Nick Fury has always had his mysterious plans going on behind the scenes of the films he was in, but for the first time, Secret Invasion is shining the spotlight on him. With every new episode, we learn something new and shocking about the man who created the Avengers. Even if he’s been around since the very inception of the MCU, he’s always kept his cards close to his chest.
The ace up his sleeve, it turns out, is a vial containing samples of each of the Avengers’ DNA which he ominously nicknamed “The Harvest.” Secret Invasion has shown how much Thanos’ attack impacted him, leaving him terrified of his own inability to protect the Earth. One to always seek to be in control of the situation, Fury thought collecting the DNA of the most powerful beings in the universe would be a good backup plan if they ever died or decided to bail (and a good portion of them have).
The idea makes sense, but as is always the case with these MacGuffins in superhero films, the vial is now in danger of ending up in the hands of Secret Invasion‘s ruthless villain Gravik, who is planning the extinction of the human race. The fact that a variation of this same storyline has been the main plot of a number of other Marvel outings in the past and has never had good results should tell you all you need to know.
Before this reveal, the characters around Fury kept asking him why he didn’t just call on one of the Avengers for help, and while the logic he offered made sense (because the Skrull invasion was something he felt was “personal,” so he wanted to take care of it himself), we now know the real reason why that was never an option.
The Avengers don’t know about Fury’s secret all-powerful vial, and our best bet is that they wouldn’t be all too pleased to learn he had collected their genetic information without their consent. If he had asked for permission, most would have surely said no, seeing as the uses for it are one of two things: cloning or weaponizing. Steve Rogers, especially, would hate Fury for this plan.
Even with Steve gone, Fury won’t want to make an enemy out of the likes of Sam Wilson, Carol Danvers, Stephen Strange, Peter Parker, Wanda Maximoff, and the rest of the gang. Oof, we shudder to think what it would be like to face off against that level of power.
Fury might have always been a loyal ally to the Avengers but we fear that if the secret about “The Harvest” ever got out (hey, Gravik, there’s a masterplan for you), the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. would have bigger things to worry about than just stopping a disgruntled Skrull extremist.