Secret Invasion Fills In The Gaps After Captain Marvel To Explain Its Villain
The following article contains spoilers for "Secret Invasion" episode 2.
"Secret Invasion" has been a wild ride in the first two episodes. We lost a pretty big character last week and just got a huge reveal about what Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has been doing with his time since "Captain Marvel." What it appears that he hasn't been doing is finding a new home for the Skrulls. Maybe there is something in the works that we haven't seen yet, but if you look at the face of things, a promise was made by Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) and Fury to find a homeland for the aliens who lost their own 30 years ago. No new home has been found, and some of the Skrulls aren't very happy about it. The main dissident is Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), who is leading a rebellion to take over Earth and claim it for the Skrulls.
Episode 2 of the Marvel series took a trip back to 1995 and 1997 to fill in some of the gaps in the timeline since "Captain Marvel," showing us why Gravik isn't exactly on the same side as the humans anymore.
Should they stay or should they go?
In a flashback to 1995, Fury learns of the Skrulls' existence when one transforms into his Skrull body after being shot and killed in Fury's car. When we see Fury again in 1997, he's formed friendships with some of the Skrulls. He's kind to a young Gravik (Lucas Persaud in this scene and Kingsley Ben-Adir as an adult) who has lost his parents in the last stand against the Kree.
We learn in that second flashback that Gravik may have looked like a kid, but because Skrulls have a longer lifespan, he's actually an adult. So here we have an angry young man, identified as a survivor, who managed to escape a deadly battle on his own. After losing his entire family, he's forced to live in another form on an alien world, keep his entire identity a secret, and hide out because of a promise that Fury and fellow Skrull Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) make to find a new Skrull homeland. He watched the Skrulls around him step forward to help the humans, and no such help has returned to them. With no homeland in sight thirty years later, Gravik is ready to fight to take over this one.
Time to make good on that promise, Fury
Given that Gravik was already an adult when he met Fury, and that three decades of a broken promise have passed, it seems like a good catalyst for Gravik's actions. Of course, once we see the camp that holds the rebel Skrulls, we must realize that this rebellion has been in the works for some time. It was probably inevitable. Gravik's reasons may include the fact that a new homeland hasn't been found, but it was only a matter of time before the Skrulls realized that they've got a huge advantage over humans; the fact that no one knows about them and that a Skrull agent can replace anyone. That includes Prime Ministers, Secretary Generals, newscasters, and others with great power. That didn't happen overnight.
We don't know exactly when Gravik turned or if there was another incident or a Skrull that radicalized him, but he's clearly a force to be reckoned with. So why would Fury and Danvers not keep their promise to find a new homeland for the Skrulls? There are probably a few reasons. A whole lot has happened since the events of "Captain Marvel." Thanos, Loki, Dark Elves ... the world has fallen apart, the Avengers were formed, the snap erased half of the universe, as we learn when Danvers says she's busy helping other planets ... plus, Nick Fury is tired. Everyone comments on it in the first two episodes. He's been hiding out, letting Talos play the role of Fury on Earth. Maybe he's tired of losing friends, and he clearly counts Skrulls as part of that number. He's married to one. Perhaps he wanted to keep them around a little longer. Either way, Gravik is now a powerful enemy.
"Secret Invasion" is streaming on Disney+.