Tag Archives: Agents of SHIELD

‘Agents of SHIELD’ slow burn or burning down?

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Agents of SHIELD magical place coulson

It’ll be really interesting to see how we feel about “Agents of SHIELD” in May.

The Disney/ABC series, about halfway through its first season, debuted in September to good ratings and impossible expectations. The street-level spin-off of Marvel’s cinematic universe and follow-up to “The Avengers,” the show looked at the non-superhero agents – like Phil Coulson, played in the Marvel movies and here by Clark Gregg – who are left dealing with the aftermath of the Battle of New York.

But while ratings are still … fine … disappointment set in as each successive episode not only failed to hand over the candy – Marvel characters we’ve wanted to see and fantastic events, even on a TV budget – but seemed like a routine supernatural procedural, an “X-Files” knockoff.

The showrunners have promised that “Agents of SHIELD” was in the middle of a slow burn, with the mismatched agents who are the series’ central characters still learning to trust each other and the mystery behind the resurrection of Coulson – who was ostensibly killed by Loki in “The Avengers” – slowly playing out. Sooo slowly. And obviously.

Last night’s first episode of 2014, “A Magical Place,” followed up on the kidnapping of Coulson by agents of Centipede, the organization that has been trying to turn people into superbeings. Centipede wants to know Coulson’s secret – SHIELD’s secret, really – of how you bring someone back from the dead.

Most of the rest of the episode really doesn’t matter and already has mostly disappeared from my memory. Vivid in my mind is the scene in which, through a Centipede experiment, Coulson recalls his resurrection at the hands of SHIELD director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson. There’s Coulson, strapped to a table, his brain exposed and being probed – seemingly being kntted back together – by a high-tech device.

And the entire time, Coulson is begging to be allowed to die.

It was an unsettling scene and Coulson’s unsettled reaction to the memory makes me wonder if the series isn’t going the way I speculated a few weeks ago in making SHIELD itself a bad guy – or at least an organization that needs reigning in.

That would also appear to be setting us up for the plot of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” which debuts in theaters in April and appears to pit the Sentinel of Liberty against at least some elements of SHIELD.

Considering the showrunners of “Agents of SHIELD” – created by “Avengers” mastermind Joss Whedon – would certainly never be able to tip the hand of the Cap movie, it’s possible this is where “Agents of SHIELD” has been heading all along.

We’ll know within a few weeks, certainly by the time the movie comes out in April and the first season of the series winds down in May.

It’s asking a lot of today’s short-attention span, general audience viewers to wait an entire season to get a bead on a show’s characters, tone and plot.

But maybe, come spring, it’ll all make sense to us, and we’ll see if the show’s slow burn has been worth burning some early viewers.

‘Arrow’ – Best superhero TV of all time?

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Three GhostsHow can you – well, I, really – proclaim anything the best of its kind of all time when it’s still relatively new and hasn’t withstood the test of time?

Beats the heck out of me. But I’m inclined to call “Arrow” the best live-action superhero series of all time. And yes, we’re not quite half-way through the CW network show’s second season.

But the gritty and stylish Greg Berlanti-developed series, featuring Stephen Arnell as millionaire crimefighter and adventurer Oliver Queen, who uses gimmicky arrows and amazing trick shots to fight crime, is tops.

Believe me, I didn’t expect to go into this fall season liking “Arrow,” the DC Comics-based show about a Batman-style vigilante in its second season, better than “Agents of SHIELD,” the TV beachhead for the Marvel movie universe.

And yet …

Crowning “Arrow” might sound like heresy for people who loved the simple pleasures of the 1950s “Adventures of Superman” series or the camp 1960s classic “Batman” or even more recent ventures like “Lois and Clark” or “The Flash” or “Birds of Prey,” all of which have their strong points.

But no, “Arrow” is better than all of them, a truly satisfying experience for comic book fans.

I was a little worried about “Arrow” when it was announced by the CW a couple of years ago. The Green Arrow character had been a nice addition to the network’s “Smallville,” the 10-season show about the growing years of Superman and, for me, marked when the series finally got interesting. The Clark and Lex theme of the show was always good but the writers were just too coy for too long. And I have to say I was kind of ticked off when they never actually showed Clark in the suit, even in the final episode. It all reeked of superhero shame.

