Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

No head weasels here, but I unexpectedly had time to spare, so I figured I'd get it over with right away. What to say about Secret Invasion? No details, so no spoilers tags necessary. Takeaway is that the show felt unengaging. Kind of inoffensive, but without much to take an interest in either. I much preferred Hawkeye, Loki and Ms. Marvel. Those were fun. Secret Invasion just kind of exists. At least it's not Moon Knight.

Moon Knight was great. This was merely alright.

I really wish I could say. It should be dead easy to get me with ancient Egyptian mythology themes. That's not how it worked out, though.

Was entertaining enough. Bit of a damp squib of a finale, but still up for bingeing the whole series, as it may flow better that way.

Bit odd that one can get a bullet to the heart or half their face blown off and be fine, but a hole thru the gut is instantly fatal.

 AduroT wrote:
Bit odd that one can get a bullet to the heart or half their face blown off and be fine, but a hole thru the gut is instantly fatal.

Yeah, curious. Isn't the healing ability from Iron Man 3? I don't even remember anymore how the big bad got it. Generally the idea was that the users overheat and go splat from the inside, but I don't think that happened to him?

I enjoyed the finale bit.

The whole series was kind of flat. Agree with MadDoc, probably better in a binge. Intend to see if thats true next week.

It leaves off a couple of interesting things. Vaara's work she needs to get back to. G'iah in the mix. Things could be picked back up later.

 Lance845 wrote:
I enjoyed the finale bit.

Spoiler:

Seeing A super skrull do the super skrull thing of different limbs of different powers was fun. Very cool seeing the whole bag of tricks in there.

What was the glassy sword arm from? Couldn't place that.

The whole series was kind of flat. Agree with MadDoc, probably better in a binge. Intend to see if thats true next week.

It leaves off a couple of interesting things. Vaara's work she needs to get back to. G'iah in the mix. Things could be picked back up later.

 Geifer wrote:

 AduroT wrote:
Bit odd that one can get a bullet to the heart or half their face blown off and be fine, but a hole thru the gut is instantly fatal.

Yeah, curious. Isn't the healing ability from Iron Man 3? I don't even remember anymore how the big bad got it. Generally the idea was that the users overheat and go splat from the inside, but I don't think that happened to him?

Pretty sure we saw a baddie in Iron Man 3 die to a heart shot. Also bullet isn’t the same as Cosmic Powers.

Just watched the last episode of Secret Invasion and have to say I was decidedly underwhelmed by the whole thing.


Overall the plot felt a bit limp, and I just didn’t really buy into the show. The one positive for me was Olivia Colman, she stole every scene she was in. More of her please. I’d happily watch a series or film of her character!

Oh, and I have a question:

Reading reactions and reviews I'm glad I skipped this one.

Sounds awful.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Reading reactions and reviews I'm glad I skipped this one.

Sounds awful.

IMO it was pedestrian and predictable, weakest of the MCU series by some distance. Olivia Colman was the highlight of the series. There were a few other nice little bits, but most, if not all, of the other series have had some highly memorable/stand out scenes, this was just flat.

Given my low opinion of most D+ shows - not just the Marvel ones - if this is the worst of them, then wow... although I doubt it was worse than Poisoning the Well... sorry, She-Hulk.

Loki was the one I liked the most. Hopefully season 2 is good.

Aash wrote:
Just watched the last episode of Secret Invasion and have to say I was decidedly underwhelmed by the whole thing.

Spoiler:

Fridging Maria Hill was a huge disappointment, she never really got out from the shadow of being Fury’s sidekick.

Nick Fury’s absence post blip doesn’t ring true, and he just seems 2 steps behind and mostly incompetent throughout.

Killing off Ben Mendelsohn was a shame, he’s always worth watching.

Emilia Clarke’s character hasn’t grabbed my interest so I’m a bit disappointed she survived when other more interesting and charismatic characters didn’t.

Overall the plot felt a bit limp, and I just didn’t really buy into the show. The one positive for me was Olivia Colman, she stole every scene she was in. More of her please. I’d happily watch a series or film of her character!

Oh, and I have a question:

Spoiler:

The American president declares anyone not born on earth as an enemy combatant, not just skrulls, right?

Where does that put the Asgaragian community/refugees and Thor for that matter? Or any other alien species (guardian of the galaxy etc)

I've been watching SI, but my enthusiasm has waned to the point I'm reading spoiler tags before seeing the final episode. It has been another example of D+ watering down the overall quality of the MCU (and Star Wars) franchises. SI could have been a great Samuel L Jackson TV series, but it's fallen a bit flat. 'Yay' to Oliva Colman, but killing of Maria Hill and Talos was a bad move - I find them appealing characters. Maybe they wanted to leave the MCU (contracts up, wanted to do other things), but even so...

Seeing part 6 tonight.

Aash wrote:

Oh, and I have a question:

Spoiler:

The American president declares anyone not born on earth as an enemy combatant, not just skrulls, right?

Where does that put the Asgaragian community/refugees and Thor for that matter? Or any other alien species (guardian of the galaxy etc)

 Lance845 wrote:

Aash wrote:

Oh, and I have a question:

Spoiler:

The American president declares anyone not born on earth as an enemy combatant, not just skrulls, right?

