A lot has been said about the current state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even Disney CEO Bob Iger has made comments about MCU fatigue, seemingly indicating that he thinks its doing too much. More recently, the reception to the latest entry in the franchise, Secret Invasion, has been fairly lukewarm at best. However, there are some, like former Walt Disney Imagineer Jim Shull, who are taking a more serious stance against the show, due to its lack of connection to the comic arc that inspired it. This is true as far as it goes, but it’s not like this is the first time that such a thing has happened.
Jim Shull took to Twitter to take shots at the Disney+ series for both its lack of faithfulness to the comic book story of the same name and its decision to kill off popular characters in the MCU. It seems his feeling is that the show is using a name that is popular among fans, without embracing what made the story popular with those same people:
Secret Invasion on Disney Plus doesn’t follow the story they took the title of. And killing off several followed beloved characters demonstrates the creators or the studio doesn’t know why the Secret Invasion comic succeeded. #MCU jumped the shark. pic.twitter.com/sM8qVoKkesJuly 8, 2023
It’s certainly true that Secret Invasion bears only a passing similarity to the acclaimed comic book story arc. And most fans don't seem to believe this is among the best Marvel shows on Disney+. Both tales include Skrulls masquerading as humans, resulting in a lot of chaos as everybody tries to figure out who is who, but that’s about it. From there, the new show takes things in a very different direction.
Of course, while this complaint is valid, it’s also sort of a weird one to make at this point. The cinematic universe has used the comics as a starting point from the beginning but has never remained all that faithful. The MCU had a Civil War and an Infinity War, just like the comics. Yet in those cases too, the books were just the inspiration, and the movie stories start and end in very different places. With that in mind, it's fair to say that we can fully expect the upcoming Marvel movie Avengers: Secret Wars not to follow the comics that closely either.
At this point, complaining that the Secret Invasion series doesn’t follow the comics is odd because the show would make almost no sense if it did. One of the things that’s made the MCU interesting is that the narrative changes its made have had repercussions that have continued now for years. We’re in a very different place in the story now than we would otherwise be, so it makes sense that the miniseries would have some differences.
It has to be said, that Jim Shull, while he contributed immensely to Disney Parks in his 33 years, has become a bit of an “old man yells at cloud” when it comes to his opinions on anything modern. He seems to be frequently frustrated with the work going on in Disney Parks compared to his time there. Shull did briefly work for Marvel as well, so he likely has similar feelings about that company’s modern incarnation.
We'll see if he comments even more on Secret Invasion, which airs new episodes on Wednesdays as part of the 2023 TV schedule. Be sure that you have a Disney+ subscription so that you can check it out, and keep your eyes peeled for info on upcoming Marvel shows.
