Secret Invasion Season 1 Review

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This is a Dynamike Network podcast.

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Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are reviewing the Disney Plus Marvel series, Secret Invasion. Not a bad series. I see a lot of hate for it online. I feel like I liked it more than most people.

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I feel like I liked it less than you, which is strange because I'm the Marvel guy, you're the DC guy. I don't know where the disconnect is, but we'll talk about it later on this episode. Right. Before then, we're going to break down the comic book movie news from the past week, which there isn't much news with ongoing writers and actor strikes. We did learn that Sony has delayed Craven and Spider-Man Beyond the Spider-Verse, and they have given Venom 3 a release date. So we're going to talk about that.

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As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. As our listeners may know, our duel simulator has become so advanced that it's gained sentience and has named itself the Artificial Lifeform for Running Extensive Duels, just a rather very intelligent simulator 9000 or Alfred Jarvis 9000. Here's a quick message for our listeners, so listen up.

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them on social media. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamic duel. Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ 9k and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Guys, be sure to tune into the Max Destruction podcast on August 2nd to see who would win between Jack Black's Nacho Libre versus Jean-Claude Van Damme's Frank Dukes from Bloodsport. We totally got that wrong in our last episode. We said that was going to come out last week, but last week's episode was Spartacus versus Zorro, which was awesome.

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Also debuting this week is the new Dynamike Network show, Senjoworld, hosted by executive producer of this show, Zachary Hepburn. Senjow is the Japanese word for battlefield, and in the show, Zach is going to tell you who would win in a fight between your favorite anime characters. So if you're a fan of anime, be ready to check out Senjoworld, launching August 3rd. Click on the link in our show notes or visit dynamicpodcasts.com.

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to see all the shows in our network. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize. A no prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the dynamic dual no prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram and in our email newsletter for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked what DC Comics storyline that hasn't been adapted to an animated film would you like to see adapted and why?

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This of course was coming off the news that Watchmen and Crisis on Infinite Earths were announced as animated movies for 2024 next year at Comic Con. We got so many answers. We got too many fucking answers. We got way too many answers. All you DC guys came out in droves to give your opinion. It was too many. It was impossible to pick. They were all great answers, but I guess ultimately we just had to pick the ones I think we prioritize if we were in charge, I guess. But any of the answers we got could work as an animated film.

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Let's break down this week's honorable mentions before revealing the no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to CJ Kraft, who said, Hey guys, CJ Kraft here. Been loving the latest dual matchups, some of the best episodes yet. Actually after listening to the latest episode, I think I'd want to see an animated film of the Monkey Prince. His powers would lend really well to animation, and if they did something like Batman Ninja, the art itself could be spectacular. Have a good one guys, and keep up the great work.

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Hey, thanks, CJ. I loved Batman Ninja. We reviewed it on this podcast. I thought the animation was really cool. And after reading a lot about the monkey prince, you know, for our last episode, I'm absolutely convinced that this character would make for a great animated feature. I think it makes more sense, like stylistically, because the monkey prince looks cool as a character and I think would adapt very well to a medium with more visual movement.

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But I would say I wasn't too impressed with his origin story. I think they would have to kind of tweak it to make it more compelling for an animated film. I think he has a great origin story. What are you talking about? I mean, it was OK. I just think it tied too much into his parents who are like super villain henchmen. I think you could kind of like tone down that a little bit and then go more into his relationship with the mythical Monkey King. I can see that. Yeah, that'd be cool. I do want to see the ultra human eye as the villain, though, because I think Monkey versus girl is just.

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The way to go. Just yeah. Totally. Great answer CJ. Our next honorable mention goes to... Miggy Mattingian who said... Hey what's up guys it's Miggy and I would love to see a Superman Smash the Clan animated movie. I think it would be dope to see a Superman period piece kind of like Gotham by Gaslight. And some like DC animated movies mimic the art style of the source material like All-Star Superman or Superman Batman Apocalypse. And I think it would be dope to do that here.

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And now it's the perfect time with the popularity of the My Adventures with Superman animated series. Yeah, so I haven't read the graphic novel, but I do know that it's inspired by the Superman radio show that actually helped combat the Klan's activities. That's a really cool aspect of the character of Superman, and I would love for them to explore that in an animated film. That would be really cool. The art style on that comic book series looks really interesting too.

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As Miggy said, if they choose to adapt that art style to the animated film as well, I think it could add additional appeal. I also like the idea of a time period piece for Superman. Miggy's right, we've had several period pieces for Batman, but not for Superman, and I think the character works very well in earlier time periods as well. Great answer, Miggy. Our final honorable mention goes to Michael Harald, who said, Hey guys. So I think the obvious answer is going to be Black is Knight. That would be just...

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in every way and they couldn't just do one movie for that either. They had to break it into multiple different ones. Like three maybe a trilogy that'd be pretty freaking cool. Yeah, Matt Lamb also gave this answer. I think Blackest Night is one of the coolest DC storylines of all time. Just having all of its dead characters come back as these evil zombies for the characters to fight not only brought this like horror angle to DC Comics but also like this tragic kind of

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personal stakes for the characters and that they had to fight these people who they loved. Yeah, also, I think Green Lantern has a shocking lack of animated projects under his belt, considering how cinematic his power set is. I think it would be really great to get another Green Lantern animated film out there beyond First Flight and Emerald Nights. And Blackest Night is largely regarded as one of Green Lantern's better stories.

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Yeah, I mean, I would love it if they would lead up to it with the Sinestro Corps War and then do Blackest Night. Obviously, the film would be centered around the Green Lanterns, but I would also love to see them incorporate the entire pantheon of DC Superman, Batman, all of the characters. Matt Lamb suggested also incorporating Brightest Day into like a two-part film series, but I could see Sinestro Corps War, then Blackest Night and Brightest Day as like a trilogy. That'd be cool.

