Secret Invasion: An Underwhelming Finale For Nick Fury

Nick Fury’s first central lead outing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe may have started off promising, but the Disney+ series Secret Invasion ends with nothing but hot air. The entirety of the six-episode run wants the audience to feel like they are waiting for something huge. Unfortunately, following in the footsteps of the previous hit-or-miss MCU television shows, Secret Invasion ends on a miss with a slew of missed opportunities.

One of Secret Invasion’s biggest problems is relying on a story without heavy emotional investment. While audiences may have invested in Nick Fury, Maria Hill, and Talos, there is not much the series does to back that up, especially when Secret Invasion removes Maria Hill from the equation at the conclusion of the first episode.

Following Hill’s death, which never receives the weight it would have earned following her years involved with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Secret Invasion slowly leads up to questions about loyalty, betrayal, and suspicion asking who is really a Skrull and who is not.

Talos’ death, while saddening, also falls short of the meaning it earned. Although Talos had only been present in Captain Marvel and Spider-Man: Far From Home, his character deserved a better story, or at least a weightier death, than he received.

In the end, Talos’ death did not seem to add up to anything of consequence and the story attempts to move along by latching onto Nick Fury’s relationship with his wife, Priscilla. Fury’s relationship with Priscilla comes out of left field and comes across as the show’s desire to implement a plot twist that allows Nick Fury to have more emotional stakes in the events surrounding him than the Marvel Cinematic Universe would have suggested previously.

Secret Invasion also fails to create an exciting villain, and instead, it acts as a way to keep the Skrulls as an active part of the universe rather than push anything forward. The character of Gravik is an antagonist, but not one who brings chaos and charm like Loki or brute strength and fear like Thanos.

By the time the series finale comes around, the actual ending is underwhelming at worst and if the MCU actually puts the cliffhanger ending to work, more of a suggestion for what is to come at best.

Most of the finale does not offer anything of real significance, and while it does bring back callbacks to the Avengers, as well as potentially tease a brand new hero, or villain, to the mix, the real game-changer appears in the show’s final minutes.

The show using Rhodey as a Skrull throughout Secret Invasion may not have been the extent of how long he had been trapped, especially as it is heavily implied that Rhodey had been captured by the Skrulls for years. It imposes a few questions. Does that have an effect on how Rhodey handles events to come or will he continue to be involved if he is so far out of the loop?

The other bigger twist reveals that there may be far more Skrulls posing as known humans than anyone knew, all while a war brews between the two. Even though the war is considered the big twist in the show of Secret Invasion, it comes as the show concludes and all it does is work as a set-up without execution. The show reveals that people are starting to kill anyone and everyone under the belief that they may be a Skrull, with plenty of innocents dying in the process, but it does not have the time to jump ahead to show what comes of it.

Rather than stick around Earth to try and work it out, Nick Fury leaves the planet behind with chaos ensuing and a plan to help the Skrulls find a new permanent home.

While Secret Invasion may avoid the comical tone issues that Marvel movies have faced in the past, it has not escaped the controversial story and character choices that the Marvel shows have made.

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