Secret Invasion Answers Biggest Question About The Show And It Makes No Sense
You know how, just before the final throwdown, someone will ask the hero why they don’t call on all of their willing and able allies? And the hero’s answer will inevitably be something like “This is something I have to do alone,” or “This is personal?” To answer why the spymaster hasn’t called on the Avengers for help, Nick Fury says exactly that in the penultimate episode of Disney+‘s Secret Invasion, and it’s a response so dumb, I think it might run for Congress.
Toward the end of today’s episode of Secret Invasion, “Harvest,” MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman) asks Fury why he hasn’t called up any of his “special friends” to help him fight Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir). Fury’s response is a long, meandering exercise in poetic-sounding stupid:
“This is personal. We can’t keep depending on these superheroes to swoop in and save our asses. None of them have lived the life I have. None of them can defend the world the way I can. The only power I have was planted between my ears by a single mother, and wrapped around my finger by a woman who’s far greater than I could ever hope to be. If that ain’t enough, then I don’t know what hope we have. If that ain’t enough, maybe I am just dust.”
Samuel L. Jackson delivers the Secret Invasion lines wonderfully, because he’s an Oscar-nominated actor capable of elevating nonsense dialogue to a an emotional plateau the writing hasn’t earned. If his talent has understandably left you left you confused about why these lines are so dumb, then let’s take a closer look.
But first, let’s get the obvious out of the way — no, I don’t think Simu Liu and Brie Larson and Mark Ruffalo and the rest of the gang should be in Secret Invasion.
We all know why the Avengers aren’t in Secret Invasion: because the budget of a miniseries can only be so big, because even Marvel actors have to sleep sometimes, and because if the Avengers assemble for every potentially world-ending threat in the MCU, then projects like Avengers: Endgame stop being unique event films, because we’ve already seen the gang unite a few dozen other times.
Instead, I’m arguing there are two pretty obvious answers Fury could’ve given to Sonya, with the added benefit that they wouldn’t have made him sound like he’d just eaten a paper bag full of paint.
First Answer: The Harvest
Just before delivering his “this is personal” speech, Nick Fury tells Sonya about The Harvest — the thing that Gravik is after. After the climactic battle at the end of Endgame, disguised Skrulls were sent to the battlefield to collect DNA from all the heroes involved in the fight.
This, Fury says, is what Gravik is after so he can use the heroes’ DNA to expand his Super-Skrulls project to include the powers of all of the heroes.
In light of this, wouldn’t that make a much better reason for the Secret Invasion lead to give for keeping the Avengers out of it? Gravik wants superhero DNA, and so calling those superheroes to pursue Gravik could prove to do nothing but deliver all that DNA right to the Skrull.
Second Answer: More Heroes Mean More Skrulls
Fury already has been talking regularly with one of his “special friends” in Secret Invasion, and it turns out he’s a Skrull. Fans were theorizing James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) was a Skrull since the very beginning, and that’s ultimately proven to be the case.
The very concept of Secret Invasion promises that viewers won’t know who to trust. The more people Fury calls on for help, the higher chances of Skrull infiltration. Hawkeye’s a great guy to have on your side until his ears turn green and his arrows are pointing at your head.
Besides these two glaringly “no duh” reasons Fury could’ve given for not calling the Avengers, there’s another reason his speech makes no sense.
Saving The World Trumps Treating Your Trauma
Since the beginning of Secret Invasion, it’s been clear Nick Fury is traumatized by his death in Avengers: Infinity War. That’s what he’s referring to when he says:
“The only power I have was planted between my ears by a single mother, and wrapped around my finger by a woman who’s far greater than I could ever hope to be. If that ain’t enough, then I don’t know what hope we have. If that ain’t enough, maybe I am just dust.”
If we forget, for the sake of argument, that there are other genuinely good reasons for Fury to keep the superheroes out of the events of Secret Invasion, then the actual reason he’s giving us… is that he needs to prove something to himself?
So he could call in the Avengers, they could deal with this much more easily than he could, and the stakes are that all of human life on Earth could be wiped out, but then he would have to deal with his trauma in another way. Like, you know. Therapy.
In fact, wasn’t half of humanity killed and then brought back in the blip? What about all those other billions? Do they each get potentially apocalyptic crises to tackle on their own so they can heal, or do they maybe just call therapists?
I don’t want to get all personal with everyone, but I have successfully dealt with the emotional aftermath of a couple of traumatic events without stopping potentially world-ending catastrophes and irresponsibly not including heroes with godlike super powers in the conference call.
There’s therapy. Sometimes it’s therapy with drugs. Sometimes just one or the other. No judgment.