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We want to give a quick shout out to everyone who took the time to visit our website and record an answer, including Brandon Estergard, Colby Henches, Dustin Belcombe, John Storosky, Scott Camacho, and The Unworthy Collector, who you could find on Instagram. But the winner of this week's No Prize goes to three different people who gave the same answer. Ed Jones, Christopher Menotti, and Noah Terry. Let's hear from Ed Jones.

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What's up guys, it's Air Jones. I think one of the storylines that should be adapted to Heaven Minion is Kingdom Come. It's probably one of my favorite storylines in the DC universe. It has the best of what DC has to offer. Present heroes, past heroes, and future possible heroes. Great fight scenes, a great story, and it is the comic book that got me to love comic books. So if it has to be one, it should definitely be that. All right, thanks guys. Peace.

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Yeah, Kingdom Come is my absolute favorite DC storyline ever, which is surprising because it was also, I think, the very first graphic novel from DC that I had ever read. Similar to Ed Jones. It's a fantastic story. I get more out of it every time I read it. I would love it if one day they adapted it until live action, but in the meantime, I would happily accept an animated version of the movie. I'm actually having trouble.

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grasping how they have not yet adapted Kingdom Come into an animated film considering all the different stories that DC has done. It's the perfect Elseworlds story, and you know James Gunn mentioned that they would be making Elseworlds movies in his new DCU So I'm really hoping that this is one of them. He did post a picture of the Kingdom Come like special edition cover to his Twitter So I imagine he's a fan and that gets me excited. It would be cool to see an animated Kingdom Come film

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done in the art style of Alex Ross's paintings. Yeah, yeah, that'd be really cool. Holy cow, that'd be amazing. A painterly style would be perfection because the story itself is a masterpiece. So congrats to Ed Jones, Christopher Manotti, and Noah Terry, you all win this week's No Prize. If you, the listener, want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another Question of the Week. And now that that's done, on to the news.

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Alright this past week we learned from Sony Pictures that the Craven the Hunter movie has moved from October 6th of this year to August 30th, 2024, almost a year back, largely due to the ongoing actors and writers strikes. As we all know, the current actor strikes prevent actors from promoting current or upcoming projects, and so the speculation is that Sony moved the Craven the Hunter movie in order to make sure that Aaron Taylor Johnson was available.

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to do a worldwide press tour on the movie. My guess is that they actually have little faith in the movie existing on its own without being promoted by its lead star. Right, yeah, and maybe if they feel like they need to tweak the film after doing certain test screenings, this will give them opportunity to do so. Well, judging off of the first teaser trailer that came out for Cave in the Hunter, I would hope to God they do a lot of tweaking because it does not look that great. Besides looking like the greatest film ever right next to Morpheus.

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But we also received news that Spider-Man Beyond the Spider-Verse has lost. It's an upcoming release date, which was supposed to be March 29th of next year. And there was no way it was ever going to hit that date anyway. So a delay was inevitable. Yeah, the animators were saying that they haven't even begun work on the film. And, you know, the across the Spider-Verse movie had to be delayed due to all the animation work they had to do. I was really surprised to hear that the movie has been delayed indefinitely, though.

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I'm sure they'll get a release date if they improve their relationship with animation studios, who are apparently contentious with the studio right now, considering their strict deadlines that they gave them. But also they can't get any voice performances done until the Actors Union gets back to work. Right. Have you seen Across the Spider-Verse yet? No, but I should soon. I think the movie comes out on digital in a few weeks here. I mean, so you probably know that the film ends on a cliffhanger, like, with no resolution? I don't want to know shit!

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Shut the fuck up! I'm just saying like... I shut shut your mouth. If they don't make Beyond the Spider-Verse, that's gonna really suck. I don't know. All right. I don't want to know anything. Nobody talk to me. I will see the movie in a few weeks and I'm actually looking forward to listening to your review that you did on it. UN Spees. For those who don't know my daughter was born right around the release of Across the Spider-Verse. So I was not able to go see it in theaters.

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But also in Sony Spidey news, we got a release date for Venom 3, which is going to come out on July 12th, 2024. And I know that they've started filming already, so I guess they had to stop production. Yeah, they had some set photos from the sets for Venom 3. We know that the last film Venom Let There Be Carnage ended with Venom in Mexico kind of taking a vacation. And it looks like he will continue his adventures down there for at least part of this film.

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But yeah, all the news this past week was in regards to Sony's Spider-Man universe, which brings us to our question of the week.

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Who's your favorite Spider-Man or woman across the comics multiverse and why? Yeah, so we're not looking for your favorite actor who's played the role. We're looking for your favorite spider-powered character. Right, right. Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a Dynamic Duel No Prize.

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that we'll post to Instagram and our email newsletter. Be sure to answer before August 5th.

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That does it for all the news for this episode, so let's go ahead and move on to the main event where we review Disney Plus' latest Marvel Studios series, Secret Invasion.

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Alright, Secret Invasion is the latest Marvel Studio series on Disney+, showrun by Kyle Bradstreet, directed by Ali Saleem, and starring Samuel L. Jackson. The show is about the Skrull alien invasion of Earth. Skrulls being shapeshifting beings that can take the form of anyone. We first saw them in the MCU in the Captain Marvel film, which was kind of a prerequisite for this series. Secret Invasion has quite a few surprises throughout, so right up top, here's your

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We'll be revealing all the show surprises. So if you haven't watched Secret Invasion yet, be sure to turn off the podcast, go watch it, then come back and listen to our review. Because I think ultimately it's worth seeing, especially if you're a Marvel fan. I definitely think it's the most interesting thing that Marvel has put out in a while, at least on Disney Plus. And at least with something that has connective tissue to the larger MCU.

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Yeah, it was pretty interesting and I remember being super excited for Secret Invasion before it came out because I thought the comic book series was pretty fun. You know, trying to guess which of Earth's heroes were going to turn out to be a Skrull, how long they had been taken over and stuff like that. I really enjoy paranoid thrillers that deal with not knowing who to trust. Like those types of thrillers take a special sort of like writing prowess, I think, to steer audiences in different directions.