But despite some coyness of its own – “Arrow” instead of “Green Arrow” as a title – “Arrow” has the courage of its convictions. The series put millionaire Oliver Queen into a green hood right from the word go and put him on the path to avenging criminal activity. He’s surrounded by an engaging supporting cast.

barry allen on arrow

And the series has aggressively set about building its own universe, adding characters like Black Canary, Slade Wilson, Huntress and, this week, Barry Allen, a young police scientist who’s not yet the Flash. The character, as played by Grant Gustin, is apparently destined for his own CW show. If it’s handled like “Arrow,” we’ll have another classic on our screens.

“Arrow” has some problems, certainly. But it feels like they recognized most of them early.

Chief among them is Katie Cassidy, cast as Oliver’s ex-girlfriend Dinah Laurel Lance, who comic fans know is destined to become Black Canary, a tough-as-nails hero and companion to Green Arrow.

But it’s almost as if the producers decided early on that the character and actress combination was just too … I don’t know, awkward? Cassidy seems like she would never for a moment be believable as a street-fighting gal. The show has introduced a new Black Canary, Dinah’s sister, played by Caity Lotz, and she’s more believable.

The cast is pretty uniformly good, from thinking man’s hunk Arnell to David Ramsey as Dig, Oliver’s cohort, to Emily Bett Richards as Felicity, Oliver’s Gal Friday and tech guru who deserves all the online worship she gets.

The show flips back and forth from Arrow’s exploits fighting crime in present-day Starling City (an inexplicable change from Star City in the comics) to five years earlier, when Oliver was shipwrecked on a not-even-remotely-deserted island and learned his survival skills.

The first season gave us an Oliver on a mission to clean up his city and willing to casually kill bad guys. The second season has Oliver pursuing a less murderous campaign. Heck, he’s apparently even about to start wearing the mask seen in the photo at top here.

All the while, “Arrow” is adding characters and mythology and feeling stronger and stronger.

‘Agents of SHIELD’ – Five ways to save it

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agents of shield cast

Remember way  back in September, when Marvel’s first modern-era TV production, “Agents of SHIELD,” seemed so exciting?

Sure we were all worried about how Marvel and show creator Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “The Avengers”) would be able to translate the excitement of the big-screen world onto ABC’s small screen. That ABC was showing it at 8 p.m. Tuesdays was also a concern. Nobody expected tough-and-gritty stories and atmosphere anyway, although we might see that with “Daredevil” and the other shows Marvel is doing for Netflix. An 8 p.m. timeslot all but guaranteed a fairly family-friendly aura.

But we were genuinely excited at the thought of everything that might happen. “SHIELD” would be a weekly dose of the greater Marvel  universe, filled with characters we love, characters that have never been portrayed in live action before. Luke Cage! Moon Knight!

At first, “Agents of SHIELD” seemed like a sure-fire hit. The pilot got very good ratings.

But as the first nine episodes continued to air, audience numbers dropped – and so did our expectations of and faith in the show.

Too many episodes, although they seem “thisclose” to really taking off, somehow fail to. The core team of SHIELD operatives isn’t that interesting. Too much time has been spent teasing the audience about what happened to Phil Coulson after Loki “killed” him. And the roster of comic book characters that have been allowed to make an appearance is lackluster. Graviton? Really?

So here’s what the producers of “Agents of SHIELD” need to do before it’s too late. If it isn’t already too late.

nick fury agents of shield

Give us some well-known characters. When Whedon said a while back that “Agents of SHIELD” gave him a few dozen opportunities to make “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” a little less special when it came out in 2015, he wasn’t joking. Obviously nobody at Marvel or Disney or ABC wants to sate the audience’s interest in Marvel heroes before the movie comes out. And obviously Marvel wants to save some characters for big-screen movies, which is why you won’t see Dr. Strange, I’m guessing. But stop with the one-and-done, wannabes and third-raters. There ware many, many Marvel characters the show could introduce.

