In Marvel’s Secret Invasion, what is SABER, Nick Fury’s space station?

The premiere of Marvel’s Secret InvasionThe series talks a lot about things it doesn’t show. No, it’s not the shadowy threat of Skrull invasion — it’s SABER, Nick Fury’s space station that he uses for… You know, it’s not really clear why Nick Fury has a space station.

But what is clear, if you’ve been following along, is that SABER is going to be a part of the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s already cropped up in trailers for this fall’s Marvels, and we got our first look at it in 2019’s Spider-Man: A Faraway Home. SABER has a comic book counterpart, but you have to squint.

So here’s everything we know about SABER, the next big set piece of the MCU.

[Ed. Note: Mild spoilers for the first episode of Secret Invasion follow.]

What SABER is in MCUs?

Image: Sony Pictures

Secret Invasion’s premiere lays out Nick Fury’s new status quo: After getting Blipped in the credits scene of Avengers: Infinity WarHe returned to the SABER space station, which was inhabited by Skrulls. Since then, he’s interceded in Earth’s affairs only through Skrull intermediaries — sending Talos to masquerade as himself in order to keep Spider-Man and Mysterio on the up and up in Spider-Man: A Faraway HomeMonica Rambeau is recruited at the last minute by a second agent. WandaVisionBring her to SABER so that he can meet with her. Thanks to the trailer for MarvelsWe know she gets there.

What does SABER actually do?

It’s unclear, so far! (We don’t even know what it stands for.) SWORD, a SHIELD like program to defend against alien threats is already in place on Earth. It was launched in WandaVision, as a program created by Captain Marvel’s late friend Maria Rambeau, Monica’s mom. But if SABER was a part of SWORD, you wouldn’t think Nick Fury would have to send a secret agent to spirit Monica, an agent of SWORD, up there.

What is the SABER in Marvel Comics.

Image: Marvel Comics

No and yes

There is a SWORD in Marvel Comics, and that program has its own kind-of-sword-shaped space station, but it’s called the Peak, not SABER. SWORD is the Sentient World Observation and Response Department in comic books. That is, it is a sister organization to SHIELD, that coordinates Earth’s response to developments on other worlds that are inhabited by sentient beings. It is not worlds which are sentient themselves, though the Marvel Universe also has these.

So it would seem that SABER’s inclusion in the MCU’s much more grounded retelling of Secret InvasionIt could be just a red-herring or a small detail added to the storyline in order to maintain coherence. Marvels.

The destruction of the Peak is not the only thing that has happened You can learn more about it hereOne of many inciting incidents Secret InvasionComics. If there were already SABER sets ready to go, then that would be great. Marvels, who’s to say that Secret Invasion couldn’t borrow it for some shooting? Maybe we’ll have to wait for Marvels to see more of SABER firsthand — but then again, maybe not.