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constantly making people second-guess things and question their previous assumptions. Especially since, usually, audiences are primed not to trust anything when it comes to this sort of genre. So, like, when it's done well, it's like a work of art. Films like John Carpenter's The Thing come to mind, and I thought the marketing did a great job of getting me to expect something like that. Which is kind of a shame because the show ended up going in a different direction. Like, there were surprises to be had for sure.

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And in fact, there were moments almost every episode where I was like, oh damn! But like, surprises I don't think are the same thing as twists. Surprises I define as unexpected events in the course of a story. Twists are unexpected events that alter your previously held assumptions. The latter of which I think are sorely lacking in the story, whose source material is rife with twists. It's a shame because Marvel television has done this sort of story before.

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And it was fucking incredible. On the Agents of SHIELD television show, and those who watched it will know, in the middle of season four, there was an arc about a rogue AI who had replaced several members of the team with life model decoys, which are androids meant to serve as copies of people. Like Nick Fury uses them a lot in the comics. But anyway, in Agents of SHIELD, there was an episode called Self Control where two scientist characters, Fitz and Simmons, who love each other, they learn that some members of the team are secretly LMDs, but they don't know what to do.

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and it really toyed with your emotions, making you go back and forth on these characters. It was flawless. And that whole episode was great, probably actually the best single episode of the entire Agents of the Shield series. And I feel like that should have been the template for what this Secret Invasion show should have been like. Okay, yeah, I get how, you know, you would want this to be like that. I think on its own, just judging it though, it was good. It was solid. I was surprised at how much I didn't hate it, honestly.

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because of all the vitriol I see online regarding the show. And a lot of it honestly has to do with comparisons to the comic and how little of the MCU universe it was able to utilize. Right. There was no cameos really in this outside of Rhodey. Yeah, I would totally agree with that criticism and I'll touch on that. My main problem with Secret Invasion is that we were constantly given the villains perspective, like.

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We knew Gravik's plans, we knew almost every facet of what he was trying to do and how he was trying to do it. There was no mystery there, and because there was no mystery, there was no paranoia and very few twists. That's a fantastic point that I didn't even think about actually. And yeah, that's totally true. It's like what if in the X-Files, like you knew what the Cigarette Man was all about and like what his plans were. It would just completely strip the show of all of its mystery. For sure, for sure.

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I think the show should have focused more on Fury as he's uncovering everything and should have totally kept the whole Skrull thing as a mystery. And maybe it was just false expectations on my part, but I think the marketing really steered me toward expecting a paranoid thriller. So the show never really ended up being what I thought it should have been. Despite that, I will commend Secret Invasion for its tone and performances.

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which both really elevated the feel of everything, I think similar to Captain America the Winter Soldier, which was comparatively much more mature than other Marvel Studios fare. Like looking at this series next to something like Amon and the Wasp quantumania, it's like watching the evening news compared to Saturday morning cartoon. And while both are good, I find myself more intrigued by the more mature stuff personally.

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This was definitely more mature than anything Marvel has done in a while. Definitely more violent, surprisingly so for a Disney plus show. Absolutely. I'm thinking to like when that guy got his finger cut off. Yeah. During the torture scene, that was intense. I mean, he ended up being an alien, so it was like purple blood. But still, for sure. Or when like you see Gravit getting shot in the face, even though he heals with the extremist powers, it was still pretty crazy. There were definitely a lot of things to like within this series.

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But for every great performance or mature scene or violent action that there was, I also feel like there was a larger plot hole within the series. There were so many questions that are posed by the very conceit of this show as it's presented here. So what I'd like to do is similar to what we did with Loki Season 1 where I had a lot of questions. I'm going to run through all the plot holes I thought of while watching the series and you and I will see if we can fill in some of these gaps ourselves. Sure. Alright.

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Plot hole question number one. I understand why Fury wouldn't want to get the Avengers involved because it could possibly reveal the existence of the Harvest sample, and exposing the Skrulls to the world at large puts both the Skrulls and humanity at risk. But why wouldn't Fury just reveal the Skrull invasion to the World Security Council? Because even if a few of their members were Skrulls, that would at least be a covert way to draw suspicion among them to any sort of global manipulation Gravik's army would try to achieve.

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Like he could have said something along the lines of, scrolls are a mongus, hold off any World War III shit at least for the time being until this is sorted out. That's not a plot hole. He figured he could avert the global catastrophe on his own without needing help from anyone because he's motherfucking Nick Fury. Well, that's just foolish. I think the Secret Invasion series needed like more superheroes in it. Having more powerful beings as scroll wild cards makes it more risky to do anything and it would handcuff Fury's actions more.

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And I mean, like you had the Super Scroll element here, sure. But because Fury held all the cards there with the harvest sample, he definitely had more options with what he could do here than if he was dealing with like Scroll Iron Man or Scroll Scarlet Witch. You know, I think he should have done some sort of revelation to a select number of people that could actually prevent World War Three from happening if it came down to that. Well, I mean, I don't think you necessarily needed super powered characters. I think the scrolls could have easily, you know, hijacked

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one of Tony Stark's old Iron Man suits. There are definitely heroes without superpowers tied to their DNA that could have been involved here, like Falcon, Winter Soldier, the whole cast of characters from the Thunderbolts pretty much. Yeah, I mean, that's actually true. It's easier for Skrulls to replicate those sort of abilities than it is to replicate the ones that they needed the Harvest DNA for. Speaking of those type of heroes, that brings me to my next plothole question. Why wouldn't Skrull roadie?

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just assumed the role of president. He and the other Skrulls spent so long trying to manipulate the world into chaos when they could have just been more selective in whose identities they assumed and then just took over. Like if I were Skrull Rodie, I would have put President Ritzen into a permanent nap time with a hospital pillow and then just assumed his form and ordered the nuclear attack. Like it doesn't get more simple than that. The Skrulls themselves seemed severely handicapped in their ability to shape shift and assume just anyone at any time.

