Secret Invasion Is Finally Redeeming Iron Man 3

Secret Invasion is an American television miniseries created by Kyle Bradstreet for the streaming service Disney+, loosely based on the Marvel Comics

Secret Invasion Episode 3 Seemingly Kills Emilia Clarke’s as Emilia her character G’iah took a bullet and was left for dead in the third episode of Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion.

Two weeks after Maria Hill’s death in the series premiere shocked the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom, Secret Invasion has once again left a character’s fate ambiguous. In “Betrayed” — the third episode of the Disney+ limited series — it is revealed that the rebel Skrull’s leader, Gravik, set a trap to find out which Skrull was working with the humans. Although G’iah tried to escape, she was stopped by Gravik who revealed that he knew she was the spy. Gravik then shot G’iah right in the chest. Fans were left with an image of G’iah bleeding out. At this time, it is unknown if G’iah will survive the gunshot wound or meet a similar fate to that of Maria Hill.

While G’iah has been around in the MCU since 2019’s Captain Marvel, Secret Invasion marks the first time that she is played by Clarke. The actor, who has appeared in Game of Thrones, Star Wars and Terminator, recently proclaimed that the MCU is the best franchise she has ever worked on. “It’s just the best one,” said Clarke. “It’s such a pedigree in its own right. It lives in its own level that’s separate from everything else. It isn’t just a superhero franchise… It’s Marvel… It’s totally different.” Clarke also praised working opposite her Secret Invasion co-star Ben Mendelsohn, who plays her character’s father, Talos. “… the thing about acting is it is like tennis: you’re better with a better partner,” she explained. “And he’s just the best actor I’ve ever worked with.”

Secret Invasion’s second episode cued the Super Skrull program, with a tease that Gravik wants to enhance his species with attributes from Frost Beasts, Cull Obsidian, and the fan-favourite Groot. There was a throwaway mention of Extremis, which MCU purists will remember is a convoluted plot point of Iron Man 3. We saw the payoff of this in “Betrayed,” as an enraged Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) stabbed a knife into Gravik’s hand. The Skrull general pulled his hand backwards and watched the wound heal before his eyes.

As a refresher, the Extremis virus was the creation of Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3. The bookish doctor co-created Extremis with Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), realising nanotechnology could help the human body regenerate. The potential of Extremis was largely written off when Kilian went down in a flame of mediocrity in Iron Man 3’s CGI-logged finale, but with regenerating Super Skrulls packing the punch of Cull Obsidian and Groot, Black’s maligned movie is suddenly relevant again.

Secret Invasion Is a Standalone Story

Clarke previously talked about how the six-episode series was developed for everyone, not just Marvel fans. “It’s definitely a show for the fans, but it’s also a show that my mum, who doesn’t watch Marvel, will watch and get, do you know what I mean?” she said. “You can get into dangerous territory sometimes with this sort of genre where if you haven’t watched all 17 other films or shows, you’re not going to get it. This isn’t that at all.” Ali Selim, who directed Secret Invasion, corroborated Clarke’s comments, stating that he worked with Marvel “to make sure that this story could stand alone and thrill an audience in and of itself, because my wife she’s gonna watch the story and love it.”

The Iron Man 3 Problem 

Much like how Secret Invasion is an MCU-ified version of the 2008 comic crossover of the same name, Iron Man 3 attempted to adapt Warren Ellis and Adi Granov’s “Extremis” miniseries of 2005-2006 but got itself sidetracked. Serving as something of a sequel to 2012’s The Avengers, Iron Man 3 had the odds stacked against it. In just five years, we’d had a whole trilogy of Iron Man movies before we’d seen the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, or Captain Marvel.

However, even if you remove iconic scenes like the Malibu mansion attack and the fact it’s the MCU’s first Christmas movie, it’s still clear to see what Iron Man 3 could’ve been. It’s the only Iron Man movie that really dived into the man behind the suit. Although Iron Man 3 didn’t quite break into the realms of the acclaimed “Demon in a Bottle” comic arc, we dealt with Tony’s PTSD after he went on a suicide mission into space at the end of The Avengers.

Both Hall and Black have spoken out about how Maya Hansen was handled, and after Hall claimed she was missold her “reduced” role, Black confirmed his original plan for Hansen to be the big bad. Black told Uproxx how Disney execs were unconvinced about the idea of a female villain thanks to its potential lack of toy sales. Whether the sweet-as-pie Hansen giving us a jaw-dropping villain turn would’ve worked or not, there’s bad blood about her character’s underwhelming handling. Instead, Extremis and Killian are two completely forgettable parts of the MCU’s sometimes murky past.

The ghost of Iron Man 3 haunts the MCU, and in Black’s own words, the All Hail the King One-Shot was created to undo his Mandarin twist. Still, the dangling threads of Iron Man 3 present some interesting opportunities. If we’re revisiting the idea of Extremis in Secret Invasion, there’s a potential to explore more of Advanced Idea Mechanics. Despite A.I.M. being up there with H.Y.D.R.A. in terms of Marvel villainy, we’ve already moved past Killian and decided to ignore M.O.D.O.K.’s potential connection to the shadowy think tank.