Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (SPOILERS)

[Tsyroc]

I wasn't sure about the obvious use of Stark Tech with the car at the very end, seemed like a pointless gimmick than anything else. Though given Stark was somehow able to "fix" Pepper when she'd been injected with Extremis it's a safe bet he'll have something to do with this guy.

Pretty hard to miss the namedropping of most of the characters from the Avengers, though I have to wonder how (or if) the series is going to tie in with Thor the Dark World seeing as it's just a month away.

The car being the car it is and flying how it does really harkens back to the comics where SHEILD had flying cars which looked like 50s/60s sports cars and were able to fly in the way Lola did (with the wheels turning down and providing lift via fans/jets whatever). Later models had hologram projectors that could make them look like other vehicles, even something as large as a UPS truck. It doesn't really need to tie back into Howard Stark's flying car prototype in Captain America but it probably is meant to and I liked it either way.

I kind of liked the "Journey Into Mystery" bit and the riff on Spider-man's "great power..." motto.

In the Agent Carter short on the Iron Man 3 Blu-Ray they have Howard Stark running S.H.E.I.L.D.. I wonder how that is going to work into the show and/or the movies. I'm also curious if any other known agents will be making appearances. Stillwell seems like one of the more likely characters.

[GuppyShark]

The jet- it almost felt like a shiny black Serenity. Hopefully the crew can come together the same way.

This was my biggest takeaway. The whole show to me feels like Firefly 2.0.

[Terralthra]

I'm not entirely sure how Coulson was acting out of character. That man didn't have character for most of the predating Marvel movies, he was just a SHIELD flunky who happened to have a name. It wasn't until Avengers that he really turned into a character to begin with, and I'd say the Coulson we saw in this pilot jives reasonably well with what little we saw of him in Avengers.

Not sure I agree. In Iron Man 2, especially, his scenes definitely demonstrated who he was - among other things, a fan of Captain America, and someone who will stare down a superhero (later supervillain) and simply show no sign at all of being intimidated. There are hints of this in Iron Man, and Thor, as well.

[Alkaloid]

His only real consistent character traits to date has been a flair for the dramatic combined with nonchalance in the face of sheer lunacy and remarkable competence for a man in nothing but a nice suit. He retained all of those, but had an added goofy twist and genuine heroism. I though it fitted pretty well.

[RogueIce]

Am I the only one who doesn't want Coulson to be a robot or superhero down the line? I actually prefer him as the Everyman in this world where Gods exist. Sure he's competent but at the same time not a borderline metahuman like Hawkeye and Black Widow are.

Granted I may not get this wish, with him dodging that debris the way he did. But it'd be nice.

[Batman]

I'm not sure it's about people wanting Coulson to be robot or a superhero so much as those being among the easier explanations of how he survived using known in-universe capabilities and why he must never know what exactly happened. If the Coulson that got killed in Avengers was the copy, there should be no problem with the real Coulson knowing about that. If the real Coulson didn't get killed in Avengers, his heart merely stopped for a while, which is apparently what AoS Coulson seems to think happened, then what is it Coulson should never find out about?

[Kojiro]

Why can't it be both? Coulson is very popular and it's extremely easy to see him as Vision. It answers the questions of how he survived and why he can't be told everything (because being told you're part machine is, if sci fi has taught us anything- bound to unhinge someon). I'm certain it was the real Coulson that got stabbed- LMDs don't have blood or for that matter 'die' with brave last words.

On that note, I hope there's a line in there somewhere about how mad he is at Fury for smearing blood on his Captain America cards.

In related news if anyone saw the Age of Ultron teaser, I can't be the only one who noticed that Ultron is made from an Iron Man suit? What are the chances Ultron is a damaged IM suit with a rogue Jarvis AI that never self destructed (and will serve as a reason why Stark must remain in the suit)?

[Ahriman238]

The Vision Theory mostly came about when people noticed the actor was still credited for upcoming movies, and when the show was revealed, and we were speculating as to how. I do like the idea of Coulson getting more front and center to the action in the next Avengers flick, and I think he's proved in previous appearances and this pilot that he'd handle the power well. Robot-angst, maybe not so much.

