Secret Invasion: Messing with Our Heads

By John Kirk

Rating: B-

Sometimes the Marvel Cinematic Universe gets it right and sometimes they don’t. In this case, it looks like they’re just messing with our heads, because that’s what Skrulls do!

Inevitably, when seeing a superhero film based on comics, you have to go back to the comics for a sense of comparison. The Secret Invasion comic event was about espionage and infiltration and had a number of permanent effects on the Marvel Universe.

So, there’s some back story here.

The comic story was marked by a full military invasion targeting the major super-heroes in the comic pantheon as the first stage of taking over the planet for alien occupation. There was infiltration of the major governments of the world and some influential leaders that was underplayed, and the focus of the story was on the impersonation and replacement of the super-heroes.

In the end, it actually worked out well for Marvel as it allowed heroes — who had, shall we say, less than glamorous deaths — a second chance at life and brought back into publication. It was a significant event with eight issues in the primary series and a number of ancillary issues in other series.

It sold a lot of comics.

But let’s back up to the 2019 film Captain Marvel. When Carol Danvers and a younger Nick Fury in the 1990s first met the alien race of shapeshifters known as the Skrulls, it was agreed that they would find sanctuary on Earth and it was up to Fury to make that happen. Seemed like a nicer alternative when we first met the Skrulls in the cinema.

That was almost 30 years ago, story-wise, and the Skrulls are still on Earth, even throughout the event known as the “Blip” when Thanos snapped his fingers and half of the population of Earth (and the rest of the universe) disappeared only to reappear after five years, as we saw in Avengers: Endgame (2019). We also remember, Nick Fury was one of those who disappeared.

During that time, the Skrulls have been busy. More arrived and a radical faction emerged who weren’t just content to live on the Earth, they want to take it for themselves, by force if necessary.

But they’re not copying the heroes first. Nah… they’re doing this sneaky.

In this show, though, the subtlety is mixed with an attempt at paranoia, but the subtlety gets mired by a slow pace that eventually gives way to frustration more than paranoia. Even though Fury has the help of Skrull former General Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), his right-hand, Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and perhaps his old MI6 associate, Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman)?

But Talos has become disenfranchised with the rebel elements of his people, and has lost the support of even his daughter, G’iah (Emilia Clarke). It’s a slow crawl and isn’t helped by the fact that it’s a story that centres on a now-defunct Fury and really? Little paranoia.

Effectively, Fury seems on his own. He’s older, SHIELD doesn’t exist as a real force for good anymore, and the reason why he’s been up on the space station is he’s trying to figure out his place in the world, especially after he was one of the casualties of the “Blip” who returned to life.

Despite Samuel L. Jackson’s love of this character, he doesn’t have the fighting grit of the comic Nick Fury who, when he’s on his own, he’s at his most dangerous. In this story, Fury is beaten. So, where does that leave the world?

It's bleak but it’s also slow. The only major things that happen are disappointing and Fury and his team seem either like disappointing failures or just simply sluggish. It definitely doesn’t have the pace of other Marvel shows, that’s for sure.

Maybe this is premature? Hey, I’ve only screened the first two episodes.

Sadly, under-reactive is the way I’d describe this story which is far different from the book it was based on. The shock was palpable. After all, what was more frightening? The idea of an alien invader shape-changing into your Member of Parliament or the Mighty Thor?

It was a hallmark of the story that the superheroes couldn’t even trust their comrades. The Avengers didn’t know who they were, and with a number of other story twists, we saw this story primarily from their perspectives. They confronted the Skrulls in classic, heroic style. Great artistic combat sequences that really made this a stand-out comic.

But Endgame was the Avengers’ swansong. I doubt we’ll see an ensemble of heroes on that scale again, but that was the pinnacle of success for the comic. Sadly, like I said, the scale of the story isn’t able to fit into a television story so it won’t be the same as what comic fans might be expecting, ie: no epic scale hero team versus villain team confrontation.

Still, what if that’s what we are meant to think? Maybe, like the Skrulls’ modus operandi, our heads are being messed with too?

I mean, the audience isn’t given a lot of hope in the first two episodes of Secret Invasion. They’re bleak, joyless, and set in Russia, the backdrop is already sort of dull. There’s no evidence of heroes and in fact, the idea of the Skrulls impersonating any super-powered individuals is downplayed on the same level that would be open to nuclear war.

Also, as we remember, the Skrulls are immune to radiation, so abandoned nuclear reactors in the former USSR make for great hiding places. If nuclear weapons won’t work, then what hope does the human race have? Especially when Nick Fury, one of its most renowned defenders, seems completely unable to have any effect on the situation.

I have to hope that with only four episodes to go, there’s still a chance for Fury to save humanity. Maybe he realizes his relationship with Falsworth, who is probably the most intriguing character in the series. She seems to know more than Fury as to what’s going on and is, in my opinion, the character who stands out the most. Colman plays a mixture of British efficiency and ruthlessness that epitomizes the glamorous aspects of cinematic British Spy-Craft. She is definitely the MVP so far. Perhaps she’ll be Fury’s saving grace.

But I have to admit, I’d love it if they were messing with our heads.

Secret Invasion. Directed by Ali Selim. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Cobie Smulders, Martin Freeman, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Dermot Mulroney, Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, and Don Cheadle. On Disney+ June 21.