The balance of power within the MCU's superhero ranks may have just been ruined thanks to Disney+'s Secret Invasion.
Secret Invasion was arguably the most anticipated Disney+ project from Marvel Studios in the history of the streaming era for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
One of the show's key pieces in promotion and execution was Emilia Clarke's G'iah. The daughter of friendly Skrull Talos, G'iah was used to show the middle ground between Nick Fury's and Gravik's side of the Skrull Invasion.
After five weeks of suspect usage for this character and the headline actor attached, the Secret Invasion finale made a move that puts G'iah in a nearly impossible position for future success in the MCU.
Super Duper Skrull G'iah
In Episode 6 of Marvel Studios' Secret Invasion, G'iah is put into the Super Skrull machine along with Gravik with the DNA Harvest of every hero and villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe uploaded. This means that both G'iah and Gravik have obtained the powers of each of these characters and surely many more:
- Ghost
- Captain America
- Corvus Glave
- Thanos
- Outrider
- Proxima Midnight
- Captain Marvel
- Frost Beast
- Ebony Maw
- Korg
- Drax
- Cull Obsidian
- Mantis
- Gamora
- Abomination
- Hulk
- Black Panther
- Chitauri
- Valkyrie
- Thor
- Groot
- Winter Soldier
G'iah manages to get the better of Gravik and is left standing as the only Super Skrull left.
Here is the main issue... powersets matter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Time and time again, fans have seen S-tier-powered heroes in the MCU be strategically taken on and off the board to allow the entire roster to tell their own stories without using a superpowered trump card.
Thor and Hulk were off-world for Civil War, Captain Marvel was on her assignment for the majority of the Infinity Saga, and the Eternals were given the purpose of not interfering throughout history.
G'iah is now without a doubt the most overpowered character in the MCU and she has done absolutely nothing to earn that title. G'iah's story is largely defined by her parents and her affiliation with Kingsley Ben-Adir's Gravik in Secret Invasion. To give her this unprecedented powerset in the final half-hour is a jump in importance Rey-haters can only dream of.
Super Skrull in the comics has four superpowers at one time, at most. The Secret Invasion finale not only shows this extensive list of powers G'iah is left with, it goes out of its way to show, without doubt, that she is more powerful than any character that came before her.
The "Superman Problem" of having an overpowered character that theoretically should be able to handle all problems has always been a thing in comic book fan circles. Giving such an ancillary character like G'iah this powerset gives the MCU a Superman Problem to the nth degree.
Nick Fury's Harvest Plan
Another issue with this decision in the Secret Invasion finale is that it spits in the face of the overall motivation for Nick Fury throughout the entire show. Fury actively does not call on his super-powered friends, like Carol Danvers, because he does not want to expose the Skrulls to that type of power.
So instead, he sends in G'iah to hand deliver The Harvest DNA of every MCU super-powered character to Gravik and hopes that he would keep the Fury-impersonating G'iah in the machine with him.
There is a real fundamental problem with the finale allowing Gravik to gain everything he wanted with "the plan" being that G'iah would be able to win a one-on-one fight.
The Marvels Issue
Another mind-blowing decision was to put so much focus on G'iah using the powers of Captain Marvel to defeat Gravik. This not only shines a light on how little this show cared about Carol Danvers, a fundamental influence on so many of these characters, but it also raises questions about the plot device for The Marvels set to release this November.
The idea of The Marvels revealed in the most recent trailer is that the light-focused powers of Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan have been somehow intertwined causing them to swap physical places when they use their powers.
So if Emilia Clarke's G'iah has those powers as well, will she be affected by this entanglement? This might seem nitpicky but when they spend so much time during the Secret Invasion finale showing G'iah be a knockoff Captain Marvel.
The Future of the MCU's Super Skrull
G'iah joins forces with Olivia Coleman's Sonya Farnsworth and is now an edible player in the MCU. In the most surface-level kind of way, moving forward a fan-favorite actress now has a claim to the "most powerful" debate in the MCU and technically SHOULD be one of the most important factors in any and all future threats. Great.
Even if you disregard the lack of build-up to this moment and the fact that the most interesting thing about G'iah is that she is played by Emilia Clarke, this is still a character with no real entry into the greater MCU.
They could nerf her and say that her Super Skrullness was a one-time thing. They could put her in a position where she is unable to use her new powers. Or they could make her the antagonist of Thunderbolts and give the team a seemingly unbeatable foe.
Whatever they decide to do has a low ceiling of being messy at best.
