Skrulls?!

[Episode29]

COMIC CON 09: WILL THE AVENGERS BATTLE THE SKRULLS?

• By Devin Faraci

What villain is big enough to warrant the attentions of Earth's Mightiest Heroes? Who will be the bad guy in The Avengers in 2012?

Over the last few months I've been doing some sleuthing (aided by George 'El Guapo' Roush of Latino Review), much of which I can't yet share with you, but it has led me to the conclusion that the foe the Avengers will face will come from beyond this planet, and that they will in fact be the Skrulls.

Except there was one major hiccup: I wasn't sure if Marvel owned the cinematic rights to the Skrulls. The alien race first appeared in the pages of Fantastic Four, and Fox owns the rights to the traditionally Fantastic Four characters. So while interviewing Kevin Feige at Comic Con this past weekend I had to try and get an answer.

'Will the Skrulls be the villain in The Avengers?' I asked.

Feige gave me one of those looks he's good at giving and just said, 'We do own them.'

More digging turned up the fact that Marvel Studios owns the Skrull race, while Fox own the Super Skrull.

The Skrull are a shape changing alien race who have had a hard-on for Earth for quite some time. They would make a pretty great big bad for the film for a number of reasons: first of all, there's a bunch of them, so the film wouldn't have to contain just one or two fight scenes with the main threat, and each of the team members could have their own battles at their own power level. For another, they allow Marvel Studios to do something really cool - what if it's revealed that certain characters from the previous Marvel movies have been Skrulls all along? And Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch proved in the first Ultimates series that the Skrull (called the Chitauri there) make a convincingly cinematic threat.

Of course the other possibility is that The Avengers will battle Hydra. As I mentioned in this story about The Invaders possibly appearing in The First Avenger: Captain America, Feige name-dropped Hydra as being something with which Steve Rogers had to contend. Might the truth be that Steve Rogers would just meet some of the Nazi supervillains who go on to head Hydra? And with The Avengers being a SHIELD group in the movies, it might make sense to make the villain a SHIELD villain. On top of that, like the Skrull, the sheer number of Hydra agents mean the film could contain lots of battles and that each of the Avengers could get something to do during the course of the film.

All of this is sheer speculation, of course, but I think that Feige mentioning that Marvel owns the Skrulls, combined with what I've been able to dig up, points strongly to the bad guy in The Avengers being not a guy but a whole empire.

Source: http://chud.com/articles/articles/20...LLS/Page1.html

[topdog1]

As much as I hate the Skrull idea, I really hope they don't combine them AND Hydra kind of like they did in the Ultimate Avengers animated DVD. Watching Nazis work with aliens in WWII would simply shatter any credibility that Iron Man has earned for the Marvel Movie Universe.

[SlackBrian]

I could live with the Skrulls as the villains, as long as they focus more on the shapeshifting and infiltrating side of them, like in Secret Invasion. I didn't love that storyline, but the premise is decent.

[Wesley Dodds]

I'd rather they left skrulls for the all too inevitable FF reboot. Have the Avengers fight Kang.

[FaT_tONle]

I think Fiege's comments on HYDRA are a lot more telling.

[That person]

I'd love to see them in the movie personally. As long as they don't turn it into a remake of Ultimate Avengers in Live-Action, I'd be more than happy.

[Aztec]

Remember Feige all but confirmed Loki's role in the film. I think HYDRA would be a natural army for him. I liked Millar's take on the Skrulls in The Ultimates (teaming with the Nazis and all) but I'd much prefer they didn't use the whole "shapes-shifting" alien storyline for the plot.

[Philly Phanboy]

Feige had mentioned a while back that the Avengers wouldn't follow an Ultimates-like storyline with the Chitauri/Skrulls.

The recent Hydra inclusion in the Captain America movie could very well foreshadow the route that the Avengers origin movie could take. Super powerful organization threatens the world and SHIELD needs to recruit superheroes to aid them. It also should be noted that Hydra has had many storylines of brainwashing superheroes to do their bidding too so it might not be a given as to which hero starts the movie as an Avenger founder or as a pawn of Hydra.

[Spider-Vader]

No teaming up with the Nazis, that's just stupid.

[Aztec]

Originally Posted by Spider-Vader

No teaming up with the Nazis, that's just stupid.

Why? It was very well done in The Ultimates. Besides I love when history and science fiction collide, ala Indiana Jones.

[slothbp]

Diss me all you like but I hate the Skrulls. They haven't been updated since they showed up in the 60's. They look like Christmas Elves. I just don't think there's anything intersting about them. And I don't think general movie audiences will be too blown away by them either. Marvel would have to update the look of the Skrulls I think to give them apeal to people who don't know what a Skrull is. At least ditch those awful hats!

[Superhero 101]

I wouldn't mind seeing them replacing the Chitauri

[Spider-Vader]

Originally Posted by Aztec

Why? It was very well done in The Ultimates. Besides I love when history and science fiction collide, ala Indiana Jones.

Like others had said, it ruin any of the realism IM has built up.

Plus, I'd rather save the Skrulls for a sequel. I think the first movie should have the Masters of Evil as the villains.

[UnionJack]

I'd like the Skrulls to be in AN Avengers film maybe not the first one.