Geeking Out About Television #6: MCU Rewrite | A Better Secret Invasion

Problem: 

Secret Invasion ended up being one of the MCU's most forgettable entries to date due to a lacking sense of tension and excitement within the overall narrative. The show came out, fans watched it, they felt disappointed or bored, and then everyone moved on rather quickly. But was there a better version of this series that could've brought more people to a point of excitement and, dare I say, iconic status within the franchise? Let's take a look at one direction that the series could've taken that might have saved it from the mostly negative reception that it was given. 

Remedy:

The highlight point of the entire series for me personally, as far as the Skrulls invasion goes, was the moment toward the end of the finale where we witness footage of vigilantes going after powerful public officials speculated to be Skrulls and killing them in cold blood. This was the one and only moment where the Skrulls invading the world concept (the "Secret Invasion') really came through as being scary and intriguing. What if, instead of waiting till the ending for that big moment, we would've had the last 3 or more episodes surrounding that idea. Instead of the show leading up to some cheap, generic CGI battle between two Super Skrulls where our villain just gets taken out unceremoniously and disregarded by an equally overpowered side character, we would've had Gravik be the only Super Skrull present.

This would've made the idea of a Super Skrull feel much more unique and special to the villain and made for an even more compelling final battle. Here's how. You could have it to where the final battle wasn't a moment of typical explosive superhero spectacle but instead Nick Fury having to rely solely on his ingenuity as a non-powered Avenger taking on arguably the most powerful villain to date. The concept of Gravik having the culmination of all the powers of the very same superhero team that Fury created (the Avengers) as well as being a villain in his own making due to past mistakes would've been both dramatically poetic and highly entertaining. 

Remember that throughout the series, everyone kept telling Fury that he wasn't the competent spy and fighter that he used to be? Well, this could've been the big confrontation that was necessary for him to fully re-establish his position. How so? By ultimately being challenged by all of his decisions coming back to haunt him in the form of one absurdly powerful threat. You could've had Gravik be the one and only Super Skrull and make that a highlight point of tension in the series by showing him unleash a disastrous wave of carnage in a crowded area in America once the secret of the Skrulls being amongst humans was starting to get leaked out. This could've been the first half of the finale episode (Gravik as a Super Skrull destroying an entire city block of innocent people escalating the invasion).

While the second half of the finale could've been Fury, at his wits end, using his experience of exploiting people for good to psychologically find a way to distract Gravik into an eventual place of defeat. The episodes prior building up to that climactic finale could've been the invasion slowly escalating with each episode as Skrulls are being established into places of power successfully setting up strategic movements of mass manipulation and global conflicts. You could have the first 3-4 episodes of Fury and his team struggling to make heads or tails on what's going on as wars are being broken out around the world due to peace treaties being crushed uncharacteristically by certain politicians while certain organizations are rising up in power bizarrely fast. 

That feeling of something being amidst due to the type of world events all of a sudden sequentially taking place in rapid motion as if all building up to something massive. That could've been at the heart of your Secret Invasion build up. A conspiracy mystery with strong cinematic direction surrounding our heroes trying to follow a bread crumb trail of national paranoia (think Cold War era panic) brewing that leads them to the big revelation that people of high authority have been swapped out with Skrull operatives working towards an unknown cause. Maybe have the end of Episode 4 be the point where the Skrulls are exposed thanks to a news leak which forces Gravik to acquire the "Harvest" Super Skrull DNA collection sooner, but Fury and his team is able to stop him from getting enough to build an army. Instead, he only has enough for himself. 

This is where Episode 5 follows up on that big news leak of ship shifting aliens being amongst us leading to widespread conspiracy, panic, controversy, and pandemonium in the world where no one knows who to trust anymore leading to thrilling scenes of explosive vigilante shootouts and explosions in government places and major corporations. This is the series that I feel Secret Invasion should've been to really bring in the viewers' attention. A highly engaging conspiracy sci-fi thriller that uniquely highlights mankind in the MCU's world as a character in of itself like never before (the pedestrians' reactions to these big superhero related stories). Episode 5, the penultimate episode, if taken in this direction, could've been one for the books as a highlight of the MCU much like Moon Knight's and WandaVision's penultimate episode was for their titular characters. 

Think Captain America: Winter Soldier's effective way of establishing the Hydra threat within SHIELD twist and how the incredible spectacle and thriller moments were exceptionally rooted within that narrative. Think sweat inducing, gritty, and suspenseful scenes of action from movies like Sicario, Children of Men, '71, or the Bourne franchise. You could have the first 5 episodes be a blend of those types of action-thriller reference points mixed in with the science-fiction horror mystery elements of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers or John Carpenter's The Thing and They Live. While the finale could've been your big super powered spectacle climax, but instead of a battle of flashy looking moves amongst two people, it's a terrifyingly powerful Super Skrull killing off citizens while Fury has to find a way to take him down through pure tactical maneuvering and exploitation. 

This type of approach to direction and storytelling would've remedied the issue of forgettability and disappointment that many fans had experienced with the series and would've made Secret Invasion one of Marvel's most ambitious and celebrated entries to date. It could've been deemed by critics and fans alike as the most realistically grounded release yet due to the highly relatable controversy of people questioning the government and other organizations of high authority while also being an arguably scary science-fiction horror at its core. Skrulls, when you really think about it should be terrifying when sinister motives are involved, and whereas the Disney+ series failed to get that point across, I think this particular remedy could've helped a lot with the show's overall success.