Awesome / Secret Invasion (2023)

Trailers

• Nick Fury, now quite a bit older and grizzled, is going to step up and take an active role in stopping the invasion. From this awesome line, it seems that this time, he's not relying on others anymore. Time to see what the Spymaster of Earth-616 is capable of.
  Nick: I'm the only thing standing between them and what they want.
• Talos moves to attack a Skrull, only for everyone around them, revealed to be Skrulls themselves, take on the same form, with the one he was planning to attack giving him a glare that screams "Bring It"!
• The show in general has a very serious and espionage thriller vibe, which will be a welcome and down-to-earth change for the MCU to explore.
• The latest official trailer shows flashes of a powerful Skrull with unique shapeshifting combat abilities. Could this be the introduction of the Super Skrull?

Episodes

Episode One: Resurrection

• The chase of the fake Everett Ross. It's as intense as you'd expect and both are giving it their all to evade and capture respectively. Special mention must go to when the Skrull impersonating Everett is chased up an entire building; neither he nor his pursuers stop for a second and their speed is incredible, covering around twelve flights of stairs in roughly ten seconds.
• The opening credits to this series are really quite spectacular. It involves a trippy collage of artwork involving characters, both known and unknown, while some remain the same, others fade into a green hue or entire cities are bathed in green (including places like London), all while ominous music plays in the background, before it finally ends with a green eye that fades into the entire planet, which is now swirling a sickly Skrull-green as the title slowly pieces together. It really signifies how deep the invasion runs and how no one can be trusted.
• Nick Fury casually placing a bug on the eye of Sonya's owl statue to listen in on her. He may be out of his game for a few years and very rusty, but he's still The Spymaster of Marvel Earth for a damn good reason.
  • When she assures him in her own unique sort of way that he's better off going back to S.A.B.E.R. (implied to be a space station) and sitting this fight out, citing that it's obvious he's not the same Nick Fury she knew before. He silently agrees that he's rusty and unprepared for the fight to come, but he refuses to go back now, not simply because Gravik going rogue is partly his fault; because he's Nick Fury. And he's got a job to do.
• Talos' fight against a powerful Skrull. Despite being a pacifist, Talos is no pushover. When the Skrull gets too close to killing Talos, Fury guns him down with only two shots.
  • Why Talos insisted on fighting the Skrull on his own, and why he's so angry with Fury for killing the Skrull who would have killed him. As far as Talos is concerned, the Skrulls are a Dying Race, and every one who gets killed in this fight is one closer to the Skrulls going extinct forever. Even if he has to fight against them, Talos is fighting for his people.
• Credit where it's due; Gravik gave Nick Fury the run-around for much of the episode, actually spying on him for much of the episode with no one - even Nick himself - being any the wiser. The realization of this on Fury's face at the end goes to show just how dangerous the situation is... and how difficult Fury is going to have it this time around.

Episode Two: Promises

• The entire scene in which Rhodey and Fury engage in full-on Snark-to-Snark Combat while keeping things just barely above physical violence. The dialogue and acting is fantastic.
  • It opens with Nick calling Rhodey from somewhere in the building, but not even his security can find him.
  • Finally, once Rhodey makes it clear he won't help him and strips him of his rank and privileges, an enraged Fury easily hands his biggest guard his ass and gets right in Rhodey's face to prove a point he sums up perfectly himself:
    Nick: I'm Nick Fury. Even when I'm out, I'm in.
• G'iah sneaking into the computer room and discovering a secret aspect of Gravik's plan: to genetically enhance the Skrulls to something far more powerful than ever before. The Super Skrull is not far off!
• Sonya making the Skrull enforcer sing like a lovestruck canary whilst the Russians could barely get a word out of him. All while keeping the posture of a Proper Lady of Britain.
• The short but sweet scene of Gravik and Pagon decimating the Russians with some borderline John Wick levels of Boom, Headshot! and martial arts.
• The Reveal that Nick Fury is Happily Married to Priscilla, who is actually a Skrull. He really wasn't kidding when he told Cap he had a wife.
• Gravik cows the entire Skrull Council into declaring him their Skrull General...save one, the Skrull impersonating Shirley Sagar, who calls him out for causing civilian casualties and refuses to submit to his rule. Instead of killing her, Gravik notes that if he had 100 of her, he could conquer the universe, and allows her to leave. She later warns Talos and brokers a meeting between him and Gravik.

