Marvel Fans Have Banded Together Over Mutual Hatred of AI in 'Secret Invasion'

Marvel fans have a tough time agreeing on anything. Was Thor: Love and Thunder good or bad? Is Captain Marvel the most powerful Avenger in the MCU? What age should Groot be?! It's exhausting. But this week, the fanbase managed to agree on one thing: Secret Invasion really messed up its opening-credits sequence. You may be asking, Wait, how can you get something as simple as the opening credits wrong?

Well, it's easy to miss the mark on something when you didn't do it yourself.

According to Ali Selim, Secret Invasion's director and executive producer, the segment was created by artificial intelligence. "We would talk to them about ideas and themes and words, and then the computer would go off," he told Polygon. Oh, it went off alright! Anyone who watched the first episode, which debuted on Wednesday, could see the twisted, green illustrations of star Samuel L. Jackson. In fact, audiences were upset with how the art looked even before news broke that it was made using artificial intelligence.

"This is salt in the wounds of all Artists and Writers in the WGA strike" wrote Jon Lam, a storyboard artist, on Twitter. Jeff Simpson, a concept artist, even stated that he spent "almost half a year working on this show" drawing character designs, and he was "devastated" to learn that Marvel outsourced the work with AI.

Method Studios, the visual company behind the opening credits, later issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter defending the work as "perfectly aligned with the project’s overall theme and the desired aesthetic." They sited the nature of the shapeshifting aliens at the center of the show's premise, stressing that "no artists’ jobs were replaced by incorporating these new tools." Sure, no one was replaced—but was anyone hired? The timing isn't great, either—one of the most noteworthy topics of the ongoing WGA strike concerns the need for writers to protect themselves agains the threat of artificial intelligence.

We'll see whether or not Marvel turns to AI again. But for once—when it comes to emerging technology—it's nice to see to see so many people prefer the old-fashioned way.

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