What are Super-Skrulls in ‘Secret Invasion?’

Today, another episode of Secret Invasion has popped up on Disney Plus. It moves the dark espionage plot along, features some surprisingly graphic moments for an MCU Disney project, and, now, unfamiliar fans are wondering just what Super-Skrulls are.

Warning: This article contains some spoilers for the most recent episode of the show.

At a certain point in the second part of the six-episode run, viewers and more sympathetic characters learn the antagonist Gravik is working on a machine that will infuse the Skrulls with abilities gathered from genetic samples of certain alien beings. We see parts of Groot, the Extremis virus from Iron Man 3, the remains of Thanos’ Cull Obsidian, and the Frost Beasts of Jotunheim. Casual fans may wonder just why these bits are being used to enhance the secretive group working to cause chaos in our world, but, for those more familiar with the comics, it is clear this is an homage to the Fantastic Four before they make their upcoming debut.

In Marvel’s comic history, there was only one Super-Skrull at first. Named Kl’rt, he is given the combined powers of the Fantastic Four shortly after his debut in 1963 as a means of striking back against the group after they stopped the Skrull invasion of Earth. Naturally, the Fantastic Four manage to defeat him, and later stories see him shifting between being a villain and anti-hero while maintaining his given abilities and shapeshifting and hypnotic powers. Over the decades, he has appeared in animation and video games (and we have not spotted him in the Secret Invasion show) while also being the harbinger of others who are just like him.

Citations on Wikipedia cross-referenced with the official Marvel database maintained by Fandom reveal there are at least 12 named Skrulls with powers who have popped up in stories through the years. On one end, they are low-key, like the one named Biff Bison who decorates his planet to resemble a television show (again, comics are just weird, trust us), and in the other extreme, there is the Skrull Queen Veranke who has ruthlessly messed with heroes on the comic pages in the psychological sense over time.

Whether she will pop up or the characters given enhancements will manage to be easily defeated by the time the credits roll next month on the series remains to be seen. For now, things are rolling merrily along with the bad guys having the upper hand on the regular humans we love, and, while it has been asked before, don’t expect the Avengers to show up — and this time, for good reason.