The return of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) in an eagerly awaited Disney series did not bring the rage of other times. And, just like him, it seems that the fans appreciate it, they continue the fight, but are more tired. After all, he tried everything but lost a lot of people in the process. The still-dark phase of the Marvel universe coincidentally reflects much of what we have experienced in recent years. They survived Thanos and his snap that killed half the Planet (including Fury), and we survived a Covid-19 Pandemic and lost about 6,943,390 people. You can draw a parallel.

Like all survivors, perhaps especially those brought back to life 5 years later, like the former director of SHIELD, Nick Fury is more cynical and without the same energy to put himself in front of the crises still taking place on Earth. Without subtlety, the ‘return’ episode is called “Resurrection” which reflects this feeling. As we saw at the end of the Spider-Man movie, Fury was in space aboard the SABER space station, sort of on ‘vacation’ or retired. Down here the metaverse messes were running wild, but he was there, “resting,” as Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) complains. What brings him back? ‘His’ Skrull friends. It’s just that 30 years after receiving unfulfilled promises of having a new planet, a portion of the refugees decides to act and take over the Earth. They’re led by Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), whose strategy of action is the old-fashioned one of starting a war between Russia and the US to create the opportunity to take over what’s left.

Who receives Nick, in addition to Maria, is his friend, Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), now a widower and estranged from his daughter, G’iah (Emilia Clarke, from Game of Thrones), since she joined Gravik’s group. So the two are trying to do several things at the same time, to prevent the Skrulls from being able to invade, that there is no war, and that G’iah reconciles with her father. In pursuit of the two, in addition to the antagonist, is Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman), an MI6 agent who adopts not very popular measures to succeed in eradicating the threat.

The problem, as Maria warns, is that in the years she was off the planet, a lot has changed, but our hero apparently doesn’t realize it. For example, because Skrulls can pass for humans, they are already positioned in important geopolitical roles, making it difficult to identify them. An unexpected death can snap Fury out of this inertia, a little too late.

Just like And Just Like That, it seems that we either get tired of what we see or have unreachable expectations. The episode is great and Samuel L. Jackson is wonderful as always, but apart from his interaction with Olivia Colman, we are left with the same slowness of the character circling in a confused universe, kind of without purpose. The special effects aren’t quite convivial enough, Gravik’s revolt still lacking any empathy and even less G’iah’s decision to go against her parents. Unsurprisingly, the reaction was lukewarm, to see how the next episodes go (there are only 6 in total). Otherwise, discussions such as the use of Artificial Intelligence to create the opening credits will gain prominence and Nick Fury deserves better than that.