REVIEW: Marvel May Have Something with ‘Secret Invasion’
In 2008, Marvel Comics released its highly successful crossover series, Secret Invasion. The series follows Earth’s mightiest heroes as they attempted to stop the Skrull’s (technologically advanced race of shapeshifters) invasion of Earth. Now, Disney and Marvel Studios are bringing this story to life in a new limited series for Disney+, but unlike the comic series, this series is led by former S.H.E.I.L.D. director, Nicholas Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). In this iteration, we find Fury teaming up with Skrull leader, Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), introduced in the 2019 film, Captain Marvel, to stop a renegade group of Skrulls, from taking over Earth. The problem, the Skrulls have the ability to shapeshift into humans, and distinguishing between who is human and who is Skrull won’t make for an easy go of it for Fury & Talos.
The first two episodes of the series are a little jumbled, but definitely intriguing. The episodes provide depth to characters merely touched upon in previous Marvel Cinematic Universe entities, while also nicely introducing the new ones. Fury takes center stage in these two episodes as the writing team begins unraveling the tangled web that is Nicholas J. Fury. However, at the same time, the writing team is also trying to tell the overall espionage story, which can be a little infuriating at times because they don’t always line-up. With the series only six-episodes long, there is a lot of story to tell and not a lot of time to do it. In two episodes alone, there is a lot of groundwork still missing and pieces of Fury’s life not quite adding up. Hopefully, the final four episodes will shed more light and clear up some of the confusion.
Reprising his role as Nick Fury is Samuel L. Jackson and this series is his time to shine. Jackson has well-crafted this character over the years and it is nice to finally see him be the lead, rather than a secondary character. This too can also be said about Cobie Smulders’ Mariah Hill and Mendelsohn’s Talos. There is a joy in watching Smulders and Mendelsohn play alongside Jackson. We only got glimpses of these moments in the past films, so to see the writers really hone in on these relationships are a nice gift for fans.
Kingsley Ben-Adir stars as the renegade Skrull leader, Gravik and is brilliant. He is not only extremely alluring, but delectably evil. His character will leave you wanting to learn more about him when all is said and done. Emilia Clarke steps in as Talos’ daughter G’iah, and the first two episodes do not provide enough detail for her character to really get a good feel on her, but, like Ben-Adir, her performance is strong. Her character will also leave you wanting to learn more about her and why she is the way she is. Olivia Coleman is a joy, and the clear standout as Sonya Falsworth. The level of ease she brings to Falsworth is in complete contrast to Jackson’s Fury, which adds an enticing layer to not only their relationship, but to the series as well. Finally, Don Cheadle returns as James “Rhodey” Rhodes, and in all honesty, I’m not exactly sure why he was included in this series. My hope is that we get a better understanding as the series progresses. If not, and he is only in the first two episodes, he could have been left out of the series entirely.
Marvel’s television series haven’t been the best over the past couple of years, but they may be onto something with Secret Invasion. The series drops almost an hour-long episode each week and though the plot is just touching the base surface, there is something in each episode that will make you want to come back for more. It also helps that it features an extremely strong cast and the story is a little darker than some of its predecessors. I recommend giving it a shot. If not for the spy thrilling story, then for the great cast featured throughout.
Grade: B+