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Right, they needed to get people whose memories they were able to capture. And I think that's largely the main reason why they didn't assume President Ritzen's form because they didn't have access to his knowledge and maybe they felt like they needed it. Okay, so I put him in a temporary coma, put him in a closet, order the strike, then take him out of the closet. I mean, it's simple stuff here. That's fair. That brings me to pahol question number three. Aliens already live on Earth in the MCU.

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They have a whole ass settlement called New Asgard, which seems to be widely accepted by Earthlings. So why do Fury and Talos believe that humans will not accept the Skrulls? Because Thor, Love and Thunder is stupid. I actually like what Secret Invasion does here. I'd rather erase the other bad Thor stuff and leave Secret Invasion the way it is. Okay, well then that being said, you know, there's only a million alleged Skrulls on Earth.

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That's only like a city's worth. And there's so much unoccupied land throughout the globe. The scroll should have been simple to accommodate, right? Like why can't the UN establish a scroll city on Antarctica? Like, if you even said the scrolls like the cold, right? And that's a whole ass continent to themselves to live on in their own skin. They could even keep the city secret if they wanted. Cause like, ain't nobody going down there. Like fucking call them Santa's green elves or some shit. I don't care. I feel like the show made this problem much more complicated than it needed to be.

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I think just by him saying that they like the cold makes this a plot hole. Because you're right, they could have gone to Antarctica. He should have said they hate the cold. There you go. Exactly. And maybe that's why they hated being in Russia. Maybe. But that just made me think of something like, why didn't the Skrulls just make their own home in Russia? I guess they kind of did, you could argue with their settlement. But if they're so concerned about having a home of their own skin, that's literally it.

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They knew humans weren't around. Yeah, all they needed to do was establish their perimeter. It would have been undetectable to most humans, and it largely was throughout the course of the show. Like Russia, I don't think knew what was going on there. So weird. But that brings me to plot hole question number four. The Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor films have shown that it's a large universe out there with plenty of inhabitable planets. How is it possible that Captain Marvel and Nick Fury cannot find even one to establish as new Skrullos?

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I don't fucking know. Like they didn't show that. But also, like, why was it up to just those two? Like the Avengers have their own ships, their Quinjets that can go off world as we saw happen to Hulk in Thor Ragnarok. You know, at the very least, Saber could make the scrolls some ships and the scrolls even had their own starship at the end of Captain Marvel. So why couldn't the scrolls use that to find their own planet? They tried. All of Asgard was living on one spaceship at the end of Ragnarok. I'm sure the scrolls can do that, too.

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Better yet, fucking Gaia has literally all the powers now. Why can't she fly her ass into space to find a new world? She probably couldn't, she probably will. They didn't address that here though. Your mom didn't address that here though. I wanna know why they couldn't find a new planet. It doesn't make sense. But how many habitable planets are there that are like Earth? So many as we've seen in Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor. Yeah, but they're all taken too. Those can't be the only ones though. I understand that they couldn't find it, I just think that's preposterous.

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Honestly, I don't like sounding like I'm nagging, but like it doesn't take a brilliant mind to think of these things. And I wish the writers would have addressed at least some of these plot holes to keep audiences from asking these nagging questions that rob some of the enjoyment from the story. I feel personally, you know, every story is going to have plot holes for the most part. Anyone could ask any question and just get offended that they don't have an answer. Half of these questions didn't cross my mind as I was watching this. I enjoyed it, but I guess I would.

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say that for a show of this type, that should be something of a mystery, you want as little of those plothole questions as possible. Grievances aside, I do think that one of the best things about the show is the performances and the caliber of the cast involved. So let's go ahead and talk about the actors in our character breakdown. Starting with Nick Fury. Motherfucking what? Nothing. I was gonna try and get that in before he said Nick Fury.

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Starting with motherfucking Nick Fury played by Samuel L. Jackson and we know the L stands for motherfucking Samuel L. Jackson I think really shined in parts in this show and I adore the actor without a doubt He is a legend but I don't know if it's the actor or the character He came across as really weary here Which was kind of hard to watch whether it's seeing Fury past his prime or maybe Sam Jackson just aging

28:40
I didn't mind that. I think it made sense and I think that he came up with a lot of reasons for why that was the case. You know, he was blipped and that really shook him as a character. I do appreciate the show delving deeper into his past, you know, with his wife, who is a scroll and revealing that he rose to prominence within Shield only by exploiting the scrolls. That was fascinating. Yeah, it helped cement his deceitful nature, which.

29:06
You know, you ultimately forgive because you always know Fury's intentions are always about protecting the innocent. But that's the thing I love most about the character, even from the comics. You know, Nick Fury has always been the most unethical, yet paradoxically most moral man. You know, the man who always does whatever it takes for the greater good, no matter how dishonest the action. Like personally, I would never trust Nick Fury with anything except to get the job done. I loved the scenes with Sam Jackson.

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especially when he was just like talking with other people. I could watch Sam Jackson talk for hours, literally. I literally did, I guess. His delivery as an actor is second to none. Oh yeah, absolutely. Going toe to toe with like Don Cheadle or the actress from The Queen, I forget her name. Olivia Colman. Literally everyone on the show he had a conversation with. Top notch work. In the season, Nick Fury's arc revolved around guilt. You know, he couldn't find the scrolls of home. He put the world above his wife.

30:03
He knows that the conflict and Gravik's motivations are all his fault. I think the show did a good job of showing that his actions do weigh on him, despite the fact he would never apologize for them. I really got the sense that, you know, his heart may be cold, but it still beats. And by the end, you know, Gravik is stopped. And he goes back to remedying his other guilt, this time choosing to involve his wife as he tries to get peace through other means. So Fury here was really trying to work on alleviating his conscience from his past actions. Right.

