‘Secret Invasion’: Who Is Raava? Is She the Real Rhodey?

If there’s one thing that we know about ‘Secret Invasion,’ it’s that the Skrulls have planted a lot of different people in important positions in the government. Of course, this included the United States, the most powerful nation in the world and should have been a prime target for the Skrulls. So, in that regard, Gravik installed a Skrull named Raava on President Ritson’s side. So, who is Raava?

Raava is a female Skrull loyal to Gravik and has been communicating with him as his spy in the US government. That’s because Raava is the Skrull that has been impersonating Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes throughout the events of ‘Secret Invasion.’ 

We learned in episode 4 that the Rhodey we have seen in ‘Secret Invasion’ was actually a Skrull the entire time. Of course, this makes things more difficult for Nick Fury and his allies because an Avenger is now incredibly close to the US president and is looking to convince him to bomb an entire country. That said, let’s look at what we know about Raava and what her role is in ‘Secret Invasion.’

Raava’s identity explained

Ever since the start of the storyline of ‘Secret Invasion,’ we were already privy to the possibility that there could be Skrulls working for some of the top governments of the entire world.

Of course, the Skrulls have been impersonating some of the most prominent characters we’ve seen. In the first scene of the series, we see Agent Everett Ross was a Skrull, even though we know that the real Ross might be somewhere in Wakanda. We can’t let our eyes deceive us because anyone in the MCU can be a Skrull.

Of course, in episode 2, Nick Fury went to see Col. James Rhodes, who worked for the president of the United States as one of his top advisers. Fury wanted to tell Rhodey that there were Skrulls in the government and that they could be anyone. And that was when Rhodey revealed that he knew that Skrulls existed but was unsure who could be the Skrull that Gravik planted in the US government.

But in episode 4, we learned that the version of Rhodey we’ve seen in ‘Secret Invasion’ has been a Skrull the entire time. Rhodey goes to a church to meet up with Varra to tell her to murder Nick Fury because Gravik ordered her to do so. In that regard, it was clear that Rhodey was a Skrull.

What made things even clearer was that we saw a female Skrull showering and looking at the mirror before transforming into Rhodes. This Skrull happened to be one that was named Raava.

While her name was revealed in the end credits, it was only in episode 5 that her name was mentioned in ‘Secret Invasion’ when Gravik called her and told her to stop her killing of President Ritson because he had other plans in mind.

It was later revealed that Gravik wanted Raava to convince the president to bomb the Skrull compound in Russia so that a war between the US and Russia would break out. This came after Gravik tried to make it seem like the Russians and Skrulls were working together.

In that regard, Raava has had one of the biggest roles in the entire Skrull invasion because she advised President Ritson regarding the matters involving the Russians.

Nick Fury also taught Raava that he knew she wasn’t Rhodey and a Skrull. Raava already had her hunches since episode 4, but it was only in episode 5 that she learned that Fury found out that she wasn’t the real Rhodey as he planted a listening device on Varra and listened in on their conversation in the church. That’s why Fury wanted to keep Raava away from the president, who the fake Rhodey could always influence.

After all, Gravik’s main goal was to pit the US and Russia in a war that would destabilize the two most powerful countries in the entire world. Of course, their allies would join the war and plunge the world into chaos. Then and only then would the Skrulls try to take over, as the different military forces of Earth had already been weakened due to World War III. 

Was Raava always the real Rhodey?

While we already know that Raava has been the one impersonating Rhodey during the events of ‘Secret Invasion,’ some people are wondering whether or not she has always been the real Rhodey the entire time. Of course, we’ve been following Rhodey since the first MCU movie, ‘Iron Man.’ And we have good reasons to believe that Rhodey was never a Skrull from the beginning but was only replaced by Raava at one point.

Of course, we know that the Rhodey that worked with the Avengers was the real deal because of the fact that he was wearing a brace that allowed him to walk after he got injured back in ‘Captain America: Civil War.’ Meanwhile, the Rhodey we’ve seen in ‘Secret Invasion’ doesn’t seem to have any problems walking without a brace.

That means there’s a good chance that Rhodes was kidnapped by the Skrulls and replaced by Raava, quickly installed by the US president’s side. It is possible that Rhodes was kidnapped after his short cameo appearance in ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.’ There’s even a good chance that the Skrulls kidnapped him shortly after the ‘Avengers: Endgame’ events.

Whatever the case, there’s a chance that we would see the true Rhodey appearing in the series finale of ‘Secret Invasion’ so that we would understand what happened to him and where he was the entire time. After all, Rhodey is set to appear in the ‘Armor Wars’ series that will feature him as one of the most important characters in that storyline.

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