Everybody wants to rule the world, as the famous Tears for Fears song goes, but not everyone does it the same way. While previous MCU entries have featured villains whose schemes involve killing the Avengers in one form or another, Gravik and the Skrulls under his sway seem to have a very different approach. Why do things the hard way when you can simply match their powers with ones of your own? Though this has been hinted at in the previous two episodes, episode 3 finally name-drops the classic comic book concept of Super Skrulls and confirms that there will be plenty more to come in the second half of the season.
But just how far does Gravik intend to go? Well, that sinister-looking cage that Gravik silently observes at their headquarters early on definitely evokes similar devices in franchise history — the helicarrier cage used to contain Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief Loki (and originally designed to hold a Hulk) and the prison cell that Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) was held in during “She-Hulk” — that could keep super-powered individuals down for the count. When his attempts to provoke nuclear war inevitably results in the Avengers swooping in to save the day, Gravik explains that the answer “…is to become super ourselves.” And since the Skrulls’ usual method of holding regular humans in stasis while they pilfer their memories and appearances obviously wouldn’t be feasible for enhanced individuals, well, that’s likely where this formidable-looking structure comes into play.
In any case, of course Fury foresaw this exact scenario when he shot down the idea of calling in the Avengers in the last episode. We’ll see if he manages to prevent this worst-case scenario when “Secret Invasion” returns next week.