Episode Three: Betrayed

• What could be better than the introduction of the Super Skrull? The confirmation by Gravik that yes, they are coming, but not just one, an entire army of Super Skrulls are being made.
• During their parley, Gravik bringing up G'iah proves to be Talos's Berserk Button. The first time he does it, Talos snarls with barely contained fury that Gravik needs to tread very carefully. Talos eventually loses his temper and jumps up - and the entire room of people jump up, shifting into replicas of Gravik's human form, cowing Talos into retaking his seat. But the last time Gravik mentions G'iah, Talos has enough and stabs Gravik's hand with a knife, then hits him with a truly menacing warning while choking him out:
  Talos: From now on, till the end of time, you keep my daughter's name out of your mouth, yeah?
  • Talos doesn't just threaten Gravik physically either. He warns Gravik that he will tell every army on Earth of his true nature and point them in the right direction, and vows that humanity will recognize the difference between those infected by Gravik's "sickness" and the heroic Skrulls still with Talos. When Gravik starts spewing more misanthropy, Talos refutes him by stating that history has shown again and again that humanity is at its' strongest when faced with a common enemy (Thanos' army can vouch for that, given they were getting their asses kicked by the combined armies of Earth's superhero community even if Thanos himself was still a juggernaut on his own).
• Faced with the prospect of execution at Gravik's hands, G'iah defiantly looks him right in the eye and denounces him as the true greatest threat to the Skrulls. This is even more awesome, because it’s implied that Gravik doesn’t have the guts to kill Skrulls himself to spare himself the guilt. By killing G’iah without her turning around, he has to live with the guilt of killing her.
  Gravik: Go on, turn around.
  G'iah: No. You will look at me. And you'll ask yourself, are you a leader of Skrulls or our worst enemy?

Episode Four: Beloved

• The Reveal during his interaction with Varra that yes, the Rhodey that fired Fury and is close with the President is not the real Rhodey and he's been pulling strings within the US government for a while now without anyone being the wiser. Even better? Varra had a bug on her planted by Fury, who casually but angrily sits at home, listening to his confession without the Skrull being any the wiser.
• Nick Fury proves he's still the master of the Batman Gambit when he breaks into "Rhodey's" hotel suite. It's as gripping and intense as you'd expect and the Skrull impersonating Rhodey shows visible discomfort at being confronted by Fury in person, even as he tries to bluff (or more scarily so blackmail) his way out of it and even steals Fury's finely aged bourbon just to spite him, but Fury planned he would do exactly that; he laced the bottle with a tracking device in liquid form.
• The assassination attempt on President Ritson. Gravik and his crew flawlessly pull of the initial attack and the government are quick to believe the Russians to be responsible, as per Gravik's plan.
  • When do Gravik's plans begin to fall apart? When Nick goddamn Fury shows up. With his armoured car and a trunk full of weapons, he manages to single-handedly shoot down the offending attack helicopter and many of Gravik's Skrull loyalists, saving the President by the skin of his teeth. Tellingly, when Pagon shouts to Gravik that Fury is here, he's visibly concerned his plan may fail.
  • Talos, gravely injured and exposed as a Skrull, still manages to break the bulletproof glass window to get the president out of the overthrown car.
  • Fury is shown getting wiser to the Skrull disguises; he notices immediately that the soldier carrying Talos is actually a Skrull, because the same guy freaked out about Talos potentially attacking the president, immediately drawing his gun and demanding he release Talos. The soldier then reveals himself as Gravik, proving him right.
  • After Gravik kills Talos, Fury shoots the man in the face. Gravik doesn't cry out in the slightest, and simply turns back round with the most unfazed demeanor, giving us a chilling look at the hole in his cheek as it (and his eyes) glows red, regenerating in seconds. For the Badass Normal Fury, Gravik is essentially an Implacable Man.

