Agents of SHIELD. Season 1 Discussion Thread

[Alidar Jarok]

New cast member:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=50234

I can totally see the resemblance

It's definitely good to see existing members of the SHIELD organization incorporated into the show, particularly ones as interesting as this one. Hand, Sitwell, Hill, etc. are just names to me so far, so it'll be good to see one stand out. Plus, it'll be a fun ride.

Any casting news for the other addition? Are there any African American SHIELD agents not currently played by Sam Jackson who could be added?

My personal guess: AIM reorganized. Under whose leadership?

I think it's AIM, but I've made the argument that it's Quinn (or at least associated with Quinn in some way). Either way, it's hard to find any existing Marvel character that fits well with the Clairvoyant. Part of my thought process is that it's someone who isn't actually Clairvoyant, but that's seeming harder and harder to believe. I could see MODOK as a sort of Total Information Awareness/PRISM type system that takes all information available on the internet and uses it to reach its conclusions. Would fit well with the themes introduced with SHIELD secrecy and Skye.

 

[Christopher]

I could see MODOK as a sort of Total Information Awareness/PRISM type system that takes all information available on the internet and uses it to reach its conclusions. Would fit well with the themes introduced with SHIELD secrecy and Skye.

Nice idea, but it would probably be seen as imitating Person of Interest, so I doubt they'd go that route.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Could the Clairvoyant be the Mad Thinker?

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I could see MODOK as a sort of Total Information Awareness/PRISM type system that takes all information available on the internet and uses it to reach its conclusions. Would fit well with the themes introduced with SHIELD secrecy and Skye.

Nice idea, but it would probably be seen as imitating Person of Interest, so I doubt they'd go that route.

I had thought about including Person of Interest along with DARPA and the NSA, but I don't watch the show so I wasn't confident about the premise. If they like the idea, I think they should weigh its pros and cons. Yes, it could be seen as derivative. On the other hand, it's still a good idea. And I'm saying this as someone who is a bit worried about MODOK's physical appearance and knows him mostly from the Superhero Supersquad, where he's less than impressive as a character.

Also, I literally just read this before hitting submit, so I'm adding it to my post:

George Tarleton is subjected to a mutagenic process that grants him superhuman intelligence, including a computer-like memory, the ability to scour and retain large databanks of information very quickly and solve abstract mathematical problems nearly instantaneously. He also has the ability to calculate the mathematical probability of any given event occurring; an ability so strong that it borders on precognition.

I kind of want to argue that Person of Interest ripped off MODOK

ETA: trekkiebaggio, I didn't see your post on the previous page. Glad I'm not the only one who had that thought cross their mind. Although I'm really starting to like MODOK as the "machine."

 

[Yminale]

I really doubt they'll bring in any such big or cosmic concepts. The idea behind Agents of SHIELD is to be the most grounded part of the MCU,

Well we've had one episode dealing with anti-gravity and another dealing with multiple dimensions. I think AoS is slowly building up the crazy to reflect the fact the people's awareness of the wider universe is increasing. If the Supreme Intelligence is the big bad it won't feel like it came from nowhere.

So if the Supreme Intelligence shows up anywhere, it's gonna be in the movies, where they can afford the special effects to do cosmic-scale storytelling. It's not going to be introduced on this show.

The Kree are definitely showing up in the Guardians movie but that doesn't mean AoS can't drop hints until the big reveal.

 

[Yminale]

Could the Clairvoyant be the Mad Thinker?

I'm not sure what the policy is at Marvel TV but I think they are discouraged from using IP from other studios. That means no mutants, no Spidey stuff and no Fantastic Four. Plus the Mad Thinker uses robots and isn't subtle.

 

[Yminale]

I kind of want to argue that Person of Interest ripped off MODOK

Both would be ripping off Isaac Asimov

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Well, if you're going to rip someone off, rip off the best.

Regarding the Mad Thinker: I could see him working as a character. Use of robots isn't a deal breaker because they don't have to port everything. That being said, although it's really difficult to tell because of the crossovers Marvel loves, he does seem to be a Fantastic Four villain (he has a spattering of other encounters, but his wikipedia page mentions Fantastic Four members over and over).

 

[Christopher]

I really doubt they'll bring in any such big or cosmic concepts. The idea behind Agents of SHIELD is to be the most grounded part of the MCU,

Well we've had one episode dealing with anti-gravity and another dealing with multiple dimensions.

