*Talos-related spoilers for Captain Marvel and Secret Invasion.*
I’m on record as not having been that impressed with Secret Invasion, but I have enjoyed Talos throughout his regrettably limited time in the MCU, including in the series in question. We’ll talk a little about that today, at least the good bits, but I can say that one positive about the show is that it reminded me I’ve never done a write-up on Talos.
In Captain Marvel, Talos is introduced as the baddie. We learn about the Kree’s war with the Skrulls, and the inherent tension and paranoia that comes with fighting against them due to their shapeshifting abilities. And when the Skrulls come to Earth, it at first seems no different. From our perspective, we see Talos infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. by assuming the guise of Fury’s boss. As Fury helps Carol attempt to protect Earth from the Skrulls while also digging into her own shrouded past, we’re primed to view Talos as the shadowy bad guy.
Side note: casting Ben Mendelsohn in this role demonstrates topnotch deployment of genre savvy. We know that Mendelsohn is known for playing villains, so when we see him playing an apparent villain, we have no reason to question it.
Except! Later in the film, it’s revealed that Talos’s mission on Earth is actually to recover a number of Skrull refugees in hiding, including his own wife and daughter. Through him, we learn that much of what we, and Carol, know about Skrulls is the product of xenophobic Kree propaganda. Rather than being untrustworthy monsters who vibe on taking over other people’s identities, the Skrulls have had to flee their home planet due to the relentless attacks by a race that’s determined to wipe them out. For the third act, Carol and Talos team up so she can help him rescue his waylaid people.
Through Secret Invasion, we’re given glimpses at what happens to Talos and the Skrulls in the long interim between the ‘90s and the 2020s. Fury makes way for the Skrulls to find asylum, in secret, on Earth, and in exchange, Talos vouches for him when he looks to recruit some of them for extra-covert S.H.I.E.L.D. operations. As Talos points out during one of their tenser moments, Fury rose through the ranks at S.H.I.E.L.D. thanks in part to intel gained by his top-secret squad of Skrull spies. And after all that the Skrulls have given him, he doesn’t seem to have made any progress on working with Carol to find them a permanent home.
So, as Gravik leads a radicalized group of disillusioned Skrulls in attacks on humanity, Talos condemns his actions but understands the pain and anger behind it. This places him in an incredibly difficult position on the show. He trusts and respects Fury and wants to help him, and of course he wants to stop Gravik, but it breaks his heart to think of the Skrulls that will be hurt or killed to accomplish that. Even though they’re very much in the wrong, he wants to see them brought to justice, not annihilated.
This inner conflict brings him at times into a more outward one with Fury, who’s more than willing to shoot, torture, and kill any Skrull who’s working with Gravik. Talos’s help is invaluable to Fury, as his shapeshifting allows them to infiltrate the scene of key extremist plots, but Fury thinks Talos is too soft, while Talos thinks Fury is too cavalier with Skrull lives. Essentially, everything Talos has been holding together for the last 30 years is on the brink of collapsing, and he sometimes feels like the only one who’s invested in preserving peace.
One small but significant moment that I love comes in the first episode, when Fury and Talos expose one of Gravik’s collaborators and pump him for info. The extremist attacks Talos, and a fight ensues. But when Fury kills the collaborator, Talos looks positively bereft as he simply, firmly states, “I said no.” He may have regrets about his choices over the years, and he may be naïve in his hope that everything will work out if the Skrulls can just demonstrate to world leaders that they’re good and useful, but I don’t envy the hard position he’s in here.
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