WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Peacemaker Episode 3, "Better Goff Dead," streaming now on HBO Max.
One of the biggest, most anticipated projects in the Marvel Studios docket has been Secret Invasion. The TV series promised to build on the Skrulls seen in Captain Marvel, leaving fans eager to discover why their species became foes after Carol Danvers and Nick Fury started a mission to help the refugees find a new home in space. However, while it's assumed the Disney+ show will arrive sometime this year, the DC Extended Universe already beat Marvel to the punch with Peacemaker.
Secret Invasion was first announced in December 2020 and is based on the 2008/09 Marvel Comics event of the same name from Brian Michael Bendis, Leinil Francis Yu, Mark Morales and Laura Martin. The series, which spanned several titles, had the Skrulls acting on a long-term plan to invade Earth by replacing many of the planet's most powerful and recognizable superheroes. The infiltration was led by Queen Veranke, which resulted in many heroes returning to life after being thought dead, but also, Norman Osborn rising to power in Dark Reign after helping quell the invasion.
It was a duplicitous plot filled with secrets and lies -- something Peacemaker is already unraveling. In the first three episodes, John Cena's Chris Smith is rehired by ARGUS after coming out of the hospital following his injuries with Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad. He's put on Project: Butterfly, which he found hilarious, wondering if he's to kill Mothra from the Godzilla series.
That humor turned to fear when one of the "Butterflies" attacked him after he slept with her. She seemed to be an '80s glam rocker but she had superhuman strength, durability and could leap off buildings, akin to Wonder Woman. However, her guttural scream clearly indicated this woman was something more, but all evidence was removed when his sonic blast from his helmet more or less turned her into a bloody goop.
Peacemaker's crew would get a second crack in the Senator Goff assassination where he saw the family of Butterflies behaving like drones, with long tongues sucking up honey-like substances. Chris felt they were metahumans but clearly, they were aliens, which was confirmed after the family was killed and he blew Goff's head open. In the final moments, a butterfly-like alien burrowed out Goff's skull akin to a scene from Men in Black, and began hovering, leaving Chris and his buddy, Vigilante, curious as to what ARGUS is truly hiding.
They didn't let Chris know exactly what these beings were and as the final moments cut to the ARGUS screen, a monitor showed there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions of these entities, all over the world. They're hidden in humans, with many in people of power who could have been dictating the fate of the planet for years. Apart from politicians, they may even be inside heroes and powerful villains.
What's also scary is rather than being shape-shifters like the Skrulls, they're using humans as vessels so chances are they can even pass DNA tests. Thus, Chris and ARGUS will have a lot of spying and killing to do, and according to what Waller reveals, Peacemaker won't be saving just America, but the entire world.
To see DC pull off Secret Invasion first, Peacemaker is streaming now on HBO Max.