‘Secret Invasion’: Why Was Gravik Killing People for Nick Fury?

The finale of ‘Secret Invasion‘ just aired, and the Earth is seemingly saved once again, this time from Skrulls taking over the planet and inhabiting it after over 30 years of waiting for Fury to make good on his promise. In the final episode, we’ve finally gotten a better insight into why exactly Gravik decided to betray Fury in such a dramatic way, and as it turns out, Fury is not all blameless in the whole affair. At one point, Gravik mentions that he was killing people for Fury, and we decided to explore why in a bit more detail. 

Gravik was killing people for Fury because he was a part of his Skrull network of spies. Fury promised that he would find a suitable planet for Skrulls but asked for something in return, that Skrulls use their shapeshifting abilities to keep humanity safe from the shadows. Fury employed the natural talents and powers of Skrulls to deal with threats to national security, and this is why Gravik was tasked with eliminating many such threats. Gravik mentions that he took the face of the first man he ever killed, and it’s clear that the event left a great deal of residual trauma. 

Skrulls were never going to be just handed a planet; they were always supposed to work for it 

Fury sort of used Skrulls to improve his career prospects

Skrulls were first introduced in the ‘Captain Marvel’ movie, which takes place more than a few decades before the current timeline of ‘Secret Invasion.’ The series expanded on the lore of the Skrulls, and we see the events that took place after Danvers and Fury saved Skrull refugees from the cruelty of the Kree Warlords. 

We were always aware that Fury and Danvers promised to find a new planet for Skrulls, but we weren’t aware that Fury, in a way, used Skrulls to further his own career and protect humanity. 

In one of the earliest episodes of the ‘Secret Invasion,’ we’ve seen Fury meeting with the, at the time, a small community of Skrull refugees. His future wife, Varra, introduced him to Gravik, who was previously orphaned due to the Kree-Skrull war. Varra emphasized that Gravik was a fighter and survivor, one resourceful young Skrull that could greatly help their cause. 

Fury was at first reluctant to bring “children” into this but was fine with it when Varra explained that Skrulls age far slower than humans and that Gravik was a child only to human eyes. 

Fury then extended the invitation to stay for the rest of the Skrulls. He swore that he would find them a suitable planet to live on if they used their shapeshifting powers to protect humanity. 

As shapeshifters, Skrulls are the perfect spies, and considering that Fury was just building his career, he took a gamble, and it paid off relatively soon, as he climbed the ranks quickly. However, it backfired in the long run since he failed to deliver on his promise and further complicated things when he got emotionally involved with the Skrull community. 

Gravik was often sent on assignments for Fury; he was even willing to kill for him 

In episode 5 of ‘Secret Invasion,’ we learned that Fury was keeping many secrets from many of his partners. Following the Battle of Earth against Thanos, Fury secretly collected Avengers DNA. Since he trusted Gravik quite a lot at the time, he was one of the Skrulls collectors who worked on the project. 

In the final episode of ‘Secret Invasion,’ we learned that the reason that Gravik worked for Fury on his assignments was one of the reasons why the villain came to despise both Fury and humans in general. 

Gravik, due to his age, skills, and resourcefulness, was tasked with eliminating some people that presented themselves as a threat to security and humanity. Gravik was impressionable enough to accept such tasks because he wanted to impress Fury, who he looked upon as a role model and a father figure, and ultimately, he perceived Fury as the savior of the Skrull people. 

The first man that Gravik was tasked to kill had a family, a wife, and children, something that deeply scared Gravik and started changing something within him that would eventually evolve into sociopathy of the highest level. 

Fury figured out that he won’t be able to find a planet for Skrulls but forgot to mention it while he was using their ‘services’ 

Gravik further explained that he killed a ton of people for Fury and that each subsequent murder he did “tore a little piece of his heart,” but still he kept with it because Fury was supposed to save them. Only the planet never came, and following the snap, Fury left the Earth altogether and retreated to S.A.B.E.R. to deal with his own demons. 

Now since the Fury that Gravik was talking to wasn’t really a Fury but rather G’iah disguised as Fury, we’re not sure how much of what she said to Gravik was pulled out of Fury’s own mind and how much were her own words designed to trigger Gravik into making something stupid. 

But according to G’iah’s words, Fury was aware relatively early into their deal that he won’t be able to find a planet for Skrulls, and he figured that the only way to keep his end of the bargain was the keep the Skrulls on Earth. “Fury” knew that saving the lives of eight billion people was easier than changing their minds and changing their minds about alien life forms on Earth. 

Gravik, of course, wasn’t pleased with this answer. He continued with his plans to empower himself and destroy the humans, even when he realized he wasn’t fighting with Fury but with G’iah. 

And now you know, as much as Skrulls should’ve never been entitled to a different planet just because theirs got destroyed, we gained a better insight into why many Skrulls were extremely pissed at Fury. Fury and humanity as a whole benefited greatly from Skrulls, while they received nothing in return and were forced to live out their lives with a guilty consciousness and alien skins. 

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