Finding faults with Secret Invasion is like shooting fish in a barrel. Fans have already dissected much of the nonsensical plot, with the rancid cherry on top the revelation that Don Cheadle’s James Rhodes may have been a Skrull impostor since Civil War. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the finale is now the single worst-reviewed thing Marvel Studios has ever released.
But bubbling under all that are a number of other just-plain-weird bits of storytelling that don’t add up. Over on r/Marvel_Studios, one fan has pointed to Nick Fury just being a big ol’ hypocrite:
Fury’s sudden and unexplained belief that humanity shouldn’t rely on superheroes is a bit of a headscratcher given his primary motivation in Phase One was to bring together a team of superheroes, with said team entirely responsible for saving Earth. And, as the post notes, he sends in a superhero anyway. But, hey, who needs logical consistency?
Our theory is that Secret Invasion suffered from release date shenanigans. A glance at the ever-shifting MCU calendar indicates this show was originally supposed to arrive after The Marvels rather than before it, so we think some hasty rewrites and reshoots warped the show into the nonsensical mess it ended up as.
Whatever the case, Secret Invasion is destined to do down as a disaster for Marvel Studios. It had the budget and an embarrassment of acting talent, and proceeded to blow it. Let’s just hope some very important lessons have been learned, and that The Marvels redeems Nick Fury for us.