Secret Invasion: What are Super Skrulls?

Marvel Studios' Secret Invasion streaming series adapts the 2008 comic book event of the same name, with a plot centering on the shapeshifting Skrulls - and a new piece of Skrull lore is introduced to the MCU in episode 2.

Here’s your chance to avoid some minor Secret Invasion spoilers…

Secret Invasion episode 2 introduces the concept of Super Skrulls to the MCU. We won't spoil exactly how they fit into the plot, but we will explain all the comic book history you need to know about what Super Skrulls are, where they come from, and what their role is in the original Secret Invasion comic story.

The original Super Skrull debuted all the way back in 1963's Fantastic Four #18 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. At first there was just one Super Skrull, the great warrior known as K'lrt, who was given extra abilities beyond the usual shapeshifting powers of other Skrulls, who themselves debuted just a year prior in 1962's Fantastic Four #2. 

Following the FF's defeat of a Skrull invasion of Earth in that story, the Skrull Emperor Dorrek VII devises a plan to strike back at the heroes by genetically altering K'lrt to have all of the Fantastic Four's abilities, along with some of his own.

In addition to his inborn Skrull shapeshifting powers, K'lrt is stronger than Ben Grimm, has more potent fire abilities than Johnny Storm, more pliable stretching than Reed Richards, and more fine-tuned powers of invisibility than Sue Storm. He also has the strange added power of hypnotic vision.

Over the years, K'lrt has been both a villain and more of an anti-hero, including his current status quo as a member of the royal court of the combined Kree/Skrull Alliance, which is ruled by Hulkling of the Young Avengers (who is himself half-Skrull and half-Kree) and his consort Wiccan.

But K'lrt isn't the only Super Skrull - just the first. The original comic book Secret Invasion expands on the concept of Super Skrulls by introducing a whole legion of them, each with the powers of various members of different superhero teams.

Rather than K'lrt's collection of Fantastic Four powers, some of the weaponized Super Skrulls in Secret Invasion have the powers of certain members of the X-Men, Avengers, and Defenders, and even some with the collected powers of unaffiliated heroes. 

Interestingly enough, K'lrt himself sided with Nova and the Guardians of the Galaxy against the Skrull invasion, and even joined the Guardians himself several years later.

As for the Super Skrulls in Secret Invasion, it's more likely they'll have a connection to the powers of the Avengers than the X-Men or Fantastic Four, considering those teams have yet to be fully introduced in the MCU - though time will tell. 

New episodes of Secret Invasion stream Wednesdays on Disney Plus.

Secret Invasion is one of the best Marvel Comics events of all time.