Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’ Controversy, Explained

Marvel’s latest superhero series, Secret Invasion, has sparked online backlash after director Ali Selim let slip that the opening credits were created using generative AI.

The first episode of Secret Invasion was released on Disney+ on Wednesday, but the buzz on social media was mostly negative, with many calling for a boycott of the series, pointing to the questionable ethics of using AI to replace artists.

Selim told Polygon that he believed that AI fit with the themes of the show, which sees Earth invaded by a shape-shifting alien race, the Skrulls.

Selim admitted that he doesn’t “really understand” how generative AI works, and explained that the sequence was designed by Method Studios, describing the creative process as: “We would talk to them about ideas and themes and words, and then the computer would go off and do something. And then we could change it a little bit by using words, and it would change.”

The reveal sparked a visceral reaction online, with many sharing images and video clips of the opening sequence.

Video footage and animation produced by generative AI tends to be quite distinctive, with textures ranging from cloudy to smooth plastic, and images melting in to one another, like a fever dream.

Generative AI is a genuinely excellent tool when it comes to a very specific kind of body horror; AI-generated footage often goes viral because it is so profoundly disturbing, plunging deep into the depths of the uncanny valley.

But AI-generated images are not the result of an artist reaching into the darkest recesses of their subconscious, like, say, the work of H.R. Giger. AI-generated images are uniquely unpleasant because of the lack of artistic intent, generated by a machine incapable of understanding context.

This isn’t a philosophical distinction; as many pointed out, these opening credits are a mess, featuring an image of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, with two not-quite-eyepatches and missing teeth.

Compare it to any random frame from Across the Spider-Verse, a film bursting with chaotic energy and clashing art styles, and the difference becomes clear; artists could have created a visually distinctive credits sequence, if they had been paid to do so.

As many have pointed out, generative AI poses an existential threat to all working artists, simply because putting prompts into a machine is cheaper and faster than paying workers (not to mention, the technology has been trained on the work of artists, without their consent).

The decision to introduce generative AI into the MCU feels timely, as the advent of generative AI helped spark the ongoing writers strike, as the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) recognized that the technology posed an existential threat and demanded that AI be regulated.

The WGA requested that “AI can’t write or rewrite literary material,” “can’t be used as source material,” and that “MBA-covered material can’t be used to train AI,” the concern being that AI could be used to create drafts of screenplays, with writers being hired at reduced rates to polish AI-generated scripts.

The Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) rejected the proposal, offering to hold “annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology.”

Notably, Marvel Studios has faced backlash over the last few years from burnt-out VFX artists who have spoken out against toxic working conditions, claiming that Marvel is notorious for cost-cutting and pushing VFX artists to breaking point, resulting in ugly, rushed visual effects.

Ironically, Marvel’s film and television output is often derided by critics as formulaic, an assembly line of content that seems to have been generated by soulless algorithms.

With the introduction of generative AI into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that critique seems like a bleak prediction.