How Does Marvel’s Secret Invasion Episode 1 Compare to the Comics?

Marvel’s Secret Invasion on Disney Plus puts Nick Fury center stage as a group of rogue Skrulls attempts to overthrow the earth. It’s based on a 2008 Marvel Comics event of the same name that, in turn, led into another big crossover story. But knowing that, you might well be wondering — how does Marvel’s Secret Invasion episode 1 compare to the original comics?

How Secret Invasion Episode 1 Is Different from the Comics

I’m not going to bring up every little difference because unlike HBO’s The Last of Us, episode 1 of Marvel’s Secret Invasion deviates pretty heavily from the source material.

Perhaps the biggest difference is that Nick Fury doesn’t figure into the first issue at all, nor does Maria Hill. Instead, it features many of Marvel’s major heroes — Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and so on. And unlike the MCU’s Skrulls, the comic Skrulls are known for being villainous.

Like in the show, a dead character is revealed to be a Skrull. But in this case it’s Elektra, ninja assassin and Daredevil’s on-off-on girlfriend. And while the show has a very Cold War feel, the first issue of the comic is all action. In fact, there’s so much going on in the first issue that it’d need a ridiculously massive budget.

A virus cripples S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarriers, S.W.O.R.D.’s space station is destroyed, and everyone inside superhuman prison The Cube is freed. On top of that, the Fantastic Four’s Baxter Building is sucked into a wormhole and the Avengers find a crash-landed spaceship containing copies of themselves.

The issue ends with the revelation that Hank Pym is a Skrull, and while no one technically dies at the end of the issue, Skrull Pym absolutely wrecks Reed Richards with a Skrull weapon.

In short, Secret Invasion issue 1 is absolutely wild in the comics.

Are There Any Similarities Between Secret Invasion Episode 1 and the Comics?

So given how different the comic is to the show, are there any actual similarities, other than the general premise? Aside from a dead character being revealed as a Skrull (Everett Ross, not Elektra Natchios), no, not really.

There is still that note of paranoia, of not knowing who’s secretly a Skrull. You can expect that kind of mistrust to play a major part in future episodes. It may even be that some characters have been Skrulls the whole time. But on the whole, Marvel’s Secret Invasion episode 1 is really very different from the comics, making trying to compare them difficult.