Secret Invasion - Marvel - Disney+

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Fury and Talos try to stop the Skrulls who have infiltrated the highest spheres of the Marvel Universe.

 

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I know a lot of people have been burned by Marvel's every expanding cinematic universe. Especially by the series shown on the Disney+, while in the Netflix time, those series were the top cream. Definitely.

There has been a lot of public discussion, writing in the articles, and critics going nuts in various channels and streaming services, because the Marvel that we knew kind of showed itself in the Netflix era, whereas in the Disney time the wheel has been turned in a bad way for many big franchises. You could even claim that the wheel has come off, and it's completely broken, and I could agree.

Well, that's a thing for us comic lovers, whereas some younger people who weren't brought up by the magazines or comic books might see things in different light. But for us writers things has always been revolving around stories. Like the one that Marvel's Secret Invasion represents.

The original story was published by Marvel in 2007, and it involved a lot of characters from across the offering, including Fantastic Four, Avengers, New Avengers, and of course the Shield. This one focus on Nick Fury's version in the MCU. I really hope it's a good one, because it has a fleet of big names attached to it, starting from Samuel L Jackson as Mr Fury, who has been missing since the Blink event.

 

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Spoiler: S01E01 - Resurrection

The episode open with a monologued question, allegedly on present day: "Imagine a world where the information cannot be trusted. Not very hard, is it? News services says one thing, websites says another. Society starts to fray. All we can turn to are people we care about. But what if those people weren't who we thought they were?"

Man, that is so true in this crazy world of ours, where the officials are about to admit that They Walk Among Us. That the secret invasion of aliens are actually real and not a fabrication of lizard people on comic book pages, or in the tabloid magazine headlines. The mind blows when you think about it. In the MCU, things turn out a bit differently.

The opening foil hatter shows papers, a whole document on Agent Ross's face, explaining that Skrulls (the shapechanging lizard people) have been the major perpetrator in the modern world chaos, since they landed on Earth and Fury promised to find them a new planet. 30 years ago.

"Now they don't want just any planet. They want ours."

It didn't surprise me that Agent Ross turned out to be one of them. And it was chilling to watch his demise, while knowing that he was a shapeshifting alien, willing to sacrifice his life for idea of a homeworld. One that they wouldn't have built up. Just take over and enjoy the luxuries taken from the ignorant people.

Not long after, Fury arrived in a UAP as an old man, suffering from a sudden increase in gravity as if he'd spent blink years and the aftermath in low gravity, and not just being an old man. Yet, it only took one car trip to fix the problem, as Fury arrived like a normal old man to hear tales from Talos, the original Skrull leader and Shield Agent.

He tells Fury that Gravik, young, new Skrull Council Member and Leader has been hashing plans to start a nuclear war between States and Russia, without mentioning a word about ongoing UA conflict and Russia imago problems on trying to be something else than a terrorist state.

Fury cannot stomach the idea that humanity could be done, and Skrulls thrive in irradiated Earth, because they like radiation. So goes to walkies, in the Moscow night, and gets kidnapped by Mi6. Life of spymaster, eh? All so glamorous.

The whole turn of event turned out to be pretty much nothing else than Fury getting a shot of vodka, instead of bourbon, before he walked off into the night again. Life of spy ain't fun. It is a pretty boring task of trying to solve problems ... in secret, that not a lot of people know about.

New Skrullos. I wouldn't want to live there even if they paid me a lot of money. Yet, for them, a paradise, where they can eat "their produce," and wear only "their skins." And then they show normal people, not lizards. The leader explains to new comer that people can keep their human shape, if they choose to become warriors and then they get to leave the compound, while everyone else stays behind. And part of the family living amongst wasteland and ever warming nuclear decay.

Back in Moscow Fury enjoys the gift on spying Mi6's spymaster delivering information just as he needed, and then explaining to Talos that he might end up hurting some people, because Gravik is on warpath.

It's not long before Fury meets the bomb maker, asks questions while he sits in a fancy antique chair, watching Talos fighting Gravik's agent, and then shoots the guy. No bombs. No info. Nothing because the bomb has already left the building.

I don't get how Talos turns up so soon after the delivery girl, G'iah beats her tail, and asks her to give up the bomb. She leaves the scene after giving Talos a slap, never giving up the bomb, while Fury turns in a pub to hear the news from Agent Hill.

