Do you have a friend at work that you always thought was kind of odd? There's nothing wrong about how they act, yet there's something ever so slightly off about them? Ever entertain the fact that your friend could be an alien? The person you think is your friend Stanley could actually be a shapeshifter from another world, and an alien takeover of the Earth could be imminent. Films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing all focus on aliens that can take human form in an attempt to secretly invade Earth and take over humanity. Well, get used to that idea, because your buddy Stanley? Yeah, he's a Skrull!

Skrulls are everywhere! Pagon was a Skrull who was disguised as the assassin Elektra. Vernanke was the Queen of the Skrulls and posed as Spider-Woman. Even the wife of Johnny Storm was revealed to be a Skrull named Lyja who lived among the Fantastic Four for years! Where does the infiltration end? The Skrulls have had conflict not only with Earth, but with other races like the Kree and the Shi'ar! Normally the lists produced by CBR are informational, but this list of facts is intent on giving you more information about the Skrulls so you can potentially spot one amongst your friends or coworkers (we're still looking at you, Stanley)! What event brought peace between the Skrulls and the Kree? What is Skrullovoria-Induced Skrullophobia? Why do Skrulls like to party on Kral IV? Get ready for the answers as CBR tries to save your life and help you learn about the 15 weird secrets about the Skrull Empire!

15 GALACTUS ATE THEIR THRONEWORLD

Boy, there is nothing like kicking someone when they're down. The Skrulls are technologically advanced and have been for centuries. They had a massive fleet of ships, all very impressive. And yet, the entire fleet was single-handedly destroyed by Nova, the herald of Galactus. Just when you thought things couldn't get worse, Galactus himself arrived.

Perhaps the Skrulls shouldn't have moved their capital to Tarnax IV (later renamed to the more awesome Throneworld), because Galactus arrived and devoured the planet to satisfy his own hunger.  Throneworld was destroyed but the Skrull race lived on. Unfortunately, with the planet destroyed, the empire broke up into hundreds of small, warring factions.

14 X-SKRULLS

The X-Men are people born with genetic mutations that grant them incredible superpowers. However, it would be selfish to think that those mutations were limited only to the human genome. Mutants with extraordinary abilities can be found in other races throughout the galaxy, and the Skrulls are no exception.

Fiz, Nuro, R'tee, Spunje, Z'Cann and Goroth are Skrulls that make up the group Cadre K. These mutant Skrulls are considered K-class Deviant Skrulls, and were organized together by none other than Professor Charles Xavier himself. Their powers ranged from size manipulation to telepathy, and just like on Earth, the mutant Skrulls were also considered outcasts.

13 DEAD END

Ever have a bad break-up where your ex tells you that the relationship has reached a dead end? There's nothing else that you have to offer each other and that the relationship is like a dead shark? No? Just us? Well, lucky you, then. If you think a dead-end relationship is bad, then you probably don't want to be a Skrull, because according to the Supreme Intelligence, the Skrull race is at a genetic dead end.

This seems like a contradiction due to the fact that there are mutants amongst the Skrull race. Perhaps the mutant population is so minuscule that it doesn't really make a longterm difference. Either way, regardless of their ability to shapeshift or have Skrulls with mutant powers, the race was considered to be genetically stagnant.

12 THREE TYPES OF SKRULLS

If you want to know who created all life in the Marvel Universe, it can probably be traced back to the Celestials. Those gigantic space gods are notorious for, gabillions of years ago, playing around with lifeforms and evolving them at an accelerated rate to see what would happen. Playing god is one thing Celestials have no problem doing.

Eons ago, the Celestials got a hold of a reptillian race on the planet Skrullos and genetically augmented them into three kinds of Skrulls: Eternal Skrulls, Deviant Skrulls and Prime Skrulls. Due to their superior ability to shapeshift, the Deviant Skrulls became the dominant race and slaughtered the other Eternals and Primes.

11 PEACE AT LAST

The Skrulls and the Kree are two races that fought a very violent war for literally thousands of years. The war began when a Skrull ambassador came to the planet Hala and decided to partner not with the Kree but with another race called the Cotati. Enraged, the Kree killed the ambassador and shortly thereafter, war was declared.

What could end a war that has gone on for generations? The answer was provided in an alternate future featured in Hulk: The End. In the one-shot comic book, we find out that with the exception of the Hulk, everyone on the Earth has died due to a nuclear holocaust. The death of humanity was so celebrated that the Kree and Skrull ended their hostilities in celebration.

10 WHO PAYS FOR DINNER?

Skrull shapeshifting seems less biological and more magical. For example, Lyja, the Skrull that impersonated Alicia Masters (wife of Johnny Storm), transformed herself from an adult Skrull into a house fly. Where did all of her mass go? Perhaps her shifting is similar to Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, whose natural form was a liquid. Either way, Skrulls can change their size, skin color and their sex, so how does dating work?

Those that identify with being genderfluid consider themselves flexible about their gender identity. With the Skrulls, they literally can change their biology, changing into a male or female at will. Because of this, Skrull sexual orientation winds up being quite complex.

9 SKRULL GODS

Marvel has always had weird takes on God and religion. For example, Thor is considered the God of Thunder, but in reality he's an Asgardian that can harness the elements and direct them with his hammer, Mjolnir. So what about the Skrulls? What Gods do they have, and are they really Gods?

There used to be three types of Skrulls, until one branch of the race, the Deviant Skrulls, destroyed the other two. Sl'gur't, the leader of the Deviant Skrulls, fell in love with Kly'bn, the last member of the Eternal Skrulls. The two literally became deified and worshipped by other Skrulls. Millions of years later, the two were destroyed by the God Squad, a team of super-powerful entities led by Hercules during the Chaos War.

