The Secret Invasion premiere showed that Nick Fury and his allies would have much on their plate as they dealt with a Skrull leader, Gravik. But who’s Gravik? Is there a comic book counterpart for this Marvel character? If you haven’t watched the latest Disney Plus series yet, Beware of spoilers.
Who’s the villain in Secret Invasion?
Gravik is a villain who doesn’t have a comic book counterpart as he first appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Marvel Studios keeps fans guessing what will be the Secret Invasion villain’s next move as Gravik is an MCU original. As seen in the series premiere, Gravik doesn’t hesitate to do whatever it takes to take over Earth and transform it in New Skrullos, even though it implies relying on terroristic attacks and killing innocents. He’s also a cunning character who assumed Nick Fury’s (Samuel L. Jackson) appearance to apparently kill Maria Hill at the end of the episode.
In Secret Invasion, Gravik is portrayed by British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, whose credits include Vera, Peaky Blinders, as well as The OA, and One Night in Miami…, among other things. Gravik showcases a certain charisma that makes people follow his orders. He’s closely working with Pagon, who’s Gravik’s right-hand man and does have a comic-book counterpart, but also Talos’ estranged daughter, G’iah (Emilia Clarke), is part of the New Skrullos society. While many details are still under wrap about Ben-Adir’s character in the series, the story heavily implies he has a long history with Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and possibly killed his wife, Soren.
In the comics, the Secret Invasion storyline was a crossover event spanning multiple comic book series hailing from Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Francis Yu in 2008. Producers took a different route than the comics, where the Skrulls were led by Queen Veranke as she took on the form of Jessica Drew, a.k.a. Spider-Woman, to sow chaos and discord among Earth’s defenders.
