It’s not been a great few weeks for Marvel. Their ultra-hyped, big-budget spy series Secret Invasion has been a bit of a flop when it comes to both viewing figures and critical reviews. Talking heads have been split on the reasons as to why it’s been a letdown, but two things are certain: The show failed to excite longtime MCU fans because of its slow burning nature and attempts at exploring complex political intrigue, but also didn’t stray far enough away from the usual Marvel fare to attract viewers who are put off by over-reliance on CGI, corny jokes, and big action sequences. So, it appears to have been a worst of both worlds situation for the franchise and Disney+, on which the show streamed.
However, it wasn’t just the overall nature of the show that many viewers took issue with. Some felt that it wasted its few good characters with poor plotting and writing, especially the main villain in the series, the Skrull rebel leader Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), who was killed off at the end of the final episode.
Secret Invasion follows Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and his allies as they attempt to stop a Skrull takeover of Earth. The shapeshifting aliens are angry for a number of reasons, but the primary one is that they feel Fury and his Skrull ally Talos have left their race floundering without a planet, so launch a secret plot to morph into various humans around the globe and slowly take control. The fact they can so easily become their enemies is what could have made the show such an interesting watch, but a combination of poor dialogue that relied too much on exposition and bogged down plotting, and a failure to commit to a real idea of what the show could be hampered it from the getgo.
As many have pointed out, Secret Invasion really did have all the elements to create something truly mindblowing. The cast was as good as any previous Marvel production (Emilia Clarke and Olivia Coleman both joined the show, and nobody can argue with their pedigree), and the money was there to make a visual feast, but everything was staid and unfocused, with the darker elements not really fleshed out enough to make the show a true noir mystery (although the fact they dove into things like torture in interrogation was brave, and one of the few things the show did that was both new and interesting). And, as the above post on the Marvel Studios subreddit points out, it wasted a brilliant and morally ambiguous villain in Gravik.
Before the show begins, the Skrull rebel leader had broken away from Talos and his faction of Skrulls, believing that they needed to no longer work with humans but instead infiltrate the planet and steal Earth’s resources. To this aim, he and a group of other scientists created the “Super-Skrull” project, which collected powered DNA that could then be used to strengthen Skrull forces. Gravik was the first test subject for this potential new innovation, and even managed to collect DNA samples from some of Marvel’s most powerful superheroes to help him. As a result, he could regenerate, extend his limbs, move things with his mind, and even manipulate cosmic energy. However, the final episode of Secret Invasion saw G’iah (Clarke) kill off the character, meaning he’ll probably no longer be a part of the MCU going forward — a decision that’s annoyed plenty of Marvel fans (although as we’ve seen from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, that’s not always the case).
There are a number of reasons as to why the Skrull rebel would have made such a good long-standing character for the MCU. For one, Gravik has a truly compelling origin story. His parents were killed in the Skrull-Kree war (a vital part of the franchise’s mythology), and after he was orphaned Fury and Talos brought him under their wing, turning him into a deadly assassin. Although he did this work for years, it made him bitter and angry toward Fury, and eventually all of humanity, as he felt he was doing the dirty work of those who had ruined him. That — combined with the poor conditions many Skrull refugees found themselves in — eventually radicalized him and set off the chain of events that happen just before the beginning of Secret Invasion. So, he is a great example of the righteous, complex villain trope audiences tend to love.
There are plenty of Marvel projects a villain like Gravik would have been perfect for, with his heartbreaking backstory and justified rage. A potential third Captain Marvel film would have been great for a number of reasons, but specifically because of the intergalactic nature of the film and the importance of Krees to the plot. With that said, there are plenty of other heroes Gravik could have come up against that would have also made just as much sense.
The funny thing is, the comic books on which the series is based don’t even kill him off, so this was a decision made solely by the team behind the television series (in the comic Gravik isn’t really a factor, though, with the invasion being led by a Skrull queen. The invasion is also a lot larger in scale, instead of the more subtle one depicted in the series). It’s pretty unlike Marvel to not drain every ounce of possible profit out of a character, too, which makes Gravik’s demise even more irritating to viewers and longterm MCU fans.
It’s not just on Reddit that fans have had something to say, either, with plenty posting about the way the character has been wasted on other social media sites. Many were especially annoyed as Ben-Adir put in such a sterling performance.
All in all, it seems that the way Gravik was handled is yet another way in which Secret Invasion has failed to live up to its billing as the flagship Phase 5 show. Let’s just hope that it isn’t a sign of things to come.