Secret Invasion, by all counts, should have been a smash hit. It was the first Marvel Studios project to focus on Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Considering that the spymaster has been a significant part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since its inception, getting his own series was an important milestone. It would also adapt the popular Marvel comic maxiseries by Brian Michael Bendis and Lenil Francis Yu, which saw the shape-shifting Skrulls launch a takeover of Earth (and revealed that they impersonated some of Marvel’s biggest heroes). But Secret Invasion was a mess, killing off characters and muddling the Skrulls’ motives in addition to looking less impressive than its massive budget would suggest.

Despite Secret Invasion not living up to fan expectations, there’s another Marvel show that took the idea of a beloved character being replaced and ran with it. That show is none other than Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the first major Marvel television series. Despite a shaky start, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. began to drastically improve in subsequent seasons, with Season 4 taking a unique approach: it was split into three distinct storylines. The first focused on Robbie Reyes, also known as Ghost Rider (Gabriel Luna), while the second introduced the concept of Life Modey Decoys. In Marvel Comics canon, Nick Fury utilizes LMDs to carry out his spywork, but Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. took things to a darker level.

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Season 4 Kept the Audience on Their Toes

The seeds for the LMD arc were first sown in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s Season 4 premiere “The Ghost”, where Leo Fitz (Iain de Caestecker) learns that his fellow scientist Holden Radcliffe (John Hannah) is working on perfecting the LMDs, eventually transferring his homegrown artificial intelligence AIDA (Mallory Jensen) to the first working LMD prototype. But due to a series of events, AIDA starts replacing the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with LMD copies, beginning with Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen). What makes the “LMD” arc of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. so compelling is that it deploys its LMD reveals when they’re least expected. When Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) decides to interrogate Radcliffe about Aida’s origins, it turns out that Radcliffe made his own LMD to stay off the grid.

However, the most disturbing moment occurs in the Season 4 episode, “The Patriot”, when the May LMD is wounded and discovers her robotic identity. The look of shock on her face indicates that she was unaware she was an LMD, which makes the surprise hit even more impactful. In contrast, whenever Skrulls are revealed to be in Secret Invasion, the reveals don’t hit as hard because unlike Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., they aren’t characters we’ve connected to. The sole exception is the finale “Home”, which reveals that a Skrull replaced James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle), The idea that such an integral character had been replaced for who knows how long was a glimpse of the potential that laid within Secret Invasion‘s narrative, and it’s the type of twist that the series should have learned into. But it ends like it began: only hinting at a better story rather than telling it.

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Introduced A Concept That Affected Future Marvel Shows

The “LMD” arc concludes with the episode “Self Control”, where Aida traps the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in a virtual reality known as the Framework. In this world, reality is turned upside-down; Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet) is an agent of HYDRA instead of S.H.I.E.L.D. and in a relationship with Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), who betrayed the S.H.I.E.L.D. team in the real world. But the most shocking turn is that Fitz is in a relationship with Aida, who’s referring to herself as Madame Hydra. This results in one of the more tense scenes in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’‘s history when the S.H.I.E.L.D. team escapes the Framework. In “The Return”, Fitz has a conversation with Aida and tells her he loves Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) rather than her; to say Aida doesn’t take it well is an understatement. But it’s one of many moments where Mallory Jensen gets to make Aida a fleshed-out character, rather than your stock “evil AI”. In contrast, while Kingsley Ben-Adir gives a great performance as the Skrull warrior Gravik, his motives feel less defined than Aida’s.

There’s a reason for Aida’s descent into madness, and it has to do with the cursed book of spells known as the Darkhold. She utilizes it to strengthen the Framework, explaining why the S.H.I.E.L.D team isn’t able to escape its grasp freely, and later uses it to create a human body so she can be with Fitz. The Darkhold began to appear in other Marvel projects, playing a major role in WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as well as the final season of Runaways. Using the Darkhold as the element that ties everything together not only enhances the LMD arc, but it also runs parallel to the Ghost Rider story —a stark contrast from how rushed the Super Skrull plot was in Secret Invasion.

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Season 4 Ended With a Major Plot Twist

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Season 4 finale “World’s End” features a plot twist that tops a season’s worth of plot twists: in order to stop Aida, Coulson takes on the power of the Ghost Rider to battle her and recaptures the Darkhold. Not only was this an awesome moment, but it led to one of the most tragic moments in Season 5 when it was revealed that Coulson’s life would be shortened due to taking on the Ghost Rider powers. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was literally built around Coulson as a character, following his miraculous resurrection after The Avengers; to lose him all over again felt immensely tragic. But Coulson would make a third return in the final season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as an LMD no less! The LMD arc of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. brought plenty of emotional upheavals and superhero-style spy action, and it’s a template that Secret Invasion should have stuck to.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is available to stream on Disney+.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Release Date

2013 – 2020-00-00

Network

ABC

Showrunner

Jed Whedon

Directors

Kevin Tancharoen, Jesse Bochco, Billy Gierhart, Vincent Misiano, Bobby Roth, Nina Lopez-Corrado, Brad Turner, David Solomon, Eric Laneuville, Kate Woods, Kevin Hooks, Milan Cheylov, Ron Underwood, Roxann Dawson, Wendey Stanzler, Clark Gregg, David Straiton, Holly Dale, John Terlesky, Joss Whedon, Stanley M. Brooks, Keith Potter, Dwight H. Little, Elodie Keene

Writers

Monica Owusu-Breen, Sharla Oliver, Lauren LeFranc, James C. Oliver, Rafe Judkins, Matt Owens, Mark Leitner, Iden Baghdadchi, Shalisha Francis, Chris Dingess