So far, 2023 has not been a great year for the superhero soup our entertainment landscape has been dining on for two decades and counting. From the dwindling box office returns of the third installments of Marvel’s “Ant-Man” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” to outright flops like “Shazam 2” and “The Flash,” it seems like the mainstream is tiring of caped crusaders. Even the well-reviewed (and probable future Oscar winner) “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” hasn’t been immune to fan backlash.
It seems like the mainstream is tiring of caped crusaders. Even the well-reviewed (and probable future Oscar winner) “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” hasn’t been immune to fan backlash.
But nowhere is that exhaustion more obvious than on streaming, where Disney+ delayed the arrival of Marvel’s 2023 live-action slate. Now down to just three titles from the originally planned five, the small-screen MCU kicks off with the star-studded “Secret Invasion,” a show painfully hamstrung by trying to be more than just a superhero series in hopes of being awarded Emmy attention.
The main roster is obvious Emmy bait. Jackson (recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Oscar) is joined by co-stars Oscars and Emmy winner Olivia Colman, Emmy winner Ben Mendelsohn, and seven-time Emmy winner Julia-Louis Dreyfuss, just to name the biggest ones. This is also not the first time Marvel has presented a stacked cast to get the attention of a particular awards season. 2021’s “Eternals,” the studio’s first attempt at creating a film seemingly geared specifically for Oscar consideration, even hired Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao.
Like “Eternals,” the plot of “Secret Invasion” feels like it’s trying to imitate something ripped from other, better projects. It follows in the clear espionage footsteps of FX’s “The Americans,” heating up the Cold War between Russia and the U.S. Of course, this being Marvel, the war is not due to current events, but alien Skrulls, shape-shifters impersonating government officials to manipulate the two countries into nuclear war.
Jackson reprises his long-running role as S.H.I.E.L.D. head Nick Fury, finally given a lead role after being a team player for years. He is the only man aware of the reality of the situation, and sees aliens everywhere.
Endless shape-shifting gives the series a focus for the de rigueur CGI inherent in all superhero series these days. Plus, the Skrulls’ cover story — and the accompanying body snatchers horror angle — creates a refreshingly Earth-bound plot.
However, this is no “The Skrull Who Came in from the Cold,” or even “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, S.H.I.E.L.D.” There’s not an actual war with Russia in the offing, because there can’t be — nuclear devastation would make November’s release of “Captain Marvel” sequel, “The Marvels,” a rather different film than the one its predecessors foreshadowed. Plus, fans know “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Blade” are right around the corner, and most likely Skrull-free. How high can these takes realistically be? This feels like a premise Marvel won’t be able to follow through on. But even if the series wasn’t undercut by the rest of the franchise, “Secret Invasion” suffers from the same problem that afflicted “Eternals.” It is far too focused on ticking award voters’ boxes and not focused enough on the actual story. “Secret Invasion” feels like it’s trying so hard to be “a prestige series,” it forgot what made other Marvel shows like “Loki” and “WandaVision” a hit in the first place. Even before “Eternals” came out, the Academy had made it clear it had no intention of giving top-line hardware to Marvel films. And to what end? Even before “Eternals” came out, the Academy had made it clear it had no intention of giving top-line hardware to Marvel films, with the legitimately excellent “Black Panther” landing three second-tier wins, but only a cursory best picture nod. The Emmys have already sent the same message: Voters were happy to give “WandaVision” a “Game of Thrones”-level number of nominations, but zero actual statues during the prime-time broadcast. In the view of at least some of these voters, Marvel doesn’t need such things for validation. As another Emmy contender once famously declared, “That’s what the money is for.” The superhero bubble has not yet burst, but it does seem to be deflating. And that makes Marvel’s decision to sacrifice a project at the altar of awards season even more confounding. Worse, this crude attempt at Emmy bait was delayed just long enough to be out of contention for the 2022-2023 TV season and so will likely be long forgotten by the time voting comes around next year. Instead, only the fans will have to suffer yet another misguided endeavor by Marvel to earn hardware no one is interested in giving them.
Ani Bundel
Ani Bundel is a cultural critic who has been writing regularly since 2010. Her work can also be found at Elite Daily and WETA's Telly Visions, where she also co-hosts "Telly Visions: The Podcast." 
