Marvel’s Secret Invasion hasn’t aged well one year after its release, and MCU fans are having a field day with the 2023 Disney+ series. Based on the ambitious comic book storyline of the same name, Secret Invasion follows Samuel Jackson’s weary Nick Fury as 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 on Secret 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 Invasion has clearly frustrated many fans with baffling ideas and questionable execution. Check out some of the posts below:
X user AVON highlights Secret Invasion‘s slow pace and excessive dialog, with plainly delivered exposition that takes up most of the show’s runtime. Yet, Secret Invasion doesn’t clear up many of the questions it poses. Apart from the details about Rhodey’s replacement that AVON mentions, Secret Invasion also 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.
X user 3WProductions asks one of the most repeated questions about Secret Invasion: Why is it called Secret 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’s Secret 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.
Reddit user striking-complaint40 summarizes the problem with Secret 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 in The Marvels. G’iah and Talos’ Super Skrull abilities also have little to do with Secret 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.
Reddit user leviathan0999 points out that Secret Invasion‘s premise is particularly difficult to execute, as it requires plenty of narrative foundations in previous MCU projects. In fact, Marvel Comics’ original Secret Invasion storyline 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’s Secret Invasion adaptation 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
Following Secret Invasion‘s finale in June 2023, critics, fans, and general audiences issued a verdict. As a result, Secret Invasion broke three negative MCU records — with a 57% critics score, Secret Invasion became the lowest-rated MCU series and the only Rotten MCU show. The Secret Invasion finale’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% above Secret Invasion.
The highest-rated MCU project to date is Ms. Marvel , with a 98% critics score and an 80% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Four Marvel projects have received lower Rotten Tomatoes scores than Secret Invasion, two of them shows released outside of the MCU’s main continuity: Eternals, with a 41% critics’ score; Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, with 46%, Iron Fist, with 37%; and Inhumans, with 11%. However, all of these titles have a considerably higher audience score. In the case of Secret Invasion, a 45% audience score proves that Secret Invasion was poorly received across the board.
Secret Invasion may 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 like Secret Invasion unlikely to break its undesirable records anytime soon.
