by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
Bob Iger recently made headlines when he said Marvel movies are performing poorly at the box office because of the increase in Marvel TV shows on Disney+. I remember how exciting it was to have another medium to consume Marvel content that was also directly connected to the movies, especially after the Netflix shows were treated as largely separate. The Disney+ shows have had ups and downs, but they’ve all been enjoyable for the most part.
Secret Invasion is the first Disney+ Marvel show that I truly did not enjoy.
Based on the iconic comic book series, Secret Invasion brings Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) back into the mix as the Skrulls have begun to infiltrate parts of society in secret. With the help of Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), and some new allies, earth’s last hope is somehow up to Fury, even though he’s been gone for a while post-Blip.
I’ll admit a few things I enjoy about Secret Invasion. There are some themes explored about how humanity needs to do more to save themselves, and how people can make a difference if they choose to be more accepting. These are really compelling ideas, even if they are notably undercooked. Fury has a line regarding the Skrulls in the middle of the series where he says that it was easier to hide everyone in plain sight than to try to convince the entire world to be more tolerant. It’s a sobering reality, but still one that I appreciate that Secret Invasion attempts to explore.
Marvel has sometimes struggled to incorporate new people into their shows and movies. Since the end of the Infinity Saga, a lot of their new characters haven’t stuck with me. Between the poor writing and legacy characters being used in favor of someone new, audiences haven’t gotten a lot of new characters to be interested in. In Secret Invasion, Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman) is my favorite character. She’s smart, hilarious, and doesn’t take any crap from anyone. Colman fits like a glove into the MCU, and if she’s in future projects as well, I will be there waiting. I didn’t understand her role and her connections with others, but Sonya is a character I will be on the lookout for more, in the same way I’ll be looking for Mobius (Owen Wilson) from Loki.
That exhausts all the things I like about Secret Invasion…
I’m a huge fan of the comic book series, and one of its best aspects is the mystery around who you can trust, and who is a Skrull. Secret Invasion flubs this about halfway through the series. There’s no mystery about who’s a Skrull and who isn’t. Fury is a deeply mistrusting person to begin with, so it makes sense that he’s naturally skeptical of everyone. Without any intrigue about figuring out who the Skrulls are, I found myself bored with the series in a hurry. The story loses a lot of steam once the audience figures out who are Skrulls, and I’m wondering what compelled the writers to make that choice. I am somewhat glad that there weren’t a ton of cameos from characters that just found up being Skrulls, though.
Whereas Colman is a welcome addition to the MCU, there are two characters who I found to be strangely used. Marvel’s trend of wasting talented actors continues with G’iah (Emilia Clarke), a Skrull whose allegiance is questioned throughout the entire series. We don’t get a lot of time with G’iah, but Clarke does the best she can with what she’s given. She has some outstanding moments, particularly with Talos. G’iah just feels flat as a character, and she doesn’t bring anything intriguing to the table.
The other wasted talent is Kingsley Ben-Adir, who plays Gravik, the main antagonist. Gravik falls into all the Marvel traps when it comes to a villain: He’s one-dimensional, has questionable motives, and is played by a talented actor who is wasted due to poor writing. Ben-Adir spends most of the series shouting at everyone and complaining about how Fury broke his promises to the Skrulls. He loses followers in a hurry with his actions, and although I like some of his action scenes, he needs a device to help turn him into an “unstoppable” being. Marvel has not given some talented performers a lot to do throughout Phases Four and Five, but Ben-Adir might be one of the most egregious wastes of talent I’ve seen since Eternals.
Even the legacy characters don’t have a lot to do. Maria Hill has a very specific purpose: telling Fury he’s old and that he hasn’t been the same since the Blip. Smulders makes the most of her VERY limited time. Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) is in the opening scene, and then is absent for the majority of the show. Talos spends a lot of the series trying to atone for what he’s done to cause this situation. Mendelsohn is outstanding, but how his arc ends is frustrating. Since there are so many characters and not a lot of time, a lot of characters are shuffled off to the side, or are relegated to cameo status.
I’m confused about why they brought Rhodey (Don Cheadle) into Secret Invasion. Cheadle is perfectly fine in the miniseries, but a lot of his story is left completely unexplained. It’s a shame that they do this with someone like Cheadle, who’s been in the MCU longer than just about everyone other than Jackson. Rhodey feels like he’s just being put in Marvel stuff just to remind everyone that he’s still alive and around, which indicates that Marvel has no idea what they want to do with him.
Elements of Fury’s story are introduced that I struggled to get on board with. It’s not because they feel unbelievable, but some things feel like they come out of left field. Since Fury’s been gone most of Phase Four, Secret Invasion has to reconcile with what he’s doing up in space, and almost reintroduce him to remind the audience that he’s still around. Hill keeps telling him (and the audience) that he hasn’t been the same since the Blip, but there isn’t a lot there to help us learn more about what happened. At the moment we do get more of that, it’s undercut by a twist in the final episode.
I’m not someone who’s going to say I’m completely in Marvel fatigue. I can say, though, that I’m starting to get tired of subpar, or even just okay, Marvel projects. Part of this is on me for having such high expectations as a fan, but another part lies with Marvel and Disney. Secret Invasion could have been a solid movie, but since it’s a miniseries, they overstuffed the cast and wasted some actors. The truth of the matter is, Secret Invasion should have been better given the significance of the comic, the people involved, and the time it had to be made well. I’m hoping Marvel will learn lessons from this moving forward.
Rating: Didn’t Like It
Secret Invasion is currently streaming on Disney+
You can read more from Mike Hilty, and follow him on Twitter, Letterboxd, and Serializd