incidents that could’ve used a mega-powerful superhero like Captain Marvel.
But in Far From Home, the leader of those Skrulls—Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos—is back on Earth, and apparently has been for quite some time. He’s still on Earth when Secret Invasion begins, and he’s clearly not the only Skrull still in town. In fact, a number of the Skrulls that Fury and Carol were supposed to find a home for are still on Earth, and they’ve become increasingly disaffected and radicalized against Talos and Fury. Some are even working with a terrorist faction that is trying to both destabilize the global political order and personally stick it to Nick Fury, so clearly they’re pissed at him and blame him for his failure.