‘Secret Invasion’ boosted by a strong cast, with Samuel L. Jackson in the lead

Here we go: another must-see Marvel ‘event’ to understand future Marvel stories. In a desperate attempt to boost sales, Marvel committed annually to a broad action story that more or less touched all superheroes. Comic book series were discontinued and favorite characters killed off just to drive fans to the comic shops. By the time Secret Invasion appeared in 2007, American comic fans began to complain. How many must-reads could you buy? With the added uncertainty about the future of favorite titles, some fans wondered: Shouldn’t they just give up this expensive hobby?

So it feels fitting that the TV version of Secret Invasion appears at a time when movie fans are experiencing the same fatigue. Who has time left to see every Marvel movie and watch every series? Especially when, just like the comics at the time, they all fly through the events at a killer pace for fear that bored viewers will run away.

Secret Invasion on Disney+ should be the grown-up answer to more youth-oriented Marvel series like Ms. Marvel (2022). No happy adventures for a while, but a grim thriller that reflects on the victims of the superhero power.

That’s the idea, at least. If there’s anything like a moment of reflection to be found here, it must be forced by Marvel veteran Samuel L. Jackson. He returns in this six-part miniseries as Nick Fury, once the silent force behind The Avengers. After the events of Marvel event movies Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and End game (2019) he has run out and retired to a space station. Until it turns out that the Skrulls, the shapeshifting aliens he is in the movie Captain Marvel (2019) secretly trying to conquer the world. They are furious with Fury. Once he and his old Skrull friend Talos (a sympathetic Ben Mendelsohn) promised to find a new home planet for the Skrull fugitives, but that never happened.

Favorite villains

Marvel is once again allowed to use a favorite type of villain: the oppressed minority who unfortunately stand up for their own rights to such an extreme that they have to be put down. In Captain Marvel that concept was just so wonderfully reversed. Secret Invasion feels in the two episodes that NRC received as a step back.

For those who don’t follow it anymore, don’t worry. The first two episodes have plenty of flashbacks. Stronger, Secret Invasion seems terrified of losing the viewer; the dialogues are crystal clear to the point of irritating, the plot twists clearly indicated. Fortunately, the grim atmosphere manages to raise the level a bit – it remains exciting.

What boosts the whole thing even further is the strong cast, with Samuel L. Jackson in the lead. Hidden somewhere beneath all these layers of comic hero action is a thoughtful series about an old black man past his prime, overtaken by his mistakes and losses. Occasionally that story breaks through the shell: for example, when Jackson is allowed to give a monologue about his childhood as a young black man in a segregated United States. Human and captivating, but it feels a bit absurd in the middle of this relatively simple action thriller story.

Jackson gives one of the performances of his life. You grant him more than this place as a cog in the machine of the endless Marvel soap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlgnkjTC-c0