Retool the cast. Each of the supporting characters is fine, really, but they’re the type of characters that Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson was in the Marvel movies. In other words, just that: Supporting. I loved episodes of “Buffy” that revolved around that show’s “supporting” cast. Remember “The Zeppo” and Xander as below-the-radar hero? “Agents of SHIELD” hasn’t, so far, been able to do that kind of thing with Fitz or Simmons or May or Skye.

Resolve Phil Coulson’s status now. Or at least take it to the next level. Remember in the final season of “Buffy” when Buffy would make a different version of the “this is gonna be a tough battle” speech what seemed like every week? Jeez, that got old. It seemed like the series was treading water. “SHIELD” seems to have fallen into the same trap with its near-weekly reminder that something is different with Agent Coulson. A while back I suggested they needed to let Coulson – who is blocked from viewing his own medical records – find out he’s a clone or Life Model Decoy or whatever, break ranks with SHIELD and go at least a little rogue. “The good guys versus SHIELD” angle appears to be at least part of the plot of next April’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” so it wouldn’t be totally out of character for the Marvel universe.

aim

Bring on the bad guys. SHIELD’s adversaries in the show so far have been weak to only mildly intriguing. I’m not sure I care a whit about Centipede unless it morphs into HYDRA. How about AIM? Advanced Idea Mechanics was referenced in “Iron Man 3.” In the comics, they were guys in crazy yellow hazmat/beekkeeper outfits. I’m sure the show could come up with an updated uniform.

iron-man-3-after-credits-scene

Give us some star power. Samuel L. Jackson’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in an early episode was fine. But we want more meat. Remember Mark Ruffalo’s appearance at the end of “Iron Man 3?” We want that in “SHIELD,” magnified.

Maybe “Agents of SHIELD” will resolve its problems quickly and, by February, be the kick-ass Marvel TV experience we all want. A couple of upcoming episodes hold promise.

But if not, it’s hard to imagine many of us sticking around.

‘The Well’ takes ‘SHIELD’ to ‘Thor’ territory

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CLARK GREGG, CHLOE BENNET, MING-NA WEN

Tonight’s “The Well,” the eighth episode of “Agents of SHIELD,” tried and mostly accomplished its latest delicate task: Tying into the big-screen Marvel universe.

“The Well” was billed as a follow-up to “Thor: The Dark World,” but really the plot that drove the episode wasn’t so much a continuation of the current “Thor” sequel but a variation on the idea of humans coming into contact with Asgardian (alien) technology we’ve seen before.

That’s not to say “The Well” wasn’t entertaining – most episodes of the series are; they’re just … underwhelming – but its most interesting element was a little more exploration of the show’s least appealing character, the gruff and ultra-competent Agent Grant Ward.

In the episode, the team is in England, picking up the pieces (literally) left over from Thor’s battle in the current movie. Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) consults with a Norse legends expert in Spain (played by Peter MacNicol) and unwittingly sets off a chase to recover portions of an Asgardian staff.

The staff – the weapon of an Asgardian berserker that’s been on Earth for centuries; so the Thor aftermath stuff is really only a way to get the expert involved – has been broken into three pieces. Each piece has the power to tap into the rage of the person holding it, increasing their strength.

A group of Nordic hate mongers (just go with it) gets first one, then two pieces and the race is on to stop them from getting the third and completing the berserker staff.

In the process, Ward (Brett Dalton) gets “infected” by touching the staff. Normally a slightly edgy, even standoffish guy, touching the piece of staff lets Ward’s rage turn him into a hostile bully. One important point, though: Ward recognizes the change and offers to bench himself. And Coulson – much like he’s given hacker Skye more than a few chances – keeps Ward in play.

The episode ends with a surprising encounter between Ward and Agent May (Ming Na Wen) and a Tahiti flashback for Coulson.

A couple of thoughts:

The show still isn’t as engaging as “Sleepy Hollow” or “The Blacklist,” but I’m enjoying it a bit more each week.

I’m ready for some real developments with Coulson’s resurrection.

