A ‘Black Widow’ hero makes a surprise ‘Secret Invasion’ comeback

This article contains spoilers for Secret Invasion episode 5

Secret Invasion‘s penultimate episode is here, and the pieces are now in place for next week’s finale. With Gravik’s mission to assassinate the President a failure, it’s time for a high-stakes Plan B. If he can arrange for an airstrike on the Russian-based New Skrullos then, once again, it’s time for world war!

Along the way, we got the unexpected return of a half-forgotten Black Widow character. This is O-T Fagbenle’s Rick Mason, who debuted in the 2021 prequel as a firm friend of Natasha Romanoff. In that movie, he proved adept at providing Nat with fake identities and equipment, even managing to source an Avengers Quinjet.

Now, Mason is back in Secret Invasion, and doesn’t appear to have changed much. Nick Fury is now an internationally wanted man, with Mason providing him with the credentials and tech to get through Finnish airport security unscathed.

In a nod to his connections to Natasha he also gave Fury a Mission: Impossible style disguise, the “Widow’s Veil” (aka the Photostatic Veil), also seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Black Widow took place in 2016, between Civil War and Infinity War, so chronologically this is the first time we’ve seen Mason in the MCU in nine years. We suspect this is more of a nod to the past than any kind of confirmation he’s back for good, but either way, it’s nice to see him.

Secret Invasion will conclude on July 26.