After seven seasons of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD the show went out with a bang. The seventh season, I would rate among one of the best in the entire series. But is it the best? Short answer: No! And I will explain why in the rest of the blogpost that follows.
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD
When the show was announced, I was very excited. Finally a Marvel show jampacked with action and a half decent storyline. But the truth is, the show started off slowly. The “It’s all connected” mantra Marvel shouted off the rooftops, we never saw anything that ever connected the show to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If anything, we started to doubt the show was really even canon.
The show’s pace was very slow. And the only people we saw that connected us a little bit to the Marvel Cinematic Universe were Lady Sif and Phil Coulson, who then was secretly revived using Kree technology after the events of the first Avengers movie.
Captain America: Winter Soldier
The big turn around was when Captain America: Winter Soldier revealed the truth about SHIELD; SHIELD has been infiltrated by Hydra back when Captain America apprehended Arnim Zola. He then created a shadow agency using the ideals of HYDRA. It was the first time that we actually witnessed how Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD was connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The reveal had far going consequences as it turned out that ALL branches of SHIELD were infiltrated, including Phil Coulson’s team which by then consisted of: Phil Coulson, Jemma Simmons, Leo Fitz, Grant Ward, Melinda May and Daisy Johnson (who went by her hackername Skye at the start of the show).
What did connect the show to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Like I said, we expected full shows of Iron Man, Thor or even the Hulk before realizing that Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD would never ever the kind of budget that the movies have. Captain America or Black Widow would have been possible in terms stunts maybe but try paying their salary. It is a job and Marvel / ABC aren’t charity organisations either. But hey, as fans we can dream right?
So back to my original question, what did connect Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD to the rest of the universe.
First of all, they established the Kree in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Kree are a warmongering race who experimented on people of earth who at the time worshipped them as deities. The Kree’s genetic experiments were also responsible for creating Marvel’s Inhumans and the Terragen crystals. Movies that also had the Kree in them were Captain Marvel and The Guardian’s of The Galaxy both part one and two. In those two movies, the Kree were established as even more powerful than they were on the tv series. Nevertheless, without Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, the Kree would be much more superficial.
The Inhumans played a large role in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD at the time since it turned Daisy Johnson into her comicbook counterpart: Quake! The best thing about that was that her character was already established and that we got to watch her struggle with her newfound powers.
It was Fitz along with a fellow scientist who created and established the LMD’s also known as Life Model Decoys. Frequently used by Nick Fury in the comics. Another thing Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD established.
Although we never got to see the A-list heroes, we did see a whole bunch of great B and C listers. Like Mr Hyde, who is also Daisy’s biological dad. Her surrogate dad was Phil Coulson. We got to meet Absorbo, usually a rogue for the Hulk. He could change the density of his body of anything he touched. Like he would touch steel, his body would turn into steel or wood and his body would change into wood. I’ll spare you the morning wood jokes…
We even got to see Graviton played by the great Adrian Pasdar of Heroes fame. Graviton went nuts as he got high on power and was eventually killed. Graviton’s civilian name was Glenn Talbot. Glenn Talbot was one of the Hulk’s rogues. So that’s another connection to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
A deeper connection established
With Nick Fury showing up in the season finale of the first season, we knew that a deeper connection the MCU had been established. Another big connection to the MCU was the introduction of Robbie Reyes, who at the time was the first Ghost Rider driving a car instead of a motorcycle. Not sure why but I do want to say: move over Nicolas Cage Ghostrider…
The show continued to amaze us when LMD Aida became sentient and turned evil creating a big virtual world that looked to be inspired on John Byrne’s Fantastic Four Puppet Master storyline and Age of Apocalypse of the X-men. The world was entirely turned upside down with an evil Fitz trying to conquer the world as the right hand of Aida who then took on the name of Madame Hydra. Another big name from the Marvel universe. But this time, the comics. Madam Hydra has been one of the biggest villains for the past decades fighting various incarnations of The Avengers, X-men and many more. This is what Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD is good for!
Jason O’Mara was added to the cast in the fourth season and it turned out that he was cast as the new director of SHIELD. It was revealed that he is Jeffrey Mace also known as Captain America’s friend and partner during the Golden Age of Comics: Patriot! Later on , in the 1970s, he was retroactively established as the third Captain America. In one of his final appearances on the show he tried to use something that was derivative of the supersoldier serum. He died a hero on the show by sacrificing himself for Phil Coulson’s team who were trying to get out of Aida / Madame Hydra’s virtual world.
The first few seasons of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD also featured Cyborg. Which is a B-lister in the Marvel comics but the cool part about him was that he also used something that was supposed by the supersoldier serum of Captain America. So it shows that the Marvel Cinematic Universe continued to develop the supersoldier serum about 70 years after Captain America turned into a capsicle.
The show also featured the late Powers Booth and Bill Paxton. Both passed away shortly after finishing up their storylines on the show.
To answer the question asked in the first paragraph: The fourth season with Madame Hydra’s Virtual Reality was the highlight of the series in my view. Along with Robbie Reyes as Ghost Rider. The final season however, is my second favorite.
The show is currently available on Disneyplus.com and it is well worth the subscription if you can get past the first season.