I’m wondering how SHIELD itself will be portrayed by the end of this first season. By the time “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” comes out next spring, I’m wondering if SHIELD won’t be the bad guy in the whole Marvel universe picture and the agents we’ve (hopefully by then) come to care about will be like the “Angel” gang in Joss Whedon’s series of the same name, who were working for good in the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart.

TV catch-up: ‘Sleepy Hollow,’ ‘The Walking Dead,’ ‘SHIELD’ and more

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sleepy hollow headless horseman

The highlights of my TV viewing year are the limited runs of “Mad Men” on AMC, “Justified” on FX and “The Walking Dead” on AMC. That’s not to say there aren’t other shows that I’m hooked on.

But they always take a backseat to those three.

This fall, there’s a surprisingly high number of shows that have rapidly become must-see (to coin a phrase) viewing. This doesn’t count “Parks and Recreation,” for example, a charmingly daft sitcom that just keeps chugging along.

Here’s a roundup of what I’m digging right now:

“Sleepy Hollow” – This fantasy adventure series, which has become something of a hit, is one of the greatest pleasures on TV right now. If you haven’t watched the first half of this 13-episode season, go catch up, online or on demand, right now. I’ll wait.

Okay, back? The story of the return of Revolutionary War soldier and spy Ichabod Crane, reborn in modern times more than 200 years after he and the (now) Headless Horseman fought it out on a New York battlefield, is terrific fun. Crane is teamed with a young female cop as they investigate the rebirth of the Horseman, who turns out to be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelations. 

The show has something for everyone: Fish out of water comedy and commentary, monster of the week, creepy thrills, fun special effects and great chemistry among the cast members.

Tonight’s episode found the 21st century characters explaining to Crane the secret relationship between Thomas Jefferson – one of his contemporaries and heroes – and Sally Hemmings, all the while preparing a snare to trap the Headless Horseman with ultraviolet light. You don’t have to ask. Just go with it.

“The Walking Dead” – I was relieved to see the Governor show up at the end of last night’s episode. I was feeling a little claustrophobic with the flu storyline that’s dominated this season so far. I do love the beefed up roles for many in the cast, including Carol. Was anyone else as surprised as I was about Carol’s exile?

“Agents of SHIELD” – I was looking forward to this Marvel spin-off more than any other series this fall, and I’m not alone in my disappointment at the resulting show. Each episode is an improvement on the last, for the most part, but I can’t be the only one that’s impatient with the character development and over-arching plot. I’m still watching, however.

“The Blacklist” – God help me, but I’m enjoying this series more than “SHIELD.” “The Blacklist,” about a mysterious criminal (James Spader) who comes in from the cold to help the FBI catch other criminals, isn’t quite as looney as “Sleepy Hollow,” but almost. Spader is the main reason to watch as he gives a master class in unsettling but entertaining villainy.  I can’t wait to see him as the bad guy in “The Avengers: The Age of Ultron.”

“The Mindy Project” – As fun and kooky as “Parks and Recreation” is, there’s not a more clever sitcom on TV right now than “The Mindy Project,” with Mindy Kaling as a neurotic doc surrounded by neurotic docs in NYC. The second season of the show is even better than the first.

‘Agents of SHIELD’ improving, but what it could learn from ‘Sleepy Hollow’ and ‘The Blacklist’

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SHIELD girl in a flower dress

Okay, that was more like it.

Five weeks in. “Agents of SHIELD” feels a little more like it’s finding its way. And who knows, maybe the slow burn strategy of Joss Whedon and his showrunners has been planned this way all along.

But tonight’s episode, “The Girl in a Flower Dress,” took a couple of big steps toward making the show a must-see each week and, in the process, accomplished a couple of things: It (mostly) resolved the “is she or isn’t she a mole?” storyline about hacker Skye, and it furthered a series Big Bad in Centipede, the group that’s continuing the Extremis experiments – giving people superpowers, as in “Iron Man 3” and the “SHIELD” pilot, through dangerous chemicals.

It also established some other nifty ideas, including the fact that “SHIELD” has a list of superpowered people it’s keeping tabs on. This has been a matter-of-fact part of the Marvel movies and needed to be re-established here.

