The primary episode of Marvel’s Secret Invasion sequence was a strong begin to a spy sequence that would upend the Marvel Cinematic Universe, wherein a bunch of extremist shape-shifting Skrull refugees are plotting to take over Earth and, within the course of, kill the people who stay there. It is well-written, the forged is uniformly nice, it would not seem like it was shot on an especially fake-looking CGI soundstage. I can not assist however hope that this will likely be a uncommon Marvel season that manages to start out nicely after which preserve its high quality.
However the first episode of Secret Invasion additionally gave me a sense I have been getting from the MCU quite a bit over the previous few years: Why wasn’t this story ever arrange or teased prior to now? There have been 11 films and eight seasons of TV which have come out because the Skrulls had been launched in Captain Marvel, however all that Marvel has performed with them since is to very often remind us that Nick Fury’s inexperienced friends are nonetheless round. And there is been nothing, in the meantime, about these secret different Skrulls who’re doing that titular invasion.
Warning: This text accommodates mild spoilers for the primary episode of Secret Invasion, and it additionally discusses main plot particulars from some previous Marvel sequence, like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision.
Because it stands proper now, there have been no significant story precursors in any respect for Secret Invasion since Spider-Man: Far From Residence in 2020. Not one of the 9 films or eight seasons of TV that we have gotten since Far From Residence have been related to what is going on on here–and the final canonical look by a Skrull was on the finish of WandaVision, when one of many aliens working for Fury recruited Monica Rambeau for one thing we nonetheless have not seen but. Monica isn’t anticipated to look on Secret Invasion, so no matter that was probably will not come up till The Marvels this fall.
That lack of connective tissue between completely different films and exhibits has been an more and more sore spot for followers within the post-Endgame period, and it is a problem that is exacerbated by the way it typically appears like that connective tissue was current in a narrative after which eliminated. It is not a very ridiculous concept. The MCU expanded dramatically with the addition of Disney+ sequence, after which COVID-19 upended the discharge schedule–it follows that sacrifices must be made as soon as issues bought out of order as a result of there have been and are so many transferring elements.
One of many largest victims of that shuffling needs to be The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a sequence that by no means actually settled on a thematic focus as a result of its villains, the Flag Smashers, had been so poorly sketched out, leaving a bizarre gaping gap the place their character growth and private motivations had been imagined to go. In the course of the Blip, nationwide strains had been redrawn or erased, and other people lived the place they happy. However as soon as the half-empty world grew to become full once more, all people tried to push issues again to the outdated normal–and that left lots of of us newly displaced, which led to the formation of the Flag Smashers.
However whatever the righteousness of their trigger, by the tip of the present they’re all lifeless, and Sam Wilson completed their mission by giving a “why cannot all of us simply get alongside?” speech on TV.
The entire bit was unsatisfying and obscure, and it felt just like the true thematic core of the story had been sucked out. Since that was very early within the post-Endgame cycle, it was powerful to even know the place to start attempting to determine how they’d gutted this story. Now, we have now too many potentialities, however Secret Invasion has given me my favourite one thus far: that the early days of this Skrull invasion had been part of this story, however their half was lower.
The side of Secret Invasion that put the thought into my head is that these Skrull rebels have a remarkably related trigger to that of the Flag Smashers. These alien refugees, whose world was demolished by the Kree, had been promised a brand new dwelling by Nick Fury. However Fury bought snapped, and he hasn’t come via with something since his return, and so a bunch of those Skrulls resolve to take issues into their very own, newly extremist arms as a way to get issues performed. They’re just about the Flag Smashers: Outer House Version.
Apart from that remarkably apparent thematic parallel, there’s nothing else of be aware within the textual content that actively helps this concept. Nevertheless it matches nicely sufficient circumstantially in lots of alternative ways. The rushed new Captain America may actually be the work of a secret Skrull within the U.S. authorities who desires an unwitting Skrull-controlled superhero who can act within the open on Earth. On the similar time, Skrulls are tremendous sturdy to start with, and so that you would not be capable to inform the distinction between a Skrull disguised as a human and a human who had taken the tremendous soldier serum like members of the Flag Smashers had.
However I wish to stress once more that that is principally hypothesis and guesswork. It is educated hypothesis and guesswork, however that is nonetheless a really great distance from verified reality. Thankfully, although, if there’s something to this concept, we’ll most likely discover out fairly quickly. Whereas the MCU did not handle to arrange a lot of Secret Invasion prematurely, it is a good guess that it’ll retroactively insert these insurgent Skrulls into previous tales in order to ascertain how they’ve managed to get this far of their secret warfare.
Retroactively establishing your story in flashbacks actually would not be as satisfying as it might have been if that they had arrange this storyline prematurely the conventional means, but when they’ll handle to successfully promote these retcons, it may go a great distance towards fixing the MCU within the close to future by truly giving the MCU a much bigger image as soon as once more.
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