But both as side effects of phenomena and events that were introduced in the movies. That's the point. Obviously I'm not saying that this isn't an SF series. I'm saying that for budgetary and demographic reasons, this is not the part of the MCU where they would introduce something cosmic like the Kree Supreme Intelligence. If they brought the Kree in, they would do it in a movie, and maybe AoS would do an episode dealing with some small-scale aftereffect of what happened in that movie.

The whole reason for branching the MCU out into multiple media "platforms" (sorry, can't think of a less jargony word at the moment) is for variety's sake. They're trying to broaden the franchise's appeal to multiple audiences. They've already hooked the comics audience and the blockbuster sci-fi movie audience; now they're trying to appeal to a different segment of the audience, the segment that watches spy/crime procedurals. The whole point of the show is to have a different focus than the movies, to be more of an "entry-level" series. It ties into the bigger, crazier stuff from the movies, but focuses on the ground-level effects that stuff has on ordinary people, because that's a better fit to TV budgets and TV storytelling styles.

 

[Trekker4747]

Agents of SHIELD: 1x13 - "Seeds"

Coulson and May uncover startling information about Skye’s past, while the team is swept into a storm at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy.

 

[Gryffindorian]

It was weird seeing that machine that was fixing Coulson's brain. If Asgardian technology can do that to humans, then what's stopping SHIELD from sharing the technology with the outside world and resurrecting people who have died unexpectedly?

 

[Shawnster]

There is no indication that Coulson was Fury's friend. He was at best a competent field agent (who more often than not got over his head).

I have a crazy idea about the big reveal. Coulson is not the only one SHIELD brought back from the dead, the ENTIRE TEAM at one time or another was brought back from the DEAD. That agent Skye thinks is her mother is actually HER and they somehow regenerated her body. Mei actually DIED during "the Calvary" mission and that's why she failed to save anyone. Ward mentioned that his brother tried to drown him. Maybe he succeeded and SHIELD brought him back when he died as a child. Fitz-Simmons, victims of some lab experiment gone wrong (Tesseract explosion ?). Coulson was the latest in a long line of successful experiments and Fury wanted to see how they interact with each other (and also to keep them in one place to watch over them).

This is a neat idea, but doesn't explain what was important about all of these people that they needed to be brought back.

They were talented people who's corpses SHIELD had access to at the the time. We don't know how many people SHIELD experimented on or even how many methods are available (it's implied more than 6). Just according to my hypothesis we have these 6 successes.

Besides I don't think SHIELD would kill someone just so they can bring him/her back. They tried whenever there was an opportunity to do so.

Personally the idea the SHIELD can resurrect the dead is cooler than the lame LMD's.

In Ward's case, that must have been one talented child that SHIELD wanted to resurrect.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

It was weird seeing that machine that was fixing Coulson's brain. If Asgardian technology can do that to humans, then what's stopping SHIELD from sharing the technology with the outside world and resurrecting people who have died unexpectedly?

If Asgardian technology can do that, why haven't they resurrected Frigga?

If SHIELD technology can do it, why can't they share it with the outside world? Two reasons: One, that seems precisely against the mission of SHIELD, which is to contain things like this. Second, the costs of doing something like this seem quite high. Hard to find many doctors who wouldn't find this traumatizing.

 

[Gryffindorian]

^ Valid points. I assumed it was Asgardian technology (and medicine) that brought Coulson back to life. It was still deemed unethical, at least from one of the doctors' point of view.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Maybe it was experimental. Something SHIELD got their hands on and didn't know what to expect of. They used Coulson because he signed the SHIELD equivalent of an organ donors card.

 

[Davros]

I wonder if classic SHIELD agents like Clay Quartermain will make an appearance.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

We've had a bunch of agents (Hand, Hill, Sitwell, Garrett) who are all from the comics (plus a few more appear to be in Winter Soldier). I could see Quartermain as well. He's really the main one left. The only thing I couldn't figure out from his bio is if he's more associated with Hulk than SHIELD as a whole. That's not a knock, just that they need to think about whether they want to do a Hulk movie or not before they cast someone for that role in a TV show (not that recasting is unheard of, but it'll cheapen it if they recast simply because they forgot that person was already cast).

I asked earlier, but I'm curious if anyone knows the answer to whether or not there are any African American non-Sam Jackson-related SHIELD agents from the comics.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Gabe Jones from the Howlers was in SHIELD.

 

[Christopher]

Well, there's the Falcon, of course, but he's in The Winter Soldier. There's also G.W. Bridge. Not to mention Chinese-American agent Jimmy Woo. Wikipedia lists several agents with Japanese, Indian, Native American, or otherwise clearly non-European names, as well as a couple of Wakandan agents or advisors.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

G. W. Bridge