Summary
Marvel’sSecret Invasionhasn’t aged well one year after its release, andMCUfans are having a field day with the 2023 Disney+ series. Based on the ambitious comic book storyline of the same name,Secret InvasionfollowsSamuel Jackson’s weary Nick Furyas he faces the threat of the invading Skrulls, who try and fail to take over Earth using their shapeshifting abilities. While this premise sounds very similar to the original comic storyline, the MCU series' scope can’t hold a candle to the source material.
This and other criticisms have been reawakened across social media by Marvel fans onSecret Invasion’s first anniversary. On a second or third watch, there are still several elements of the show that don’t sit right with viewers. More than any other MCU movie or show,Secret Invasionhas clearly frustrated many fanswith baffling ideas and questionable execution. Check out some of the posts below:
XuserAVONhighlightsSecret Invasion’s slow pace and excessive dialog, with plainly delivered exposition that takes up most of the show’s runtime. Yet,Secret Invasiondoesn’t clear up many of the questions it poses. Apart from the details about Rhodey’s replacement thatAVONmentions,Secret Invasionalso doesn’t explain why the Skrulls have waited so long to attack, and why Nick Fury returns to Earth to make the conflict worse or why he leaves before it’s resolved.
Xuser3WProductionsasks one of the most repeated questions aboutSecret Invasion: Why is it calledSecret Invasion? In the comics, the Skrulls secretly infiltrate governments and superhero teams before they’re discovered and have to resort to physical combat. In the MCU’sSecret Invasion, only a few people are replaced by Skrulls, and they have little to no impact on the plot.Secret Invasion’s tagline reads"who do you trust", yet the show doesn’t feature any betrayals or plot twists involving the Skrull’s shapeshifting abilities beyond Rhodey’s Skrull replacement, which comes out of left field at the end.
Reddituserstriking-complaint40summarizes the problem withSecret Invasion’s characters: none of their actions mean anything in the end. Nick Fury doesn’t barely plays any role in the Skrulls' conflict despite being the protagonist, and he remains unchanged by the time he returns inThe Marvels. G’iah and Talos' Super Skrull abilities also have little to do withSecret Invasion’s “mystery” premise, and their bombastic final fight doesn’t have any emotional weight. What’s worse, Talos and Maria Hill’s deaths seem arbitrary and contrived.
Reddituserleviathan0999points out thatSecret Invasion’s premise is particularly difficult to execute, as it requires plenty of narrative foundations in previous MCU projects. In fact, Marvel Comics' originalSecret Invasionstoryline received similar criticism back in 2008. The shocking reveal of certain characters' Skrull identities meant that fans had been following a fake version of their beloved heroes for a while, and that they had no way to suspect it beforehand. Likewise, a proper invasion plot would have been hard to implement in the MCU’sSecret Invasionadaptation without replacing important MCU characters one, two, three, or more projects in advance.
Secret Invasion Is Still Marvel’s Lowest Rated MCU Era Show
Secret Invasion Holds The MCU’s Worst Review Records
FollowingSecret Invasion’s finale in June 2023, critics, fans, and general audiences issued a verdict. As a result,Secret Invasionbroke three negative MCU records— with a 57% critics score,Secret Invasionbecame the lowest-rated MCU series and the only Rotten MCU show. TheSecret Invasionfinale’s 13% score also became the lowest-rated MCU episode released so far. As of its first anniversary,Secret Invasion’s critics' score has dropped to 53%. The second lowest-rated MCU show,Echo, sits at 71% — a full 19% aboveSecret Invasion.
The highest-rated MCU project to date isMs. Marvel, with a 98% critics score and an 80% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Four Marvel projects have received lower Rotten Tomatoes scores thanSecret Invasion, two of them shows released outside ofthe MCU’s main continuity:Eternals, with a 41% critics' score;Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, with 46%,Iron Fist, with 37%; andInhumans, with 11%. However, all of these titles have a considerably higher audience score. In the case ofSecret Invasion, a 45% audience score proves thatSecret Invasionwas poorly received across the board.
Marvel Movie Or Show
71%
60%
67%
75%
69%
65%
78%
Thor: Love and Thunder
63%
76%
62%
82%
52%
45%
47%
77%
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
46%
37%
11%
43%
Secret Invasionmay remain the MCU’s lowest-rated show for a long time, not only because Marvel’s quality is expected to rise following an unfortunate streak of poorly received releases, but also because Marvel is shifting focus away from the high number of Disney+ shows that characterized Phases 4 and 5. Marvel Studios will choose and develop each Disney+ show more carefully and devote more time to their production. This change will likely make a new critical flop likeSecret Invasionunlikely to break its undesirable records anytime soon.