It made me smile when Ms Hill pointed to Fury that he's no longer up for this game. That he isn't that cunning, smart man who were always "three steps ahead of everyone else." All he is now is an old, wise man. In other words, he really needs to up his game if he wants to stop the invasion. And the world turning to an irradiated ash ball.

Talos on the other hand is the man for the job as later in the evening he meets G'iah again, and this time reveals that she's his daughter. A rebellious one that's willing to stop Gravik's plan by revealing that bombing is supposed to happen in the Unity Day.

There is nothing Ms Hill, Fury or Talos can do to stop the attack from happening. Not when there's shapeshifters and their leader in the play. The thing I cannot understand is why Gravik shot Ms Hill and then hesitated on finishing the job? Or the fact that the dirty bomb explosion turned out like petrol bombs, without a flashpoint and a massive pressure wave?

Thanks to old man failings Ms Hill is now dead and the MCU Earth on the brink of nuclear apocalypse.

I enjoyed the episode, and it was far, far better than the last offering.

IMDB score: 8.8 Runtime: 50 minutes

 

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On Wednesday, Marvel's latest comic book TV show, Secret Invasion, premiered on Disney+ to controversy: It features AI-generated motion graphics during its title sequence, and some fans and creators aren't happy about it. "For Marvel, whose whole empire is built on the work of artists to do this is disgusting and I for one shan’t be watching," tweeted Marvel comic artist Christian Ward, who worked on Black Bolt.

AI-generated Secret Invasion intro angers Marvel artists and fans alike

Marvel artist: "Unethical, dangerous, and designed solely to eliminate artists' careers."

arstechnica.com

 

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On Wednesday, Polygon published statements from Ali Selim, Secret Invasion director and executive producer, stating that the show's title sequence was created using artificial intelligence. Salim said that he didn't "really understand" how it worked, but he noted: "We would talk to them about ideas and themes and words, and then the computer would go off and do something. And then we could change it a little bit by using words, and it would change."
As innocent as Selim's comments may appear, they mask either a benign, or malignant, ignorance of the greater issues behind the use of artificial intelligence. Why could they not just employ someone to design credits based on those ideas they had? Method Studios, the company behind the creation of the credits issued the following statement after the backlash to the revelations:
Working on Secret Invasion, a captivating show exploring the infiltration of aliens into human society, provided an exceptional opportunity to delve into the intriguing realm of AI, specifically for creating unique character attributes and movements. Utilizing a custom AI tool for this particular element perfectly aligned with the project's overall theme and the desired aesthetic.
The production process was highly collaborative and iterative, with a dedicated focus on this specific application of an AI toolset. It involved a tremendous effort by talented art directors, animators (proficient in both 2D and 3D), artists, and developers, who employed conventional techniques to craft all the other aspects of the project. However, it is crucial to emphasize that while the AI component provided optimal results, AI is just one tool among the array of toolsets our artists used. No artists' jobs were replaced by incorporating these new tools; instead, they complemented and assisted our creative teams.
Method Studios' team of designers skillfully leveraged the power of both existing and custom AI technologies to apply the otherworldly and alien look. The entire process, guided by expert art direction, encompassed the initial storyboard phase, illustration, AI generation, 2D/3D animation and culminated in the final compositing stage.

Marvel defends using AI art for Secret Invasion's opening titles | Boing Boing

According to Collider, Marvel is trying to defend their widely criticized use of AI art for Secret Invasion’s opening titles. Well, that didn’t take long. We all knew that AI art and Ho…

boingboing.net

 

[Brian G Turner]

I figure a lot of people are burned out from too much Marvel, and others have been burned from trying t enjoy a movie you had to have watched someone else's TV series to enjoy. Plus some of the more recent films have been accused of being rushed and badly written.

So maybe Marvel used AI for no other reason than to stir up some publicity for a film that the public in general possibly has no enthusiasm for? After all, how could anyone know something was AI-generated unless Marvel outright started telling people it was?

 

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I figure a lot of people are burned out from too much Marvel, and others have been burned from trying t enjoy a movie you had to have watched someone else's TV series to enjoy. Plus some of the more recent films have been accused of being rushed and badly written.

So maybe Marvel used AI for no other reason than to stir up some publicity for a film that the public in general possibly has no enthusiasm for? After all, how could anyone know something was AI-generated unless Marvel outright started telling people it was?

