Meet Gravik, Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’ Villain

After a long wait, ‘Secret Invasion‘ finally premiered, and we have to say, we’re in for one paranoia-filled and thrilling ride. The main premise of the series revolves around the conflict between Skrulls and humans, and every conflict needs its instigator or, in this case, a villain. Episode 1 did a fairly good job of painting Gravik in a villainous light, but what do we really know about him? Due to that, we decided to explore Gravik’s identity in a bit more detail and explain what made him turn on Fury and humans in general. 

Gravik is the leader of the rebel Skrulls and one of the founders of New Skrullos. Rebel Skrulls are radicalized Skrulls who plan to take over Earth and its resources after Fury fails to deliver on his promise to provide Skrulls with a new place to live. It is implied that Gravik and Fury were in the past allies, with Gravik becoming radicalized after Fury left to oversee S.A.B.E.R. 

Now that we’ve given you a brief summary of who Gravik is, it’s time to analyze it in a bit more detail. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading!

Fury failed to deliver on his deal with Skrulls, which led to a bunch of Skrulls getting radicalized 

We know that Fury wasn’t on Earth for quite some time now. He was in space leading the new program on a space station called S.A.B.E.R. which is supposed to be the most advanced aerospace defense program known to mankind. Designed to protect the Earth from extraterrestrial forces. 

Fury left the Earth in quite a strange way, the Snap and the whole affair in Thanos left him with some emotional scars, and he, in his own words, lost faith in the cause. 

Skrulls don’t care about that. Approximately 30 years before the events of the ‘Secret Invasion,’ Fury and Danvers promised Skrull refugees, the survivors of the Kree-Skrull war, that they would find a viable planet for them to live following the destruction of Skrullos. Fury and Danvers both disappeared for the face of the Earth and have yet to deliver on their promises, despite working quite closely with Talos and the rest of the benevolent Skrulls. 

Those debts returned to bite Fury in the backside as Skrulls are planning a secret invasion. They are shapeshifting into humans and instigating various terrorist attacks to destabilize governments worldwide. This faction of Skrulls is led by Gravik. But how did it come to this? 

Gravik got radicalized after Fury left Earth 

Since Gravik is an original character, we don’t have comic history to refer to, and we know only what we’ve seen and heard over the course of the first episode. Talos’ explained to Fury that his leaving Earth meant that Skrulls would most likely never get their planet, and a bunch of stuff happened in the meantime. 

Talos got kicked out of the Skrull council and was replaced by Gravik. Talos’ wife Soren died. It is implied that the rebel Skrulls killed her, and his daughter G’iah went missing, although we later realize that she joined the rebels.

Talos also mentions that Gravik was most affected by Fury’s departure. It would seem that Fury left Earth destabilized and disappointed Gravik so much that he decided to give up on the cause altogether and start his own war. 

Gravik is one of the founders of New Skrullos

Gravik is obviously (for now) the one calling the shots at New Skrullos, a settlement dedicated to Skrulls stationed at an abandoned nuclear complex in Russia. Everybody obviously follows his commands, and he is seen as the leader of the pack and someone who is behind the whole affair. 

G’iah starts questioning this leadership, although it is possible that she was only faking it to put her father on the wrong trail. Despite the validity of their cause, the fact that they are torturing people, placing them in fracking pods, and literally taking over their identities is what really makes them terrorist organizations, however, and not some revolutionaries. 

Gravik was the one who shot and killed Maria Hill 

Gravik only proved his villainous intentions in the last scenes of ‘Secret Invasion’ first by detonating the bombs on Vossoyedineniye Square in order to start a war between the USA and Russia. This detonation resulted in hundreds of victims and unseen chaos, which will inevitably lead to even more victims. 

Second, he shapeshifted into Nick Fury and shot Maria Hill in the stomach, which presumably led to her death. Even if Gravik turns out just to be someone else’s puppet, Fury will have a tough time forgiving this one, no matter how good friends they were in the past. 

To see more of Gravik’s story, we’re going to have to wait for next Wednesday, July 28, when Secret Invasion Episode 2 is released. 

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