Writer Brian Michael Bendis stated in interviews that the motivation for the invasion is the destruction of the Skrull Empire in the 2007 "Annihilation" storyline.

[1] Bendis said the Skrulls believe Earth "is religiously and rightfully theirs,"[2] and that there are hints as to the plot placed in the limited series Secret War[3] and the title New Avengers from the first issue.

[7] After the Kree–Skrull War[8] the Earth superheroes Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, Namor, Black Bolt, Professor Charles Xavier and Doctor Strange join as a group called the Illuminati to secretly confront the Skrulls.

After the destruction of the Skrull Throneworld by the cosmic entity Galactus,[10] Veranke becomes Empress by lineage, and guides an invasion of Earth, armed with the knowledge of superhumans gained from having studied the Illuminati.

[4] After the Civil War, Elektra, the leader of the ninja group the Hand, is revealed to be a Skrull named Pagon after dying in battle with the New Avengers.

[12] Veranke takes the corpse to Tony Stark (who, at the time, led the pro-registration Mighty Avengers) to sow distrust among the superhero community.

Posing as agents of spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D., the Skrulls attempt to mine the metal vibranium in the Savage Land and battle the New Avengers before being killed.

is dissolved by an executive order of the President of the United States, while a last Skrull (posing as the Avengers' butler Edwin Jarvis) flees with the child of heroes Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.

Norman Osborn is placed in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D's replacement, H.A.M.M.E.R., and forms a secret group consisting of himself, Emma Frost, Namor, Doctor Doom, The Hood and Loki which commences the "Dark Reign" storyline.

Also, several Skrulls are seen impersonating such pop culture figures as George W. Bush, Stephen Colbert, Tom Cruise, and Eric Cartman from South Park.

Cloak Noh-Varr Thunderbolts Captain America (Bucky Barnes) Thor Franklin Richards Valeria Richards Young Avengers The Initiative Secret Warriors Skrull Kill Krew The Hood's Criminal Syndicate Howard the Duck X-Men Medusa Black Panther Sabra (Ruth Bat-Seraph) Uatu the Watcher Daredevil Mockingbird Valentina Allegra de Fontaine President of the United States Cabal According to Comic Book Roundup, the core series has an average score of 6.9 out of 10, based on 79 critic reviews.

[18] Issue #1 was not very well received despite critics noting its "strong introduction to the story, good pacing, and "slick" art style",[19][20] although some concerns were raised over Bendis' dialogue.

The stories are collected in volumes: From November 2022 forward, Marvel released a new Secret Invasion title composed of five issue miniseries that serves as a spiritual sequel to the original event and sees new hints from the Skrulls to invade again Earth that will force Maria Hill to put out an alert in the intelligence community to prove that they are ready for another Skrull invasion.

[23] While the world's most clandestine forces move in silence to quell the situation before it gets out of hand, Earth's Mightiest Heroes have been left wondering who among them might be an alien infiltrator.

This leads to Black Widow being uncovered as a Skrull, which when coupled with the lack of any other failed tests, is enough to calm the rest of the heroes' nerves for the time being.

Upon returning to his lab, Stark is met by another version of himself while revealing the blood bag taped to his arm which he used to pass Hill's test.

It also sets the stage for the latest Skrull invasion to do untold amounts of damage before anyone can stop him, assuming no one figures out the truth anytime soon.