Episode Five: Harvest

• Rava (the Skrull impersonating Rhodey) arrives at the hospital to be near the president, only to be immediately ambushed by Nick Fury, who makes clear to him he knows damn well he's a Skrull. While Rava manages to worm his way out of it, Fury gives him a good old pistol whip to the face before he leaves. Petty? Yes. Deserved? Absolutely.
  • A blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment shows that "Rhodey's" bodyguard has his arm in a sling. Fury broke that man's arm with only one move!
• The Skrull rebellion within Gravik's compound. As soon as his guard is down, almost every Skrull bombards him from nowhere, attacking him with knives, sledgehammers and raw group strength. It's a very powerful showing and makes clear that the rebels have officially lost all faith in him. To Gravik's credit, he sheds his human form and in his true form showcases his true strength, brutalizing any Skrull that gets near him, throwing one through the door and stepping out to the terrified Skrulls, challenging any one of them to try it with him.
  • Their most awesome weapon against their insane leader? A simple plastic bag. They know all about his Extremis Healing Factor, and how that makes him nearly impossible to kill, but Gravik still needs to breathe.
• Sonya Falsworth showcases twice why she was made head of the SIS.
  • She effortlessly deduces one of her high-ranking members is a Skrull (alluded to very early on in the series) and exposes him before he has a chance to bullshit his way out of it.
  • Later, she easily gets the Skrull scientists to confess what their research is for. Then she bluntly executes the other when he tries to pull a hostage situation with the female Skrull, and has the research facility burnt down so none of this can happen again.
• G'iah and Varra effortlessly fending off the assassins sent to kill the latter within her own home with some very impressive teamwork, utilizing guns, martial arts and a lot of quick thinking.
• Nick Fury's epic He's Back! moment. He collects "the Harvest" from his own gravestone and a plan to stop Gravik once and for all alongside his few remaining allies. Before he leaves, he goes to a mausoleum-like storage unit. He then collects his handgun, his leather long coat and his iconic eyepatch, which he puts on with a newfound vigor, before giving the go-ahead to Gravik that he's ready to end it all. He then flicks his classic collar up and walks out with a powerful stride for one last fight as the series' theme music swells up.

Episode Six: Home

• Super Skrull (G'iah) vs. Super Skrull (Gravik). Once the "Nick Fury" that confronts him in the nuclear power plant is actually G'iah in disguise, Gravik displays his true form, now muscular and powerful, and the two battle ferociously using a blend of the Avengers', the Childrens of Thanos', the Guardians of the Galaxy's, Ghost and Carol Danvers' powers. It's short, but totally epic.
• Sonya effortlessly distracting "Rhodey", disabling the Secret Service guards and having him at her mercy within the span of a few minutes.
• Fury reacting quicker than Raava, snatching the gun from President Ritson and effortlessly gunning Rhodey's imposter down in one shot, while Ritson can only look at the exposed Skrull's corpse in utter terror and bewilderment.
• Fury calling out the president for his short-sighted and downright stupid decision to declare a war on extra-terrestrial entities on Earth, including but not limited to Skrulls, even when one helped save his life. When Ritson tells Nick to "get off [his] planet" if he loves the Skrulls so much, Fury decides to do exactly that.
  Nick: You took a bad situation and made it worse. That's real "one-term president" stuff.
• The montage of crazed fanatics inspired by Ritson's call to action includes Shirley Sagal (a Skrull and humanitarian) effortlessly fighting off and killing fanatics in her home when they come after her, proving that her diplomacy and affection for humans does not make her weak.