It’s been a wild week for Marvel announcements and among the biggest ones out there is a teaser trailer for this November’s “The Marvels”. Brie Larson is back as the cosmic-powered defender of the universe, Captain Marvel. This time, though, she’s joined by two familiar faces with Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, the daughter of Captain Marvel’s best friend, and Iman Vellani as the adorkable Kamala Khan, or Miss Marvel.
The film will primarily deal with the mystery of how these three ladies’ powers are linked together and why they keep phasing between each other’s places in time and space. Things get even more interesting when we see other familiar but not-so-friendly faces appear in the mix: the Kree are back!
Next to perhaps Thanos’ army, the Kree Empire is one of the most powerful forces in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). They also have a checkered history with another popular race of shapeshifters, the Skrulls. Could the Skrulls from “Secret Invasion” appear in “The Marvels”? What are the Kree Empire’s plans and who is their new leader? Stick around and find out!
The Kree-Skrull War
Okay, so let’s address the elephant in the room. The fact that “The Marvels” might have spoiled the ending of “Secret Invasion”. While it’s not a guaranteed fact that the events in the MCU follow the order of the release of each property, with “Black Widow” being a prequel and all, the trailer shows Nick Fury being part of, and possibly leading, Monica Rambeau’s new organisation, S.A.B.E.R. and being very much not dead (as was teased).
How do we know this isn’t in the past? Well because Nick Fury has been mainly hanging out with the Skrulls during his vacation and dealing with them. That wouldn’t leave him much time to have a side gig on S.A.B.E.R. with Rambeau. Also, it would be hella confusing to watch “Secret Invasion” in June, only to jump back in time to recap the events before the series in November with “The Marvels”.
Anyway, it’s safe to assume the “The Marvels” logically takes place after “Secret Invasion”, which probably means Fury has somehow managed to resolve the Skrull conflict on Earth. The reason we’re discussing the Skrulls is that the Kree Empire is mostly responsible for why the events of “Secret Invasion” happened. The Kree Empire is a tyrannical state that has been known to conquer and destroy worlds, even the Asgardians are weary of their presence. In “Guardians of the Galaxy”, we see a rogue member, Ronan the Accuser attempt to destroy Xandar, only to be foiled by the Guardians. In “Captain Marvel”, we learn that the Kree waged a war with the Skrulls and successfully destroyed their homeworld of Skrullos, leaving them as wandering refugees as they hunt them down to extinction.
At the end of “Captain Marvel”, Carol Danvers promised to find the Skrulls a new homeworld while Talos and some of the Skrulls stayed on Earth. Her failure to do so is what led the Skrulls to attempt to invade Earth with Fury and Talos fighting back. If Fury is now with S.A.B.E.R. and Rambeau, we can trust that his Skrull friends are there with him. This could mean that “The Marvels” could see Fury, Captain Marvel, Rambeau, Khan and the Skrulls join forces to bring down the Kree Empire. At long last, the Skrulls could finally avenge their fallen homeworld. The sight of a second Kree-Skrull war is one we’d definitely love to see on-screen.
Who is the Main Villain?
Based on the teaser trailer, we know that Zawe Ashton will be playing Dar-Benn, a Kree Accuser wielding an Accuser hammer like the one Ronan wielded. The Accusers within the Kree Empire are akin to generals who hold the right to wage war against those who refuse to submit to the authority of the Kree. Throughout the teaser, we see Captain Marvel engaging with various Kree soldiers before being zipped off to another place due to the strange entanglement between the three Marvels. The question is: Why are Dar-Benn and her Kree forces picking a fight with Carol Danvers? Well, we think it has something to do with an artefact on Earth. One worn by Kamala Khan.
You may have noticed that in the four-way fight between Dar-Benn against Captain Marvel, Rambeau and Khan that the Accuser is wearing an interesting purple-glowing bracelet on her arm. In the third episode of the first season of “Ms Marvel”, we learned that Kamala Khan’s great-grandmother Aisha, who was working for a group called the Clandestines, found one of two bangles attached to a blue arm (which matches the colour of a Kree). The Clandestines desired the bangles as they possess magical and cosmic powers. It was this bangle that unlocked Kamala Khan’s latent mutant abilities and allowed her to access the Noor Dimension.
Long story short, the bangles in the MCU series seem to be a version of a Kree weapon known as the Nega Bands which grants their user great power. The bangle that Dar-Benn is wielding could be Kamala Khan’s or the other one to complete the pair. In any case, we believe that Dar-Benn is looking to acquire both bangles (or Nega Bands) to use them to advance the goals of the Kree Empire. This is probably the reason why Kamala Khan is being dragged into this conflict with the Kree because she possesses one of their prized artefacts.
If Dar-Benn manages to get a hold of both bangles, there’s no telling what the Kree might use them for. We certainly know that the Kree Empire aren’t squeamish when it comes to genocide. Now in the comics, the Nega Bands grant their wielders enhanced physique along with a whole host of cosmic powers like teleportation and matter transference. This property of the Nega Bands would explain why the Marvels are trading places. It could also prove handy if let’s say a certain Accuser was trying to transport an entire army onto a planet in an instance. Hopefully, we’ll get to see more intergalactic space battles in “The Marvels” with the Kree Empire in the mix!
Be sure to catch “The Marvels” when it hits theatres this November!