Where does that put the Asgaragian community/refugees and Thor for that matter? Or any other alien species (guardian of the galaxy etc)

Spoiler:

What the US President decides to do with America doesn't have anything to do with what Norway decides to do with it's asgardian population.

Just seems another poorly thought through development in the MCU which seems to be steadily losing track of its story threads (any mention of the giant celestial sticking out the ocean lately?!)

Aash wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:

Aash wrote:

Oh, and I have a question:

Spoiler:

The American president declares anyone not born on earth as an enemy combatant, not just skrulls, right?

Where does that put the Asgaragian community/refugees and Thor for that matter? Or any other alien species (guardian of the galaxy etc)

Spoiler:

What the US President decides to do with America doesn't have anything to do with what Norway decides to do with it's asgardian population.

Spoiler:

Yes, however Norway is in NATO (is NATO a thing in the MCU?) and I doubt harbouring “enemy combatants” would go down easily. And what of Thor specifically or any other aliens? I was mostly asking in case I missed something and the Skrulls were targeted or was it all aliens as I initially thought.

Just seems another poorly thought through development in the MCU which seems to be steadily losing track of its story threads (any mention of the giant celestial sticking out the ocean lately?!)

Lately? Did that ever get mentioned at all after Eternals?

Anyway...

"Poorly thought out" is a defining feature for the MCU currently. I'd argue the snap fundamental broke it.

Yes, NATO exists in the MCU, one of the Skrulls had replaced (one of?) it’s leader(s?).

Yes, the Celestial was briefly mentioned in She Hulk in a passing news headline, along with a Wolverine reference in another.

was kind of pants, Olivia looked like she was having a lark slumming it mind

You know the MCU isn't doing so hot when even the usual hypemen who do damage control for their releases don't have many positives to say about it beyond "it was entertaining" which is about as milquetoast as you can get in praising a series.

I stopped after episode 2 but unless this current President is Thunderbolt Ross then he doesn't matter.
Ross is confirmed to be President in the recently renamed Captain America: Brave New World presumably for Thunderbolts shenanigans.

There were a few moments where it seemed like the show might go somewhere interesting. Most of them involved Olivia Coleman. But man, what a wet fart of a climax.

I think Samuel Jackson tried, for a few episodes at least. Don Cheadle seemed to be having fun. I like seeing Emilia Clarke in stuff but this role did her no favors. Gravik had more presence as Ken #3 than as Alien Bin Laden or whatever they were going for. Ben Mendelssohn is always good. So they killed him.

This seems like one of those series that drags most of the artists involved down.

I have to wonder how much this show was really hit by the pandemic. Someone has obviously been dreaming of this for a long time. If not from the start of Captain Marvel at least from Far From Home.

The multiverse storyline is one thing, but it feels like before that, they really wanted post Endgame to lead more to this. It feels like Black Widow, Falcon/WS, Hawkeye, etc were supposed to be the big breadcrumb trail of Phase 4 and just couldn't be released to plan in a way that built up to what was originally envisioned.

Ultimately I can't shake how much it feels like this was supposed to be part of a big plan that got abandoned when most of its components had to be salvaged under COVID restrictions.

 LunarSol wrote:
I have to wonder how much this show was really hit by the pandemic. Someone has obviously been dreaming of this for a long time. If not from the start of Captain Marvel at least from Far From Home.

The multiverse storyline is one thing, but it feels like before that, they really wanted post Endgame to lead more to this. It feels like Black Widow, Falcon/WS, Hawkeye, etc were supposed to be the big breadcrumb trail of Phase 4 and just couldn't be released to plan in a way that built up to what was originally envisioned.

Ultimately I can't shake how much it feels like this was supposed to be part of a big plan that got abandoned when most of its components had to be salvaged under COVID restrictions.

Feels like more that they didn't really know what next big thing to focus on and they just started throwing stuff at the wall to see what might stick. Post-blip chaos was a poorly resolved thread, the Multiverse is currently the main one, one thread that is currently going nowhere are the Eternals and the whole Celestial plotline, and Skrulls apparently was another one and they're back where they started as rando alien refugees that basically just got exposed as being clandestine space terrorists because reasons.

I'm just looking forward to seeing people try to justify how She Hulk twerking in 40 different dimensions makes sense as the way of how Kang is ultimately defeated and in doing so restores balance to the force.

If any story element from She-Hulk figures into the next part, I really hope it’s Madisynn and Wongers.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
If any story element from She-Hulk figures into the next part, I really hope it’s Madisynn and Wongers.

I assume Madisynn is effectively responsible for erasing Peter Parker.

 bbb wrote:
"Poorly thought out" is a defining feature for the MCU currently. I'd argue the snap fundamental broke it.

Yeah, I think the part where they sustained the 5 year gap was something that hobbled the franchise, imo.

It's not so much the 5 year gap. It's more that they didn't deal with that gap in any appreciable way. The powers that be have even said that dealing with the 5 years and post-blip return isn't something they really considered all that important.

The fact that they called it the "blip" tells you everything you need to know.

The MCU is just trash now. I hope Loki 2 is good... but I don't have high hopes.

I don't know if I'd say that it's trash, but there's definitely some missing magic that they had in the Infinity Saga. Sadly I don't think they'll ever get it back, lightning seldom strikes twice, but I'd still take most of phase 4 over anything DC has done in the last decade.