Tell-tale sings. Use intuition and you'll be able to spot them.

 

[BAYLOR]

I have no interest in this series. Im all Marveled out.

 

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I have no interest in this series. Im all Marveled out.

Did you watch the pilot episode? If I'm honest, and I compare it to Andor, Andor beat this one blindfolded, hands tied to the back. This is Marvel's attempt of spy thriller. Except none of the MCU so far has done it correctly.

I cannot remember a single story from them that felt like LaCarr or the others. Fury in the comics is always a bossman and he rarely does field work. The Shield series was not a spy thriller. Secret Invasion is not the Secret Wars, which is the one that will end this phase.

Still, it has Mr Jackson in it. Among other notable actors. So we know he's good, even in his olden days. And even if he has done some goofy stuff lately and not been in Tarantino's latest flicks. So from what I've seen he's committed to this one. And in the storywise, he's almost at his lowest point for losing people.

In the old school Marvel comics, Skrulls were malevolent. They did some pretty evil stuff, like they've done in this one, even if the explosions were goofy. But that's the thing. Fury is at his lowest and against a race that has never been publicly acknowledge to the people of Earth.

The enemy is already here and it's very hard to determine who they are, because they are shapeshifters. Which bring me to classical fantasy stories, like the ones are published for the ADnD, like the Forgotten Realms and so on.

Shapeshifters in the classical fantasy are terrifying, pure horror. And that's what I want to see to bring Marvel's to par with Andor. I want to see the shapeshifter terrifying MCU Earth population. That has to happen to Fury as well.

This is his war. He started it by allowing Skrulls to have a colony with no checks or anything. He needs to finish it. Maybe in Logan style. But we don't know if this is going to be Logan good. The only way to get there is by watching it more than one episode.

 

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According to Comic Book Resources, Secret Invasion director Ali Selim was told to avoid the comic run that the new titular Disney Plus show is based on.

Back in the halcyon days of the late 2000s, Marvel Studios burst onto the superhero movie scene with an energy that the film industry had never seen. Although the superhero genre was already in full swing thanks to movies like Spider-Man, Batman: Begins, and the X-Men franchise, comic book movies were still missing a little something.

Prior to the Marvel cinematic universe, studios would frequently feel the need to fix comic book plotlines by needlessly altering them under the guise of making the adaptation more palatable to a broader audience. Spider-Man lost his web shooters; the Joker was responsible for killing Batman's parents, and Rogue was a shell of her comic-accurate self. Was there any logical reason to make the aforementioned alterations? Not really. Hollywood just didn't have any respect for the source material and thought that condensing "unnecessary" plot beats would make their adaptation stronger.

Marvel Studios, as an extension of the eponymous comic book company, took a different approach. Barring the alterations to the source material designed to modernize characters- i.e., having Iron Man's origin take place in the Middle East as opposed to, ya know, Vietnam- Marvel went out of their way to make sure their films contained as many nods to the comic as possible. And for a while, there was peace between the neckbeard fans with dozens of long boxes and the casual consumers of superhero media.

Now that the MCU has become the biggest franchise on earth, Marvel is actively telling directors to ignore the comics their adaptation is based on. Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.

Secret Invasion director Ali Selim reveals he received advice not to read the titular Marvel Comics storyline that the live-action miniseries is based on when he had just joined the project.
Speaking with Screen Rant, Selim delved into how he became involved with the Marvel Cinematic Universe show and the inspiration behind the Samuel L. Jackson-led effort. Selim admitted he wasn't involved with the script when he came on board but received advice to avoid reading the eponymous crossover storyline as he tried to bring Marvel's first "event" to the small screen. "When I took on this job as director, I didn't write the script. So a lot of those decisions were made by Kyle Bradstreet and the other team of writers that we had. The first thing I was told is don't read the comics. It had nothing to do with what we're trying to do here," Selim said.

The big brass at Marvel advised a director on Secret Invasion to steer clear of the comics

According to Comic Book Resources, Secret Invasion director Ali Selim was told to avoid the comic run that the new titular Disney Plus show is based on. Back in the…

boingboing.net

Well, sh*t. Here we go, again. Maybe Baylor was right. Still, I cannot figure out why Mrs Kennedy is allowed to interfere so much?

 

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Spoiler: S01E02 - Promises

Promises, promises, Mr Fury. That's the problem. Why would anyone, or rather why should anyone, trust the promises of a spymaster? They live in the murky world of secrets and lies. What they claim to be true, might just be an illusion cast over a dirty secret, and if it is not often that they feel being accountable to anyone.

