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Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, TV | Tagged: disney, marvel, Review, Secret Invasion
Secret Invasion Eps. 1 & 2 Review: The Cold War Is Reignited By Aliens
Secret Invasion Episodes 1 & 2 have aliens kicking off The Cold War again while showing some red flags that could be issues down the line.
When it comes to the Cold War and aliens, the two have always been intertwined with each other to the point that it's almost hard to have one without the other. When science fiction began to boom, it was the height of the cold war, and everyone spent most of their days thinking that this was the time The Big One would go off. Kids would have drills in schools for if the bomb went off, duck and cover, and the anxiety and paranoia fed into the fear of aliens and the unknown depths of space. When it comes to the modern day, we are living in a version of the cold war in many ways. Russia is a looming threat, and we are closer to midnight on the clock than ever before. Kids aren't doing drills for The Big One anymore, but they are doing drills for school shootings. The paranoia and anxiety are kicking in again, and the very idea of what we can trust and who is telling the truth about the news is all over the place. It's beginning to reflect in our media and even spilled over into our superheroes and the latest Marvel Studios & Disney+ show, Secret Invasion.
"Secret Invasion": A Slow-Burn Red Flag?
So far, it's unclear whether Secret Invasion will work at all, much like it has become clear with most of the Marvel shows. No matter how strong they might start, they tend to fumble the ending more than they tend to stick it. They also tend to have serious pacing issues, and if the pace of the first two episodes is anything to go by, we might be in trouble when it comes to that yet again. This is another slow burn, but is there an audience for a Marvel slow burn? Have they earned that when it comes to their TV shows? Maybe not, since the slower the start, the faster they tend to race to the finish line and cram too much in the final episodes.
Secret Invasion is so far very much leaning into the paranoia and anxiety that comes with not knowing who to trust, but it takes it to the logical extreme. Instead of whether or not this person is a spy or a communist, now we don't know if they are literally a shapeshifting alien. They are leaning into this aspect pretty hard, but the issue comes with the fact that we are two episodes in, and it already feels like it has run its course. The problem with this sort of revelation in any context, whether someone is a spy or something else, is that it undoes character development. Was the Everett Ross we saw in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever the real him or a Skrull? Because that will undo any progress he made if that is the case. This was the problem when the comics did Secret Invasion, which is something that the show has to grapple with. However, it's unclear whether or not anything will be dedicated to that.
Marvel Reignites The Cold War With Aliens… Literally
One of the big things that kick off the events of Secret Invasion is something that hits both a little too close to home and feels like something from the past. Essentially, Marvel decided to reignite the Cold War, but instead of the metaphorical aliens being involved or being a sign of Cold War anxiety, this time, they kicked everything off. Tensions between the United States and Russia are high right now, so the idea of things getting kicked off by a terrorist attack where the US is framed for an attack on Russia isn't that far-fetched. It's an interesting angle to explore, but Marvel has been known to fumble the politics when it comes to exploring angles.
Much like in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel is painting a certain subset of refugees as the bad guys, which is a little alarming. In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, they were people that were displaced thanks to the Snap and whatnot. This time, displaced people are literally aliens, thus going into the good and bad ways of being a refugee. An argument people use to keep refugees and the displaced out is that there might be bad ones in there, we don't know if these are the good ones, yet this is the second time that Marvel has made their bad guys refugees. Between reigniting the Cold War and making the bad guys victims of literal genocide, this feels like a delicate balancing act that this studio probably won't handle very well.
"Secret Invasion" Is Certainly A Thing That Exists
Secret Invasion episodes one and two promise in the same way that most Marvel series do, and the things that work, as mentioned in the first impressions post, are still present. However, this feels like a story that has the potential to unravel very quickly, and there might be too much for one show to focus on. It has been said that these events lead into Amor Wars, but then you have to wonder if this will be a show like Loki where there is no resolution. It's still too early to tell, but the shine that was on Marvel Studios for so many years is starting to fade as they take on more and more productions. Worldbuilding has moved from the sidelines to being the point of entire shows or movies, which isn't a good way to do storytelling. You can't rely on references, known characters, and familiar plot points to comic fans alone. That is how you make something collapse in on itself. Marvel barely made it out of the 90s; they should know that more than anyone.
Secret Invasion Episodes 1 & 2
6.5/10
Secret Invasion episodes 1 & 2 have aliens kicking off The Cold War again while showing some red flags that could be issues down the line.
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