All Told, Secret Invasion Hampers the MCU More Than It Helps It

The following contains full spoilers from all six episodes of Secret Invasion, now streaming on Disney+

In retrospect, a TV series “based on” the “Secret Invasion” comic book run was probably not a great idea.

The 2008 storyline by Brian Michael Bendis revolved around the shapeshifting Skrulls, but also involved loads of top-shelf heroes. And no Disney+ series — especially in the wake of the Infinity War/Endgame movie arc that wrote out several A-list Avengers — was going to be able to tap into that (well-paid) all-star lineup.

And yet we held out hope. We hoped that, with MCU vet Samuel L. Jackson starring as Nick Fury and Don Cheadle and Cobie Smulders back as James Rhodes and Maria Hill, TV’s Secret Invasion might find a way to scale down the story yet still give it stakes.

Secret Invasion, alas, never came to drumming up the sort of “Who can you trust?” paranoia that ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did with its Season 4 LMD arc. Instead, over the course of six episodes we learned that a total of two (2) familiar faces from the 15-year-old MCU had been swapped out with Skrulls — and one of the two (who was not even an Avenger) was revealed and then killed in the series’ opening minutes.

The only other meaningful bit of shapeshifting deception pulled off by a Skrull came when Gravik wore a friendly face to shoot dead a long-running MCU character at the close of the first episode.

The 2008 comic book arc, meanwhile, revealed about a dozen heroes, including Spider-Woman, Elektra and Black Bolt, to be aliens among us. No, we weren’t expecting Doctor Strange or Thor or even newly christened Black Panther Shuri to show up for this Secret Invasion, but the lack of supes on the TV series nonetheless was as conspicuous as it was calculated.

And even with a Marvel-fied TV budget, the show never looked terribly special. The Moscow Square sequence was decently rousing, but other foot chases were rote, the motorcade ambush felt “affordable,” the shootout at Fury’s home was… fine?… and the shapeshifting often seemed to happen just off-camera or behind a hat/obstruction. (That said, the G’iah/Gravik fight had a few visually interesting CGI flourishes.)

But as maddening as what TV’s Secret Invasion didn’t give us… is what it did.

Secret Invasion killed off Maria Hill, in no grand hero moment but as the unwitting victim of deception. And, it could be argued, simply to motivate male hero Nick Fury.

Secret Invasion in only slightly more dramatic fashion killed off Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos, one of the most charming elements of the first Captain Marvel movie — and with that film’s sequel to hit theaters in a few months (though clearly he wasn’t going to be a part of it!).

Though some are questioning this supposition, Secret Invasion hinted that Rhodey was replaced with a Skrull as long ago as after the events of Captain America: Civil War, meaning that Iron Man’s actual sidekick never got to truly mourn Tony Stark.

And for the purpose of its closing battle, Secret Invasion imbued both Kingsley Ben-Adir’s Gravik and Emila Clarke’s G’iah with “Super Skrull” powers CRISPR’d from the likes of Hulk, Ebony Maw, Drax, Korg, Ghost, Mantis and — wait for it — Carol Danvers.

So, with G’iah having survived that skirmish (and apparently still powered up, judging from her convo with Sonya), the MCU not in theory but in canon now has among its ranks a hero more powerful than any. An equal to Captain Marvel, with empath, telekinetic and other abilities thrown in.

How will the aforementioned The Marvels movie address this? Or, much more likely, how will it not?

“Secret Invasion,” as a live-action anything, probably should have been a movie or movie arc. Squeeze it in before RDJ, ScarJo and Chris Evans peaced out. Or, shelve it until the New/Young/Whatever Avengers take shape in the years to come, and then trot it out to arouse suspicions amongst these new heroes/friends.

But as a six-episode TV series? It fell short. And viewers clearly agree.

TVLine readers gave the season an average grade of “C-,” and more than 50% ranked it among the three worst MCU TV series thus far (out of eight). Over at Rotten Tomatoes, the season averaged a 50% Fresh rating, but the finale netted a bitter 11%.

Where do you now stand on Secret Invasion? Could any TV series have done this story justice? And do you think it hurt the MCU more than it helped it?