Spoilers Secret Invasion grade and discussion

[Nightowl1701]

How long has Rhodey has been a Skrull....

I’ve got a bad feeling the answer to that’s going to be ‘since Civil War’. Which means Rhodey’s lost a whole decade of his life at this point, has no idea what all’s happened (including Tony’s death), and that fling with Carol… well… pretty sure whatever awkward conversation Fury has with her in The Marvels won’t mention that part. Explaining what happened to her Skrull friends is gonna be tough enough as it is.

 

[Anwar]

Just feels rather bland this show. It’s a big threat but I’m just not feeling it.
Maybe the director should have read the comic. To get a better idea what it entails.

The comic wasn't that good to start with, it was just a lazy excuse to bring back dead characters by saying "Oh they were a Skrull all along".

 

[thribs]

Can’t be Civil War since he was injured there. It will have to be sometime afterwards.
I’m guessing after Endgame

 

[Nightowl1701]

Can’t be Civil War since he was injured there. It will have to be sometime afterwards.
I’m guessing after Endgame

That’s what I mean; Rhodey went from the ICU straight to a Skrull rack, hence his miraculous recovery.

 

[Charles Phipps]

The comic wasn't that good to start with, it was just a lazy excuse to bring back dead characters by saying "Oh they were a Skrull all along".

The comic is, "The Skrulls have infiltrated all of humanity, gained our best powers, replaced our heroes and....then it's resolved by punching."

 

[FreezeC77]

I was wondering do you think it's cheaper/easier to re-use/modify the already created Groot arm stuff than to create an 'embiggen' type thing for each "super Skrull"? (obviously ignoring the lack of a Reed Richards for the traditional FF4 copied power)

Maybe that's why Kamala's powers were changed. Would think her using embiggen in the tv show would take a lot more time and effort to make it look 'decent' than the powers they have her using.

 

[Reverend]

That’s what I mean; Rhodey went from the ICU straight to a Skrull rack, hence his miraculous recovery.

By "miraculous recovery" I assume you mean "Tony built him a cybernetic support frame for his legs, plus months if not years of physiotherapy; hence his moment of cyborg camaraderie with Nebula in 'Endgame'"?

I'm not saying that can't be when he was replaced, but the fact that he can walk again is not the smoking gun here.

 

[Commander Troi]

Well that was... damn. I really *really* liked Talos.

Yeah, I find Talos' faith in humanity baffling and without merit. He doesn't cite any reason for why he thinks that beyond a general hope. A very misplaced hope.

As others have said, a desperate hope. Also, he's the immigrant explaining to his kid that the slurs and racism will stop "if we just work hard and show we're good enough."

 

[kirk55555]

The comic wasn't that good to start with, it was just a lazy excuse to bring back dead characters by saying "Oh they were a Skrull all along".

As far as I remember the only long term dead character brought "back to life" by Secret Invasion was Mockingbird, and I thought it was done well and she's been a good supporting character in several books since then, so I'd say it was worth it.

Honestly I thought that Secret Invasion, as a comic book event, was pretty good. The ending was stupid (literally deranged serial killer Norman Osbourne being given control of SHIELD just because he happened to fire the gun that killed the Skrull Queen was really stupid), and the skrulls being weirdly religious was unnecessary, but it was a fun ride before then, and its probably better then 90% of Marvel events that have happened since it came out.

 

[FreezeC77]

I forgot this was only 6 episodes so only 2 episodes left.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Regarding the "when" of Rhodey's replacement, I like that there are so many wild suggestions but I ultimately expect that it's going to be pretty much "not that long ago." Like with Everett Ross. Ah, well.

I wasn't arguing the plot logic of it all; just the execution. Making a big dramatic deal about killing off a main character, even lingering the camera on her unmoving corpse as the final shot of the episode, then immediately undoing it at the top of the next episode, complete with all the scenes omitted from the previous episode explaining the turn?

Well that's just poor narrative structure. Whether the continuity lines up is really neither here nor there. There's much better ways to do that.

Yeah, I get your point but fair enough.

Ever seen 'Punchline' and 'Forest Gump'? Same thing, but in reverse order. (full disclosure: I have in fact never seen 'Punchline'.)

I hadn't even heard of Punchline until now. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples (such as Anna Paquin and Jeff Daniels in Fly Away Home and something else years later). This is just one that stands out for me because I love Unbreakable and Glass so much.

Well you say that, but while Skrulls are tough, and can tolerate radiation better than humans . . . but if they can't even survive bullet wounds and car crashes, then there's not much they can do about a thermonuclear fireball detonating right where they're standing. Hell I doubt even Extremis-Flora-Colossus-Cull-Obsidian-Jotunheimensi DNA mods coudl do anything about that. You can regenerate tissue if all mass is instantaneously converted to energy after all.

Remember this plan depends upon most of them camped out in the arse end of nowhere while the humans nuke each other's population centres into dust. So the worst they'll have to deal with is radioactive fallout and nuclear winter . . . at least before Carol and/or the Kree show up as previously indicated.

Good points all around. Like you've said, Gravik certainly hasn't thought this through...but then most extremists rarely do. They're very much caught up in the moment and damn the consequences (even if you think you'll be fine on the other side of it).

Between this and the weirdly inauthentic submarine stuff last episode; someone up the chain clearly does not like to do research, like at all. Also the giant oversized union jack on the chest of the SAS officer felt like it was a but much.

