'Avengers' movie villains: Skrull? The Kree?

We all know that Loki is the main villain in the upcoming Avengers movie. We guessed that years ago, because Loki was the original villain Avengers #1 and geeks love it when Hollywood butters them up with canon. Then Tom Hiddleston’s Loki started showing up in every Avengers trailer saying something to the effect of “Grr, I’m the villain in this movie, snarl!” But Loki’s presence has been a cover-up for a surprisingly well-kept mystery: Just who is the mysterious “army” attacking the earth’s population and generally pulling a Roland Emmerich on New York City? Well, LEGO just released some photos of their new Avengers-themed toys, and a couple of the images seem to show members of that attacking army. Unfortunately…well, they look like LEGOs. We’ve got some theories, though. Check out an image after the jump — it might be a spoiler, and at least one of these theories is probably correct, so if you’d prefer to see Avengers totally unaware, then stop reading now.

Now, for the last year, popular fan theory has held that the attackers were the shape-changing race of aliens known as the Skrulls. I always found this unlikely, mainly because Joss Whedon is a clever enough writer to know that having an entire invading force that can change shape instantly opens the movie up to a million lame “Uh oh, turns out that character was actually a Skrull all along!” twists. (Although wouldn’t it be ironic if every Avenger was actually a Skrull sleeper agent, and they were all in such deep cover that they didn’t know they were all Skrulls, and in order to keep their cover intact they accidentally defeated their own invading army? Just like the Cold War!) When I first saw these images, I though I finally had confirmation that the invading force was actually going to be a totally different alien race: The Kree.

For the newcomers in the audience, the Kree were an alien race who were mostly blue-skinned, except for a few people who were pink-skinned for some reason we could spend hours debating, but won’t. The Kree lived in a society dominated by an aesthetic I would describe as “futuristic-retro Egyptian,” with lots of crowns and arches — which is certainly the look that those attacking LEGO-guys are rocking. Additionally, the Kree are ideal villains for a big movie like this. Their only really defining trait is their relentless pursuit of genetic purity. Which makes them Space Nazis. And who doesn’t love to hate Space Nazis?

However, fellow EW comics enthusiast Kurt Christenson offers a counter-theory: “Honestly, I think they’re Atlanteans. In Avengers #4 they fight Namor, and there’s the whole connection to him finding Cap, which could set off the whole chain of events. Even Joss Whedon was quoted as saying ‘Who said they were aliens?'” Further bolstering the case for Atlanteans, EW visual guru Jef Castro reminded us of the easter egg in Iron Man 2 that seemed to show Atlantis on a map.

Just to further muddy the issue, I’m going to offer the counter-countertheory that they’re Inhumans, but those strange circles in the middle of the attacking LEGOs heads indicate that they’re being controlled by an Infinity Gauntlet-wielding Thanos, and the twist ending will be that Marvel mascot Agent Phil Coulson is actually Adam Warlock. Who knows? I don’t know. Kurt doesn’t know. Breznican probably knows, but he’s not telling anybody.

Here’s another shot of the attacking Kreeskrullanteanhumans. What do you think they are?

Follow Darren on Twitter: @EWDarrenFranich