Hello, all:
As you probably have guessed by now, I’m a bit of a superhero nerd. So naturally I was looking forward to the MCU show Secret Invasion with no little anticipation. This was particularly true since I’d recently finished watching the show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Disney Plus and there were rumors that the character Daisy Johnson from that would cameo and/or guest star on Secret Invasion, and boy, that would’ve been exciting.
Well. The finale aired this past Wednesday, and I have…. thoughts. This is your official spoiler warning; if you’d rather not know what goes on, feel free to skip ahead to the Writing Update section of this newsletter.
So. I suppose I should mention the good bits first. I did like the opening theme. The interaction between Nick Fury and Priscilla was quite good (I learned a new bit of poetry too, which I hadn’t before). Olivia Colman’s acting was excellent, after a fashion.
Let’s start there: her acting was really great, but I honestly had trouble following which side she was on. I get the show’s a spy thriller, ostensibly, and therefore you’ve got to have your obligatory moral ambiguity elements, but she should at least have a side to be morally ambiguous about, yeah? Is she for the Skrulls? Against them? For them again? I lost track by the end!
Next: the theme was great, as I mentioned; I’m a sucker for minor key chorals. The AI-generated visuals, eh. And then of course there’s the rest of the characters. Maria Hill, for example. She’s been in the MCU practically since the beginning, and they kill her off just like that? Rhodey turns out to have been a Skrull maybe since the Civil War movie, and we don’t even get a second to confirm that or deal with whether he knows about Tony’s death? (Also, you’re telling me that the guy who rattled off all those time travel movies in Endgame is a Skrull? Please).
The super-Skrull plan has issues too: it’s based on the collected DNA from Avengers and bad guys who were at the Battle of Earth, right? Frost Beasts are in there, but that I can understand because although they weren’t at the Battle of Earth, in Thor: The Dark World one got out and was running around on Earth somewhere, maybe it died and they got its DNA. But Ebony Maw? Thanos? They all got dusted at the end by Tony Stark’s use of the Infinity Gauntlet! Either someone thought to snatch a bit of Thanos’ DNA from the minute he was on Wakandan soil and Maw’s from when he was in New York (doubtful) or Tony Stark had the foresight while doing his Snap to dust Thanos and his people but leave just enough to retrieve DNA, and why in heaven’s name would he do that?
Also, in the end the Kree are apparently open to peace talks with the Skrulls, which okay, great, but didn’t they settle all that back in the Captain Marvel movie? Captain Marvel sent what’s his name back to Hala to tell the Supreme Intelligence that she was coming “to end it, the war, the lies, all of it”, right?” Did she… not do that? I assumed she had, because in the first Guardians of the Galaxy Ronan was upset by a peace treaty between the Kree and Xandar. Did that treaty not include the Skrulls? If so, did Captain Marvel force the Kree to negotiate a peace treaty and end the war but she forgot to include her new friends, the ones she’d sworn to protect and find a home, in said treaty? I can understand the Kree conveniently leaving them out of it, and Xander either didn’t know about the Skrull issue or didn’t care, but what, did Captain Marvel forget to read the text? Was she elsewhere when the treaty was actually signed? What’s the deal?
This is my problem, in summary: they threw in these ideas (“Hey, what if Rhodey was a Skrull? Hey, a Kree and Skrull peace summit!)” and didn’t think it through, they killed off perfectly good characters for no reason (Talos’s death seems pointless now in retrospect, particularly), the rumors about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. connections were just that, the AI opener was unimpressive, and honestly, the whole thing was….eh.
I hadn’t wanted to believe it before, but I really do think what I hear is right; ever since the Infinity Saga ended, the MCU seems adrift. Here’s hoping it finds it way back.
If you agree and want to vent about Secret Invasion as well, or you don’t and think it was the best thing since Andor, let me know!
Writing Update
I’ve started a new section on the ‘Stack, specifically for angel-themed stories; I don’t have a timing on these as they generally hit whenever the muse strikes me. The Ask the Captain columns and Gaseous Girl series will continue as normal. If you liked the recent angel-themed stories, After-Action Report: Hair for example, and would like to see more, feel free to comment or email letting me know when and how often. Weekly on Mondays, maybe? Monthly on third Tuesdays at 7:49 pm? I’m open for suggestions!
Closing Time
I mentioned that one thing I liked about Secret Invasion was the theme; here it is below, without the AI visuals. Trust me, this is better.
Until next time,
Michael