Secret Invasion messed with Rhodey at risk of ruining Tony Stark’s death
Kevin Feige plays with our nerves: “We like the idea of fans going back and seeing some of Rhodey’s old appearances in the MCU’s past…”
It’s a huge twist that marked the end of the series Secret Invasion. A massive reveal regarding James Rhodes, aka Rhodey, that could have repercussions far into the MCU’s past. A twist certainly too big to take on… Spoiler alert!
In the Disney Plus series finale, we discover that Rhodey has actually been a Skrull… for quite some time. How long ? Here is all the question. Since when an alien shapeshifter has he taken the place of James Rhodes in the MCU? ! G’iah (Emilia Clarke) also wonders when she takes the character out of Don Cheadle from his pod, while dressed in a white hospital patient coat, unable to walk on his own, suggesting he may have been there since his spinal cord injury contracted in Captain America: Civil War (2016). “Yes, that’s what you have to understand“, confirms Ali Selim in Variety. The director of Secret Invasion leaves more room for doubt in ComicBook.com around the timeline of events: “A lot of people ask the question… I think we see that his legs don’t work at the end of episode 6 of Secret Invasion and he’s wearing that hospital outfit that takes us back to Civil War… From there, is it final, or do we want to play with the public, so that they are tempted to go back in time to revisit every moment, every scene from Rhodey to through another prism, wondering if he is not a Skrull?“
The final answer will wait. “People get the idea… We love the idea of fans going back and seeing some of Rhodey’s old appearances in the MCU past and realizing it wasn’t him.” tease Kevin Feige officially to the Marvel site, refusing to confirm that his replacement dates from Civil Warthus leaving the possibility of a back-pedalling which seems inevitable.
Because we do not see how Rhodey could have been a Skrull all this time. For a decade, across the Marvel Universe timeline. It should be understood that an Alien took the place of the Colonel during his rehabilitation. That this Alien pretended to learn to walk again. And above all, that this same Skrull said a heartbreaking goodbye to Tony Stark at the end ofAvengers: Endgame. In this mythical Iron Man death sequence, Rhodey is the first to hold the hero’s hand, to understand that he’s not going to make it. He gives him a tender caress to let him go. So it was all bogus? We dare not believe it… Moreover, Rhodes seems to be himself at this moment, faithful to the Avengers. Besides, Gravik’s grand plan had certainly not yet gone into action at that time, had it?
Rhodey then briefly reappeared in Falcon & The Winter Soldier. We see him chatting with Sam Wilson asking him not to give up Captain America’s shield, delivering a funny speech: “Allies are enemies, alliances are all torn apart, the world is broken, everyone is looking for someone to fix it…” Indeed, there, the doubt is allowed. Perhaps this was actually an overt allusion to his Skrull secret. But the question then arises: what advantage would Gravik have had in convincing Wilson to continue as the Avenger? Wouldn’t he have kept the shield for himself? The only explanation could come from the fact that the Skrulls needed to be discreet in order to blend into the background, not arouse suspicion and thus place their pawns – like Rhodey – as close as possible to the pinnacles of world power. We would then understand why Rhodey left the army after Endgame to focus instead on his political career and get closer to the president…
The mystery remains intact. All of this should be clarified and explained in the coming months with the future Marve series, Armor Warscarried by Don Cheadle and announced on Disney Plus.
The release date is still undetermined.
