Marvel’s latest Disney+ series reached its finale yesterday, and while the series gave us possibly the MCU’s most powerful new hero, Secret Invasion is now Marvel’s lowest rated project.
Warning: this article includes spoilers for Secret Invasion, She-Hulk, The Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder.
Back in June, we had such high hopes for Marvel’s Secret Invasion. It was posed as a more grounded take on the usual Marvel shenanigans and tonally more in line with Captain America: Winter Soldier’s political thriller-y vibe than the comic book juggernaut’s latest offerings.
It quickly dawned on audiences that Secret Invasion was a mess. Controversially, the series killed off Marvel regular Maria Hill (played by Cobie Smulders) in the first episode, and it was all downhill from there. The Secret Invasion finale gave us 36 minutes of rushed action and ugly CGI. Fans, as a rule, weren’t happy.
Marvel’s Secret Invasion finale falls flat and the miniseries ultimately doesn’t take advantage of its premise (or reported budget), doesn’t matter to the MCU, and doesn’t use the title it took from the comics well. There’s no post-credits scene on the short episode either. pic.twitter.com/cDJQXwgoDf
— Rob Keyes (@rob_keyes) July 26, 2023
The premise was intriguing; Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) finds out millions of Skrulls, the shape-shifting alien race, are hiding on Earth in plain sight, masquerading as regular humans. One of these Skrulls, named Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), holds particularly extremist views and plans on getting rid of humanity altogether.
Samuel L. Jackson portrays Nick Fury in the MCU. Credit: Marvel Studios
After concluding on Disney+ yesterday, Secret Invasion as a whole now holds a ‘Rotten’ score of 57% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics. The sixth and final episode holds a measly 13%, making it the lowest scoring Marvel project ever. Even Thor: The Dark World, usually considered amongst the worst Marvel films by fans, has a 66% critics score, and Chloe Zhao’s The Eternals, previously the lowest scoring Marvel project, has 47%.
It seems to imply that Marvel truly are losing their touch. Although Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 was reviewed favourably and had a decent run at the box office too, Marvel has struggled with their current slate of films. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania was a huge let-down, both critically and at the box office, and last year’s Thor: Love and Thunder left much to be desired.
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Is this it? Is Marvel done for? Probably not. They’re still a big draw and have a loyal fan base, but Secret Invasion gives us reason to worry.
Surprisingly, the series also ended with the introduction of potentially the most powerful superhero in the MCU. Gravik had been collecting the DNA of superheroes and building a machine that would give him all their powers in order to destroy humanity. In the end, Emilia Clarke’s G’iah was infused with the DNA of many of the Avengers and other superheroes, including Carol Danvers, giving her a wide range of powers and she used to defeat Gravik in hand-to-hand combat.
G’iah is now, seemingly, the MCU’s most powerful hero, surpassing Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel. But does anyone care? At the very end of the episode, G’iah leaves with Olivia Coleman’s mysterious Sonya, and the two agree to use each other in order to keep their planet and species safe.
This isn’t the first time Marvel has introduced something huge and then left fans hanging. Thor: Love and Thunder gave us a glimpse of Brett Goldstein’s Hercules and She-Hulk briefly introduced us to Hulk’s son. Harry Styles popped up in a post-credits scene in 2021’s The Eternals as Thanos’ brother Eros, sending hordes of fans into a frenzy that Styles was going to join the MCU in a big part. None of them have been mentioned since. All of these characters, and now G’iah, are seemingly huge for Marvel’s future but we don’t know when we’ll see them again, if ever.
Secret Invasion might go down as the most forgettable Marvel TV show and we doubt we’ll see G’iah anytime soon. It’s a shame that the studio that played a huge part in making comic book films popular and got people to take them seriously has fallen this far off the wagon.
Secret Invasion is now available to stream on Disney+.