[Broomstick]

I think I'd prefer the LMD or Vision idea though. During the show they have Coulson dodging something once and I thought the little bit the showed on how he did it seemed a little odd. It could be meant to just show he's really good but I thought it might imply he's not exactly or entirely human anymore.

Silly me, I rewatched both the AoS pilot and the Avengers movie today.

I do believe there is something up with Coulson, but I don't think we have enough information to make a good guess. Down the line we'll look back and say "oh, yes - here and here and here are the important bits" but that will be with hindsight.

The bit where Coulson dodges the flying van door - and he is the only one who is able to do that - is quite reminiscent of when Thor dodged an airplane wing tossed by the Hulk. It's the same bending backwards maneuver. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

Seeing as he died to Loki's spear, in combat, a heroic death, maybe he was spirited off to Asgard (it wasn't Tahiti, it was Valhalla he stayed at) and then brought back? And came back an Asgardian warrior?

Well, no crazier than he's been downloaded into the original Human Torch's body and is now the Vision....

That, and I can't help but wonder if the crows/ravens flying by when Thor and Loki land on the rocky outcrop and Thor takes him from the jet in The Avengers are Huginn and Muninn keeping an eye on things for Odin. That whole movie has bits you can easily miss, they go by so fast, or in the background. Who knows which are important hints of things to come and which are just one-offs?

[Kojiro]

The bit where Coulson dodges the flying van door - and he is the only one who is able to do that - is quite reminiscent of when Thor dodged an airplane wing tossed by the Hulk. It's the same bending backwards maneuver. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

I'm pretty sure the idea there is to show Coulson's calm and hint at combat proficiency. It's a dodge without giving ground.

Seeing as he died to Loki's spear, in combat, a heroic death, maybe he was spirited off to Asgard (it wasn't Tahiti, it was Valhalla he stayed at) and then brought back? And came back an Asgardian warrior?

While I could see his death getting him admittance, I don't see any reason or way he'd return, or why it would be a secret from him. The Tahiti thing- supposedly done by Fury- seems to be artificially engineered to conceal something damaging. Where as 'Oh you were sufficiently awesome to go to Asgardian heaven' doesn't seem like it'd be that hard to bear and if leaving it to fight again 'breaks' you then you probably didn't deserve it in the first place.

That, and I can't help but wonder if the crows/ravens flying by when Thor and Loki land on the rocky outcrop and Thor takes him from the jet in The Avengers are Huginn and Muninn keeping an eye on things for Odin.

I'm reasonably certain they are but I believe their task there was to track Loki down for Thor who as otherwise displayed no ability to find individuals on a planetwide search. Possibly they could report back to Odin but since we see them only there and then...

[FaxModem1]

Seeing as he died to Loki's spear, in combat, a heroic death, maybe he was spirited off to Asgard (it wasn't Tahiti, it was Valhalla he stayed at) and then brought back? And came back an Asgardian warrior?

Coulson did say "It's a magical place."

[Grumman]

Seeing as he died to Loki's spear, in combat, a heroic death, maybe he was spirited off to Asgard (it wasn't Tahiti, it was Valhalla he stayed at) and then brought back? And came back an Asgardian warrior?

While I could see his death getting him admittance, I don't see any reason or way he'd return, or why it would be a secret from him. The Tahiti thing- supposedly done by Fury- seems to be artificially engineered to conceal something damaging. Where as 'Oh you were sufficiently awesome to go to Asgardian heaven' doesn't seem like it'd be that hard to bear and if leaving it to fight again 'breaks' you then you probably didn't deserve it in the first place.

Are you kidding? He'd become absolutely insufferable!*

*Yes, this is a joke.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Can some tell me why, for ANY reason a plane would have a set of engines on it's tail as well as wings?
I mean, I know there are Jet plans with engines on the tail, or engines on the wings, but is there ANY reason to have them on both other than "it looks cool" ?

Aside from that gripe, I have LOVED What I have seen of this so far.

[Grumman]

Can some tell me why, for ANY reason a plane would have a set of engines on it's tail as well as wings?
I mean, I know there are Jet plans with engines on the tail, or engines on the wings, but is there ANY reason to have them on both other than "it looks cool" ?

Because you want more than two engines, but less than four.

