Secret Invasion: Marvel goes back to taking itself seriously

Let me start off by saying that my review contains no spoilers. Any information stated here is featured in trailers that have already been released.

Two episodes of Secret Invasion. That’s all Disney was willing to give me. Even so, I’m struggling not to project my feelings about these two promising episodes onto the four yet to come. Let’s not get into the whole «Andor/Star Wars» discussion again. But this beginning? Damn good.

All thanks to the dark style and serious story. The plot is gripping, character-driven and almost unpredictable. What’s more, the fact that the series at best only loosely follows the 2007 Secret Invasion comic event doesn’t bother me for a second. The alternative is just too good. Too well developed. Too contemporary.

It might even be a gamechanger for a Marvel Cinematic Universe that’s recently been floundering.

What’s Secret Invasion all about?

Once upon a time, the reptilian Skrull lived on their home planet of Skrullos. But when the Kree Empire wanted to subjugate their world to Kree rule, the proud Skrulls resisted – and paid with the destruction of their homeland. Only a handful survived the genocide.

Stranded on Earth 30 years ago, they befriended Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Fury promised to help them find a new home planet in return for keeping a low profile. Since then, they’ve worked together. Peacefully. Unless… what if it’s Earth that the Skrulls are secretly after? Who really knows if only a handful survived? What if there are actually hundreds of them? Thousands?

Millions?!

No one knows. Not even Nick Fury. After all, the Skrulls may have been using their shape-shifting abilities to infiltrate Earth for decades, mingling with the population. People, even superheroes, whom we have trusted all our lives may in fact have long since been replaced by doppelgangers. Lulling us into a false sense of security. And then, when we least expect it, they might finally put their long-term plan into action: the secret invasion of Earth.

From Mr Robot to Secret Invasion

No, Secret Invasion never feels like typical Marvel popcorn cinema. Starting with its sinister, constantly paranoid atmosphere and clever camera angles. Add to that the so-called cold opens – a stylistic device in which viewers are thrown directly into the action of a show without an introduction. Marvel doesn’t usually do this.

«Imagine a world where information can’t be trusted,» a character says right at the beginning. «Not very hard, is it?»

Chills. Secret Invasion makes it clear from the start that it wants to be a commentary on the age of information as well. A wake-up call. After all, a world in which the media says one thing, the Internet claims something else entirely, and the institutions we trust lie straight to our face when it fits their agenda – this has long since ceased to be fiction.

Where does Marvel’s newfound maturity come from? Arguably from showrunner Kyle Bradstreet. Bradstreet isn’t unknown by a long shot. Not since the fantastic Mr Robot back in 2015. Already back then, the US-American author had our eyes glued to the TV with an intelligent story about corrupt systems and the misuse of data technology. There, the focus was on a psychologically unstable hacker, played magnificently by a still unknown Rami Malek.

In Secret Invasion, Bradstreet almost shamelessly copies himself, taking a similar premise to Mr Robot but swapping his main character for the broken Nick Fury and replacing a corrupt system with infiltrating Skrulls. Voilà, one ready-made, surprisingly political thriller full of unpredictable twists that somehow manages to feel a bit like Marvel after all. Just a bit.

A new Nick Fury

I’m also excited about the series because years ago – nine, to be exact – the Marvel Universe told a similarly powerful story with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In fact, they share a similar vibe. Grim, cold and desolate. Especially because Secret Invasion doesn’t give a hoot about the often absurd multiverse fluff from other movies. Instead, the series focuses on its characters, Nick Fury above all. A fantastic choice, friends.

Nick Fury has long been seen as an insurmountable wall of steely-eyed determination in the Marvel universe. An institution in himself. Mystery monger, mentor and silent hero. But that’s a thing of the past. Fury is broken. His fight against Thanos revealed his limits. And while the people of Earth are still trying to overcome the trauma caused by the Mad Titan, Fury retreated into space. To S.A.B.E.R., where he is said to have worked on a planetary defence system.

And where he wanted to escape his demons.

On Earth, however, events spill over with surprisingly graphic violence by Marvel standards, achieving a rare TV-14 rating. And Fury is direly needed. Broken or not. Fury is Fury, after all. Actor Samuel L. Jackson easily manages to convey the torn nature of his character. Tired of serving, he just can’t resist helping out when he’s needed.

And just when I think I’ve seen it all, Samuel L. Jackson unpacks his iconic Jules from Pulp Fiction during an interrogation – complete with playful sadism. After all, Nick is a spy. He was pulling off covert operations long before creating the Avengers, themselves morally questionable, while holding the world together. No doubt about it: this Nick Fury is different from the one we know from the Avengers movies. Good. Nothing would be more boring than making a supporting character the main character of your series without being allowed to get to know new sides of him.

After all, that’s what the show’s all about: characters. Their motivations, hopes and demons. It’s never events that drive the plot, as is usually the case with Marvel. It’s the characters, forced to question their relationships with each other in a climate of constant paranoia. Take the dynamic between Nick Fury and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), friends hiding secrets. They’re constantly forced to make decisions that can’t be reversed. Younger viewers simply craving shallow entertainment and action might feel blindsided by this. An older, more mature audience won’t. Because for the first time, Marvel actually feels grown up.

Verdict: in the shadow of betrayal

«What the MCU lacks is a well thought-out direction of travel,» I wrote a few months ago. «A concept. One that prioritises quality over quantity. One in which the characters, not the brand, take centre stage in the stories. And above all, one that doesn’t rely on the cheap humour only capable of raising a laugh from kids watching the Disney Channel on Saturday mornings.»

And further:

«What Marvel needs is something Andor embodied in the Star Wars universe just recently. It’s something also associated with Disney: courage. Courage to tell a fully developed story. One with real effects and consequences, And written in a way that doesn’t insult the average viewer’s intelligence.»

It seems I have soulmates at Marvel who feel the way I do. In its first two episodes, Secret Invasion takes everything I criticised at the time to heart. Secret Invasion is just that: a mature, character-driven story with real consequences.

What more is there to say?

The first episode of Secret Invasion comes to Disney+ on 21 June. After that, we’ll get one episode a week. Six episodes around 1 hour each are planned.