The Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off its Multiverse Saga in Phase Four with some strong early returns, and through some ups and downs, it found its way to Phase Five. Unfortunately, it would be wrong of us to ignore the fact that the fifth phase of the franchise has been anything other than a misfire, which is a real shame because, in the midst of a lot of its misses, there are some real cracking, potentially Top 5, MCU installments.
It's not too surprising that there were struggles along the way as this was the phase in which the Multiverse Saga's central storyline revolving around Kang the Conqueror was dropped and replaced by the build towards the arrival of a new villain: Doctor Doom, portrayed by none other than Robert Downey Jr. This was a game-changer, this was exciting, but unfortunately Phase Five was running out of time and titles to effectively steer the story in that direction. And without Doctor Doom on-screen to help with that, there were a lot of reshoots, delays, and more reshoots to attempt to pull it off.
We'll know whether they did by the time that Phase Six comes around and RDJ steps onto the screen in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, but in the meantime Phase Five struggled to overcome being the middle chapter in a trilogy (middle chapters are notorious for being, well, just a whole lot of middle designed for nothing else but to bridge the gap). But which parts of that middle chapter truly transcended their placement to stand tall as some of the MCU's best? Let's dive into them and find out.
13. Secret Invasion
It pains us to say that Secret Invasion is the worst title in Phase Five, but it was also an easy choice for this position as the six-part Disney Plus series is one of the worst titles in the entire MCU franchise. Bringing Samuel L. Jackson back as Nick Fury for a thriller series should have been a homerun but it dropped the ball entirely, resulting in a huge missed opportunity.
The pacing of the show was off, with early episodes moving too slowly and the finale ending up rushed. It also suffered from some downright senselessness as the idea of Fury not reaching out to his superhero buddies when a mass invasion was taking place was - quite simply - ridiculous. Avengers or no Avengers, there were people who could have helped him. A Skrull invasion was an Avengers-level threat, after all.
The show also featured some of the worst creative decisions Marvel Studios has ever made, with the loss of a major beloved character having no necessity and that big Rhodey twist that retroactively harmed some of the franchise's best titles. Both of those decisions were reviled, as was the CGI-heavy finale that has gone down in history as the lowest-scoring offering from the whole MCU.
Secret Invasion was at its best when focused on its actors, with Jackson and Olivia Colman producing some truly great performances, but its lows undermined any potential that this project had.