'Secret Invasion' Comes In Hot With Marvel Mumbo-Jumbo
In a world of superpowered individuals, what if you couldn't trust anyone? That's the idea behind one of Marvel's most famous comic book arcs: Secret Invasion. The story follows an alien race that can shape-shift and replace our most trusted friends and confidants. It's a wacky comic book story built on cliffhangers and twists. (One such moment, for example, made it look like the Fantastic Four fought each other—but it was just the aliens screwing around.) Now, Secret Invasion is a six-episode limited series starring Samuel L. Jackson, Emilia Clarke, Don Cheadle, and even Olivia Colman.
The confusion is all thanks to the Skrulls, a mischievous alien force known in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for starting intergalactic war in Captain Marvel. In Secret Invasion—which debuted its first episode today—a team of good Skrulls, led by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), are working alongside Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to rout out the bad Skrulls on Earth that want to cause harm. It's a tricky business—and one that presents its stakes right away. If I 'm already working with the enemy, then it's going to be even more difficult when they can look like whomever they want! Say what you will about the silliness of a story that began all the way back in 1961's Fantastic Four #2, but Stan Lee and Jack Kirby could never have predicted that their campy superhero story would ever be taken seriously as a political spy drama.
All of that said, Secret Invasion—the TV series, to be clear—begins with a shocker: Our good friend Agent Ross (Martin Freeman) from Black Panther is revealed to be a Skrull. No word yet on if this means that the Skrulls are just impersonating him, or if they have the man kidnapped and have replaced him. (It's a common dilemma when it comes to evil shapeshifters!)
After Talos chases the Ross-Skrull off the roof of a building, Nick Fury arrives back on Earth. Talos and Agent Hill (Cobie Smulders) proceed to rattle off a lot of information at us all at once, including the fact that Fury and Carol Danvers disappeared after the The Blip. Other Skrulls are mentioned as well, such as G 'iah and Gravik, giving audiences a hint to rewatch Captain Marvel before this if they want to maintain a rough understanding of how we even got here in the first place.
Elsewhere in the episode, another Skrull, Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), is teased as our new villain. Gravik was allegedly rebuffed by Fury's "abandonment" after The Blip. He's also someone who "prays on the collective rage of young, displaced Skrulls." Welcome to 2023, Marvel! Anyone remember those silly little green aliens from the Fantastic Four's second-ever comic book appearance? Well, now they're terrorist incels abusing a scary age of misinformation on social media.
Speaking of Fury, we catch up with him later on, walking around Moscow late at night. He's suddenly kidnapped and brought to see Sonya (Olivia Colman), an old MI6 ally. Fury asks her about a storage facility heist in Kazakhstan. She replies, "the new, old Nick Fury" is "in no shape for the fight that lies before us." He's been hiding out in space doing god-knows-what on a station called S.A.B.E.R. Meanwhile, everything's turned upside-down here on Earth.
Throughout Secret Invasion's first episode, it seems as if a lot of Skrull activity has already taken place behind the scenes. G 'iah (Emilia Clarke), Talos's daughter, has joined a haven for Skrulls that she dubs "New Skrullos." She explains that it's a place where they can safely "drink Skrull wine and wear Skrull skin," albeit still in her human disguise. In fact, many of the Skrulls who serve Gravik here maintain their human forms to make it more difficult for humans and Skrulls alike to identify them. Plus, it's certainly easier on Disney's wallet if the talent doesn't spend hours in green Skrull makeup.
Gravik is reportedly trying to uncover the location of Russia's unmarked nuclear storage facilities to threaten World War III. His primary aim? To find a new home for his people. G 'iah remains his follower, mad at her father for lying to her about her mother's death. Meanwhile, Agent Hill is angry at Fury. He took a break in space after Thanos turned him into a bunch of dust. Apparently, this retreat to get his mind right was not allowed—despite how traumatizing his disappearance from existence certainly was. C 'mon, Hill, after everything he did? Let the man have a vacation.
But there's no rest for Nick Fury. G 'iah sets them up on the most obvious double-cross since Scar killed Mufasa, separating his crew and sending them on a wild goose chase throughout the busy Moscow streets. It's all so Gravik can look Nick Fury in the eye as he detonates a massive bomb in the middle of a public square full of innocent people. He then takes on Fury's form and shoots Maria Hill, who dies at the scene. Has Nick Fury finally lost? Is every character justified in telling him to just give up? Well, they wouldn't superheroes if they did. We'll see what surprises are in store for us next week.
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