8 BEATLESKRULLS

Are you familiar with the cameos that the Beatles did in American comic books? Batman #222 came out in June 1970 and depicted Batman working with a band called the Oliver Twists, who are clearly the Beatles, and the comic pokes fun at the conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney had died and was replaced with a double.

Although the Beatles made a cameo in the DC Universe, they also do one for Marvel as well. There were four Skrulls who at one point posed as the Beatles. Most notable was John the Skrull, who, after impersonating John Lenon, joined the British intelligence agency MI-13 and also assisted Captain Britain in defending the Siege Perilous from a Skrull attack.

7 MOO! SKRULLS! MOO!

The Skrulls first make their appearance in the January 1962 issue of Fantastic Four #2. They impersonated the Fantastic Four in an attempt to smear their good name. The FF was able to thwart their plans, but what of the four spies that were now stuck on Earth? Reed Richards has them turn into cows (with one Skrull becoming a duck), and then he hypnotizes them so they forget about their Skrull past!

Eventually the Skrull cows are slaughtered and consumed (so was the duck). There are some people that ate the meat and died, others developed Skrullovoria-Induced Skrullophobia, meaning they gained shapeshifting abilities as well as fear and hatred towards the Skrull race. Several of the super-powered individuals formed a team called the Skrull Kill Crew.

6 WHAT THE SHIFT?

The ability of the Skrulls to shapeshift has been a very formidable tool in the reconnaissance as well as infiltration of enemy races. However, there was a brief period in Skrull history in which they lost their ability to change their appearance. Their loss wasn't due to a Kree weapon or human intervention; the attack came from within.

After Galactus destroyed the Throneworld of the Skrulls, the Skrull Empire was in disarray. Hundreds of factions formed with multiple Governors declaring themselves Emperor of the Skrulls . One leader, Zabyk, detonated a Hyper-Wave bomb that took away the shapeshifting ability of the Skrulls. The power was returned to the race thanks to Empress S'byll, who also reunited all of the Skrull factions.

5 R.I.P. FRANKLIN STORM

Franklin Storm, the father of Sue and Johnny Storm, was played by Reg E. Cathey in the 2015 film Fantastic Four. In the film, the father was a scientist, but in the comics he was a surgeon. A loan shark threatened his kids and Franklin wound up killing the man. Franklin was thrown in jail and the Storm children grew up without parents.

Years later the Fantastic Four went to visit Franklin in jail only to discover he somehow gained superpowers and called himself the Invincible Man. It turns out it was the Super-Skrull masquerading as Sue and Johnny's dad. The Skrulls returned the real Franklin... with a bomb attached to his chest! Franklin threw himself on the floor, taking the full brunt of the blast to protect his children.

4 SUPER-SKRULL AND POWER-SKRULL

The Skrulls attempted an invasion of Earth, but were stopped by The Fantastic Four. To get revenge, the Skrulls genetically modified a warrior named Kl'rt with the very powers of their enemy. The Super-Skrull, as he was named by the Skrull Emperor, had all of the powers of the Fantastic Four and almost succeeded in besting them in their first combat.

The Skrulls made a second super soldier out of a Skrull Captain named Paibok and named him the Power-Skrull. Instead of mimicking powers of the Fantastic Four, he had abilities mirroring certain members of the X-Men. The Power-Skrull had cold manipulation powers, generate electric blasts and turn his skin into an organic metal. Sound familiar?

3 THE FANTASTIC FOUR HELPED THEM SHAPESHIFT

Wolverine has enhanced senses that can identify a person by their scent. Daredevil also has enhanced senses and although he's blind, he can identity people based on such things as their heartbeat. Even a powerful psychic like Professor X can sense people based on their brainwaves. So how in the heck did the Skrulls go virtually unnoticed during the crossover Secret Invasion?

The Skrulls got smart and were able to make a clone of Reed Richards. The clone of Richards was tricked into helping augment Skrull shapeshifting to make their transformation absolutely perfect and undetectable. Once the heroes learned of Skrulls infiltrating their ranks, panic set in that they couldn't sniff them out. Fortunately, the real Richards was able to undo what his clone did.

2 PARTY ACROSS THE GALAXY!

If you're looking to vacation somewhere, perhaps you go on a cruise or to someplace with lots of sun. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, audiences were introduced to the pleasure planet of Risa, where people could sunbathe and engage in jamaharon. What's that? Well, go buy a horga'hn and find out. So where's a Skrull to go if they're looking for a good time?

The Kral System has 10 worlds, and the Skrulls managed to convert them all into Westworld-type amusement parks. Besides having gladiatorial tournaments, the fourth planet in the system had a replica of New York City during the Prohibition Era as well as a mock up of a Medieval city. We wonder what Arnold Weber and Robert Ford would have to say about that.

1 SECRET INVASION

In the X-Men movies, Mystique became an invaluable character due to her shapeshifting abilities. Her mutant powers let her change her appearance and voice, granting her the ability to infiltrate almost any situation. In 2008, Marvel readers learned that Skrulls had secretly invaded Earth in ways they didn't expect.

The 2008 series Secret Invasion involves Earth's heroes scrambling to deal with the Skrull infiltration of Earth. However, in the 1991 issue of Fantastic Four #265, Johnny Storm finds out that his wife Alicia Masters was actually a Skrull named Lyja. The possible Skrull invasion of Earth might also be the storyline behind the 2019 film Captain Marvel.