Agents of SHIELD - Season 2 Discussion Threads. (Spoilers Likely)

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Trekker4747, Sep 18, 2014.

  1. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    Synergy and alienation.
     
  2. Alidar Jarok

    Alidar Jarok Everything in moderation but moderation Moderator

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    Yeah, I saw that first panel previously (I was going to say the dude can rock a bowler), but I hadn't seen when his hat was slapped off. I hope they still take some elements of the original version (e.g., that hat), but the younger sexier Hunter is cool with me.
     
  3. theenglish

    theenglish Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I didn't know that biological web shooters were in the comics now, but I remember the black uniforms for the X-Men were specifically introduced in Ultimate X-Men originally--a comic that was specifically designed to be like a movie to the point where it introduced SLJ as Fury.
     
  4. Alidar Jarok

    Alidar Jarok Everything in moderation but moderation Moderator

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    Organic web shooters are not in the comic right now. They were, however, in it briefly right around the time the first Raimi film came out. I don't know how long they lasted, but they're gone now.
     
  5. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Because the goal of adapting comics into other media is to attract a new and much larger audience to the property. Some of those, hopefully, will start reading the comics as a result, which is a good thing, because it increases the comics audience, perhaps by a considerable amount. And you want them to find a version of the characters and the world that they recognize. If the TV versions of Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter get people interested in checking out a Mockingbird comic for the first time, but they see a version of Hunter who's nothing like the guy they like on TV, then they're unlikely to stick around and keep paying for new issues of the comic.

    It has always been thus. Superman comics sold well, but it was the radio series that really made the character a national icon. The radio series was enormously influential on everything that followed -- the source not only of Perry, Jimmy, kryptonite, and Inspector Henderson, but of the famous opening narration later used in cartoons and TV, of Superman's famous catchphrases like "This is a job for Superman" and "Up, up, and away," and so on. After all, even in those days, comic books cost money, but radio was free. The radio show reached far more people -- and it came out five days a week rather than once a month. So it had a bigger impact than the comics, and so it influenced the comics.

    And today, comics sell in far smaller numbers than they did back then, because they've become more of a specialty collectors' market. The number of people who know characters like the X-Men and Spider-Man from the comics is a minuscule fraction of the number of people who know them from movies and TV. So of course it's the version that reaches the larger audience that's going to have the most influence. It's going to generate new stories and new ideas, and there's no reason why the different branches of the franchise shouldn't cross-pollinate each other with ideas. That's part of what keeps a fictional universe vibrant and growing.


    They were barely acknowledged after they were introduced. There was a really bad storyline where some insect-queen villain caused Peter to "die" and be reborn out of a cocoon with new powers including organic webshooters and the ability to talk to insects (even though spiders are arachnids, not insects). The latter ability was acknowledged in maybe one subsequent issue before being forgotten. The organic webshooters were mentioned maybe twice after that storyline, but mostly ignored, with the source of Spidey's webbing not specified. And only a year or so after that cocoon-transformation storyline came another storyline where Peter apparently died and was reborn from a cocoon with new powers, without a single reference to the previous one. This time, his new powers included venomous spikes that extended from his wrists (like spiders have, right...? :wtf: ). That transformation was apparently wiped out a couple of years later by the same deal with the devil that erased Spidey's marriage. (And when I say a couple of years, I mean real-world time. In terms of in-story chronology, these things all happened within weeks of each other, a couple of months tops. A new status quo barely got a chance to be established before it was upended by the next massive miniseries/crossover event.)
     
  6. Timelord Victorious

    Timelord Victorious Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It will be interesting to see how the Spider-man comics will get updated after Civil War establishes the new MCU Spidey with a suit made by Stark Industries which may or may not have mechanical web shooters.
    I can see those actually being and invention or perfection of Stark for a change with Peter not using them at all in his home made costume or just a very rudimentary version instead.
    he is just a working class school kid in this one after all.
     
  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yes, that's exactly the intent -- and it's a case where the movies are following the comics' lead rather than the other way around. It's taking the plot point from the comics' version of Civil War where Tony Stark made an "Iron Spider" costume for Peter to replace his original suit, and using it instead to justify how a lower-middle-class high school student ends up with the kind of fancy, expensive, movie-screen-worthy costume we've seen in the previous Spidey films.

    Since the goal is just to provide a more plausible origin for Spidey's normal threads, there's no reason for it to influence the comics in this case. After all, in the comics, Peter Parker now owns his own high-tech firm, Parker Industries, and is able to provide himself with a full complement of high-tech Spidey outfits -- he's basically become a junior Tony Stark in his own right. Although I suppose it's possible that future comics could see him losing his business and going back to his previous status quo to be more like the movies. I don't see them de-aging him back to high school, though.
     
  8. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    @Christopher-- I'm aware of all that, and realize that this is how these things work, but as I said, I'm just not a fan of it.
     
  9. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    But without it, we wouldn't have kryptonite, Jimmy Olsen, the Alfred we know today, Batgirl, Harley Quinn, Renee Montoya, Mercy Graves, or a lot of other very valuable elements of modern comics. I'm sure you must be a fan of some things in comics that were influenced by other media, even if you don't realize that they were. It's self-defeating to be opposed to letting in new ideas from different sources, because any source of ideas can provide something great. Sure, there will be ones that don't work, like organic webshooters, but that doesn't mean you should throw the baby out with the bathwater.

    Heck, even things that are reactions against media influences are still the result of those media influences. Without the Adam West Batman, we never would've had the Frank Miller Batman as a counterpoint to it.
     
  10. Silvercrest

    Silvercrest Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Changed? I thought it was staff turnover. They had to hire Perry White when the other guy left for outer space with Landon, Dodge, and Stewart. :D
     
  11. Jedi_Master

    Jedi_Master Admiral Admiral

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    I enjoyed her on again/ off again relationship with Clint Barton, but seeing as he is married married in the new Avengers, I guess that's a no-no. Oops.
     
  12. Marsden

    Marsden Commodore Commodore

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    Yeah, he's married to Velma.
     
  13. DEWLine

    DEWLine Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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  14. Jedi_Master

    Jedi_Master Admiral Admiral

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    Linda Cardellini was fantastic on Bloodline- a show that almost everyone should watch.
     
  15. theenglish

    theenglish Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I've been a fan since Freaks and Geeks, a show about my childhood.
     
  16. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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  17. Karzak

    Karzak Commodore Commodore

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    According to Bear McCreary's Twitter, the series first soundtrack is due to release tomorrow. I haven't been able to find anything about it though beyond an article from last year. :(

    EDIT: Sounds like - from Bear's Instagram post, it will be a digital release.

    Amazon, however has an October 2 release date.
     
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2015
  18. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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  19. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I like it. It fits, and it's a very superhero sounding name, I'm actually kind of surprised it hasn't been taken yet.
     
  20. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Probably because Spark Plug spelt backwards is "Gulp Kraps".