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But that brings us to the villain Gravik who is played by Kingsley Benadir. This is my first real exposure to the actor. I think he did fine here portraying the arrogance of Gravik. It was easy to understand his motivations as the character. However, it was all kind of fairly generic. Maybe it was an issue of screen time, perhaps a lack of charisma. But outside of an early flashback and Gravik's angry rant at Fury in the last episode, I feel like we barely got to know Gravik. He was mostly just like a smiling face.

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who probably could have been played by anybody. But that being said, I don't think he's the worst Disney plus MCU villain. I think that honor still goes to She-Hulk or Flag Smasher from Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He was a villain that definitely grew on me throughout the series. I didn't really care for him in the earlier episodes, especially the way he always kept his mouth open. I was like, close it, mouth breather. What? I didn't even notice that. Yeah, just the actor's performance. I think he always had like a smirk on his face, so his mouth was always open.

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But later on, I thought his plan was interesting, honestly. It really transitioned from being about finding the Skrulls a new home to the more selfish ambition of gaining power for himself. And I think the Skrulls recognized it and that's why they tried to form that mutiny. Yeah, that was a crazy scene. Let's go ahead and move on to Talos, played by Ben Mendelsohn. I adore Ben Mendelsohn. The more I see of him, the more of a fan I am. I think he's a fantastic actor. I think he gave a really personable performance here.

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even though you kind of come to realize how flawed and kind of lazy and meek his perspective is. You know, over the years you see that he came to rely on Fury too much and saw that living on Earth and hiding as being the best solution for his people, even though I think he should have realized that eventually the Skrulls would want more for themselves. Despite his flaws, I was shocked when he died and that hit me because I know that I'll miss Ben Mendelsohn in the MCU.

32:30
Yeah, he had a really interesting relationship with Nick Fury, and they had some great back-and-forth scenes with each other. Ben Middleson's performance, he's just a phenomenal actor, and I agree, I will also miss the character of Talos. I don't know if I would describe him as lazy. I think he was optimistic. He's kind of like the Professor X to Gravix Magneto.

32:53
He just foresaw a world where one day, Skrulls and humans potentially could live together. I think he kind of gave up hope that they would ever find a new world because he went out searching with Carol Danvers and couldn't find anything, you know. That's true, that's a fantastic analogy. You're totally right. I think you could also compare Talos to like Moses. And you know, he was just trying to deliver his people to the promised land, but they were so impatient and inconsiderate that they were never gonna get where they wanted to go.

33:22
And I think he was kind of partly just upset with his own people because of that. You're just crushing it with the comparisons today. Yeah, I'm pretty popular at parties. I can compare anything to anything. Let's go ahead and move on to Gaia, who is played by Emilia Clarke. Emilia kind of gave somewhat of a detached performance here, but I think had maybe to do with the character's misgivings because she neither really identified with her father or Gravik.

33:49
I'm really interested in seeing where Gaia goes from here, especially as the most fucking overpowered being in the entire universe now. For real, like I thought Carol Danvers was overpowered to the way she just like tanked Thanos' punch. What the fuck would Gaia do? Like she could literally do anything she wants now. Pretty much like she has Captain Marvel's powers, Thanos' thors.

34:12
all the black order is just nuts. Like you think she'd really be able to take some agency now with her desires for her people and get them a new place to live. Like if she can't do it, literally no one else can. Literally. I mean, she could rule the whole planet for all she wants right now. Like what's stopping her? Absolutely nothing and nothing can. Well, probably the goodness of her heart. But otherwise, yeah, I mean, it's hard to complain too much because I also do think that that storyline was brilliant with the DNA and the power absorption.

34:41
since scrolls by their nature, you know, have shape shifting DNA, it kind of makes sense that they would be able to absorb other people's powers. And I thought that, you know, in lieu of the Fantastic Four existing in this universe, that being able to take Korg's arm instead of the thing, or like Groot's stretchy powers instead of Mr. Fantastic, or Carol Denver's like light aura instead of human torch was pretty smart. It was really smart. I liked that. You know, the first...

35:08
Original Super Skrull in the comics was a villain for the Fantastic Four and his name was Colert and we did a dual episode with him that you can check out where he fought against Metamorpho. But the Skrulls gave him the powers of the Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, and The Thing. And in the show, the powers that Gravik was initially able to obtain corresponded to the Human Torches with the Extremis abilities, Mr. Fantastic's with Groot's powers, and The Things largely through Cull Obsidian's powers.

35:38
They were missing the invisibility aspect, but they kind of did get that later through ghosts abilities, you know? And in the comics, there have been other Super Scrolls that have had other combinations of Marvel hero powers, especially used within the Secret Invasion storyline. Like there was one that had Black Panthers and Quicksilvers and Visions powers, like that was one Super Scroll. There was another one that had a bunch of X-Men powers like Colossus, Nightcrawler, Cyclops and Wolverine. So the fact that they kind of...

36:07
took that concept and applied it here with all the Avengers and stuff. I actually, I really liked that. And how they were portrayed visually, like that kind of like patchwork sort of body style, I just had a great time with. Yeah, that was cool. Let's go ahead and move on to Reva, who is a Skrull disguised as James Rhodes played by Don Cheadle. I love Don Cheadle as Rhodey. I thought he did a fantastic job of playing the villain. You could definitely tell the difference between Skrull Rhodey and regular

36:36
Although maybe you can't because what this show seems to insinuate is that Rhodey was switched during the events of Captain America Civil War when he was knocked out of the sky accidentally by vision and taken to the hospital. Right. Because we see him being taken away without being able to use his legs, wearing a hospital gown in in episode six of the show, which is pretty crazy. And that means that anytime we've seen him since then, it's been a scroll, including Falcon in the Winter Soldier.

37:05
Infinity War and Endgame. Pretty crazy. I'm really excited to see what happens to Rhodey's character in the upcoming Armor Wars movie and how he kind of like redeems his whole situation. Let's go ahead and move on to Sonya Falsworth who was played by Olivia Colman. She stole every scene that she was in. She was a true standout in the show. I loved every single second when she was on the screen. It was just a lot of fun. Is she a character from the comics?

