Get to Know the Skrulls

Who are the Skrulls?

The green, pointy-eared extraterrestrials go way back to the earliest days of Marvel, debuting in 1962—just one month after the introduction of the Fantastic Four! It's been a long 56 years for the alien race, though, especially as the Skrulls' nature as shapeshifters and imperialists means they don't have many allies throughout the Marvel Universe. 

For a closer look at the Skrulls, we compiled a list of their five most compelling stories ever. Let's start where it all began!

Introductions

Legendary creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the world to the Skrulls way back in the pages of FANTASTIC FOUR #2! After the story began with the Fantastic Four committing crimes, it was revealed that they were, in fact, not the FF, but Skrulls impersonating them! This lead to the real team's arrest, but fter breaking out of prison, Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben took down their facsimiles, met with the invading Skrull forces, and convinced the higher-ups that Earth contained far too many dangers to pull off an occupation. 

War Mongering

A decade later, Earth's Mightiest Heroes became embroiled in a war between two ancient alien races in AVENGERS #89-#97. The Skrulls have long feuded with the Kree, and finally the most powerful super humans in the universe were forced to enter the Kree-Skrull War.

Thanks to untold machinations on both sides, the Earthen heroes soon found themselves a part of the conflict because of the planet's central location between the two warring races. Along the way, the Skrulls came out of their cow forms to attack the Avengers, the Super Villain known as Super-Skrull got manipulated by his own devious leader, and a Skrull posed as a rabble-rousing human who nearly led to the Avengers' arrest!

Krewl and Unusual

In 1995, the five issue SKRULL KILL KREW limited series told one of the greatest Skrull stories yet! 

Granted special Skrull-spotting abilities and some of the morphing powers, two men called Moonstomp and Ryder dedicated themselves to finding others like them and also, as you might guess from the title, killing the green aliens attempting to infiltrate Earth. The Krew later reappeared during the massive SECRET INVASION event in the pages of AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE before carrying on into another five-part limited series, DARK REIGN: SKRULL KILL KREW. 

The Best at What They Do

Even the X-Men have run afoul of the Skrulls! As seen in X-MEN #89 and carrying into UNCANNY X-MEN #370 and X-MEN #90, the team found itself teleported to a Skrull moon in the past just before Galactus came to feast upon it as originally seen in FANTASTIC FOUR #257. The mutants failed to convince the Skrulls of the imminent danger, but eventually wound up back home.

Drama followed, leading to the apparent murder of Wolverine at the hands of a new Death. In UNCANNY X-MEN #375, the team learned that a Skrull had actually perished, not Logan, and that the Canucklehead now had take on the mantle of Death! As revealed later, the Skrulls agreed to work with Apocalypse to not only capture and replace Wolverine so he could become the new Death, but also round up members of The Twelve—a group that Apocalypse wanted to use to attain godhood. With the Skrulls' help, Apocalypse rewrote reality. Then after everything returned to normal, Professor X decided to train Fiz and some of the mutant Skrulls who helped them as Cadre K. 

Secret Invaders

After years of failed attempts to upset the balance on Earth, the Skrulls made their most ambitious and effective push ever during an event called SECRET INVASION, which eventually spread to every corner of the Marvel Universe.

Spearheaded by the extremist Empress Veranke, the Skrulls made perfect, undetectable replacements for the likes of Spider-Woman, Elektra, Black Bolt, Hank Pym, and many others in an effort to bring down the planet's super elements (read NEW AVENGERS #40 to see how). The attack featured a new breed of Super Skrulls as well as concentrated attacks all over the world by copied heroes in an attempt to sew distrust.

Ultimately, humanity's salvation came in the unlikely form of Norman Osborn, who managed to kill the Empress and parlay his suspect heroics into becoming one of the most powerful men in the country. 

Read up on the full history of the Skrulls with Marvel Unlimited right now!