Yeaaaah...the lack of in-depth research is really hurting this show and that's really bumming me out. My outsized expectations aside, the show is falling on the short side.

 

[Noname Given]

I have to ask was the original comic story this slow and meandering? Samuel L Jackson has had a few good scenes in this but overall, there's not much happening action wise. And the spies aren't even that intelligent or their plans that engaging. Aside from Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury, and the actor playing Talos, and the fact they just use the first episode to kill off a character that I always enjoyed, Maria Hill; none of the other characters really make me care, or come across as interesting. Overall nothing here is really grabbing me and making this must-see TV.

Yes I'm watching it because I am a Marvel Comics fan and I know the basic backstory to a lot of this and am curious how they are taking some of the older continuity aspects that have been around for 60 years and modernize them; but overall this outing hasn't really impressed me much.

I mean if they end up making the Fantastic Four nemesis Super Skrull and use this storyline as a connective backdrop; I guess that's something, but watching Nick Fury walk around while everyone continuously mentions how he's not the man he once was through these four episodes is getting old, and with six episodes totally you think they would be a little more judicious with the plot elements and make something that has a nice mix of drama and action.

I guess even though I am a Marvel fan I'm probably not the target audience of this particular MCU Disney+ installment.

 

[Saul]

Yeah, it's been a struggle to get through this series at times. I slowly got caught up to episode 4 but there doesn't feel like there is much going on. I think one weakness of Marvel shows is that some of them go on a bit too long. Some stuff feels like it's just stretching out the episode.

 

[Morpheus 02]

I know it will be lame as we just had G'iaih surviving, but i have a feeling Talos will actually survive.

I mean, i guess it is Gravik's thing to kill people close to Fury (With Maria Hill, and i anticipate Fury's wife), but Talos seems to important for him to just die like that. (Yes, i know they just did that to Maria Hill)

I was disappointed that Rhodey was a Skrull, especially after that conversation with Fury. I wish @TREK_GOD_1 were watching..i would love his insight on the conversation between Rhodey and Fury...it sure seemed like it would be hard to fake between an impersonator and a "real" African American male.

This leads me to ask about the Skrulls' abilities, and levels of it. COrrect me where i am wrong

But it seems like Skrulls can superficially impersonate anyone just by viewing some photos and hearing their voice, like Talos did with "Rob".

However, another Skrull can easily discover them.

However, if the Skrull takes on another form for a long time, it makes it harder for another Skrull to detect them.

In addition, apparently they have the technology to "network" with the brain of a "victim" so that they can access info so that they can better pass for that person. And they keep that victim alive because there is so much info that MIGHT be needed, but can be searched for, and can easily fake a delay to learn that.

With that said, shouldn't RHodey be alive somewhere? He has too much knowledge, and is needed so they can't kill him.


And speaking of Rhodey... if he had influence on the president's security... I can imagine the Skrull using the excuse that there is intelligence that someone want s to kill the president, and that they should send their visible security out as a decoy, and be more subtle (hence the "lack of security").

 

[ashleytinger]

This series is not the spy thriller I was teased. It hasn't been thrilling and the spies are... well they all know each other. :P Meh.

 

[Reverend]

Exactly how sure are we that they didn't use AI to generated the plot of this thing, as well is the intro? I'm just saying that this has some of the "gestures" of a tense geo-political spy thriller, but the closer you look at the details and the execution, the less sense it makes and the more the illusion just disintegrates. The cast are all doing great work, but the material is just so paper thin. Whoever built this clearly knew superficially what a thriller looks like (or maybe just binged a bunch of trailers for Tom Clancy adaptions), but didn't understand how one actually functions. It's like a cargo cult effigy of a show.

We're two episodes from the end and I think I care less about how it's going to play out than I did with Falcon & Winter Soldier, and that one really ground to a screeching halt. The dastardly plot will be foiled, Fury will go back to work with a new sense of purpose, and 'The Marvels' won't have to address where all the Skrulls disappeared to, and it really won't matter who's been replaced and lost 6 months of their lives.

 

[hypathio7]

I initially liked the opening sequence (and it's nice to have one instead of fun closing credits), but I'm very disappointed to learn that it was AI-generated.

The titles were developed by Method Studios—which has previously worked with Marvel on Disney+ streaming series Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and Loki. But while its work on those was seemingly on the more traditional side of VFX production (Method’s website cites work on Loki that includes 3D character animation, set extensions, and virtual set designs), it was approached for Secret Invasion to instead use AI-generated imagery for use in the titles—ghoulish, ever-morphing green-hued locales and figures that shape-shift between disguises and Skrull personas.

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I thought the opening credits were very Expressionist. Looks like German silent movie poster art.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

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I thought the opening credits were very Expressionist. Looks like German silent movie poster art.

...right, which is why I liked it until I found out it was AI generated.

 

[Yistaan]

I assume most people on here have seen Picard Season 3, which covers the same themes. I was the first to say Picard had its problems but it does the same themes Secret Invasion is covering much, much better. Secret Invasion is wasted potential so far, and we need look no further than what Trek did on a presumably smaller budget to prove that.

 

[JD]

Yeaaaah...the lack of in-depth research is really hurting this show and that's really bumming me out. My outsized expectations aside, the show is falling on the short side.

Yeah, shows and movies not doing their research is one of my biggest pet peeves. Especially since with the internet, and the resources of a company like Marvel/Disney, you can find out anything you need to know fairly easily.