11 Best Things The MCU Did Differently To The Comics

11. Making The Skrulls Heroes - Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel’s biggest twist wasn’t that Goose clawed out Nick Fury’s eye, or even that Carol Danvers Air Force callsign inspired the Avengers. No, it actually lies in the film’s depiction of the Skrulls, who are about as far away as what fans could’ve expected, given how they’ve been depicted in the comics.

The Skrulls were introduced in Fantastic Four #2 all the way back in 1962, and were created by the formidable duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. They were originally intended to be something of a Cold War analogue, a metaphor for Soviet subversion, and they were about as far as you could possibly get from the depiction seen in Captain Marvel.

Talos in particular is considered quite the villain in the comics, and though fans may bemoan the possibility of there no longer being a Secret Invasion to look forward to, Captain Marvel’s treatment of the Skrulls as victims of Kree imperialism was a welcome move.

To begin with, the Kree-Skrull War was rooted in the Cold War milieu of the early seventies. Both species were basically intergalactic versions of the USA and USSR, while Earth was caught in the middle. It was a great way of forcing readers to reconsider the various proxy conflicts taking place at the time, but in 2019, something else was needed.

The decision to make the Skulls a diaspora pursued by a tyrannical opponent works perfectly, as it mirrors the very real and very serious crises currently occurring in the 21st Century. Add to that Ben Mendehlson’s charming performance as the charismatic Talos, and you have all the justification necessary for making the Skrulls heroes, rather than villains.