Not at least to the people they claim to be protecting. The Shield turned out to be big Hydra base, and the leaders the biggest dicks that ultimately caused the death of Captain America and countless others. So promising to find a new world for the refugee Skrull was something Fury shouldn't have done. Ever.

Maybe it is that he didn't realize that the galaxy was full of species, not talking about cosmic beings like the Galactus, the Great Devourer of Worlds. But he did as if it was just a trivial task. That he would pop open locations, locations, locations, and it would just appear. And he did it in the time when the world was strongly denying any UFOs and aliens.

And all he asked for it was Skrulls to act as his secret world police. It didn't do much good when Thanos forces started appearing in New York.

Promises Mr Fury. Don't make them unless you can keep them.

If it had not been Talos keeping his promise, Fury would have found his black *ss in a Gulag, if not in FSB's dungeon receiving brutal torture before a castration. Tail between his legs he escaped the consequences, even though it's pretty certain that the attack was covered by several CCTVs.
On the train ride to Warsaw, Poland, he first recounted a memory of his childhood train trips across Southern State, and he specifically claimed that he lied, even though he should have told the truth ... to his mum. And then he enticed Talos in the same game of "tell me something I don't know."

First he asked about Skrullos, and Talos recalled that there were only about a million of them left when Kree overtook their homeworld. Then, without even giving a chance for Talos to pop in his question, he asked about the refugees. And Talos told him that all of them had come to Earth. It rubbed Fury the wrong way. So Talos defended his case and said it was it, or being annihilated by the Kree.

Then the truth came out as Talos said, "My hope is that Skrulls and humans can coexist, here on Earth." It did wind Fury the wrong way as he barked, "Human can't coexist with each other! You've been here long enough to know that! We've been at war with each other since we could walk upright! There is not enough of room or tolerance on the planet for another species!"

Without even realizing how much he'd effed up with his promises, Fury sent Talos off and proceeded to London. To only lie to Ms Hill's mum. Straight to her face. But she didn't take sh*t and therefore the truth came out, that Mr Fury was responsible for Mrs Hill to bring her daughter back home in a box.

Back in Moscow, Gravik met with the Skrull Elder Council, who told him basically that they weren't happy about the terrorist attacks around the world. All big time politicians in human world. Not really happy that he'd taken two thousand human lives in his attacks.

So Gravik slapped with his own observations about Fury's promises and Skrulls future, "Humans are doomed on self-destruction. Long before we arrived on this planet, they were destined to consume themselves. So, for anyone flinching at the thought of innocent deaths, let me assure you, we're only hastening the inevitable."

The Council had no choice but to submit to Gravik's will and make him their general, even though a single, brave one of them recalled that they didn't lose their home because of war, but because they were too eager for it.

War. War never changes, even if it's Skrull one. It consumes all participants and spits them out changed, often very broken, if they come out of it if alive.

It was a bit surprise that the WarMachine ended defending and lying about Mr Fury and Ms Hill to the Nato committee talking about the Moscow attack and a prospect of war. To be honest, Colonel Rhodes has always been a loyal supporter of US policies and claimed that he was Mr Fury's last friend when they met in the pub.

Rhodes wasn't ready to help "brother out," because his hands were once again tied by US politics and their need to sweep Mr Fury's actions under the rug. It was as if he wished that the old man would have not come down from his space station.

I loved that Colonel told Fury that he'd loved the man, before he was fired from the job. And tried to get him arrested. It didn't work, because Nick Fury is the man.

Of course he escaped, even acquired one his old cars only to go back to his old flame, a skrull woman.

Back in Moscow, British Station Chief showed why she's still a spymaster. It surprised me that FSB turned out to be chickens, while she turned out to be totally brutal. Even willing to utilize chemical warfare concepts to get a truth out from Skrull terrorist.

It wasn't long after the victim spilled out Gravik's plan of building a machine that makes Skrull's longer and its builder's name, Dalton, that Gravik came to rescue the poor boy. Outside the Moscow Gravik took Brogan to forest on a gunpoint.

The big man is paranoid. There's no two ways about it. He doesn't even realize that when you have a million people, it's not even a thousands of the Earth's population. So every single one of them is important.

