Secret Invasion Episode 1 Review - 7 Ups & 3 Downs
6. Up - Compelling Exposition
When Captain Marvel released in 2019, the Skrulls were expected by everyone to be the villains of the piece. After all, they were villains in the source material, and the MCU's marketing had made no effort to show anything to the contrary. In fact, this was a stroke of genius, as the Skrulls actually being the victims was a huge twist in an otherwise middle-of-the-road MCU outing.
For Secret Invasion, however, the green shapeshifting aliens were once again marketed to be the villains. Obviously something happened in the 30 years between Captain Marvel and Secret Invasion, but this could have been literally anything.
The opening scenes of episode one showed Agent Prescod spilling his conspiracy theories to Martin Freeman's Everett Ross imposter, and essentially spelled out Gravik's entire motivation. The Skrulls were promised a new world by Carol Danvers and Nick Fury, but this was never delivered. So now they want Earth.
The information was given freely and quickly, but also organically. Given expository dialogue can often send the pace of a series crashing to a halt, it was pleasant to see it woven seamlessly into the story.