37:30
Like, I wasn't quite sure why she was in the show. I thought she was gonna be a Skrull in all honesty. So did I, actually. She's not from the comics, she's an original character. But her last name is Fallsworth, which is the same last name as James Fallsworth, who's a British hero named Union Jack in the comics. And actually, that character was one of the Howling Commandos in the Captain America, the first adventure movie. He was the British one. Huh, I wonder if they'll go down that route where like her son becomes Union Jack.

37:59
Maybe I don't know. My assumption is that Sonya Fallsworth is the daughter of James Fallsworth, the Howling Commando. Okay. Because in the comics, if I remember correctly, he did have a daughter who was a superhero. Her name was Spitfire. And obviously here Sonya Fallsworth is just a brilliant MI6 agent. But I think her character is kind of in homage to that. She definitely was a Spitfire. Yeah, for sure. Let's go to move on to the final character I want to talk about.

38:28
Vara, who's played by Charlene Woodard. I don't have much to say about her other than I think she gave a superb performance. I did want to point out that she played Sam Jackson's mom in Unbreakable and that really threw me off every time they had a scene together. I also noticed that and I was like, what? It was a little awkward, I felt like. I still haven't seen Glass yet, which is like the third movie in that franchise because it goes Unbreakable, then Split, then Glass. So I'm interested in seeing how, you know, those actors.

38:57
kind of play off each other as mother and son again in that movie. I don't know. I haven't seen it either. That's the reason for me to not want to see that.

39:12
Let's go ahead and move into our episode highlights. Episode 1 was called Resurrection. In Russia, CIA operative Evert K. Ross meets with paranoid agent Prescott, who tells him that the shapeshifting alien Skrulls have secretly begun infiltrating Earth posing as humans. Killing Prescott in self-defense, Ross flees a pursuing Russian agent and falls off a building and dies, which reveals him to be a Skrull. The pursuing Russian is revealed to be Talos.

39:37
a former leader of a group of Skrulls who first came to Earth decades ago as refugees from the Kree-Skrull War. Nick Fury is summoned from the space station Sabre to address the Skrull threat, learning from Talos and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill that a group of rebel Skrulls led by Gravik intend to clandestinely start a nuclear war that will annihilate human life on Earth, leaving it as a new home for the radiation-resistant Skrulls. Fury meets with his former ally, MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth.

40:06
who is also investigating the Skrull threat and tracked a stolen dirty bomb to Moscow. While following the bomb, Talos reunites with his estranged daughter Gaia, who has joined the Skrull rebellion but becomes a double agent after learning the rebels killed her mother. She reveals to Talos Gravik's plan to bomb a square in Moscow and portray it as an American attack. Fury, Talos, and Hill fail to stop Gravik's bomb and in the chaos, Gravik disguises himself as Fury and shoots Maria Hill.

40:35
I thought this was a really solid first episode. This was a lot of what I was actually expecting from the show. It had a lot of great intrigue, spy dialogue, and lots of shocks and twists. Yeah, I saw Maria Hill's death coming though. It was foreshadowed heavily during the chess scene that she gave with Fury, where she was like, you're off your game Fury, and when you are, people get hurt. I was like, okay, she's dead. Exactly, exactly. But I agree, it was a solid opening episode for sure.

41:04
Go ahead and move on to episode 2, which was called Promises. In the late 90s, we see Fury recruiting the Skrull refugees, including a young Gravik as his covert operatives in protecting Earth in exchange for finding them a new home planet. In the present, en route to London, Talos reveals to Fury that he summoned even more refugees in that time, and that around 1 million Skrulls were currently living on Earth. Gravik meets with the Skrull Council, a group of Skrulls who have taken influential identities across the globe.

41:32
and they elect him as the new Skrull General. Colonel James Rhodes advises US President Ritzen on the matter and is sent to London to meet with Fury. Rhodey holds Fury responsible for the Moscow attack and Maria Hill's death, discharging him from his role at Sabre and within the US government. Agent Falsworth interrogates a captured Skrull who reveals that Gravik is experimenting with Skrull DNA to create Super Skrulls. Fury returns home to his wife.

42:00
a scroll named Vara disguised as Priscilla Davis, who was living in London. Again, a lot of shocking surprises here. This episode was a little bit slower than the first episode, but I think it was still really solid. I was really enjoying the show at this point. Yeah, I didn't even mind the slow moments. I'm really glad that the series as a whole was relatively short, only six episodes. I think the level of intrigue was able to be maintained throughout the whole series, and it definitely kept my attention. So.

42:28
It didn't feel as long as it actually was. I got through the whole thing in, you know, just two days and I was, you know, glued to the screen the whole time. That's a good compliment to the show, actually. Yeah, I think so. I liked it again. You know, I definitely didn't have all the qualms that you and other fans have had. What did you think about Rody in this episode? I didn't suspect him as a scroll at this point. I just thought he was being a fucking asshole. I should have suspected him as a scroll. I thought he was a scroll in the comics.

42:55
So I straight from the get-go assumed that he was going to be one. I honestly thought potentially everyone in the show besides Fury could be a Skrull. I think I was definitely dumb for not immediately suspecting him considering he was the only other big name player in the season that they could have done that sort of shocking twist with. Yeah, I assumed they were going to do that with everyone. They did it with Everett K. Ross, called that straight from the beginning. The only one who wasn't a Skrull that I thought was going to be one was Agent Fallsworth.

43:24
Let's go ahead and move on to episode 3 which is called Betrayed. In it, Gravik shows the Skrull Council his Super Skrull device and tells of his plan to be the first test subject and explains how he has infiltrated the British Royal Navy to attack a United Nations aircraft. In the late 90s, we see Fury meet with Vara, a Skrull diplomat serving as official liaison between the refugees and Fury, and the two fall in love. Back in the present, Talos meets with Gravik regarding his daughter Gaia.