[Batman]

Can some tell me why, for ANY reason a plane would have a set of engines on it's tail as well as wings?
I mean, I know there are Jet plans with engines on the tail, or engines on the wings, but is there ANY reason to have them on both other than "it looks cool" ?

Because you want more than two engines, but less than four.

Except the SHIELD bird already has four engines on the wings
And while there have been aircraft with two engines at the base of the rudder, the SHIELD bird has them on the tailplane.

[The Romulan Republic]

I presume more engines means more speed. So a SHIELD team which has to be able to respond quickly to unexpected situations might want as many as possible.

[Broomstick]

Those two extra engines would be a hell of a lot more useful if they weren't sucking on the exhaust of the wing engines.

[Batman]

It's not like airplanes with 6 (or 8 ) engines on the wings are unprecedented. The question is what advantage does having those two engines attached to the tailplane entail.
@Broomstick wrt the exhaust of the wing engines-the rear ones are noticeably inboards of the wing engines to the extent that I would have accepted that not to be a problem. I take it you think that at least using real world physics, this is not the case

[Broomstick]

@Broomstick wrt the exhaust of the wing engines-the rear ones are noticeably inboards of the wing engines to the extent that I would have accepted that not to be a problem. I take it you think that at least using real world physics, this is not the case

The exhaust coming out the rear of a jet engine does expand. I'm not qualified to run an exacting design analysis here but I have to wonder about the very hot, largely de-oxygenated exhaust plume getting sucked into the rear two engines. It just doesn't strike me as a viable set up. Airplanes with 6 engines usually have them in an array, not lined up behind each other.

[Iroscato]

So I just streamed episode 2. I felt it improved on the already strong pilot, and you got a real sense of the team starting to pull together and trust in one another's skills. Spoiler

Although I must admit, Skye's...ahem...'sudden but inevitable betrayal' at the end had me rolling my eyes. Though this was swiftly counteracted by a short but hilarious cameo by Nick Fury. For now, my main concern is the show seems to be bending over backwards to remind us of the ties to the MCU, the name-dropping is starting to get quite frenetic in just the second episode.

All in all, so far it's keeping me intrigued, and at this level of quality I'll have no problem seeing it through to the end.

[RogueIce]

This is a universe where a roughly man sized suit has the fuel and speed to fly Tony Stark around the world in a reasonable amount of time, among other things. I can live with the engine setup.

And dude, there's a spoiler warning in the title, can we not have the stupid boxes? Thanks.

Anyway I enjoyed the second episode. Yes Skye's "I'm in" was predictable but I'm guessing she'll pull a 180 at some point down the line. She's still coming across as "the idealist" who is hoping to expose all of SHIELD's secrets so not exactly a villain. Unless she becomes evil or whatever, but somehow I doubt that.

And Sam Jackson cameo at the end. I bet that triggered a fair number of nerdgasms across the viewing audience.

[The Romulan Republic]

A lot of the new episode seemed cliche. I was surprised by the Fury cameo at the end though. And Coulson continues to be a bad ass. I also kind of like the nerdy scientist duo.

[Grumman]

Just a heads-up for Australians: I haven't confirmed that it's showing in every state, but the first two episodes of Agents of Shield are on 7 tonight.

[Broomstick]

This is a universe where a roughly man sized suit has the fuel and speed to fly Tony Stark around the world in a reasonable amount of time, among other things. I can live with the engine setup.

I suppose I can, too.

And yes, I nitpick the flying suit, too. And the airplane depressurization scene. Doesn't mean I have no affection for the MCU, I just easily distinguish between real physics and comic book physics .

[Ahriman238]

@Broomstick wrt the exhaust of the wing engines-the rear ones are noticeably inboards of the wing engines to the extent that I would have accepted that not to be a problem. I take it you think that at least using real world physics, this is not the case

The exhaust coming out the rear of a jet engine does expand. I'm not qualified to run an exacting design analysis here but I have to wonder about the very hot, largely de-oxygenated exhaust plume getting sucked into the rear two engines. It just doesn't strike me as a viable set up. Airplanes with 6 engines usually have them in an array, not lined up behind each other.

If the engines couldn't run well normally, is it possible they're there as some form of backup? As I understand it, a four-engine plane already has redundancy, but perhaps a bit more considering how often SHIELD deals with the unexpected?