Marvel has been catching a lot of flak over the perceived decline in quality of its big comic book extravangazas. But in one area it must be praised: when it comes to bringing the Dublin accent to the world, it’s the hero we didn’t know we needed.
The franchise’s openness to putting real Irish accents on screen first became noticeable with the Eternals, in which Summerhill-born Barry Keoghan played an immortal being who’d apparently spent his formative years reading Roddy Doyle novels, eating Tayto and listening to Luke Kelly. The movie was profoundly okay-ish – but you kept watching for the sheer novelty of a Dublin-bred superhero.
With its new TV show, Secret Invasion (Disney+, from today), the comic powerhouse shifts gear by going all Love/Hate. Killian Scott, a graduate of RTÉ’s landmark gangster series, plays Pagon, an enforcer for the evil shape-changing Skrulls and their quest to enslave humanity.
Pagon sounds as if he’s just stepped out of one of those over-heated Virgin Media documentaries about “Dublin gangland”. It’s a sign of how starved we are of authentic Irish accents on intentional telly, that you find yourself looking forward to his occasional appearances. It’s also an indictment of Secret Invasion, one of the glummest shows Marvel has brought to Disney + and a waste of the charms of Samuel L Jackson, returning as top espionage boffin, Nick Fury.
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Nick Fury was part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe from the outset. He popped up at the end of the original 2008 Iron Man film to ask Tony Stark if he was aware of the “Avengers initiative” and thereafter helped the superhero galacticos keep the universe safer.
But we’re a long way from the bright early days of the MCU, when the saga heralded a fresh era of long-form storytelling, in which each new film added to larger overall narrative. That ambitious campaign of world building is ongoing – but the individual Marvel movies and small-screen spin-offs have lost much of their charm.
Or maybe it’s just that we’re so familiar with the Marvel model that it has become a shtick. Either way, Secret Invasion falls flat in its first episode, as Fury returns to earth from the space station where he’s been monitoring the galaxy for danger.
He’s back to deal with a threat closer to home. Among us, seemingly indistinguishable from everyone else, is a hidden cabal who share a dire secret. No, not low-key Harry Styles fans. The problem at hand in Secret Invasion are the Skrull, shape-shifting aliens who fled to earth but are now about to rise up against us.
It’s worth asking if Marvel has thought through the implications of the plot. The idea of refugees from another world turning out to be fifth columnists is problematic, to put it mildly. Plus, the writers have added a baffling a subplot in which Nato and Russia square up to war. Eek, talk about too close to home.
Scott is one of the more charismatic cast members, though perhaps that’s because all the big names give the impression of not wanting to be there. Jackson looks like he’s waiting for Quentin Tarantino to call him about that Pulp Fiction prequel he’s wants to be in while Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke wears the same frustrated expression she sported in the final season of the George RR Martin fantasy blockbuster.
Coming off the undercooked third Ant-Man movie, Marvel could use a hit. As could Disney +, which has been scrubbing content from its site to take advantage of US tax loopholes. But it’s hard to see Secret Invasion turning around the fortunes of either. There was a time Marvel moved faster than a speeding bullet. Now, everything it does has a glum ‘n glummer energy. True to that trend, Secret Invasion’s defining quality is its joylessness.
