This ‘Secret Invasion’ flashback location is way more significant than you think

This article contains spoilers for Secret Invasion episode 2.

Secret Invasion isn’t subtle about what its story is really about. The Skrulls, first encountered in Captain Marvel, are a refugee alien race searching for a new home. With Nick Fury having failed to deliver one they’re now taking matters into their own hands. So far this is shaping up to be a parable about refugee communities and the mutual resentment between host nations and those struggling to hold onto their cultural identity.

Poured on top of all this is a healthy dose of racial awareness: Nick Fury being African American has already been mentioned many times in dialogue and is discussed at length in his conversation with James Rhodes. All of this makes the location of Secret Invasion episode two’s flashback scene particularly interesting.

Every other title card in the show simply names the city the scene takes place in, but the flashback title card names a specific neighborhood: “Brixton, London”, which has almost certainly been chosen because of its strong thematic and historical resonance with Secret Invasion.

After World War II, London needed to be rebuilt and the British government called upon the help of Jamaican communities. The first wave of immigrants arrived on HMT Windrush and made their homes in Brixton, and to this day it remains the center of London’s Afro-Caribbean community.

Since then, Brixton has seen several race riots arising from racist behavior by London’s Metropolitan Police, with this lingering tension a nice mirror for the Skrulls’ attempt to integrate into human culture and Secret Invasion‘s focus on Fury’s race (particularly as he speaks in front of an Afro-Caribbean mural).

So choosing Brixton as the location of Fury’s broken promise to the Skrulls is very appropriate, and we respect this attention to detail that few outside the United Kingdom will ever appreciate.