Warning! This article contains spoilers for Secret Invasion episode 6.
Contents
Summary
- The Secret Invasion ending ties up loose ends and leaves some unanswered questions, paving the way for future MCU projects.
- Gravik’s death appears to be final, setting up a more complicated environment for the MCU and the introduction of Skrulls to the general population.
- Rhodey has been replaced by a Skrull for seven years, meaning he missed major MCU events, and this will likely be explored in the Armor Wars series. The ending also sets up a potential Siege event involving Thor and the Asgardians. G’iah’s future involves leading the Skrulls and teaming up with Sonya Falsworth to protect Earth.
The Secret Invasion ending makes good on the twists and turns of its plot with one final climactic episode. Secret Invasion episode 6 had a lot of loose ends to tie up, as the stories of Nick Fury, Gravik, Rhodey, G’iah, and more needed to ideally come to a satisfying point by the time the show finished. While there are still plenty of possibilities that the Secret Invasion ending leaves open, mercifully the series avoids leaving too many questions unanswered, and concludes on a note that shows how it will influence the future of the MCU going forward.
The Secret Invasion ending sees the end of Gravik’s plot to destroy the world after he battles a far more powerful G’iah, but sets up a major issue for the MCU to tackle in the form of introducing the concept of Skrulls to the general populace. With Nick Fury heading back into space with Varra at the end of the plot, it also seems the stage is set for The Marvels to be definitively after the Disney+ show. Indeed, with Gravik dead, Rhodey returned, and the US government ready to kill off any “off-world born” residents, there are a selection of storylines that are set to appear in impending Marvel projects, be they The Marvels or even further down the line.
Is Gravik Really Dead?
As the mastermind behind the plans to threaten humanity in Secret Invasion, audiences were split on what would be the final fate of Gravik. While the MCU Super Skrull displayed a clear bloodthirsty nature, he also was essentially a child soldier who fell into villainy as a result of years of killing to protect a world that he knew would never accept him, and for a home he hoped for but would never see. The Secret Invasion ending appears to make Gravik’s death a relatively open and shut case, though, as after G’iah defeats him, the show pans to a long shot of his lifeless face.
While the nature of the superhero genre means it’s always possible that this is a ruse – or will later be retconned – the decision to explicitly show Gravik dead and gone appears intended to make it clear that he won’t be coming back. This makes sense, as it allows for a more complicated environment for the MCU to draw from, given the Skrulls who believed in Gravik’s ideology are still on Earth but divided by the end of Secret Invasion. With other well-intentioned Skrulls and G’iah’s faction among them, the MCU’s Earth is set up for something of a tenser scenario, which benefits impending series that follow on from this plot.
Rhodey Has Been A Skrull Since Captain America: Civil War
Ever since the Rhodey was revealed to be the Skrull Raava in Secret Invasion, one of the most popular questions surrounding the MCU hero is how long he’s been replaced for. Secret Invasion episode 6 sheds some light on this, as when G’iah goes to free the captured humans who have been trapped seemingly unconscious in fracking pods, she tells the real Rhodey that he’s been “been held hostage for a long time.” This is evidently true, as Rhodey is wearing the same hospital gown from Avengers: Civil War, which he can be seen in while recovering from the injuries he sustained in the Clash of the Avengers.
Rhodey’s garb means that he has been replaced by a Skrull for seven years for audiences in real world time, and for even longer in-universe. It also means he isn’t aware of a huge number of major MCU events, including the Snap, any of the battles with Thanos, and the death of Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame. These are all likely to be plot points in the Armor Wars series, as it’s impossible for Rhodey to not have a lot of complicated feelings at just how much he missed, and how much his now-dead Skrull doppelganger did while pretending to be him.
Marvel Just Set Up The MCU’s Siege Event
While Secret Invasion ends successfully in the sense that the humanity survives Gravik’s attempt to annihilate them, the episode also sets up a fraught situation for Earth based on President Ritson’s address to the people of America. In it, Ritson details an emergency bill that “designates all off-world born species enemy combatants,” effectively declaring war on any and all Skrull, and any other people who were born anywhere but Earth, which sets up a selection of future problems for the MCU to explore.
This speech is shown to incite further violence between Skrulls and humans, as those suspected to be Skrulls are shown shot down – a problem both because many Skrulls genuinely only seek to fit in with and help humanity, and because ordinary people are gunned down based on the theories of “vigilantes“. However, it’s notable that the declaration also declares war on Thor and the Asgardians, as they would also come under this category. This sets up the basis for the MCU’s adaptation of the Seige comic storyline, which details Normal Osborne using his position in the US’s Department of Defense to facilitate an attack on Asgard.
With MCU’s Asgard currently existing in Norway – and Secret Invasion establishing a precedent that would explain the US launching an attack on Asgard and its people – the future of figures like Thor and Valkyrie are more ambiguous than ever. While this means audiences could see Thor before they expected to, it also suggests he’s less likely to be an Avenger in the coming movies, both because the US government likely wouldn’t allow it while this bill is in place, and because he’s unlikely to wish to be in a team facilitated by a government actively seeking to kill him and his people.
G’iah’s MCU Future Explained
Perhaps the most surprising of all the Secret Invasion ending twists was seeing G’iah’s new powers, as it was unveiled that she had received The Harvest DNA samples taken from the Battle of Earth, and as a result was able to channel the abilities of a massive range of MCU characters. Though it seemed very possible a character so powerful would quickly be written out of the immediate MCU and potentially saved for a later date, G’iah’s MCU future seems different to this, as her storyline ends with Sonya Falsworth recruiting her to be a new leader for the Skrulls, which may well explain how the show is said to link to The Marvels, other than both involving Nick Fury.
This sets up an interesting position for G’iah in the MCU going forward, as while she’s likely to help other heroes, she’s also got a very valid justification to avoid conflicts due to her primary loyalty being to the Skrulls now in her care. G’iah herself states as much, telling Sonya that she won’t repeat the path her father Talos took as a leader. With both G’iah and Falsworth having established their own respective and impressive skillsets by the Secret Invasion ending, it’s definitely worth noting that they are seemingly stepping in to take the role Nick Fury initially had on Earth while he goes off to focus on the interplanetary side of things.