43:51
who manages to sneak a message to her father, warning him of Gravik's upcoming Royal Navy attack. Talos and Fury learn who's in charge of the Navy vessel from Agent Falsworth, and they infiltrate his home, revealing him to be a Skrull. Talos assumes his identity to call off the Navy strike using a password acquired by Gaia. Outed as a rebel Skrull traitor, Gaia flees the Skrull compound, but is intercepted by Gravik, who shoots her dead. Meanwhile, Vara is given orders to kill her husband Fury,

44:21
revealing her as part of the Skrull Rebellion. This was a fantastic episode. I think it was actually the best of the entire season. I think it had the best moment where Fury and Talos single handedly infiltrates the Royal Navy commander's home. I thought that was filled with a lot of tension. Although I did think it was anticlimactic that the commander's password was his son's name. Yeah, that's pretty basic. You never use your children's name as your password, people. Come on. That's some basic shit right there. For real.

44:50
I remember being super shocked that Gaia was killed at the end of this episode. I had no idea that she was coming back, I thought she was done for, especially since she had like transformed into her Skrull self. I was like, oh, that means she's super dead. I didn't even think about the concept of her using the Super Skrull device. That is a pet peeve of mine where they do that. They're like, oh, here's a flashback that you didn't know that kind of solves everything. It's like, all right. Well, that was until the next episode. But uh.

45:16
At the end of this episode, we hear Rhodey speak with Nick Fury's wife. And I could totally tell that it was Don Cheadle's voice. Because I think he has a very distinctive voice. I was like, OK, so Rhodey is a Skrull. OK, right. Right. How did you watch the show? Was it week to week or did you binge it? I binge the first two episodes and then I watched the rest week to week. Yeah, I probably would have gotten frustrated with the show like this, watching it week to week. I enjoyed binging it. It was very bingeable.

45:42
Things like, you know, Gaia being shot dead wasn't a problem for me for very long. It was like a 15 second problem. Let's go ahead and move on to episode 4, which is called Be Loved. In it, it's revealed that before fleeing the Rebel Scroll base, Gaia used Gravik's Super Scroll Machine to give herself an extremis healing factor that saves her life. Vara meets with Rody, who turns out to be a Skrull named Reva in disguise, and they discuss Fury's fate, as Fury listens to their conversation through a bug he planted on his wife.

46:11
Talos meets with Gaia, and the two are shown to have irreconcilable differences over the fate of their people. Where Talos is content hiding in secret, his daughter wants the Skrulls to have their own home living in their own skin. Fury confronts Vara, but she confesses that she truly loves him and could never hurt him. He then visits Skrull Rody and plants a liquid tracker on him. Talos and Fury follow him and President Ritson's convoy, which Gravik and his men attack, presenting themselves as Russian terrorists.

46:40
Though Fury and Talos manage to save the President's life, Talos is killed in the firefight. That whole firefight scene was pretty cool. It was the first time we got to see the Super Scroll powers outside of Extremis. I didn't initially register his stretching ability as group powers, even though I probably should have because they definitely looked like roots extending outward, but I really liked it when they addressed that those were in fact a Flora Colossus ability. Well I recognized it even before they explicitly said that.

47:09
when Gaia was on the computer looking at the different DNA samples that they had in like episode 2 or 3. So I was waiting for something like that to pop up. Oh yeah, I guess I didn't pay attention close enough to the monitors. Episode 5 is called Harvest. In it, the Skrull Rebellion loses faith in Gravik following his failure to kill the President or Nick Fury, which incites a mutiny that Gravik stops. Fury takes the President to the hospital and confronts Skrull Rody.

47:36
who reveals that he leaked footage of the Moscow attack, implicating Fury in Maria Hill's death and turning Nick Fury into a wanted man. Fury visits Gaia at a safe house where she tells him that Gravik's Super Scroll process involves infusing Skrull DNA with those of Earth's other heroes and villains, including Extremis soldiers, Groot, and Thanos' henchmen, Cull Obsidian, and that he is looking specifically for the Harvest DNA samples, which contains genetic material from everyone in the battle against Thanos.

48:05
called the Battle of Earth in Avengers Endgame. On orders from Gravik, Skrull-Rody tries to convince President Ritsin that the attack was from a Skrull group harbored by Russia and advises him to attack the Rebel Skrull compound on Russian soil. Gaia and Vara hold a funeral for Talos and fend off Rebel Skrulls sent to assassinate them for their betrayal. Gravik calls Fury asking for him to bring him the Harvest Sample in exchange for saving the Skrull compound.

48:31
Fury partners with Agent Fallsworth to help him avoid authorities as he travels with her to Finland to retrieve the sample, preparing to confront Gravik. I thought this was a great episode. I did find it kind of strange that even though Gaia was kind of on the run for being a Skrull traitor, neither she nor Fury's wife ever changed their human forms. Like they could have easily gone into hiding by becoming someone else, they just chose not to. The whole Skrull rationalization for remaining in human form.

49:01
obviously was to reduce the special effects and make a budget for the show. Right. They explained it as like the more you're in this human form, the harder it is for you to detect. But I also feel like the scrolls were in their human forms too much and that they didn't transform in times where it would have been convenient for them to. Yeah, I definitely agree. The action scene with Gaia and Vara, though, was pretty badass. Those two ladies crushed it, I thought, in that shoot out.

