The Disney+ show Secret Invasion has aired its finale and it was … somewhat of a catastrophe. Overall, the season—and especially its finale—left us with more questions than answers, and not in a good way.
**Major spoilers for Secret Invasion ahead**
It’s sure starting to look like some of our favorite characters were fridged for absolutely no meaningly reason. But the most pressing question I have after the last episode is: When in the hell was James Rhodes replaced with a Skrull? We only see the real Rhodey at the end of the episode when he’s freed from the pod the Skrulls were keeping him in. He’s wearing a hospital gown, which has led some people to speculate that Rhodey was replaced right after his paralyzing accident in Captain America: Civil War. That would mean the Rhodey we saw in Infinity War, Endgame, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was a fake.
How long was Rhodey a Skrull?
We don’t know that the Rhodey of those three MCU installments was definitely a replacement—there’s nothing that says he wasn’t taken just before Secret Invasion started after all—but after episode 4 aired MCU head Kevin Feige talked to Marvel.com and said, “We like the idea of fans going back and watching some of the other appearances of Rhodey and realizing that that wasn’t him.” So chances are that that wasn’t really Col. James Rhodes at all during some of what we thought were great Col. James Rhodes moments, and as a long-term MCU fan I find that pretty infuriating. Not least because Rhodey was one of the most important Avengers in the line-up.
Rhodey’s importance as a disabled superhero
One of my favorite things in Avengers: Endgame was the relationship between Rhodey and Nebula. During the five years where the whole world was Blipped they seemingly developed a good friendship, which is remarkable considering how closed-off Nebula is; she must have seen something truly special in him. While helping save the universe on the planet Morag the two of them share a brief moment with each other where they acknowledge both of them have disabilities, ones they weren’t born with, but they “work with what [they’ve] got.”
The MCU not backtracking on Rhodey needing disability aids after the events of Civil War was something I was always pleasantly surprised about. (Hey, remember how quickly Thor’s missing eye was treated as if it never happened?) When Infinity War came out in 2018 The Hollywood Reporter posted an article from a parent who was overjoyed that her son had “an Avenger with a disability” to look up to. And Don Cheadle also discussed his character’s use of walking aids in a 2019 Comic-Con interview, saying that he’d “talked to people who have had spinal injuries” to inform his portrayal of the character. And since Civil War, he said, he’d had people approach him and thank him for playing a disabled superhero.
If it turns out the Rhodey we knew in the last installments of the Infinity Saga wasn’t the real Rhodey, all of this and what it meant completely falls apart. It wasn’t Rhodey we saw adjusting to his new circumstances and bonding with another disabled superhero and helping save the world, it was someone else, and someone with evil intentions to boot. It’s such an immensely disappointing thing to think about.
What else might Secret Invasion have retconned?
Avengers: Endgame was a very crowded movie but Don Cheadle made Rhodey stand out. He gets some of the best lines of dialogue and comes across as one of the most capable and focused Avengers. He’s also present at Tony Stark’s death and funeral, and as people have pointed out on Twitter, if that wasn’t the real Rhodey, one of the most iconic scenes in the whole of MCU history is now forever changed for the worse.
This “shocking twist”—and boy, has Marvel started to excel at shocking twists that have absolutely no substance to them—has only served to utterly infuriate MCU fans. There have been bad MCU projects before, but Secret Invasion might just be the first one to be so bad it could potentially ruin the movies that came before it. Will Armor Wars, the upcoming show starring the real Rhodey, put any of this right or has the damage already been done? I really hope it works out, but I have to admit I’m not holding my breath.
(featured image: Disney+)
