The Marvel Cinematic Universe is preparing to gather its greatest champions once again. After putting the Avengers on ice for several years, there are now two teams fighting for control of the name, and each one will have its fair share of powerhouses. Sentry is the New Avengers’ enforcer, and Sam Wilson is certainly going to reach out to Thor and Shang-Chi when the events of Avengers: Doomsday kick off. There’s only going to be so much time to bicker, though, as the threat of Doctor Doom looms large. The Fantastic Four and X-Men are also joining the fray, bringing heavyweights along with them, such as Franklin Richards, Sue Storm, Magneto, and Professor X.
With all those mouths to feed, some of the MCU’s strongest characters are seemingly being asked to sit Doomsday out. Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange aren’t part of the roster yet, which is a shock given they both released solo movies in the last couple of years. Another powerful character didn’t make their way to the big screen, getting their moment to shine on Disney+, but, unlike the other characters, there’s no path for their return to the franchise, even at a time when it feels like it’s all hands on deck.
The Disney+ era of the MCU has been controversial, to say the least. A lot of the shows feel like homework because they have major ramifications on the franchise, such as WandaVision, which acts as a sequel to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Agatha All Along. There is one series, though, that the powers that be would rather everyone forget about: Secret Invasion. Putting Nick Fury in the lead role, the show puts him in the middle of a conflict between two groups of Skrulls. The spy is to blame for a lot of the problems the shape-shifting species faces, and Gravik wants his pound of flesh in return.
Fury leans on his old buddy Talos for help, but there’s only so much the Skrull can do because he has problems at home. His daughter, G’iah, is a member of Gravik’s group and is threatening to harm the people of Earth if demands aren’t met. Well, at least she’s pretending to because it turns out she’s an undercover agent, hoping to dismantle Gravik’s operation from inside. By the end of Secret Invasion, it’s clear there will be no reasoning with Gravik, so G’iah injects herself with the Harvest, a collection of DNA from some of the MCU’s most powerful beings, including Captain Marvel and Thanos, and gets to work. Gravik goes down, and the world is safe once again. However, despite coming out victorious and setting herself up for a heroic career, Marvel Studios has yet to find another spot for her.
The easy explanation for G’iah’s absence in the last couple of years is that Secret Invasion is one of the MCU’s worst-reviewed series. Critics and audiences don’t find its story all that interesting, and it features a couple of shocking reveals that retcon important moments. But the truth of the matter is that Secret Invasion‘s reception probably has very little to do with cutting G’iah out. What’s getting in her way is the fact that she’s overpowered, so the MCU would struggle to find her an opponent worth her time. Sure, writers can come up with a way to depower her or make her enemy more powerful, but that’s a lot of effort to go to for a character with only one appearance.
And it’s not like G’iah is the only one struggling. Despite Thunderbolts* being all about Sentry’s incredible strength, by the end of the movie, he’s sitting on the sidelines. Nerfing him ensures that Doctor Doom and whoever else picks a fight with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Doomsday don’t stumble out of the gate. That’s not necessarily fair to a character who’s still trying to find his footing in an ever-expanding franchise, but it comes with the territory.
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