The final installments of the MCU’s television excursions have always been tricky affairs, either scuppering numerous, thoughtful episodes with an unnecessary CGI climax that visibly struggles to match the features or successfully teasing what’s to come in the greater scheme of things while sacrificing a neat finish. Well, now it’s Secret Invasion’s turn to wrap up a twisty-turny plot that hasn’t exactly gripped me the way I hoped it might – and as I was going into it, I genuinely wasn’t sure which type of ending I’d actually prefer.
A helicarrier-load of loose ends would make more sense considering the many political ramifications that have sprung up during the six-episode run, yet the fact that the show has been rather half-baked means that I wouldn’t be adverse to some good old, CGI, superpowered scrapping to clean my pallet of numerous poorly staged shock deaths and the odd clumsy action sequence.
Well, lucky for me, Secret Invasion goes big and stupid with its grand finale and still chooses to chuck some wild cards into the status quo at large while it’s at it and the result is decent enough to end this uneven entry on a predictable high.
All the pieces are now on the board and the final moves are being made as Gravik’s plan nears a payoff that crashes out in nuclear fire and rampant war. While Fury arrives to deal with him at the heavily irradiated locale of Chernobyl, the Skrull agent who has taken the place of James Rhodes has the ear of the wounded President Ritson and is urging him to launch an attack on Russia that will kill human and Skrull alike.
However, while Fury arrives and claims he’s willing to give Gravik the Harvest (the accumulated DNA of every combatant who took part in the Battle of Earth), he’s only willing to do it if his green nemesis leaves Earth and conquers some other species instead. However, Gravik sees that Chernobyl’s rather uncomfortable atmosphere is weakening an aged Fury and so he takes the Harvest, plugs it into his Super Skrull machine and juices himself up with Fury sitting right next to him. Back at the hospital, the Rhodes-Skrull is alarmed to get a phone call from Agent Farnsworth claiming that Fury’s actually there and is in his way to liberate the President before he gives the order to go to war – how can Fury be in two places at once?
Of course, it’s here that we enter spoiler territory as, once again, everything proves to be something of an elaborate ruse where the punchline is simply “‘Skrull”. Fury isn’t at Chernobyl at all, but is indeed at the hospital as he and Farnsworth try to get that pesky Rhodes-Skrull off the playing field – and the Fury listening to Gravik give a classic villain rant? G’iah, of course, who not only has been given a full dose of every ability that every alien, freak and super-stud present at that final smackdown with Thanos has, but now is powerful enough to have a Super Skrull-off with the alien responsible for killing her father.
Maybe I’m getting dumber in my old age, or maybe I just recognize that the best way for Secret Invasion to get back on track was to simply give up and sink what budget it had left into having two pixelated enemies extravagantly slug it out like a bout of Super-Skrull Fighter 2 on the SNES. Is resorting such a thing somewhat reductive? Pretty much, yeah, but then the show hadn’t really been nailing the clandestine, spy stuff particularly well either and a big stupid ending had cleared up a multitude of sins before…
That’s not to say that I’ve hated Secret Invasion, in fact, its quieter moments, especially the Fury ones, have been consistently excellent and the continuing saga of the Rhodes-Skrull has also kept things ticking along nicely and the fact that both of these plot lines are brought home smoothly are a relief. Elsewhere, Kingsley Ben-Amir’s Gravik has had the odd, good moment to shine and the final face/off with the being he thinks is Fury allows him some more, villainous pontificating, he holds the screen well before he’s replaced with a hulking, green, digital extraterrestrial for the final brawl.
I think one of the reasons I liked the climactic Super Skrull fight so much is that – up until now – the Super Skrull himself has been something of a damp squib with Gravik only utilising the odd healing ability and a stabby Groot arm to show off his strength, but the moment both he and G’iah get their absurdly powerful upgrade, they become walking, talking easter eggs, with their appendages suddenly shifting into that of other characters we’ve previously seen. Yes, the sight of the noticably tiny Emilia Clarke suddenly sprouting the huge, scarred arm of Dave Bautista’s Drax is initially pretty awkward looking, it is pretty cool that this is the best (and only) Super Skrull action since Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer riffed on it with a pimped out Johnny Storm.
While the budget consuming CGI fight is great for a good old “fuck yeah” moment, it’s the Fury stuff that unsurprisingly takes the lead and Jackson, unsurprisingly, brings it home nicely, teaming with Farnsworth to save the day (sort of) and finally reconciling with his Skrull wife, Varra – formally Priscilla. It’s been the moments between Jackson and Charlaynne Woodard that’s truly kept Secret Invasion on the tracks when the spy stuff started relying way too much on cheap storytelling tricks to try and keep you off balance and their relationship has a satisfying ending as the show closes out.
So all that’s left is the fallout and how any of these thread will resurface in the greater realms of the MCU is anyone’s guess. Due to the noticanle ommission of any post credit scenes, all we can do is speculate where it all goes next. This year’s release of The Marvels would be a safe choice, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it may be set before Secret Invasion, so I guess the next logical conclusion is the long mooted Armour Wars, which would most likely see a now restored Rhodes trying to get back in the game after an undetermined amount of time in Skrull captivity. Elsewhere, the chaos that ensues after President Ritson’s announcement that all aliens on Earth are now unwelcome will probably clear the path for Harrison Ford’s General Ross to move into the big white building located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the next Captain America movie and beyond – but where the unison between Farnsworth and G’iah goes in anyone’s guess.
Muddled, uneven and not as intriguing as it obviously thinks it is, Secret Invasion had its plus points for sure, but it still ranks as the least of the Disney+ shows for me and yet another worrying sign that Marvel Studios probably needs to ease off on the content a little if their fifth phase is to avoid the divisive effects of the fourth.
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