What still needs to be resolved right away: Coulson’s secret. If there’s one more reference to how the unwitting Coulson (the wonderfully deadpan Clark Gregg) has changed since Loki impaled him in “The Avengers,” I’ll cry.

Coulson thinks he died for a few seconds. Higher-ups including Maria Hill know something else is the truth … and think Coulson must never know.

I think everyone suspects that Coulson is a Life Model Decoy – as mentioned in “The Avengers” – or a clone or something. But please, please don’t save the explanation for the end of the season. Coulson needs to find out sooner rather than later, maybe in a November or February sweeps week episode. And then he needs to get pissed, taking it out on Nick Fury – Samuel Jackson’s already appeared in the series, so there’s no reason he can’t come back – and everyone else who deceived him. Knowing how buttoned-down Coulson is, that “taking it out” might consist of an icy glare and a brisk walking away. But do it soon.

That way, expectations will be defied and the next story arc – how Coulson comes back to lead the team – can begin.

Okay, now here’s what I intended to touch on before I saw tonight’s episode: A few things “Agents of SHIELD” could learn from its counterparts on other networks, “Sleepy Hollow” and “The Blacklist:”

Turn up the charisma. Yes, Clark Gregg is no James Spader, who’s chewing the scenery and loving it on “The Blacklist.” But “SHIELD” needs some flamboyance.

Turn up the crazy. “Sleepy Hollow” is getting points for the relish with which it embraces its storyline. “SHIELD” shouldn’t imitate it, but it needs more of the kind of moments that will make fans and casual viewers alike chuckle.

Show why these people are together. A seven-year-must-prevent-the-end-times-like-in-“Sleepy Hollow” plot device isn’t necessary. But there’s got to be more of a reason holding these people together than just the “we’re all in the SHIELD helicarrier break room at the same time” vibe that sometimes seems to be the case.

Give us more surprises. In the first episode of “The Blacklist,” the frustrated FBI agent stabs sneaky fugitive Red Reddington (James Spader) in the neck with a fountain pen. Yikes! It was quick and unexpected and totally justified. Give us more of that kind of “hey did you see that?” moment. (They even had Reddington make a joke about it in a later episode.)

Give us some Marvel comics names. Remember before the series began, people were speculating on which characters would be introduced? Luke Cage? Moon Knight? Who would have thought that “Arrow” would be introducing established DC Comics characters every week and Marvel, the king of synergy, would be running a series of wannabes past us every week?

Give us the goods, “Agents of SHIELD.”

‘Agents of SHIELD’ gives us a Furious cameo

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agents of shield nick fury samuel jackson

Well, that didn’t take long.

Speculation in the weeks leading up to last week’s debut of the Marvel/Disney/ABC series “Agents of SHIELD” centered on when the weekly series would introduce (1) characters from Marvel Comics and/or (2) characters from the big-screen Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Cobie Smulders played Agent Maria Hill last week, and there was lotsa “Avengers” talk.

But tonight’s episode, “0-8-4,” brought in the big gun.

Samuel L. Jackson reprised his role as SHIELD director Nick Fury in a brief scene at the end of the episode. Fury gets kinda loud and strident as he scolds Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) for causing pretty substantial damage to “The Bus,” the high-tech SHIELD jet that Coulson’s team is using in the series.

Jackson turned his trademark Fury portrayal up to, well, maybe 11. It’s kind of hard to imagine that he would be quite that angry at a guy who, just a few months earlier, was pretty much killed by Loki in the SHIELD helicarrier.

Or maybe he wants Coulson to feel like everything is back to status quo.

I’m waiting – patiently, really – for “Agents of SHIELD” to hit its groove. I’ve enjoyed both episodes so far. I like the plots just fine, I like the characters and portrayals and I like the snappy writing.

It’s not really compelling TV yet – and that’s unfortunate in a day when so much episodic TV is really damn compelling – but I’m hoping it will get there.

Remember, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” didn’t really click until “Prophecy Girl,” the final episode of the first season. And “Star Trek: The Next Generation” took what, two or three seasons to really take off?

