Marvel’s Secret Invasion was one of the most anticipated projects in Phase 5 of the MCU. Written by Kyle Bradstreet, Brian Tucker, Brant Englestein, Roxanne Paredes, and Michael Bhim, the series got fans excited about an action-packed, potentially devious plot centered around a Skrull invasion of Earth.
However, the first five episodes of the series disappointed many viewers. As a series in the eyes of many fans, it failed to live up to high expectations and squandered an intriguing premise. With the episode 6 finale, let’s check whether this story is one of the better or worse parts of Phase 5 of the MCU.
[Warning: Spoilers from Marvel’s Secret Invasion series are below!]
Secret Invasion storyline becomes less engaging with each episode
In the first episodes, we see Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) working together to stop the rogue Skrulls from causing chaos on Earth. Their leader Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) doesn’t believe in peace and will do anything to give his people a new home. The Skrull Rebellion seeks to provoke a war between Russia and the United States with the intention of conquering Earth.
After the shocking death of Maria Hill in the first episode, Fury decides it’s time to do whatever it takes to stop them. He and Talos receive help from G’iah (Emilia Clarke), Talos’ daughter. She works as a double agent and reveals information to her father. Although they are on opposite sides at first, I found it very interesting and well-written when they reconnected. Especially when G’iah learns that Gravik killed her mother.
Meanwhile, everything going on around them is pretty chaotic, starting with Talos and Fury trying to stop the atomic bomb and ending with the discovery that Rhodey (Don Cheadle) was a Skrull. But the way it is presented to the audience could have been done better.
In the finale, we see G’iah pretending to be Fury and confronting Gravik. They both gain powers from The Harvest, a DNA mix of every superhero and villain from the final battle in Avengers: Endgame. G’iah kills Gravik and becomes the most powerful being in the MCU. Fury rescues the president with the help of Sonya (Olivia Coleman).
President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney) decides not to help the innocent Skrulls. Instead, he orders the killing of every single one of them, which causes chaos and paranoia in society, leading to the death of innocent people. Ritson’s actions trigger a rogue manhunt, and any person with a huge influence is now a suspect. The series ends with Fury and his wife Priscilla/Varra (Charlayne Woodard) leaving for S.A.B.E.R..
Secret Invasion had been getting weirder and weirder from the beginning. With each episode it felt as if they were trying to close the story faster, just to squeeze it all into these six episodes. This was a missed opportunity to explore all this invasion and characters. I think they should have shown the audience more, adding at least two to four episodes.
One of the most annoying things to me in the first four episodes was the teasing that either Fury or Talos would die. But knowing that Fury would return in The Marvels, it was obvious that Talos would be the one to sacrifice himself. And for me at least, it was a really bad decision. Talos’ role was not explored enough in Captain Marvel or Spider-Man: Far From Home. This series was the perfect place for that, but we didn’t see enough to learn more about his relationship with Fury. All we have are the stories they told each other, and that’s it.
The MCU’s Secret Invasion is very different from its comic book counterpart
When it was announced that a Secret Invasion Disney+ series was in works, many fans were excited about it. Even people who disliked the MCU after Avengers: Endgame had hype for it. Everyone thought that throughout the series we would see how the Skrulls infiltrated every place on Earth.
But as soon as other episodes began to reveal the truth about the real reason for their invasion and their purpose, it became a real mess. The first thing shown is that the Skrulls cared about kidnapping politicians and important government figures in order to gain access to the world’s resources. And as we could see, the only kidnapped people we recognized were Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and Rhodey.
When it comes to the Secret Invasion event being an actual invasion, this series wasted a lot of potential. The main reason why this happened in Marvel comics was to destabilize the world and the trust between people and other heroes. This has not been the case in this series. From the first episode, I wanted to see how the Skrulls infiltrated not only the government but also S.H.I.E.L.D./S.W.O.R.D. or Hydra in the past.
Unfortunately, we were not given a glimpse of this, and all that was shown was that the Skrulls had huge bases where they kept real people. But none of them showed who else was taken. Maybe this will be revealed in future projects, but I’m already disappointed with Marvel’s creative decisions here.
One of them is the possible replacement of Rhodey shortly after his accident in Captain America: Civil War. If this is the case, Rhodey’s character in Avengers: Infinity War and in Avengers: Endgame would lose all his emotional significance to the storyline. He didn’t say goodbye to his best friend, he almost died in the fight against Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Wakanda, and it wasn’t even him.
It would mean that Rhodey’s character had become a really wasted part of the events after Civil War. I really loved Infinity War and Endgame. But I feel that if Rhodey is not Rhodey, his whole relationship with Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) would be irrelevant and lose its meaning.
The future of the MCU after Secret Invasion
With the decision to hunt down and kill every single Skrull, the MCU Earth will become a very aggressive territory for non-human beings. From now on, any suspicious behavior will be seen as a threat to the human race. And that’s why Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt/Harrison Ford) will become the new president of the United States.
As our own Alex Perez revealed, Ritson’s paranoia will be further explored in Captain America: Brave New World. This paranoia will lead to him no longer being president because he will lose the election to Thunderbolt Ross. Who now, with his very military mentality, will decide who is good and who is the enemy.
This will lead many countries to real paranoia. The U.S. global position is truly significant. If they reveal that a worldwide invasion has been taking place, no one will remain calm, which will lead to the emergence of various threats. As a result, the Thunderbolts will be formed, and Captain America (Anthony Mackie) will have to save the world in his film.
Also in terms of other projects that will be affected by this invasion, we know that the Skrulls should appear in The Marvels. However, I don’t think they’ll have much to do there. The same goes for other MCU projects. As far as they are concerned, I don’t think there will be any big reveals in the near future.
Secret Invasion began as a great spy paranoia thriller that promised a very mature, ambiguous, and mysterious story. Unfortunately, recent episodes have made this one of the most disappointing MCU series. Or maybe it was just a ruse and the real invasion will happen or be revealed in one of the next projects, who knows?
Secret Invasion is now streaming on Disney+. Did you like it? Let us know on Twitter and our own Discord channel!
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