Warning: contains spoilers for Heroes Reborn #7!
Marvel has officially roasted its own Secret Invasion crossover event within the pages of Heroes Reborn - and it's none other than Marvel's official version of the Flash who's doing the roasting. The 2008 event showed plenty of promise just by the initial idea alone — an invasion by an enemy who can take any shape and mimic any hero — but quite infamously fizzled out without much payoff (and missed an opportunity to capitalize on what fans saw as many out-of-character moments from previous events). It appears Marvel has grown wise to its own mistakes, and are not above lampshading the event inside the Mephisto-manipulated world of Heroes Reborn.
In a world where the Avengers never assembled, the Squadron Supreme are hailed as Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Marvel's Squadron Supreme is its own pastiche of DC's Justice League, complete with thinly-veiled counterparts like Hyperion (Superman), Nighthawk (Batman), and their versions of Green Lantern and the Flash — Doctor Spectrum and Blur, respectively. The group — and others in the universe — can't shake the feeling that something is wrong with the world, especially with people continually mentioning these "Avengers" whom no one has ever heard of before.
Hunting for answers to the mystery in the Arctic, Doctor Spectrum finds evidence of a body that was recently exhumed from the ice. Blur is his usual hyperactive self. "I've seen this movie...he's a Skrull who wants to secretly invade us!" Doctor Spectrum promptly responds with "You're an idiot, Blur." It's a short exchange, but Blur essentially name-dropping the title of the event is proof enough that something akin to Secret Invasion happened in Heroes Reborn...and just like in mainstream Marvel continuity, it most likely did not amount to much. Secret Invasion revealed characters to be Skrulls...but they were C or D-list characters, and none of them had been Skrulls for long.
Perhaps Secret Invasion is most infamous for what it didn't do: reveal that certain major characters had been Skrull infiltrators for years — specifically, during the events of Civil War. That famous 2006 event was criticized by many fans for some decidedly out-of-character actions from the likes of Captain America, Iron Man and the politicians behind the Superhuman Registration Act. Revealing any of the many major participants in the conflict as Skrulls would have explained away their behavior during Civil War — but that was not the case. Thus, for example, when Iron Man created a Thor clone, that wasn't a Skrull imposter — that was Tony Stark himself. Secret Invasion could have revealed otherwise, but the writers decided not to take the opportunity for years-long betrayal plots and twists and settled for simple action.
Secret Invasion is admittedly not a terrible crossover event, but it ultimately failed to live up to the promise of the premise. What was promoted to be an event full of distrust and hidden agendas boiled down to yet another event where heroes fight heroes and none of the issues from Civil War were solved, merely addressed. Heroes Reborn delights in teasing fans with glimpses of the new world without giving away too much. Perhaps that's for the best, because Secret Invasion gave away too much too soon — and even Marvel (and Blur) can admit it.