Tonight’s episode, in which Coulson’s team heads for South America to recover an 0-8-4 – an unknown object, possibly of extra-terrestrial origin – reminded me for some reason of an episode of “Alias,” J.J. Abrams’ series about globe-trotting spy Sydney Bristow. Maybe SHIELD will send Coulson in pursuit of a Rambaldi device.

Coulson’s character got an old flame and the team learned, after some rough moments, how to work together.

Best moments:

I could understand Fitz and Simmons a wee bit better this week.

Gregg’s cool under fire demeanor as Coulson.

How they got rid of the 0-8-4 at the end. Cosmic.

The moment of uncertainty at the end regarding Skye’s split loyalties between SHIELD and Rising Tide.

Twitter reaction to ‘Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD’

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agents of shield fire

So Marvel aired the entire pilot episode of “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD” at San Diego Comic Con today.

Twitter had a few opinions.

  1. Just watched the @AgentsofSHIELD pilot and it’s AWESOME! Can’t wait til september

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  2. Okay, @AgentsofSHIELD was everything I hoped it would be and more. Totally the most fun, most heartfelt pilot of the fall.

     Retweeted by Agents of SHIELD

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  3. No Spoilers, but the first ep of @AgentsofSHIELD is magic!! #SDCC

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  4. The next 67 days are going to feel like an eternity waiting for @AgentsofSHIELD

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  5. So the @AgentsofSHIELD pilot was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Bring on episode 2! #SDCC #MARVEL

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  9. Just watched the @AgentsofSHIELD PILOT!!! Ahhhh!!! #SDCC2013 soooooo good! And FUNNY!! You’re going to love it! #CoulsonLives

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  10. And one of the moments near the end of the ep was so good and heartfelt and man I can’t wait for the rest. @AgentsofSHIELD

  13. Joss just showed us the pilot for @AgentsofSHIELD – it’s perfect. Watch abc September 24.

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  14. @Marvel @AgentsofSHIELD GREATEST PANEL EVER!!! Got to see the 1st ep! @josswhedon is the best!! #CoulsonLives #fruitofbasket #comiccon

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  15. @AgentsofSHIELD #CoulsonLives #SDCC oh man thank you. Pilot was above and beyond expectations!

  16. Just saw the entire pilot for @AgentsOfSHIELD. All I can say is: YES! OMG YES!! #SDCC #CoulsonLives

  17. Just got to watch the @AgentsofSHIELD pilot at #SDCC — so awesome!!! #CoulsonLives

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  18. Guys, however great you think @AgentsofSHIELD is going to be, it is ten times better.

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  19. @AgentsofSHIELD There are no words. Spectacular! Hilarious and exciting and Coulson kicking ass!

  20. The accent thing helps us seem more intelligent than we are ~ Elizabeth

  21. Wait ’til you see episode 2~Clark

  22. @AgentsofSHIELD I am SO in!!!! Pilot episode is AWESOME!!!!! #Marvel #SDCC @clarkgregg #CoulsonLives

     Retweeted by Agents of SHIELD
    And others.
    The show debuts Sept. 24 on ABC.

‘Agents of SHIELD’ – What we want to see

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marvels-agents-of-shield-cast

Okay, so we all know by now that “Agents of SHIELD” will bow on ABC this fall, 8 p.m. Tuesdays. The Marvel/Disney movie is set in the post-“Avengers” universe and features the still-unexplained return of Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who’s recruiting a team of young agents to search for superheroes and unexplained phenomena. Along the way they meet up with a character who might be Luke Cage or might be someone else, played by J. August Richards.

So what do we want – no, need – to see in a “SHIELD” series?

SHIELD agents making contact with superheroes. Since this is the premise of the series, this isn’t much of a stretch. A lot of online joking has spoofed the idea of trying to do “Avengers” action on a TV budget and without big stars, leading to moments where Tony Stark or Bruce Banner just stepped out. But we want to see SHIELD agents meeting and dealing with superheroes. If they’re familiar characters from the comics who we haven’t met on-screen yet, that’s fine.

