If Secret Invasion’s big bad is teasing a Fantastic future, it may never come

Perhaps the most exciting part of this week’s episode of Secret invasion is the formal unveiling of the big bad plan of our big bad, Gravik, the rebellious Skrull general. We already knew he was on the hunt for a Skrull takeover of Earth, but now we know exactly how he intends to use his mysterious science machine to do it.

[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for Secret Invasion episode 3, “Betrayed.”]

If you’re familiar with Skrull methods from Marvel comics or video games, you probably saw this coming. It’s a simple equation: how do you make the Skrulls scarier? Give them superpowers.

The Super-Skrull started out as a unique Marvel Comics villain created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, who possessed all the powers of a Skrull and the Fantastic Four simultaneously (shape-shifting, stretching, rocky skin, pyrokinesis, and invisibility). But in today’s Marvel Comics, the concept has evolved to include an entire class of Skrull spies designed to impersonate superheroes. So when you hear someone refer to “super Skrulls,” they mean Skrulls who copied the powers of Earth heroes. When they talk about “the Super-Skrull,” they mean the specific Skrull villain with the powers of the Fantastic Four.

Gravik’s plan is to introduce the MCU’s first super Skrulls just as Earth’s nations are engaged in global war, and to secure Skrull’s power over humanity on the planet. And it seems pretty likely that he’ll give himself the superpower treatment first.

So Gravik is the Super-Skrull?

Look, we’re not sure. But what will Nick Fury do about an army of super Skrulls, enlist the Avengers? The whole point of Secret invasion is that the Avengers don’t actually exist at this point.

But An superpowered Skrull? That’s more like a competition. Secret invasionThe big bad guy seems to be the Super-Skrull.

So Secret Invasion lays the trail for the Fantastic Four?

Image: Marvel Studios

Nominal, sort of? After years of licensing issues, Marvel Studios is finally ramping up a Fantastic Four movie set within the MCU. It’s expected to begin principal photography in January and hit theaters in May 2025 (although the studio hasn’t released any casting information yet). Seeding Fantastic Four villains – like the Super-Skrull and Namor the Submariner – into current movies is exactly the kind of connective tissue that has made the Marvel Cinematic Universe so interesting for over a decade. Ooh, that’s from that other comic, that will be important later!

But it’s also the kind of connective tissue that the setting has sorely missed since the end Avengers: endgame. It’s not that the MCU hasn’t tried — Secret invasion itself picks up threads Infinite War And Spider-Man: Far From Home. But it’s telling that those wires were left dangling considerably in the rearview mirror in movies. The connection is there in a purely narrative sense. The urgency and emotional weight are not. And that describes a lot of the MCU these days.

2022, Mrs. Marvel revealed that the MCU’s Kamala Khan is a mutant. But it’s been almost a year and the studio still hasn’t even announced an X-Men project. The earliest an X-Men movie could possibly hit theaters would be 2026 or later. By the time Fantastic four rolls around – that is, if Marvel Studios doesn’t choose to delay it further in response to Hollywood strikes or cost reduction — Secret invasion‘s Super-Skrull will be in the rear-view mirror for two years.

So, is Secret invasion present track Fantastic four? It feels strange to say “Hopefully not.” Hopefully, production has just made the obvious choice about how to raise the stakes for the MCU’s Skrulls. After all, what’s scarier than a Skrull that can look and talk like anyone else? A Skrull that can look and talk like anyone else, And perfectly replicate their super powers!

It doesn’t solve Marvel Studios’ modern problems with spreading connective tissue rice paper thin, but it just goes to show what we’ve known for years: the Fantastic Four’s villains are better built. And there’s no shame in using them.