Secret Invasion might’ve failed to turn the MCU on its head in the same way as the comic book event did the Marvel Comics universe, but it still dropped one major bombshell in our laps that it’s going to take a long while to unpick. Yes, Rhodey has been a Skrull imposter for “a long time,” with context clues telling us we may not have seen the real War Machine since his injury in Captain America: Civil War.
Following Fury killing Raava, his identity-stealing imposter, in the finale, though, Rhodey fans can relax knowing that the character will be back to his old self in time for his upcoming movie, Armor Wars. But a mind-blowing, entirely logical, point has now been raised that’s causing the Marvel fandom to question their feelings about Raava: considering she might well have been Rhodey in Avengers: Endgame, that means the MCU might’ve just killed one of its greatest heroes.
As the title of a Reddit post that’s getting people talking put it, “Secret Invasion Killed Off A True MCU hero.” The OP argues that, although Raava’s subterfuge in replacing Rhodey all this time is certainly un-heroic, War Machine was an instrumental part of the Avengers’ team that successfully completed the Time Heist and ultimately defeat Thanos and his forces in the Battle of Earth. If we’re being made to believe this was Raava the whole time, she displayed real courage and compassion for both her “fellow” Avengers and for the world at large.
And then Nick Fury just went and shot the poor Skrull in the head. Even though he knows full well the complicated nature of the aliens’ relationship to their human guises, through his wife Priscilla/Varra. Not cool, Fury. #Justice4Skrhodey.