49:28
Not gonna lie, it makes me want to set up like a hidden backpack, like weapon cache thing in my own home, just so I could be prepared like them. I don't know who would attack my home, but weapons are cool. I could do it. Okay. We'll just do a super soakers, it'll be awesome. Yeah, yeah, just do, we'll do the airsoft version. Let's go ahead and move on to episode six, which is called Home. In It, Fury confronts Gravik at the Rebel Scroll compound, offering to hand over the harvest sample

49:57
if Gravik leaves the planet to conquer some other world for the Skrulls. Gravik refuses and berates Fury for deceiving the Skrull refugees, getting Fury to admit that he knew he and Captain Marvel couldn't find a new world for them, but that it was easier to save humanity from the Skrulls than to convince it to accept them. Agent Fallsworth tells Rhodey that he and the President's Guard are under attack from Fury and the guards slowly fall one by one. With Fury dying from radiation sickness at the Rebel Skrull compound,

50:27
Gravik activates the Super Scroll machine and attacks Fury, who reveals himself as Gaia in disguise who also receives the Harvest's powers. In actuality Fury is at the hospital with Agent Fallsworth where he shoots and kills Skrull Rody, proving to President Ritzen the Skrull deception against him. Gaia and Gravik fight, with Gaia avenging her parents by blasting a hole through Gravik's chest, killing him. She then sets the Skrull prisoners free, including Everett K. Ross and James Rhodes.

50:56
In the aftermath, President Ritson declares war on all offworld species, causing unrest among civilians as armed vigilantes murder those they think are Skrulls. Agent Falsworth partners with Gaia as they visit another Skrull compound with more captive humans. Fury leaves the planet with Vara to attend a peace summit between the Kree and the Skrulls. I gotta say the last 10 minutes of this season really dropped the ball. The episode was the shortest in the entire season.

51:24
I think they should have really took the time to end this show correctly and not just rush it like they did. It felt largely unsatisfying. And I think is a large reason why a lot of people have a better taste in their mouth when it comes to this show. I think if they would have just extended that whole ending, what felt like a montage by like an additional 15 or 20 minutes, I think it would have made all the difference in the world. I was very confused by what Gaia found in that basement. So it was another Skrull compound.

51:53
Yeah, it was a bunch of other people whose memories were stolen by the Skrulls who had their identities taken. So they're gonna work to stop those Skrulls now? She's gonna do that as like their new leader? Your guess is as good as mine as to what the implications were there. It largely felt like they were setting up a lot of vague plot points for a secret invasion season 2, but season 2 hasn't been confirmed, so it's unknown if we'll ever get a continuation to these plot points.

52:23
I'm really curious to see as to what the ramifications are going to be in the larger MCU from this show. Like, the president declaring war on all offworlders, does that mean that they're going to attack the Asgardian camp now? If they want their heads shot up their asses, they're welcome to try. I just, I feel like that was kind of irresponsible of the MCU. Yeah, it's almost like they kind of wrote themselves into a corner because if it doesn't get addressed,

52:52
phase four, I think in general, and now apparently phase five, is that the MCU is setting up so many individual plot threads and so many new corners of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe that aren't being addressed in the same way that they were in previous phases. Like, who knows what the hell happened with the Eternals situation, you know? What's happening with the Incursions and with the multiverse? We have the Atlanteans introduced.

53:18
the underground society of monster hunters and the werewolf by night special. So many different like threads now that are branched out almost exponentially. The Marvel Cinematic Universe definitely feels less cohesive than it's ever been in its existence. Yeah, I definitely feel like fans are starting to turn on it, especially seeing some of the ire online for even a show like this. Yeah, it makes me think that superhero fatigue is definitely setting in. Marvel can just kind of like string all this together into something that

53:48
feels really cohesive and makes sense, I think they'll win fans back. But they gotta work on funneling all this new stuff and really convincing people to keep up with everything. I guess we'll see how much this show ties into the larger MCU when we see the Marvels, because that's when we're gonna see Nick Fury again. Right. So relatively soon. Yeah, hopefully if the movie doesn't get delayed. That's right. We'll see. But that doesn't for this season. I remember walking away from the show because of the lackluster 10 minutes that happened.

54:17
feeling that I disliked the show more than I actually did. Once I started writing out the plot breakdowns and the character breakdowns and stuff, I really came to appreciate the season despite all of its plot holes. Considering everything, how much I enjoyed it and how much I questioned what was in it, I'm going to give the season 3.5 stars. In summary, the show's capable actors and mature tone make for mostly enjoyable viewing but can't fully save a plot-hold riddled story that bumbles its resolution.

54:47
For Rotten Tomatoes though, I'm giving it a fresh rating. Because ultimately, I recommend it and think it's worth watching, despite the fact it didn't entirely live up to what I thought it could or should be. I think there's potential in the series, not only for a Season 2 of Secret Invasion, but for the entire MCU. I didn't dislike it as much as other people, I actually really liked it when you were first talking about a 3.5 star rating. I thought that was pretty harsh. I'd give it honestly like a 4. Bringing up some of the plot points that you mentioned.

55:17
does kind of downgrade the show for me, but definitely not enough to get to like a three. So I agree that a three point five rating is appropriate. I'd probably give it a four, but ultimately this is, you know, your review. And if you want to give it a three point five, sure. Fuck Marvel, right? I just have higher standards than you as a fan of Marvel. I think that's apparent because I can't stand DC. So what you DC simpletons will enjoy anything. Obviously, anything.

55:47
Oh my gosh. If you like DC. It was confused with Marvel fans, bro. But that does it for this review. Let us know what you guys thought about the show by writing to us at dynamic dual podcast at Gmail dot com or by visiting us on Instagram or Twitter, which is now X. I don't know what the fuck is going on. You can find links to all of our accounts by checking out our show notes or visiting our website at dynamic dual dot com. And on our site, you could also find a link to our Patreon page where you could join our dynamic two tier.

56:15
and chat with us and fellow listeners, our fantastic four tier, which gets you bonus content each month, our ex force tier that makes you an executive producer of this podcast or our newest tier that lets you join our dynamike podcast network. If you can't join Patreon, you can still support the show by signing up for our e-newsletter also at dynamicduel.com. Or you could also rate the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or our website.

56:44
In our next episode, we will be doing a DC review of the animated film Justice League Warworld. I haven't seen it yet. I'm looking forward to seeing it. It looks pretty intriguing just based on the trailers. So I can't wait to review it. But that does it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, Ken Johnson, John Strosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Belcombe, Mickey Mathen-Geehan, Brandon Estergard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi

57:14
Scott Camacho and Adam Spees for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers.