Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for Marvel's Secret InvasionMarvel's new Secret Invasion introduces a supervillain threat as big as Thanos, with a plan to wipe out humanity and steal Earth, but if you think about it closely enough, the Skrull plan makes very little sense. New MCU villain Gravik may be a formidable foe, with the collected powers of a Super-Skrull and a bitter commitment to revenge, but his supposedly clever plot to overthrow humanity falls apart in the execution. In that respect, Nick Fury probably shouldn't worry too much.
The MCU's version of Secret Invasion is very different to the Marvel Comics story event, with the Avengers mostly missing the Skrull invasion, an isolated Nick Fury centered as the hero and an entirely new backstory for the Super-Skrulls. It does tie up the loose ends left dangling by Captain Marvel and attempts something different to every other MCU release, but it falls into the old formula of undermining a very good villain with a plan he should have thought through a lot more. Ultimately, the Skrull plan is destined to fail, even with the shocking reveal of Rhodey's replacement by a Skrull spy, but really, everyone should already have seen that coming...
10 The Skrulls Keep Leaving Dead Aliens Around
If you were trying to hide the fact that aliens had infiltrated Earth's population and were secretly living among humans, you'd think there'd be a pretty firm rule preventing someone from randomly discovering alien bodies lying about the place. Gravik's Skrull rebels seem not to have that concern, however, given the casual way they fail to clean up their dead. First, Gravik kills one of his own loyal warriors when he believes he betrayed the Skrulls to Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman) and leaves him in a forest for any dog walker to discover. Next, Gravik executes G'iah and leaves her "dead" on a dirt road, and worst of all, the failed assassination attempt on President Ritson leads to multiple dead Skrulls who are left in their alien form for witnesses to see. It's all very sloppy.
9 Gravik Undermines His Own Attempt To Blame The Russians
The Skrull rebel leader's attempt to pin the President's assassination on the Russians in Secret Invasion episode 4 might have worked a lot better if Gravik had even the simplest grasp of subterfuge. The Super-Skrull proves he doesn't by walking into battle unmasked, shouting Russian instructions that wouldn't be heard over the din of gunshots, explosions and helicopters, and worst of all, he gives his real identity away in a far more glaring way. After facing more pushback from the convoy than he seems to have prepared for, Gravik uses his Super-Skrull powers stolen from Groot's DNA to reveal that he is definitely not a normal Russian soldier.
8 All-Out Nuclear War Would Kill A Lot Of Skrulls
Gravik's plan to purge the Earth of the humans he feels have driven the Skrulls underground relies on the idea of turning Russia and the USA against one another in World War 3. Naturally, neither side actually talks to the other, so his plan does escalate tensions between the world super powers, but a nuclear war would have serious implications for the Skrulls themselves. Secret Invasion reveals that a million Skrulls are hidden on Earth, and while they are resistant to radiation, they remain as vulnerable as humans to things like bullets and explosions. If Gravik were successful in kicking off World War 3, he'd be condemning his own people in the blast zones to death.
7 The Skrull Invasion Has A Serious Flaw In Logic
Moving away from Gravik's bloodthirsty mission, the very idea of Skrulls mingling with humanity in everyday life has a pretty big plot-hole: namely, what happens when a Skrull dies accidentally? The Skrulls loyal to Gravik can count on their isolation in New Skrullos to protect their secret, but the million Skrulls Talos calls to Earth are hidden in the general population, and as such are subject to the same threats to life as humans. What if a Skrull impostor is hit by a car, or mugged and shot? The whole Secret Invasion falls apart as soon as a single Skrull dies in front of witnesses and reveals their true identity, especially since the MCU is yet to reveal any sort of Men In Black-style memory erasing technology.
6 The Assassination Of President Ritson Revealed Britain's Terrible Security
While it's established that the British Prime Minister is a Skrull impostor who sides with Gravik once he strong-arms his way into the Skrull Council, there is still no excuse for how badly the UK's military responds to Gravik's attack on Ritson. The attack takes place in the vicinity of a military base, where Ritson's plane lands, and yet, when the Skrull helicopters fly in to Gravik's ground team, there isn't so much as a hint of air . A single scene showing the Prime Minister shutting down calls to scramble jets, or a reveal of the base's commander being a Skrull would have solved it, but instead we're left with the suggestion that one of the world's strongest military powers is incompetent enough to allow an attack in its own garden.
5 G'iah Is Possibly The Worst Spy Ever
G'iah did well to infiltrate Gravik's rebels, gaining access to his inner circle and almost the highest level of clearance (though she wasn't told about Rhodey or the Super-Skrull plan), and it's very clear that Gravik doesn't suspect she's the mole until he traps her into blowing her cover. In that respect, her skills as a double agent are irable, but she undermined all of that success when she was "killed". Having stolen the Super-Skrull powers from Gravik's base, the resurrected G'iah had the opportunity to go deep cover and fight back against him without him even knowing. All she had to do was choose to look like literally anyone in the world other than Emilia Clarke. Instead, she's going to blow her cover by sticking with the face Gravik believes to be dead.
4 If Gravik Destroys Humanity, He's Got A Bigger War Coming
Gravik is too blinkered for his own good. His focus on taking over Earth from humanity and establishing a home world for the Skrulls, while understandable, ignores the reason the Skrull don't have a planet in the first place. It's not just that Nick Fury didn't bother to deliver on his promise, or even that Captain Marvel failed to find a nice homely planet to move them to; it's the fact that the Kree still exist and are still hell-bent on the destruction of all Skrull life. If Gravik tears Earth apart with nuclear war, kills the Avengers with his Super-Skrull battalion when they come calling and rests in peace, the Kree are going to target Earth immediately. Without Captain Marvel as a deterrent, the Skrulls will not win that fight.
3 Gravik's Fury Blind-Spot Is Illogical
Gravik's focus should be solely aimed at stealing Earth from humanity to establish a new Skrull homeworld, so his obsession with a single, ageing human who everyone keeps saying has lost his mojo is a ridiculous blind-spot. Clearly, the Skrull rebel leader wants to see Fury suffer for his failure to be the Skrulls' savior, but he managed that by killing Maria Hill. By the time Gravik decides Fury should die, his emotions again blind him as he chooses Priscilla Fury as the killer for greater effect, ignoring the fact that she has an incredibly high chance of being compromised (as she proves). Had Gravik simply vaporised Fury using the Extremis virus (or even replaced him), he would have removed the instrument of his own downfall.
2 Replacing Rhodey With A Skrull Has Several Problems
Secret Invasion's twist revealing Don Cheadle's Rhodey was replaced by a Skrull at some point is good for shock factor, but it inspires more questions than it answers. And that's not the "when did this happen" kind of question, it's more the "why has nobody thought this through properly" kind. As a close military aide of President Ritson, Rhodey could have killed him at any time when he has no security protecting him, and could have staged an assassination in the vein of Russia's favorite methods of removing opponents. He could even have killed Ritson, replaced him and staged an assassination with other Skrulls playing every part in the ruse. The idea that the only option was to pretend the Russians were behind the attempt on Ritson's life by leaving so many unquantifable variables in play is just ludicrous.
And what of his cover in the wake of the assassination attempt? From an outside perspective, Ritson was attacked by nefarious superpowered agents while an actual Avenger in his inner circle sat by and did nothing about it. Why wouldn't War Machine have appeared and rained fire down on the attacking Russians/Skrulls to protect his boss? However that situation played out, the Skrulls blew the cover of their most valuable operative by needlessly placing him in proximity.
1 The Avengers Contingency Doesn't Actually Work
The Super-Skrull plan is presented by Secret Invasion as Gravik's Avengers contingency for when Earth inevitably sends its superheroes to take the Skrull rebels down. It's an impressive ploy, and the powers assembled by the Harvest do make the Super-Skrulls impressive on paper, particularly thanks to the Extremis-powered healing factor that makes Gravik largely unkillable. Unfortunately, the powers don't really translate into success as Gravik's team are unable to beat a small group of human security agents assigned to the president. As soon as Gravik is forced to retreat from that defensive force, the idea of them taking on even the weakest Avengers is a laughable pipe dream.
Place them against Hulk, Doctor Strange, or Captain Marvel, and they'd stand less chance than HYDRA's hilariously incompetent soldiers. Even allowing for the main Avengers being incapacitated for some reason, there's the small problem of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, America Chavez who could throw the Super-Skrulls into any dimension she wishes, Vision flying around somewhere, Shang-Chi, Earth's remaining Eternals, plus any number of so-far undiscovered superheroes, supervillains and mutants. Yes, Gravik is arrogant, but if he truly believes his box of tricks is enough to take on the combined might of every superpowered individual who'd turn up to protect Earth, the Secret Invasion villain really hasn't paid attention.
New episodes of Secret Invasion air every Wednesday on Disney+
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