IMDB score: 8.5 Runtime: 58 minutes

 

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Spoiler: S01E03 - Betrayed

I didn't want to write the post, because I didn't feel a pull in this series. Instead, it has been fighting and pushing me away for some reason. Maybe it's just that I'm expecting a flop instead of a success.

Let's see how this goes...

Gravik's plan: infiltrate a British nuke carrying submarine and cause a conflict between East and West. What could possibly go wrong?

Firstly, Gravik's Skrull Soldiers aren't made from the brightest material. Instead, they are more like normal grunts or jarheads, without an ability to think outside the box or come up with clever ideas. Sure, Beso showed that he has a brain, and he wonders about things, but when it comes to the thingies, he's completely oblivious, he knows nothing about anything.

Maybe that is because of the lack of education, not because he's an idiot who cannot read, as Skrull's on Earth doesn't have the system for giving them smarts. Not that they really need to, as they have the magical shapeshifting abilities that changes voice and somehow they can put down the mannerims just right, without even meeting the person and spending time to learn the behaviour.

Which brings me to the infiltration. Nuke bases aren't that easy to infiltrate as they made in the episode. They have layers upon layers of checks and checkpoints, before you can even get to the boat and the family that is the submarine crew. Unless you are new, they all know you, your history and things you have done as if you've been part of the family since you were born.

Nobody works in there alone. They all watch each other, because it's a safety thing. Even the captain has XO watching over him and vice versa.

So Gravik forced a development of Super Skrulls. Powered individuals to counter what Earth could throw back at them. Part of that is Dreykov's tech that last time we saw was in the Iron Man III.

That is not the face of a happy wife. Varra questioned Fury for where he'd been for all these years. After all, she believed that Fury was death because nobody comes back from Thanos Blink and when they did in the Blip event, Mr Fury left Earth without even saying where he was going and would he be coming back.

In fact, he skipped the whole let's see wife thing. Deliberately. Nick's excuse, "I retired."



Not that he was interested on "Golf" despite Jackson being an avid player, Mr Fury opted for "the revenge." Sure, a lot of men gets grumpier over the years, instead of getting better like wine that also happens to a lot of men. It's just he's extra grumpy and there's no love left in him for anything than doing 'the official business.'

It's sad that, especially for the spies, the job is all life they'll ever have. And that job can be dirty as hell. In the end, if you're still alive, you can't tell nobody nothing because it was all secrets.

An example of Dreykov's tech. The Extremis tech, which funnily enough was in plans for the MCU as a series for a little while before the Secret Invasion happened. It is extremely painful to slice off your hand from a knife stuck in it. Even if you are a Skrull, you are looking for a long healing time and a possibility of losing some dexterity or agility.

Gravik's regen negates that. It's just it appears in the series, like Logan's (Wolverine) miraculous regeneration. With him being able to within seconds to heal the damage and restore everything as it ever was.

But that's not the whole thing, as Talos told Gravik that he's in a losing game by threatening to have the Armageddon war with humans. The boy wasn't faced by the truth. Instead it made more determined to push for the war, to ignitethe conflict. Maybe because of the pain he got from the wound.

When Talos stabbed or rather nailed his hand on the table, the boy acted as if it was nothing, and he felt just a pinch. Even then it wasn't enough for him to catch Talos for the revenge.

"Say the words," Talos demanded.

Nick frowned. "What words?"

"'Help me Talos, because I'm useless without you.'"

The best dialogue and the truth as well, because MCU Fury isn't the man of action. All he ever did in the movies was contacting people and giving them tasks. Unlike the comic version, he didn't even do action.

The Man couldn't take it. He stood up and walked out silently. Well, almost before he turned around and whispered the words. Not for all the pub to hear, but loud enough for the Skrull spy to acknowledge them.

So they got in the car, and Fury gave a ring to the former Mi6 Moscow Station Chief, Ms Sonya Falsworth as if he has no other master spies to play. Pissed off, and yet she helped without even asking back a favour. What has the world become to?

Well, this certainly isn't an adaptation Le Carr's novel. Even if Talos revealed that back in '95 Fury was just a field agent, trying to "ascend the ranks." Thank the allience with Skrull he landed on a mountain of dirt that made him Shield's director.

"You're a smart and capable guy, Fury. Nobody questions that," Talos said. "But you've gotta admit, your life got a hell of a lot more charmed once I came into it. And you know something? I don't even need to hear a bloody thank you from you. It was my pleasure, mate. The least you can do is not rewrite history, when the guy who helped write it with you the first time is sitting right next to you."

