The Skrulls () are a fictional race of extraterrestrial shapeshifters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They first appeared in Fantastic Four #2 and were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. They originated from the planet Skrullos and their empire is located in the Andromeda Galaxy. Their infiltration of Earth was a major event in the Marvel Comics universe as shown in the crossover event Secret Invasion. The Skrulls have made numerous appearances in animated television and video games before making their live-action cinematic debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Captain Marvel (2019). Skrulls have also appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and the Disney+ series WandaVision, What If...? (both 2021) and Secret Invasion (2023), and the film The Marvels (2023).
Publication history
The Skrulls first appeared in Fantastic Four #2 and were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The Skrulls next appear in Fantastic Four #18. The four who impersonated the members of the Fantastic Four next appear in The Avengers #92. The concept of the Skrulls would be explored and used throughout multiple storylines, spin-off comics, and derivative projects.
Fictional history Millions of years ago, in the main Marvel continuity, the Celestials perform genetic experiments on the reptilian ancestors of the Skrulls, resulting in three branches of Skrulls: the Prime, the Deviants, and the Eternals. Eventually, the three branches battled with one another and the Deviant branch – due to possessing the innate ability to shapeshift – were triumphant, and wiped out all members of the other two races until only two were left: the Skrull Eternal Kly'bn, and the Prime Skrull of the original non-Deviant Skrull race. Kly'bn implored them to spare his life, as killing him would kill part of their heritage. The Deviants' leader Sl'gur't eventually fell in love with Kly'bn, with the two eventually becoming the gods of the Skrull pantheon. Taking the name the Prime Skrull, the last original Skrull escaped to Earth in the 20th century and later became a member of the Underground Legion. From that point on, the Skrulls began to expand their territory. The Deviant branch later split into two more groups, the modern Skrulls and an anomaly called the Dire Wraiths. The Skrulls originated from the planet Skrullos, and were originally a mercantile civilization, primarily interested in free trade and willing to share their technology with all races they deemed worthy. When they encountered a new race, they simply transformed themselves to resemble that race. The Skrull Empire that resulted from these contacts was based on free trade and mutual cooperation.
Kree–Skrull War
Eventually, the Skrulls developed long-distance space travel; a great tour of the universe was undertaken, led by Emperor Dorrek. Finally, the Skrull delegation reached the planet Hala, home to the then-barbaric Kree and the peaceful Cotati, and held a contest to determine which of the races would represent Hala to the Skrull Empire. Seventeen members of each race were taken to different uninhabited planetoids, where they were left with sufficient supplies for one year. At the end of that period, whichever group had done the most with themselves would be adjudged the most worthy. The Kree were taken to Earth's Moon where they built a great city, while the Cotati were taken to another barren world in a different solar system and used their abilities to create a beautiful park. Realizing that the Cotati were going to win, the enraged Kree killed all of them. When the Kree revealed that they had solved the question of who would represent Hala to the Skrulls by destroying their opposition, the Skrull delegates were appalled and vowed that Hala would forever be banned from their circle of favored worlds—so the Kree massacred them as well, took over the Skrull landing spaceship by force, and developed their own technology from it. Because of the immense distances involved, decades passed before the Skrulls learned of the Kree's activities. By this time, however, it was too late. The Kree were now advanced and audacious enough to attack the Skrulls in their home galaxy. During the millennia that followed, the Kree aggression forced the Skrulls to become a militaristic civilization, and the Skrulls eventually developed the vicious streak needed to conduct intergalactic war. Their entire culture was remade in the warrior image. The Kree–Skrull War continued for thousands of years with only brief interruptions. The Skrull Throneworld is later moved from Skrullos to the more central Tarnax IV, with their empire encompassing over fifty worlds. The Skrulls also created the first Cosmic Cube, which later became the Shaper of Worlds; the Shaper related that, upon attaining self-awareness, he lashed out blindly, destroying two-thirds of the Skrull Empire and casting the civilization back into barbarism. It is suggested that these events occurred prior to the war with the Kree. The Kree Accuser Ronan had wrested control of the Kree Empire from the Supreme Intelligence and attacked the Skrulls, reigniting hostilities. The Avengers become involved once the Super-Skrull kidnapped Captain Marvel and, in turn, they battled a Kree Sentry robot, three of the four original Skrulls that had fought the Fantastic Four, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, rogue Inhumans and legions of Skrulls. The Supreme Intelligence ended the conflict by revealing to the Avengers' ally Rick Jones that he had vast mental potential, which was then used to freeze all combatants in place. The Supreme Intelligence announced that, while the Kree and Skrulls had reached genetic dead ends, the human race displayed incredible untapped potential. It is revealed years later that the conflict produced a Kree-Skrull hybrid, Hulkling, who was the child of one-time lovers Captain Marvel and Skrull princess Anelle.
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