Secret Invasion: What Is The Harvest?

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Secret Invasion episode 5

The Harvest has been one of Secret Invasion’s mysteries from the get-go, sprinkled into conversations without context and nearly forgotten about prior to the miniseries’ penultimate chapter.

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Episode 5, aptly titled Harvest, finally revealed Gravik’s endgame and the real reason why Nick Fury came back to Earth after his lengthy vacation on the S.A.B.E.R. space station. Here’s everything we know about the Harvest and its origin in Marvel’s source material.

Secret Invasion Episode 5 Recap

After the failed assassination attempt on President Ritson’s (Dermot Mulroney) life in episode 4, we learn that Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) isn’t too happy with his comrades Pagon (Killian Scott), Beto (Samuel Adewunmi), et al. After the former spoke out of turn, it was revealed that Gravik and his team had been searching for the Avengers’ DNA, i.e., the Harvest, and as punishment for speaking out of turn, Gravik killed Pagon with his Flora colossus power.

Gravik then sends a unit to kill Priscilla (Charlayne Woodard) after she failed to kill Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) prior, but she manages to escape the attack with G’iah (Emilia Clarke) aiding her in the shootout after cremating Talos’ (Ben Mendelsohn) body. G’iah met with Fury earlier, who informed her he was going to Finland, now on the run as a wanted fugitive for the death of Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) thanks to Rhodey’s (Don Cheadle) Skrull imposter Raava.

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We catch up with Fury in Finland, who meets Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman), and the pair travel to a remote cemetery in order to retrieve a few essential items. On the way, Fury reveals that Gravik is looking for the Avengers’ DNA and explains to the MI6 agent that the heroes’ blood was obtained under his authority and stored in one vial hidden within Fury’s grave–and these details change our outlook on The Battle of Earth’s aftermath.

What Is The Harvest?

Fury explains that he organized a covert operation known as the Harvest after The Battle of Earth took place in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame when Captain America and Thor were joined by the dusted Avengers against Thanos and his army within the ruins of the Avengers Compound in New York.

This mission involved a team of Skrulls, labeled by Fury as the “collectors,” and the group was led by Gravik before he decided to orchestrate his own world-conquering agenda. The collectors were tasked with going into the battlefield and collecting samples of the Avengers’ blood–which would have been a tedious and painstaking task in our minds. Fury confirmed that Carol Danvers, a.k.a Captain Marvel’s blood, was one sample collected, which would have been easier to find thanks to her blue blood, and she likely bled after Thanos punched her using the Power Infinity Stone.

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Since Gravik was exposed to this top-secret collection of the heroes’ DNA, Fury considers the villain’s uprising and plans to create Super Skrulls out of the samples his fault and confirms that was why he returned to Earth to fix this mistake. Fury previously went on record saying that this war was personal to him, which is one reason why he’s not asking for help from Earth’s mightiest heroes. Fury also explained prior that he wasn’t calling the Avengers in to assist because he couldn’t risk Gravik and the Skrulls imitating them, the same way they have been putting the world leaders on ice while they pose as them.

The initial intent behind collecting the Avengers’ DNA was presumably to stop evil forces from doing exactly what Gravik plans to, even though cleaning the entire battlefield of Avengers blood would seem impossible. This is unless Fury had a mind of his own to create other superheroes down the line to strengthen Earth’s defense by making “clones” of the Avengers’ powers in others.

The Super Skrulls In Marvel Comics

The first and stand-out Super Skrull of Marvel Comics is Kl’rt, who became enhanced by Emperor Dorrek VII–a member of the Skrull royal family–gaining all of the Fantastic Four’s powers: the ability to stretch limbs, invisibility, increased strength and durability and the ability to fly and produce fire.

Kl’rt was tasked with thwarting the original Fantastic Four on Earth after Marvel’s first family stopped the Skrulls’ previous invasion. Reed Richards figured out how to block Kl’rt’s artificial powers from its source by building a jamming device, and the Super Skrull was consequently defeated and confined within an idle volcano.

Kl’rt later broke free, thanks to Dorrek boasting the transmission signal, which ignited a series of conflicts between the Skrulls and the Fantastic Four. As the narrative played out, many more Super Skrulls were created, including the Power Skrull Paibok, and they were each given specific powers to mimic the heroes of Earth, with Skrull Rl’nnd gaining the powers of a number of X-Men, including Wolverine and Cyclops, and another Super Skrull harnessing the powers of the Sinister Six.

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