Fury couldn't say nothing. He just had to take it. Silently.

Then it was action time. Taking on an officer with armed bodyguards. Tapping them in the back of the head as if the execution is Fury's style. In a quiet English village. Most of which is not armed and relatively harmless. No police came to investigate the deaths or the shooting.

That was all loud before Fury found a suppressor in his pocket and decided to screw it in at indoors. Even then, he wasn't intimidating enough for Skrull 'commander' to give in a pass to override the launch.

One which got my head shaking because firing upon allies is a whole another cake that not many soldiers are willing to. Orders or not. When they used a freaking loudspeaker in the sub to initiate commands, I just couldn't take it.

Man, what a travesty. And at the end of the mission, Fury couldn't even figure out how loyal Talos is to him. A mission that cost Talos his daughter.

Is that too much?

IMDB rating: 7.5 Runtime: 42 minutes

 

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Spoiler: S01E04 - Beloved

Oh, this week is the hardest. Not for the Nick Fury, but for me having to write under steam hammer noise coming from next door. And that is not all, I've also somehow acquired a summer cold.

Yet, somehow Mr Fury seems to having a bad time. Thing that I don't get is why is he thinking about fighting this war alone? There are around a million Skrulls on Earth and only one former intelligence director for the Shield. Back in the day he used to have all the superheroes on his disposal. Just give a ring and they'll come.

Man, I guess we have come a long way from those days. Poor Mr Fury.

Let's see how well he fares in this episode...

Clever girl. G'iah knew exactly what Gravik was going to do and she prepared for it. The stupid thing is that why the same power? I get that it's a technological upgrade, but amongst the Earth's powered people, there's not one that shares all the same powers. Even Sabretooth doesn't have the exact same regeneration ability as his brother Logan does. The telepaths are all varying strengths, with Charles Xavier being the strongest.

So would all 'Super Skrulls' be the same or would they diversify?

Like, for example, on what happened to Spider-Man when Miles Morales took over the job. Sure he was able to crawl ups the walls and be extremely agile and strong, but that's where his powers started to differ with short term invisibility coming along with being able to generate bioelectricity.

Back in 2012 Mrs Fury identified Nick as the man who put together the avengers and she approved it. It was what she wanted her man to do and she had no problems with it. Strangest thing was that they were still trying to figure each out, as if the love birds had been away from each other.

The title comes from Raymond Carver's Poem Collection. The one that Nick is asked to read is called Late Fragment,

"And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so?"

"I did."

"And what did you want?"

"To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on Earth."

Back in 2023 things probably were still the same when Mrs Fury met Warmachine at St James Church. Colonel Rhodes acknowledged that it was he who had fired Nick. Except it wasn't him, but a Skrull imposter carrying Gravik's kill order for Mrs to cap her husband.

The one thing that he didn't count was Nick listening in. Did the wife know? Unknown, but I guess she's used to her husband tricks and what she said about him was meant for both ears.

Only thing is that when she came home, Nick wasn't wearing the wedding band. And neither acknowledged on what had occurred in the Church. Not at first. Not before Nick had told Pricilla that she was his gravest mistake. Even then, he claimed that if he were given a chance, he wouldn't change anything.

When it came to doing the deep, Nick quoted the poem and at the end, both of the fired their pistols at each other, both completely missing the target. Then she popped the stupid question, "Would you have loved me if I hadn't changed?

Fury's answer was blunt, "I guess we never know."

Nick's next port of call was Rhodes' hotel room, where he offered Pappy van Wingle's perfection in a bottled form. The imposter didn't wanted to take a glass, because he expected that Fury had poisoned it.

Fury told Rhodes there was a mole close to the president without explicitly telling him that it was him and he knew everything about it. Instead he wanted the imposter to know he was on to him and watch him down the liquid tracker, he'd got from Talos before the meeting.

Then it was waiting time for Gravik to attack US president's convoy without him using the Beast and Gravik showing other powered abilities before he killed Talos.

It's amazing how easy it is to get from Russia to UK in MCU. Almost as if the war isn't present in the Marvel Universe. Yet, Talos was blaming himself for putting the daughter in a line of risk. Of course Gi'ah just shrugged it off and to her, she had got clarification and direction for her life.

She was willing to do daddy's job, but not walk his path. For that, she had her own. And now she's on her own. Allegedly.

IMDB rating: 7.5 Runtime: 38 minutes

 

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“Trust no one.” That bit of advice is the cornerstone of every paranoid thriller, whether it’s The X-Files, 70s classics like Three Days of the Condor, or recent entries such as Get Out.
As a show about shape-shifting aliens, Secret Invasion should be able to excel at “trust no one” better than any of its predecessors. Nearly anyone can be a Skrull, even Tony Stark’s best friend Rhodey, a mainstay of the MCU since its beginning (albeit played by different actors).

And yet, four episodes in, Secret Invasion’s biggest mystery is about the nature of the show itself. Is this a thriller about secret agent Nick Fury uncovering a vast conspiracy? Is this a commentary about the insiders and outsiders in the American experiment? Is this a show about spies battling aliens?

One gets the sense that showrunner Kyle Bradstreet wants to say “yes” to all of those questions, and that’s not unreasonable, as numerous shows and movies have managed to combine genres into satisfying stories with larger philosophical resonance.

But with only two episodes left, Secret Invasion has only been a dull mishmash of plots, scenes, and character beats other movies and shows have done better. It lacks the excitement achieved by even a cheesy thriller like A Perfect Murder or The Bone Collector, it does not reach the intelligence of the more thoughtful MCU entries, and it isn’t even a good, grounded alien invasion story like V or Attack the Block.

Secret Invasion shifts from one genre to another without succeeding at any, rendering the entire series a bland bit of green slop, not unlike its AI-designed title sequence.

Secret Invasion Fails Because It Can't Pick a Genre

Marvel's Secret Invasion doesn't know what kind of show it wants to be.

www.denofgeek.com

 

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I am going to be honest here. I don't know where this show is going, but to me it seems to have lost direction, because it most certainly doesn't know what it is, but it ain't a spy thriller. It ain't an alien invasion story either. There are a lot of critics out there with this same problem, and it only seems to get worse the further we go down into the MCU.

Spoiler: S01E05 - Harvest

Now that's out of the way. Let's see how this episode works...

Thing about the Fury is that in comic pages, he used to be a cool and tough. A colonial space marine tough, that you can sense coming from this picture with Dum-Dum at the background.

In those old school pages, you really get a sense that he's the last stop. He will put up a helluva fight before he goes down, and he'll use everything, including swear words, while doing it. Jackson's Fury ain't that same man.

Another thing, that last man position really rarely comes out, because the comic Fury is there at the centre of things, organizing everything. He'll have that phone book and the list who to call, if there is a need. The same stuff that MCU Fury used to pull the Cpt Marvel stunt. And some of the people aren't pretty or good, but whatever he'll need to get job done, he'll do it.

That's the kind of Fury I expect to see, but it hasn't manifested itself in this series.

This is the Fury we see in the MCU. Weak and pathetic. To be frank, I don't get his motivation as all I sense is that he's extremely frustrated because the president is down and he's the man guarding the surgical wing.

What happened to the Secret Service and the hospital security? Doesn't he think someone is going to call the police when they see him openly guarding the entrance. Even with JFK there were loads of 'suits' in the hospital, when they said there was nothing they could do to save the poor man.

Gravik back in the irradiated happy land. It just doesn't make any sense on how he'll do it, because in one minute he was in a major assault at UK and then in the other, he's back in the Russia as if teleporting works in the MCU.

And he waited all that time to do debriefing, as if he couldn't do it at the UK. Not that got to be one as he executed one of his own lieutenants for speaking out his mind. Then he told the soldiers that none of them mean anything. That they have no names. No faces.

In the other words, they were just meat for Gravik's warmachine. What surprised me was that in the next turn he ordered Varra's execution. Then he told faux Rhodes to save the president and show him Skrullos as if there was no day left tomorrow.

When fake Rhoses arrived at the hospital, the Secret Service still hadn't disarmed or relieved the man from his post. Instead, faux Colonel walked up to the armed man and got snatched in the process. Then he told Fury to,"Stand down" or he'll "release the footage of him killing Marie."

As he released the faux Colonel and walked away back to his post, an army of Secret Service turned up between Fury and Rhodes to act as a shield.

WTF is going on?

Sonya has more balls than MCU Fury ever had. She's absolutely fabulous and merciless. She didn't hesitate to shoot the Director in the leg and then politely tell the security to look at the wound as the Skrull showed his true colours.

He wasn't the only one as back in the compound Gravik ignored his men and their need to know why one of the bosses were taken down so publicly. When there was no answer, Gravik's soldiers turned on him. First one hit with a sledgehammer and second put a bag over his head.

It wasn't long before the whole gang was upon him, beating him down. So as a strange twist, Gravik showed his Skrull face, and at the same time somehow turned to a powered Super Skrull. One that his men couldn't take down.

One that then executed the ringleader at front of all the other Skrulls without realizing that he'd lost the war, even if he'd won the battle.

Not long after that Nick escaped London and Sonya rounded up Gravik's Super Skrull boffin as if it was really nothing. Killing them to get what she needed wasn't a problem either. Almost as if she'd been liberated from all rules and regulations.

"I'm G'iah. Fury told me to come here to get help to bury my father." Is there nobody else Fury could have trusted to handle the task? Varra, the former wife, who's breakfast habits include murdering husbands.

I almost stopped watching, when in the next turn of the events, they had the body wrapped in linen and laying on top of a pile of firewood. I thought the girls were going to nick the body from some secret facility where they study aliens.

No. That's not the case as apparently you can get alien bodies involved in an assassination attempt and you can take them freely to be cremated at some backyard. MCU is so weird.

Back in the Fury house, Varra told the girl how love is good and that she would never leave the place. Then the assassins found their way in there and after the battle they left the place. So less value in those words.

IMDB score: 7.5 Runtime: 38 minutes

 

[BAYLOR]

Secret Invasion Fails Because It Can't Pick a Genre

Marvel's Secret Invasion doesn't know what kind of show it wants to be.

www.denofgeek.com

It's not pulling great ratings.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I don't know whether it's a genre issue - Marvel writing of late has been really poor, and additionally dependent on having watched Marvel TV series on Disney+. That's before we even touch on superhero burnout among audiences. Marvel are trying to market to an ever smaller audience, so it's hardly surprisingly they're not getting great ratings.

 

[BAYLOR]

I don't know whether it's a genre issue - Marvel writing of late has been really poor, and additionally dependent on having watched Marvel TV series on Disney+. That's before we even touch on superhero burnout among audiences. Marvel are trying to market to an ever smaller audience, so it's hardly surprisingly they're not getting great ratings.

The law of diminishing returns.

 

[ctg]

Spoiler: S01E06 - Home

I've avoided writing this the whole day, just because I don't want to be whining about a Marvel series. I should have known better, but I couldn't believe that Mr Jackson would associate his name to atrocity.

We are on final episode of a series we cannot even classify, because we simply don't know what sort of genre piece this is. One could argue that it's cheap fantasy, because it most certainly feels like for the man that can do everything. Including getting over the russian border as if it was not there and then walking into the New Skrullos as if the radiation was making him supremely weak.

I don't believe that the comic Fury would have given the Harvest to Gravik. He just isn't like that with his colonial marine attitude. The 'game is not over' until he's done, in either way. They had invent a twist for Fury to win by Giah taking his place at the dying moment.

Oh man, it could have been good. Just don't want to spend enery on trying to make it better, because Disney clearly doesn't care.

IMDB score:- Runtime: 38 minutes

 

[ctg]

If you want a sign of how far the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has fallen, look no further than this week’s Secret Invasion finale. Look at its comprehensive lack of impact. Look at the dearth of reaction it generated. For years, Secret Wars was held up as the One Big Story, one of the only things that could possibly top the breathless superhero orgy of Infinity War and Endgame. Yet it ended up being parped out on Disney+ as a series, and nobody on earth cared about it.

To be clear, this isn’t entirely Secret Invasion’s fault. For some time now, the entire MCU has been on the skids. Its CGI looks so bad that directors actively mock it in promotional videos, as Taika Waititi did for Thor: Love and Thunder. In return, the visual artists who work on the film complain about being overworked and overstretched in the service of film-makers who don’t seem to know what they want. Meanwhile, former stars such as Elizabeth Olsen, Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey Jr are becoming increasingly public in their misgivings about their roles.

Terminal television: why the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a massive TV failure

Not even a cast boasting Samuel L Jackson and Olivia Colman could save one of the least watched MCU projects ever. Does this mark the end of the world-dominating franchise?

www.theguardian.com