Lots of inside references. There’s a half-century of Marvel Comics and SHIELD storylines and characters out there and we need to see a lot of nods toward them. If “Arrow” can make reference to Blue Beetle without even knowing if the character will ever show up or set scenes in Bludhaven, Nightwing’s stomping ground, without having the rights to the “Batman” characters, then we can see plenty of Marvel characters introduced and references, by golly.

Fantastic Four 67 HIM

Seeds sewn for future Marvel movies. Why not introduce plot lines and characters planned for “Ant-Man” or even “Avengers 2?” Marvel Comics have, for the aforementioned 5o years, tossed characters and conflicts and stories into the mix to introduce them before they became familiar characters and plots later. Remember how the character later familiar as Warlock was introduced as “Him” in Fantastic Four?

Cameos for the big names. Yes, they could give us CGI recreations of Iron Man and the Hulk in “SHIELD.” But wouldn’t it be fun to see Robert Downey Jr. or Mark Ruffalo show up during sweeps weeks?

AIM and Modok

We want AIM and HYDRA. The uber-criminal organizations, introduced in “Iron Man 3” and “Captain America” respectively, are the traditional counterparts to SHIELD in the comics. They should be a background – and sometimes foreground – presence in the TV series. And what about AIM’s big-domed leader, MODOK?

strange tales 135 life model decoy

Life Model Decoys! Tony Stark joked about them in “The Avengers.” They’ve been a SHIELD staple since the 1960s. These robotic doubles for our main characters are kind of cheesy, but it would be a fun acknowledgment of the show’s roots.

I’m sure there are other “must see” characters and plots out there, right?

Even more ‘SHIELD’ trailer!

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coulson-lives

First we had a six-second Vine trailer for ABC’s “Agents of SHIELD.” Then we had a 30-second trailer. Now we have a full two and half minutes of promo for the series – or at least the pilot, directed by “Avengers” director and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon.

And there’s so much fun stuff in it.

Observations:

The trailer addresses, head-on, the idea that Agent Phil Coulson (series start Clark Gregg) was supposed to have been killed in “The Avengers.” It’ll be interesting to see how that story plays out. Will they tease us with what happened? Or very quickly attribute it to a Nick Fury scheme to motivate Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Thor Odinson?

That’s definitely the voice of Cobie Smulders (Agent Maria Hill from “The Avengers”) in the trailer, asking the young agent what SHIELD means to him. Interesting to see if Smulders will play a recurring role in the show.

SHIELD j august richards

I’m so hoping that J. August Richards is playing Luke Cage. Richards is more wiry and wry than Cage, but I really want to see this charismatic actor bring that classic character to life. And what do you want to bet Whedon will have him exclaim “Sweet Christmas,” Cage’s trademark exclamation?

SHIELD trailer van scene

There’s plenty of Joss Whedon-type humor here. Whedon was a master of playing against expectations and we see that here, especially the scene where (at least initially) anti-SHIELD investigator/hacker Skye (Chloe Bennett) is boasting that her message can’t be stopped … until Coulson and company roll open the door of her van. There’s another when Skye is being interrogated and is told it can go two ways. “Is one the easy way?” “No,” she is told. “Oh.”

We get some glimpses of the heroes of “The Avengers,” but the trailer really emphasizes the normal-ness of most of its main characters, noting, “Not all heroes … are super.”

SHIELD_Ming Na Wen

That being said, Whedon likes tough chicks. Here we see Ming-Na Wen as Agent Melinda May kicking butt, just like Buffy or the Black Widow.

We see not only Richards’ character in the trailer but indications that SHIELD is keeping track of a burgeoning superhero population around the world. That makes sense considering that the post-credits scene of 2008’s “Iron Man” – the scene that started this all – indicated that Nick Fury showed up when Tony Stark went public.

In a way, the street-level, non-superhero perspective reminds me of “Marvels,” the classic 1994 Marvel comic series that redrew the landmark events of Marvel in the 1960s from the eye of the common man.

For a weekly series, that’s a smart move. Viewers will like knowing there’s a perspective similar to their own, boggling over the Marvels that are popping up around the globe.